BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Isn’t it nice to know someone’s thinking of you? Just to be thought of and remembered brings us a feeling of happiness. Now, imagine the creator of the universe is thinking of YOU. The One who holds the entire world in the palm of his hand thinks specifically about you! And get this, his thoughts about you are good! Psalm 139: 17 “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!” God has his mind set about you. His mind won’t be changed. He created you in goodness, set you apart to do good works, and he intimately knows your potential. Just as an artist admires their own masterpiece, God admires you. You are covered in his fingerprints and justified by his own son. NOTHING can change that. At no point in your past, and in no point in your future, will his thoughts towards you change. He is unwavering in his love for you. Unshakable in his pride over you. Unstoppable in his joy towards you. And when God thinks, things change! Obstacles are moved. A way is made. Miracles unfold. All of creation first began with God’s thoughts, then he spoke it into existence. So how powerful are his precious thoughts about you? Powerful enough to change anything that needs to be changed? Absolutely. Nothing is impossible for God. Powerful enough to open doors that have been locked? They’re opening right now as a result of his caring thoughts about you. Powerful enough to move mountains? Oh girl, mountains be moving right now with his loving thoughts towards you! The evil one tries to convince you God is too busy to think of you, or too disappointed to still care about you. HE IS WRONG. When God sent his son, you were redeemed in his sight, fully covered in righteousness. What has been done was for you, all you have to do is receive it. Hanging on the cross, Jesus thought of you. Oh what power those thoughts held. As the sun was made to rise today, God thought of you. And oh what power those thoughts hold. God’s thoughts are formed as plans. Plans for your life. Plans for your future. And these plans are good. Demise and destruction do not await you. You have no reason to fear. You can confidently face even the hardest of realities with this truth, God’s plans for you are good and they have NOT changed. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Who can get in the way of those plans? Only you. You’re the only one who holds the power to cancel what God has for your future. How about we just decide we won’t do that?!!! God, you have good plans for me and I want to live according to your plan. I want to taste all you have available for me. I want to live in that hope and experience that future. So, how exactly do we do that? How do we ensure we are walking the path he has for us? How do we get to experience the life he always had in mind for us? I get this question often. How do I know what God wants me to do? How do I find his way? It’s actually quite simple. So simple we dismiss it. We’re looking for the secret code to reveal a great mystery, but Jesus has made it clear. Ask for it. Look for it. Try it. Matthew 7: 7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Ask God for his good plans he has thought of for you. Jesus promised if you ask, you will receive. We have not because we ask not. Take time today to ask your Heavenly Father for his best plans over the specifics of your life. Ask him instead of worry. Ask him instead of researching. Ask him instead of just talking about it.

Who were you in the past? The girl who made bad choices? The girl who never followed through with what she said she would do? The girl who started strong and fizzled fast? The girl who hated mornings, slept like it was her job, gossiped like a pro, bent the truth to suit your lies? The girl who was unfaithful? The girl who failed? The girl who just couldn’t seem to get her crap together for more than 2 days in a row? THAT GIRL WAS NOT THE REAL YOU! It may be who you were showing up as in the past, and the past may be as recent as yesterday, but honey that isn’t you. That’s the false identity of a lesser than version of you the enemy has tried to sell you. Don’t settle for this imposter. Don’t be held captive by who you were and what you did. Scripture tells us Jesus came to set the captives free. If you have been imprisoned by past mistakes and held back by voices that tell you ‘you can’t and you never will’, Jesus came to set you free! YOU ARE FREE FROM YOUR PAST. FREE TO LIVE UP TO YOUR POTENTIAL. FREE TO BECOME WHO YOU WERE CREATED TO BE. I have a new song for you today, “Slave to Nothing” by Zach Williams. You can tell me what I did You  can show me who I was before Where  I fell short Hang it over my head But I’m not the same anymore One  thing’s for sure The  shackles have fallen So I’m showing shame to the door Make  no mistake I’m a slave, to nothing What have you been a slave to in the past? A slave to a bad habit? A slave to a label someone put on you, and it stuck? A slave to lies that told you you’re a nobody with nothing who will get nowhere? A slave to a mistake you made that has haunted you in every new relationship and new season of your life? The shackles have fallen, you don’t have to stay there. You have been set free and you never have to be a slave to this again. Throughout scripture we read of slaves who God led to freedom. We read of the innocent imprisoned, then walking right out of where they were, free from what had once held them prisoner, into the life God created them for. We read of those who were on the wrong path having an encounter with Jesus that changed the entire trajectory of their lives. I believe these stories are abundant in scripture because it’s OUR STORY. Every one of us have been slaves to something. All of us have been held back by someone or something. Each of us have been on the wrong path somewhere in our journey. That’s ALL OF US. The enemy tries to convince you you’re some kind of epic failure beyond repair, oh girl, you’re not a standout on the list of screw ups, my list is long too. Romans 3:23 says “ALL FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.” We all have a past full of failures and a present full of struggles, and this is where we are attacked. This is where the enemy tries to chain us up and hold us back. Yes, it is true I have fallen short of the glory of God, but there’s more to this story. There’s more to your story. Read the next verse. Verse 23 says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, then verse 24 says “and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” The devil wants you to dwell on verse 23. You don’t measure up. You’ve fallen short. You aren’t good enough. But God says read on girl. Own that next verse as your truth. Yes, you screwed up, and your most recent screw up may have been yesterday, but you are JUSTIFIED FREELY by the grace of Jesus. Justified. Declared righteous in the sight of God. You are not who you used to be. Guilty is not who you are. You have been delivered, set free, justified! Now, you don’t have to be a slave to anything. After what Jesus did for you,

