The Importance of Being Battle Ready

I received a free advanced copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review on NetGalley’s website. I only review books I really love on my website! You may click on a book title or picture of the book to find it on Amazon (I am an Amazon partner).

Are You Battle Ready?

When Kelly Balarie, author of Fear Fighting, invited me to participate on the launch team of her latest book, Battle Ready: Train Your Mind to Conquer Challenges, Defeat Doubt, and Live Victoriously I wondered if a pacifist like me needed a book about battle preparedness. Then I really read the subtitle: Train Your Mind to Conquer Challenges, Defeat Doubt, and Live Victoriously. Who wouldn’t want to know how to do those things?

Balarie walks the reader through the twelve ‘warrior mindsets’ that will keep us battle ready. And no, she doesn’t mean ready to fight human enemies. This book deals with fighting on the spiritual battlefront. The battle, described in 1 Peter 5:8-9, involves the insidious enemy and all the mind-tricks he plays on us.

According to Balarie, the battle begins in our mind. The mind controls our attitude, which predetermines the outcomes. Most of all, Balarie assures us that,

“The most powerful type of woman in the world is the one simply operating exactly where God wants her. Everything in her life is an adventure. It doesn’t matter where she is—she could be at her kitchen counter, or doing the laundry, or kneeling.”

Of course, in order to act powerfully, we have to feel safe. I love this quote, too:

“The safest woman is not the one safeguarding her assets, her children, her house, or her well-being; she’s the one abiding under the safety of God’s love that moves her out to risky places.”

I confess that I get power and safety confused. The hardest times of my life have created a propensity within me to want to control everything. Balarie reminds us that power comes from above—not from our lists and organization and ability to get things done. Trying to safeguard all we hold dear will only wear us out and drain away our effectiveness.

Kelly shares an excerpt from her book here:

5 Battle Tools To Help In Hard Moments

By Kelly Balarie

She didn’t so much as say hi to me. In fact, even worse, she walked right past me, looking the other direction. She pretended I wasn’t there. Hmph!! After all I’ve done for her.After all I’ve given her. After how I’ve gone out of my way to love her.

Now I’m the one left looking like a crazed waving-at-the-air fool. Like – an idiot.

I humphat her husband along the way to my church seat. Silently, I critique her in my mind, She’s rude. Before not too long, I get side-tracked by own thoughts: Everyone always hurts me. Like that boy, I asked to dance in 4th grade. Like those girls who circled up to whisper about me in that damp locker room. Like the group of women who act like they’re far better than me.

I’m supposed to be listening in church, but who can listen, thinking about all this, all them!?

Here, I find myself, in the heat of a horrible battle. You can always tell if you’re in the heat-of-a-battle. Almost instantly, your soul-crushing problem magnifies 100x larger than your promise-keeping God. Suddenly, you’re standing weaponless, in all-out combat within your own mind. Hardly able to win.

Ever been there?

I’ve struggled through a lot – through massive health-scares, depression, an eating disorder, financial debt and relationship-severing dramas. Battles. Huge, hard-fought battles, loaded with momentary decisions of pain, struggle and uncertainty.

I remember the time:

1. The doctor returned to the room with the clipboard saying,”You really might have Mulitple Sclerosis.”
I thought: How do I keep my thoughts close to God with this kind of news?

2. My colicky newborn made me pace my hallways 24-7. Sleepless, hardly thinking and powerless to change my health situation, I didn’t know what to do.
I thought: How do I still love people when my whole life is unraveling?

3. A family member called me to say I really should get on setting up long-term care for myself.
I thought: How do I deal with the fact all my dreams will now look different from what I thought?

Through all this, I realized, real wisdom is having a battle plan.

Let’s talk about Christ-centered battle-plan preparedness. Begin by asking yourself: What am I currently facing?

Identifying your main struggles(resentment,regret, trauma, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, fear) is to allow God to help you win your battle. For example, for me, underneath that issue with the girl, was an old war full of rejection, humiliation, and abandonment from years past. Underneath, were old battles I’d lost – because they were left unaddressed. Therefore, they left me with resentment towards God.

Seeing our battles for what they are, gives us a clear-cut strategy to fight – and win. It also removes all the pent-up offenses that, like plaque, cover our heart.

What about you? Do you emotionally respond to happenings set before you or do you wisely act based on God’s Word and promises?

Today, you can fight your battle a new way. Consider:

1. Asking God what feelings of fear, worry, anger, resentment, neglect and hurt He desires you give to him.
2. Giving those hurts to Jesus, by saying, “Jesus, I am not meant to carry these. Forgive me. They’ve hurt me for far too long. I know and believe you have peace, joy, life and freedom for me as I give you these things.”
3. Blessing any women who have hurt you.
4. Reframing your moments of hurt. (Example: when she passed by me quickly, she was probably was in a rush, she might have had something to do or she lost in thought)
5. Returning to a heart of love.(Example:Thank you God that you love me and I can love others. In fact, I can love the very person who hurt me by ___.)

This is the start of being Battle Ready. There truly are practical insights, wise biblical instructions and truths that can help you rise above the mayhem of trials and hardships. You can find the light of Christ and step into all God has for you.

The victory belongs to the Lord.

Isn’t it time you began to make room for it?

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

Buy Battle Ready: Train Your Mind to Conquer Challenges, Defeat Doubt, and Live Victoriously by clicking the link.

To get Battle Ready freebies – printables, devotional reminders, a customizable daily Battle Plan and the“FindYour Battle Style” quiz, visit: www.iambattleready.com

Kelly Balarie, an author and national speaker, is on a mission to encourage others not to give up. Through times of extreme testing, Kelly believes there is hope for every woman, every battle and in every circumstance. She shares this hope on her blog, Purposeful Faith, and on many writing publications such as Relevant, Crosswalk, and Today’s Christian Woman. Kelly’s work has been featured on The Today Show, 700 Club Interactive, Moody Radio and other television and radio broadcasts. When Kelly is not writing, she is chilling at the beach with her husband, a latte, and 2-toddlers who rightfully demand she build them awesome castles.