Battle Ready

Train Your Mind to Conquer Challenges, Defeat Doubt, and Live Victoriously

Kelly Balarie

• Publisher: Baker Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780801019357
• eBook ISBN: 9781493413928
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Too often we fail to prepare for our battles. So when challenges, troubles, or opportunities arise, we rapidly become burdened with limiting thoughts of self-doubt, fear, impossibility, and lack. But it doesn't have to be this way. We can train our minds to conquer uncertainty, beat insecurity, and step past the tragedies of yesterday.

Battle Ready is a hands-on scriptural plan that teaches you twelve easy-to-implement, confidence-building mind-sets designed to transform your thoughts and, therefore, your life. You'll gain practical wisdom, like how to

· make new habits stick in just five steps
· disarm the seven most common attacks that plague women
· exchange self-limiting thoughts for purpose-driven, love-releasing thoughts
· implement thirty-second mind-lifters that deliver peace
· create boundaries so you live life full of what matters

You can live victoriously.


"The best time to be strengthened against the Enemy's tactics of doubt, disappointment, and devastation is before he makes his first move toward us. We all desperately need the biblical guidance and preparation found in Battle Ready!"--Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times bestselling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries

"The most difficult fights we will face in this life will not be on the outside; they will be within our own hearts and minds. As someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety throughout my life, I know this firsthand. Battle Ready will help encourage, empower, and equip you to live in true victory."--Holley Gerth, bestselling author of Fiercehearted

"Battle Ready will equip and empower you, teaching you where to park your mind during difficult times. Its practical advice and pen-to-paper reflection sections, coupled with the truths of Scripture sprinkled throughout, will enable you to avoid defeat and discouragement and walk confidently in faith instead. Highly recommended."--Karen Ehman, national speaker, New York Times bestselling author of Keep It Shut: What to Say, How to Say It and When to Say Nothing at All 

"Battle Ready is a field manual for the mind. If you desire to think more like Christ, its truths, stories, personal applications, and discoveries will undoubtedly lead you to renewed places of peace, hope, and life."--Elisa Morgan, speaker and author of The Beauty of Broken

"Relational, emotional, and physical trials often hit one hundred miles an hour, making us feel defenseless and powerless. This no longer has to be the case. Battle Ready, an exploratory, hands-on book, provides dozens of mind-renewing truths, hope-building exercises, and habit-changing techniques to help you endure the worst of times, with Jesus, as if it was the best of times."--Shannon Ethridge, MA, life/relationship coach and bestselling author of Every Woman's Battle series

Warrior Mind-Set Three

She Who Walks with an Open, Receptive Heart Finds It Filled by God

(Sensitivity)

Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.

Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.

Walk beside me, just be my friend.

Anonymous

Point 1: Want to See God?

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God. (Matt. 5:8)

The word see here, based on Strong’s Hebrew and Greek definitions, means to:

• Perceive God
• Behold God
• See God
• Discern God Clearly

Could you imagine seeing God unfold this way in your daily life? How the simple sight of Him would change everything?

Purity of heart is a high pursuit. The pure in heart get a pure view of God. With this, let’s examine three lessons that foster pure hearts.

1. The Drone Lesson

This morning I went on a “mommy/daughter date.” We left the house at 5:45 a.m., drove down the quaint roads of downtown Annapolis, Maryland, and headed right to what’s called “Ego Alley.” Here megaboats sleep along the lengthy inlet, showing off and flexing their horsepower. This particular “date morning” I gripped my three-year-old’s hand in one hand and sipped a coffee I held in the other. It was a juggling act for sure as she skipped along, but it didn’t matter. I was in my happy place.

She was in hers too. Especially when she stopped to watch a drone fly overhead. She looked at me and said, “Mommy, let’s go up to that man with the remote. I want to see what he has.”

He overheard her. Holding a massive video screen remote, he made his way over. And showed us—everything. From his view, we could see it all: trees, buildings, people. There was a clarity and crispness from his nearly mile-high view. He could zoom in and zoom out. He could see what I couldn’t—expressions on people’s faces, the tracks they made, and the details I missed. I asked if he ever spotted and followed specific people. He laughed.

I guess that means yes?

After a while, my dear daughter and I walked away. We grabbed a water at a store, slowly meandered down a few narrow city streets, laughed . . . and then I heard it—grr . . . grr. I wasn’t sure what animal was tailing us, but then it dropped. His drone. Right before us. I was astonished.

He had us in sight the whole time. He knew every detail of what we did.

I smiled and waved at him; so did my daughter. The mini-plane lifted.

Lesson: God has drone-like vision. He knows exactly where your heart is at. The truth within you, God sees clear as day. He follows along with you because He loves you.