Who could you become? What could you do? You’ve been given this one life to figure that out and give it all you’ve got. Honey, if cauliflower can become pizza, you my friend, can do anything! Nothing in your past can hold you back from your future. You have been set free to move forward. Today is a step in your journey towards the life of your future, make sure you’re stepping in the right direction. Where you are today is a result of steps you took in the past. Maybe you walked out of something behind you, or maybe you walked into something right now. Recognize, it was your choice one step at a time. Understand God never expected you to wander blindly through this life. He has promised to be your guide. He has promised to direct your steps. He is always available to show you the best way. Will you simply seek him here? Will you surrender your way to seek his way? Isaiah 30: 18-21 is titled “Blessings For God’s People”. With a title like that, understand this is for you. Don’t excuse yourself from this blessing. YOU are God’s girl. You are his prized creation. You are here seeking him and he is responding to you personally. Verse 18 says: So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help. Woah … God has been waiting for YOU. Waiting for you to come to him so he can show you love and compassion. That’s what has always been waiting for you. As you ran. As you tried everything on your own. As you failed. As you made a mess. God has been waiting. Not waiting with punishment. Not waiting with judging eyes and condemnation. No, waiting with love and compassion specifically for you. All this time he has wanted to bless you, but you have to come to him. I often share how I have this image of God leaning over his mighty throne in heaven, looking down on us with his loving eye, hopeful that today will be the day we let his love catch us. Hoping today will be the day he gets to show us his goodness. Won’t you let him catch you today? Won’t you come to him and receive that love and compassion? Won’t you let his blessings pour over you now? Won’t you let him help you? He can and he will if you will come to him. For the past year I’ve been in a personal season of understanding God’s waiting on a deeper level. We’ve been waiting on our beautiful youngest daughter. She has left our family, believing the lies of the enemy and stepping into his plan of danger and destruction. She imagines I wait with judgment, but truthfully I wait with a hope she will return to the goodness that was always here for her. The goodness of a family who found her, fought for her, adopted her, and called her their own. A goodness she can’t dismiss. A goodness that will still be waiting 20 years from now if that’s how long it takes. And even more so, God waits for each of us to come to him to receive the goodness he has always had for us. He waits and he hopes today will be that day. Why wouldn’t today be that day? Why not take that step today? It’s not condemnation that awaits us, it’s redemption. It’s a life far better than we have ever dared to dream of. Verse 19 & 20 say: He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. God knows his children and he knows we learn best in hardship. We grow when we are stretched. We are strengthened when we are stressed. He will teach you through all of this. He will use everything that has ever happened to you, along with all that never happened for you, to guide you to that better life.

This summer may be different. Store dressing rooms are closed. Ya’ll how are we supposed to buy a new swimsuit? THIS IS A REAL DILEMMA. Remember how you used to complain about the trauma of buying a new swimsuit and looking in the mirror as you tried them on … oh well, you may be standing in the Target trying that puppy on over your stretchy pants this year! That’s what I did. This should be the time of eager anticipation. We would typically be blasting “schoooooool’s out for summmmmmerrrrrrrr!” but the kids have been out of school for 2 months and it’s already gotten old. What the heck are we going to do now? Seriously, what are we going to do? What can we do? Anything? Is there anything we CAN do with this summer? My sister, you do not have to dread what may come. You don’t have to live in fear of anything. Your life is held securely in the firm grip of the Lord and he is over everything that concerns you. EVERYTHING. Yes, all your things are included in everything. Sometimes I like to take a scripture and turn it into an affirmation as my personal declaration. Psalm 112:7 “They will not live in fear or dread of what may come, for their hearts are firm, ever secure in their faith.” Now, claim that as your own. I will not live in fear. I will not dread what may come. My heart is firm, I am not shaken. I am secure in the one who cares for me. God is working in the midst of all that is now different. He is here changing things that were once stuck and stagnant in our lives. He is setting us free so we can rise up to new levels of living. He sees what we can’t see. His perspective is greater than our tiny view. AND I CHOOSE TO TRUST HIM. Will you? Will you trust him over the news? Will you trust that his good plans for you have not changed and he is still leading you to a place of hope and a prosperous future? Our God is not defeated. He never loses. He wins COMPLETELY. Not kinda. Not almost. Not half-way. No, when he does something it is complete. So if the good plan for your life is not yet complete, then God is not yet finished. This is all still in progress and you don’t have to dread what may come. What is coming for you is complete. It is whole. It is full circle. Because that is how our God works. He works things together for good. And if it’s not good yet, then it’s not complete yet and God’s not finished. When facing uncertainty, my mind gets real creative. I can mentally jump from one disaster to another without a single thing actually happening. I can imagine all that could go wrong and see it play out fully in my mind in seconds. I could fail here, this could fall apart over there, that door could close, I could get stuck here, that would create this mess, now what will I do? Why do I do that? Here’s the crazy thing … I am a ridiculously positive person. My default is positive. I say if your cup is half empty you should probably get a different bra. (get it?) And here I am as the #7 on the ennegram test, the Enthusiast who always sees the positive, searching for the fun and creates the adventure, yet I admittedly create crazy negative scenarios to work through in my mind. And it’s exhausting. Does your mind do that creative negative hop skotch too? Jumping from one possible disaster to another, creating a domino effect of all that could go wrong? How does that make you feel? Does it fix anything? Does it make a single thing better? No, it’s the devil’s playground stirring up anxiety and fear, rendering us incapable of seeing God at work in our lives. GET OUT OF THERE! Don’t stay on that merry-go-round of endless worst case scenarios. That’s not the proper place for a child of the King! A girl like you with a Heavenly father like that can’t be caught up i...

