BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

John 10:10 Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” We best glorify god by being FULLY ALIVE. Not just a human being going through the motions, kinda sorta there, a little in and a little out, dabbling at life. No, fully alive living this one life we have been given all-in with every ounce of our being. This is how we glorify our creator. This is how we praise our savior. This is how we spread his greatness. We intentionally live this day FULLY ALIVE. Jesus came so that you might not only have life, but have it to the full. His sacrifice was not only for your eternal home in Heaven, but for your life right here and right now, today. So that THIS life and THIS day would be lived to the max. So that you would have a happiness and zest for life down deep within your soul that no obstacle, no struggle and no temporary circumstance could ever diminish. This is the kind of life you were not only create for, but charged to live. Jesus conquered death for you, that’s already taken care of. Now you’re free to live. The enemy can’t take this freedom from you. He can’t rob what Christ died to give you. However, he can stress you out to the point you forget what you have. He can attack your identity and make you forget who you are. Is that what the enemy has been doing to you? Have you, this miraculous creation of the almighty, this masterpiece with the fingerprints of God still on you, this chosen one, prized possession, highly favored child of the King of Kings forgotten who you are and what you have been given? Have the enemy’s attacks been successful and as a result you’re still living, but you’re not fully alive? You’ve just been waking up each day going through the motions. Life is passing you by and you’re only seeing half of it. You’re dreading the day. You’re wishing for the weekend. You’re scared of the future. You’re stuck in the past. You’re consumed by worries and fears. AND THIS IS NOT GOD’S PLAN FOR YOU. But you know that don’t you? You know you were created for more than this, you just don’t know how to start living another way. How do you break the 40 year habit of worry? How do you overcome those lifelong fears of what others think? How do you finally take yourself off the back burner and move to the front row of your own life? Here’s your step one … step up and take responsibility for the life you’re living. This is on you. God gave you this life and every single thing you would ever need to live it well. You are lacking nothing. You’re not broken. You’re not incapable of excelling in your own life. Those are lies the enemy has told you and they have no place in this space. Claim your life as holy space. Girl, what you have within you is precious and powerful! How you use it determines the life you get to live. If there’s anything in your life you don’t like, why don’t you go about changing it? I’ve seen people radically change their lives. I’ve seen divorce, healing, then complete restoration in a marriage. I’ve seen addictions broken to never return again. I’ve seen a desperate, depressed unhealthy woman lose 150 pounds and become a marathon runner. I’ve seen someone climb out of the pits of despair and climb mountains they never imagined possible. These are lives that were once weighed down with attacks of the enemy, lies he whispered and they accepted as their truths. But the moment they took responsibility for the life they’re living and understood God had already given them every single thing they needed to break these strongholds, they were changed. This is how we glorify God. Isaiah 43:7 reminds us we were made for his glory. You were made for this. This is how we praise him. We take this one life we have been given and we live it FULLY.

I try not to play favorites around here, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. I have a confession, I have a favorite group of listeners. It’s a group of beautiful folks in St. Louis between the ages of 72 and 102, and they’re the residents of a long term care facility. They listen to the devotional podcast as part of a group activity called “Devotional and Doughnuts”. So here’s a special shout out to my friends this morning, and this one is for you! These special friends of mine perhaps know something that the rest of us young whiper snapers don’t … they know how blessed they have always been. They have a greater perspective on life, standing on the top of that mountain seeing all God has brought them through. And I bet they would tell us today they no longer worry about the little stuff. Why? Because God has proven to be faithful. He has never failed them yet. They have been blessed. Oh, what if we could have that perspective today? To know that we are undoubtedly, undeniably, unequivocally blessed! To open our eyes and realize we are surrounded with an abundance of answered prayers and favor every moment of our lives, including this moment. Let me prove it to you. Do you have someone in your life that you love? I bet you once prayed for them didn’t you? And you got them. But have you forgotten they are a blessing? Have you forgotten they are an answered prayer because now they’re messy and moody and slightly demanding? How quickly we forget the gifts we have received when the gifts grow a little old. At 15 years old I literally prayed for my husband. Now I wasn’t looking to be a child bride, however I was looking for some new boys to come to my little country town of Ava, Missouri. By about the 7th grade every boy in my school was either my cousin or I had already dated him, or worse … he was my cousin and I had already dated him. So I prayed. I prayed to the God I was just beginning to know and I asked him to bring some new boys to our school. As a result of my prayer, and some other extenuating circumstances I never took the time to learn about, a family was uprooted from Dallas, Texas and their UHaul showed up on a little farm outside of my hometown. This family included a 17 year old male. We just called him “new boy” and he was an answer to my prayers. We began dating immediately, I married him 6 days after my high school graduation, and 3 kids and nearly 25 years later, he’s still mine. Now why is it on most days I look him right in the face and forget HE IS THE ONE WHOM I PRAYED FOR. He is my answered prayer. I woke up in the bed next to a full blown miracle. Why wouldn’t I be in sheer giddiness over this? Oh yeah, because it’s all just become normal. Somehow I’ve allowed miracles and answered prayers that moved a family cross country because of a 15 year old girls prayers for a boyfriend to just become ordinary. Perhaps you’re the same way. You too are surrounded by one answered prayer after another. I prayed for my children. I begged God to give me a baby. Just because that baby is a 19 year old soldier in the US Army doesn’t mean I have to miss the fact that he’s a miracle. The result of the prayers of my heart. My daughters … I met them in an orphanage in Mexico and I prayed God would somehow make those beautiful little brown eyed girls mine. Oh he moved mountains to answer that prayer. He did the impossible for me. Now they’re seniors in high school with boyfriends and cars and attitude. When is the last time I looked at them with the perspective that they are my answered prayer? It’s been a while! How about you? Has it been a while since you looked at your life with the same perspective? You prayed for him didn’t you? You prayed for her. And you have no idea all the mountains God moved for you to receive your a...

