BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Lonnie and I have lived all across the country. From the East coast to the West coast and several states in between. Our daughters graduated from high school earlier this month after attending 4 different high schools! (And in case you’re wondering, they turned out great!!!!) We are wanderers. Adventurers. We are always the “new family in town”, so our perspective is slightly different than the local who has lived there their entire life. We often see what others don’t see. Why? Because it’s different for us, but all the same for them. The weather, the patterns, the people, the traditions, the food has all become predictable for them. But for us, the “new kids”, it’s all so unique and exciting. We have fresh eyes where the 5th generation local has become a little glazed over with the repetitiveness of life. As much as you may think you want a predictable, predetermined, safe life where nothing ever changes and all things are guaranteed to stay the same, YOU REALLY DON’T WANT THAT. Your soul is craving change. Your eyes are desperate for new and exciting. And yet we cling to what “has been” with a death grip and fight change like the devil himself. Let me tell you something, the very change you’re fighting may not be a work of the enemy, it may be by the design of our almighty God to keep you fully alive in this life. To open your eyes once again, to snap you out of robotic living. To give you days you will actually REMEMBER instead of weeks, months and years of your life passing in a gradual decline. It is time for change. And oh how we serve the God of change. We serve the God of curveballs. Have you ever been thrown a curveball in life? Things didn’t go the way you imagined? You think things are going one way, then it turns and goes the other. The unexpected. Yeah, me too. What does it mean when life seems to get out of control? What does it mean when the bottom drops out of your plans and you’re striking out? How do you receive change? Do you flip out? Do you panic? Do you begin imagining your ultimate failure and demise immediately? Do you quit? Or do you TRUST? Do you trust that change is God’s curveball to keep you IN THE GAME. Change is God’s curveball to give you fresh eyes, to wake you up, to keep you from growing so comfortable that you just drift through this week, this month, this year with an ever so gradual decline. CHANGE IS FOR YOU. For your benefit. What is your curveball? What is your unexpected change? What is your disappointing pitch right now? Life isn’t in control, God is. Let me say that again. Life isn’t in control. Your life is totally out of control. All your planning and work will NOT control your life. God is in control. Complete control. And God not only allows curveballs, he stands on the pitcher’s mound and throws them. And while you may not always understand God’s ways, you can always trust his heart. Always. He is always working everything out for your good. You can bet on that. He’s not out to destroy you or punish you. He is making you better. He is making you stronger. He is making you into the woman he created you to be, so much more than you ever imagined. Romans 12: 2 says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This unexpected change that appears disappointing right now is a shake up. It’s happening FOR you, giving you a renewing of your mind, giving you fresh eyes to see what you’ve been missing. To give you a new appreciation for the miraculous that has simply become ordinary to you. Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Your soul has been craving change while your mind has been fighting it. You’ve grown bored. Everything has turned gray. You’re just going through the motions and sadly few things are exciting in your life.

My prayer for you this morning is that God would fill you up. Maybe you’re running on empty and your tank so desperately needs to be filled. Where are you empty? Is it your love tank? Is it your energy tank? Is it your hope tank? Is it your courage tank? Where do you need God to fill you up today? I’m calling out to the God of Romans 15:13, the God of HOPE. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Oh yes, fill you up to overflowing. The processes of being filled by God is often overlooked, because it looks a whole lot more like being emptied. It’s a process of emptying of self. Yes, God has to empty me of ME so I can be filled with HIM. What a humbling process. To be emptied of my grand ideas and big picture plans, to be humbled with my own reality, all so that I can be FILLED with God. Don’t miss that in the hard times, GOD IS FILLING YOU. The emptying is in preparation for the filling. You thought everything was falling apart – honey, it’s all been preparation for something great God wants to do in your life. We come to God with our empty spaces searching for answers and solutions, but he fills our emptiness with himself. HE IS YOUR ANSWER. HE IS YOUR SOLUTION. God himself will fill your empty spaces. God will complete you. God will make you whole. Have you been looking to someone else to complete you and fill your brokenness? They’ve fallen short haven’t they? You’re disappointed in the relationship because that relationship was never meant to fill you. That’s God’s place. Oh how we set every relationship in our lives up for failure when we expect them to fill us and make us happy. Have you been looking to your career to fill you up and make you feel worthy? Ahhhhh, that’s going to be a huge disappointment. You can search and search, and it may seem to be that missing puzzle piece in your life, but soon it will grow old and the “God sent job that you hoped would fill you up” will just be a means to a paycheck. And here’s why … your career was never meant to fill you up. That’s God’s place. The identity you get from your career will lead to exhaustion and burn out because you’ll always need more. More success, more growth, more recognition and when you’ve reached your capacity, you’re left wanting. Oh the feeling of void that empty space creates. I know that feeling. I know that disappointment. I know that exhaustion. And looking back I realize it was a result of trying to be filled by people, a career, money and things, all of which were short lived and maxed out. So, God allowed the emptying to begin, and I’ll be honest with you, it was not a fun process. Everything fell apart piece by piece. What I didn’t know then is God wasn’t behind the failure, he was behind the filling. But the emptiness of failure had to happen first. I was so full of self. So full of my career. So full of my pretty stuff and an obsession to get more of it, there was simply no room for God. I had crowded him out. Thank God for the emptying, because it brought me to a place of wholeness I never knew existed. A place where everything else was stripped away so God could fill me. Where every empty space and broken place could be filled and healed. Maybe that’s where you are today. A space that seems empty … a place that appears broken … a primed life for God to show up! May the God of hope FILL YOU. May he fill you with all joy and all peace so that you may OVERFLOW. God wants to fill you up. All the way up. More than all the way up. He wants to fill your cup to overflowing. I’ve always loved Psalms 23:5 – “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil, my CUP OVERFLOWS.” It overflows, it overflows, it overflows.

