Be Strong and Courageous - The Lord is With You

There are so many lessons to be learned from the Exodus journey of the Israelites. Pictures of our own freedom and joy, as well as our doubts and complaints are all there in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 

In today's episode, I'm examining the disposition of the Israelites as they listen to the reports of the spies. 10 saw the goodness and fruitfulness of the land God promised to give them. But they were overwhelmed and thrown into doubts about their ability to claim the land. Why? Because giants who made them feel like grasshoppers inhabited the land. 

Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, believed the Lord. They knew Israel could take the land because the Lord had said it was theirs and proved over and over again that He was a faithful God who kept His promises. 

As we dig into this account, where are you in what the Lord has called you to? Are the giants opposing you looming large, casting shadows into your confidence in the Lord? Or are you confident that while you may be a grasshopper in the eyes of opposition, the enemy is as a grasshopper in the Lord's eyes? 

Will we believe, beloved friends, that the Lord is bigger, He is greater, and He is just as good as He says He is... and that if we will trust Him, if we will be strong and courageous... Do we believe and know that Jesus will be with us wherever we go? I pray this episode encourages and challenges you as it challenged me to trust the Lord and move confidently at His word into what He's called us to do. 

Scriptures Referenced: 

• Exodus 3
• Numbers 13
• Joshua 1
• 2 Corinthians 4
• Psalm 16

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Transcript

Carrie 0:06

Hey everyone, welcome to a brand new episode of Honey from the Rock. I am Carrie, your host, and I am so glad you're here. Welcome to episode 39, the penultimate episode. That's a really hard word to say, but I tried to say it. Don't make mad of my pronunciation. The second to last episode of season one. I can't remember if I made this announcement when I made all of my other announcements last week, but I am capping season one of Honey from the Rock at 40 episodes and will launch season two with video on July 29th. I will drop the audio on Wednesdays, dropping the vids on Fridays, and I'm so excited. Again, you know, I really do need to get on thesaurus.com and look up a new word. It's fine, whatever. But again, just to remind you, my friend Roy Baldwin will kick off season two. I can't wait for you guys to hear this episode. This conversation is going to encourage you and challenge you. And I'm so excited for it. And then my friend Nicole in August, I have a two-part interview with her. And I know that her story, the suffering that she's walked through with the Lord is really going to bless you as well. So, and then the rest of the time, you're just gonna get me. And if you decide to watch the videos, just see my little bobblehead and you know, all the hand talking, it's really gonna bless you. Can't wait. Can't wait, can't wait for you to watch it. But really, I mean, I know it's something that the Lord is encouraging me, moving me towards with the show, which is a good thing. You know, if the Lord's moving us in a direction, then it's gonna be challenging. I know he's gonna show me things about myself that I didn't know, you know, for better or for worse. He's definitely going to reveal things about himself to me in the process of doing videos, which is also gonna be good. And and I do, I enjoy a challenge. 94.3% of the time, the time. It's gonna be great. It really is. So I hope you're looking forward to season two as much as I am, and I can't wait to have a venue on you, you know. I have a channel on YouTube, I'll be dropping all the deets, and I can't wait to have a place to kind of connect with listeners and viewers in a little bit more tangible way. I'm also working on launching the website, the newsletter thing on Substack. Oh gosh, guys, it's gonna be good. Lots of things coming. And but also one bite of the elephant at a time. So that is enough about that. I want to jump into today's episode. I don't have a good segue today. Sometimes I have really good ones. Sometimes I crush it. Like, you know, that really tasty sonic ice. Uh, that's just so wonderful to chew. Um, and sometimes it's just really rough. So today we're just gonna jump right in, apropos of nothing. But I today's episode, I man, so over the last couple of months, I have been sharing about how I just have a sense of anticipation. You know, I I did an episode, I want to say like two months ago, less than two months ago, uh, Joy Comes in the Morning. That there's just there is this sense that for a lot of people that I know, there's been difficulty. And there's been this sense of really being in a season of dormancy, where um, you know, I think I talked about it last week again, like being stuck in a cave with the Lord, and he's tilling up the ground of our heart, he's planting seeds, and he's been watering and all this kind of stuff. And now all of a sudden there is that there's that anticipation, right, when spring comes. I mean, here in Colorado we don't really have spring, we have sprinter, which is like a few days of spring and then winter snow, and then automatically