Sometimes you meet someone who is all kinds of down-to-earth and blazing honesty. Lisa Whittle is that woman & when she felt called by to God to write a manual, she didn’t fully understand. Her only expertise was running to God to help with her fears. But maybe this is all any of us need to point people to The Way, Lisa realized. So she has written her latest book, Put Your Warrior Boots On, for believers who are tired of being scared and want a better strategy for living. Lisa’s love runs deep to see people pursue Jesus for life, grow deep roots of faith, and walk strong in the midst of a world that so often seems to have gone crazy. It’s a grace to welcome Lisa to the farm’s front porch today…

guest post by Lisa Whittle

Let me take this off the table: you don’t have to be brave.

Stay with me. Let me explain.

You know how you feel when a great song comes on the radio too much and in its popularity it becomes overplayed?

That’s what it’s like for me with the word brave.

I used to love it.

I used to feel like it was the best and strongest word I had ever heard, the word I always longed to be.

I used to think if I were just braver I could do that hard thing.

The list of hard things was long. I drove myself crazy with the list.

If I were braver I would witness for God.

If I were braver I would stop gossip in its tracks and fight harder for the underdog and bungee jump and maybe even travel to Africa.

If I were just braver.

But then it got used a lot. It got overplayed. I started hearing and seeing it at every turn—on bracelets, on plaques and T-shirts, in everyday conversation.

It led me to wonder what the word even meant.

Does brave mean strong? Heroic? Determined? Or is it just a casual description of a person who does what other people might not?

Then one day I am exiting the hair salon and I overhear one friend say to the other as they both walk out the door, “Oh, girl, you are brave,” and it is clear she is referring to her friend’s decision to cut her hair short and dye it purple.

Right then and there I silently push back on brave.

I remember my friends fighting cancer and other friends fighting in the military and the boy with no limbs I saw on TV who faces his giants every day with a smile, and I feel resentful.

When it comes to brave, purple hair shouldn’t make the cut.

No, we call too many regular things brave.

So here’s a new life strategy: we don’t have to be brave; we just have to be prepared.

This evens the playing field. This is something regular people like me can do. Brave feels hard and nebulous. Prepared feels doable and concrete.

The world tells us we won’t be safe, bad will come for us, evil will snatch our families away. Those things are too big for my brave. They’re too big for yours too.

And that’s okay, because Jesus is handling the brave part quite well without our help.

Even as we’re told by the world that God is not in charge, we walk in His authority. The world doesn’t have to understand that for it to be true. This position doesn’t change without the world’s endorsement.

Whether or not we feel able, we have it in us to put on our warrior boots and go.

You are able, but not because you mustered up a brave moment.

You are able to walk Jesus strong because of who He is and what He has already done. He is our confidence. His strength is our strategy. Our job is to live the warrior boots life of centered, steadied conviction and confidence and walk in His power and authority until this world ends.

Putting on our warrior boots, developing a core resoluteness, and becoming mentally and spiritually prepared for the battle aren’t things we can do in our own strength.

How often we hide in the shadows because we do not believe we have it in us. It’s not true.

Because of Jesus, we do. We all do.

The author of Hebrews tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus, “the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (12:2). God is thorough. He’s not like us, starting lists He never finishes, leaving projects undone. In this verse He’s saying, I’ve started it with you (creation, salvation) and I’ll finish it with you (second coming, heaven, eternity), and your job is just not to break eye contact with Me in the process.

He is enough; He is always enough; He is forever enough.

To have strength we must stay with the strength, every second.

There is no faith in tough.

There is only faith in Jesus.

Putting our warrior boots on is not about mustering up human bravery.

It’s about keeping eye contact, staying solid, and walking it out with God…no matter what.

 


Lisa Whittle speaks to audiences across the United States, inspiring conversation and urging the church to be better. Lisa is a wife and mother of three who currently resides in North Carolina.

If you feel like the world has gone crazy and you’re just along for the ride, Lisa wrote Put Your Warrior Boots On for you.

She firmly believes you don’t have to start brave to stay strong and live a God-ignited life.

Discover how to outfit your days to support your faithand experience the joy and release of trusting in your Savior.

[ Our humble thanks to Harvest House for their partnership in today’s devotion ]