UNDEFEATED: From Trial to Triumph--How to Stop Fighting the Wrong Battles and Start Living Victoriously

By Elizabeth Meyers

Are you ready to finally overcome your pain and move from UNDONE to UNDEFEATED?

In this uplifting and encouraging book, author and speaker, Elizabeth Meyers, reveals her own personal

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Academy Elite
• Release date: Nov 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640850866

Elizabeth Meyers

Elizabeth Meyers is a veteran, fighter pilot's wife, and homeschooling mother of eight, as well as the author of Undefeated: From Trial to Triumph, How to Stop Fighting the Wrong Battles and Start Living Victoriously. Elizabeth encourages and equips people who are feeling stuck in their trial, trauma, or tragedy, to build resilience so they can enjoy a fulfilling life doing what they were created to do. Liz is also the host of the weekly podcast Resilient Life Hacks. As a motivational speaker and Bible teacher, Elizabeth enjoys expressing theological concepts through relatable metaphors that enhance personal understanding of big ideas for ordinary people. Connect with Elizabeth at https://ElizabethMeyers.me.

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UNDEFEATED: FROM TRIAL TO TRIUMPH

If life has dealt you a hard blow and you’re wondering where God is in the midst of your trials, this book will help you get on the trail to triumph.

Kary Oberbrunner, author of Elixir Project, Day Job to Dream Job,

The Deeper Path and Your Secret Name

"When we speak of victory, we must remember that victory comes only after a battle is fought. We must endure the chaos as we wage war with the trials thrown our way. God’s plan is for our good yet we must choose to get up and walk through the battleground to reach our victory. For victory is ours! Jesus won the ultimate battle on the cross for each one of us. So walk confidently through that battlefield you see before you.

Elizabeth Meyers speaks from her personal experience of walking the battlefield following the loss of a child. Unbearable pain. Black voids open and pull you in as your earth falters under your very feet and you feel defeated, dejected, desperate and depressed.

If you are walking the path of loss now, read UNDEFEATED: From Trial to Triumph, How to Stop Fighting the Wrong Battles and Start Living Victoriously. Jesus Christ is the one walking hand in hand with you as you walk towards your victory because, Victory is Mine says the Lord.

Choose to triumph over your trials. Having a strategy as you enter the battleground is powerful. That is what UNDEFEATED gives you - battle strategy and tactics.

Live Victoriously!"

Susan B. Mead, award winning author of Dance with Jesus: From Grief to Grace

A mom who buried her forever 20 year old son, Kyle, yet lives victoriously today

SusanBMead.com

Within these pages you will find raw transparency and incredible inspiration. Elizabeth has taken the time to so bravely and honestly share her life and heart here and I can promise you that you will be greatly blessed and encouraged by her words.

-Tai East, creator and writer of A SPIRIT-Kissed Soul

aspiritkissedsoul.wordpress.com

THE STAND STRONG BOOK SERIES

Book One

UNDEFEATED: From Trial to Triumph

How to Stop Fighting the Wrong Battles and Start Living Victoriously

Book Two

UNDAUNTED: Your Battle Plan for Victorious Living

Winning in Life by Building a Strong Spirit, Soul, and Body

Book Three

UNSHAKABLE: Stand Strong Even When Your World Gets Rocked

Building a Biblical Foundation for an Unshakable Faith in an Unbeatable God

Watch for the next two books in the STAND STRONG series.

Available soon wherever books are sold!

Visit StandStrongFaith.com to get the most up-to-date information.

STAND STRONG SERIES

BOOK ONE

UNDEFEATED

From Trial to Triumph

How to Stop Fighting the Wrong Battles and

Start Living Victoriously

Elizabeth Meyers

Copyright © 2017 elizabeth meyers

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Published by Author Academy Elite

P.O. Box 43, Powell, OH 43035

www.AuthorAcademyElite.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB®, are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. HCSB® is a federally registered trademark of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-64085-087-3

Hardback ISBN-13: 978-1-64085-085-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017911801

Cover design by: Jelena Jovanovic (LadyElizia)

Author photo by: Larissa Photography

Dedicated to my precious son,

Timothy

whose brief life brought me the gift of brokenness and the courage to strive toward wholeness so that I might find meaning in his life and my pain.

