Summons Courage!

What do you stand to lose today? Are you in the fight for your marriage, job, children, faith, friendships, or sanity of mind? We're all fighting for something. God spoke to me this morning that it was time to summons courage, but there are two kinds.

In John's account of the Garden of Gethsemane in chapter 18, we see two kinds of courage exemplified in Peter and in Jesus. Peter's courage was based on the fear of losing Jesus to chief priests and pharisees. Peter had emotionally and financially invested everything he had in following Jesus. Losing Jesus would mean losing everything. In this fear based courage, Peter sliced the ear off the servant Malchus who came to assist in the arrest. Later in the same chapter, this flawed kind of courage ultimately led Peter to betray the One he most loved.

Jesus summonsed courage from another place... a heart of love that was willing to engage death for the potential of resurrection. Love based courage is willing to engage the death of a dream. It does not fear the loss of the temporal or circumstantial to gain the eternal.

This morning in prayer our intercessory prayer leader, Lisa Butler, encouraged us to go ahead and lay it on all on the line. Jesus laid everything on the line that Friday night in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter tried to hold on to it all. So, friend, summons the kind of courage that can only come from love. After all, Sunday's on the way!