hot, horribleness starting in May. And um, but yeah, I mean, I think just there there is that anticipation when the season changes, right? Like here comes spring, flowers are blooming, the trees are blooming, you know, life, life is starting to come back to fruition. And I think when there's that anticipation, sometimes like we can get so focused on the anticipation, and we know that the Lord's going to do something good. We know he's up to good things for us, he's he's bringing forth good fruit in our lives, and then things happen, and all of a sudden it's just like really and it can tempt us into discouragement. I think sometimes the enemy really loves to tempt us into unbelief. And I think there, you know, there is just that war of okay, you know, it's kind of become self-fulfilling prophecy that the Lord has good things for other people, but not for me. And I was contemplating this because, you know, we all have our ups and downs, and there's challenges that we face, and and every really difficult season has glimpses of joy in it somewhere, and really good seasons also have glimpses of difficulty and and and hardship in them as well. And as I was thinking about this, I was reminded by the Lord of the Israelites and going into the promised land. And in my own life, I've I have I really am perceiving the challenge from the Lord of, you know, if if something happens or something comes my way that has the propensity to discourage me in the midst of so many good things that the Lord is doing, will I choose to focus on the difficult thing that has happened? Or and and let it really kind of drag me down into despair? Or will I acknowledge the difficult thing? Will I work through the difficult thing with the Lord, but really be determined to not lose my joy, to rejoice with the Lord in the midst of you know, whatever's going on, and still hold on to that sense of anticipation and encouragement that I that I have been perceiving from him. And as I was thinking about the Israelites and the promised land, I I started thinking, like, when did the Lord actually start telling them that he had a place for them to go? So I, you know, did some digging, did some research. And when the Lord calls Moses in Exodus 3, after Moses has been raised in the courts of Pharaoh, he ends up murdering an Egyptian taskmaster. He runs away after the two Israelites are like, Hey, are you gonna kill us? Like you killed that Egyptian, and he chucks his chucks his little self out into Midian. And um, you know, he's out there and he's a shepherd for 40 years. And then all of a sudden, one day he's he's shepherding his sheep and encounters the Lord in the bur in the burning bush. And when the Lord encounters him, he identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of your father, right? Moses' father, he was of the tribe of Levi. And, you know, Moses falls on his face, he was afraid to look at the Lord. And then immediately the Lord goes into, he talks about, I've seen the oppression of my people, I've heard their outcry, I'm aware of their sufferings, and so I am coming down to rescue them from the power of Egyptians, the power of the Egyptians. And then he says, and I'm going to take them from that land into a good and spacious land flowing with milk and honey, and into the place of all the ites, right? The Canaanites, the Hita, I can't say, like, guys, my pronunciation is terrible. So just read Exodus three, you'll see the names. Um, and you know, the Lord says, Again, behold, the the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me. Furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. So, right when the Lord calls Moses, he he sets the scene. I'm sending you in there, Moses, as my representative to rescue my people. I've heard their cry. And not only am I going to rescue them, but I'm going to take them into a good and spacious land. You know, it kind of echoes something that David would write centuries later, you know, behold, the boundaries of the Lord have fallen for me in pleasant places. Um, like it's it's this idea of abundance of good things, um, a land flowing with milk and honey. I mean, yes, hello, that sounds amazing and delicious and spacious, okay, right? And so, right from the beginning, the Lord gives Moses the a picture of himself. I have heard and understood the suffering of my people, and now the time has come and I'm going to do something about it for them. It the time has come, I'm going to pull them out of this land, and I'm going to lead them into a land flowing with milk and honey. And this is a theme, right? It's a theme throughout the whole thing, then as they leave Egypt and as they they wander through the wilderness, they get to Sinai. You know, there's the there's the stumbles and there's the idolatry and there's the complaining and there's all the craziness, you know, again, things that truly happened. And yet, as we are reading these accounts, we can see ourselves in the children of Israel. You know, how many, how I can say for myself, there have been seasons where I know the Lord is delivering me. He's pulling me out of a type of Egypt in my life. And as he's doing it and I'm wandering through the wilderness, sometimes I'm like, why is this so painful? Why is this so difficult? And you're tempted to say, why can't I just go back to what I knew? Because