Courage

Jos 1:5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage. For you shall divide for an inheritance to this people, the land which I swore to their fathers, to give it to them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous so that you may be careful to do according to all the Law which My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may act wisely wherever you go. 8 This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it by day and by night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall act wisely.

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” Sven Goran Eriksson

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.” Jesse Jackson

Ø When the great Polish pianist, Ignace Paderewski, first chose to study the piano, his music teacher told him his hands were much too small to master the keyboard.

Ø When the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso, first applied for instruction, the teacher told him his voice sounded like the wind whistling through the window.

Ø When the great statesman of Victorian England, Benjamin Disraeli, attempted to speak in Parliament for the first time, members hissed him into silence and laughed when he said, "Though I sit down now, the time will come when you will hear of me."

Ø Henry Ford forgot to put a reverse gear in his first car.

Ø Albert Einstein failed his university entrance exams at his first attempt.

Ø Thomas Edison spent $2,000,000 on an invention which proved to be of little value.

Very little comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are fingerprints on the road to achievement. Abraham Lincoln's life could demonstrate that the only time you do not fail is the last time you try something and it works. We can "fail forward" toward success.

“This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it by day and by night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall act wisely.”

I believe that we lose hope and we become discouraged and sidetracked by our failures, for one reason and one reason only: We have taken our eyes, our hearts and our minds off the Word.

We become engrossed in the situation, the moment and the loss. If our focus remains on the instruction and the hope and the encouragement of the Word, we will walk away from every situation as the victor and not the victim.

Booker T. Washington said, "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."