Throughout the day you are breathing, and you likely never notice your breath. Breathing doesn’t require intentional effort, your body does the work without your consciousness even catching on. Until you can’t breathe … then you know. Your awareness is hyper focused on breathing when it is threatened. I went over 40 years of my life, breathing without the awareness of the source of my breath. I simply never thought about it. Where does the air you breathe come from? It was a song I sang one Sunday morning in Church that changed my breathing called “Great Are You Lord”. It says: It’s your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise, pour out our praise. It’s your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise to you only. Genesis 2:7 says “Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” You and I are living at this very moment because of the breath of God. It is his breath that fills our lungs. It is his breath that gives us life. You have the breath of the Almighty within you, filling you, reviving you, bringing you life. And all you have to do is receive it. Once I became aware of the source of my breath, I realized my habit of shallow breathing. By habit I take in just enough to do the job. Long term shallow breathing affects your health. Your body functions in a state of continual stress, lowering your immunity and lowers your energy. But even worse, shallow breathing creates shallow living. Are we just skimming the surface of all that’s truly available to us? Are we never going deeper into the life God is offering us only taking in enough to just get through? When I look at the beauty of creation, I can’t imagine God created all of this for us to just get by. That isn’t his heart. His creation reveals his abundance and as his most prized and precious creation, he offers this abundance to us. Newborn babies breathe deep. Their bellies expand and their chest rises and falls as they take in all life has to offer. We did the same when breath was new. Then we became used to it. We just expect God’s breath to be available and we allow it no special regard. Practicing deep breathing creates a whole truckload of benefits: Natural painkiller. Improves blood flow. Increases energy level. Improves posture. Reduces inflammation. Detoxifies the body. Improves digestion. Relaxes your mind and body. Now think about that, all of these positive results by doing one thing … breathing deeper. And what are we doing when we breathe deeper? We are intentionally receiving MORE of God. It is his breath that fills your lungs so naturally by breathing deeper, you are receiving more of him. And more of him heals us. As I’ve been practicing deep breathing, I’ve learned a few things. First, I have a limited capacity. Try taking the biggest, deepest breath you’ve taken all day. Your lungs quickly filled and you don’t notice a tremendous benefit, right? I don’t necessarily feel more energized, relaxed or improved in any way. It’s like trying to add God into an already packed daily routine. There’s just not a lot of room in your life, right? So what’s missing here? The release. In order to take a bigger, deeper breath, I must first let go of all the air I currently have. Shallow breathing continually holds a little air back. To receive more, you must be fully emptied first. Let’s practice. Start by emptying your lungs of all the breath you currently have in a series of only exhales. When you think all the air is out of your lungs, exhale again, there’s more. Release. Release. Release. Now inhale filling your belly expand as it receives more and more...

If you’ve ever had a picky kid, you know the pain of introducing a new food. Your offers are immediately met with resistance. They don’t want new, they want the familiar chicken nuggets. Their mind is set firmly on not liking it before they even try it. My kids were all 3 raised in a house with a rule. You eat what we serve you, or you don’t eat. They didn’t have to love it, but they had to try it. This rule created an open mindset and a willingness to discover new things without first assuming they would be bad. I wonder if we’re often like that picky kid refusing the offerings of something new because we have our mind set on only liking what we already know. Only enjoying what we already had planned. Only going where we’ve already been. Only doing what we’ve always done. And what if the offerings were of something so much better, but better would require different? Here are 2 things you need to know: 1. God knows what he’s doing. 2. God is doing something new in your life. Are you willing to try it? Or are you predetermined to not like change? Psalm 34:8 says “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” God says, TASTE THIS … and you say, “nope, I don’t know what that is, I don’t think I’ll like it.” What if God’s rule is much like our family rule; at least try it honey, or go hungry. How many of us are walking around hungry right now because we refuse to accept the offering of something new? We want what once was, what used to be, what we always had. We want the darn chicken nuggets … but chicken nuggets aren’t being served here. So we sit at the table starving for something, but only looking for what we had instead of tasting what is here now. TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD. Just try it! Try what God is offering now. Try taking that next step. Try seeing just what can happen here. Try it instead of dismissing it with your predetermined disdain. God knows what he’s doing and he is here doing something new in your life. I’ve been listening to Holly Furtick a lot lately. Holly has the sweetest voice with the power punch of words that just get me in my gut. I generally write as fast as she can talk because I want to remember everything she says. I also listen at least twice because it seems I missed a lot the first time. My notes from last week say “I often don’t want God to do a NEW thing, I want him to FIX an OLD thing.” Isn’t that where we are? We just want God to fix what isn’t working now. We want life to go back to normal. We want this old thing we had, and God says in Isaiah 43:19 “See, I am doing a new thing!” But God, I just want you to warm up my old familiar chicken nuggets. We’re sitting here with our lips sealed, shaking our head back and forth resisting the fork delivering something new. Pushing the plate away refusing the offering. No. I just want my old thing fixed. God is done with the chicken nuggets! It’s time for something new my sister. Won’t you taste and see what he has for you now? Or will you go hungry? Will you stay here stuck? Will you be desperate and miserable by your own choosing? You know the chicken piccata casserole you’ve placed on your kid’s plate is freaking delicious. What’s being offered here is so much better than what they’re used to eating but if they refuse to taste it, they will never know. God knows his new offerings to you now are pure goodness. But your kids don’t like hidden green things in their food, and you don’t like the unknown, so just like them, you’re refusing. If you refuse to taste what God is offering you here, you will never know. Not only will you never know, but girl you may sit there hungry for a while!