that was easier than this unfamiliarity and going towards something that you have said is coming, and I have to trust that you're good, and at the same time, just feels like it's never going to come. There's so much space and and and and availability of the Lord to wrestle through those through those things. And at the same time, there comes a point where we actually have to say, I'm I'm done wrestling with what you're choosing to do, Lord, and I'm submitting to it. And in my submission to it, I'm choosing to trust you because you've shown me your character, you've shown me your goodness, you know, and we're we're not like Israel. We're not stuck with sacrifices of bulls and goats. We are on the other side of the cross. And so we have even more reason in those seasons of wrestling to pause before we get into grumbling and complaining, or if we get into it to repent and say, Lord, I have I have been the recipient of your ultimate goodness and grace and mercy in in your son on the cross. How could I ever look, even in the midst of difficult things and things that I can't always explain, right? The trials and tribulations of life that happen, even though sometimes I can't, I can't fully explain, I will not, I'm determined to not let the difficulties of my life become a place where I mar your character to me, right? Where I start to suspect you. Because again, and friends, I know it's if Jesus never did anything else for us except for the cross, are you even kidding me? Like the ultimate work that Jesus did on the cross to not only cleanse us from our sins, but to conform us to his image, to remake us and to open the way and the opportunity to be reconciled to the Father. Like, can we just can we sit and think about that for a minute? That is what the Lord has to, and then in his death and his burial and his resurrection and ascension, he bodily goes to the right hand of the Father and then sends us the Holy Spirit, gives us his word. I mean, the magnitude of the goodness of what the Lord has done is immeasurable. And and as we're looking back in the Old Testament, like I said, we can relate to the Israelites. We get grumbling, we get complaining, but again, uh, and and they had the Israelites had so many things. They had the parting of the Red Sea. I mean, even before that, they had the Egyptians literally like stuffing gold and jewelry and cows and stuff into their carts and their pockets and goats and wheat and all this stuff, and just saying, take it all, please get out, take it all, please get out. And then the Red Sea parting and Sinai when the Lord shows himself to them, the manna, the water from the rocket Horeb. Again, there are things that that we that the Israelites had right in front of them. They could tangibly see the goodness of God towards them. And those things were not only just to mark his goodness then, but they were also things that they needed to hold on to, to trust that what he said he would do would come to fulfillment. And again, we have the cross, we have Jesus, we have his gospel, we have his person, uh, we we have the Holy Spirit, these, these beautiful, you know, the the Son of God, the Spirit of God to hold on to, the scripture to hold on to, things we have tangible things that the Lord has done generally for us as Christians, as disciples. And then I know each of us could sit down and say, these are markers in my life where I have seen the goodness of God. You know, again, it's it's that song, and my favorite version is the one that CeCe Wynans sings, all my life you have been faithful, and all my life you have been so, so good. There's there's the common graces that we common in that they are the they are available to all of us that we can all hold on to in Jesus, and then we have particular graces where we can our lives have been marked by the goodness of God. And so when the Lord goes to deliver Israel and he sends Moses in, he sends him with a message. He knows, A, that Pharaoh's heart's gonna be hardened, but he has a message of hope for Israel. You are going to be delivered, and you're not just gonna be sent out into the wilderness, though this is the way you are going to have to go. Eventually, you're gonna get through the wilderness, and I'm gonna lead you to the land of milk and honey. I'm gonna lead you to the promised land. And yet, even in that, though this is what I have promised to you, you still have your lot and part in this matter of taking the promised land for yourself. And and that's where I was reading in Numbers. I was reading in Numbers 13, and and it's when Moses sends out the 12 spies, right? And I, oh my gosh, the again, I I think I was talking a few episodes ago about learning the scripture um through song. I like anytime I talk about the spies going to Canaan, I want to sing a song. Should I sing? I shouldn't sing it, but it's like I'm gonna sing it. I'm not gonna sing it. But basically, it's like 12 men went to spy on Canaan, 10 were bad, and two were good. And there's hand motions, okay? Um, you know, some saw giants big and tall, some saw grapes and clusters fall. Some saw God wasn't at all. 10 were bad and two were good. You're welcome. I didn't sing it, but I kind of, you know, like spoke rapid. Okay, I kind of rex Harrisoned my way through that anyway. Not the point. So in numbers, the spies go out and