BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Would you define the way you wake up as glorious? What if you could? What if I could tell you how? By definition glorious means having a striking beauty or splendor that evokes feelings of delighted admiration. Ahhhhh yeah, wouldn’t you like to wake up like that? Wake up to striking beauty and feel absolutely delighted? This morning, whether you recognized it or not, you most certainly woke up to striking beauty. You have every reason to feel delighted. Is everything perfect … no. But perfection is not required here. You’re surrounded by the miraculous. You’re surrounded by awe inspiring, mind blowing, breath taking beauty. Admire that in your own life today! Wake up glorious. Your body follows your thoughts wherever they go. If you tell yourself you’re exhausted, then you no doubt feel exhausted. If you tell yourself you can’t, then typically you’re absolutely right, you can’t. Knowing the power my creator placed in my own thoughts (Proverbs 23:7 “As a man thinketh, so is he”) I intentionally choose my first thoughts each morning as my alarm rings. Want to know my secret to waking up happy and peppy … well here you go! The alarm rings and I just let it play, ‘Glorious’ by Maclamore. No, it’s not Christian music and yet here I am as a lover of Jesus who know every word and I can rap it with the best of them. I feel glorious, glorious Got a chance to start again I was born for this, born for this It’s who I am, how could I forget? I made it through the darkest part of the night And now I see the sunrise Now I feel glorious, glorious I feel glorious, glorious Why do I feel glorious? Because I wake up singing it and I’m reminded in Isaiah 60:1 – “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.” My favorite verse says “Another morning, a morning, don’t let self get in my way.” Another morning is exactly what you and I have been given here. A morning where the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Now that is glorious!!!!! Another morning to not let self get in the way. Oh please tell me I’m not the only one who totally gets in the way of my own self on most days. I talk myself out of doing the things I know I should do. And I convince myself someway or another I’m unworthy of the good stuff in life and incapable of doing the hard stuff in life. Are you in your own way? God has this great big beautiful life available for each of us and he specifically made us and equipped us with everything we would need to step into our full purpose, and we just get in our own way. How are you in your own way? Is it your negative thoughts about yourself? Ahhhh, yes for most of us it’s all in our head. We convince ourselves for some reason we can’t. We tear ourselves down then tear ourselves into pieces with our self hate and loathing, all while the creator must be tortured watching his masterpiece be torn apart. Don’t you know YOU are his greatest masterpiece. You are his beloved creation. You’ve got to stop tearing yourself down. You’ve got to get out of your own way. How many times are we blocking our own blessings and breakthroughs by allowing fear and anger, procrastination and negative thoughts to get in the way. We grow weary and give up when it doesn’t happen fast enough for us. But the truth is, your journey may take a long time, but the time is going to pass one way or another. The time can pass as you get better and live up to your God given potential, or it can pass as you lose yourself a little more every day and sink deeper into that hole. You have yourself another morning here my sister, don’t let self get in your way.

God wants to use you. He wants to radically change and bless your life, not just for you, but for your entire family. And this is why the enemy works so hard to stop you, it’s not just about you. You see if the enemy can just keep you stuck, depressed, overwhelmed, frustrated, and too busy then your whole family is negatively affected. There’s something IN you that God is going to grow and multiply. What is IN you? That’s what the enemy is fighting you over. It’s not about where you are – it’s about where you’re going and what’s next. Your unborn potential. That’s what is under attack. Things you don’t even know about yet. Plans for your life you’re totally unaware of. This morning I’ll be sharing a few entries in my journal from an old TD Jakes sermon titled Generations. The story comes from Genesis 17: 1-9 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, “I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I’ll make a covenant between us and I’ll give you a huge family.” Overwhelmed, Abram fell flat on his face. Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: You’ll be the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, meaning that ‘I’m making you the father of many nations.’ I’ll make you a father of fathers—I’ll make nations from you, kings will issue from you. Perhaps you remember how the story ends. 99 year old Abraham and his wife Sarah finally have that baby that God had promised. What have you been waiting on from God? What do you do when God says nothing? When God’s waiting it out and you’re totally OVER waiting? This text shows God speaking to Abraham very clearly. I would like that. There have only been a few times I’ve felt God speak to me that clearly. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if every morning when we woke up we heard clear instructions from God on where we’re supposed to go and what we’re supposed to do. Well here’s what I didn’t know before. God hadn’t spoken to Abraham for 13 years. For 13 years, Abraham had prayed and searched for God and God had said nothing. God saw everything that had been happening to Abraham and said nothing. All while Abraham had been stumbling in his own efforts, making grand mistakes and big ol’ messes while God watched and said NOTHING. Maybe you’re in that season of praying and searching and God has been silent. Ahhhhh, yes. There are some truths God cannot introduce to you at earlier times because you have not gone through enough to see what God has for you. It’s when all your bright ideas have failed and your grand plans fall apart that you can hear God speak. WHY HAS GOD BEEN WAITING? BECAUSE YOU HAVEN’T BEEN READY. He has been taking you through the process to get you ready for the promise. The process prepares you for the promise. Don’t give up in the process and miss the fulfillment of the promise. You’re just being prepared. That’s what all of this is. Preparation. So here Abraham was at 99 years old, having made a real mess of things. He and Sarah were so desperate for the baby God wasn’t giving them that he had slept with his wife’s servant and had a baby with her. Well, that’s never a great idea. But when you’re desperate and God isn’t answering, whew we can come up with some cockamamie schemes and stir up some messes. And now at 99, God finally speaks to Abraham and says NOW I’m going to bless you. Here at the end of your rope where your ideas and strength have run out. Here in the middle of your impossible, I’M GOING TO DO THIS. Ahhhh, when God is ready to bless you, circumstances mean nothing. My sister, God’s about to show you WHY you went through all you went through. Your later days shall be greater than your former. Your good days are still ahead of you. You haven’t reached your peak yet. There’s still greater potential in you! It was too late for Abraham and Sarah to have a baby,

