Biblical Strength and Courage
Memory Verse:
'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” '
Joshua 1:9
Sermon Sentence: Be strong and courageous is a command that is made possible by the one calling us to it.
'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” '
Joshua 1:9
Sermon Sentence: Be strong and courageous is a command that is made possible by the one calling us to it.
Day 1
Read Psalm 27
I remember going to bungee jump for the first time. I need to back that up a little bit and change the scene in your mind, I think I may have misled you. I remember when the people I was with decided to go bungee jumping and therefore I went bungee jumping because I gave in to peer pressure. Yeah…that better illustrates what I was trying to say. The point was I remember standing on that platform and trying to work up the courage to step off of that cliff and hope this whole thing goes like it does on television. I don’t think that was courage. If you do, let me explain what I mean. I don’t think courage is just overcoming fear for no good reason. That can also be stupidity. I think courage is overcoming fear for a good reason, but doesn’t it seem dumb to just pretend like fear is not there? Fear has a purpose. It likes to take more purpose than it is supposed to take and therefore become crippling, but fear does have a point.
As for this whole trusting the word of God thing, I am thankful it is not about just stupid overcoming of fear for no good reason. Many of the things that I fear are for a good reason. But even more of the things the Bible teaches me are for a better reason. If I have fear that has been held to a healthy place, it gives me a better chance to be thankful for what I came from or came through, because I know that there was a good reason to be fearful. Also, the more fears that I work through, it seems the logic goes, the more faith I will develop. Things that used to be fearful for me are pretty minor from the perspective of the amount of times I saw those fears overcome.
What is a good healthy fear you have and what is a unhealthy fear that you have?
How does God speak to both of those through His word?
You may not understand “enemies” the same way that David did when he wrote this. So how do you see “enemies” in your life right now and how do these verses help?
How does this become part of your prayer?
I remember going to bungee jump for the first time. I need to back that up a little bit and change the scene in your mind, I think I may have misled you. I remember when the people I was with decided to go bungee jumping and therefore I went bungee jumping because I gave in to peer pressure. Yeah…that better illustrates what I was trying to say. The point was I remember standing on that platform and trying to work up the courage to step off of that cliff and hope this whole thing goes like it does on television. I don’t think that was courage. If you do, let me explain what I mean. I don’t think courage is just overcoming fear for no good reason. That can also be stupidity. I think courage is overcoming fear for a good reason, but doesn’t it seem dumb to just pretend like fear is not there? Fear has a purpose. It likes to take more purpose than it is supposed to take and therefore become crippling, but fear does have a point.
As for this whole trusting the word of God thing, I am thankful it is not about just stupid overcoming of fear for no good reason. Many of the things that I fear are for a good reason. But even more of the things the Bible teaches me are for a better reason. If I have fear that has been held to a healthy place, it gives me a better chance to be thankful for what I came from or came through, because I know that there was a good reason to be fearful. Also, the more fears that I work through, it seems the logic goes, the more faith I will develop. Things that used to be fearful for me are pretty minor from the perspective of the amount of times I saw those fears overcome.
What is a good healthy fear you have and what is a unhealthy fear that you have?
How does God speak to both of those through His word?
You may not understand “enemies” the same way that David did when he wrote this. So how do you see “enemies” in your life right now and how do these verses help?
How does this become part of your prayer?
Day 2
Read Deuteronomy 31:1-8
I have been made fun of many times for my circus family background. Now, I have been to a circus, but I was in the bleachers and not in the acts. Have you ever watched a tightrope walk? That is a weird question to ask, but I remember seeing one on tv across the Grand Canyon a few years back. I watched it for the entertainment and I was not aware of my family background in tightrope walking when I saw it. There was absolutely nothing that called me to desire that. If you were with me watching that, and at that moment revealed to me that this was a part of my family history, I still would not be interested in attempting it in any way. I do not care about the history of tightrope walking.
Joshua did care about the history of Moses in leading these people. If you were taking over for Moses, how much value do you think there would be in his encouragement and support, in his pep talk? I bet it would be helpful..at least somewhat. Joshua was stepping into a legendary legacy that certainly has a storied past. Maybe he didn’t get how much of a historical moment this was all creating and how these stories would be used for hundreds of years later, but he at least surely felt some weight of the moment. Sometimes the leadership transition goes well, sometimes it falls apart and that has to rest in the back of Johsua’s mind. This all just serves as the context for what he is trying to process in this moment. He is about to take over for the great leader Moses, and Moses is looking to encourage him in what he is being called to.
What part of what Moses said to Joshua do you think was the most helpful and why?