they're in the land for 40 days. They're running around the promised land for 40 days. They're on the edge. They're on the edge of inheriting and taking for their own possession what the Lord has promised to them. And 10 come back and they have one report, and two come back and they have another. And so, and they brought back the fruit of land. This is what's crazy to me, is these ten dudes who were like, this land is terrifying, we need to turn around and run away. They brought back the fruit. Like, scripture talks about the fact that the the clusters of grapes that they brought, they had to hang on a giant stick, and then two men had to carry the stick on their shoulders because the grapes were so massive. Like the land is plentiful, and still they could literally see, they could literally see the land that the Lord promised to them, and they were terrified of it. What they saw in the land, in the in the form of giants and in the form of the people who were already inhabiting the land, they looked at it and they were like, what they could see in that moment was bigger than all of the things that they had in their past to hold on to to see the goodness of God. And that if this was the land he was saying that they needed to take, that he would be just as good as he had throughout their entire journey, he would be just as good to help them take the land. And they don't believe it. So here's what they say to Moses and Aaron. So they report, right? These are the ten. We came into the land. This is Numbers 13. We came into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit, right? The giant grapes. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And indeed, we saw the descendants of peoples whose names I cannot pronounce. They're living in the land of Neg uh in the Negev. They're living here with the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Canaanites. So, yeah, this land actually looks exactly like what the Lord said it would. So then Caleb speaks up, because Caleb and Joshua are the two that come back and say, This land is awesome, right? Caleb quiets the people, and he says, We should, by all means, go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it. And then the men who had gone up with him, the ten, said, We're not able to go up against these people, they are too strong for us. So they brought a bad report of the land which they had spied out to the sons of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are people of great statue. We also saw the Nephilim, and we were like uh grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. And I just think this is so interesting, and and it was a place reading this where I knew Jesus was was challenging me. Is okay, so in my own life, the Lord's there, the Lord is doing some really cool things. Things that I've some things that I've shared with you, some things that I haven't. You know, we all have that. And there's there's things that he's freed me from and delivered me from. I again, I have tangible markers in my life of the goodness of the Lord and how he has worked for me all throughout my life, but man, even in this, even in this last three months. And I know he's leading me somewhere. I know he's leading me to a fresh start, a to some new things after a year, like I've talked about last year, of just so much grief for my family as well. That the Lord has some new things for us that we can be so excited about. And yet in the midst of it, there is still difficulty. There's still things that we are wrestling through. And as I was reading this passage in Numbers, I really felt I the challenge of the Lord to me. These are things that look so big. These things, these challenges that I'm wrestling with, things that I'm still trying to work through, and and grief that I'm still trying to work through with the Lord. And sometimes it's been so encouraging and it's been so great. And yet then I found myself just feeling really discouraged again and kind of just falling into that. Is is this just really how life is gonna be? Like the anticipation always of good things, but I don't ever get the fulfillment of that until I see the Lord when I die. And I the Lord really convicted me about that because I know that's not true. I know that the Lord has good things for me in this life because he wants to continue to show me his goodness. And I realized as I was reading these verses out of Numbers, I have a choice. I'm standing on the edge of what the Lord has promised me. A fresh start, a new chapter, a way forward, a future, a hope. Am I going to give in to the discouragement and the despair and the frustration? Am I gonna let things that kind of look like they look like giants? They certainly feel like giants. I feel like a grasshopper. In comparison to these things, am I going to let that define me? Or am I going to believe the Lord and say, Lord, this is where you are leading me? And I'm not going to let anything stop me from going into what you are calling me to do. I I am I gonna have the disposition of Caleb that says, no, we can take this land. We will prevail. And why was Caleb so certain about that? Because he knew the Lord. Because he not only knew this was the land that the Lord was calling him into, calling Israel into, but he was holding on to the history of everything that the Lord had done