BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Have you ever said it? Why me God? I’m not especially proud to admit I have. I’ve struggled to understand the meaning behind some hardships. I’ve searched for the purpose and came up empty handed. Why the ups and downs of life? Why the build ups followed by the let downs? What’s the point of what we’re going through? I know for me personally if I can understand the purpose, I can endure most anything. If I know a hard road is leading me somewhere beautiful, I can hang with the toughest. But I gotta know. I gotta know it’s not just some cruel punishment. I gotta know it’s not just some random drawing of bad fortune and I held the unlucky number. The lyrics from a song I often sing say “every mountain, every valley, through each heartache you will see – every moment brings you closer to who you were meant to be.” Yes, this is the journey we are each on. You’re getting closer to who you were meant to be. The mountain you’re now climbing, and the valley you just came out of has simply brought you closer. Closer to the true version of you. The you who is free of the trappings of this world. The you who isn’t consumed with what others think. This is why there’s been gossip about you. Not because you’re under attack, but because you have a God who supremely knows your concern with the talk of others will only hold you back. So he takes you through that fire to refine you and prove you can rise above their criticism. I’ve worked with many women over the years who are literally paralyzed by the opinion of others. What if someone looks at you, raises an eyebrow, questions you, or talks about you? I mean seriously woman, you’re missing out on so much of life if you’re trying to avoid being noticed! When I see this is a hindering problem for someone I give them the “Starbucks Challenge”. The challenge is quite simple. Walk into a busy Starbucks and lay down on your back right in the middle of the store. Lay there for 60 seconds. Feel the stares of strangers. Hear their whispers. Know you’re being judged. Know with absolute certainty you look foolish. Then after your 60 seconds, get up and walk away. You don’t need to explain yourself. You owe no one an explanation. You do you. And here’s what you will learn … you survived! The world didn’t stop turning just because they talked about you. You went unharmed by their judgment. Maybe you’re not bold enough to willing endure this type of public display of judgment … and that’s okay because God can orchestrate challenges of his own to strip you of your concern over the thoughts and opinions of others. Remember, that’s why you’ve gone through what you’ve gone through. To prove you’re more. To bring you closer to who you were meant to be. See, this is why you have failed on your journey. Not because you’re a failure, but because you needed to see you’re more than any success you could bring you. God knew about your failure way before you did, and he let it happen. He let you run that show and come to the end of yourself. Not because he had given up on you, but because he’s willing to go through anything with you to bring you back to who you were created to be. Everything you’ve gone through is part of the training. Nothing has been wasted. It’s all part of the unveiling process of you – the true you – the you below all the layers and coverups – beyond the talk and the show – the you your creator imagined from the very beginning. Today is training day #18,850 for me. All the 18,849 days prior to this have brought me here, and God is still in the process of refining me. Refining isn’t a pretty process. Refining is melting down. Ever had a melt down? Yes,

There was a moment in time when God was at the work of forming you. You are not the result of some mass production assembly line. You are the result of a creator who wanted you and his desire for you lead him to handcrafting you with great detail. And while the color of your eyes and the rhythm of your heart were of concern to him, of greater concern was your potential. Your potential is what dwells within you as the seal of your creator. The mark of a human being not meant for sheer survival, but created for a purpose with a destiny in mind. God could have easily made robots. He could have cranked out cookie cutter human beings who never strayed and never wandered. But instead he choose to make you and me. You, the one who sometimes forgets her value and worth, and me the one who sometimes struggles with the same. Me the one who stresses over minor things and complicates what should be simple, and you who probably has the same problem. Yes, us. The ones perfectly placed to live their days in this exact time and place in history. There’s no mistake in this. It’s all by great design, not coincidence. And what is missing in your world today just happens to be a hole the exact size and shape of the potential you have within you. You are the missing piece. You, the best of you, and all of you is what your world has been desperate for. But here’s the problem … we’ve been playing little. We’ve been sitting it out. We’ve been going through the motions. And that God inspired, God shaped, God given potential placed within us during our creation has gone untapped. Within you is something special. What is it? I’m currently reading a book called “Outrageous”. The tagline is “Awake to the unexpected adventures of everyday faith.” It’s the story of a man named Aaron whom God has called to radical adventures for his glory. And through these adventures he is impacting the lives of people around the world. Sounds amazing right? But we quickly dismiss ourselves from being able to do the same outrageous living for Christ, don’t we? We settle right in to assuming that’s a life for some, but not for us. We’re just ordinary people. We have a past, and we have a dysfunctional family, and we have these same faults we’ve been struggling with for 10 years. Right? But you see, my thoughts on this have been challenged. Here’s Aaron, the author of “Outrageous” and he’s living this insane adventure literally changing the lives of everyone he comes in contact with. All he’s doing is showing up and doing his best with that special something God has given him. Guess what that special something is … Soccer. Yes, that’s it. This man’s gift is soccer. He knows how to kick a ball really well. As a result Aaron travels around the world, shares Christ with thousands of people and lives an outrageous life. Just soccer. This was his gift, and because he’s fully surrender that gift back to the giver, it has been used in tremendous ways. What have you been given? You have been given potential. Potential comes in many different forms, and the funny thing about potential is it’s easy to see it in others, but self-identified potential is difficult. We’re not trying to live puffed up, self-centered lives, so how do you remain humble while still recognizing within you is something outrageously awesome that this world desperately needs? If you only knew how totally ordinary I am, you likely wouldn’t even tune in. I have zero professional training. I have no special degrees or certifications hanging on the wall indicating I’m the right person for this job. You know what I have … I have the spirit of a morning person. I wake up in a good mood. I wake up with a clear mind. And I can type really fast as God speaks to me.

