It’s day 31. As you can see, I started out well, but my finish was pretty weak.

I’m glad I took the challenge. Please don’t ask me for a while if I’ll be doing it again. (big sigh…)

Your emails were a great encouragement to me. Together I think we’ve learned some things.

Living bravely is not a solo pursuit. We need each other.

Living bravely is not living perfectly. Waiting around for perfection keeps us from taking that first step.

Living bravely is embracing our stories and sharing them.

Living bravely is doing the thing afraid even when everything in us is screaming NO!

My life verse is Habakkuk 3:19.

The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!

We are brave girls only because the Lord is that for us – our personal bravery. Oh that we would no longer choose to stand still in terror! God has so much waiting for us just one step beyond standing still. He taught me that all over again just this week.

Let’s do this brave thing. And if you see someone standing still, reach out your hand and take that first step together.

 

Next week I’ll be finishing up the God’s Girls series. I have lots to share about what I’ve learned from those amazing, ordinary women. I hope you’ll join me.

To see most of the days in this series, just click here. Thank you.

 

Today is day 27 of 31 days of Living Bravely. To read the rest of the series, just click here.

 

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What’s making you feel the most alive right now? Today I have the privilege of speaking and serving a community of women. It requires much trust, dependence on God’s strength, and bravery. Brene is right. Doing this thing called ministry makes me feel alive.

It’s day 26 of the 31 days to Living Bravely and our last Saturday Reflection. You can check out the other posts here.

Have you thought about Tamar a little differently? Me, too. Now I get to introduce you to the next God’s girl listed in the lineage of Christ. Her name is Rahab.

Rahab takes us to the book of Joshua. She enters the story in chapter two, but I just have to back up to chapter one. Four times in this chapter are the words strong and courageous. These words are a matched set throughout Scripture and are always followed by a challenge and a promise.

Strong is defined as resolute, prevail, and press on. Brave, bold, and determined define courageous.

But glory hallelujah we never have to do strong and courageous alone…

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

My challenge for you is to visit Blue Letter Bible or Bible Gateway and do a strong and courageous word search. Powerful verses. Powerful truth. You’ll be so glad you took the time

Back to Rahab! We meet her in Joshua 2:1. My Life Application Study Bible note says this about her. “Rahab didn’t allow her past to keep her from the new role God had for her.” And that is some powerful truth for all of us. We can often use our past as an excuse to keep us from moving forward.

For the next three plus chapters there is not a mention of Rahab. I think she was in a waiting season just like Tamar. Rahab and her family were tightly enclosed within the walls of Jericho waiting. They were waiting for the battle to begin and waiting for their promised rescue. Rahab teaches us that it even takes courage to be rescued.

Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. Ps 27:14

Rahab makes an appearance in the New Testament too. Yes, in Matthew 1, but also in Hebrews 11. She’s one of two women listed in this Hall of Faith chapter. Remember an earlier quote, “Rahab didn’t allow her past to keep her from the new role God had for her.”? God remembered Rahab because of her faith, not her profession. God remembers us the same way.

Living out God’s calling; living out an act of courage often means a move out of our comfort zone. It sure did for Rahab.

When God moves us out of our comfort zone into places that are way bigger than us, places that are difficult, hard, painful – this is a gift. We are being given a gift. These hard places give us the gift of intimately knowing God in ways that would never be possible in our comfort zones. Ann Voskamp

Rahab lived out a life of courage. Her bravery and obedience are a gift to us to do the same.

Do you need to take a step of courage today? I would be my honor to pray for you.

 

Today is day 24 of 31 days of Living Bravely. To read the series, just click here.

 

 

Where are the brave girls? That’s the question I asked myself one day as I opened my Bible. I wanted to get to know these women. I wanted to read their stories, understand their challenges, and watch how they lived out being brave.

Over the course of many days, I kept asking God the question. And gently I felt that God nudge. No, not an audible, out loud voice of God, but a gentle persistent nudge to dig into the first chapter of Matthew.

I opened my Bible and started in verse 18. Yep, I would continually bypass the first 17 verses. To be honest, all those names were really kind of boring to me. I just wanted to get to the good stuff. But God knew I was missing the good stuff. Those God nudges finally caught all of my attention. I backed up and started in Matthew 1:1.

As I read the first 17 verses over and over, something began to happen. Five names caught my attention. Five names. The only women listed in 17 verses. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. God chose these women to be included in the genealogy of His Son, Jesus. They had a story and I needed to know them.

I’ve spent a lot of time with these women. Their stories captured me. Their lives were far from perfect, even a bit messy. They all faced monumental challenges to fulfill their callings. It wasn’t without a great deal of risk. Each life required much bravery. Five chosen women. Five amazing stories.

It was never my intention for my time of study to become anything beyond my personal time with God. But He had other plans. My study time eventually turned into a six week study called God’s Girls…embracing His calling, leaving a legacy. I had the opportunity of leading God’s Girls in my small community. The involvement of those precious women made the study so much better.

For the rest of this 31 day series, it will be my privilege to introduce you to these five brave women. Tomorrow you’ll meet Tamar. And on day 31, this study will be available to you as a free pdf download. Here’s a peek at the cover…

 

If you read this post, you know that writing is a scary thing for me. Living bravely means hitting publish for every blog post and sharing God’s Girls with you. My prayer is that these brave steps will encourage you to live bravely, too.

Who in your life is a brave girl? Please tell us about her.

 

This is day 22 of the 31 days of Living Bravely series. Visit here to see all the posts.