I wonder whether brave is only for a season. After the season is over, I can return to the sweet comfort of laying low, returning to my comfort zone and just being me. It’s like my own seasonal time of hibernation.
I talk to myself and believe I can conquer brave challenges if I see the end in sight. Right??
Or when the thing that makes my insides quiver is temporary?
Oh, how I wish it was that easy! But God keeps chasing me with new brave lessons.
God looks past my desire for a brave sabbatical and reminds me “you are brave”.
When I started in earnest to discover brave faith four years ago, I didn’t expect for God to continue the journey. I love calling myself “brave” but I still have more days that I don’t feel the growth of my brave faith.
Each seed that God planted four years ago has grown. He tenderly nurtured and loved each seed into being. The fruit of my brave faith is just beginning to blossom.
Last year, a piece of my story entered the world. Everything about it spoke in contrast to how I felt inside. The words on the outside cover said, Brave Faith, and my heart still questioned, “who me”?? But my story doesn’t end with the last page of the book. God continues to teach me who I am and He says I am brave.
[Tweet “A year ago, the story of my brave faith entered the world. Now you can purchase the Kindle version.”]
God blessed my journey as I discovered brave faith and in the process, I compiled the words into a 31 day devotional. My book baby is a little over a year old. The stories inside my book are real, relevant and encouraging. But the heart of who I am a year later is a woman still searching and discovering new stories of brave faith. In the journey, God teaches new lessons and creates new scenarios to test out all I am learning.
As God reassures me gently and determinedly by repeating these words “you are brave”, let me do the same for you. There is nothing about you that God doesn’t love. God cherishes the time you spend with Him and your desire to grow in relationship with Him. He hears your deepest secrets and knows your heart. In your secret hiding place with God, He wants you to know “You are brave”.
God sees me too and He is not going to let me retreat away from the brave I already know. In His tender and affirming way, God leads me to new insights on brave faith.
God is enlightening me with these new lessons:
Brave is knowing we are wired for courage. There is a piece of our identity that looks like brave. God blessed us with it even before we were born.
Brave is being exactly who God created us to be and living with the peace that it is enough.
God calls us brave and that is the truth of how He sees us. When He names us worthy, enough or brave, God is just waiting for us to unwrap the gift of who we are.
I want to mark this year anniversary by remembering where I was at the beginning of my brave faith journey. But I don’t want to remain unchanged and I want my heart open to receiving more brave faith. I know that is exactly what God wants for me too.
In celebration of how far I have come, you now can purchase my book in a Kindle version. How fun is that??
Click here to purchase your own copy.
If you prefer paperback, as of this post going live, my book is on sale on Amazon. Merry Christmas to you and others on your Christmas list. Click below to purchase the paperback. (affiliate link)
God never lets me down. When He began to fill my heart with the idea of brave faith, He did everything in His power to show me what that looked like. God does the same for each of us. He teaches, refines and reframes as we dig deeper into the truth of who He says we are.
Blessings as you journey to embracing that you are brave!
If you want to get a glimpse of what Brave Faith: A 31 Day Devotional Journey is all about, subscribe by email to my blog and the first five chapters are yours for free just for subscribing.
Join me this week on Instagram for daily encouragement for your own brave faith journey.
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Mary, congrats on celebrating your book baby’s birthday this month! I am so thankful we got to meet in person. I am sharing this pin in a couple places. I need bravery now more than ever. Going through one of “those” seasons that sometimes come. I know God will be faithful as he always is. God bless you and have a Merry Christmas!
Thank you, Meghan! I love celebrating and am thrilled that my book is available for Kindle and paperback. I will be praying for you for bravery. God hears your heart and He knows your desires. God is so faithful and He created you to be brave in Him.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Love this Mary! You are brave and it shows. Just today, I pressed down a feeling of fear, knowing some of the struggles God called me to write about in my first book that is being copy-edited now. Part of me wants to yank back my manuscript and “nice it up” in a few raw spots. Your words inspire me to stay brave as these words release to the world in March. I’m excited about your book!
I am blessed to have you here today! Thank you for affirming my brave for me!
I am praying for you as you release your first book. God chose you to share your words and He knows when they will be ready to release to the world. I imagine the trust that is needed to let go in this process is huge. You are brave and God will honor you as you depend on Him.
Congrats on the new Kindle version–I just purchased a copy! I love this thought: “But I don’t want to remain unchanged and I want my heart open to receiving more brave faith,” because I know there are times in the past when I let Him make me brave. And I also want to continue in these different seasons to find the brave way now also. Blessings to you!
Mary,
Yay for you!! I love how you wanted to take a “Brave Sabbatical” 🙂 God may let us rest for awhile, but He is always calling us to a deeper level of brave…a deeper level of intimacy with Him. You are beginning to look like David with Goliath my dear friend. Keep urging us on to the brave versions of ourselves that are hiding in us somewhere….waiting for God to urge them out.
Blessings and congrats,
Bev xx
Congratulations having a kindle version of your book Mary. I look forward to starting it! Yes, brave is an ongoing, daily way of being rather than a destination, I’d say.
Hi Mary! I just gotta tell you that whenever I see the word ‘brave’ or hear it or say it, I always always always think of you.
You’ve impacted my life greatly. And I just want to tell you how grateful I am …
;-}
The way you describe “brave” in your book, Mary, changed my thinking about it. I never considered myself “brave.” One of my favorite quotes is – “Becoming brave is a process of forward, backward and even sideways. It is stretching who I am to become who God wants me to be.” Also that we can’t be brave without Jesus. Thank you for sharing that God continues to teach you who you are and that you are brave in Him. Along with you – “I don’t want to remain unchanged and I want my heart open to receiving more brave faith.” Love and hugs to you!
Just what I needed to hear today, Mary. I’m thankful God cherishes time with us and wants to see us grow! And as He does, He continues to encourage us to step out in brave faith. Yes, He is good!
How exciting that God continues to call you to new levels of brave! I suspect you’re in for the long haul, as these tend to be lifelong adventures. 😉
Congratulations on you new book! (happy to be visiting from Glimpses)
Hooray for all your new adventures, Mary!
Rejoicing and celebrating this anniversary along with you!
Thanks for sharing your ongoing journey with us, Mary! I definitely relate to wishing at times that being brave is just for a season and that afterwards I can retreat to comfort, but as you say it is how God has created us and who he calls us to be.
I sometimes wonder if I don’t have the stamina to keep brave going season after season. But I know I lose my focus on God and trusting in Him to keep it going. Thank you for being here for the journey. May you find encouragement in your own brave faith journey.
Looking forward to reading this, Mary. I could use some courage.
The truth is that I’m terrified. I din’t want cancer, any more than I wanted the Taliban to take a particular fork in a trail on which I held overwatch.
But the malignancy’s there, and Terry Taliban chose not to escape to Pakistan, but to climb up after us.
What follows, and what followed, are not born of courage, but necessity.
I wish I were brave.
https://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2017/12/your-dying-spouse-414-caregiving-home.html
I know you are brave! You did what you needed to do. That is brave! You now share with all of us how to live facing a deadly disease with dignity. That is also brave. Thank you for showing me what it looks like to face adversity with grace and continue pointing to God.