I've been reading through the Bible, and at present, I just finished the book of Joshua. There seemed to be a recurrent theme throughout it... Can you guess what it was?
“Be strong and of a good courage; be not
afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee
withersoever thou goest.” (Joshua 1:9)
These words, or variations of them, are
mentioned seven times in the short book of Joshua. The first three times, it is
God speaking to Joshua. Next, Joshua tells the people. Then the Lord again
speaks it to Joshua, after they lost the battle of Ai. Once more God tells
Joshua to fear not, in the battle with the five kings of the Amorites. Finally,
Joshua repeats it to the congregation, when he is making his final speech,
before he dies.
Three times also, when Moses was appointing
Joshua to continue the work of leading the children of Israel, back in
Deuteronomy, Moses 'charged' Joshua, saying “Be strong and of a good courage,
fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go
with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
These words shaped Joshua's life: God gave
them in the beginning, through Moses, God repeated them after Moses died and
throughout Joshua's life, particularly during hard battles, until when Joshua
himself was 'old and stricken in age' he passed them on to the people. It was
like his legacy.
All this made me think, what is my life
motto? What is something I live by, that I value so much I would want to pass
it on to those coming after me? I can't say there is anything, but it made me
think of a powerful quote by Martin Luther, that I found a couple of weeks ago:
“God created the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, He can
make some thing out of us.”
That's what I want my life motto to be, in
two senses. The first just what we've been talking about; I want those to be
the words that I live by. Just imagine the possibilities there is for God to
use us, if we're not full of ourselves! The second sense though, I want that to
the theme people see when they look at my life. I want it to be obvious that I
am nothing, and God is everything. It's like one of those equations in maths. "Solve for x: Nothing + x = Humans, us. X equals God." He's the only reason we're actually here, “for in him we live, and move, and
have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Anyway, thanks for reading my ramblings... What are your thoughts on 'life mottos'?
Jessica xxx :)
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