Luke 1:78 – “Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us.” One translation puts it this way… “A new day will dawn on us from above because our God is loving and merciful.” Here we are with a new day dawning because our God is so loving and merciful. Welcome to this priceless, once in a lifetime gift. The sun is rising as I speak on this handcrafted gift. But so many will miss it because you see, this gift is disguised as just another Tuesday. How many Tuesdays have you lived before? I’m 43 years old. This is my 2,276th Tuesday. There’s nothing special about that … and yet there’s everything special about that. All the days of your life have brought you to this day. This Tuesday. And how you live this day of your life can impact all the rest of your days. Because of God’s love and mercy, you and I have been trusted with this day of life. HE TRUSTS YOU. He trusts you to get up and live this day. He trusts you to represent him to everyone you come in contact with. He trusts you to be his hands and feet. He trusts you to love and encourage his people, today. He trusts you to LIVE today, and live it well. So what is your response to this gift? This gift that may seem imperfect with an empty refrigerator, a car that doesn’t run, bad hair, or a sink full of dishes … what is your response to this gift? Come on you know it. Say it with me … THANK YOU GOD, I LOVE IT. Thank you God, I love it. I don’t deserve it. I haven’t always proven myself worthy of a new day. I’ve wasted them in the past. I’ve lost my shiz in the past. I’ve been less that lovely, productive and grateful in the past, and yet God you give me another chance. Thank you God, I love it. I love the day of life you have given me with your love and mercy. And so the sun rises on my 2,276th Tuesday. In my book, that is worth celebrating. How about you? I encourage you to got to whatismyagetoday.com and click on “how old am I in weeks.” Coach Lonnie is celebrating his 2,369th Tuesday. And you know what, that’s worthy of a special cup of coffee and our favorite song on the back deck this morning. Darn right it is!!!!! Are you leading your family in celebrating each new day of life? Well here’s your opportunity Mama! Are you greeting each new day of your life like the priceless, once in a lifetime gift it truly is? Well get it right today. Respond to the rising sun today with a big ol hearty “thank you God, I LOVE IT!” then get out there and live this day like it’s the only day you have. Because really, it is. Let us lead by example. Your facebook status has the potential to influence others. Don’t you see it can be your platform, your stage? This world so desperately needs some BIG Life girls leading the way with a positive influence. Won’t you announce that you’re celebrating this once in a lifetime gift and publicly tell God thank you for it? My current status reads “The sun is rising on my 2,276th Tuesday of life, and I am claiming this day worthy of a full on celebration of living! It’s a priceless, once in a lifetime gift which will never, ever come again. Thank you God, I love it!” Perhaps you could lead by example and do the same. Why not celebrate today? Why not live today to the fullest? This is how we show our gratitude for what God has given us. A new day has dawned on us from above because our God is loving and merciful.

Who’s getting tired of doing the right thing over and over again, with seemingly minimal results? Who’s worn out from fighting when the relationship just doesn’t seem to be improving? Who’s burned out from counting the calories, from denying yourself of the deliciousness you most desire, when the progress is ever so slow and nonexistent at times? Who am I speaking to this morning? Are you getting tired of doing what is good? If you’re questioning if it’s worth it, I believe God has your answer for you loud and clear this morning. Galatians 6:9 – “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” DON’T STOP NOW. Keep doing the good you know to do because God is getting ready to give you a harvest of blessings if you just don’t give up. Let me speak life into your frustrated spirit this morning. Today is not the day to give up. This is not the time to back down. This day was made for doing good. With all that you are, with all that you have, do good today. God desires for each of us to come to a place of full surrender in life. A place where we recognize we can’t do this on our own. A place where we fully trust that if we do all we can, God will show up and do what only he can. Now this place of full surrender doesn’t come naturally to us. It takes one heck of a storm to get us there. It often requires a weary spirit, exhausted from trying. A body without a lot of fight left. This is surrender … and this is where God works best. I don’t know about you, but I have some areas in my life where I need God to do what only he can. I have some impossible. I have some mountains. I bet you do too. And oh how our loving heavenly Father WANTS to show up for us. He WANTS to. You never have to question God’s desire to help you. He’s never sitting in heaven looking down with angry eyebrows and arms folded saying, “nope – don’t wanna. I just don’t wanna help her today.” Yet, the truth is that’s exactly what we believe sometimes so we don’t even ask for help. Understand this, God is ready, willing and able to help you. He wants to pour out his blessings on you … and HE WILL, oh how he will if you just keep doing the good that you know to do. And as you know better, you will do better. God is cautioning us against growing weary in doing good. Has the storm weathered your heart? Are you becoming cynical? Have your good works been met with greed and ungratefulness? Have your good works been taken advantage of or gone unnoticed? Have your good works been void of return? Then of course it becomes easy to have a critical spirit. I mean why even try if it’s not going to make a difference. It’s like what is the point in cleaning the house when you have a tornado of a toddler tearing it up faster than you can put it back together. Why speak kindness to your husband when he’s so negative and edgy? Why give your best at work when it goes unnoticed and unappreciated? Why work so darn hard on your health when you still get bad news? That’s what a weary heart says. That’s what a critical spirit says. That’s what a cynical woman’s thoughts sound like. That’s the product of a bad attitude. And that is NOT you. In the words of one of my favorite songs by Hillsong – Don’t let the storm weather your heart. Don’t let the darnkness beat you down. My sister, you can walk through the fire and not be burned. You can pray in the fight and watch it turn. All you need to do is keep doing the good you know to do and trust God with the outcome. Jesus right now, we give it all to you.

