100 Days to Brave: Why? and When?

As I am going through the 100 Days to Brave devotions, I am journaling in a notebook and I will also post here along the way.

Day 2 was about the reasons WHY we need to be brave.

The Apostle Paul told Timothy, "We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now" (2 Tim. 1:8-9, The Message). Paul was teaching Timothy and other believers (us) that the only way we can be brave is by the power of God working in us and through us.

Annie Downs points out that "seeing other people be brave makes us want to be brave, too," and "when we are brave enough to share the God stories in our lives, it changes the people around us." The WHY is that "others will be inspired to be brave along with us."

Day 3 dove into the WHEN to be brave or WHEN someone else told we were brave. As I said in my first post, I have several times in my life when either I or someone else labeled me as "brave":

• Choosing to go over a thousand miles away from home to attend college.
• Leaving friends/family to serve as a missionary for a semester in Hawaii.
• Walking through divorce.
• Taking a new full-time job in a different field than I was trained and in a corporate setting.
• Leaving that job to take a position at my church office.
• Getting on an airplane alone to travel to the Middle East to visit family.
• Deciding to sell my house and not having another place to buy and move into right away.

I didn't necessarily feel brave when I was doing those things or going through the decision-making process. In fact, I'd say that I probably had a lot of anxiety and fear of the unknown when I was actually in those circumstances. But the way that I got through it all and the way I live my life today is by trusting in God's grace and faithfulness to me. God has led me and has helped me and has always given me exactly what I need each day. I have no reason not to believe that he will continue to do that and I'm so thankful!

I love it when passages of scripture that I am led to read in the mornings layer the truth and sink it deeper into my soul. Today was no exception. The passage from the 100 Days to Brave reading was Isaiah 30:21 (and I expanded it to verses 18-22) and then my Psalms reading for today was Psalm 145. I hope these passages will inspire others in their bravery and remind us all that the only WHY and WHEN of our bravery comes from God, the One who makes us brave and helps us to be brave.

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.

¹⁹ For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. ²⁰ And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. ²¹ And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. ²² Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!” (Isaiah 30:18-22, ESV)

The Lord upholds all who are falling
    and raises up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you,
    and you give them their food in due season.
¹⁶ You open your hand;
    you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all his ways
    and kind in all his works.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹ He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
    he also hears their cry and saves them.
²⁰ The Lord preserves all who love him,
    but all the wicked he will destroy.

²¹ My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
    and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. (Psalm 145:14-21, ESV)