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Joshua 1:9

约书亚记 1:9

The Passage

Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid. Don't be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

In the other language

你当刚强壮胆！不要惧怕，也不要惊惶，因为你无论往哪里去，耶和华你的神必与你同在。

Theme

Courage

Bring a question to this passage

Many readers arrive here from a real question. These are reflections for how this passage speaks to the questions people bring most often — not an answer about what will happen, but an invitation to sit with it slowly.

How do I face this season of pressure at work?

Joshua is being handed a task larger than he feels able to carry, and the instruction repeated to him is to be strong and courageous — grounded not in his own nerve but in the fact that God goes with him. That is why the verse can be honest about fear and still command courage: fear is not the opposite of faith here, it is the occasion for it. What is the thing you are avoiding this week because you have decided you are not the sort of person who does it?

Carry thisCourage is not fearlessness; it is going anyway, accompanied.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

I want to learn to love better in this relationship.

The words 'be strong and courageous' can sound like a demand to feel confident. Yet the passage also names fear and dismay, feelings that can accompany a difficult step. It does not directly teach relationship skills; it offers an invitation to courage grounded in God's presence. Learning to love better may involve admitting you were wrong rather than defending your intentions. Strength need not mean having the last word. It can mean remaining attentive when you feel embarrassed, or speaking plainly without becoming harsh. You do not have to confuse courage with force. Where might an honest apology be a stronger expression of love than another explanation?

Carry thisStrength can look like an apology without a defense.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

What do I need to let go of in the coming weeks?

Courage here is not presented as something you must produce in isolation. The command is grounded in the passage's assurance of God's presence wherever the journey leads. It does not provide a list of things to abandon in the coming weeks. It does invite you to reconsider the demand that you feel completely ready before taking a responsible step. Being afraid or dismayed can become another reason to judge yourself, adding weight to what is already difficult. You can acknowledge those feelings without making perfect confidence a requirement. Where might you let go of waiting to feel fearless before doing something you know deserves your care?

Carry thisCourage does not require the absence of every fear.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

How can I find stillness in a busy life?

The command to be courageous does not ask for a life without movement or responsibility. This passage speaks of going, with the LORD’s presence at the center of its encouragement. It is not a method for making a busy day quiet, but it invites you to consider courage without letting fear set the pace. Sometimes a pause takes courage: you leave a task unfinished for a moment and notice the dismay you have been outrunning. Reading slowly gives you space to hear the words rather than turn them into another demand to perform. This passage offers no method for stillness. In what way might its assurance of God's presence help you pause without needing to finish everything first?

Carry thisA quiet pause can be an act of courage.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

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Joshua 1 — in context

3I have given you every place that the sole of your foot will tread on, as I told Moses.

4From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.

5No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.

6“Be strong and courageous; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

7Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded you. Don’t turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

8This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.

9Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed: for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

10Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,

11“Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare food; for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess it.’”

12Joshua spoke to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, saying,

13“Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, ‘the LORD your God gives you rest, and will give you this land.

14Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock, shall live in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but you shall pass over before your brothers armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them

15until the LORD has given your brothers rest, as he has given you, and they have also possessed the land which the LORD your God gives them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession, and possess it, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.’”

Related topics

Strength and Courage

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