John 16:3 Jesus said “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jesus is a straight shooter. He tells it like it is. He didn’t sugar coat it, he straight up says “hey, life is going to be hard sometimes. Trouble will come your way.” Don’t we avoid trials and trouble like the plague? No one woke up this morning thinking “oh how I hope some trouble comes my way today.” Troubles will come, if not today then perhaps tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean you have to flip out. Just because trouble is coming doesn’t mean you have to curl up in a ball and try to self-protect. Just because trouble is coming doesn’t mean you have to be defensive and on edge, nor scared and suspicious. Trouble is part of our life here. I mean unless you live in another world, because Jesus said in THIS WORLD, you WILL have trouble. That sounds pretty certain to me. So we shouldn’t be shocked and surprised when trouble comes our way. God never offered us a trouble free life. Jesus never said “follow me and I’ll make this thing easy.” We were never guaranteed a surrendered life would be an insulated, protected life. If you live, you’re going to get bruises. If you love, you’re going to get hurt. If you get up, you’re going to fall down. It was guaranteed from day one there would be trouble. So let us not be shocked and dismayed over it all. Let us not make the trouble worse by magnifying it. Let us do what Jesus was telling his disciples, let us TAKE HEART for we know Jesus has overcome the world. Take heart means to be encouraged and made hopeful. Take a hold of your heart, steal yourself away from anxiety, despair, fear and worry. This is an action. Don’t let your heart run wild with your thoughts and your emotions. Take hold of it. Control it. Focus on what you know here. There will be trouble in this world. This world is trouble. But Jesus has overcome the world. Now look at that, if Jesus is telling you there will be trouble in this world and he has overcome the world, he is saying that he has overcome your trouble. Did you get that? He has already overcome your trouble. So you can take hold of your heart and resist the enemy’s offer of anxiety, despair, fear and worry and you can take Jesus’ guarantee that he has already overcome this world AND your trouble. And what does all of this offer us? It offers us peace. We receive peace in the midst of trouble. Not a trouble free life, but a peace filled life. Won’t you receive peace today. Won’t you trust that the one who holds the world in the palm of his hands holds you too? Won’t you trust that Jesus has already overcome every trouble and trial you face? Stare down your trouble today and with bold confidence declare Jesus has already overcome it. He’s already made a way and victory will ultimately be yours. As a daughter of the King and Christ follower, you have a promise. Don’t confuse the promise. It was never a promise of an easy life. It was never a promise of things always going your way. It’s a promise of all things working TOGETHER for good. A promise of God being FOR you, and remember if God is for you, who can be against you? Receive your peace. Walk in assurance. Hold your head high knowing your trouble has already been overcome. It’s already covered. The way has been made. God is already on the other side of this holding the door for you! So you take your heart and you guide it. Don’t let your heart be burdened and overwhelmed by current circumstances. When Jesus tells you “take heart, I have overcome the world” he’s saying, “just you wait. Wait and see what I’m doing here.” You have no idea what God has been doing for you. You cannot even begin to fathom the details of his divine plan specifically for you,

How many times have we said, “If I only knew what God’s will was, I would do it!” We search and we wait for God’s will, promising we will be obedient if God will clearly tell us what his will is. What if I told you I know exactly what God’s will is for you today? What if I could direct you to a scripture that makes it so clear you can’t possibly miss it? Are you ready for this? 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” Did you get it? THIS IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOU, always be joyful, never stop praying, be thankful in all circumstances. Those three things are God’s will for you today, tomorrow and always. If you’re unfamiliar with the term “God’s will”, think of God’s sovereign plan for your life. God’s will is his ultimate desire for you. Most of us spend our entire lives wandering around, dabbling here and there, wondering what God’s will is. And what we find is this truth … God is so much more concerned with HOW you live than WHAT you do. What if this entire time you’ve been praying about WHAT to do and God is saying ‘girl, it’s not what you do, it’s HOW you do it.” It’s not where you live, you can live anywhere. It’s how you live. It’s not where you work. God can bless you anywhere you work, it’s how you work. We get so caught up in the details of what … have we missed the importance of how? How are you living? How did you wake up this morning? God is so so so good to us. He knows we are hardheaded. He knows we are distracted, always focusing on the wrong thing. And so he breaks it down for us. He gives us 3 simple ‘how to’s’ for us to follow today. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances. JOYFUL Will you be joyful today? Quite simply, will you choose to be happy? Yes, I said choose because happiness is always a choice. Just as you choose what clothes to put on today, you can choose to be joyful. Imagine in your closet hangs 3 shirts. One is your joyful shirt. One is your worried shirt. And another is your grouchy shirt. Which one will you choose to put on? Why would we ever intentionally put on our grouchy shirt and choose to go through our day agitated, irritated, disgrunteled and generally grouchy butt about life? While you put on that grouchy shirt, you mite as well go ahead and reach behind you and pull your panties up in a big ol’ wad and walk sideways too! You tell me, “but Pamela I have so much to be worried about … today is a day I really need to wear my worried shirt.” Hmmmm … I wonder, does that really help anything? Has worrying about a single thing ever made it better? That track record sucks! Scripture tells me that God’s will for you is to ALWAYS be joyful. I’m pretty sure always includes TODAY. NEVER STOP PRAYING So, you’re dealing with some less than perfect circumstances? Gotcha. Me too. And God’s will has that covered. His second instruction is to never stop praying. John 7:38 says that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ shall have living waters flowing through him. So imagine water flowing through your heart, mind, body and soul. Now imagine that living water flowing through you touching every burden, every worry and every depressing, hopeless thought you may have and allow that water to sweep them away. This is FLOWING WATER. It is MOVING. It is not stagnant. So imagine releasing your death grip on those burdens and worries and negative thoughts and watch them drift away in the flowing water of Jesus. Release them. It is God’s will for you. This is what prayer does. When you pray about something, you release it and let the living water carry it away. You don’t have to sit and drown in your worries. Pray about it and release it.

