Hey friend! If I could, I'd sit down with you for a cup of coffee and talk all the things about fierce faith. How faith impacts our thoughts and our actions. How faith is more than going to church and Bible study. How our faith can be the lifeline we need when life takes a sudden turn we weren't expecting.

Life can be hard...

I don't know where you find yourself today, but lately, I've been thinking about you. I've been thinking about you because many days - life is hard.

Life is hard because you've been grieving and saying good-bye to people you love before you were ready. Maybe life is hard because work is hard and you're navigating expectations and team mates who don't hold up their end of the bargain. Life is hard because in our humanness we are facing conflicts and disagreements. Or maybe life is hard because the beginning of today met you with disappointments and dreams long forgotten.

I've been thinking about you because I'm developing my next workshop on fierce faith. And to be honest, I want to get this one right. I feel the weight of understanding what fierce faith really means.

How do you and I truly cultivate fierce faith, a faith that withstands life's challenges, and setbacks, and disappointments?

If you looked up fierce in the dictionary, you'd find definitions we don't associate with faith. Savage. Wild. Intense. Or would we?

Confident Faith

Frankly, I believe your faith and my faith - it is meant to be life changing. Faith was meant to get us through those unexpected twists and turns while propelling us to walk in obedience, trust God, and make a kingdom impact on the world around us.

The problem for me at least? My faith is rarely fierce. My faith is easily intimidated by circumstances, comfort food, and the negative opinions of others. On my harder days, I wonder at God's plans and start to talk of quitting and giving up and resigning myself to dreams in the rear view mirror.

I believe we were meant for more. We were meant for a life that is changed because we take God at His Word. In fact, we don't just take Him at His Word, we stand on it. God's promises are true. God's love for us is sure. And that together propels us with a confident faith.

The result? We were meant to keep going, to not give up, to trust God even when the road before us looks like nowhere we've ever been.

Clear Thinking

Have you ever stopped to challenge your thinking? I mean, really challenge it. I'm no expert, but I believe our thoughts change our actions and our actions can change our lives. And when it comes to developing fierce faith, challenging our thoughts with the truth of God's Word can help us show up with confidence instead of doubt.

The only problem? In the whirlwind of emotions and hard roads, we don't always think clearly. Our emotions often lead us to some strange conclusions. We assume what is true, we believe things that are not true, and our faith becomes an accessory when it was meant to be our lifeline.

And if you're anything like me, you may be using your own logic to battle unclear thinking. The reality, however, is that our own logic is not enough. God is bigger that the logic of this world and the logic in your head. And you and I? We cultivate fierce faith when we stop trying to reason our way out of our circumstances and trust God's Word to be our only source of logic.

Leaning In

Here's what I really believe. Our faith becomes fierce when we lean in. Lean into God. Lean into what we're feeling. Lean in to a life where you and I are not in control.

Leaning in requires courage. The courage to allow God into the places of our heart that no one else sees. The courage to be vulnerable with our dreams and our hopes and even all the things we may have put our hope in aside from God. The courage to say we haven't arrived yet, but we wish we had. The courage to stand alone when it feels like everyone around us has left their faith to do what feels good instead of what is good.

Fierce faith doesn't just happen because we've always gone to church or because we read a devotional each morning. Fierce faith is the kind that is tested when we are forced by the circumstances of our lives to live what we believe.

Let's Choose

Life coaching is all about this idea that you and I get to choose how we show up in the world. We can slow down long enough to think clearly about who we want to become and start taking the baby steps we need to get there.

When it comes to cultivating fierce faith, we also have a choice. We can choose to stand on God's Word and walk fiercely in faith. We can choose to believe God over the noise that this world produces. And if choice is what we have, then choice is what we embrace.

When it comes down to it, fierce faith is choosing to believe God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. And whether the road you're on today is predictable or unexpected, I believe God wants to transform your life into one that cultivates fierce faith.