Battle Ready by Kelly BalarieSample

Day Six: World-Changing Love

I’ve heard people say God is a gentleman. It is true. Jesus doesn’t force His way on us. He opens the door and invites us somewhere. Whether we walk through or not depends on if we focus on His sacrifice, His wounds, His price . . . if we remember the price of love. 

Today, what is God inviting you into? Sometimes, we as women get messages like: 

Come with presents in hand, then you can accept good things. 

Come as you are, but don’t show off. 

Give, but never take too much or you’ll be selfish. 

Enjoy the moment, but don’t take it too far or you’ll steal God’s glory. 

Dance, but don’t steal the show—pride goes before the fall!

Speak, but not too loud or you won’t look ladylike. 

As a result, it feels like we must constantly appease those types who keep track of the wrongs we may make at any moment. Doing this is a full-time job, one Jesus didn’t call us to. 

God never told us to climb into our self, in fear; He told us to climb out into the world—with world-changing, radical, monstrous love. Yet often our shame goes before us, rather than Jesus’s love. We don’t want to get prideful, so we do nothing. We don’t want to accidentally sin, so we stay where we are. We stay stuck. Like a wounded bird.

I believe this is sin. 

Fear slaps away nail-scarred hands. It misses His invitations, His lessons, His refinement, His grace, His relationship, His heart, His ways, His plan, His portion, His peace. 

We’ve named fear humility and turned away from God’s best. No longer. Our aim is not to be understood by other people but to be in service to Jesus Christ, no matter the cost. 

True humility looks like pulling away from your busy day to meet Jesus. It looks like getting into the confines of your bedroom to pray over what He’s calling you to do. It looks like confessing your sins and searching your heart. It looks like hearing His Word come alive in a way that changes you. And it looks like dropping everything to stand up and shine in life, if that is what He wants. 

In what ways might you be equating humility with fear in your life?