At this very moment, your heat is beating. That heart beat tells me you’re alive. This is no mistake, you are alive for a reason. That beat is your drum, guiding you in rhythm to your purpose. Now here’s the truth about that statement, and the problem that comes with it. When I tell you that you’re alive for a reason and that heartbeat is a sign of purpose, do you automatically start stressing out trying to figure out what it is? Do you feel the overwhelm and pressure of, “Ok, well why? Why am I alive? What is my purpose? What am I supposed to be doing? Oh my gosh! What if I’m too late? What if I’ve missed it? What if I’m screwing it up? What if I’m on the wrong path?” You’re not alone. That’s the way most people feel when we start talking about purpose. But Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” You see we don’t need to be all flustered and upset and overwhelmed and stressed out about why God put us on this earth and what our purpose is in this life, God is telling us, “Hey, don’t be so anxious about this. Hey, be grateful for this present that I’ve given you. Just come to me with your requests and let my peace fill you.” Maybe that’s exactly what you need today? You don’t need to go on some huge quest for your purpose, you need to decide not to be anxious about it and trust God with it. You’ve likely heard the serenity prayer; “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Awesome stuff written many years ago. But there’s another part very few of us know, you may have never even heard it, and certainly few of us are living by it. Here’s the rest of the Serenity Prayer, “Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace. Taking as he did, the sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to his will. That I may be reasonably happy in this life and extremely happy with him forever in the next.” Right there is the key to living well today and fulfilling our purpose. It’s living this day, today. Not worrying about tomorrow, but enjoying this moment. I will tell you, the way I have found my greatest purposes in life isn’t by stressing over them. It’s not even by reading a ton of books, but it’s quite simply by letting life flow through me. Is life flowing through you? Won’t you just breathe, trust, and keep your eyes open? Enjoy the ride and see what unfolds. And as you let life flow through you, it’s then that you begin to hear the beat of your own drum. May you have serenity today. May you not be anxious about anything. And may you remember Proverbs 16:9, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” You can have a million and one plans, but trust that it is God who establishes your steps. You don’t have to have this whole thing figured out. You don’t have to have a ten step plan, because guess what? Even if you do, it’s likely not going to work out the way you think it will. So, I’m inviting you to stop stressing over your purpose and just let life flow through you today. Overthinking kills your happiness. Insecurities kill your confidences. Doubts kill your possibilities. So stop thinking so much, stop tearing yourself down, stop playing little in your own life, stop questioning. Today, let life flow through you. Begin to notice the beat of your drum. The heart beat that tells you you have a purpose, you’re here for a reason. Trust God to establish your steps. Trust that he’s going to make all things right as you surrender to his will.

Romans 8:28 – And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. This has been one of my favorite verses for the past 20 years. A verse I committed to memory and repeat often. But over the past few years God has truly revealed this scripture to me on another level and this morning I want to share it with you. Listen up, if you’re currently under pressure or stress, frustrated over the process, or in the middle of a mess, I believe God wants to speak directly to you this morning. Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! God causes all things to work together for good. I’ve always focused on two words here. All and Good. God causes ALL things to work together for GOOD. All good. In fact I would say it “it’s all good.” I’m all good. All this is good. And darn did I ever try to believe it. And typically it was all good. But I guess you could say life happened, people got sick, I witnessed pain. Pain like I’ve never seen before. I witnessed loss and anger and heart ache. I saw bad things happen to good people and I struggled with my normal response of “it’s all good.” All good … but there were some things that simply WERE NOT GOOD. I felt so guilty because even in my world of “the glass is always half full”, it felt pretty darn empty. I couldn’t find the good. So what do you do when it’s not good? No matter how you spin it, what you’re dealing with in your family, in your marriage, in your health, or in your finances is NOT GOOD. God said ALL things, but not this thing. It just can’t be good. And then God brought me back to this scripture, one of my favorites and pointed out another word. Together. All things work TOGETHER for good. This bad thing, this hard thing, this seemingly unfair thing works TOGETHER with all other things and creates the good we seek. What we often do is we single out this one event in our life and we say “this, this isn’t good.” And then we set up camp on that single event and life becomes overall pretty crappy. We get depressed. We even begin to lose our faith because God’s promise of “all good” somehow skipped over us. This is NOT good. Maybe you’re dealing with one of those “NOT GOOD” situations in your life. Me too. Here’s what we must do … remember it is a part of the ALL and let god put it TOGETHER. And when he starts working it TOGETHER, it will be good. God is a master chef. He can whip up some amazing things in our life. And just like baking a cake, it takes all kinds of ingredients. And typically those ingredients on their own don’t seem remarkably good. Sit around and try to eat salt. Not good. Drink some vanilla extract. Nope. Here’s a tablespoon of baking powder. Not good alone. But worked TOGETHER, deliciousness. God’s ability to create something beautiful out of our messes reminds me of a cooking show I once watched. A basket of random ingredients was presented to hopeful chefs, they were given a time limit to create a dish using all of these ingredients. They always seemed to be an impossible combination like turnips, black licorice, sardines and lemon drops …. uhmmmm yuck. This was not a challenge for amateurs. It required a professional. To my amazement they would create a dish worthy of a fine restaurant. Why? Because they knew how to mix it. God is the same. He is a master chef. Your seemingly random basket of life events may appear impossible to you, but in the hands of the master it becomes a masterpiece. Remember God didn’t cause it all, but he can use it all. We live in a fallen world. We are humans with free will and free choice, and sometimes we choose wrong. Sometimes the choices of others negatively impacts our lives. God never promised to stop all things, but he did promise to USE all things. He won’t leave a single thing out.

