Living with courage

Jump to Comments

I have struggled to live with courage for a long time. I’m always the one to hold back and stay on the sidelines. Playing in the game always seemed so risky, it felt safer in the stands. I’ve let myself opt out of things I should have done or tried for. For so long I wasn’t living with courage, I was living with fear. I was living in my insecurities and hurt. Insecurity and doubt are scary things. They have the ability to take over our hearts and minds and infect them with poisonous lies if we let them. But that’s the key- if we let them. It’s all up to us friends. We can either hold hands with Jesus or let the lies of insecurities roam our hearts.

I’ve struggled with anxiety for most of my life. It’s something I didn’t even recognize I had until about the 9th grade. My anxiety feeds me lies. It tells me I’m not good enough or pretty enough or strong enough. It basically multiplies every insecurity you could think of and puts it on full display in my mind. For so long I let these words control my life. Everything I did was based off the lies of my anxiety, and this was harmful to my living. There were so many things I longed to try like starting this blog but my anxiety kept telling me every reason why it wouldn’t work. Y’all I lived in my anxiety and I lived in my insecurities. Until I found courage through the Lord.

My relationship with the Lord has really strengthened in the past couple of years as I’ve watched as he’s guided me through the maze of my thoughts. I remember crying at night just praying to Jesus to take this anxiety away from me. I really struggled to understand why this hurt was in my heart. But here I stand, 2 years later as a much stronger person, because I found courage. I remember one day just going through a devo book and the bookmarked page had the verse Joshua 1:9 on it. To this day that is my life verse. I live by this verse and it has gotten me through so many fears. “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Y’all this flipped my life upside down. The Lord does not want us to be afraid, he wants us to know we are never alone, because he’s always there. He wants us to be courageous. To live with bravery and the ability to do the things we love and serve him and share the good news with everything we have inside of us.

Courage frees us from our fears. It’s like our fears have us locked up in a tiny jail cell and courage comes to bail us out. See that’s the thing about courage, it sneaks up on you when you aren’t looking, crawls into your heart when you least expect it, and gives you the power to be free from the lies of fear. I want to be brave. I want people to look at me and see bravery. I want to do the things I love without the fear of being embarrassed. I want Godly courage to control my life. And this is something I am still working on. I still have days where anxiety controls my life. But most days, I try really hard to be brave. And I try to live with courage. Because I know it’s there. We all have courage friends. It’s inside every single one of us I promise. But you fear may be locking it up. Free the courage friends and take the leap.

Trying new things is so scary. The unknown is terrifying. But we serve a God who never leaves our side. Not once, I promise. Courage starts with a step. Just one step. You don’t have to dive into the scary unknown waters head first. It’s ok to see how the water feels and decide the best way to enter into it. Courage looks different on everyone. No one’s courage looks the same, and that’s a pretty cool thing. Putting my thoughts and beliefs on the internet is terrifying most times, but I am loved and I am handed the courage to do it anyway. I have opened my eyes and turned away from anxiety and into the Lords wide open arms and developed a burning courageous heart. So, think really hard. What do you want that scares you? Because that thing you just thought of. You have to do it friends. It’s scary and it’s hard and you will mess up, but the Lord will never leave your side. And when you know this and believe it all your heart, courage will take over your soul and mind, and friends before you even know it, your living with courage.

With love, Annie

P.S – I’ve started a new devotional called “100 days to brave” by Annie F. Downs and it is life changing y’all! I’ll link it here so you can check it out! – https://www.amazon.com/100-Days-Brave-Devotions-Courageous/dp/031008962X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524190834&sr=8-1&keywords=100+days+to+brave