Darkness is the absence of light. Whatever we keep in the dark has power over us. Whatever is brought into the light is subject to the power of Christ Jesus. What have you been keeping in the dark? Yip, we’re going there today. We’re cutting the chase and getting right to it. What have you still been hiding? Understand it is those hidden things that hold you back from stepping into the life God has available to you. This is what continues to cause problems for you. This could be why things continue to get worse. We think if no one knows about it then we got away with it, but the truth is it’s been eating you up on the inside. Understand this, the enemy works in the darkness. Those things which you have hidden away are a playground for the enemy. He plays in the darkness. He destroys lives in secrets. Acts 26:18 says “open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.” While Satan works in darkness, God works in light. I was working with a teen who had made a series of bad choices. These bad choices became an area of darkness in her life where guilt and shame ate at her. The enemy played in this darkness to convince her she was too far gone and could never recover from her mistakes. She attempted suicide. God saved her life. With her attempted suicide some of her secrets came to light, but not all. There were still some things she just couldn’t confess to. Some unspeakable things she still held inside. And this is where the enemy continued to work. As long as she kept those secrets inside, Satan had a foothold in her heart and mind, whispering his lies and destroying her life. However, the moment she shined the light of God on those areas of darkness and no longer lived in those shameful secrets, she was set free. When there was no more darkness in her life, the enemy had no place to hide. Strongholds were broken. The chains which once held her in shame were immediately loosed when she no longer hid these things within. No matter how hard we try to be good, if there is darkness in our life, hidden secrets we’ve never confessed, there’s an open door for the enemy to slip in and reside. His lies will fill your mind. You will feel hopeless and depressed. You will be anxious and overwhelmed. You will feel condemned and not good enough. All while God is saying, “here I am, shine my light on that darkness and the enemy will flee.” I’m not sure what you may or may not have been hiding inside. But I know you’re hearing this today for a reason. It may be so that you can find the courage to banish that darkness today and confess this area of your life for the first time. Will it be hard, of course it will be. Will you find every possible reason why you can’t, oh you bet! That’s just the enemy putting up one heck of a fight not to be evicted from his comfortable corner of darkness in your heart. But trust me when I say, you don’t want him there. He’s been holding you back entirely too long. You have a BIG Life you were created for and it’s time to make it happen and you can’t do it with this darkness looming inside. Or maybe today you’re listening because you need to be armed with this knowledge to help someone else. Someone you know and love has been hiding things in guilt and shame and this darkness in their life is robbing them of their potential. They have been held back, settling for a life far short of what they were created for. Would you allow God to use you as an agent of change to help open their eyes and turn from darkness to light? Would you help free someone from the power of the enemy and unleash the power of God in their life? Many years ago I read a book that changed my life. At the end of every chapter was a challenge to implement the lessons just learned. One such challenge has stuck with me forever.

“Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.” (Proverbs 21:23) How many of us remember the last family roadtrip where the kids were driving you crazy with the repetitive question of “are we there yet?” Then what follows that question? Another question. What is it? Come on you know it …. “How much longer?” Kids just want to be there already. It doesn’t matter where they’re going, let’s just get there. It’s all about the destination for them. And aren’t we much the same? We’ve now moved up to the front seat, sometimes even the driver’s seat, but we still fail to enjoy the journey as we should and become hyper focused on the destination. We too just want to get there already. And I’m not talking about roadtrips to ski in the mountains or lay on a white sandy beach. I’m talking about life. We want to “arrive”. Arrive at our goal weight. Arrive at that happily ever after state. Arrive at that stage where little people aren’t fully dependent on you. Then we get our little people all grown and out of the house and what are we wanting … when will they come home to visit … when will they bring us the grandbabies. Think about it, we’re on a perpetual really long trip of wondering how much longer. Are you enjoying this journey? Your entire life is one big journey. We reach those milestones and destinations only to find there’s now something else to worry about and somewhere else to go. And if we’re not careful, we never enjoy a darn bit of it. And what’s worse is, we complain about it. If you’ve been listening to the BIG Life Devotionals for long, you know I love to study the story of the Israelites traveling from Egypt where they were slaves, to their Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. What was between slavery and the promised land … desert. Lots and lots of desert. Oh the same is true for you and I. Our journeys take us through our fair amount of deserts. It is in the desert we are tested. It is in the desert we are reliant upon the provision of God. It is in the desert our God proves himself faithful to provide in ways only he can. Just as he rained down manna from heaven (manna is bread) to feed the Israelites, He will provide for you in unspeakable ways. Unspeakable ways sometimes means a you find a $20 bill in your coat pocket just when you were out of gas money. And sometimes unspeakable ways means doing things you just didn’t imagine you would need to do to get by. Now, don’t miss it, that is God’s provision too. That is God saying, here use what I have given you, be creative, do what you can do, and I’m going to take care of the rest. AND STAY GRATEFUL. This is the key my friends. Stay grateful. Often times in our deserts of life, where everything is taking longer than we imagined and harder than we were prepared for, we lose our gratitude. We become hyper focused on what some refer to as “reality” and we miss the miracles in it all. You’re alive aren’t you? You’ve made it another day, right? You didn’t starve yesterday. God has been faithful and he will be faithful again today. Enjoy the journey. What ties us up and delays us quicker than anything is an ungrateful, complaining spirit. Proverbs 21:23 – “Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.” Meaning the opposite is also true – those who DON’T guard their mouth CREATE calamity. Oh we better zip that lip!!!! The Israelites were stuck in the dessert searching for their Promised Land for 40 years. It should have only been an 11 day journey. They were delayed because of their complaining. Are you being delayed because of your complaining? Maybe you are closer than you ever imagined,

In Isaiah 58:11 God gives us a promise. He says, “I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places.” Where God guides, God provides. If he brought you to it, he will bring you through it. If there’s a mountain to climb, he will make you a mountain climber. If there’s a war to fight, he will turn you into a warrior. You can fully trust that God is using anything and everything you’re currently going through to prepare you for where he is taking you next. I use the maps app on my phone to take me everywhere. I never plan my route in advance, I don’t even look at the directions, I just input my destination, and I go. This drives my husband crazy. However I’m directionally challenged and typically follow specific commands much better than I do on my own. When the kind lady in my phone says “turn right”, I just turn right. There has been the rare occasion that the kind lady has brought me to the heart of the ghetto, arrived in front of a boarded up shack and said “you’ve arrived at your destination.” True story. I didn’t get out. Thankfully God is never going to lead us to the wrong destination. He knows exactly what he is doing. God had a plan for your life before he even created you and the way has always been made. He never gets it wrong, ever. Where he guides you, you can fully trust is the way to go. If God is taking you to the ghetto, it’s about to get good my friend, and it’s not by mistake! There has also been the occasion where the kind lady in my phone who knows everything will tell me to turn, and I miss it. I’m not paying attention, I’m delayed in my reaction, or I may be going a little too fast. What happens when you miss your turn? The smart lady in your phone will immediately begin rerouting you. My GPS is quite accustom to rerouting because I often don’t get it right the first time. How about you? Do you get it right the first time? Are you always on que with God and following his directions, or do you get a little lost along the way like me? God is the master at rerouting. Oh how he is patient with us. Okay, so you missed your turn … I’ve got this. God may have had the perfect job lined up for you, all you had to do was turn right. But you didn’t. You didn’t turn in your resume. You didn’t pursue that interview. So you missed the opportunity. Now God is rerouting you. God may have had the love of your life just ahead on the left, but you flew right on by and missed him. No worries girl, God can reroute you and loop you back around for another shot. God also may have had the answer to your prayers 3 blocks ahead, but you were stubborn and stopped when you should have kept going. The way is still made for you. Maybe you should get going again. When you are rerouted, you are no longer on the optimal and fastest route, but you will still get there. Some of us are perpetually on the rerouted plan. We don’t quite follow directions the first time around. We question and doubt God’s sovereign plan and his mighty ways, so we take the long way. I wonder when we will stop that? I wonder when we will finally understand that God has a plan, it’s a good plan, and he is showing us where to go. Nothing is by accident and if we will stay alert and aware, we will see how everything is working together to bring us exactly where we should be. His promise is to always show you where to go, now following is completely up to you. Following God’s guidance is an act of obedience and surrender. Some of us like control a little too much for this way of living, don’t we? Some of us need the 10 step plan before taking step 1. Some of us like to take a perfectly good plan and make it more complicated than it really needs to be. Understand, all we’re doing is delaying ourselves.