Just how perfect do you have to be before God walks with you and guides you? How much more cleaning up do you have to do before Jesus wants to hang out with you? What would need to change in your life to get God to listen to you. Gosh, and then imagine how much more you would need to do to get God to not only listen to you, but answer you. How many times have you tried to get it all together in the past with no success? You’re trying to get all your ducks in a row and girl, your ducks are on a rave. You always seem to be a minute too late and a dollar too short. You are notoriously a mess. Well let me tell you something, Jesus likes to hang out with people like you! Luke 15:1-2 “Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!” Back then tax collectors were the scum of the earth. They were greedy, untruthful men that everybody hated. But then there were these other notorious sinners. Not just sinners, but notorious sinners. They were KNOWN for being a sinner. Everybody knew these guys were messed up basically. People who didn’t hide their problems real well and everyone was aware of their struggle. And these were the people Jesus was drawn to. These were the people Jesus chose to hang out with and sit down at a table with. These are the people that needed Jesus. Are you someone who needs Jesus? Are you a notorious sinner? We typically fall in one of two categories … either knowing we’re a notorious sinner, or feeling like we always have to share space with notorious sinners who just can’t seem to get it right. So to the first group – those who know you’re really not getting this thing all right. Are you notorious for starting and never finishing? Notorious for running late? Notorious for over sleeping? Notorious for being lazy? Notorious for talking big and not showing up? Notorious for being in the middle of the drama? Notorious for stretching the truth? Notorious for big excuses? Notorious for playing little? Notorious for speaking before you think? Great. Jesus wants to sit down at your table with you. He shows up where he is needed. That little bit of “notorious” in you is like a magnet to Jesus. I don’t know how long you’ve been trying to fix this bad habit or character flaw of yours, but Jesus is not ashamed of you. He’s not turning his back on you. He’s not shaking his head in disgust that once again you’ve failed. He’s not waiting until you clean yourself up before he has a relationship with you. No, he’s drawing in closer to help you. Where is your notorious mess? Where is your impossible? Where is your continual struggle with yourself? Introduce your notorious to your Jesus. Here’s what I really love about Jesus, he can see right through our layers of mistakes and missteps and see the person God created us to be. He sees the REAL YOU. The you that’s been stuck inside, and here he comes to set you free. You are loved wildly by your creator and his son who died to save you. There’s nothing you have done and nothing you could do to change that fact. Nothing. And there’s nothing too big, too hard, too shameful or too far gone for him to radically change in your life BEGINNING TODAY. You don’t have to wait until you’ve got a handle on your bad habit or cleaned yourself up for Jesus to show up. He’s drawn to your imperfection. He’s drawn to your struggle. He can’t stop thinking about YOU. And no matter what the rest of the world says about you, he wants to pull up a chair and sit right next to you.

You know what makes me uncomfortable in a conversation? Pauses. Moments of silence. I fumble to fill those pauses with words. It’s as if I have a personal mission to never allow silence when I’m in a conversation. Do you do this as well? Are you uncomfortable in those moments of dead air? I suppose it makes me a really good podcast host because I always have something to say. You know, now that I think about it, you’ve never once spoken a word back to me here … I do all the talking. Yeah, that’s because I’m a space filler. I often do the same with my conversations with God. I talk, then I pause for his response and I get nothing. When I get nothing, I’ll start rambling on again. I imagine God must be exhausted after hearing my prayers. I confess, I struggle with the pauses. But isn’t that where God dwells? Isn’t that where he moves? Isn’t that where he works. In those empty, blank spaces. In those spaces we simply can’t fill. Those spaces left so uncomfortably blank. Filled with silence and unknown. Filled with step one but no sight of step two. An instruction to go, but no word of when we will come back. There’s just a blank space. A space we try so desperately to fill … but the only sufficiency is God. It’s his space, and he intentionally leaves it blank. God is calling you somewhere. He’s calling you to fulfill a purpose. He’s calling you to a destiny. And here’s what we often miss … purpose and destiny don’t appear as we imagined. Purpose look more like blank spaces than mountaintops. START CLIMBING. Destiny looks more like an open ended question than a clearly defined plan with action steps. GO ANYWAY. In my life it seems I’m only aware of my purpose on the other side of it. I can look back and connect the dots. Oh, now I see how God perfectly aligned that connection for that opportunity so I would be here at this time and seemingly stumble right into that. At the time it all just looked like blank spaces, but there were dots. Dots aligning and connecting. I couldn’t even imagine what God was doing, I just had to be willing to show up in the blank spaces and trust he was working to connect the dots. Don’t you know that’s what God is doing in your life right now? He’s leading you into these empty places with blank spaces. Open ended questions of which you don’t have the answers. Mountains you don’t know how to climb. And just like those pauses in a conversation bring uncomfortable moments of silence, we must be willing to be uncomfortable. These are spaces we can’t fill on our own. Sit in it. Wait for it. Trust God is doing something only he can do. He hasn’t forgotten you in this blank space where nothing seems to be happening … he’s connecting dots to your destiny. I love the story of Abraham. His entire life is a story of blind faith where God continually led him into blank spaces, and when Abraham followed God worked. In Genesis chapter 12 God speaks to Abraham and says ““Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” That’s how the story begins. Leave everything and everyone you know. Go. I will show you. You don’t know where you’re going right now. You don’t know how you will get there or how long it will take, but I will show you. Abraham go. Step right into this blank space of the unknown. And in verse 4 it says “So Abram went.” As he is traveling, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” Now here’s what’s important to know about this. Abraham was 75 years old. He and his wife were unable to have children. They have no offspring. Yet as God is taking them to this unknown place,