I John 1:5 – In him there is LIGHT, there is no darkness at all. God doesn’t have a dark side. He’s not trying to punish you or get back at you. He’s not out to get you. He’s not angry at you. Nor is he ignoring you. Everything God does is for a purpose, and his purposes are good towards you. How do I know? Because as a believer and follower of Christ, you have been completely covered by him and his sacrifice. When God sees you, he sees his son. He sees a fully righteous, covered, paid for, priceless child whom he loves wildly. People may have a dark side. Their motives and intentions may be for personal gain and you may get used in the process. People get angry and lash out in painful ways. People say they will be there, then they’re no where to be found. All of this teaches us to be defensive and watch our backs. And maybe people have taught you no one can be trusted, but that’s not God. You don’t have to go through life being on the defensive with God. Ever. He is your Abba Father, your Daddy and let me tell you one thing for sure, He loves his girl. And you’re his girl. He loves his girl. You can write it down and you can bank on it. And here’s another thing I know. He has heard you, He sees exactly what is going on in your world, he holds your world in the palm of his hand, He cares about you and the details of your life and he is moving on your behalf. God hears you and he is moving mountains for you right now. He is working. Say that with me – He is working. He is working. Oh yes he is. We may not see the manifestation of the mountains he is moving and the doors he is opening at this moment, but be assured it IS happening. He is arranging and rearranging, moving hearts and preparing the path for YOU. Some things just take time. Not for God. With God ANYTHING is possible and it’s possible today. But maybe it’s taking time because although you THINK you’re ready for that breakthrough and the big answers, God knows you’re not really ready. And sometimes I believe it takes time because where’s the faith in plans all coming together exactly as they were planned a year ago? Faith thrives is that ‘last minute, down to the wire, facing the impossible with no other option but GOD’ kinda ground. Is that where you’re standing right now? That “only God” ground. You’ve tried it all and it’s not working? You’re down to the wire? Things are kinda looking impossible? Ahhhhh, that’s powerful ground sister. God has not forsaken you. He sees you, he hears you and he cares. God doesn’t have a dark side. He is light, pure light and he brings light into your life. He is moving on your behalf. He is working for you. You may not see it manifest today, but you can trust he is working. I know I needed this reminder today. I need to re-surrender for the thousandth time all my cares and thoughts and fully trust that my God is good to the core and there is only light in him and from him. I refuse to wander around in darkness fearful, stressed or anxiety ridden. Nope, not today Satan. Thank you for your offer of darkness, but I’m going for the light. Will you choose the same? Will you stop the cycle of living in the darkness of fear and stress and anxiety and step into the light starting right now at this moment? God’s light is shining on you. It is for you. In his light you will find your way. In his light you will taste a fullness and beauty of life you may have never known before. But first, you must choose, literally CHOOSE to step out of the darkness and into His light. No more hiding. No more running. No more pouting in your little corner mulling over how unfair life is. That’s darkness and there is no darkness in God. God is only light and he wants to shine in your life today.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.” Life is like the changing seasons. There is a season for everything. Some seasons are harder than others. Some we look forward to and some we dread. Some times in our life are like the long hard winter where everything is suffering and stagnant. But what always follows winter? Always, since the beginning of time, spring time follows winter time. It was cold and bitter, then comes sunshine and new growth. A very wise man taught me about the changing seasons and it began to change my life. 13 years ago I stumbled into the office of Mr. Jack Winton. Mr. Winton was a highly successful businessman in El Paso, Texas. At the time he was in his late 70’s and had even more wisdom than he had money. His wisdom he shared. His money he invested. I was on the receiving end of his wisdom and he became my mentor. He introduced me to the teachings of a man named Jim Rohn. Jim was a motivational speaker whom I had never met in person, but I invited him into my life to speak to me every day. Jim Rohn had a 6 CD set of teachings called “The Art of Exceptional Living”. I listened to these same teachings over and over again until I had them memorized word for word. There’s tremendous value in having someone wiser than yourself speak into your life. There’s also tremendous value in listening to the same teachings more than once. Today we are one click away from a million podcasts with a hundred different episodes each. We’re overwhelmed with information, listening to an abundance, but most remains surface level. Jim Rohn’s teachings were different for me. They were all I listened to for 2 years. The same 6 CDs on repeat. Jim taught me about the seasons. He made Ecclesiastes 3:1 come to life. He said “Life is like the changing seasons. You cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself. Therein