Tag Archive | courage

Familiar Beauty

May2

by Kathy Stanford

I live in a small town (less than 1,000) and must drive several miles to get to any place with commercial services. As you can imagine, there are roads I’ve traveled so frequently I don’t really see the views any more. But once in a while a change of season will get my attention with a glorious display of God’s creation. When that happens, in that moment, I am freshly aware of the beauty that had become blindingly familiar. That kind of blind familiarity can happen while reading the Bible. I read God’s word every day, but sometimes I realize I’ve just read a whole passage with my eyes, while my mind was really somewhere else. And once in a while I am jolted to fresh awareness by the beauty of a long familiar verse.

I was reading in the book of Isaiah recently when I came to chapter 40. The chapter begins with reference to the end of Jerusalem’s suffering for her sin as it goes on to tell of the Lord’s coming and the glory of the Lord that will be revealed. The main body of the chapter is a glorious praise of God’s greatness and His complete sovereignty over all His creation, including man. It then comes back to the subject of sin and basically mocks our tendency to think we can hide our sin from God and escape due justice. But then God’s love becomes so beautifully evident as we see that even though He knows all about our wrong doing, He still watches over us. And when we realize we can not make it in our own strength we have the tender promise of verse 31.

Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

The Hebrew word translated wait is qavah, a verb meaning “to wait, look for, hope, expect”. I like all of those words – especially together. If I put in the full meaning it says “Yet those who wait, look for, hope and expect the Lord will gain new strength”. Some days I’m just waiting and hoping – “Lord take me outta here!” Other days I’m looking for and expecting – “Jesus I can’t wait to see your face and be with you!” But no matter what my mental state is, He has promised to give me strength. When life has me going at a run and when I’m just putting one foot in front of the other to get through the day, He enables me to rise above the trials and face life’s challenges. Wherever you are today, I hope you you will reach out to God and let Him give you the strength you need for this – and every – day.

“Dear Jesus, I’m so grateful for the power of your Word and the hope in your promises. Please strengthen me today for whatever life brings. Help me to trust you and glorify you in all I say and do.”

If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, or are unsure, click on the tab at the top of the page for more information.

Strong and Courageous

Sep24

by Kathy Stanford

Welcome to Wet Feet. It is my prayer that this will be a place of honesty and truth, based on God’s word, where readers will be encouraged in their faith and daily life. It’s been a two year journey to the posting of this first blog entry and as I pondered a name for this blog, God led me to the story of the Israelite’s crossing into the promised land, in Joshua chapters 1-4.

Moses had just died and Joshua had been handed the leadership of Israel. While the scripture doesn’t come right out and say it, I think we can infer that he was a little apprehensive about his new responsibility. Three times in God’s first instructions to Joshua, He tells him to be strong and courageous. (Josh 1:6,7,9) But just in case he still had doubts, God used Joshua’s military leaders to speak the same words to him in Josh 1:18, confirming one more time, His call to Joshua.

Like Joshua, I needed to hear the words several times. I WANTED to be strong and courageous, but a million fears and doubts kept shouting over that quiet voice of truth. Thankfully God is faithful, even when we are not, and He finally drowned out the confusion and fear that plagued my faithless heart. He even used a dear friend’s unexpected note and gift of a journal to confirm “one more time” His call to me.

I want to share some of my personal insights from Joshua chapters 3 & 4, where I found several parallels to my own journey. But I sincerely hope you will find the time to read the scriptures for yourself and hear what God is saying to you.

Josh 3:13 tells us that first they had to get their feet wet. Obedience isn’t passive. No matter how much I wanted to be obedient, I wasn’t – until I took action. However, acting in obedience doesn’t mean it will be easy. We see in Josh 3:15 that the Jordan was at flood stage. Often when God leads us to do something, it feels impossible and over whelming. I knew nothing about how to begin a blog and felt certain I had nothing of any worth to offer.

On the other hand, when He asks us to do something, God is always at work in the background to make it happen. In Josh 3:16 we read that God piled the waters in a heap, a great distance away, out of sight from the Israelites. Even as I began exploring the idea of doing a blog, I was given the opportunity to help an organization with their publicity email for an annual event. This helped me begin to feel comfortable with on-line publishing.

In Josh 4:1-5, twelve men had to go back and get stones. Sometimes God has more planned than we expected. I thought this was something He just asked me to do. But I find He is leading in a different direction and there will be at least two of us writing posts.

In Josh 4:6-9 we learn that not only were these stones used to build a memorial of what God had done that day, but Joshua went back and set up twelve stones at the place where the priests were standing. God wants us to remember what He’s done and share our story. And he wants us to tell others of His faithfulness in our life, even as we stand in the middle of a trial.

Josh 4:10-11 tells us the priests were the last to step out of the riverbed. They had to stand there until the whole nation hurried past them. Then everyone watched as they came across.  Sometimes God asks us to be the first one to do something, to lead in a new direction. Sometimes He just asks us to do something new to us. And it may seem like we have to stand in the riverbed for a very long time, while people are hurrying past and watching, maybe even waiting for us to fail.

According to Josh 4:18, when the priests stepped out onto the bank the river returned to flood. There was no going back. Once we begin a journey of obedience, we need to keep going forward. We’re not to be looking back and thinking of quitting.

Perhaps God is asking you to do something new that seems overwhelmingly hard. It may be to try a new direction in ministry; or to let go of something from the past, forgiving someone for a great hurt they’ve done to you; or to humble yourself and apologize for a wrong you’ve done someone else. Perhaps you’re facing an unplanned pregnancy-alone; or your aging parents need more and more of your time and energy; or maybe you are facing life as a single person for the first time in many years. The list is endless.

Whatever He is asking, I hope you will ask God to help you be strong and courageous – to have the faith to get your feet wet – and trust God to hold the water back.