for them to get them here, to get them into the promised land, to get them into the land that the Lord promised Abraham. And as we know, because the Israelites chose to believe the ten men and not Joshua and Caleb, they were forced to wander the desert for 40 years. And only Joshua and Caleb, out of everybody in that generation who was delivered from Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to go into the land. Moses wasn't allowed to go into it because he struck the rock twice. Aaron passed away. He didn't see the promised land. Every single person under older than 20 years who was of that generation who got delivered from Egypt and was being taken to the promised land, they died. And there's a warning in that for us. I'm not saying that, man, if you just believe the Lord one minute, you're going to be dead. But there is a warning for us in it. That while there's a place to wrestle and we may have doubts, there also comes a place when we're standing on the edge of what the Lord has called us to, whatever it is in our life, whatever it is he's promised us, and we know we're right on the edge, that is going to be the time of greatest temptation to give into all of the doubts, all of the fears, all of the temptations of both our own minds and hearts and the enemy. Is this really what the Lord's calling me to do? Is this really when deep down, you know it. I know it. But I just I love Caleb. I love Caleb. No, we need to go take possession of this. And unlike it, unlike the 10 guys who said, I can see the fruit of the land, it looks really good. But you know what is bigger than the goodness of what the Lord's provided in this land? The enemies. And I love that Caleb's not denying how big these guys were, but he knew his God was bigger. He knew that the Lord would be faithful to come through on what he had promised because he had believed the Lord and believed the Lord and believed the Lord. And that's a choice we have to consistently make in the face of things that we see tangibly that seem to speak against everything that we believe the Lord's doing in our lives, all the good things we know He is He wants to give us. And I'm not talking about material wealth or, you know, I mean, the Lord gives wealth, the Lord gives middle class income, the Lord has his people, there are people that belong to Jesus who are in poverty for, and I don't pretend to understand or know the mind of the Lord at all. But I do know that no matter where he has placed us in life for his own particular purpose, there is again a common requirement in disciple that we each in discipleship that we each have to face. Will we trust the Lord when he's bringing us into what he has called us to do? And we see opposition, are we who are we going to say is bigger? Are we going to make the thing that's coming against us, whether it's our own doubts or our own frustrations or our own bondage or external circumstances of grief and frustration or hurt and pain, whatever it is? What's what are we going to allow to overtake us? And will we give into it and find ourselves frustrated in trying to walk into what the Lord's called us to? Or will we hit a place where where we say, Lord, this is what you have said, and we can prevail because you have said we can. You we are going to prevail because you have said this is where you're taking us. And so we're not going to let whatever it is that's pecking at us be bigger than you. And that's the whole thing. It's all about perspective. To Caleb, those giants were nothing compared to the bigness of his God. To the ten, those giants were massive. And it didn't matter what the Lord had provided for them or how he had shown himself to be faithful. They automatically believed we can't do this. I mean, yeah, there's good things in there, but it's too much. Like we're not we're not equipped for this. We can't do it. Well, of course we're not equipped for it. Not all the way, you know, and that's what I have to remind myself. The Lord will equip me and he will give me what I need, absolutely, but there will always be a place where even in everything that the Lord equips me with to walk into what he's called me to, none of it matters without his strength. None of it matters without his person, none of it matters without his word. And and the Lord, I was listening to Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell uh on a podcast last week, and he said something, and it's so good. He said, the Lord will never call you to a place where you can be absent of dependence on him. You know, essentially in the Lord's call, the Lord's always going to make sure that whatever, whatever he calls you to, yes, he's gonna strengthen you, he's gonna equip you, but you will always have to be dependent on him. I will always have to be dependent on him. And that is great grace. And that's the same thing here. Again, I read Caleb's words. We, but we should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it because our God's bigger. And these, you know, again, that perspective of these giants look massive. We looked like grasshoppers. I looked like a grasshopper in my own sight. And then I was standing next to one of them, and I was definitely a grasshopper. And we may be grasshoppers. And the giants that are in the land that the Lord's calling us to possess, they may be massive. But