STAND STRONG FAITH ONLINE

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Please visit StandStrongFaith.com for supplementary resources to support you as you stand strong in your faith. There you will find free printables, prayers, scriptures, playlists, and other tools to help you fortify your faith to live

UNDEFEATED, UNDAUNTED, and UNSHAKABLE.

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CONTENTS

UNDEFEATED: From Trial to Triumph

How to Stop Fighting the Wrong Battles and Start Living Victoriously

UNDONE: The Way of Trials

Life can be chaotic and confusing. Choosing to believe in spite of uncertainty gives you a firm place to stand strong with unshakable faith.

Conflicted: When Faith and Reality Collide

Navigating Uncharted Waters

Shaken: When Faith Falters

Asking Unanswerable Questions

Doubting: When Faith Gets Confusing

Overcoming Uncertainty

Believing Anyway: Even When God Doesn’t Make Sense

Moving Beyond Unsolvable Mysteries

UNBEATABLE: The Road of Triumph

Life is a battlefield, not a playground. Knowing your enemy, your God, and yourself enables you to live victoriously.

The Battle: Know Your Enemy

Revealing Your Ultimate Battle

The Real Fight: Resist Your Enemy

Opposing Your Unrelenting Adversary

The Only Victor: Know Your God

Knowing Your Invincible Champion

The Sweet Surrender: Know When to Give In

Depending on Your Unchanging God

Beloved: Know Your Worth

Receiving God’s Unwavering Love

Undefeated: Claim Your Victory

Embracing Your Undefeated Life

Resources

Join the Victorious Kingdom Today!

PART I

UNDONE: THE WAY OF TRIALS

Life can be chaotic and confusing.

Choosing to believe in spite of uncertainty gives you a firm place to stand strong with unshakable faith.

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone.

~ Isaiah 6:5, KJV

Many people find themselves shaken because of circumstances beyond their control. Sometimes, faith and reality collide and slam hard into one another, leaving us breathless and bruised. Our faith can falter when our mind is full of unanswerable questions and nagging doubts.

Though it is uncomfortable, undone is the best place to be, for when we are undone, we no longer depend on ourselves but on God alone. It is when we are weak that He shows Himself strong through us, accomplishing for us what we know we could never do for ourselves. So don’t freak out when you become undone. You are not weak or faithless. You are human. Embrace your uncertainty and let your need draw you closer to God.

CHAPTER 1

CONFLICTED: WHEN FAITH AND REALITY COLLIDE

Navigating Uncharted Waters

"Suffering is no sign that God has abandoned us;

adversity is no evidence of condemnation."

~ Eugene Peterson

Collision

I held my son’s lifeless body in the palm of my hand, sobbing with the raw intensity of fresh grief. He had been born into the arms of Jesus, bypassing my arms altogether.

I was four months pregnant with our sixth child and had finally looked past my exhaustion and fear to believe this child within me was a blessing and not a burden.

My head knew that already, but my emotions had been stubbornly refusing to follow. I was overwhelmed with multiple simultaneous life stressors and thought I deserved a break from pregnancy and nursing long enough to get through our next military move.

Now my son was gone too soon, and I had not fully appreciated his presence while he was with me.

I remember sobbing on my husband’s shoulder while holding our baby’s body. I have never heard myself cry like that before or since. It did not even sound human to me. It did not sound like me at all.

We named our son Timothy.

That was the day I crossed the threshold into the darkest season of my life. My emptiness and sorrow plunged me into a dark abyss of despair and fear cloaked by a busy life and a practiced smile.

