We are as we are because of all the gifts we received: the gift of life from God, the gift of salvation from Jesus, the gift of power from the Holy Spirit, and the gift of love from families and friends. There is another gift that we often forget to mention—the gift of courage. We do not always have the courage to do something that we should but thanks to God and others, we muster the courage to do it.

Courage is truly a gift. The truth is that we are often afraid to make a decision or to take a step even though we know that it is good and in the will of God. We fear the repercussion, or the response people give; so, instead of doing it, we make excuses to not do it. When we are in that situation, we need to come to God and pray for the gift of courage. Through His Word and His people, He gives us courage.

I have found that one of the things in life that requires courage is to let go. When our children were small, it took a lot of courage to let them go to the mall without us. After they are grown, it requires a lot of courage to let our children make decisions on their own. We feel much safer if we can make them do what we want. But at the end of the day we must come to terms with the reality that it is not our plan and our will that are to happen in their lives but God’s plan and God’s will. No matter how good these plans are, we must let them go and allow God’s plan and will be done in their lives.

King Saul had a plan for his son, Jonathan—to be his successor. He did not want David to be king; to be his son in-law was already too good for David, who was after all a mere shepherd boy. But God had another plan for David and Jonathan; He wanted David to be king, not Jonathan; and He wanted to take Jonathan home. But Saul did not have the courage to let go; he fought God and he lost. His son Jonathan received the courage to let go; and he won.

Pastor Paul