What If God Isn’t Asking You to Be Brave Today?

There are seasons when everyone seems to want you to be brave.

Be strong.
Stay positive.
Keep the faith.
Trust God.

You may even say those things to yourself. And sometimes they help.

But sometimes you are simply tired. Or scared. Or unsure.

And the pressure to be brave becomes one more thing you feel like you are failing at.

What if God is not asking you to perform courage today?

What if He is simply asking you to come as you are?

We Often Make Faith Look Stronger Than It Feels

Faith can look beautiful from the outside.

The Scripture verse. The worship song. The confident prayer. The testimony after everything turns out okay.

But faith lived in the middle can look very different.

It can look like sitting in the car before an appointment trying to make yourself go inside.
It can look like opening the Bible and not knowing what to read.
It can look like crying while you pray.

It can look like saying:

God, I do not know how to do this.

That still counts.

Being Scared Does Not Mean You Are Failing

Fear and faith are not opposites.

You can trust God and still be afraid. You can believe He is with you and still wish the situation were different. You can know Scripture and still struggle in the middle of the night.

Sometimes people of faith carry a second burden on top of the hard thing itself.

We feel afraid. Then we feel guilty for being afraid.

We struggle. Then we wonder why our faith is not stronger.

We become tired. Then we tell ourselves we should be handling things better.

That is a heavy way to live.

Maybe Courage Is Smaller Than We Think

We often imagine courage as something dramatic.

Facing the giant.
Standing firm.
Marching forward.

But sometimes courage is quieter.

Making the appointment.
Asking the question.
Admitting you need help.
Getting out of bed.
Telling someone the truth:

I am not doing very well today.

Sometimes courage is not feeling strong.

Sometimes it is taking the next step while feeling anything but strong.

You Do Not Have to Make the Hard Thing Inspirational

There can be pressure to find meaning quickly.

To figure out what God is teaching you. To turn suffering into a testimony. To find the silver lining.

Maybe those things will come. But perhaps they do not have to come today.

Sometimes the most faithful response to something hard is simply to acknowledge:

This hurts.

There is no spiritual prize for rushing past grief, fear, anger, or exhaustion.

God is not waiting at the other side of your emotion.

He can meet you inside it.

God Already Knows the Truth

We sometimes pray as though we need to tell God the spiritually appropriate version of what we are feeling.

But He already knows.

He knows when you are scared and when you are angry.
He knows when you are tired of waiting.
He knows when you are disappointed and when you do not understand.

You do not have to protect God from the truth.

Prayer can be honest.

I am scared.

I am tired.

I do not want to do this.

I do not understand.

Please help me.

Those may not feel like impressive prayers.

But they are real ones.

Look at the Prayers Scripture Gives Us

The Bible does not hide human emotion.

There are prayers of praise and confidence.

But there are also prayers that ask:

How long?
Why?
Where are You?

There are tears.
Lament.
Fear.
Questions.

There are people who trust God while simultaneously telling Him how much they are hurting.

That matters.

Because perhaps faith was never supposed to mean pretending.

You Can Borrow Strength

There may be days when you do not have much strength of your own.

Let someone else carry some.
Let a friend pray when you cannot find the words.
Let someone sit beside you.
Let someone bring dinner.
Let someone remind you of what is true.
Let yourself lean.

We often admire people who carry enormous burdens without needing anyone.

But perhaps dependence is not failure.

Maybe being willing to receive help is part of how we were designed to live.

Maybe Today Is About Staying Close

You may not need a breakthrough today. You may not need to figure everything out. You may not need to feel brave.

Maybe the invitation is simpler:

Stay close.
Take the next step.
Tell God the truth.
Let someone help.

Rest when you need to.
Come back tomorrow.

Sometimes faith is not a giant leap.
Sometimes it is simply refusing to walk away.

God Can Meet You Tired

He can meet you without the inspirational ending. Without the lesson. Without the brave face. Without the perfectly worded prayer.

You do not have to become stronger before you come to Him.

You do not have to stop being afraid.

You do not have to figure out why this is happening.

You can simply say:

Here I am.

And maybe that is enough for today.

A question to carry

What would change if you stopped asking yourself to be brave today and simply let yourself be honest?

When Fear Gets Loud →
When Cancer Feels Like Too Much →
Maybe You’re Not Doing Anything Wrong →
The Dark Only Gets Tonight →

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One of the reasons I wrote Faces of Cancer was because I became convinced that faith does not require us to skip the emotions we would rather not feel. God can meet us in the fear, grief, anger, uncertainty, and everything in between.

Learn more about Faces of Cancer →