Fair-Weather Faith

For many years before that traumatic day, I had what I considered to be a strong faith in God and the truth of His Word. Everything in life seemed to line up exactly with what I read in my Bible. I had no reason to doubt that all His promises were true.

Just a couple of months before my son’s death, I had felt connected with God so much closer than ever before. When I prayed, I truly felt that we were meeting in an intimate conversation. I felt like I was on a mountaintop with God. I had an incredible view and a sense of significance. I sensed God at work all around me and was thrilled at the prospect of being used by Him to minister to the people around me.

I thought my foundation in Christ was solid. I had built my life upon the Rock, and I remained convinced that no storm would be able to shake me. But that was before the bottom dropped out of my life and I went careening over the edge of my faith, free falling in confusion, and hitting the rocks at the bottom of a dark valley in unbearable pain.

Faith, Meet Reality

We had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—

conflicts on the outside, fears within.

~ 2 Corinthians 7:5, NIV

The month before my son’s passing, I entered a year-long battle where I felt attacked and defeated at every turn. Nothing seemed to work out the way it should. I endured a series of personal tragedies of all shapes and sizes which left me completely undone. The abrupt end of my pregnancy negatively impacted my health, and I was left anemic and exhausted.

I needed to rest to heal physically, but I also needed to re-engage with my other children and my life so I could heal emotionally. It was a catch-22. I had to sacrifice one to heal the other, and I could never quite find a balance. I got stuck, unable to move forward in any meaningful way.

Suddenly, miserable reality and the shining faith I had held for so long would simply not cooperate with one another. They collided with each other in brutal ways that shredded my heart, twisted my thinking, and weakened my will.

I imagine it was not unlike how Job must have felt experiencing repeated bad news and trials in wave after unrelenting wave. The devil loves to kick us when we’re down, and he was having a heyday with me. As if losing my son wasn’t heartbreak enough, that was only the beginning. The hits just kept coming—infections, pests, more death, strife, struggle, and complete mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion.

Collateral Damage

Our enemy also loves to isolate us. It’s easier for him to pick us off one at a time that way. I felt more alone during my season of intense grief than I ever had before or since. My unique social situation and nature of my loss left me without much emotional support.

As a military family, we move frequently. During this desperate time of my life, we were in a transition period, so a network of supportive friends was virtually non-existent. We were far away from family, and we were just meeting a slew of new people who didn’t even know that I had been pregnant, much less that it had ended suddenly and tragically.

I quickly discovered that when you are meeting new people for the first time, it’s best to pretend all is well. Although my pain was still very raw, I learned to hide it. When I didn’t, and the truth of my broken heart slipped out, people would awkwardly whisper, oh, and move away from me in uncomfortable silence.

It turns out nobody is comfortable talking about dead babies. Even though estimates claim that 25% of women suffer pregnancy loss, we are somehow expected never to mention it. It makes people feel uneasy. People prefer to live in a pretend world where unborn babies don’t die unexpectedly.

When asked about my children, I always had the internal struggle of whether to mention Timmy or not. Speaking of him created an awkward silence that isolated me even more. Not speaking of him felt like I was disowning my son, sealing shut the relief valve on the agony building pressure within me. Avoiding people altogether became much less hurtful than seeking any companionship or understanding from them.

Furthermore, because my son was not yet 20 weeks old when he died, he was not even considered human from a medical standpoint. There was no official or legal acknowledgment of his death, and no opportunity for a funeral. The hospital staff refused to turn his body back over to me.

Everyone I interacted with at the hospital insisted on referring to him as P.O.C., or products of conception. Never mind the fact that I was holding a tiny body undeniably human in every way. Everyone apparently refused to acknowledge there had been a death, because to do so would mean there had been a human life involved. It seemed to me that to acknowledge another woman’s right to choose, they completely denied my right to grieve.

No matter where I turned, I could not find anyone who was willing or able to mourn with me or even let me mourn in their presence. Others’ incapacity to validate my grief and acknowledge my suffering spread the cracks in my broken heart ever wider.