We expect one thing … and we often get another. What is your expectation of life and how does it measure up to your reality of life? If you’re being honest, are you sometimes disappointed over how things have worked out for you? Have you ever been like me and say “God, really? Really? This is NOT what I expected!” Hey, we were given fair warning. Isaiah 55:8 says: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. And then the next verse is a promise to us: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. No your way and God’s way won’t always line up. Sometimes you’ll be disappointed. But you can fully trust his ways are higher than yours. Always. There’s deeper meaning and purpose you just can’t see right now. God is doing something here. You can trust that it will be good. In the end it will be good. I met and fell in love with Lonnie when I was 15. Young and oh so naïve. I had a vision of what it would look like to be his wife. We would get married and be together happily ever after. And then the reality. We got married 6 days after I graduated high school, went on a 2 week honey moon, then he went back to his duty station in Germany while I lived at home with my parents … for another year. That was NOT the way I imagined being a newlywed. Not even close. So what do you do when the reality doesn’t measure up to your expectation? Do you grow disheartened? Do you get bitter? Do you throw around blame like confetti? OR DO YOU TRUST? Trust there’s more than you can see. More than you can feel. More than you could ever imagine at work here. And while you can’t see it all, you can trust the one who does. Looking back I see how that first year of marriage spent on separate continents with a weekly 15 minute phone call being our only means of connection served a tremendous purpose … it strengthened us. Can you look back on a time that strengthened you? It wasn’t easy was it? It wasn’t what you would have wished for. But look what it did for you. God’s ways are not our ways. When will we learn to trust fully? So after that first year of marriage spent separated by thousands of miles and an ocean, we finally get to live together. I had imagined every detail of what that would look like. In my expectations, the apartment was always clean, we were always happy and every meal I put on the table was perfection. I wasn’t expecting hardship. I wasn’t expecting illness. At 19 I wasn’t expecting a stroke that paralyzed me. Wow – God’s ways are SOOOOO NOT our ways. I mean as newlyweds shouldn’t he be undressing me instead of dressing me? Shouldn’t he be feeding me chocolate covered strawberries instead of feeding me breakfast, lunch and dinner? I never imagined my young, handsome husband having to shave my legs and braid my hair. That was our reality. And it SUCKED going through it. And I wouldn’t trade it. You have a story too, and I imagine it goes something like this … “It was harder than I expected. But looking back I see how it was all used for good. I’m who I am today because of what I went through.” God is interested in building you up so you can build a life. And it can be an ugly, messy, long process. But doesn’t our own story show each of us how God can be trusted? Doesn’t it prove how he is in the details? And doesn’t it prove that whatever your expectations are, the reality will likely look very different AND WE SHOULD BE OKAY WITH THAT. I would have never ordered up the reality of our first 2 years of marriage. Yeah, can I have a year of separation and lonely desperation … and then why don’t you follow that up with a paralyzing stroke please. NOT WHAT I WOULD HAVE ORDERED – and NOT what I EXPECTED. But the reality is, it gave us a foundation for a marriage that has weathered the ...

Today’s devotional is for the women who have been hurt. Those who woke up disappointed today. Those who feel overwhelmed. Those who are beginning to believe it’s too late and they’re loosing hope. For you, the one who is disheartened by the journey right now with not a lot left to give. In Isaiah 61:3 God reminds you He will give a crown of beauty for ashes. What are your ashes? Ashes are the evidence of a fire that destroyed. The remains of a dream that went up in flames. The remnants of a woman who is burned out. These are ashes. We all have them. We’ve all been hurt. We’ve all messed up. We’ve all been scorched by the fires of life … but we don’t have to live as women who are just a pile of rubble after the destruction. No, God promises beauty for ashes. What does this mean? This means you can take your heaping pile of all you’ve ever given up on in life, all that seems too far gone and hopeless, all that appears to be ruined and EXCHANGE IT FOR BEAUTY. Something magnificent for something malfunctioning. Something beneficial for something broken. Something desirable for something destitute. Something worthy for something worthless. Beauty for ashes. A beautiful life for a burned out life. What a deal. That’s like trading in your 20 year old junker Honda that barely runs for a brand spanking new Range Rover with after effects. If you heard that deal advertised on TV wouldn’t you drop everything you were doing and get yourself to the car dealership? Oh you bet you would. Trade out your old used up car for a beautiful new one. And listen to me here, God is offering something worth so much more than a car. Imagine the adds, TODAY ONLY YOU CAN TRADE IN YOUR OLD DISAPPOINTMENTS AND FAILURES FOR A BRAND NEW EXCITING PURPOSE FILLED LIFE. Wouldn’t you find a way to get yourself wherever you needed to be to redeem that offer? Will you today? The offer is available to you right now. Beauty for ashes. God does not leave your heartbreak unredeemed! He doesn’t leave your failure unforgiven. He doesn’t leave you! You, he’s coming back for you! You’re not being left behind. He’s coming back to take whatever you have left and create something beautiful, worthy, meaningful, and life changing with it. Whatever your ashes are, God is offering you beauty in exchange today. But that means you have to GIVE UP the ashes. You have to give up being a victim. You can’t hold on to your ashes and carry them around for everyone to see. You have to make the EXCHANGE. Beauty for ashes. Turn over your heartache. Turn over your failure. Turn over your disappointment. Turn over your hurt. Release it. It no longer belongs to you. And you know what’s really powerful about this. When the pain no longer belongs to you, YOU NO LONGER BELONG TO THE PAIN. And with your release of the ashes, God gives you beauty. He gives you purpose. He gives you a passion. He sets your feet on a path to use every ounce of struggle for good in this world. Beauty for ashes. What a deal. Girl, you gotta get in on this. Make that exchange today. God, here’s my pile of ashes. I give them to you and I thank you for giving me beauty in exchange.