will we believe that if this is the land the Lord has called us to possess, that He is bigger? These giants, these giants that look so big to us are actually grasshoppers in the sight of the Lord. And so I, as you are listening, and and I pray that this is encouraging you and and also challenging you as the Lord has encouraged and challenged me, because he has definitely been speaking to me in this, like, Carrie, what perspective are you going to take? And which perspective are you going to allow to influence your choice of obedience or disobedience? And still, I mean, still, when the Israelites go in to take the land, they still have to fight for it. You know, it is the land that the Lord has given them, but the Lord in his goodness doesn't just hand it over to them. He equips them for battle. He equips them to go in and rightfully take what he has promised to them. And that's where I kind of want to land this, is in Joshua 1. And there is a lot, there are many, many, many familiar verses in in this section of Joshua 1. But I, you know, Moses has died. The people have mourned for 30 days. And once the Lord says, Okay, done mourning, let's get up and let's go, the Lord comes to Joshua. And and he comes to Joshua and encourages him. And this is not when uh a preincarnate a theophany of Jesus happens, when the captain of the Lord's army shows up to Joshua and Joshua asks him, Are you for us or against us? And he says, Neither, but I am for the Lord of hosts. This is right at the beginning of Joshua's journey of leading this people into the promised land. And this is what I want to encourage you and me with. As we step into the things that the Lord is is doing in our lives, as we whatever it is that we are anticipating, whether it's a fresh start and a new chapter, or it's it's the next piece in something that you have already been working on and co-laboring with the Lord in, that this is where the Lord is with us. And and that He is He is encouraging to like stop looking at what is seen, right? That's again, I know I talked about that last week, but Paul tells us that in 2 Corinthians 4. You know, like we don't focus on what is seen, right? But the things that are unseen, because what is seen is temporal, but what is unseen is eternal. And I mean that in the sense of there may be things that we can actually physically see in our lives that that are deterrents or look like giants too big to topple in the land that the Lord is calling us to. But the Lord is saying, look at what is unseen. Look to me. I am bigger, I am bigger. What looks so giant to you looks like a grasshopper to me. You may feel like a grasshopper in this battle, but guess what? This battle and these people who are coming against you, you know, or these the demonic things that are coming against you, they are grasshoppers. And I'm not gonna just many times the Lord doesn't just make it go away, but he equips us for battle. And he calls us like he does Joshua. And and so I want to read Joshua 1, uh, one through nine to you. And I again I pray it just solidifies you and encourages you. Now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead, so now arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the sons of Israel. Every place which is the on which the soul of your footsteps, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the great sea towards the setting of the sun, will be your territory. No one will be able to oppose you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not desert you nor abandon you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them. Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according all to the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and you will achieve success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And I know in there there are some very specific promises to Israel, but the spiritual principles still apply. The Lord is going to give us what he has said he will give us. Whatever that is in your life that you know he has spoken to you, and also eternal life with him. He's also promised to show himself to us, to make himself known, to come and make his home within us, Jesus tells us in John 14, 15, and 16. You know, I love again, how many times does the Lord say in here, you're gonna have to be strong and courageous? I think he says it three times. Yeah, be strong and courageous, be strong and very courageous, be strong and courageous. And that is what the Lord, I just I know it is his encouragement to me, and I pray that it is encouraging to you, that in this time, whatever you are facing, knowing the encouragement of the Lord, the things that the things that he's doing, the anticipation that you're feeling of and and that you know in the very deep of deepest part of you that no one can take from you, that the Lord is doing something, however it looks, whatever it looks like in your life, that when you come to the land and you know that there are giants that you have to overcome, and there is some opposition to getting into the land, that we would have the words that the Lord spoke to Joshua ring in our ears. Be strong and courageous, be strong and very courageous. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified nor dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you. He is with you wherever you go. Amen.