You have a purpose. That purpose is threatened. You are overflowing with potential. That potential is under attack. You have a destiny. That destiny has a detour. You have a creator who has tremendous plans for your life, and you have an enemy who is actively fighting every single one of those plans. Your enemy is Satan and he runs a prison. A prison with bars of captivity imprisoning purpose, potential and destiny. A prison with a cell just for you, designed for one thing … to hold you back from living the life you were created for. Maybe you’ve spent some time in that prison cell believing the lies of the warden. Believing your past defined your future. Believing you were unworthy of anything more. Believing something was wrong with you. Believing you could never change and life would always be this way. Believing if others really knew you, they wouldn’t like you. Understand this, the doors to your prison cell have torn off the hinges and YOU HAVE BEEN SET FREE! You don’t belong there. You are free to fulfill your purpose, live up to your potential, and step into your destiny! Satan can’t hold you back for one more day. Only you can do that. If you’re stuck, look around … are you the one holding yourself back here? We have an image of Jesus as a gentle, soft spoken, caring man with shoulder length curly hair. He’s either an innocent baby in the manger, a man in a robe and sandals with an outstretched hand, or a beaten, bleeding victim of evil hanging on the cross. But what about the Jesus who DEFEATED HELL? What about the power that set the captives free? What about the foot that stomped the head of the serpent and crushed him? Jesus said in Revelation 1:18 “I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” Jesus has the keys to Hades, that’s the keys to Hell. The prison where Satan intends to hold you back under attack has no power because Jesus defeated the warden and took the keys! The keys to your freedom are in the hands of Jesus. Girl, you have been set free. Satan has no power over you, he has been defeated. He is now under your feet. Yet for some reason, we put Jesus back in the manger or hanging on a cross, and we wander around in a prison cell flirting with the plans the defeated enemy had for us. Letting him get in our head and convince us with his lies. Accepting his cheap offers of ease and comfort, when girl, LOOK AROUND … IT’S A PRISON … YOU DON’T BELONG HERE! Jesus isn’t hanging on the cross anymore. He’s not helpless or defeated. He stands tall and mighty, victorious over the battle for YOUR LIFE and he holds the keys to your freedom. You are not a captive to a single thing the enemy has tried to use to hold you back in the past. I have an anthem for your march out of that prison cell. A battle cry for your return to the life you were created for. A song of victory for your march out of anything and everything that has ever hindered you in any way. “Don’t Tread On Me” by We the Kingdom A song about a defeated enemy kicked out of your life.Get on outta here Get on up and leave Ain’t no devil Gonna tread on me He’s choking on the blood That ran down the tree Ain’t no devil Gonna tread on me Hey devil, get on outta here. You get on up and leave, you’ve walked on me for the last time. You have NO PLACE IN MY LIFE. You have no power over me. Your prison has been shut down. My cell is empty and I’m not going back there. Jesus fought for me, and he won. Your head has been crushed. You’re choking on the blood that bought my freedom. END OF STORY. The Lord says in Isaiah 54:17 “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.”