You were created to be an overcomer. This means you have the ability to get OVER anything that may COME your way. Get it – Overcomer – Get OVER anything that may COME your way. You have been given a specific set of skills and experiences that have strengthened you for your journey. You are STRONG. Have you forgotten this? But this morning, I also want to point out something you’re likely fully aware of. You have weaknesses. We all have strengths, but we also have weaknesses. We don’t need to shy away from our weaknesses, cover them up or wish they weren’t there. Our weaknesses are crucial to our journey. Listen to me here sister, this might be worth writing down: A weakness is not a weakness when God fills that gap with his strength. When are we the weakest? When we are suffering. I’m talking about suffering when a relationship is falling apart. Suffering when sickness has hit our home. When there’s no more money and the bill collectors won’t quit calling. When we’ve lost someone we love. In those times of suffering our weakness is magnified. Maybe that’s you right now. You are suffering and therefore you are weak. I want to speak to you this morning my sister … God’s power is made perfect in your weakness. When you are weak, then you are strong. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 God has a personal and direct message for you: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In response, you can say the same thing as Paul: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” When I am weak, THEN I AM STRONG. Overcomer. I’ve heard it said this way – We often treat suffering like a game of dodgeball. When anything hard comes at us, we jump out of the way. We duck, dive, and hide. We spend our whole lives trying to avoid anything painful or hard. But there’s a better kind of life—a deeper, more fulfilling kind of life—a life that isn’t about avoiding pain. Around here we like to call it BIG Life. This BIG Life is about finding God faithful and sufficient in the midst of whatever trials or storms He allows. There’s something about our weakness that opens the flow of God’s strength. Your weakness in this hardship has opened the flow of God’s strength. In the midst of a trial, there’s a power coming into your life that you’ve never experienced before, because you never needed it so desperately before. Only when you’re personally weak can you experience this supernatural strength. When you see a hard thing coming your way, stop trying to dodge it and maybe try a different reaction: I may not want this, I certainly didn’t choose it, but I can accept it and be content even now. I know God’s grace is sufficient to get me through it. I’m going to see the power of Christ in my life in an incredible way. I’m weak, but He’s strong. You likely sang similar words as a little girl. Jesus loves me this I know – For the bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but HE IS STRONG. God never allows a thorn without providing sufficient grace and strength in our weaknesses. Sufficient grace is not just enough to survive, but enough so that we can have supernatural joy in the midst of anything He allows us to go through. That’s strength. Today you will see the power of Christ in your life in an incredible way because God is drawn to your weakness and his strength is displayed. An overcomer is not without weaknesses. An overcomer gets knocked down too, but an overcomer keeps getting back up! An overcomer regains strength from their weakness they keep getting better. YOU are an overcomer.

