Annie F. Downs On How To Unlock Your Most Courageous Self

boy leaping across buildings silhouette
Photo by ClickOn By Ayaaz on Pexels.com

My takeaways:

‘Courage is doing things even when you’re scared. Being brave isn’t something that happens when you’re not scared anymore. Brave people don’t stop hearing the whispers of fear. They hear the whispers but take action anyway.’

‘Being brave is hearing that voice of fear in your head, but saying, ‘okay, but the truth is, God made me on purpose and for a purpose.’

‘I never felt brave. But day after day, I just did the next thing, took the next step, said the next yes.’

‘The moment you take that first step, little seeds of courage begin to sprout in your heart.’

‘It’s hard to believe truth if your mind is flooded with confusion and false stories.’

‘While I am making mistakes, I am not a mistake.’

‘Our God, the One who is breathing life into your life, is full of love for you- no matter what.’

‘One of the truest ways to glorify God with your feet is to lead.’

‘Everything depends on the working of the mind.’

‘Speaking kindly to yourself will make you brave.’

‘If we are each unique as the Bible says we are, then our calls to courage are each equally unique.’

‘Even when you feel alone, you actually aren’t.’

‘Prayer is this amazing opportunity to connect directly with the greatest Being who has always been.’

‘You are deeply loved and called to be courageous by a God who is perfect and perfectly trustworthy.’

‘When you spend time with God and immerse yourself in the truth of His World, you will easily notice the lies and the things you hear in your head that aren’t really you.’

‘Sometimes we can be doing our thing, walking, praying that we are in alignment with God’s will, and we’ll come to a closed door.’

‘Your heart is precious, your dreams should only be shared with a few close friends, and you should love well but carefully.’

‘Your calling, the thing God has placed in you for the good of the planet and the good of your heart, isn’t going anywhere.’

‘Jobs will come and go. Your calling won’t.’

‘Do what is right in front of you. If your dream is to someday be the president of your company, don’t show up late to work every day now as an employee.’

‘What’s cool about your calling is that there are no dead ends. Even if you weren’t brave enough to pursue your last opportunity, you can be brave this time.’

‘Hardly anyone goes from realizing their dreams to discovering their calling to getting to do their perfect dream job.’

‘We’ve to be brave enough to find balance.’

‘Friendship takes work. Friendship takes courage.‘

‘You need to be brave and let people get close enough to speak into your life.’

‘It takes bravery to put yourself out there and ask someone to give you some of his or her wisdom.’

‘If there are seeds of courage living in all of us, waiting to bloom, words are the sun and the water that cheer on those seeds to their fullness.’

‘Brave people are willing to let go of everything as they hold tight to God, even when things start to change.’

‘A little yes can be a step in the right direction, even if it isn’t a leap.’

‘Little yeses lead to big yeses.’

‘Say yes to the situations that stretch you and scare you and ask you to be a better you than you think you can be.’

‘A lot of courageous noses make for some beautiful brave yeses.’

‘Life is full of waiting seasons, and you can brave out the wait and do it well. Be brave enough to be patient- not just outwardly, but inwardly.’

‘Brave people are okay with change because they remember that change is for our good.’

‘You can be sad. You can be angry. You can be confused. But you don’t ever have reason to despair.’

‘When you know who loves you, you know your safe places. You know where you can rest. You know where you can go when you fail.’

‘Failing doesn’t make you a failure. Trying something new makes you brave.’

‘Please don’t let fear win.’

‘When someone else knows, it’s better.’

‘Darkness can’t hang around when it’s exposed in the light.’

‘Perseverance builds character.’

‘Don’t quit! You’re on a journey.’

‘There are times when God’s going to take you through surgery, not because He wants to hurt you, but because He wants to heal you.’

‘Discipline is the work done on the practice field so you are ready for the big game.’

‘Your body was meant to move; it was not meant to be still.’

‘You won’t meet your goals if you burn out.’

‘We have two options when we use our words: we can build or we can destroy.’

‘You have to love yourself to love others well.’

‘Living for self? That’s easy. Living like everything you have is God’s (because it is)? That’s brave.’

‘Brave people speak love into the lives of others.’

‘Your resources should make an impact wherever you go.’

‘You can be brave enough to see those people around you, rather than just passing by.’

‘Courage isn’t just for mighty warriors. It’s for you (because you are becoming courageous).’

‘Making brave choices in your life is going to change the world. At the least, it will change your world.’

Source

Annie F. Downs (2017). 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self

Steven Furtick On How To Become Who You Were Created To Be

man white and orange striped crew neck shirt looking serious
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

My takeaways:

‘Doing the new you is always more about God’s grace than your grit.’

‘His calling is your confidence, and his grace is your guarantee.’

‘The new you is aware of problems but committed to progress.’

‘If you give up now, you’ll never know what miracle God has just ahead.’

‘If you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them. But if you agree with God about your potential, you get to grow into it.’

‘Your past failures and successes are all part of who you are, but they don’t get to decide who you will become.’

‘Your default is not your destiny.’

inspirational words on wooden log
Photo by Erik Mclean on Pexels.com

‘Do the thing you would if you knew God was making a way forward.’

‘Sometimes you just have to work with what you’ve got. You have to use what God has put in your hand, no matter how unlikely or limited it is.’