Chasing our feelings can get us in trouble. If we are waiting to “feel like” doing something before taking action, odds are we’ll be waiting a heck of a long time. My house would be a wreck and my work would be left undone because honestly I don’t really “feel like” doing it. Feelings often lead us to delayed necessary action and impulsive bad decisions. If I check in with my feelings, my feelings tell me I would like an Eggo waffle covered in JIF peanut butter and Aunt Jemima’s syrup this morning. My feelings also tell me binge watching Netflix in my ‘giving up on life’ pants would be delightful on this rainy Thursday. You know what this tells me … my feelings often can’t be trusted … and neither can yours. Instead of chasing feelings, we can be led by the spirit. Spirit of God, lead me. Direct me Lord. My desire is to follow you Father. Holly Furtick of Elevation Church said something very simple that has stuck with me this week. She said “you hear from God in church because you EXPECTED to hear from him there.” What if we woke up expecting to hear from God? The problem isn’t that God isn’t speaking, the problem is we’re not listening. We think we can only hear from God on Sundays at Church and well, we’ve all been missing church the past 2 months! I wake up every morning expecting to hear from God. I’m 100% reliant upon him. He has 1 hour to talk to me and tell me what he wants to say in this devotional, then I hit record. My expectation opens the flow of his spirit and I hear him. Sometimes I hear him faster than I can type. But you know what’s funny, the entire time I feel the guidance of his spirit, my feelings are going wild. My feelings are in an uproar that I’m up this early. That’s right ya’ll, I don’t feel like doing this … not at all! I would rather sleep. I would rather not get dressed. It’s ridiculous that I have a bra on at 6 am every morning! But one simple shift in my life changed my trajectory. I decided I wouldn’t chase my feelings and I would ask his spirit to lead me. And wherever he leads me, I won’t dwell on how I feel about it. I’ve found the enemy plays in my feelings. Just yesterday the enemy tempted me with a well earned pity party. Whew ya’ll, I wanted to be pitiful. The tears started and threatened to derail my day. No one would have blamed me under the current circumstances. It’s completely understandable I would feel this way. BUT I DON’T CHASE MY FEELINGS. My feelings lead me to dark corners where the enemy whispers his lies and renders me incapable. Why would I follow him there? The spirit leads me out into the light where I am reminded of my truth and the promises of God. Many ask me how they can hear from God. How can you be certain of where God is guiding you? Well, first stop looking for the 5 year plan. We get wrapped up in how we think it should look and we miss that God has placed one little opportunity right in front of us. When I started all of this God never told me it would become the #1 daily devotional podcast in the world, he just told me to host a conference call the next morning and talk about him to anyone who called in. That’s it, he gave me nothing more. And honestly, he gave me nothing more for YEARS. I just kept hosting a conference call with 20 people on the line. Just as God provided daily bread for the Israelites in the wastelands of the desert, God provides one opportunity, one step, one next right choice at a time for us. When God chose Moses to lead his people out of captivity in Egypt, he didn’t give him the details of the journey. He didn’t tell him about the stick that would turn into a snake. He didn’t tell him how this stick would part the Red Sea...

Life has a rhythm. Sometimes that rhythm is fast and furious, and other times that rhythm is hurry up and wait. It seems many of us are waiting. I talked about the wait last month, certain at this point in May we would be beyond the wait and moving forward. I was wrong. We’re still waiting here. Waiting to see what the future holds. Waiting for what’s next. Waiting for the unfolding of all that is well out of our control. However, we can be certain of this: GOD IS WORKING IN THE WAITING. God is working in the current rhythm of your life, teaching you to follow his flow, trust his timing, rely on his beat, assured of his movement. ARE YOU WORKING IN THE CURRENT RHYTHM OF YOUR LIFE … or are you fighting it wishing it could be something it’s not? When we’re busy we just want life to slow down. When we’re held back we just want to go faster. We’re constantly fighting the pace while God is continually telling us to work within current reality, utilizing his offerings of today. Mercy Me has a brand new song out for our current Quarantine reality called “Hurry Up and Wait”. It says: The faster you can slow this down To the rhythm of right now The sooner you find your strength It’s exhausting trying to live out of rhythm. Digging your heels in when life is moving forward so fast is draining. Pushing until you pop a vein in your forehead when life is at a standstill is dreadful. We find our strength when we get into the rhythm of right now. That means we must make PEACE with what is and LET GO of what isn’t. That sounds really sweet, doesn’t it? But dang it, that’s some hard crap to actually live right now. Make PEACE with what is and LET GO of what isn’t. There are some things of my current reality I’m having a hard time making peace with. I’m still struggling with how this could have happened to our family. I’m battling the creepy little fears in the darkness that tell me this isn’t going to end well. My peace doesn’t quite seem to settle this storm. And that’s when I remember I’m not working with my peace here, I’m working with supernatural peace. Jesus said in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; MY PEACE I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Trying to get through these hard times on our own peace probably just won’t cut it. I know my peace isn’t enough right now. But Jesus knew that. He knew we would need supernatural peace so he gave us HIS PEACE. And let me tell ya’ll, this is the game changer! The peace of Jesus is the calm in the storm. His peace allows you to sleep right through the storm as he did on the boat. His peace allows you to go right through this crap, but not let the crap get inside of you. The peace I try to work up on my own by creating new plans and working out future scenarios gets rocked real quick. However, the peace Jesus offers keeps our hearts from being troubled and our minds from being afraid. If you need some of his peace today, please know he is offering it. All you have to do is ask and receive. Jesus, I’m afraid, please give me YOUR peace today. Peace in what is. I declare it over my life today and over yours. Peace in what is. I’ve known peace when it didn’t make sense to have peace. That was supernatural. That was the peace of Jesus. I need some of that again to battle those creepy little fears in the darkness that tell me this isn’t going to end well. Do you? It’s available! Let go of what isn’t. Open up your hands and let go of what can no longer be. Things have changed. Dwelling on all you wish you still had or dread not having is only wasted energy. We often say worrying about things doesn’t chan...