You must learn to trust there is a future waiting for you that is beyond anything you can grasp at this moment. Today you cannot fathom what your future can be. Your mind cannot comprehend what is truly possible with the spirit of God living in you, guiding you. But oh sweet child, if you will only lean into him, surrender your will fully to his, trust him with your everything, seek him with your all, then you will taste the buffet of life before you. Do you want that future you cannot imagine over the today you can control? Are you willing to loosen your grip on the reigns so God can take over the direction? Do you have that level of trust with God? Hey, it’s okay if you’re not there yet. It’s a process and our shepherd is so patient with his wandering sheep to teach us his ways. Certain seasons of life are required for us to truly grasp his sovereign power and divine love over our lives. How can you fully understand his healing touch until you’ve been sick? How can you fully trust his provision until you’ve seen him make a way when there was no other way? How can you fully know his power until he has rescued you? All your life God has simply been proving his love, his power, and his plan for your life to bring you to today where you will trust the future he has available for you. And today we say “YES God, I want what you have for me!” We boldly rise up, brush the dirt off our knees and claim what our Father is offering. He is offering life to the full, life in abundance, life bigger than you could have ever imagined before. Our answer? YES … and thank you! Thank you for not giving up on me when I was foolish. Thank you for not turning away from me when I turned away from you. Thank you for the potential you’ve placed within me from the beginning, now I’m ready to partner with you God to use it! Psalm 32:8 says “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” Oh to know God’s loving eye is on you at this moment. He sees you. He sees exactly where you are and he sees what is before you. As his eye sees all, he creates, he moves, he rearranges all that’s ahead of you to make a way for you. Imagine at this moment there are nothing but roadblocks and definite no’s ahead of you. You know, because you’ve tried before. You gave it your all in the past and it simply couldn’t be. But God has been watching you. This entire time, his eye has been on you. And because you have dared to get up again today, because you have dared to rise up again and even imagine giving it one more try, you will get to see what he has been up to. You see, while you’ve been down, while you’ve been defeated, God has gone before you and done what only he can do. HE HAS BEEN MAKING A WAY WHERE THERE WAS NO WAY BEFORE. And now, all you have to do is try again. I wonder how many times we have missed the very opportunity we were seeking because we got knocked down, and failed to realize while we were down, God was up, and he was working. The way was being made for the next time we got up … but we never got back up. So we missed it. Oh what if we were to be so bold to pray today and ask God for what we missed before. God, will you bring those opportunities back around to us? What part of our future has passed us by because we failed to try … will you bring it back around for us now? Will you give us another chance to make you proud? I believe his answer is yes. Why? Because our scripture today tells us he will counsel us with his LOVING eye on us. Not a judgmental eye. Not an eye that watches and tallies up our failures. Not an eye that sees every single thing we do wrong and holds it against us. Not an eye that’s already counted us out or given up hope. No … a loving eye.

Here we are, the final day of February. That itty bitty short month of winter that has proven to be a tough 28 days for many of us. The general consensus is February has been a struggle. Perhaps it was the polar vortex which affected so many, shutting us in for several days at a time, or maybe it’s just the general letdown that 2019 isn’t magical and those goals are still a real struggle. But here’s what I know, most are drifting. Drift happens when we stop paddling so hard for the direction which we want to go. Drift happens when life starts pushing us and we start going with the flow. Eventually drift gets us off course and far from where we intended. And this is how an entire year passes us AGAIN without the growth and change we had hopped for. Here it is and you can see it right in front of you. This is what drift looks like. You see I believe God breathed new life into you at the beginning of this year. He whispered hopes, dreams and desires into you, inspiring you to believe this year could be different. And this morning, on this final day of February he’s saying, “GET BACK ON COURSE … REFOCUS!” Pick up your paddle again sister. You may have drifted a bit this month, but you’ve still got a lot of river ahead of you. Today, we finish this month of life right. We follow God’s word in Philippians 4:8 in review of this month: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” You have two options today … think about everything that was wrong in February, or think about everything that was right. God says think about what was right. Think about what was good in this month. I bet tucked in the middle of these past 28 days, there was something excellent. But here’s the problem, that drift, the bitter cold and boredom, the struggle and setbacks tend to overrule all that was good and we easily label the entire month as “BAD.” And here’s the danger … this becomes our habit. We rush from one month to the next, anxious to put it behind us and get it over with, and bad months pile up creating what we then label as a bad year. Then we’re rushing through the years, trying to get to the next season of life believing it will somehow be easier or better, and before we know it, life has just passed us by and we’re nowhere near where we hoped we would be. We’ve drifted right into a life that falls far short of what we know we were created for. So today, we stop the drift. We stop the tendency of bad days becoming bad weeks and bad months. We review this month, February 2019 with tremendous care and intention, recognizing our THOUGHTS about this month create a pattern for our future. The enemy wants you to believe February was bad. He wants you to believe it was all bad and no good. He wants you to believe you were an epic failure. Why? Because it keeps you playing little. This is how he corrodes your self-worth and deteriorates your value. And over time, he convinces you life isn’t really worth living, and it never will be. Within these 28 days may have been some serious struggle, bad news, hardships and generally crappy days … however I guarantee you there was also something that was RIGHT. There was something PRICELESS. There was something BEAUTIFUL. There was something totally worthy of PRAISE. And God says “THINK ABOUT THESE THINGS.” Focus on these things intentionally. And here’s how we do it … we HIGHLIGHT. Just as when you read a book, you highlight the best parts so when you flip through the pages again those are the parts that stand out, now you get to highlight the best parts of this month. Here’s the beauty of highlighting … those excellent and praiseworthy things t...