I incorrectly assumed that God had abandoned me too. If He cared about me, then He would have sent people to care for me, I reasoned. Apparently, God was indifferent to my pain. He was hauntingly silent when I cried out in despair. Broken and angry, I pulled away from Him too.

Faith Untethered

My faith had hit reality like a brick wall. Caught off guard, I was left stunned, hurt, and confused. I descended into a dark pit at the bottom of a deep valley. It was the Valley of the Shadow of Death—the death of my baby, my health, my hope, my energy, and eventually, even the death of my faith in the God that was supposed to be all-powerful and full of love. Where was God?

I couldn’t find a firm foothold for my faith. Why did God seem so distant when I needed Him most? What good was the promise of His presence if I was unable to sense it? Why did He keep refusing to shield me from all the debris and broken glass that was flying against me? And when would this awful storm ever end?

My Fair-Weather Faith had become a Faith Untethered, flapping violently in the wind like a tattered flag torn by the storm. When faith and reality collided, I got crunched in-between. I was broken, bruised, and bloodied by brutal realities of life that I was unable to reconcile with the God I thought I knew. Even after the storm outside calmed and subsided, the storm within me raged on.

Reading my Bible seemed to unravel my faith rather than bolster it. I would read passages like:

If you say, The Lord is my refuge, and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

~ Psalm 91: 9-13, NIV

Secretly, I thought, That’s not true; at least not for me, anyway. I’m the one getting trampled.

I remember having the awful and arrogant thought, Well, Lord, if this is how You treat Your friends, I’m not so sure I want to be counted among them anymore. I still went through all the motions of being a dedicated Christian, but on the inside, I felt as lost as a saved person could be. To me, the promise of an abundant life had left me nothing but a hollow shell.

I struggled to keep my faith afloat and failed more often than I succeeded. God seemed distant and silent. His promises felt hollow and full of false hopes.

Collision Avoidance

In the years that followed, I continued to tread water, desperately trying to stay afloat—not making any visible headway but just trying not to sink completely. Even after the attacks subsided, the effects lingered on for years. I still bear the scars.

Even people who knew me well had no idea how bad I was hurting because I didn’t let them. I had learned to hide my sorrow for the sake of others early on, and somehow it was a very hard habit to break.

I forced myself to power gracefully through life like a ballerina on stage who smiles through the pain, the strain and the stretching of her performance. But it was just that—a performance. In the backstage recesses of my life, behind the pretty curtains presented to public view, I was slowly suffocating under the strain of a despair that would not budge no matter how hard I tried to move it or pray my way out from under it.

The pressure of my mental, emotional, and spiritual burdens literally weighed me down so that I was always physically fatigued. Despite my utter exhaustion during the day, I was unable to sleep at night, kept awake by huge unanswerable questions and a gnawing indefinite anxiety.

My life was a battleground, and I felt attacked, harassed, and thoroughly defeated on every front. I was stuck. The longer I lived in the land of Self-Pity, the more I swallowed the enemy’s lies, and the harder it was to keep faking it. Something had to give.

Courage to Change

Why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God.

~ Psalm 43:5, HCSB

We are only motivated to change our ways when the pain of staying as we are exceeds the pain of making necessary but difficult changes in our lives. After five years, two moves, and three more babies, my burden was finally too crushing to carry alone in silence anymore. The time to change course had come.

I pushed through the embarrassment of admitting, I’m not okay—to family, to friends, to my pastor, and to professionals. I laid down my pride of wanting to be perfect and self-sufficient. I decided to be more proactive about seeking help instead of waiting for God to drop deliverance in my lap while pouting and giving Him the cold shoulder when He didn’t.

I sought pastoral care and professional help. I made self-care a higher priority, no small feat for a mother of eight! I finally admitted that I have to take care of myself to take care of my family. But most importantly, I humbly turned my heart and my mind to God again, realizing