There’s a tremendous difference between being alive and truly living. What’s available to you today goes beyond just getting through the day. Why do we often forget the point of today isn’t just to get through it, we have been given this day to fully live it. I imagine God leaning over his throne in heaven, looking down on his girls with eager anticipation, just hoping we accept the gifts he has aligned for us and savor in his provision. Maybe we missed it yesterday as we rushed through the day. We missed the beauty in every moment and the sheer miracle of it all. We forgot the very air we breathe is the breath of our creator giving us life. We were oblivious to the fact that every single thing we have came directly from his hand. BUT HE BELIEVED MAYBE IF HE OFFERED YOU BREATH AGAIN TODAY, YOU WOULD APPRECIATE IT. HE THOUGHT MAYBE IF BEAUTY ONCE AGAIN SURROUNDED YOU, YOU WOULD STOP AND SEE IT. HE HOPED HIS LOVE WOULD CATCH YOU TODAY AND YOU WOULD BE SWEPT AWAY IN THE POWER OF IT ALL. So, here is his offering again. The offering of another day with another opportunity to not just get through the day, but a day to truly live. You’ve been alive all the days of your life. Every day you’ve woke up to life and likely didn’t even think much about it. But have you touched the miracle of being alive? Have you ever been in total awe over the fact that your heart is miraculously beating? It is. And it’s a miracle! Oh, to live in that awareness today. The awareness of the miraculous. I can’t understand how all of this works and God never asked me to. He simply asked me to live in awe of his works. He asked me to acknowledge his mighty hand. He asked me to trust his plan, stay close enough to rest in his shadow, have confidence in who he created me to be, and boldly live up to my potential. He’s asking the same of you. Will you live in awe of the miracle of life today? Will you acknowledge his mighty hand in the details of your world? Will you trust his plan is better and bigger than your plan? Will you come in close to him, seeking to be covered by his shadow? Will you find your confidence in who he created you to be instead of who the world tries to make you become? Will you boldly live up to the potential he placed within you, believing everything he said about you to be your truth? Today, like all the other days of your life, you are alive. But now you’re ready to touch the miracle of being alive. You’re ready to savor life like never before. You’re ready to see your world with fresh new eyes and watch the miraculous unfold. You’re ready to lean into God’s plan and be carried to places you could have never gone on your own. Here is where you find purpose. Here is where you find living on another level. Here is where you find God was always leading you somewhere better and now it’s time to step into it. All the days of your life have brought you to this day. Nothing has been wasted. Every single thing, even the bad things, have now been worked together for good, to bring you the offering of a lifetime. The offering to be FULLY ALIVE. Miraculously, totally, wholly, unmistakably alive with life. GOD, WE ARE HERE AND WE ARE READY. The journey you have been on has taught you to trust God. He has shown you his faithfulness through the hardships. He has revealed his better plan as your original plans fell apart. (Where would you be today if everything you hoped for had happened … whew, what a mess!) He has been teaching you to rely on his daily provision in this uncertainty. And hasn’t he proven himself? Hasn’t his hand been seen in the details of your life? Now, you can be confident of his goodness. Now you can be certain of his love. Psalm 27:13 “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodne...

Life is continually changing. Sometimes that change means letting go of something you’re not quite ready to let go of for something you’re totally unsure of. We are creatures of habit, and even the most adventurous of souls still hold on. We grow comfortable where we are and uncomfortable with what may be coming. AND GOD SAYS LET GO OF THIS SO I CAN SHOW YOU MORE. Have you ever enjoyed your weekend so much, you dreaded Monday that much more? Monday signifies it’s over. I just had one of those kinds of weekends. A weekend of some of my favorite people, in one of my favorite places, doing some of my favorite things. For Mother’s Day, we went on a family camping trip. We slept on the shores of the lake in the trees. We built campfires, caught and cooked fish, played games, drank coffee with the sunrise, and went on a sunset sail. It was perfection. I loved every minute of it. And this morning after only a few hours in my own bed, my alarm rang and my first thought was NO … I DON’T WANT MONDAY. I want my weekend back. And again, God says LET GO OF THIS SO I CAN SHOW YOU MORE. More life has been offered to you today … will you grab it, or will you begrudge the offering because of what has passed? Will you miss what you can have now because you’re missing what you used to have? Nothing ever stays the same. You can’t live in a perpetual weekend without Monday coming. You can’t keep your kids little and never see them grow up. You can’t save a single thing you have today for a guaranteed tomorrow. I wonder what you’re holding on to right now that only serves to hold you back from the future God is offering you? What would happen if you trusted God enough to loosen your grip and trust his plan? What would happen if you stepped boldly into a new season of life, appreciating the season you came out of without trying to drag it with you? Some things God is offering you now can only be accepted with empty hands. Empty hands only come as a result of letting go of what is. Will you unclench your hands? Will you let go of this so God can show you more? There’s a story I love which paints the perfect visual … The Pearl Necklace The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box. “Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please?” Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl’s upturned face. “A dollar ninety-five. If you really want them, I’ll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself” As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores. On her birthday, Grandma gave her a new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace. Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere – Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green. Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night when he finished the story, he asked Jenny, “Do you love me?” “Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you.” “Then give me your pearls.” “Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess – the white horse from my collection.