Your relationship with your creator isn’t a result of your works, what you’ve done or chosen not to do. You’ve been offered a relationship with God almighty because of his relentless pursuit of YOU. His grace has simply drawn us deeper into the life he created us for. The bible is filled with countless stories of God’s pursuit of people who had strayed from him. People who had failed. People who had royally screwed up their lives. People who the world had written off as too far gone, too shameful to even share a meal with, Jesus sat right down in their dining room with them and pulled up a chair. He was pursuing them. Relentlessly pursuing. From the very moment you were born, God has been pursuing you. Now maybe you’ve spent most of your years running and chasing after other things. Yip, me too. Not necessarily running from God, but keeping myself so busy and so distracted that God’s knocking on my door went unnoticed and unanswered. And yet he has pursued me. Aren’t you grateful God doesn’t give up easily. If he did, how long ago would he have given up on you? How many times have you turned his offers down? Yes, his offers of a better way than your own, his offers of a bigger life than the comfortable one you have settled for, his offers of a story which only appear as a struggle right now. And here he stands again today, after our continual refusal, offering again saying “Will you let me in? Will you let me help you? Will you just draw close to me because I’ve been trying to draw close to you all the days of your life.” This is his relentless pursuit of you. And even during the times when you’ve given up on you, HE HASN’T. He has never backed down. God. Still. Wants. You. Psalm 139: 7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! God loves running rebels. He sent his son on a search and rescue mission for YOU. Yes, you. His mission was to seek and save the lost, and bring you in close for a relationship with the Father. And that’s still his mission today … keep bringing you in. And he will stop at nothing to reach you with his grace and draw you in to a relationship with him. Could that by why all this has been happening in your life? Could the lost job, the financial struggles, the health scare, the crisis, the stress and the worry … could all of this have happened because either you’ve been running, or because God wants to show you his power through it all. If you’ve been running, just stop. Stop. Let him catch you. Let him wrap you up in his love and provide in ways you simply never imagined. Let him strengthen you. Let him shield you. Take your refuge in him. Many years ago, my life seemed to be falling apart. We had run out of money, our business had dried up, every light we saw at the end of the tunnel turned into a freight train heading right for us. I had come to the end of my rope with all my fruitless efforts and one day I sat on my couch and just surrendered. He caught me. He and I sat on that couch and wrestled it out. I was angry. I was scared. And God was faithful. That day my life changed. God’s relentless pursuit through it all had captured me. This is where we often mess up – we often think God wants us to do something for him. Now yes, he does call us to action. He does expect us to be his hands and feet. But more than that, God wants you to know he is with you and for you. More than anything he wants to catch you. He wants you to respond to his relentless pursuit by turning around and running right to him. He’s got you. I promise he does. He loves you. He loves you so much that after all these years of you running and you trying all your own bright ideas, he is still pursuing you.

God never gives you a dream that matches your current budget. He never gives you a passion that is immediately easy for you. He never calls you to a place that is comfortable. And here’s why … God knows what you CAN be is so much more than you currently are. Now I’m not saying you’re slacking or even skimming through life. But what I am saying is you’re evolving. Evolution. Can Christians even talk about evolution? Yes! That’s exactly what we’re talking about today! Evolution is the gradual development of something. You and I are evolving as God uses everyone and everything in our lives to grow us, transform us, and develop us into a being who is more Christ like. You aren’t who you used to be. Whew, what a relief. You simply are not the same person. Can people truly change? You bet they can. Practically every cell in your body has been replaced 2012 since , so you are literally a new person. You have been evolving into the person you are today and hey listen up, God’s not finished with you yet. He is calling you into more. He is putting your feet on a path to a bigger life. He is preparing you for things your mind cannot even comprehend right now. You’re not quite ready for it yet, but God knows your potential. Why? Because he put it there. When he created you, he put all the potential in the world right inside of you. Deposited for the day when you would evolve into the woman he had in mind when he made you. Nothing has been wasted in the process. Every good experience has built you up. Every bad experience has refined you. Every hard knock has served to free you. Every bad example has shown you who you don’t want to be. Every good example has been deposited within you. All a process of the evolution of you. Maybe you never saw it coming, but I promise you, God did. Ephesians 2:10 says “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” God has work for you to do and it’s good work. There’s a positive impact you are suppose to make. All your life God has been guiding your steps so you could walk in the life available to you. And all this time you’ve been saying you’re not good enough, you’re not capable, you’re not ready, you don’t have what it will take … and your loving, patient, all knowing and all powerful God has been saying, NOT YET, BUT YOU WILL BE. You’re evolving. The evolution of you is your life’s journey. You’re ever changing, and if you’re not, then you’re dead. You’re not given life to stay exactly the same. You’re given life to grow and become and evolve. You may not currently have the funds to follow your dream. That’s okay. Take the next step and see what happens. God’s not concerned about your bank account, he’s concerned with your obedience. You may not currently have ability or the strength to do what you want to do. That’s okay. God grows muscles by using little which creates more. This is evolution. The gradual development of something. What you’re developing here is YOU. Your life is under construction. Where you’re going isn’t going to be easy. But easy is so overrated. Easy is boring and you know what happens to human beings when we’re bored … we get ourselves in trouble. People who create drama are just bored. Bad habits and bad decisions often begin in a place of boredom. Boredom is a result of a life that is too darn easy. God isn’t calling you to ease, he’s calling you to more. More living. More faith. More surrender. More stepping out. More chance. More boldness. God prepared good works for you to do in your life, and currently the best of those works are out of your reach. Out of your budget.

