Thursday, October 19, 2017

Wisdom Principles--Fortitude

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up -- and there were the Egyptians in pursuit of them! The Israelites were terrified and cried out to Yahweh for help.
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13Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid! Stand firm, and you will see what Yahweh will do to rescue you today: the Egyptians you see today you will never see again.14Yahweh will do the fighting for you; all you need to do is to keep calm.'

Do not be afraid of any human person, for the verdict is God's.

March in, take possession of it as Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has said; do not be afraid or discouraged.

Our brothers have discouraged us by saying that “the people are stronger and taller than we are, the cities immense, with walls reaching to the sky. And we have seen Anakim there too." 29And I said to you, "Do not take fright, do not be afraid of them. 30Yahweh your God goes ahead of you and will be fighting on your side, just as you saw him act in Egypt.

You may say in your heart, "These nations outnumber me; how shall I be able to dispossess them?" 18Do not be afraid of them: remember how Yahweh your God treated Pharaoh and all Egypt, 19the great ordeals that you yourselves have seen, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm with which Yahweh your God brought you out. 

When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, you must not be afraid of them; Yahweh your God is with you
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Do not be faint hearted. Let there be no fear or trembling or alarm as you face them.

Be strong, stand firm, have no fear, do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is going with you; he will not fail you or desert you.

Have I not told you: Be strong and stand firm? Be fearless and undaunted, for go where you may, Yahweh your God is with you.

Saul then said to Samuel, 'I have sinned, having broken Yahweh's order and your instructions because I was afraid of the people and yielded to their demands.

And now your turn has come, and you lose patience, at the first touch on yourself you are overwhelmed! 6Does not your piety give you confidence, and your integrity of life give you hope?

Yahweh, how countless are my enemies, how countless those who rise up against me, 2how countless those who say of me, 'No salvation for him from his God!

3But you, Yahweh, the shield at my side, my glory, you hold my head high.

4I cry out to Yahweh; he answers from his holy mountain.

5As for me, if I lie down and sleep, I shall awake, for Yahweh sustains me.

6I have no fear of people in their thousands upon thousands, who range themselves against me wherever I turn.

Even were I to walk in a ravine as dark as death I should fear no danger, for you are at my side. Your staff and your crook are there to soothe me.

Yahweh is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear? Yahweh is the fortress of my life, whom should I dread?

2When the wicked advance against me to eat me up, they, my opponents, my enemies, are the ones who stumble and fall.

3Though an army pitch camp against me, my heart will not fear, though war break out against me, my trust will never be shaken.

Put your hope in Yahweh, be strong, let your heart be bold, put your hope in Yahweh.

Yahweh is my strength and my shield, in him my heart trusts. 

Be brave, take heart, all who put your hope in Yahweh.

Though hardships without number beset the upright, Yahweh brings rescue from them all.

Commit your destiny to Yahweh, be confident in him, and he will act, 6making your uprightness clear as daylight, and the justice of your cause as the noon.

Yahweh guides a strong man's steps and keeps them firm; and takes pleasure in him. 24When he trips he is not thrown sprawling, since Yahweh supports him by the hand.

Yahweh will never abandon him to the clutches of the wicked, nor let him be condemned if he is tried. 34Put your hope in Yahweh, keep to his path, he will raise you up to make the land your own; you will look on while the wicked are annihilated.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you, 4in God, whose word I praise, in God I put my trust and have no fear, what power has human strength over me?

In God whose word I praise, in Yahweh whose word I praise, 11in God I put my trust and have no fear; what can mortal man do to me?

Bad news holds no fears for him, firm is his heart, trusting in Yahweh. 8His heart held steady, he has no fears, till he can gloat over his enemies.

In my distress I called to Yahweh, he heard me and brought me relief. 6With Yahweh on my side I fear nothing; what can human beings do to me?

Nations were swarming around me, in the name of Yahweh I cut them down; 11they swarmed around me, pressing upon me, in the name of Yahweh I cut them down.

12They swarmed around me like bees, they flared up like a brushwood fire, in the name of Yahweh I cut them down.