If you knew clearly what God wants, you would likely do it, wouldn’t you? But, if you’re like me, sometimes it’s unclear. I can tell you 1 time in my life I have heard the audible voice of God, and 2 times I have felt the undeniable promptings of God. Outside of those 3 instances, the rest has been a little uncertain. I have to think if I were God I would send a personal text message daily, outlining exactly what each person should do. I would make the best path clear, in writing. I would give you a 3 step plan for the day and a clear 5 year plan for the future. I would erase uncertainty. I would eliminate the fear of making the wrong choice. But guess what, I’m in charge of none of that. God sees beyond my limited view. He intimately knows his creation, what is best for his creation, and how to guide them to his best. Understand this, he didn’t just plop you into this universe and leave you here to fend for yourself. He’s not sitting on his throne in heaven watching you like some experiment. He’s not throwing problems your way to watch you freak out. God is offering his guidance. He is offering his divine help. It just doesn’t come in the form of a text message … usually. Yesterday I discovered a woman I mentor had moved out of the country and her US number had been transferred to someone else. I was unaware of this change and had continued to send a daily text to this number. Messages like “remember who you were created to be” and “you have unstoppable potential within you” and “today is a gift, enjoy it”. Imagine being on the receiving end of these daily texts, having no idea where they’re coming from. Finally, I received a reply from the number yesterday asking “who are you?” Oh, if I would have only been more on my toes, I would have said GOD with the boom emoji. I would like to receive a daily text from God. It sure would be helpful as we’re less than 3 weeks from being homeless and our plans of where to go and what to do were changed. I bet you would find a text from God helpful right now too. You have uncertainties as well and your genuine desire is likely to do the right thing, isn’t it? I send over 500 personal texts daily. It’s a whole lot of texting. It takes a lot of time. Maybe God doesn’t have time to text each of us? Maybe that’s a little much for us to ask. There are 7.5 billion people, then you add in the 6,500 different languages he would need to put the messages in … it’s all a little overwhelming. I don’t blame God for not texting us every morning with his plan. But then I’m brought back to the same scripture on the daily, Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” So if my way would be to send a daily text with clear steps and a big picture plan so we would know for sure what to do, and God’s way is HIGHER, BIGGER and BETTER than my way, what exactly IS his way? How does God show us his will? What’s his plan here? Bigger than mine, indeed. I thought maybe God wasn’t sending a daily text to us because of the effort it would involve on the daily, but when you understand what God has really done to guide us, it’s mind blowing. He sacrificed his son so that his spirit could live in us. We don’t need signs and we don’t need texts, we are being guided by God’s spirit. Paul explained it like this in Colossinas 1:9: “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives …”

Have you ever gotten on the right track, made progress, then for one reason or another slipped and gone back to old ways? Maybe this is even your track record. You know the pattern. You make a positive change, that change lasts for a short season, but don’t get too excited because you know it won’t last. Now you have this little voice in your head that tells you this is just who you are and how it will always be. Eventually you question why even try. I mean what’s the point when you know positive change won’t last. You’ll lose all you worked so hard for again, you’ll go back to being out of balance, out of shape, out of patience, out of energy and out of willpower to do a dang thing about it. That’s the way it’s always been, so of course that’s the way this will go down too. You may be doing good now, but in the back of your mind you know this change won’t last. You’ll go back to the old you again because you just can’t keep up this level of effort long term. So you fear. You fear when you will slip again. You fear when this new found strength and energy will go away. You fear all the progress you’ve made going down the drain. Let me speak truth into your life today. Let me shed light on this common fear and nagging voice you’ve come to believe as a voice of grounding truth. YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO BACK TO WHO YOU USED TO BE. MAYBE THE OLD YOU ISN’T THE REAL YOU. Maybe the girl who struggled to get out of bed, the girl who wasted her days, the girl who could never get herself to actually do the things she knew she needed to do, was NEVER you. That was the cheap, imitation, lesser-than version of you. That girl was an imposter. And now that she’s exposed, she has no place in your life. The enemy loves to play the screw up and beat up game. He points out all the times you’ve screwed up in the past and paints a picture of a future holding more of the same. Shame and guilt become your companions. You’re so burdened with all the times you’ve screwed up, and all the beatings you’ve given yourself, you lack the energy to believe anything different could even be possible for you. So, here you settle. You settle with your seeming truth of always struggling with the same things. You settle with change never sticking and your old ways being your forever ways. The enemy tries to convince you something is wrong with you and you’re broken beyond repair. You see other people who have changed, others who have harnessed the power to do the things you want to do, but you have come to believe after enough failed attempts, you don’t have that same power. You are some how lacking what others are equipped with. Here’s your truth: That weak, overwhelmed, miserable, stuck you is THE IMITATION VERSION OF YOU. She’s an imposter. That isn’t the real you. And because she’s not the real you, you don’t have to keep going back to her. If you’re making progress, it’s because the REAL YOU is finally coming through. The real you is showing up and making the daily decisions around here. The real you is running the show. HOW ABOUT YOU INVITE HER TO STAY? This is where our focus needs to be. Instead of fearing the old imposter, weak version of you coming back and wrecking your progress, harness your God given power and declare from this day forward you won’t settle for anything less than THE REAL YOU! God made no mistakes when he made you. He made you in his image, whole and complete, lacking nothing. This is who you really are. A vessel for the power of God, not a vessel for the lies of the enemy. The lies of the enemy tell you you’re fat and you’ll always be fat. The truth of God says I made your body to be a temple and I gave you the power to chan...

