Reflection: Be Strong and Courageous
How can anyone command a frightened, overwhelmed person to be ‘strong and courageous’? If you have ever been tempted to try, you will have discovered that the result is usually counter-productive. It simply causes the frightened person (particularly a child) to re-imagine the nightmare they are facing and to burst into tears.
So, what makes it different when God says it? As I write, there is brutal war being waged in Ukraine, a war featuring unspeakable horrors and evil. Elderly women, overcome by grief, cry out, ‘Where are you God?’ No glib Bible proof-texting is going to cut it.
We weep and we know that Jesus wept. We point to the tortures and know that Jesus was tortured. We are angry at the lies and the evil and know that God will ultimately judge all things. We help where we can because that is what love does. We do these things because God is with us. The elderly widow in Ukraine is not alone. An angry powerful God is with her… a God who will have the last word – if not in this world, then certainly in the next.
But what about you? If God has revealed his purpose for you, he will be with you to see that it is carried out – even though you may first be met with a barrage of reversals. The difference you have is that God is with you.
Prayer: Loving Father, you are with us wherever we go. You will allow nothing to separate us from you. Not only are you with us but you command us to be strong and courageous as we pursue your purposes.
Please be our strength when we falter.