Why do you think the writer repeats the things in this text so many different times?
How are these things repeated in your life or in the Bible that you read as well and how does that help you?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
I have been made fun of many times for my circus family background. Now, I have been to a circus, but I was in the bleachers and not in the acts. Have you ever watched a tightrope walk? That is a weird question to ask, but I remember seeing one on tv across the Grand Canyon a few years back. I watched it for the entertainment and I was not aware of my family background in tightrope walking when I saw it. There was absolutely nothing that called me to desire that. If you were with me watching that, and at that moment revealed to me that this was a part of my family history, I still would not be interested in attempting it in any way. I do not care about the history of tightrope walking.
Joshua did care about the history of Moses in leading these people. If you were taking over for Moses, how much value do you think there would be in his encouragement and support, in his pep talk? I bet it would be helpful..at least somewhat. Joshua was stepping into a legendary legacy that certainly has a storied past. Maybe he didn’t get how much of a historical moment this was all creating and how these stories would be used for hundreds of years later, but he at least surely felt some weight of the moment. Sometimes the leadership transition goes well, sometimes it falls apart and that has to rest in the back of Johsua’s mind. This all just serves as the context for what he is trying to process in this moment. He is about to take over for the great leader Moses, and Moses is looking to encourage him in what he is being called to.
What part of what Moses said to Joshua do you think was the most helpful and why?
Why do you think the writer repeats the things in this text so many different times?
How are these things repeated in your life or in the Bible that you read as well and how does that help you?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read Psalm 28
Today I felt sick. By that, I mean my body just feels tired and I don’t have a whole lot of strength. I’m sure you know what I mean, you look outside and see even more snow falling while your brain is processing what it will take to motivate yourself to handle the extra work to get to work, and the motivation is just really hard to come by. The amount of strength that you know what you have, does not match what you see you will need, and it is in that moment that you start to get overwhelmed with what is expected of you.
Emotionally, we experience the same thing, do we not? Emotional strength, which is probably more in line with what Joshua is talking about, have the same ideas of depleted resources we are trying to draw from. Sometimes you just get overwhelmed with what you are facing and that is when the emotional spiral down starts to happen as well. You just can’t muster it up and you wonder where the strength is going to come from. We are almost always certain in those moments that we can’t just “be strong”, but then again we also realize we need to just “be strong.” When you have those moments, and I am fairly certain you do have them, what is it that you do to find strength?
The phrase used in this Psalm, “when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary”, why do you think that is what we do and what does it mean?
How does this become your prayer today?
Today I felt sick. By that, I mean my body just feels tired and I don’t have a whole lot of strength. I’m sure you know what I mean, you look outside and see even more snow falling while your brain is processing what it will take to motivate yourself to handle the extra work to get to work, and the motivation is just really hard to come by. The amount of strength that you know what you have, does not match what you see you will need, and it is in that moment that you start to get overwhelmed with what is expected of you.
Emotionally, we experience the same thing, do we not? Emotional strength, which is probably more in line with what Joshua is talking about, have the same ideas of depleted resources we are trying to draw from. Sometimes you just get overwhelmed with what you are facing and that is when the emotional spiral down starts to happen as well. You just can’t muster it up and you wonder where the strength is going to come from. We are almost always certain in those moments that we can’t just “be strong”, but then again we also realize we need to just “be strong.” When you have those moments, and I am fairly certain you do have them, what is it that you do to find strength?
The phrase used in this Psalm, “when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary”, why do you think that is what we do and what does it mean?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Do you struggle with courage in thinking about how it could all end? Many people do and for Paul, that was a place for gaining courage, not struggling to find it. He was a man that had experienced a lot of discouragement in life and was writing to a people that were finding many things in their life upended because of what they believed in. So to live like they were supposed to live felt like it left them vulnerable and able to be shaken in many ways. For Paul, those realities were the worst that it could possibly get. That may not sound like an encouraging thing, but Paul meant it that way. This life was the worst that life could get. So if you experience the worst of it, you can be assured it doesn’t get worse, but rather only better. The promise at the end is the best part, the good news. So to dread the end was to leave in place the fear of the end being nothing but the bad. But that was not true for the follower of Jesus!
So Paul takes this teaching to remind us of our courage. It is not courage that we have to artificially drum up and convince ourselves, but it is courage that is rooted in the truth of what is on the horizon. As bad as the bad gets, this is as bad as it can get! So the promise of the sun rising in the morning, of our eternal hope, is what should motivate us into the courage to face it all.
How does this passage help you with courage for what you are going through right now?
