source: www.youthwork-practice.com | 2000 Games, Devotions, Themes, Ideas and more for Youth Work
only for private using

Courage!

What is courage anyway?

Courage is… building your own opinion.
Courage is… ignoring peer pressure.
Courage is… letting others know what you think.
Courage is… believing in God despite all questions and doubts!

I wish that I can be brave enough to stick to my opinion and be true to it! However how often am I just a coward?! It is often much easier to keep quiet and go along with things without thinking too much about it.

Courage is….believing in God despite all questions and doubts!

What does belief have to do with courage?

I can read a lot about faith and God. I can also discuss a lot and interpret but at the end of the day everyone has to decide for themselves whether he really believes what he has read or heard!?

No one can prove to me that God exists!
No one can prove that the contents of the bible are true!
There is courage involved in saying: I believe that is a God although I cannot prove it!
There is courage involved in saying: The bible is the truth!
There is courage involved in letting Jesus change your life!

Simon was really courageous in my opinion! He dropped everything and left his life behind when he met Jesus and Jesus asked him to go with him! Simon did not know what would happen! Simon was even jailed for his faith and was bound to have experienced dangerous times! That is really harsh!

Dropping everything for Jesus – that is courage!

Simon was a person just like you or I!

The more I think about Simon, the more I think: I will never manage to live with Jesus with so much conviction and put my life on the line, like Simon did!

But he was actually a bloke just like you or I! He wasn’t always so brave and determined, there were also times when he was a coward and did not manage to react like he wanted to!

He never wanted to leave Jesus in the lurch but in the next minute he said that he did not know Jesus – 3 times! As Simon realised what he had done, he was disappointed in himself! He wanted to react differently! Often I have times like this as well. I didn’t really want to take part. In fact, I wanted to give my opinions… Jesus knew that Simon would deny him and in the same breath, he said to Simon:

I have prayed for YOU that your faith will not fail!

We are not perfect and Jesus knows this! We are allowed to make mistakes and are still very important to him! I find it fantastic to know that, even when I find it to believe, to trust and to be courageous, the same thing applies to me as what Jesus said to Simon:

“I have prayed for YOU that your faith will not fail!“

An entry by Damaris P.