Raise your hand if you’ve been angry in the past week. Angry at him – angry at her – angry over a situation or circumstance. Oh I’m pretty sure the majority of us have felt some anger. Just a few minutes on social media shows me a whole lot of angry people over some current issues. So, what about all this anger? What do we do with these emotions when they come? Is it okay to be angry? Let me tell you something, ANGER is a choice. No one can MAKE you be angry. Perhaps you’ve said it in the heat of the moment – “You make me SOOOOO ANGRY.” Nope. No he doesn’t. No one and no thing has that control over you. It’s your choice. Have you been choosing it a lot lately? You may not have control over circumstances, but how you respond is always your personal choice. And guess what my sweet sister – it’s part of the BIG Life Mindset – 100% responsibility for your life. You have the ABILITY to RESPOND. And it is your response that defines you. Your response to life creates your experience in life. If you don’t like what you’re experiencing, perhaps ask God to help you change how you’re responding. I always love to put things into perspective with this truth. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it. Sure he may have pushed your buttons. She may have really taken it too far. But that’s only 10%. 90% is in how YOU respond. Will you take RESPONSIBILITY for how you respond? God gave you that ability. Anger comes to everyone. If you are alive, you will get angry. No doubt about it. It is okay to get angry, but but but … anger is like fire. It has a huge potential for great damage if not kept under control. Years and years of work and elaborate planning, 30 years worth of monthly payments and investment, a lifetime of gathering and collecting, can all be swept away in FIRE. And this is the image of our anger. Every relationship and every opportunity you’ve ever been given can be ruined in the raging fire of anger. But just like fire has it’s place, so does anger. Ecclesiastes 7:9 – Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. The scripture here is not saying you should NEVER be angry, just don’t get angry so quick. Anger can’t be your default emotion. Girl, you gotta have some self-control! Psalms 103:8 says “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, SLOW TO ANGER and plenteous in mercy.” We should be compassionate and gracious. What does that look like today? That means be nice darn it. Just be nice. And it starts at home. Can you be nice to the people you live with? We’re so quick to jump to the random acts of kindness to complete strangers, which is a beautiful thing, but what about acts of kindness to the people you love most? Will you be understanding and considerate of them today? Will you be gentle and thoughtful with your family? God is compassionate and gracious with us with all our faults and mistakes and he’s asking us to imitate him. God is slow to anger. This means God isn’t going to get mad at you over every little thing you do. And we should follow suit here. You can’t get mad over every little thing. Think about it … are you picking fights? Are you being easily offended? Are you sitting at the table with the eyes of a hawk pointing out every single thing they do wrong? Are you blowing up? Are you stomping your feet? Have you slammed a door lately? Have you done your fair share of name calling? Well that’s not how God treats us, and that’s not how we should be treating others … especially the people we live with! Slow to anger. Slow. Slow. Slow. Slow it down girl. Don’t jump to conclusions. Don’t take it personally. Don’t read between the lines. God is plenteous in mercy. He has the power and the right to punish us, but instead he chooses to be forgiving … and he’s asked you to do the same.

Romans 8:37 – “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” So who is it that loves you? That would be Jesus. Through the love of Jesus, we are more than conquerors. We are not just conquerors, we are MORE than conquerors. So then what are we? You likely know this scripture. Perhaps you’ve even quoted it in the middle of a trial. But have you ever questioned exactly what you are if you are more than a conqueror? My friend and mentor TD Jakes recently broke it down for me like this. The only thing that is MORE than a conqueror is a champion. A conqueror is defined by the fight she fought. But you are more than that. You are more that the fight you have fought. You are a champion. A champion is defined by the winner she is. Que the music Carrie Underwood!!!!! I am invincible, unbreakable Unstoppable, unshakeable They knock me down, I get up again I am the champion You’re gonna know my name You can’t hurt me now I can’t feel the pain I was made for this, yeah, I was born to win I am the champion You are MORE than a conqueror, you are a CHAMPION because of Christ Jesus. As a champion you accept winning as your new normal. Winning is not a one time experience for you, you expect it! You know it won’t be easy, but you’re up for the battle and you will be victorious! Is winning your brand? Do you identify with winning? Or do you identify with losing? Are you ¾ defeated before you even begin your day? Are you already imagining all that will go wrong today, all that will be too hard for you and too much for you? Have you already counted yourself out? It doesn’t have to be that way. Jesus has already done it for you. It’s already lined up. It is through him you are more than a conqueror, but here’s the key. You must DEFINE YOURSELF. How will you be defined? If you define yourself by all the battles you lose, then you are a loser. You don’t want to be a loser. God didn’t create you to be a loser. And he certainly didn’t send his son Jesus to give up his life for you so that you could be a loser. If you define yourself by the FIGHT, then you’re a conqueror. Somehow, someway you overcame. But it may have been a one time thing. It was all about the fight. Have you become defined by your battle? Is your identity in your struggle? Can you carry on a conversation without mentioning your fight and how hard it was, or are you defined by your fight and all you went through? It’s tie to move on from battle mode. It’s time to rise above what you survived. You’re more than the battle you won. Because of what has already been done for you, you don’t have to define yourself by the battles you lose or the battles you win, you can identify yourself by THE WINNER YOU ARE. Do you believe that at your core you are a winner? Ahhhhh, you should. God doesn’t make no junk. He doesn’t handcraft losers. He makes winners. In Ephesians 2:10 we see that we are God’s masterpiece. You are created to be a champion. You’re not a one time winner. Nope, you are more than a conqueror. You are a champion. A champion wins one battle, then another, then another. They just keep on winning. When they get knocked down, they get back up again. They don’t allow a defeated mindset. Losing isn’t an option because they won’t quit. This is who you were made to be. You don’t become a champion overnight. You work your way up through the ranks. One game after another. One battle after another. One struggle after another. One obstacle after another. You keep winning. One day at a time, you just win. Because it’s who you are. It’s who you were created to be. It’s what Jesus did for you – he made you MORE THAN a conqueror. You are a champion … defined by the winner you are. It is your identity. It is your mindset.

