It’s not about being stronger or tougher or more in control.

It is a call to embrace the God-given courage that lives inside of you.

The book, Let’s All Be Brave., by Annie F. Downs is an around-the-table or an at-the-coffee-shop type of discussion on life and how to begin, “Living Life with Everything You Have”.

Let’s face it.  Some days the bravest thing I can do is put two feet on the floor and

just.keep.going.

Without the possibility of popping in a set of new Energizer batteries, the next best thing I can do is turn on auto-pilot; you do what you know you need to do, and trying to be brave is not on the itinerary.  So you put one foot in front of the other and

take.the.next.step.

As much as you might tell yourself that it is,

it is not a cop-out.

It is doing what you know to do next when life suddenly takes a turn and your whole world is turned upside down.

It is choosing to put your life in gear–and move forward even when there is uncertainty.

It is trusting God’s got a bigger plan, and that He has already prepared you for the journey.

The pages of this book challenged me:

You just have to start, my friend.  That thing that is whispering on your insides?  That conversation you need to have or that place you need to go?  That job you want to try or that ministry you want to attempt?  That major you want to pick at college or that mission trip you want to go on?

You’ve got to start somewhere.

So do.

Tell somebody you want to be brave.

“I want to be brave.”

I really do. I tell myself that all the time–it’s just that sometimes the whisper in my left ear is different from the one on my right.  So who do I listen to?

The voice in my heart.

Fill your heart with truth from God’s Word.  Don’t just read the verses–store them up in your heart for those moments you need courage.  Here are four verses to help you:

1.  Find your worth in Him and His purposes for you:

  “For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29:11-13

2.  Look to Him for guidance and direction:

“Make Your ways known to me, Lord; teach me Your paths.  Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; I wait for You all day long.”  Psalm 25:4-5

3.  Put your confidence, not in your own abilities, but in God’s ability to use you:

 ^“For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.”   Philippians 2:13

4.  Trust Him, even when you falter or fail.  He is molding you and teaching you, and maybe even preparing you for something more that you don’t see.

“Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  Romans 5:1-5