Today we’re going to talk about your lifeline. Your access to not only your creator – but your access to your personal mountain movin’, sea partin’, sick healin’, miraculous heavenly father who loves you wildly. A Daddy who has proven there is NOTHING he won’t do for you. What is your lifeline to him? How do you access him? Prayer. Scripture gives us an outline of how to access God. Jesus himself says YOU SHOULD PRAY LIKE THIS. I personally love it when Jesus is so clear. There’s no beating around the bush here, Jesus clearly says DON’T PRAY LIKE THIS and he gives a few example – then he says instead PRAY LIKE THIS with a complete outline. It is of course called the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6: 9-13 Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Although I have this prayer memorized, to pray it as such doesn’t necessarily have tremendous meaning to me. I don’t feel it in the depths of my soul the way I should when speaking directly to my creator. Now remember, you have the ear of the King of Kings. Shouldn’t you tell him what you really want to tell him. Imagine you’re speaking to the President or a mighty ruler and he’s listening exclusively to you, waiting to hear from you. Shouldn’t you speak to him with meaning? So I began doing a bit of research on The Lord’s Prayer, this outline given to us by Jesus. I thought perhaps it’s awkward for me to pray because I don’t typically throw around words like which art, thy and thine. So, I whipped out my favorite Bible, The Message Translation. Quite honestly, I was blown away by this translation. Listen up, here’s the Lord’s prayer in today’s language. Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything you want! You’re ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes. Does that just take your breath away like it does mine? There are four things that stand out to me here like I’ve never thought of before in The Lord’s Prayer. May I share them with you? First – “Father, reveal who you are.” Meaning show your true power. Show your true love. That’s who you really are. Show us. Let us see you all around us today. Second – “Set the world right, do what’s best.” Can we just say God, we trust you. You’re in charge. We trust your plan, we trust your way and we trust your timing. We lay aside our grand schemes and we choose yours. Third – “Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.” Ahhhh yes, pretty much in that order. Aren’t we a bigger threat to ourselves often times than the Devil himself? Gosh the enemy doesn’t even really have to step in, we’re pretty good at self-sabotage. We’ve totally mastered playing little and living below our own potential ourselves. God, keep us safe from ourselves. Help me get out of my own head! Fourth – the scripture ends with verse 13 which simply says “Yes, Yes, Yes.” We say yes to you God. Yes to your plan. Yes to the life you have given us. Yes to the opportunities you bring our way and yes to the commitments we have made. We know when we say yes to life, life says yes to us.

What do you have today my sister? Understand that is exactly what God wants to use. Understand the solution to your problem lies in what you already have. In 2 Kings chapter 4 begins with a story titled ‘Elisha Helps a Poor Widow’. Within this story is something for you today. Let’s read together starting in verse 1 through 7. One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.” “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” “Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied. And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.” So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim! “Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons. “There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing. When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.” Elisha was a prophet of God, meaning he spoke and taught God’s word. He was a preacher. This woman had lost her husband and she had no way to pay her bills. The bank showed up at the door and wanted their money. She had nothing to give. So the bank threatened to take her 2 sons as slaves. Now maybe you’re facing some debt collectors, but I bet they’re not threatening to turn your children into slaves to pay your debt now are they? Remember, I understand coming up short on money. There was a time we parked our car in the garage so the repo man couldn’t come take it. There was a time when we ate shrimp ramen and called it a seafood feast. We’ve had our share of hard times. So please know if you’re listening and you’re connecting with this woman who was in a desperate financial situation, I get you. Been there, done that, survived it and learned some of the most valuable lessons of my life. So the pastor shows up to her house, she tells him her sob story and he says “what can I do to help you?” Now without giving her an opportunity to give a long list of all her needs and wants he says “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” Now listen to me, this is exactly what God is asking you and I today. So you have a need … I want to help you … tell me, what do you already have? God wants to use what little you have to create your answer. Elisha showed up and changed her life without bringing her a single dollar. He didn’t give her anything. All he did was show her what she already had. Oh you have a little bit of olive oil. Okay, let’s focus on what you DO have. It may only be a little bit, but God can do something with your little bit. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TODAY? What do you have right now? That’s exactly what God wants to use to meet your needs. Nothing from outside is even needed. You already have it. If you will be faithful with what you have right now, God will begin multiplying. So what does Elisha say about this little bit of olive oil she has? He says go out and borrow as many empty jars as you can. Then bring those empty jars back into your house and start filling them with olive oil. Every single jar was filled. Now understand, she only started with a little olive oil. It shouldn’t have even filled 2 jars. But what she had kept supplying and giving and they kept filling the jars until every single one they collected was filled.