The difference between thriving and just surviving during hardship is finding purpose in your position. Could you be here for a reason? Are your current circumstances a fundamental part of a greater future? Is this a stepping stone to greater things ahead? Are you in training for the next season where your confident faith and surrendered will become crucial for the victory God has planned? Can you find purpose in your position? Can you trust there is sense in the nonsense? Can you believe God is using this for good and one day you will step into that goodness because you journeyed through this first? Paul found purpose in prison. An innocent man unjustly accused, his freedoms taken from him, imprisoned for crimes he did not commit, held back from the life he deserved, yet he found purpose here. Imagine his position. I must admit my letters from a prison cell would have likely sounded a bit different from his. I would be crying someone come break me out of here. This isn’t fair. There’s been a mistake. I don’t deserve this! But Paul’s letters from a prison cell became the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Here in unjust captivity and harsh conditions, he wrote the scriptures we know: Ephesians 3:20 “Now 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” He still believed God could do the impossible, even while he was chained between two guards. While circumstances were not improving, he knew God was still at work. Don’t you know God is still working here in your life? Don’t you know he is still in complete control? Won’t you remember that you are known and you are loved by the almighty, and he is moving on your behalf. Even while you still wait. Even while things seem to get worse. Even while you still don’t have an answer, God is working. Nothing is impossible for God. He can do more than you can even begin to ask for or imagine through his power. And where is this power? IT IS AT WORK WITHIN YOU! Yes, this unstoppable power is working within you. In you is power. In your life is power. In your current circumstances is power. And this power, God’s mighty power, will be victorious here. Trust him in this hardship. Trust him in the details of your mess. Trust him in the delay of your dreams. His power is here working in you. Here in prison, Paul also wrote: Ephesians 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” As a prisoner, he considered himself blessed. It was his intentional mindset every day. I am blessed by God. His praise continued even in his problems. He wasn’t growing bitter, he was here getting better. Can you see how blessed you are? Can you see God’s favor and provision around you, even in the disaster of ruined plans and a threatened future? Will you still praise him when you don’t know how this is all going to work out? Will you focus on what is still right, even when there’s so much wrong? Will YOU set your mind today, or will your mind be set by circumstances? Will you see blessings, or will you see burdens? Will you praise God through your problems, or will your problems penetrate your mind, steal your peace, and overwhelm your thoughts today? If Paul can praise God in prison, if he can find the blessing in this burden, can’t I set my mind to what is still right in my world? Then he wrote: Ephesians 4:26 “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” With every justifiable right to be fully enraged with anger, Paul chose to end each day with peace and gratitude. You know why? When the sun goes down, there is darkness.

When God created you, he had an image in mind. He had a life’s purpose and destiny envisioned for you, then he equipped you perfectly for it. Part of the equipping we often miss is the DESIRE for the life we were created for. That’s right, he not only makes you the right person to fulfill the image he had in mind, but he places the desires within you for that destiny. If you study enneagrams, you find we are designed so uniquely different. I’m a 7, the enthusiast. (Surprise, as if you didn’t know). I am extroverted, optimistic and spontaneous. I am playful, high-spirited and practical. My desires are for new and exciting experiences. And this is exactly how God made me. Why? To fulfill my purpose. This is who I needed to be to be the voice that wakes people up and inspires them to live up to their God-given potential. My desires for adventure perfectly align with my destiny of hosting BIG Life Adventure Retreats. Study your own unique self and you too will find every detail of you is in alignment with a greater plan that excites you. Ya’ll, God is a genius! He created you on purpose with a purpose. Your personality type, your talents, your tendencies, and your desires work together to guide you exactly where God wants you to go. How about we stop wishing we were someone else, and start rocking exactly who we were created to be? How about we stop settling for a watered down, lesser than, cheap imitation version of who God says we are, and rise up and start believing we are his masterpiece handcrafted for a purpose? How about we start trusting God knows exactly what he is doing and we partner with his plan? How about we stop giving up when it gets hard and believe God has made a way for us to not only survive, but thrive. Here’s the problem, when things get tough, we start looking around at what we want RIGHT NOW and we settle for that immediate gratification, sacrificing what we want MOST. What do you want most? What are your deepest desires? Those desires are there as a guide to the life you were created for. What do you want right now? Is it in conflict with what you want most? Typically it is. You most want a strong healthy body. But dang a doughnut followed by a nap sounds pretty ahhh-mazing, doesn’t it? You most want a fulfilling and successful career. But the leap required to get there is scary, so the security of what you have now is good enough for today. Do you see how the offerings of ease, comfort and security are often in complete contradiction to your deepest desires? And do you see how ease, comfort and security are tools the enemy uses most on us? Honey, if he can’t defeat you, he will settle for detouring you. He would love to take you to Hell with him, but if he can’t have your soul, he will fight for your purpose. He will attack your destiny. How does he fight? Not with the scary demons and fiery darts we imagine, no he fights with freaking nap times that turn into lazy, unlived days. He fights with doughnuts that derail your progress, defeat your willpower and leave you convinced something is wrong with you and you’ll never change. He battles with offerings of false security that make you think a guaranteed paycheck is better than the uncertainty of the future you dream of. And this is what kills our potential. This is exactly what sucks the God given desires right out of our souls and has us settling for less in life when we were created for so much more. The easy way. The convenience of comfort. The security of what always has been. The dang habit of caving to our every little whim of what we want right now, forgetting it comes at the high price of what we want most. You want out of this pattern? You want to change this habitual cycle of making a tiny bit of progress, getting stuck, giving up, feeling like crap.