13I was pushed hard, to make me fall, but Yahweh came to my help. 14Yahweh is my strength and my song, he has been my Savior.

If you lose heart when things go wrong, your strength is not worth much.

Though the upright falls seven times, he gets up again; the wicked are the ones who stumble in adversity.

A churned -- up spring, a fountain fouled; such is the upright person trembling before the wicked.

The wicked flees when no one is pursuing, the upright is bold as a lion.

To be afraid of human beings is a snare, whoever trusts in Yahweh is secure.

Ecclesiastes 10:4

If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post; composure mitigates grave offences.

Woe to faint hearts and listless hands, and to the sinner who treads two paths.
13Woe to the listless heart that has no faith, for such will have no protection.
14Woe to you who have lost the strength to endure; what will you do at the Lord's visitation?

My soul has been close to death, my life had gone down to the brink of Sheol.
7I was completely surrounded, there was no one to help me; I looked for someone to help me, there was no one.
8Then I remembered your mercy, Lord, and your deeds from earliest times, how you deliver those who wait for you patiently, and save them from the clutches of their enemies.
9And I sent up my plea from the earth, I begged to be delivered from death.
10I called on the Lord, the father of my Lord, 'Do not desert me in the days of ordeal, in the days of the proud, when we are helpless. I shall praise your name unceasingly and gratefully sing its praises.'
11And my plea was heard, for you saved me from destruction, you delivered me from that time of evil.
12And therefore I shall thank you and praise you, and bless the name of the Lord.

Pay attention and keep calm. Do not be frightened or demoralized by… fierce anger 

Do not dread what they dread, have no fear of that. 13Yahweh Sabaoth is the one you will proclaim holy, him you will dread, him you will fear. 14He will be a sanctuary

Look, he is the God of my salvation: I shall have faith and not be afraid, for Yahweh is my strength and my song, he has been my salvation.

Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees 4and say to the faint-hearted, “Be strong! Do not be afraid. Here is your God, vengeance is coming, divine retribution; he is coming to save you.”

He gives strength to the weary, he strengthens the powerless.30Youths grow tired and weary, the young stumble and fall, 31but those who hope in Yahweh will regain their strength, they will sprout wings like eagles, though they run they will not grow weary, though they walk they will never tire.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be alarmed, for I am your God. I give you strength, truly I help you, truly I hold you firm with my saving right hand.
11Look, all those who rage against you will be put to shame and humiliated; those who picked quarrels with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish.
12You will look for them but will not find them, those who used to fight you; they will be destroyed and brought to nothing, those who made war on you.
13For I, Yahweh, your God, I grasp you by your right hand; I tell you, 'Do not be afraid, I shall help you.'
14Do not be afraid, Jacob, you worm! You little handful of Israel! I shall help you, declares Yahweh; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15Look, I am making you into a threshing-sledge, new, with double teeth; you will thresh and beat the mountains to dust and reduce the hills to straw.
16You will winnow them and the wind will carry them off, the gale will scatter them; whereas you will rejoice in Yahweh, will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

And now, thus says Yahweh, he who created you, Jacob, who formed you, Israel: Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine. 2Should you pass through the waters, I shall be with you; or through rivers, they will not swallow you up. Should you walk through fire, you will not suffer, and the flame will not burn you. 3For I am Yahweh, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. 4Since I regard you as precious, since you are honored and I love you, I therefore give people in exchange for you, and nations in return for your life.
5Do not be afraid, for I am with you

Lord Yahweh comes to my help, this is why insult has not touched me, this is why I have set my face like flint and know that I shall not be put to shame. 8He who grants me saving justice is near! Who will bring a case against me? Let us appear in court together! Who has a case against me? Let him approach me!

Listen to me, you who know what saving justice means, a people who take my laws to heart: do not fear people's taunts, do not be alarmed by their insults

I, I am your consoler. Why then should you be afraid of mortal human beings, of a child of man, whose fate is that of the grass? 13You forget about Yahweh your Creator who spread out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations

Do not be afraid of confronting them, for I am with you to rescue you, Yahweh declares.