This morning I have a question for you to consider. What if God is trying to do something miraculous in your life? What if he is preparing to make things happen? What if the very thing you have been seeking is available to you, but the path there will make absolutely no sense to you? I’m asking will you trust the God of miracles to work on your behalf? Psalm 77:14 MSG – “You’re the God who makes things happen; you showed everyone what you can do.” Don’t you know your God is the one who makes things happen? Jesus Culture has a song called Miracles. The lyrics say: The One who made the blind to see Is moving here in front of me, he’s moving here in front of me The same God who has given sight to the blind is here today to help you see. Help you see your way. Help you see the next step right in front of you. Won’t you let him help you see? Won’t you trust he can show you what to do next? Why is it easier for us to believe Jesus rubbed mud in a blind man’s eyes and gave him sight, than to believe he can show up in your life today and show you exactly what to do now? Why do we limit God’s miracles to the big things and not believe they apply to us right here, right now on this ordinary Monday? Hey, you and I don’t have to be blind for God to help us see. The song goes on to say: The One who made the deaf to hear Is silencing my every fear, he’s silencing my every fear How loud is the voice of fear in your ear? How many thoughts and possibilities are immediately talked down right in your own head with all the reasons it can’t and won’t work? Your fears are robbing you of the very life God created you for. Don’t you know the one who made the deaf to hear can help you silence those fears? Would that be a miracle if you could overcome the voice of fear that has spoken to you your entire life? Why yes, yes it would be! Don’t you see, this is what God wants to do for you. You don’t have to be handicap without the ability to hear for God to come into your life and heal you. Listening to the wrong voices is just as much as a handicap as being unable to hear. The God of miracles can take care of that for you today. If you lost your sight today, wouldn’t you seek God for a miracle? If you lost your hearing today, wouldn’t you fall to your knees and ask God to restore you? Then why wouldn’t we ask the God of miracles to help us see what to do next? Why wouldn’t we ask the God of miracles to help us silence the voice of fear we’ve been listening to? Why would we wait for absolute disaster before seeking his touch? God wants you to know something today. He wants you to know his miracles are available for you right now. He can make things happen. HE IS THE GOD WHO MAKES THINGS HAPPEN! AND HE’S YOUR GOD WHO WANTS TO GET TO WORK ON THINGS FOR YOU TODAY! You don’t have to wait until things get worse. You don’t have to wait until it’s completely hopeless. He wants to guide you today. He wants to help you see the way today. He wants to help you with this next step today. He’s not trying to make things harder for you. Believe it or not, he is on your side. The one who does the impossible is reaching out to make you whole. Reaching out to make you whole. And all you have to do to receive it is simply say “I believe in you. I believe in you.” He is asking for your faith today. Faith that he is capable. Faith that he sees you. Faith that he is reaching out to you. Faith that he can make you whole. Faith that he can help you see. Faith that he can help you silence all the other voices. Faith that he can make things happen. I believe in you God. He does the impossible. He is the God of miracles.

Job 37: 14: says “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders.” I always find it most powerful to personalize a scripture by inserting your own name. For me it’s “listen to this, Pamela; stop and consider God’s wonders.” Now it’s your turn – “listen to this, (insert your name); stop and consider God’s wonders.” Stop. Just stop. Right here, stop everything. In this moment, will you stop? Breathe. Do you feel that air filling your lungs? Don’t you know the very air your breathe is the breath of God. He is the one who breathes life into you. You’ve been breathing your entire life, have you ever stopped to realize what this air is? Have you ever received it as the breath of God going into you, filling you, reviving you, strengthening you, sustaining you, giving you LIFE? This is God’s breath. Breathe it in. This is life. God didn’t just breathe life into you one time and say ‘there, now you’re on your own’. He continues to breathe life into you, intentionally, purposefully, and you’ve just become so accustom to breathing you don’t even recognize the wonder of it all. Stop and consider God’s wonders. God’s wonders. A wonder is something beautiful and unexpected and inexplicable that causes admiration. God wants us to admire his wonders. He wants us to look at the painted sky during the sunrise and sunset and be speechless. Don’t you know that’s why it’s there? It’s a painting of his love for you, individually and personally. What a shame that we would be so lazy or so busy to not see it and enjoy it. For one year Lonnie and I lived on the beach in Southern California. During that year, nearly every night without fail we would step out on the sand and watch the sunset over the ocean. Most nights we were there alone. Isn’t that just astonishing that out of the hundreds of other houses near that same beach, we would be the only ones to stop and watch God’s art show? STOP AND CONSIDER GOD’S WONDERS. I don’t know how he paints the sky in such magnificent colors. I don’t understand gravity that makes the ocean disappear in a perfect line on the horizon. But I sure can enjoy the wonder. I believe that’s exactly what God wants us to do. Today, you are surrounded by his wonders. The unexpected and inexplicable are all around you today. You can’t explain why or how your world is held perfectly in space and time, but it is. And you’re right here right now to experience it all. Stop and consider it all. Live in awe of the sheer, unexplainable awesomeness of life. I have no words. No words can aptly describe God’s wonders all around us today. There are no words. Recently a friend of mine posted a video of her 9 month pregnant belly as her baby was rolling around. You could see this tiny miracle’s shoulder and elbow pushing from within, then it’s feet … you could see it’s feet kicking up again her belly. I can’t explain that. I don’t understand how that’s even possible. And yet every single one of us were once that baby miraculously growing within our mother’s womb. That was us. Have you ever stopped to consider that you were once the baby with itty bitty tiny feet pressing up against your mother’s belly? There was a day when your heart beat for the very first time. A time when your fingerprints began to form. You were a miracle in the works … and you’re still a miracle in the works. Jeremiah 1:5 says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” God knew you before he made you. He chose you. He looked at you and said “Her. I want her. I choose her.” Won’t you stop and consider that today?

