This is a brief introduction to the Courage To study, diving into how awesome our Courageous God is. In this series, I’ll write a brief recap of every week after we’ve studied live.
As I sit here praying over the order of these weeks, the lessons I want God to teach us through this study, and the way I want Him to grow you and me through this, I realize something.
I could rewrite every chapter with acts from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Our Courageous God
The courage to act. God sent His own Son to us! Jesus began His earthly ministry and kept loving, teaching, and healing even knowing what awaited him at the end of those three years.
The courage to wait. Jesus waited for three years for His disciples to understand who He really was, all while knowing that even then they would deny him before the end.
The courage to go. The Man who prayed, “Father, take this cup from me” is the same Man who carried His own cross to Golgotha.
The courage to believe. Jesus allowed Himself to be baptized by his cousin John, his Elijah, to begin those earthly years of ministry on earth.
The courage to lead. When the whole world thought Him a liar or a lunatic and only some thought Him Lord, He led those fishermen to become fishers of men and in doing so changed the world forever.
The courage to serve. The same hands that rule the universe are the hands He used to wash His disciples feet.
The courage to trust. Being fully human and plenty afraid of the horrors ahead of Him, Jesus trusted God’s plan to redeem mankind anyway.
The courage to defy. Though He was tempted in EVERY way as we were, when tempted, He said no every time. He lived the absolute perfect life in our place.
The courage to fight. He protected, guided, taught His disciples so that they would know who He was and how to live for Him.
The courage to build. Jesus spent three years healing and teaching people who wouldn’t truly understand Him until He was gone. He built a community of followers even when He didn’t see the results during His short time on earth.
The courage to speak. The Word spoke words of life that we might know Him through His Word, through His Spirit, even though we so often ignore those words and quench His spirit.
And the courage to forgive. The God who forgives each and every sin of each and every person who believes. He is the one who forgave to the point of death, even death on a cross, for rebels who could never do a single thing to deserve that forgiveness.
Our God is a courageous God and so worthy of all study and praise.
Through these next twelve weeks, we are going to study flawed humans that God has used throughout history to shout His name, to proclaim His glory, to provide an example for us to follow.
But let us never forget that we serve the perfectly Courageous One, who is the source of and the reason for all our own courage.
I pray this study draws us deeper in love with and in awe of our Courageous God.
Keep reading to learn how to join the study if you haven’t already!
If you’re already in the group, you’ll find this introduction to our Courageous God a a downloadable PDF.
How to join the Courage To study
This study has ended and sign ups are closed.
What’s the Courage To study about?
Whenever we describe courage, it’s usually through an action that is courageous. And where better to look for examples of courage than in the pages of Scripture?
Because God is just that cool, He has worked in the lives of humans throughout history to not only accomplish His will on earth, but also to bless and grow these individuals.
The pages of Scripture are filled with men and women who, though flawed and sinful, exemplified courage as they walked with their Courageous God.
Though there are many more we could study, Courage To will cover twelve different historical figures from Scripture and the unique ways in which they showed courage.
Each chapter will contain five days of study that involve Scripture reading, questions to consider, and a key verse on which to focus. You should be able to complete each day’s study in about thirty minutes (which combines reading the Scripture and answering the questions).
Check out this announcement post to learn more about why I wrote this study.