Do not be afraid, my servant … do not be alarmed: for look, I shall rescue you …11For I am with you to save you, Yahweh declares…I shall not make an end of you, only discipline you in moderation See also Jeremiah 46:27-28

Do not be faint-hearted! Do not take fright at rumors hawked round the country: one rumor spreads one year, next year another follows

You, son of man, do not be afraid of them or of what they say, though you find yourself surrounded with brambles and sitting on scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or alarmed by their looks, for they are a tribe of rebels.

I am making your resolution as hard as a diamond, harder than flint. So do not be afraid of them, do not be overawed by them

Blessed is he who perseveres

Do not gloat over me, my enemy: though I have fallen, I shall rise; though I live in darkness, Yahweh is my light.

He said to them, 'Why are you so frightened, you who have so little faith?' And then he stood up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. See also Mark 4:40.  

If anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet. See also Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5 ; Luke 10:10-11.   

So do not be afraid of them. Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. 27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops. 28 'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
29Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. 30Why, every hair on your head has been counted. 31So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. See also Luke 12:2-7.

You will be universally hated on account of my name; but anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved. See also Mark 13:13

Jesus said, 'Come.' Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water,30 but then noticing the wind, he took fright and began to sink. 'Lord,' he cried, 'save me!'31 Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. 'You have so little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'

Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. See also Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23;  Luke 14:27.   

With the increase of lawlessness, love in most people will grow cold; 13but anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Yield a harvest through … perseverance.

Pray continually and never lose heart.

And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be terrified

Your perseverance will win you your lives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me.

Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered the world.

They stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their territory.51So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went off to Iconium

They put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith, saying, 'We must all experience many hardships before we enter the kingdom of God.'

Paul devoted all his time to preaching, declaring to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6When they turned against him and started to insult him, he took his cloak and shook it out in front of them, saying, 'Your blood be on your own heads; from now on I will go to the gentiles with a clear conscience.' 7Then he left the synagogue and moved to the house next door that belonged to a worshipper of God called Justus. 8Crispus, president of the synagogue, and his whole household, all became believers in the Lord. Many Corinthians when they heard this became believers and were baptized.  One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, 'Be fearless; speak out and do not keep silence: 10I am with you. I have so many people that belong to me in this city that no one will attempt to hurt you.'

But I do not place any value on my own life, provided that I complete the mission the Lord Jesus gave me -- to bear witness to the good news of God's grace.

Let us exult, too, in our hardships, understanding that hardship develops perseverance, 4and perseverance develops a tested character, something that gives us hope, 5and a hope which will not let us down, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

Share his suffering, so as to share his glory.

In my estimation, all that we suffer in the present time is nothing in comparison with the glory which is destined to be disclosed for us,19for the whole creation is waiting with eagerness for the children of God to be revealed.

Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ -- can hardships or distress, or persecution, or lack of food and clothing, or threats or violence; 36as scripture says: For your sake we are being massacred all day long, treated as sheep to be slaughtered? 37No; we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who loved us.38For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power,39nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Persevere in hardship; keep praying regularly

You can trust that God will not let you be put to the test beyond your strength, but with any trial will also provide a way out by enabling you to put up with it.

So in the hardships we underwent in Asia, we want you to be quite certain, brothers, that we were under extraordinary pressure, beyond our powers of endurance, so that we gave up all hope even of surviving. 9In fact we were carrying the sentence of death within our own selves, so that we should be forced to trust not in ourselves but in God, who raises the dead. 10He did save us from such a death and will save us -- we are relying on him to do so.11Your prayer for us will contribute to this, so that, for God's favor shown to us as the result of the prayers of so many, thanks too may be given by many on our behalf.

We are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never distressed; we see no way out but we never despair; 9we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us

The temporary, light burden of our hardships is earning us forever an utterly incomparable, eternal weight of glory,18since what we aim for is not visible but invisible. Visible things are transitory, but invisible things eternal.

'My grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness.' It is, then, about my weaknesses that I am happiest of all to boast, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me; 10and that is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ's sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong.

Let us never slacken in doing good; for if we do not give up, we shall have our harvest in due time.