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Today we will dissect this familiar verse and offer a new perspective on it. I’ve perhaps quoted this scripture several times, really focusing in on that last part, he will give you the desires of your heart. In my younger adult years I remember the first time the lottery was over 100 million dollars and I decided I was going to win. I went and bought my very first lottery ticket and I just knew if I repeated this scripture enough, the winning numbers would be in my hand. The lord will give me the desires of my heart. My desire was to win that lottery. And then I began wheeling and dealing with God, you know the way we all do. Lord, if you let me win this I will give you half. Okay, that was aggressive, I will give you 10%. 10% is still a lot you know God. I will do good works with this money. Give me the desires of my heart. Did I win? Nope, in fact if memory serves me correctly I didn’t have a single matching number. So what went wrong here? Could I have misread this scripture? Could we be taking it out of context? He will give you the desires of your heart. Read that again, he will give you the desires of your heart. He will give you the desires of your heart. The desires of your heart will come from God. See the shift in perspective here? God’s not a geanie in a bottle granting you your every wish, he’s your loving creator and he places the deepest of your hearts desires within you. The desires you have in your heart were placed there by God. Now, don’t be confused. My desire to win the lottery wasn’t a desire of the heart, that was a desire of the flesh. True desires of the heart are given to us by God and they guide us to our purpose. The very reason why God made you is found in the desires of your heart. Perhaps we’ve been led by the desires of the flesh for so long that it’s hard for us to even know what a desire of the heart looks and feels like. Well, don’t you want to find out? Consider the true, God given desires within your heart to be like a hidden treasure. These are the keys to your BEST life. A roadmap to your most fulfilling, satisfying BIG Life. Start seeking this treasure within you. Start seeking God for the desires of your heart. Seek and ye shall find. He will give you the desires of your heart. Now it’s funny, looking back realizing the timing of my earnest prayer over that big lottery I began praying Lord, please give me the desires of my heart, I thought he didn’t answer when the winning numbers weren’t mine. But you see he did. He planted a desire within my heart to do this. A desire to guide you in starting your morning right. A desire I didn’t seem suited for because I’m naturally too loud and peppy for most people’s taste at 6 am in the morning. But God sure did give me the desires of my heart. Not the winning lottery ticket, but a purpose. The TRUE desires of your heart come from God. They’re there for a reason. Follow them. Not the flesh, the heart. Not the flesh, the heart. The heart, the heart. Let’s go back to that scripture again. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Take delight in the Lord. That means find your peace, fulfillment and happiness in him. If you will find your satisfaction and your self worth, your VALUE in Christ, then he will give you longings in your heart, desires that bring you in alignment with his will and you will never ever again be unfulfilled.  

