Choose Courage

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1601. Today's Devo is called Choose Courage.

Hey there, we're the Alesssies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

Happy Monday, everybody! This is your host for the week, Gabby, and I'm so glad to be back on the My Morning Devotional Podcast. I hope you've been blessed by all of the episodes that we've done. I even know you've been hearing from my mom, Pastor Mary, a lot more. So we hope that's been a blessing to you as well. But I want to jump into a new idea this week, and we've done a lot of themes the past couple of months. What I love about August is kind of been like a free-for-all, whatever you feel like the Lord is sharing with you and putting on your heart. So this week doesn't really have a theme, but each day I did want to look at just things in our life that we might struggle with on the daily. And maybe it's not daily, but it is monthly. It might be something that every uh quarter of the year we walk through. And one of the things that I wanted to talk about in today's episode is when our feelings don't line up with the season that God is taking us into. When we feel like, right? We feel like the feelings in the moment aren't fully aligned with what God is calling us to do. And Joshua 1.9 talks about this. It's this is the Lord speaking to Joshua. He says, Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Don't be afraid, don't be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. This is so interesting because already He's saying this. He is addressing the feelings that the people might be feeling in the moment. God is calling the Israelites to a new season. He's calling them to the promised land. He's calling them out of a comfort zone, which might have been slavery, or they've been in the wilderness just waiting to find something. They were in a place that they needed change. They were ready for a shift and a transition. God has that shift and transition prepared for them. He was taking them to a place that was prepared only for them, called the Promised Land. But in that, just like all of us, we know God's taking us somewhere and we know He has our best, but sometimes the journey doesn't look the way that we thought it would. And in that journey, whether you feel like you're delayed, you're waiting, it hasn't come yet, whatever your journey looks like, maybe so many things are happening, you can't even have a moment to breathe, our feelings aren't fully aligned with what the Lord is doing and where he's taking us. In fact, we feel very afraid, we feel discouraged. God, you're not coming through. God, you're not hearing me. We feel very nervous about what's coming next. Lord, do you even have a plan for me? And so what happens when God is calling us to something, but our feelings aren't aligned with that? We have to remember this that God's command to be strong and courageous, it wasn't based on Joshua's confidence. It wasn't based on the confidence of those people. It was based on God's presence. You see, God's command to Joshua says, don't feel these certain things. Why? Because I will be with you wherever you go. And that's a reminder for you and I today. If you're in the middle of a season change or God is calling something of you and calling you up to a higher place, maybe that's a new relationship, a new job. Maybe you're quitting the corporate job that you're used to and you're starting to become an entrepreneur and it's a part of your heart that you love. But in that transition, now you're starting to feel afraid and anxious. Can I really do it? Whatever those feelings start to do, we feel like, okay, let me trust the feelings here. And we forget that God is commanding something of us. God is commanding us to be strong. God is commanding us to choose courage, even in the transition, even when we don't feel like it, even when it gets hard. I remember a season of my life where the Lord was calling me out of something. And he wasn't calling me out to put me in something. No, he was just calling me out of it. And he was saying, I'm expecting more. I want you. This is not for you. And I had to remove myself from the situation, but my feelings were not aligned with what the Lord was telling me to do. I didn't want to do that. I didn't feel all of that comfortable doing it. I felt very discouraged. I felt like I wasted my time. And then I put it on the Lord. Lord, you wasted my time. Why didn't you tell me this a couple years ago? But I'm so grateful that I trusted in the command of the Lord and not my feelings in that moment. Because my life would look entirely different. If I relied on my feelings, if I relied on the pain that I felt, the discouragement that I felt, the nervousness and the stress, and oh my gosh, God, you wasted my time. If that's where I lived, and if I made that my promised land, I would not be walking in the life and in the blessings and in the purpose that I'm walking in today. But because I chose God's promised land, which is more afraid or fearful, it is more scary and it puts you in a higher position. It takes you out of your comfort zone. I'm so grateful I chose his promised land because I'm walking in the purpose of God today, in the will and perfect will of God today. So I encourage you, the feelings are always going to be talking to you. But here's the best part is that God is always with us. So the feelings, put them aside, hold on to the Lord. He is with you, he's the one commanding you into this new season, and we can trust in him. Come on, let's pray. Father, we just thank you for your presence. We thank you that you are always with us, that you are standing with us in this season. We thank you that you are calling us to higher things to greater things. But Lord, not only do you call us and command us, but you stick by our side. And we're grateful for it. And I pray that you do that for all of our listeners. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

So there you have it, your five minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend. Leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow, we pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.