I shall have reason to be proud on the Day of Christ, for it will not be for nothing that I have run the race and toiled so hard.

Forgetting all that lies behind me, and straining forward to what lies in front, 14I am racing towards the finishing-point to win the prize of God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Let us go forward from the point we have each attained.

Be persevering in your prayers and be thankful as you stay awake to pray.

 You took us and the Lord as your model, welcoming the word with the joy of the Holy Spirit in spite of great hardship. 7And so you became an example to all believers

[Do not be] unsettled by the present hardships. As you know, these are bound to come our way: 4indeed, when we were with you, we warned you that we are certain to have hardships to bear

Among the churches of God we take special pride in you for your perseverance and faith under all the persecutions and hardships you have to bear.

Fight like a good soldier19with faith and a good conscience for your weapons.

Hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

Fight the good fight of faith and win the eternal life to which you were called

Share in my hardships for the sake of the gospel, relying on the power of God

Bear with your share of difficulties, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Persevere for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they, too, may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

If we persevere, then we shall reign with him. 

All the persecutions I have endured … the Lord has rescued me from every one of them.

Anybody who tries to live in devotion to Christ is certain to be persecuted

But you must keep steady all the time; put up with suffering; do the work of preaching the gospel; fulfil the service asked of you.

I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith

Do not lose your fearlessness now, then, since the reward is so great. 36You will need perseverance if you are to do God's will and gain what he has promised.

With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running in the race which lies ahead of us. 2Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which lay ahead of him, he endured the cross, disregarding the shame of it, and has taken his seat at the right of God's throne. 3Think of the way he persevered against such opposition from sinners and then you will not lose heart and come to grief.

Of course, any discipline is at the time a matter for grief, not joy; but later, in those who have undergone it, it bears fruit in peace and uprightness. 12So steady all weary hands and trembling knees 13and make your crooked paths straight; then the injured limb will not be maimed, it will get better instead.

God himself has said: I shall not fail you or desert you,6 and so we can say with confidence: With the Lord on my side, I fear nothing: what can human beings do to me?

My brothers, consider it a great joy when trials of many kinds come upon you, 3for you well know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, and 4perseverance must complete its work so that you will become fully developed, complete, not deficient in any way.

Blessed is anyone who perseveres when trials come. Such a person is of proven worth and will win the prize of life, the crown that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

For your example, brothers, in patiently putting up with persecution, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord's name; 11remember it is those who had perseverance that we say are the blessed ones. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and understood the Lord's purpose, realizing that the Lord is kind and compassionate.

This is a great joy to you, even though for a short time yet you must bear all sorts of trials; 7so that the worth of your faith, more valuable than gold, which is perishable even if it has been tested by fire, may be proved -- to your praise and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

There is merit if, in awareness of God, you put up with the pains of undeserved punishment

The merit in the sight of God is in putting up with it patiently when you are punished for doing your duty.  21This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his steps.

Live good lives free from fear and worry.

No one can hurt you if you are determined to do only what is right; 14and blessed are you if you have to suffer for being upright. Have no dread of them; have no fear. 15Simply proclaim the Lord Christ holy in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have. 16But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience, so that those who slander your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their accusations.17And if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong.

My dear friends, do not be taken aback at the testing by fire which is taking place among you, as though something strange were happening to you; 13but in so far as you share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, so that you may enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed.

If any one of you should suffer for being a Christian, then there must be no shame but thanksgiving to God for bearing this name.

Those whom God allows to suffer should commit themselves to a Creator who is trustworthy, and go on doing good.

I know too that you have perseverance, and have suffered for my name without growing tired.

I know your hardships and your poverty, and -- though you are rich -- the slander of the people … 10Do not be afraid of the sufferings that are coming to you. Look, the devil will send some of you to prison to put you to the test, and you must face hardship for ten days. Even if you have to die, keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life for your prize.

Because you have kept my commandment to persevere, I will keep you safe in the time of trial which is coming for the whole world, to put the people of the world to the test. 11I am coming soon: hold firmly to what you already have, and let no one take your victor's crown away from you.

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