John 3:7 – “You must be born again.” What a strange concept Jesus introduced. To be born again. His students were so confused taking his words so literally. “How can someone be born when they are old?” Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Perhaps you’ve heard it described like this – to die to self. To rid yourself of your old ways and be made new in Christ. This morning, consider this. Being born again as a believer in Christ is to receive a spiritual makeover. You change the way you see yourself. This is when God comes in and repairs your self-image and perception. Oh yes, this is something TD Jakes has been teaching me. When you’re born again, you begin to understand you’re more than a conqueror. You begin to carry yourself differently. You don’t back down from a challenge because you know who you really are. Do you know who you really are? Have you had that spiritual makeover and changed the way you see yourself? Do you truly see yourself as the person God created you to be? DO YOU SEE YOURSELF CORRECTLY? You’ve got to know who you are. Don’t you know you have treasure down in you? If you could only get a vision for what God wants to do in your life. A vision for who he is making you. A vision for who you truly are. I’m telling you this vision is more valuable than any amount of money. You don’t need more money to level up in life, you need a vision for who God is making you. A vision for who you can become if you won’t give up. A vision for how every challenge and struggle is building and sculpting you into the finest, most precious version of YOU. If you can just get this vision, you will see that what God wants to do is so much bigger than anything you’ve been through or are going through now. You can stop wallowing in all that went wrong, all the people who left, everything they said, and how much you lost. Yes, that can stop right now because what God is doing is so much bigger than any of that you don’t have room for both in your life. You choose – what has happened to you or what God is going to do now. Which will you cling to? Don’t you see how God is leading you down a path to make you stronger? Don’t you see how God is using every setback as a set up for your ultimate good? See yourself stepping into the life your heavenly father has available to you. See yourself becoming all he had in mind when he created you. See yourself being born again. Shedding any guilt, shame, anger, bad habits, old ways and old thoughts which are no longer serving you. Standing now as a new being. This is your spiritual makeover. You can now see yourself differently than ever before. God has been repairing your self-image. It’s time to see what he has seen in you from the very beginning. You are on a journey to living up to your potential. And maybe that journey is going to be quite long because the space between how you have been living and how you COULD be living is great. Maybe the space between who you thought you were before and who God is telling you are now is wide. But here’s the great thing about that space, that distance between who you are now and who you can become … God can fill that space. An open space in your life is an invitation for God to come and dwell and do his mighty work. This space is good. What we typically do is we cram our lives with so much stuff, so many distractions, so many excuses of busy that we crowd God right out. When there’s no space in our lives for God to dwell, we don’t feel his presence. We don’t benefit from his guidance. Maybe this is why you’ve felt distant and without his direction. You’ve been filling the space with “busy”. Now God is saying, embrace the space between where you are and where you want to be.

Psalm 18: 24 MSG “God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.” Your story changes when you fully open your heart to God. When you hold nothing back and invite God to rearrange, revamp, restore, renew, and rewrite any thing and all things. But what we typically do is we wait until things fall completely apart and then we present this one area of our lives to God in desperation, holding everything else back. When will we understand God isn’t interested in just fixing your marriage, he wants to fix your relationship with YOU too. He wants to go to work on every part of you and restore you to exactly who he created you to be. And he can. Oh yes, he can. But he won’t without your invitation. Will you open the book of your heart to his eyes? Meaning, will you fully surrender everything to him? Will you stop pretending like you can hide those thoughts you’re having from God? Will you stop pretending like God doesn’t already know exactly how you’ve been feeling? Where is your surrender in what you’ve been holding back? Why do we hold so tightly to control when life is spinning out of control? Why do we refuse to fall to our knees without being knocked there? Whew, we are some hard headed girls aren’t we? There’s an easier faster way my friend, surrender fully now. Psalm 129: 23 & 24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” That’s a bold prayer asking God to search your heart and test you. Don’t pray it if you’re not ready. But this is the secret to the next level of living. This is the key to stepping into your destiny. The boldness to say, “Lord, if there’s anything I’m doing wrong, SHOW ME, I want to fix it.” How many times are we so fixated on what the other person is doing wrong that we miss the fact we’ve royally screwed up too? God, show me where I am wrong too, I’m ready to change that. How many times are we wallowing as the victim when we caused some of the pain too? God, show me where I need to get better. I’m ready to work. It’s time to go first. Tell God you’re willing to go first. You won’t wait on things to change, you’ll go first. You won’t wait on him or her to start trying, you’ll go first. Me, it’s me God wants to work on and in. I’ve been holding up the progress here. How many times are we taking part in conversations that simply shouldn’t be had, saying things we know we shouldn’t be saying, but doing it any way? Oh God, convict me! Last weekend I was leading our team in prayer before retreat began and as I was praying, these words just came out of my mouth “if we’re in any conversation that is not pleasing to you, convict us in that moment and help us redirect the conversation.” Oh boy, I can’t even tell you how many times my conversations were redirected in that 46 hours. I was aware of everything that could be seen as gossip or complaining and suddenly I had the big picture view of how my words could change the situation. And hey, that comes from this rapid girl who often leaps before I look and speaks before I think! That’s just a miracle. That’s God at work after surrendering not only a heart, but a mouth to him! Will you pray that bold prayer and ask God to search you and point out anything that offends him? Will you ask him where you may be wrong so that you can change it? What if your husband is doing a million things wrong, but God first wants you to go to work on what YOU are doing wrong? What if she isn’t right, but neither are you and God’s starting with you? What if your breakthrough to the next level is dependent on the one thin...

