strength which is strength, and not merely weakness in a fever, is a
strength derived, and ours because derived. The Apostle gives the
complete version of the exhortation when he says: 'Finally, my
brethren,' that Omega of command which is the Alpha of performance, 'be
strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.' Let Christ's
strength in. Open the heart wide that it may come. Keep yourself in
continual touch with God, the fountain of all power. Trust is strength,
because trust touches the Rock of Ages.

For this reason the commandment to be strong and of good courage is in
the text based upon this: 'As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.
I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.' Our strength depends on
ourselves, because our strength is the fruit of our faith. And if we
live with Him, grasping His hand and, in the realising consciousness of
our own weakness, looking beyond ourselves, then power will come to us
above our desire and equal to our need. The old victories of faith will
be reproduced in us when we say with the ancient king, 'Lord! We know
not what to do, but our eyes are up unto Thee.' Then He will come to
us, to make us 'strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.'
'Wait on the Lord and He will strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on
the Lord.'

But courage is duty, too, as well as strength. Power and the
consciousness of power do not always go together. In regard to the
strength of nature, courage and might are quite separable. There may be
a strong coward and a weak hero. But in the spiritual region, strength
and courage do go together. The consciousness of the divine power with
us, and that alone, will make us bold with a boldness that has no taint
of levity and presumption mingled with it, and never will overestimate
its own strength. The charge to Joshua, then, not only insists upon the