lies the opportunity to live an extraordinary life–the opportunity to change yourself.” And oh how right he was. As my life went through seasons, I learned I couldn’t change the seasons. Life was going to happen and I could fight it or I could learn from it. I could be miserable or I could seek the good. I could get bitter or I could get better. I COULD CHANGE. Each change of the seasons of life offers an opportunity to live an extraordinary life by changing yourself. I’m a summertime kinda girl. I love sunshine and sandals. I look forward to it every year. I also dread it’s end every year. But as I’ve grown, I recognize it is the winter that makes me appreciate the summer. It is the cold that makes the returning warmth so treasured. Do you think that perhaps God in all of his wisdom knew exactly what we needed for growth? Do you think it’s all by design so we could learn to grow and change ourselves and live the extraordinary life he has offered us from the beginning? I believe so. One commentary on this scripture says “To expect unchanging happiness in a changing world, must end in disappointment.” What is good and beautiful and right in your world today? Understand that world is changing. Savor it now. It won’t always be this way. Life changes. Plain and simple, nothing stays the same. Sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes it’s the most painful thing you will ever experience. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die. Seasons change and we must allow them to change. We can’t cling to a winter season forever. Spring arrives and we must step into it. Please listen to me, clinging to the winter where you lost something so precious doesn’t honor what you lost. When the winter passes and spring arrives,

You have tremendous power in your life. Power is simply defined as the ability to do something. You have the ability to do something. The ability to change, the ability to begin, the ability to keep going. I believe within you is the power to do things that would simply blow your mind. A work of the enemy is to make you feel incapable of doing something, but you are so powerful. Understand this, God has given you the gift of his Holy Spirit to strengthen and guide you. While the Holy Spirit often sounds mysterious and honestly a little bit hookey, it is simply God’s power at work within you. In John chapter 14 verses15-31, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, preparing them for his own death and he explains that while he is going away and they will no longer see him, the Holy Spirit is coming to them to live in them. God is literally living IN them. Jesus says if you love me, the Holy Spirit will come to you and teach you all things and remind you of all he has said. You and I don’t have to wander around like lost puppies in this world. We have a guide who is always with us. We have within us power. Power working within us. Our God, the one who created us, the one who knew us before he knit us together in our mother’s womb, the one who has a good plan for our lives has placed his power within you and he is working. Ephesians 3:20 “to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” You are a power house. Oh yes you are. You are housing the power of God. That power is inside of you. The power that creates, the power that heals, the power that tears down walls and moves mountains. That power is in you. You are a power house because God dwells within you. What stronghold have you battled? Is there an addition or bad habit that has held you back? Is there something in your life you truly want to change, but feel it would be so darn hard to change? Well I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it will be easy. It likely won’t be. However, you were specifically designed to be able to handle tough things. You are not weak. No matter what the enemy tries to tell you, you are NOT WEAK. You have God himself living inside of you and NOTHING is impossible for God. Nothing. So you bring your impossible. You bring it right to the foot of the cross and you lay it down and tell God you don’t want to pick it up again. Are you really ready to change? Are you really ready to make it happen this time? Are you really ready to step up to the next level of living and start living up to your God given potential. AWESOME – within you is the power to do all that and more. God’s power is working in you. All you need to do is tap into it. Today, you have the ability to do something. You have the ability to make the next right choice and do the next right thing. God’s power shows up in your will power, it shows up in your passion, it shows up in the desires of your heart, it shows up in your hunger for more in life, and all you have to do is lean into that power and be willing to do something. Be willing to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit as he guides you down the right path. Be willing to show up and work darn it, this isn’t going to be easy. But I know this, you have been given the gift of a new day of life, and today marks the beginning of a new season. In this new season is the opportunity to do something. Do something about the things in your life you want to change. Do something about the dream in your heart you just can’t shake. Do something about your health. Do something about your finances. Do something about your relationships. You do have the power. You do have God guiding you. Oh yes you do! This is your season of power. Your time has come. And know this about your powerful, almighty God … he’s not greedy.