Yesterday, an image was floating around on Facebook that grabbed my attention and honestly I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Just a simple painting of a tree with these words “LONG BEFORE ZACCHEAUS COULDN’T SEE JESUS, THE TREE WAS PLANTED TO MEET HIS NEED.” Woah. Perhaps you remember the story of Zaccheaus found in Luke 19: 1-6: “Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.” Zaccheaus had a need: He wanted to see Jesus. He had a problem: He was too short The solution had been put into place long before. A tree had been planted, the tree had grown tall, and now it was there for him to climb and see Jesus. This man was too short. What are you “too” of? Don’t we all struggle with being too much of this or too little of that? God has already been at work to meet your need. Just as the tree was there to climb for the who was too short, what you need will be there for you. God works in mysterious amazing ways. I’m just coming out of a weekend where I saw God’s fingerprints on every detail. This past weekend was our BIG Life Adventure Retreat. I always share about the wild good times and the crazy adventures we have, but I don’t often get to share how God shows up in the details to meet the specific needs of the women there who are feeling too much of this, or too little of that. One woman came for her first retreat, we’ll call her “M”. “M” hated retreat from the second she arrived, and she was pretty sure she hated us. We were loud. We were slightly obnoxious with our ridiculous crazy pants and loud music. In fact she said we were exactly the kind of women she spent her life trying to avoid. I can totally see her point. When I announced we had 46 hours together to make the most of our time, she quickly started counting down because those 46 hours couldn’t go fast enough. One thing after another happened in those first few hours that convinced her she didn’t belong there and we were NOT her kind of people. I mean here we were on Friday night dressed in camouflage, black painted on our faces like football players, screaming “I believe that we will win”, and climbing ridiculously tall telephone poles just to jump off and zipline in the pitch dark. Who does this stuff? Not “M”. And then it happens. “M” gets injured. She tears her calf muscle and can’t walk. She’s carted back to the cabins and a group of us climb down off our poles and go with her. Now this woman who really, really didn’t like us was surrounded by us receiving personal attention. Two of our ladies who were nurses had to de-pants her to get the circulation flowing again. So imagine this, she’s laying in a bed, injured, being stripped down by strangers in camouflage and eye black … and then it happens. She sees we’re the real deal. We do care about her. Her guard was down and we weaseled our way right into her heart and now we’re BIG Life sisters. Now she’s in the inner circle of mentoring learning how to become exactly who God created her to be. And God had gone before her to get her exactly to this place where he could work. He had provided every single need to overcome these obstacles. You see God loves “M” wildly and he would stop at nothing to prove his love to her. God loves you the same way my sister.

Revelation 21:5 – He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” So, let’s do that today, let’s write this down because we know these words are in fact trustworthy and true today, our God is making everything new. He is making everything new. Do you believe that? Or are you hanging on to the old stuff that no longer serves you? Are you convinced some things will never change? Have you bought into the lie that YOU will never change? Well may I remind you that God wants to make everything new and that includes you. You are not the same person you used to be. Literally you are new. Your colon cells are new since this past Saturday. Your white blood cells are all new since last year at this time. Even your skeleton isn’t the same as it was in 2008. Yes, to your bones you are a new person. And your skin, well that’s new since mid August. You’re walking around in a whole new skin, so listen to me …. you’re totally not stuck in any of your old habits and patterns. You’re a new person and God wants to do a new thing in you. Isaiah 43:19 says “See, I am doing a new thing.” Won’t you believe that God has been working on you to take away the old and create new within you? You don’t have to be the same person you were last year. You don’t have to be stuck in the same old habits and routines that held you back in the past. You don’t even have the same skin as you did back then. Won’t you embrace the new, lean into what could be and trust that you can change anything you want to change about you. Recently I was chatting with Kim. Kim shared with me her never ending battle with the snooze button. She told me she is a sound sleeper and can sleep right through the alarm without even knowing it, so she’s constantly running late and never has time for that morning workout. Do you have a similar problem? Well, let me help you write a new story. You sleep through your alarm because your old story said you could. You don’t hear the alarm because you have told yourself that you CAN sleep through it. Here’s how I know. If you had your alarm set for 5 am to catch a flight for an exotic beach vacation complete with fruity drinks and cabana boys, you wouldn’t sleep through that alarm now would you? The first sound of that alarm you would pop out of bed. Why? Because it’s important to you! All you did was tell yourself a different story. No sleeping through the alarm on the morning of your flight to vacation because darn it, you told yourself this was important, and so you were able to get up with ease. Oh how a changed story changes everything. Could change really be that easy? Yes it could be. God is already working in you to do something new, just partner with him and change any story that’s no longer serving you. You are an intelligent, strong woman who follows through with her commitments, wakes up on time, does what she says she will do with her very best effort. Maybe that’s not who you were last year or even last month, but the good news is, you have new skin since then. Offer yourself some grace and write that new story about yourself. Who are you and how do you live your life? This month in BIG Life Mentoring I’m helping 300 women rewrite their story to say: I was created for more. I am capable of more. I am worthy of more. They have memorized those 3 lines. They’re surrounded by post-it notes everywhere with this new story. They’re repeating it several times daily. And as a result, they’re beginning to believe this new story and their actions are lining up. They’re showing up more. They’re pushing for more. They’re experiencing more.

