“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9 (ESV)[1]
Authors use repetition — let me repeat that — repetition — to emphasize a major point. In Joshua 1, the author says in verse 6, “Be strong and courageous.” He repeats in the next verse, “Only be strong and very courageous” (verse 7). Then again, in verse 9, he underscores it. And if three commands in four verses weren’t enough, the chapter ends with the people responding to Joshua: “Only be strong and courageous” (verse 18).
But there’s more.
In Deuteronomy 31:6, Moses commands the people: “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” In the next verse, Moses addresses Joshua in the presence of all Israel: “Be strong and courageous” (verse 7) … “Do not fear or be dismayed” (verse 8). Later, in Deuteronomy 31:23, the Lord Himself commissioned Joshua: “Be strong and courageous … I will be with you.”
A preacher once said the Bible states “do not fear” 365 times—one for each day of the year.[2] The repeated commands throughout Scripture suggest we all wrestle with fear. To be strong and courageous means we choose not to fear.
If you’re afraid, you’re not alone. We all have fears—some rational, others not. We fear sharing the Gospel. We fear rejection. We fear we won’t say the right thing. We fear letting people truly know us. We fear trying something new. We fear failure. We fear what others might think. We fear persecution. It’s in our nature to let fear hold us back. But Scripture calls us to rise above our fears and step out in bold faith for Jesus.
When fear grips you, remember that you are not alone. Not just because others feel it too, but because the Lord is with you. If you’ve prayed, sought God’s will, and believe He’s calling you to take the next step — if your actions align with Scripture — then God is with you. The outcome doesn’t depend on your strength but on His. He is able. When we humbly obey His call, we can trust Him to carry us through. Our only reasonable response is strong and courageous faith. This is our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1–2).
I enjoy country music — especially Garth Brooks. Several of his songs echo the theme of taking a leap of faith. In “The Dance,”[3] he looks back on a love that ended in heartache and concludes he would rather have lived through it than to have missed both the pain and the dance by playing it safe. Swap his idea of leaving life to chance with God’s sovereign will, and you get my point. Following God may not be easy, but it’s always worth it.
In “The River,”[4] he pictures life as a river to be sailed and warns against standing on the bank, watching the water slip past, instead of daring the rapids and the tide. He admits there will be rough water and a few falls along the way, but with the Lord as his captain, he is confident he can come through it. The takeaway? Keep sailing the river God has given you, all the way to the end.
So let’s choose to live boldly. Let’s be strong and courageous. If God is for us, who can be against us? And if we encounter hardship, struggle, or even failure, we are still successful—because the ultimate goal of life is to trust and obey God with strong and courageous faith.
That is our calling.
COURAGEOUS STEP
Fear is common to all humanity, or this command would not be repeated so frequently. Recognize and admit your fear. Write it down. Take one bold action this week that moves forward in faith despite that fear, trusting that God will be with you.
Thomas White
President and Professor of Theology, Cedarville University
[1]Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version (ESV).
[2]This widely repeated figure is an estimate rather than a verified count. The total varies depending on the translation and on which Hebrew and Greek expressions for fear and dread are included.
[3]“The Dance,” written by Tony Arata, recorded by Garth Brooks on his self-titled debut album (Capitol Nashville, 1989).
[4]“The River,” written by Garth Brooks and Victoria Shaw, recorded by Garth Brooks on the album Ropin’ the Wind (Capitol Nashville, 1991).
FAQ’s
Joshua was the successor of Moses, chosen to lead Israel across the Jordan and into the land God had promised. He received this command at the threshold of the greatest assignment of his life, when the weight of leading an entire nation had just shifted onto his shoulders. God did not call him to courage because the task was small but because it was enormous, and He grounded that courage in His own promised presence rather than in Joshua’s ability.
The verse does not promise the absence of fear but commands obedience in the face of it. Scripture repeats the call to courage so often precisely because fear is common to every believer, and a command to simply stop feeling an emotion would be impossible to keep. To be strong and courageous means you choose to move forward in faith, trusting that the outcome rests on God’s strength rather than your own.
Joshua 1:9 means that the call to courage is rooted in the presence of God, not in personal confidence or favorable circumstances. The reason given for strength is not Joshua’s training, his army, or his odds, but the promise that the Lord his God would be with him wherever he went. The verse teaches that courage is a response to who God is and what He has promised, available to anyone walking in obedience to His call.
The command appears four times in the first chapter of Joshua alone, in verses 6, 7, 9, and 18. Moses had already delivered the same charge to the nation and to Joshua in Deuteronomy 31, and the Lord Himself repeated it when He commissioned Joshua in Deuteronomy 31:23. This deliberate repetition across both books underscores how seriously God treats the human struggle with fear.
Both passages pair the same command with the same promise, that God will never leave nor forsake His people. In Deuteronomy 31:6 Moses gave the charge to all Israel, and in Joshua 1:9 God gave it directly to Joshua as the new leader. The harmony between the two shows that the courage required of a leader flows from the same source as the courage required of everyone he leads, the abiding presence of God.
Leaders apply this verse by acting on what God has called them to do even when fear argues against it, as long as their actions align with Scripture and prayer. Courage in leadership is not the absence of risk but the willingness to obey while trusting God for the result. The verse frees leaders from leaning on their own strength and anchors their boldness in the certainty that God goes with them into every assignment.
Joshua 1:9 speaks directly to the fear that every believer carries, and it answers that fear not with a pep talk but with a promise. It reminds you that you are never alone in what God has called you to do, because the same God who commanded Joshua to be strong and courageous walks with you wherever you go. That promise has steadied God’s people at the edge of impossible assignments for thousands of years, and it steadies them still.
Leave a Reply