2. The Snow Pants Lesson

As a kid, if I wanted to play in the snow, it meant I needed to layer up. I’d pull on long underwear, add shorts, yank up a pair of tights, add more pants, and then . . . ahh . . . I’d finally waddle out into the snow (only to have to go to the bathroom ten minutes later—go figure). I’d sweat the whole way there. Usually, by the time I got outside I was so dense my arms couldn’t bend and my legs only spanned half their walking distance (think: Stay Puft Marshmallow Woman). To sit on the sled, I’d plop down backward. The padding barely softened the blow. To get up? I’d get a pull from a friend.

Lesson: Layers never break the hard blows of life; they only make it hard to walk and difficult to get up again and weigh down our hearts.

3. The Eyeliner Lesson

To set the stage, God tells us to guard our heart “above all else.” It is our most vital organ. “Everything (we) do flows from it” (Prov. 4:23). For instance, if our heart submits to God, leans not on our own instinctual understanding, and trusts God anyway, we find straight paths (3:5–6). Yet if we do the opposite—forget God, rely on our mind’s understanding, and trust only our wants—our heart likely ventures through rocky terrain.

Choose your own adventure.

What terrain has your heart been on? Easy roads or tough terrain? Hope or angst? Have you been abiding and thriving or orchestrating and managing everyone and everything?

Thoughts and words are windows to the heart. “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45, emphasis added).

What do your thoughts say? (Check the boxes that apply.)

• I don’t want to get hurt.
• I must defend myself.
• I can’t let that happen again.
• I need to keep safe.
• They’ll injure me again.
• I’ll look bad.
• I need to hide.
• I’ll lay low.
• I must be seen as better than I am.
• I can’t be open, honest, or authentic anymore.
• I can’t really be me. They’ll judge me.

Is your heart receptive or deflective? Search deep. Then go deeper by considering your protective layers. Do you ever think:

• I am okay to act this way because . . . This is rationalization.
• I don’t have a problem. This is denial.
• He has the issue . . . he is always . . . This is projection.
• I need to release tension. You get furious. This is explosion.
• I am 100 percent A-okay, and no, nothing is at all wrong with me. This is pretending.
• I can fend off the issue by pushing away my feelings. It’s not that big of a deal, anyway. This is negating.
• I am so angry at him, just furious. You then kick the front door—hard—or you take it out on your kids. This is replacement.
• I am embarrassed, unsure, or caught, but oh . . . looky here . . . this is a nice shirt I can buy online . . . or wait, should I buy that one? This is distraction (and includes humor, sarcasm, or attention shifting).
• I shouldn’t have done that. I’ll just pour out praise, good words, and acclaim on the person. Maybe they won’t notice. This is fixing.
• I’ll use humor, sarcasm, or an insult, so I don’t have to deal with this. This is diversion.
• I can’t change because . . . This is a lie.1

Ignoring the pain doesn’t negate the problem. Friends, a cavity is still a cavity even if we pretend it’s not there. We may ignore the hurt, but the pain eventually becomes excruciating. The hard truth is denial can’t deny away the truth of a hurting heart before a seeing God.

I understand, many of us have questions or situations that feel too hard to confront. We don’t know how to fix, manage, or tie up the loose ends. We don’t know how to come to terms with the reality. We don’t know how to deal with the pain, the embarrassment, the weak-kneed feelings of it all, or the hard memories. I get all this.

But if God remains God, do we really have to know? Doesn’t God know? Doesn’t He already have a high-level view of our exact way?

Perhaps healing is as simple as us asking:

Do You think I am bad, God? Are You angry with me?

What is the worst-case scenario of me seeing my weakness? Of me changing?

God, how do I handle this?

God, will You really take care of me if I am honest? If I am vulnerable?

God, will You abandon me because I am not perfect?

How can I really confront what I am afraid to see, God, without it killing me?

What is the worst-case scenario of me approaching this in a different way?

What truths repair the hurt that exist in me?

Look into the eyes of your heart. I do this when I put on eyeliner. As I circle my eyes with the charcoal color, I look for my...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Endorsements
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Tips for Using This Book
• Warrior Mind-Set One
• Warrior Mind-Set Two
• Warrior Mind-Set Three
• Intermission One
• Warrior Mind-Set Four
• Warrior Mind-Set Five
• Warrior Mind-Set Six
• Intermission Two
• Warrior Mind-Set Seven
• Warrior Mind-Set Eight
• Warrior Mind-Set Nine
• Intermission Three
• Warrior Mind-Set Ten
• Warrior Mind-Set Eleven
• Warrior Mind-Set Twelve
• Tying Up Loose Ends
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• About the Author
• Back Ads
• Back Cover