Disciple: “What must I do to be prosperous?”
God: “Be strong and courageous!”
Disciple: “Strong and courageous for what?”
God: “To be steadfast (not turing to right or the left) in observing all that I have commanded.”
Points to ponder:
Wanna be prosperous? Be steadfast in observing what God has commanded you to do, without weakening under the pressures of a world that is in enmity with God (James 4:4). To obey him is to love him and to love him is to keep (observe) his commandments, for Jesus said if you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15), and in keeping his commandments will all men know that we are his disciples (John 13:35). Would you consider yourself as prosperous? In other words, “Are you being strong and courageous in being steadfast – steadfast in keeping God’s commandments?”
Joshua 1:6-9 (KJV)
6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest.
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