There’s a God given purpose living inside of you. A designed purpose for your days using your experiences, your talents, and your passions. We often go on a search for our purpose. Maybe I’ll find it over here, as if purpose is some sort of object hidden in the bushes, waiting for you to find it. I assure you, your life has purpose and it doesn’t require a hunt to be found. You’ve never lost it. It’s inside of you. Within you is purpose. If you don’t feel guided by your purpose, understand it’s just been laying dormant. It’s not a hunt that’s needed, it’s a movement. Your purpose needs to be stirred and moved so you’re reminded of what’s within you. Imagine it’s like you’re pregnant. You’re carrying around purpose. Sometimes it lays real still. And sometimes it gets hiccups and you know it’s there. And other times you’re not sure if it’s purpose moving around or if it’s gas. Yeah, that’s the way purpose feels sometimes. Last week while listening to an Elevation Church podcast, I heard the story of two pregnant women explained in a way I never understood before. Remember the story of Elizabeth? Elizabeth and Zachariah were unable to have children until she miraculously became pregnant at a very old age. The bible isn’t specific in her age, but it’s estimated she was in her late 80’s. Elizabeth was pregnant with a miracle who had tremendous purpose. That miracle was a baby named John, who would grow to become John the Baptist, the man chosen by God to pave the way for Jesus. His purpose was to go before the Messiah preparing for his work on Earth. Elizabeth’s little cousin was Mary. You know, virgin Mary … the “Mary did you know” from Christmas. Yes, that Mary. And Mary was pregnant with a miracle as well. Who was she pregnant with? Yes, Jesus! The very son of God sent to save the world. The entire story goes down in Luke chapter 1. Zachariah is visited by an angel and told his barren wife will have a baby and that baby’s purpose is to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. 6 months later the same angel comes to Mary and gives her the shocking news that she will bare the very child of God who will save the world. Woah … that’s a big deal. Scripture says in verse 39 a few days later Mary went to the town where her cousin lived. You know why it took her a few days? Yeah, probably because her head was spinning. What just happened here? My world just got turned upside down. I had a good thing working. I was engaged to this really nice guy, now I’m like all of a sudden pregnant and he knows there’s no way it’s his baby. They stone unwed mothers in this town. What am I going to do now? Oh, I’ll go see my cousin Elizabeth who’s pregnant too. So now we pick up in verse 41 when Mary comes into her cousin Elizabeth’s house… “At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her.” Elizabeth was pregnant with a baby who had tremendous purpose. Mary was pregnant with Jesus. The purpose in Elizabeth leaped within her when the Jesus in Mary came near. Ahhhhh … did you get it? The purpose in you is moved by the Jesus in others. Your life has purpose. You are pregnant with purpose. You don’t need to go searching for it, it’s already inside of you. Perfectly placed within you by your creator. But maybe it’s been laying still. You don’t feel led by purpose. You don’t feel driven by purpose. What needs to happen is your purpose needs to be stirred. It needs to be moved. How is the purpose in you moved … by the Jesus in others. As a follower of Christ, Jesus is living inside of me. He guides and directs me, working through my hands, my feet, and my words.

I challenge you to consider this day of life as not only a gift from God, but a test from God. He will be giving you samples, little bite size pieces of opportunity, and he wants to know what you’re going to do with them. My friend, God wants to bless you, he wants to promote you. He doesn’t want to withhold even one good thing from you, not one. Psalms 84:11 says “The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.” Heaven is a storehouse of treasures, but our God is a good good father who won’t give promotions, he won’t give blessings, he won’t give opportunities to his children who aren’t ready for them. For those of us who have children, we understand this well. Our own children determine the amount of privileges they enjoy by their behavior. We want to bless our kids, we want to. But sometimes we don’t get to because of the way they’re acting. We have rules in our home and if they don’t obey the rules they don’t get to enjoy the rewards. It’s pretty simple. Well it’s the same way with our Heavenly Father. Exodus 16:4 says, “In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” You’re being tested. As you’re making plans for your day, writing your to-do list, considering how you will spend your time, I encourage you to view this day as a challenge to be obedient in your behavior. Be faithful with what you have been given. Take great care of that which you already have. Raise your standards. God is testing you to see if you will follow his instructions. Will you follow him? Will you trust him? Will you praise him? Will you serve him? 1 Chronicles 29:17 says, “I know my God that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity.” God is pleased with your integrity. How will you show integrity today? Think of integrity in these 3 ways – being honest, being balanced, and being true to who He created you to be. What an outline for how we should live today. This means even when no one is watching, give your best effort. Be kinder than necessary. Go out of your way to be a blessing. And also the very practical things like make your bed and hang up the clothes. Present your best self and take pride in how you look, talk, think and act. Yes, dress with integrity. Today we will prove that we are faithful with what we ALREADY have. We will live with integrity. We will pass the test. God has a big plan for your life, and it’s a good plan. He wants to know if you will follow him, and it always begins with the little things. Then we get to move on to the big things. How many of us have been praying for big things? That’s okay, God likes big prayers. But big things always start with little things, always. So what are you going to do with those little things today? How will you prove that you’re faithful? How will you prove that you’re really ready for more? What will you do with your time? How will you spend your money? How will you treat others? How will you care for yourself? Remember, God is going to be giving you little samples, bite size pieces of opportunities today, and he wants to know what you’re going to do with them. Oh, I know what we’re going to do with them! We’re gonna do well on this Monday. We’re going to live intentionally, on purpose, giving our best, mindful effort in everything we do. We’re going to prove ourselves faithful today. We’re going to live with integrity today. And when God tests our hearts he’s going to be pleased with what he finds. Big things always begin with small things and today is a series of small things for you to take care of with INTEGRITY. Prove yourself faithful and grateful.