Philippians 4: 6 “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” What do you need right now? Where do you need God to show up? Today, will you worry about it, or will you pray about it? His work has already begun. He has walked every path possible before you and cleared it. He has faced every situation and worked out your victory. He has already begun the work necessary to prepare and protect you as you follow Him into unknown places. Our God is all-knowing, He has the answers. Our God is almighty, He has the strength. Our God is everlasting, He will always be with you. And all we have to do is pray. That’s it. Talk to God about everything. Why wouldn’t we talk to the creator of the universe about our big problems? I mean do we really think any problem is even considered big to God? There’s nothing too big for him. Nothing. There’s nothing he can’t do. Are you withholding your prayers and clinging to your worry because it is so big and overwhelming? Did you know overwhelm means to turn upside down and submerge. Is this what your worries are doing to you? Are you completely turned upside down and submerged? Hey listen to me, I have the exact prayer you need to pray. Are you ready? Memorize this one. It’s 2 words: GOD HELP. There’s no prayer more powerful. God help. I promise he hears you. And I promise he is moved by your call to him. God help we have this big problem and it is overwhelming to us, but nothing is too big for you. Will you help us? Talk to God about everything. But how often do we not talk to God about our problems because we don’t want to “burden him”. I mean after all, others have bigger problems than us and God must be really busy trying to help them. Well that’s nonsense. If God could create the sun and the moon and the stars in ONE SINGLE DAY, don’t you think he can tend to my prayers and yours at the same time? There are 100 billion stars in the universe … he created them all in one day. I believe he has proven himself capable of handling a lot. Here’s a bible quiz for you today. How does 1 Peter 5:7 read in your bible? Choose from these 5 options: 1. “Only bring your big problems to God, because he doesn’t have time for the little stuff.” 2. “Don’t burden God with your worries, because you gotta work this stuff out on your own.” 3. “Bring all your problems to God on Sunday, because that’s the only day he listens.” 4. “Count on someone holier than you to pray for you, because they have a direct line to God and you don’t.” Or 5. Does I Peter 5:7 in your bible say “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Ding ding ding, that’s it. Yes. Sweet daughter of God, lover of Jesus CAST ALL YOUR ANXIETY ON HIM BECAUSE HE CARES FOR YOU. All of it. Give it to him. Talk to him about everything. Because he cares for you. He cares about everything you care about. So what’s the end of the story? Philippians 4:6, our scripture for today says – Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Got it. Tell him what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then what? What after that? Ahhhh here it comes, verse 7 – THEN, then, then … that means after you intentionally choose to worry about nothing and pray about everything, after you tell him what you need and thank him for all he has done, “THEN you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. Then his peace will guard your heart and mind as you live in Christ Jesus.” His work has already begun. He has walked every path possible before you and cleared it. He has faced every situation and worked out your victory. He has already begun the work necessary to prepare and protect you as you follow Him into unknown places. Our God is all-knowing,

God has heard your prayer. He has a plan. He knows what you’ve been through. He knows where you’re at. He knows what lies ahead. He sees it all. Every detail is within his vision. Nothing is hidden from him, not even the things you refuse to speak of. He knows your deepest fears. He knows all about the things you wrestle with that remain unspoken. He is here with you now and he is already ahead of you making a way. Not a single prayer you have ever prayed has gone unheard. Ever. God is listening and he is moved by your need. His power is allocated by your request. His plan is set into motion by your surrender. You may have been praying and feel God is not answering. Things may only appear to be getting worse. You may be questioning if God has heard you. Has he been moved by your prayers? Is he going to do anything about this? Yes, God has heard your prayer. He has a plan. The Bible is filled with stories of God responding to prayer and making a way when there seemed to be no way. God’s plan unfolding in the middle of the impossible. Today we’ll take a look at a less familiar story in the book of 2 Kings. The story of a King who prayed. King Hezekiah was under attack. He had every right to be filled with fear. He was outnumbered and surrounded. Everyone had counted him out. Have you been counted out? Maybe you’ve even counted yourself out. You feel too far gone. It’s too late. The mountain is too big and you’re tired of climbing. The storm is only growing stronger as you grow weaker. Have you prayed about that? Are you still seeking God in this storm? Are you still counting on him to show up and do something … or have you given up? Seriously, have you grown disheartened by the continual attack and resigned to a place of defeat? Have you lost hope? Pray again. God has heard your prayer. He has a plan. In Kings chapter 19 King Hezekiah had become so disheartened by the attacks of his enemies that he tore his clothes and put on burlap. Tearing your clothes was customary when you were grieving. It was a sign of deep anguish. Burlap was the scratchiest, most uncomfortable of cloth. To put on burlap meant you were miserable. This is the state King Hezekiah was in. Grieving and miserable. And yet he prayed. He prayed to a God who had the power to do the impossible on his behalf. He prayed to a God who he dared to believe still had a plan in this disaster. The Lord responded to King Hezekiah’s prayer and said to him, “Do not be disturbed by (what your attacker says). Listen! I myself will move against him.” God says I’VE GOT THIS. Don’t pay attention to what they say. Don’t let this shake your faith. Keep your eye on me. Listen to me. I MYSELF will move against your enemy. You can’t do this, but I can. I have a plan. Now notice what happens after God says he has a plan. Immediately after this, King Hezekiah received a message from his attacker, the King of Assyria. “Don’t let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by us. You know perfectly well what we have done wherever we have gone. We have completely destroyed everyone who stood in our way! Why should you be any different?” What’s happening here is what happens to all of us. We pray and God says I’VE GOT A PLAN. Great, we begin to trust again. Then we’re reminded of how big our problem is. We’re reminded of how impossible this is. The record of losses is displayed before us. We begin to lose our faith. How could God possibly fix this mess? How could he save me in this storm? How could he make this right? What do you do when you’re reminded of your reality? What do you do when the threats have shaken you to your core? Remember what God said … DO NOT BE DISTURBED BY THIS. LISTEN!