God is all-in for you. He proved that by sending his son Jesus … FOR YOU. Did you know that John 3:16 is specifically for you? For God so loved you, you, if you were the only person in the whole world, that he sent his son to die so that you would not perish and have everlasting life. It was all for you and God was all-in. With everything he had, he came after you. And what does God ask of you in return? Mark 12:30 – “Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and ALL your mind and with ALL your strength.” God asks for your all-in in return. Love him with your all. If I’m being honest with you, this just always seemed unrealistic to me. I mean here’s my heart and it’s full of people I love, beautiful things I love, plus my dreams and desires and my heart is so full. But then God says, love me with ALL your heart. But God, what about these other things in my heart? If I love you with all my heart, then what about my family? I have less love to give them? Then my dreams are just crowded right out because I have to give my whole heart to you. And that just doesn’t sound like an exciting life. Really, sitting around all the days of my life just loving God with ALL my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength. All means ALL. That means there’s none of my heart, soul, mind or strength available for anything else, right? And so, for all these years I’ve avoided this scripture because I felt like I was failing miserably in this area. I’ve always shifted my focus on the next verse which says to love your neighbor as yourself. I can do that. I can give love – I can put someone else first – I can be kind. That’s the easy stuff – but this loving God with ALL, well that just never made sense to me. Time and time again God has brought this scripture to my mind. Pamela, love me with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. So I began studying this scripture and here’s what God has shown me. Love is a matter of trust. I trust God above everyone and everything else. I trust him in the good times and I trust him in the bad times. This is love. Love is both an emotion and a call to action. We often focus on the emotion of love and yes, God wants our mushy, softened heart and choked up, knot in our throat kind of love. But our love for God must be a call to action. Because we love God we must live differently. We must treat others differently. We must go where others won’t go and do what others won’t do. This is how we love God with ALL our heart, soul, mind and strength. And when we love God with ALL our heart, soul, mind and strength, we love our family on a whole new level. My marriage got better when I learned how to love God better. I became a better mom when I surrendered my life to God. My dreams started coming true when I gave it all to God. Loving God with ALL doesn’t require an absence of our love for others … it enhances our love for others. It is the supreme love and it flows over onto every relationship and every circumstance. Now, I know I can love God with my ALL. All of me God – you can have all of me. With ever fiber in our being we can love God. God simply wants you to live an all-in life. Holding nothing back. Showing up with all of you. No tip toeing around, this is a matter of diving in. All-In! The MSG translation of Mark 12:30 says ‘Love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ God wants your passion today. Yes, he wants you to be hungry for him. And if you won’t choose to be hungry for him, seeking him like food when you’re starving, then he will make you hungry for him through desperation. Our desperation brings about a passion for God causing us to seek him high and seek him low. I personally don’t enjoy being in a desperate situation. So,

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above. That’s a scripture we typically throw out there when we’re talking about a baby being born. No doubt, a good and perfect gift from above. But hey, since we know that EVERY good and perfect gift is from above, we’re going to talk about something else good. Something all women want to know about. Let’s talk about eyelashes. Fake eyelashes are my one guilty pleasure. straight up love me some big long lashes. They’re all the rage. Hey for 50 bucks you can go get you some lash extensions applied that will last a few weeks – or you can be like me and spend a whopping 3 bucks on the Salon Perfect brand at the local WalMart and practice becoming a master at gluing them on. I’ve had 14 years of practice so I nearly have an unfair advantage. You see, I started wearing fake lashes when no one else knew they still existed in stores, probably still hanging there from the 60’s when American women were last obsessed with lashes. Hang with me – I’m going somewhere here folks. It was like my 2nd day of wearing lashes and a beautiful young girl in my office looked me in the eyes and said “wow … are those YOUR lashes?” Obvious answer – no. However my answer was – yes. Shamefully I said yes. Then our conversation turned into “what brand of mascara do you use and can I come over sometime so you can show me how to do that?” I avoided her from that day on. No joke. Why did I do that? I had literally just faced a spiritual battle. I knew the truth was better, but I just wanted for a moment to take credit for something that wasn’t mine. I straight up lied. No beating around the bush about it. I claimed those lashes to be homegrown when they were as fake as the $3 bill that bought them. Life is always going to give us an opportunity to take credit for things we have no business taking credit for. The applause and the compliments are almost