My favorite character in the bible is likely Paul. Paul was an incredibly humble man just living on the grace of Jesus. If Paul would have worn printed t-shirts, I’m pretty sure his would have said “I love Jesus but I cuss a little.” I just picture Paul as a spicy kinda fella with a wide variety of sentence enhancers. I like him. God spoke through him to write the majority of the New Testament. This man Paul had a dark past. His story begins as a persecutor of Christians. He was a bad mamojama. He was on a mission and his mission was to imprison or kill all followers of Christ. Now isn’t it amazing that God used this same man to speak to us today? Yes, that’s our God – redeeming and restoring, using all things for good. You say “your things” can’t possibly be used for good, ahhhhh, I promise they can. In God’s hands all things can be used for good. Whatever hurt, loss, disappointment or failure you’ve been carrying around, God is asking you today if you’ll let him work through it for something good. Acts 22: 6-7 gives an account of the very moment God changed Paul’s life. Paul says “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! (that was his name then) Why do you persecute me?’ He was walking down a path, clearly the WRONG PATH in life, and God blinded him with a bright light and spoke to him. And from that day on, everything changed. Have you had a moment in your life when EVERYTHING CHANGED? A moment when God stopped you in your tracks and got ahold of your soul and wouldn’t let go? Well that’s exactly what happened to Paul. And God changed him. He changed him from a persecutor of Christ to a crusader for Christ. And let me tell you something, God is still in the business of radically changing lives. Maybe it’s your life that needs to be radically changed – oh he can do that! In Matthew chapter 7 we’re told about the two paths in life. Jesus warned us about getting on the wrong path which leads to destruction and if you follow the crowd or just drift through life, you’ll find yourself on that wrong path. Lord, if that’s us today, stop us here, put a roadblock in our way, blind us with your light so that we can get on the right path. Help us to see where our current path is leading us. Help us to see your way. What do the two paths represent? They represents our choices. We always have a choice. Do the right thing or do the wrong thing. Make the choice that helps or make the choice that hurts. In everything we have a choice. Today, as you eat, you have a choice – eat something that will help you reach your goals or eat something that takes you further away from your goals. When speaking with your family, you have a choice – say something that builds them up or say something that tears them down. Two paths – are you on the right one? Or maybe you’re listening this morning and you have a heavy burden for your husband or your son or daughter or another family member or friend. And you see them making all the wrong choices, wasting their life. Listen to me, IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR THEM. All they need is one encounter with the light of God to shine on all those dark areas of their life and they can be radically changed. And here’s the tough thing about it – our preaching and our nagging likely won’t be the thing that brings the change in their life. It will likely be our love. It will be our example. It will be God’s grace flowing through us. Today, don’t lose hope for him. Don’t give up hope on her. God has heard your cries and he is working. He is on the move. Continue to pray for God to meet them exactly where they are and use whatever and whoever he needs to use to stop them in their tracks just as he did Paul, and change their lives forever. And oh, what God can do with someone who has a past.

I bet you’re generally a good person trying to do good things. I bet on most days you’re a net positive in this negative world. But we all struggle in one area of another. There’s a little piece of us that’s kinda crappy. A piece of us that’s simply not living up to our potential. Are we living as “less than” versions of who we were created to be, who we could be, who we want to be? I’ve met a whole lot of really good people in my life. People who would give you the shirt right off their own back. People who would bend over backwards for you. And even these good people, when being really raw and honest, would admit that deep down there’s a piece of them that’s rather crappy. Ya’ll need Jesus … and so do i! I am far from the perfect Christian. I’m just the one that knows I need Jesus. I mean I NEED him. There’s a crappy part of me within that needs Jesus and nothing else will do. Today, I’m asking you to pray a bold prayer. This isn’t for the shallow or the weak. This is for those who are truly seeking to become the absolute best version of themselves. This is for those willing to stare down the crappiest part of themselves on the inside and dare to make a shift. If that’s you – if you’re bold and seeking, here’s the prayer: LORD, CONVICT ME. Convict me of where I’m being a crappy person. Convict me of what needs to change. Give me a strong conviction of where I am wrong on the inside and it’s causing a divide between how I’m living and how I could be living – who you created me to be and who I’m showing up for my life as. Psalm 32:3 “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.” If there’s crappy sin within you, holding it in and letting it grow in darkness and shame will cause you to rot from the inside out. Get it out of you. I have a close friend who is genuinely good. I mean really good. She is kind and generous to everyone and I don’t know a single person who doesn’t love and respect her. About a year ago she shared with me her bold prayer asking God to convict her heart and show her anywhere that needed to be cleaned up. She said the result of that prayer literally made her skin crawl. She became aware of a habit of thinking poorly of others within and the result was gossip, complaining and condemnation with her words. That’s not who she is, but it was just a little dark area within that had seeped through her thoughts and flowed from her mouth. I was immediately convicted in the same way. Convicted personally and convicted to share. I began praying the same prayer, LORD CONVICT ME, and the result has been astonishing. Things which were mindless bad habits became highlighted. I was not only convicted, but I was moved to change. Empowered to change. Are you much like my friend and I who recognize we’re kinda crappy people sometimes. We say things that we shouldn’t say. We share things that simply aren’t ours to share. We take part in conversations we have no business being in the middle of. We’re good people, but something has taken root within our heart that needs to be plucked out. It’s a weed growing and weeds suck the life out of that which is good. James 1:26 “If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.” Where are you convicted? Have you been harsh? Have you been rude? Have you been negative? Have you been flirty? Have you been giving the silent treatment? Have you been part of the problem instead of part of the solution? As you keep silent about your sin, your body will waste away and succumb to the weeds of sin the enemy has planted.

