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Courage (Lent 2024)

What is courage?

If anyone loves to do what is right, laboring with Wisdom will produce every virtue…She teaches them what is right and how to exercise courage. Nothing is more advantageous than these when it comes to human existence. —Wisdom 8:7 (Apocrypha)
How is courage a virtue?

How do you get courage?

How does courage benefit us?

Courage in the Old Testament

After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 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 1:1–9

Why did the Israelites need courage to take the Promised Land?

Why were the Israelites commanded to be courageous?

What saps our courage?

And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. —Joshua 2:11

Courage in the New Testament

What is the opposite of courage?

How terrible it will be for cowardly hearts and idle hands and for a sinner who sets foot upon two paths. How terrible it will be for the timid heart. Because it doesn’t trust, therefore it won’t be protected. —Sirach 2:12–13 (Apocrypha)

What does Paul see as our source for courage?

For I am not ashamed (disgraced, confounded, dishonored) of the gospel, for it is the power (strength, courage) of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. —Romans 1:16

What demeanor should courage produce in the follower of Jesus?

So we can confidently (courageously) say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” —Hebrews 13:6