What is it you’re waiting for? We’re all waiting for something. We’re waiting for something to change, something to improve, something to happen, someone to pick us, promote us, buy from us, help us. We’re waiting for the sign, the ah-ha, the breakthrough, the shift. Please something start clicking. Ultimately, we’re waiting for OPPORTUNITY. We generally struggle with opportunity. We think, “If only opportunity would come my way, then I would be successful.” A job, a business, a contact, the right person, the right diet. And here’s the thing about opportunity … it’s always there waiting for us. It’s all around you waiting right now. All the opportunity in the world is currently in your life. Truly it is. So what are we missing? Sadly, we might be missing the abundance of opportunities because we’re simply not READY. We haven’t made ourselves AVAILABLE to the opportunities. I mean geeze, we are masters at cluttering up our lives and playing so darn busy, scattered and unfocused, minds bouncing from one thing to the next like a ping pong ball, where is there available head space for opportunity? Are you ready for opportunity? Imagine that God wants you to have that breakthrough just as much as you want it, but you haven’t done the work to be ready for it. And well, God’s not gonna force it down your throat. Like a 16 year old who wants their driver’s license but hasn’t practiced driving … they don’t deserve their driver’s license. DO YOU DESERVE THE OPPORTUNITY YOU’RE PRAYING FOR? Have you shown yourself faithful with little? We all want opportunity, but are we willing to take even the smallest step to make ourselves available to the opportunity? Opportunity only shows itself when you go out and seek it. Seek and ye shall find. Everyone wants opportunity, but few, very very few, want to do the work necessary to be ready for the opportunities of life. “Once opportunity arrives, it’s too late to prepare.” My husband has drilled that John Wooden quote into our teens. Our guide for seeking and seizing opportunities is found in Philippians 3:13-14 “But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” There are things that will keep you tied to the past, keep you held back. You must let go of that crap in your life. Forget the past failures, the past hurts, the past injuries. Realize that the past does not have to equal your future and press on. What you have now are lessons, just great lessons. Perhaps a whole pile of lessons on what didn’t work and what not to do. Great. You paid a high price for those lessons, now use them … don’t allow them to hold your future hostage. Maybe your past equals your childhood, your first marriage, or the pizza you ate yesterday. Are you willing to leave it behind you so you can strain toward what is ahead? Or will you beat yourself up again today? That’s a genuine question, one only you can answer. Will you let it go so you can move on? What opportunity are you seeking? What goal are you working toward? What change do you desire? WILL YOU WORK FOR IT TODAY? Put on your blinders, get focused, put your head down and get to work. PRESS ON toward the GOAL to WIN the prize. Press on means keep pushing. Girl, now isn’t the time to let up. Press on. Maybe you’ve let up a bit. You’ve gotten lax in your efforts and your progress has suffered as a result. Accept responsibility here, and press on. Focus on the mark ahead and work towards it with tenacity. The opportunities will become clear as you work. The opportunities were always there, you just weren’t ready for them. If you are praying to God for those opportunities, he hears you. He is just waiting for you to be ready for the opportunity of a lifetime he has for you. Work. Press on toward what you want.

Someone you love is under attack. What can you do today to help protect them? Well, we’ll go back to our days of watching nature shows on public television and remember a valuable lesson. Hebrews 10: 24-25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. I know, I know, I know, it’s the ultimate scripture used on all of us as a guilt trip to go to Church. I believe in Church. I take my family to Church every week. But what if it’s about more than just Sunday? What if it’s about today too? And what if it’s about more than the padded seat you fill in that building you call church. What if it’s about the seat in your office and the seat around your dinner table. We live in a day and time where we simply don’t have face time with people. And I don’t mean facetime on your phone. I mean DIRECT HUMAN CONTACT. We don’t “come together” much anymore do we? We work from home, we order our groceries online, and we have minimal contact with the real world. And what does that cost us? Why does God want us to BE together? Because alone we are vulnerable. Ecclesiastes 4:12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. We’ve all seen the nature shows when the herd is running together from an attacker. Then one member of the herd shoots off in another direction. Then what happens? ALONE THEY STAND NO CHANCE. They are attacked. Every day we are under attack. And we need each other. We can’t sit in our comfortable little world hiding behind our screens any longer. We MUST meet together. Do you know someone struggling right now? Is it possible for you to go BE WITH THEM? Then do that! Go. Be there. Encourage them. Show them love and good deeds. But even more importantly, let us apply this scripture in our homes. Is there a member of your family who is growing distant? Are they spending more time in their room than with the family? Are they closed off? You love them don’t you? They are part of your herd. Maybe it’s your spouse or maybe it’s your child. Listen to me, they are in danger. Remember the herd. When one veers off alone, they are most vulnerable. Get your herd together. Or it maybe it’s you. Maybe it’s you that has grown distant. You’re struggling, and because you’re struggling you’ve gone silent. You’ve withdrawn. AND YOU ARE IN DANGER. I know you think it’s best to just be alone so you don’t make everyone miserable in your struggle, but listen to me … alone you are vulnerable. You have a herd that loves you. Come back to them! Tonight is the night for a family dinner and EVERYONE sits at the table. If you are married, then tonight is the night to go to bed TOGETHER if at all possible. Together. Be together. Encourage one another. Remember what our scripture says “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing”. Maybe you’ve just gotten into a habit of meals being scattered instead of planned. A habit of everyone going to their own room with their own TV. And we’ve got to stop that. What’s more important … the show YOU want to watch or your family? I’m not saying you have to turn off the TV. If the TV is the only thing that will bring your family together, then so be it … keep the herd together and sit there and act like you enjoy their movie. MEET TOGETHER. Together. Together. Together. What if your evenings are so busy there’s no possible way for everyone to come together? One, make sure that’s just for a season and not a permanent thing. Eliminate as necessary. Children benefit more from the dinner table than they do their 3rd sport. But also remember there are more times than just the evening.