Do you have a choice to make, but you don’t know what the right choice is? Have you been delayed, waiting for the clear answer, afraid to get it wrong? When you make a choice, you stand a chance of being wrong, and who likes being wrong? I’ve never met a single person who enjoys being wrong. Because of our fear of being wrong, we’re often stuck in indecision. We typically DO know what we want in life, we really do, but actually going for what we want is scary because it could go wrong. Who am I talking to today? Who’s sitting in indecision today, hiding behind a pile of choices because it’s safe to stay there? The truth is, this is an area of great frustration and confusion for many. MAKING A CHOICE is hard to do. And because you fear making the wrong choice, you avoid choosing and thus you stay STUCK. Is it better to be stuck than to be wrong? God isn’t always clear with his direction. I’ve mistaken my fleshy desires for his divine guidance and it’s taken me down the wrong path. How about you? I’ve cleaned up plenty of messes following wrong choices. But wow did I learn a lot in the process. Looking back, I ask if it would have been better to do nothing? Would it have been better to sit and wonder for a few more years? How many opportunities would I have missed as I waited for that clear sign? My daughters would have surely spent several more years in the orphanage as I waited to know FOR SURE we were supposed to adopt them. This podcast would still be a thought, because ya’ll I so wasn’t certain God was really directing this. I bet the same is true for you. You would probably still be waiting to have that first baby, unsure if you were really ready to raise a tiny human being, huh? That career move was risky, but it worked out didn’t it? There were things you were seeking God for, you didn’t get a crystal clear answer, so you showed up and did your best instead of sitting in the corner … and aren’t you glad you did? Aren’t you glad you tried? I believe God has called us to be bold women willing to make choices and risk being WRONG. Question – can God handle our wrong choices? Oh you bet your sweet little butt he can. He is constantly at work to work all things together for good … even our bad moves and wrong turns. I mean if he can put 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body and create a totally unique, one of a kind set of fingerprints for you, don’t you think he can realign opportunities you may have missed and adjust for your missteps? Psalms 23:3 tells me “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” He guides ME. And he guides you. Are you calling on God for his guidance? Are you seeking his will? GREAT. Then don’t be so darn afraid to make a choice. If you are genuinely seeking him and your heart’s desire is his will above your own, then trust that he will hold true to his word and he will guide you along the right path. And should you wander off on the wrong path and hang a left when you should have made a right, your God can make a NEW PATH for you. Sometimes we’re just on the scenic route to our destination and God can deal with that. Who is pretty sure you’re currently on the scenic route to your purpose in life because it’s taking longer than you ever imagined? Ahhhhh, me too. Seems I may have taken a few wrong turns along the way and God is just encouraging me to enjoy the backroads as he leads me somewhere beautiful. You too? I often pray for doors of opportunity to be opened, but even more often I pray for doors to be closed if they’re the wrong doors. I ask for God to lock ‘em up, dead bolt them, seal ‘em tight if I’m not supposed to go through them because I know this much after 43 years of life … if it’s not what God wants for my life, I really don’t want it either.

Somewhere in your life fear is holding you back. There’s your fear of what may never happen, and then there’s your fear of what could happen, so basically there’s fear around everything. Where does that fear come from and what is it doing to you? Fear doesn’t come from God. 2 Timothy 1:7 says “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Fear is in fact one of the enemy’s finest tactics to keep you from reaching your full potential. Fear cripples us in inaction and keeps us stuck in our head. After listening to that voice of fear for so long we become hell bent against our own selves, sabotaging ourselves, getting in our own way, setting up road blocks to keep us from the very things we want. AND WE’RE THE ONES DOING IT. Have you ever listened to yourself literally talking yourself down from action? It’s ridiculous, and yet every single one of us have done it and may still be doing it. You no longer have to be a slave to fear. Did you know God has already equipped you with every single thing you need to overcome your fear and live in confidence and peace today? Remember that scripture says God didn’t give you a spirit of fear, nope, that fear you have comes from the enemy, but God gave you three things … power, love and self-discipline. You already have power. You already have love. And you already have self-discipline. They’re inside of you, given to you by your creator. You’re not lacking any of these things, but perhaps fear has been overriding them. The enemy’s offer of fear attacks the very things God has equipped you with. Think about it, God gives you power so the enemy plants seeds of fear in you to make you FEEL powerless. It’s fear that holds you back from taking action and exercising your God given power, so you get stuck and then you stay stuck, living a life far short of what’s truly available to you. Not only available to you, but specially designed for you. How heartbreaking would it be to come to the end of this life and realize how much bigger and better the life you were designed for was than the life you lived, and it was all because you let the enemy get in your head with his offer of fear instead of waking up and putting your feet on the floor in power and taking a stand. Within you is enough love to change your world. Your love can cause you to do radical things. A mother’s love can lift a car off her child. I’m telling you love can move mountains. But most days we’re stuck in fear instead of living in full love. We withhold our love in fear of judgment, fear of rejection, fear of failure, and so our world goes on hungry for the very thing only we can give … but we’re too afraid to give it. So the enemy wins. Your love that can change lives and impact this world is stuck in a jail of fear. And finally make no mistake about it, you do have self-discipline. You do have power over the choices you make. You’re not a bad robot set to make all the wrong decisions. You can follow through with your commitments. You can make the tough choices now for the long term benefit. Yes you can darn it, quit selling yourself short. You have self-disciple because God gave it to you. The only problem is, you may have been listening to the spirit of fear (which remember didn’t come from God) telling you that you’re weak, you’re broken, there’s something wrong with you, everyone else can do this but for some reason you just can’t. That’s crap. Seriously, call it what it really is. That’s crap. Crappy fear will ruin your life. Memorize this scripture today and make it personal. God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline. I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God. I am filled with power.