What do you think Paul means when he says “so we are always of good courage?”
How would you explain verse 5 to someone that you were helping through a situation in life?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Do you struggle with courage in thinking about how it could all end? Many people do and for Paul, that was a place for gaining courage, not struggling to find it. He was a man that had experienced a lot of discouragement in life and was writing to a people that were finding many things in their life upended because of what they believed in. So to live like they were supposed to live felt like it left them vulnerable and able to be shaken in many ways. For Paul, those realities were the worst that it could possibly get. That may not sound like an encouraging thing, but Paul meant it that way. This life was the worst that life could get. So if you experience the worst of it, you can be assured it doesn’t get worse, but rather only better. The promise at the end is the best part, the good news. So to dread the end was to leave in place the fear of the end being nothing but the bad. But that was not true for the follower of Jesus!
So Paul takes this teaching to remind us of our courage. It is not courage that we have to artificially drum up and convince ourselves, but it is courage that is rooted in the truth of what is on the horizon. As bad as the bad gets, this is as bad as it can get! So the promise of the sun rising in the morning, of our eternal hope, is what should motivate us into the courage to face it all.
How does this passage help you with courage for what you are going through right now?
What do you think Paul means when he says “so we are always of good courage?”
How would you explain verse 5 to someone that you were helping through a situation in life?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read 1 Kings 19
I am not saying all of our lack of strength and courage come from our own doings, but I am certain you can relate to the idea that we have caused some of it before. For me personally, when I had read this passage in the past, I had never connected it to the passage in Exodus 33 when Moses was at this same spot and experiencing a similar moment. In that place, God met with Moses. When we read it here, it doesn’t seem like Elijah is following God. He gives him food for the journey that is needed, but never does the story reveal to us where that journey is supposed to be to. When Elijah gets to the cave, God asks him, “What are you doing here?” It makes the reader think that Elijah is not where he is supposed to be, so maybe the story about the food being supplied for the journey was not for the journey to here, but rather somewhere else he was supposed to be going. But Elijah is in a pit of despair and has lost all courage that he found on the mountaintop battle that was so heroic in the last chapter.
Then God is expected to speak. There is a great wind and a powerful moving of all sorts, but God is not there. In the Moses story, this is the part where God gives Moses the pep talk of how He will be going with Moses and those words are powerful. In the Elijah story, in my interpretation, God doesn’t say anything. In fact, God is experienced in a thin moment of extreme silence (as it is translated here). God is experienced in a deafening silence. Then, he asks the question again of Elijah, “Why are you here?”
Self pity is a place we have all been to. We play the drama out in our minds and expect it to go a certain way, but sometimes we have wandered into the caves of despair more than being led there. In those moments, the best response for us is to just obey God. Just get back to His word.
If you are in the “cave of despair” right now, why are you here?
How can the silence from God still be an experience of God? How do you explain this moment?
What was true in what Elijah was saying and what was not true? Why is that important to remember?
How does this become your prayer today?
I am not saying all of our lack of strength and courage come from our own doings, but I am certain you can relate to the idea that we have caused some of it before. For me personally, when I had read this passage in the past, I had never connected it to the passage in Exodus 33 when Moses was at this same spot and experiencing a similar moment. In that place, God met with Moses. When we read it here, it doesn’t seem like Elijah is following God. He gives him food for the journey that is needed, but never does the story reveal to us where that journey is supposed to be to. When Elijah gets to the cave, God asks him, “What are you doing here?” It makes the reader think that Elijah is not where he is supposed to be, so maybe the story about the food being supplied for the journey was not for the journey to here, but rather somewhere else he was supposed to be going. But Elijah is in a pit of despair and has lost all courage that he found on the mountaintop battle that was so heroic in the last chapter.
Then God is expected to speak. There is a great wind and a powerful moving of all sorts, but God is not there. In the Moses story, this is the part where God gives Moses the pep talk of how He will be going with Moses and those words are powerful. In the Elijah story, in my interpretation, God doesn’t say anything. In fact, God is experienced in a thin moment of extreme silence (as it is translated here). God is experienced in a deafening silence. Then, he asks the question again of Elijah, “Why are you here?”
Self pity is a place we have all been to. We play the drama out in our minds and expect it to go a certain way, but sometimes we have wandered into the caves of despair more than being led there. In those moments, the best response for us is to just obey God. Just get back to His word.
If you are in the “cave of despair” right now, why are you here?
How can the silence from God still be an experience of God? How do you explain this moment?
What was true in what Elijah was saying and what was not true? Why is that important to remember?
How does this become your prayer today?
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