Page 69 - The Prosperous Way _ (APRIL 2024 v3)

THE COURAGE TO SUCCEED

Scripture in Isaiah 48:18: “If only you had paid attention to My
commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being
like the waves of the sea.”

As we obey Him, we come to perceive His hand on our lives: That He
directs us, and delivers us, and provides for us, and protects us, again
and again, day after day. It is by positioning ourselves where we can
hear God, then being obedient to His instruction and His guidance, and
seeing the result of our obedience, that we learn to trust.

Slowly then, as we continue to walk in obedience, the revelation begins
to deepen within us that the God whom we serve is truly a loving and
faithful God. He is as He says He is—compassionate, gracious, merciful,
patient, loving, faithful, and forgiving. It is by walking in obedience to
His Word that we come to know God’s ways.

WRITE IT AS A MEMORIAL

Trust and courage are the outcomes of obedience. But trust and
courage also come from remembering . Listen to what David tells King
Saul as he prepares to fight Goliath:

“Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a
bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him
and attacked him and rescued it from his mouth. The Lord who
delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the
bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel
17:35&37).

As David recites his past victories to Saul, he re-affirms that God, having
delivered him in the past from the perils of the wilderness, would also
deliver him from Goliath’s hand. Thus, David enCOURAGED himself in
the Lord.

Similarly, listen to what God tells Moses to do after Joshua had defeated
the Amalekites in battle: “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it
to Joshua , that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under
heaven” (Exodus 17:14). These words being constantly rehearsed in
Joshua’s hearing laid the foundation of trust and courage in Joshua’s
heart. This is why, all throughout the Old Testament, we see God
instructing the Israelites to make a memorial and to recite the victories

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