Skip to main content

The Power of a Prefix

This morning as I laid across my bed (my new favorite place to read my Bible), I contemplated briefly where I should start reading.  I decided on Joshua because he's a pretty cool guy who accomplished a lot for the Lord and had a lot of inner fortitude to succeed.

 Joshua 1 brings us up to date on where Joshua's story continues.  He had spent time being introduced in Deuteronomy.  Joshua was now being tasked with bringing God's people, the Israelites, finally into the promised land after the fiasco in the desert where they just  ended up wandering for 40 years.  During the "pep talk" God gave him, he was reminded three times to "be strong and courageous".  I'm guessing that there was some fear and trepidation on Joshua's part.  His predecessor didn't exactly have a great time leading and never got to see the promised land.  Moses's shadow loomed large before Joshua.

 God knew that Joshua was capable or He wouldn't have asked him to guide His road-weary people.  He knew that Joshua would need super human strength to deal with the whiny Israelites, plus to defeat the known enemies on the other side of the Jordan River.  He knew the next leader was going to need an extra helping of courage to accomplish the goals set for him. 

 He needed to be strong and courageous.

 Strong: powerful and difficult to resist or defeat; likely to succeed because of sound reasoning or convincing evidence; able to withstand force, pressure or wear

 Courageous: not deterred by danger or pain

 Woah, that is asking a lot now that I look at it that way.  That is a lot of meaning packed into two words.  So now look what God tells Joshua in verse 9:

 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

 Discouraged: having lost confidence or enthusiasm; disheartened

 Look at the difference the little prefix "dis" makes.  It takes courage from being undeterred by danger and pain to losing confidence and heart.  Ouch.  Pretty powerful for such small string of letters.

 God didn't tell Joshua He had an easy job for him.  He didn't promise him a well-paved road filled with well-behaved believers.  He didn't even give him all the specifics of his journey.  Basically, he got a "Stick with Me, Kid".

 But sticking with God should be all of the courage and strength we need.  He's given us His words to guide us and encourage us.  He's given us the opportunity to talk to Him at any given moment.  And, He gave us His own SON so we could spend eternity with Him.  

 So, one last definition.  Let's take off the "dis" from courage and add "en": encourage.

 Encourage: give support, confidence of hope to someone; stimulate the development of an activity, state of belief

 Ah.  the power of a prefix.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beauty in Changing

This time of year is beautiful in the Midwest. The weather is cooling, drawing us to our hoodies, cozy sweaters and long forgotten jeans. Yards are decorated with cornstalks, pumpkins and fancy scarecrows. On trash days, curbs are lined with bags and bags of dead leaves and other yard waste as home owners ready their home for the coming cold months. And then there are the trees. I've taken a walk the last few nights with Lucas around our neighborhood and enjoyed the changing foliage much more than my twelve year old nephew. I'm a picture person. He's a get it done kind of kid. I stop a LOT to admire scenery. His mind has already completed the walk and is on to his next video game. He is often a block ahead of me before he realizes I stopped to admire a pinecone on the ground or a beautiful leaf on the road. I saw this quote and it resonated with me again:    Isn't that great? Humans resist change. We have readily displayed that ever since Covid-19 disrupted our lives an...
Post a Comment
Read more
What are you dreaming about?  Wishing for?  Waiting for? Just those questions alone can bring more to mind than your heart was ready to process.  I know it's true for me.  I haven't blogged for three years.  Want to know what one of my dreams is?  Writing!  Ironic, huh? In this past month I've switched some things up with positive results.  I used to wait to spend time with God at the very end of my day and that came with varying results.  Either I'd be so exhausted that I'd only muster enough to open up the Bible app on my phone and settle for just a nugget of God's truths that day.  Sometimes I'd get my Bible opened then be sidetracked by a nephew getting ready for bed or a whiny dog.  Sometimes, I'd forget altogether.  None of this made for a strong me. When the kids started back to school this year, I decided to make a change for myself. Instead of getting up at the same time as always, I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. al...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trust your Author

As a child, I loved reading.  Little House on the Prairie and the Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke were my favorites.  I also loved Beverly Cleary books as a younger girl and the Sweet Valley High books in middle school. In high school, I didn't find a lot of time to read and didn't pick up many book recreationally until my twenties.  I would always look for Christian fiction, but quickly grew tired of the same old story.  Woman had a job, but is unfulfilled.  She meets a man, often one that is not interested in her or that she doesn't like.  Fast-forward after several chance encounters and several missteps and VOILA!, they fall in love.  Bleck.  That works for a Hallmark movie for me that I'm only required to invest less than 2 hours in.  But not for a book. Hours of time go into reading a book.  Sometimes just finding a book that looks interesting takes a lot of time.  That is, until I found the author Karen Kingsbury....
Post a Comment
Read more