addicting. The spotlight feels good. We all crave to be recognized. But are we keeping the glory for ourselves, or are we turning the spotlight right back to God where it belongs? What have you been taking credit for with your puffed up ego, that had really NOTHING to do with you, and everything to do with a loving, merciful, generous, relentless God who chased you down and blessed you? Answer … everything. Like literally everything! The average person in the world earns $2 per day. TWO DOLLARS. It’s amazing to me how quickly we can blow $2 and the average person had to put in a hard days labor (I’m talking labor like you and I have never experienced before) for the same $2 we loosely spend on a chapstick we’ll lose tomorrow. So here we are with our money and our luxuries and our 1st world problems and we think it’s all because we’re good people. It’s because we are deserving somehow? It’s because we earned it. No, we’re lying! Pshhhhhhh – girl listen to me. None of the glory goes to us. Just as those weren’t my lashes and it was all a result of a $3 box of pixy wings affixed perfectly to my eyelids, all the goodness in our life is simply a result of God’s grace and mercy. Every good and perfect gift is from above, NOT FROM YOU. Every success in our lives is all a result of God. I mean sure you worked – you put in some good effort. But don’t forget it was God that gave you the ability and the opportunity that TRULY made it happen. The credit goes to him. Make your life a stage which gives God the spotlight. Let me tell you something, that spotlight is dangerous and intoxicating. Look at our celebrities today. How hard is it to live a good life when that spotlight shines so brightly on you and everyone knows your name? We think that’s what we want, but I honestly wouldn’t wish that upon anyone. Spotlights bring out the haters. Spotlights highlight our flaws. Spotlights fluff our ego, then our ego chokes us out.

Faithful. Today, will you be faithful? God was up all night lining up opportunities for you in this day. Will you be faithful with those opportunities? Or will you be too busy? Will you be distracted? What will you do with the opportunities which come your way today? And how about your commitments? Will you be faithful with that which you said you would do on this Tuesday? Did you wake up when you said you would, or did you bargain with your own self and decide your commitments weren’t important after all? Oh how often we say we will do something, then we talk ourselves right out of it. And how does that feel at the end of the day? Pretty crappy, huh? Every single day we are being called to be faithful and we’re being continually tested. Did you know the little nudge in your heart to give a compliment to that stranger was a test? Did you know the cashier’s mistake on your bill was a test? Did you know that sudden awareness that you’ve been on your phone too long was a test? Did you know that which went wrong yesterday was a test? And that which went RIGHT yesterday was a test. How have you been doing? Have you proven you will do the right thing? Have you proven you will be kinder than necessary? Have you proven you will be grateful for even the smallest of things? Or have you failed? I know it’s painful to admit our own shortcomings, but let’s be honest here. Are you passing the test of faithfulness? As a Christian, God’s spirit is living in you. His spirit comes bearing gifts which we also call fruits of the spirit. Just as an apple tree produces apples because it’s an apple tree, we too produce fruit based on who we are. When God is living in us, his fruits are produced in our lives, that fruit is a gift. Galatians 5:22 says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” These are the gifts which God has given you and the fruit your life will now produce. And did you notice what was included in the list? FAITHFULNESS. Yes, faithfulness is God’s gift to you as he dwells in you and guides you. And what do you do with a GIFT? You have two options … receive it … or not. God is offering you faithfulness. Maybe you just haven’t received it and accepted it as yours. Have you been busy pushing the gift away with your self-proclaimed inability to follow through? Since the day you accepted Christ, the gift of faithfulness has been offered to you. It’s not something you have to cultivate on your own. It’s simply something you have to accept. Imagine God gave you a new coat. The coat is yours to wear. Now how silly would it be to walk around freezing when God has given you a coat and all you have to do is put it on. The same is true for the ability to be faithful. You can be constant. You don’t have to be wishy washy any longer. You can show up when you said you would and do what you said you would do. That ability is within you. You can take every opportunity and run with it. You can fulfill your commitments with ease. It’s just like putting on that coat. God has offered you faithfulness, now put it on. You don’t have to go through one more day of your life disappointed in your own follow through. You don’t have to be disheartened by your ability to show up. You have the gift of faithfulness. You have it, now use it. Is this an area of struggle for you? Do you begin the day with good intentions and just talk yourself right out of doing these good things? Do you often come to the end of the day with more regrets than successes? Well today, my faithful sister with the spirit of God living in you … today you’re going to be different. Hour by hour, simply remind yourself to be faithful. Remind yourself to tap into what the spirit of God has already given you.