‘We don’t all do generosity or patience or love or joy the same way, so focus on figuring out what the real you would do, not what someone else would do.’

‘You have nothing to prove because your sufficiency comes from Christ, and he’s never going to fail.’

‘Enough is not a state you will eventually reach. It is a gift you have already been given.’

‘You are the handiwork of the divine. He made you on purpose. That is the you that you need to accept because it is the one God made.’

‘If we don’t know who we are and value what God has out in us, we’ll get tricked into trading that away for things that don’t matter.’

‘Instead of listening to your lack, agree with God’s abundance.’

‘Accepting yourself is not about never changing, but rather about believing you are perfectly loved and accepting right now, and there is nothing you could do to make God love you more.’

‘You have great needs, but you have a greater God who lives in you and flows through you.’

‘Seeds have their own schedule, and so do God’s promises.’

paper cut outs with texts on the brown cardboard
Photo by Vie Studio on Pexels.com

‘You make plans, God makes paths.’

‘The way forward is not an instant miracle that makes everything perfect and pain-free. Rather, it’s the presence of divine strength that leads you, tearfully and tentatively, through the tragedy and the heartbreak.’

‘Victory in life is realized by embracing your capacity to shift, to reset, to embrace what is next.’

‘Don’t assume your testimony is complete today, because you might leave out the part God is getting to that you don’t know about yet.’

‘You’re just going through a crisis; you’re in a cocoon. You’re changing in there.’

‘When you turn your focus toward God, when you set your mind on the unlimited, unstopppable grace that empowers you to find creative ways forward, the censor loses its leverage.’

‘Remember, with God there is always a way, and by faith you will find it, not by self-doubt or self-ridicule.’

‘Often the seed of tomorrow’s success is hidden within today’s failure.’

‘Seeds that are never sown will never succeed.’

‘God is a safe place for you to try and fail.’

‘Give God the mistakes of today and ask him to make them wisdom for your future.’

‘No one can curse what God has blessed. He’s a defender of the weak, and he’s fighting on my behalf.’

‘God’s calling isn’t based on your resources or resume, but on his knowledge and power.’

‘It may end in failure, but I will not live in fear.’

‘The new you is willing to learn along the way, even if that means being embarrassed or changing your mind about some things as you grow.’

‘We have to choose to walk in confidence knowing that God is in it with us, and he’s up to something we can’t see.’

‘He’s prepared you for the moment and the moment for you.’

Faith is the ability to believe that God is up to something upstream.’

‘Let God deal with the things you can’t deal with as you do the things he has called you to do.’

‘While you walk in your strength, you keep trusting in your God. Those things are not mutually exclusive. They work together.’

‘When you make peace with your strength, you recognize that since the strength comes from God, it depends on God.’

a sign that says sometimes you win sometimes you lose sometimes you learn
Photo by Davina on Pexels.com

‘Joy, satisfaction, contentment, gratitude, forgiveness, freedom, and confidence are all growing within you because of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.’

‘Learning about ourselves is not contrary to following Christ. It is the consequences of following Christ. God is a God of truth, and truth sets us free.’

‘But feelings aren’t meant to be followed. They’re meant to be conditioned and conformed to be image of Christ.’

‘If you’re going to manage your joy, you have to manage your focus.’

‘If your sense of well-being depends on something external, it’s a setup for instability. There will always be something that comes along and knocks you off-balance because the world itself is not a stable place.’

‘A thankful thought is one of the few things that can match the velocity and force of negative thoughts. It does an end run around the negativity and gets you back to the goodness and grace of God.’

‘You have peace with God right now. You have forgiveness of your sin right now. So you have everything.’

‘Don’t let the devil tell you that your faith is fake just because your feelings are all over the place or you don’t see a way forward.’

‘It’s road-weary, battle-scarred, tearstained, drool-in-your-beard trust, but it’s still trust. It’s still faith. It’s still hope. It’s still praise.’

‘Humility is not demanding to be in control and in the know all the time, but rather taking the next step in obedience to God, trusting him to lift you up at the right time, in ‘due time.”

‘God has given you what you need for this season. It’s in you because he put it there, but you have to see it.’

‘Don’t diminish what makes you different. Destiny is often hidden in your difference.’

close up of motto from scrabble letters
Photo by DS stories on Pexels.com

‘The things God has put in you and the grace he has placed on you are not random. They are not minor things. They are there for a purpose, and you are here for a purpose.’

‘You have to go through things that break you down in order for God to build you up.’

‘Let God help you fail as you grow, and help you grow as you fail.’

‘Failure done right is not failure at all. It’s just another step forward as you do the new you.’

‘Faith isn’t knowing the whole journey ahead or being certain about what you’re supposed to do next.’

‘Are you spending more time telling God how big your mountain is than telling your mountain how big your God is.’

‘Choosing yourself must start and end with the fact that you are chosen by God in Christ.’

‘You have been selected and accepted by a God whose sovereignty supersedes every situation and every human limitation.’

‘God chose you- but you have to choose yourself. Stop rejecting who you are or who you are not. Stop comparing yourself to people you don’t even know. Believe what God says about you. Decide to act like the person he says you were created to be and step into the calling he created for you.

‘God chose you. Will you choose yourself? God is with you. God is for you. God chose you. Will you?

Source

Steven Furtick (2024). Do the New You: 6 Mindsets to Become Who You Were Created to Be