What would happen if you could catch the vision of what God wants to do in your life? If you could only see how God is using everything to make you into so much more, to bring your life more purpose, to use your days for greater impact. The vision. God, give us vision today. This is what we’ve lost. In the middle of it all, we’ve failed to see circumstances for what they truly are. We’ve become overwhelmed by the very things that are here to set us free. God is saying, “my dear daughter I have something better for you, lets not get lost along the way.” To guide you, he begins closing other doors. Doors you would wander through and waste precious days of your life. So he shuts them. Honestly, sometimes slams them. And it hurts us. The sting of rejection, the pain of failure. But with proper perspective we see it’s just divine redirection from a heavenly father who has a greater vision for our lives. Lord, let us catch that vision. How many of your days have you spent wandering through doors you had no business going in? Looking back you even see it … there were ‘DO NOT ENTER’ signs on the doors, but you went in anyway. Relationships you knew weren’t right. Conversations you knew weren’t good. Decisions you knew weren’t healthy. But in that moment, it felt better to go in a door … any door … than be stuck in the hallway. Oh what messes we create when we run from the pause. Pause … God, is this where I’m supposed to go? Pause … God, is this what is best for me? Pause … God, is this who you want me to be with? A holy pause versus a desperate rush. We rush our way right into some fine messes, don’t we? I’ve wandered my way into some dandies my self. I’ve dead-ended into closed doors, then beat the door down and wondered where God was. Gosh, do you ever wonder if God is just wanting to scream … “girl, I never lead you here!” I’ve woke up and found myself working in an office I should have never even walked in, lowering my standards to fit in, then wondering why God wasn’t blessing my business. Uhmmmm hello … those were my finest works, not his. But I was desperate in my rush and missed the holy pause. Do you too find “waiting on the Lord” is harder than obeying the Lord? Psalm 27: 14 says “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” It was so important the psalmist said it twice in one sentence. What’s hard about waiting is not knowing. If you know exactly what you’re waiting on is indeed coming and once it gets here it will be good, then the wait is tolerable. But life is kindof like sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s with no guarantee you will ever be seen. They may call you back, or they may not. It my be today, or it may not be at all. He may give you answers, or you may leave with more questions. You just don’t know. Will you wait … or will you give up? God, don’t let us give up on what you’re doing. Don’t let us lose hope on what you have waiting for us. Don’t let us walk away from what is best for us chasing what we can have right now. Don’t stop chasing us. Lord, I can praise you in the waiting room while I hope you’ll call me out. I can praise you in the hallway as I wait for doors to open. I can praise you when the timeline I had set has way since passed. I can praise you when my way hasn’t happened and your way is still unknown. I can praise you and I can trust you. I can trust you’re a good, good father with a greater vision than my own. I can trust that you see what I don’t see, and your eye is ever on me and ever guiding me. I can do it. I will do it. I will practice the holy pause over my desperate rush.

Have you ever felt like God is distant from you? Like he’s gone silent? You’re seeking but he is nowhere to be found? There are times in our lives when we see the fingerprints of God on EVERYTHING, and then there are times when we feel alone, forsaken, forgotten. Times when God seems to speak so clearly, then his voice is gone. One day you’re guided, and the next you feel as if you’re wandering alone and desperately failing. Where does God go in these times? He’s stepped away. We feel the distance. Is it because he’s too busy for us or mad at us? Are we being punished? Is that why we haven’t been hearing from God? Those are tough questions. Questions I know we all sometimes ask and I believe one weekend while I was decorating, God gave me a few answers. I love to decorate. In my head I’m like a Joanna Gaines with my strategic placement of books and baskets and green potted plants. I have a large black bookshelf made of 16 square blocks. One day I was redecorating the bookshelf with my favorite treasures. My favorite books, my photos, my metal letters that spell BIG LIFE. After about an hour of decorating that large bookshelf, I stepped back and looked at it. I STEPPED BACK. Why? To see how I was doing. Sometimes when you’re so close to your work you can’t see how it’s progressing, so you have to take a step back and get a new perspective. I wasn’t stepping away because I was angry, or even finished … I wanted to admire my work! And I stood there and thought “wow, that looks good!” But I first had to step back. An artist does the same thing. They paint, then they step back to get perspective before continuing their work. They step back. My friend, God sometimes steps back to admire his work in you. He goes silent so he can see how far you’ve come and how much you’ve grown. It’s not because he’s done with you. Philippians 1:6 says “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” He is going to complete the work he started in you and you’re just going to keep getting better. God’s distance and silence are sometimes a sign of progress in your life. The teacher is always silent during the test. Is she ready for the next level of living? Let me step back and see! Let me admire my work in one of my finest creations! He is proud of how far you’ve come and he is looking at you to see how he can help you even more. God is getting ready to HELP you, not leave you. I believe we can apply this lesson in so many areas of our lives. For those on a journey to becoming healthy, goodness it can be discouraging can’t it? We can’t see the minimal daily progress. But could it be because we’re so close to it? Do we need to take a step back and gain a new perspective to see how far we’ve really come? You have changed! You are better! You are making healthier choices. And the work in you is not done yet. You’re on your way. And so it is with our children. We’re in the throws of raising kids and when you spend every single day with them, you can miss how far they’ve really come. It’s easy for me to meet your children and see the good in them … but as their Mama all you see are their faults. TAKE A STEP BACK. Step it back girl. Back, back, back it up. Give yourself some distance. Watch them from a distance and see how much they’ve grown. See how they ARE learning. You’ll be amazed what you see if you just take a step back and watch. My son is in the Army now, thousands of miles away in South Korea. I have no choice but to watch from a distance. With this distance, do you know what I see that I always missed when he was living in my home … an incredible young man. A mighty warrior putting on his uniform every day. But I had to let him go. Some of you need to take a step back from your spouse....