2 Corinthians 9:7 “God loves a cheerful giver.” Give me 10 minutes today, and I’ll change the way you see that scripture. It’s perhaps the most hated scripture ever. Why? Because it’s a guilt trip over our money. Here take your hard earned money that you scratched and clawed your way up to make, the money that doesn’t ever seem to go far enough, the money that you desperately always need more of, and give some of it away. Oh and BE HAPPY ABOUT IT. It’s not just enough to give your money, but you better do it with a smile through your gritted teeth. Well, I’m not going to talk to you about money today. However, I will personally tell you, I’ve seen doors that were closed my entire life be flung wide open when I got my heart and mind right about money. But I truly believe that’s a lesson we each must learn on our own journey because no one is going to convince you the power of a dollar given until you do it under your own might. God loves a cheerful giver. Now here’s where I’m going to blow your mind. Ready … you have more to give than just your money and you have more places to give than just Sunday in Church. This is about your life and this is about your life today. Right here, this Monday. Will you be a cheerful giver? Let’s take an inventory of what you have available to give today. Your time. In this single day you have 24 hours – or 1,440 minutes. Will you give your time cheerfully to someone today? OR WILL IT BE A CHORE FOR YOU TO SIT DOWN AT THE TABLE WITH THEM? WILL IT BE A CHORE TO LISTEN? WILL IT BE A CHORE TO REALLY BE THERE? How many of us are there, but we’re not really there? We’re begrudgingly showing up and checking the box but we don’t really want to be there. That’s not GIVING your time … that’s allowing someone or something to TAKE your time. Today will you GIVE your time. Purposely. Intentionally. Cheerfully. Will you gladly be there? Will you fully be there? God loves that. He loves when you cheerfully show up for your own life and invest in it. He loves when you are fully there, engaged. Not because you have to, but because you GET to. What else do you have to give today? Your energy. Within you is the power to GSD. Get stuff done today. You have a set of 2 choices. Do it – or don’t do it. If you should do it, then you have another choice to make – Do it happy – or do it miserable. Colossians 3:23 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” There are a whole lot of people showing up for work today miserable. They’re there, they’re completing the tasks before them, but it’s not because they want to be. How incredibly sad. How sad that there are moms holding babies, wishing they were somewhere else. How sad there are wives making the bed in an angry fit today. How sad there are daughters taking their gifts for granted and complaining about all the HAVE to do. Or the girl that landed the job and is bringing home the paycheck, you know the job she prayed for … and she’s just wishing she didn’t have to work today. Oh has she forgotten that job was given to her. It’s a blessing. She’s giving her energy to that work today, but it’s begrudgingly. But what if she could show up to work today and be a cheerful giver? Do you know how much better the day would be? Same work, different attitude. God loves a cheerful giver – yes I believe it brings him joy to see his girls giving of their time and energy with happiness – however on a deeper level I believe God loves a cheerful giver because he knows what it does for us. He knows he created us to thrive when we are giving our most valuable resources from a place of plenty. And there’s the secret … a place of plenty. Don’t you recognize you have more than enough? You don’t have to live in lack. Not when the creator of the universe is on your side.

Today we will go on a little journey through chapters 3 & 4 of Exodus to see how God works. Oh I just know this will speak to you right where you are. Get ready, this one is for you. Yes, personally for you. In Exodus chapter 3, God speaks and says he has heard the cry of his people and he is moved to help them. His people were the Israelites and they had been held as slaves in Egypt. God says he saw how miserable they were and he was concerned about them. Did you know God gets concerned about you? He sees what you are going through. He hears your prayers. He is moved by you. He wants you to know today, that he sees you. He knows exactly where you are and he’s going to do something about it. In response to what his people are going through, in verse 8 God says “so I have come down to rescue them.” Oh yes, please Lord come down and rescue me. Is that your prayer this morning? Come rescue me. This is a big old mess. I see no way out. I’m completely stuck and God, you are my only hope. Come down and rescue me. So God has seen how miserable his people are. He has seen how they are being treated and he’s decided he’s doing something about it. I have come down to rescue them. Then he turns to Moses and says “So now, go. I am sending you.” Wait, hold up God, you said YOU have come down to rescue them, why are you sending me? Ahhhhhh, this is a powerful lesson today, listen up. God comes down with his power to work and move by sending us. We are his hands and feet. When God wants to do something, he moves you. So now, go. I am sending you. Wouldn’t we rather God just magically do something? Wouldn’t we rather him snap his fingers and change it all? I mean if I were God of the universe and this was my world, that’s the way I would have set it up. And you know what I would have on my hands? A bunch of ungrateful human beings who sat around and did nothing but complain waiting for their God to do everything. Maybe that’s why God doesn’t just say poof and fix our problems. He knows we would grow lazy. He knows we would be ungrateful. So instead he says, I’m coming down to rescue, but I’m coming down through YOU. So now, go. I am sending you. And here’s where it starts getting good. God has just responded to Moses’ prayers by saying “I’m sending you”, and Moses begins arguing with God. Wait God, you’ve got the wrong guy. Can’t you pick someone else? Who am I that you would choose me God? God says, go I AM WITH YOU. But that wasn’t enough for Moses. Is it enough for you to know that God is with you? You do know that God is with you today, right? Whatever it is that you need to do today, whatever it is that you’re facing, you’re never alone. God is right there with you if you invite him. What I really love about God is he will not only be right beside you, but he will go before you at the same time. He will go in front to clear the way. And he will also go behind you. Oh yes, God’s got your back. He’s protecting you. Moses says, okay God I know you’re with me, but what if the Egyptians don’t listen to me? What if they don’t believe me. After all, I’m just plain old Moses here God. And oh it’s about to get good. He says “Moses, what do you have in your hand?” A staff. I encourage you to listen to episode 147 titled “You’re the One” for a full teaching on why God used Moses’ staff, and remember he’s already given you exactly what you need. It’s already in your hand. So God says throw the staff on the ground. Moses throws down the staff and it turns into a snake. Moses is scared of snakes and he runs. Then he says Moses, put your hand inside your coat and take it out.