Be Courageous
We collided in the hallway, grabbing at each other with hearts racing.
The blare of the burglar alarm had jolted my daughter Lisa and me out of our beds and toward each other as fear swept up the stairs like a chilling, permeating fog.
Frozen where we’d met, we waited, speechless, each of us trying desperately to quiet our panicked breathing. Nothing—we heard nothing but the incessant wail of the alarm.
After a seeming eternity, I motioned Lisa into my bedroom and over to the phone. We huddled together with eyes glued to the top of the stairs.
I picked up the receiver, and the line was dead—no dial tone, just the vast silence of disconnection.
Had the intruder cut the line? Did a call get through to the monitoring service before the line was severed?
Lisa and I stared at each other, silently acknowledging our fear. Then we both softly whispered to God, “Father, help us.”
The mere acknowledgment that God was near and could hear our prayer calmed our hearts.
The alarm was still ringing and fear was still alive. But we now knew we were no longer alone in our fear.
Calmer, I picked up the receiver again. A dial tone buzzed. Our fears began to subside.
A call had gone through to the alarm monitoring company, and the police soon arrived.
They found no sign of an intruder and assured us that it was just a glitch in the alarm system.
As frightening as that false alarm had been, Lisa and I could only imagine how much worse it would have been if either of us had been truly alone.
How dark and engulfing our fear would have been without the knowledge that God was right there with us.
Joshua faced much more than a potential intruder in his camp. He was about to lead the children of Israel across the Jordan and into the promised land.
He was following in the footsteps of Moses, a great leader now dead.
But God had spoken to him: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
God’s promise to Joshua is God’s promise to us. The power behind it gives us courage when we are afraid.
It helps us keep going in the face of peril, whether actual or perceived threats to our physical, emotional, or spiritual well-being threaten to destroy our peace.
The power of God’s presence turns even the darkest moments into opportunities to trust him with our very lives.
Whether we tremble in the dark or are moving into new and unknown territory, God goes with us, replacing our terror with trust.
Father, thank you for your continual presence in my life and the courage it gives me to face my deepest fears.