Summary: <br> When God looks at you, what does he see? He sees who he created you to be. He sees your potential. He sees his beautiful creation on a journey to becoming all he imagined … and girl he’s moving heaven and hell to help you get there! Today I’m here to help you lean into what God sees in you. To help you start believing in the potential he has placed inside of you. To step into the destiny that has your name on it.<br> God is calling you to what you’re going to be all while you’re trying to fit in with what you used to be. Repeat after me, I’m not who I once was! Now, you can drop those old ways, old thoughts, old habits, and confidently step into the life available to you.<br> In yesterday’s devotional, episode 387 titled “I’m Ready Now”, we heard about two brothers who were fishermen, Peter and Andrew. When Jesus walked by them and said, follow me, they dropped their nets and followed him. We learned that it is the following of Jesus, the pursuit of Jesus that changes us. We do the following and Jesus does the changing.<br> Today we’re going to dig a little deeper in this story and see how it applies to our own lives and journeys. I’ve been inspired by an old journal entry from a TD Jakes sermon on Matthew chapter 4.<br> Peter and Andrew had to first do one thing before they followed Jesus … they had to drop their nets. Understand the value in their nets. This was their one tool for income and survival. This was all they had. They had likely spent their entire lives caring for and mending their nets. Leaving it behind to follow Jesus was a tremendous step of faith, but imagine if they would have tried to drag it with them. To step into the life Jesus was calling them to, they had to drop it.<br> How many times have you dropped something, experienced some success, then gone right back and picked up that old thing again? Maybe it was a habit. You broke the habit, you were doing so good, then for some reason you picked it back up again and before you knew it you were right back where you used to be. Maybe it was an attitude. You changed your attitude and perspective. You were like a new person with a new and improved attitude and darn it felt so good. Then something happened and it took you right back to your old way of thinking and talking, then you found yourself worse off than you were before.<br> Isn’t this the real life journey of every single one of us? We make progress, we taste success, then we relapse. And isn’t it harder the second time around because we now know what we can have, we’ve tasted it, we even lived it for a time and going back to who we were and how we were is painful. Have you ever lost weight, then gained it back? How many times will you lose and gain the same darn 20 pounds? Have you ever ran a race, then stopped running? Have you ever slayed one of our challenges to simplify your life, then gone out and bought a bunch of stuff you don’t need? Or have you ever taken on the zip-it challenge with us and successfully restrained your tongue with no nagging, nit-picking or complaining for a period of time, then boom … you’re right back to running off at the mouth like a mad woman, screaming at the kids, nagging at your husband, and complaining to your girlfriends?<br> We sure have a way of screwing this up don’t we? We make progress with one step forward, then it’s two steps back. Picking up again those habits and choices we once put down, taking us back to who we once were instead of moving forward to who we’re being called to be.<br> Peter and Andrew did the right thing when Jesus walked by with an invitation to follow him. They immediately dropped their nets and followed. But let me tell you something, these two fishermen often went back and picked up their nets again. Jesus told them to drop it, but they kept picking it back up again.