Who’s ready to be lifted up on this Tuesday morning? Who’s ready to receive life today, direction for today, and energy to do exactly what needs to be done today? God is here to meet you to revive and restore you. Where have you been running ragged? Where have you been defeated? Where are you weary from the fight? Come receive from the Father and be resurrected. Jesus is the resurrected King and he is here to resurrect you. He died on the cross, he was buried in the tomb for 3 days, then he was resurrected, meaning he was revived, restored and lifted up. And all of this was for you. However what we often miss is this wasn’t just so you could go to heaven when you die, but this is so that you can be revived and restored TODAY. This day in your life. What Jesus did for you was for TODAY. One of my favorite songs is called “Resurrecting” by Elevation Worship. It says: By Your spirit I will rise From the ashes of defeat The resurrected King, is resurrecting me In Your name I come alive To declare Your victory The resurrected King, is resurrecting me By his spirit you will rise from the ashes of defeat. We don’t have to live defeated. We don’t have to stay stuck. He endured death for us so that we could experience life, true life. Are you experiencing the life he died to give you, or have you been saving up your glorious days for when you get old? Why would we ever hold back? Why would we settle for days half-lived and dreams unpursued when the price has already been paid? That’s craziness. God has given you victory. Yes, victory in eternity, but victory here too. Defeat was not his plan when he imagined your life. Defeat is not his will. However, he will use a few losses along the way to create a champion. He will use those valuable experiences of learning exactly what you DON’T WANT in your life to show you what you do want. You will get knocked down in this life, but his intention is never for you to stay down. His spirit is here today to lift you up. To resurrect you. The resurrected King is resurrecting you, reviving, restoring, and lifting you up again. As a 15 year old girl, I accepted Jesus on an Easter Sunday morning in a little country church in Ava, Missouri. A few weeks later I was baptized. Maybe you’ve had a similar experience. A pastor dunks you in water, you come up looking all surprised and slightly bewildered, then walk away dripping wet. Why do some religions do this? It’s a sign of the resurrected king resurrecting us. Romans 6:3-5 in The MSG translation says – “When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going.” We no longer live in darkness. We have been raised into a light-filled world where we now know where we’re going. We are guided and directed by the almighty. I find it not only comforting, but inspiring to know that God has a plan for me and he’s guiding my every step to help me step into his good plan. He’s lighting my way. He’s lifting me up. He’s continually resurrecting me. You don’t have to live like you used to live. You don’t have to continue to struggle. You don’t have to be the same if you want to change, and here’s why, because the resurrected King is resurrecting you. The benefits of Jesus aren’t just for taking you to Heaven. Sure that’s fantastic, but the benefits of Jesus are here for you today. His offer to raise you into a light-filled world where there was once darkness is available to you right now, in this very moment. Won’t you let him lift you up today? It is not God’s will for his girl to be depressed today.

Today we’re going to talk about change, true change. How many times have you wanted to change and turn from an old bad habit, but ultimately you fail? Romans 7:19 describes it perfectly. It says “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.” Our willpower is weak at times. Whether it be trying to give up sugar or cigarettes, quit drinking, quit cheating, quit over spending, quit over sleeping, or start working out and start showing up to work on time, our willpower seems to come up short. We know what we should do and we even WANT to do the right thing, but we simply don’t. You lack the power in some areas of your life to truly change. Now I hate to admit that because I know what a total powerhouse God created you to be. I know his plans for you are so big they will blow your mind. But I know your willpower isn’t going to be enough. Mine isn’t either. You can’t deliver yourself. Romans 7 verse 24 says “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” So what is our answer? Well, it’s quite simple, however most of us have never done it. Today we will. Our answer comes just in the next verse Romans 7:25 “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Jesus is your answer. And how many times have we heard that? Yeah, so many times it sounds cheap, so let me dig deeper and be more specific. Have you really asked God to HELP you with the area where you struggle? Have you fully surrendered to him? You woke up late, you left for work late, you’re surely going to be late. But you’re praying. Oh yes you’re praying, “please Lord let all the lights be green. Let me somehow make it there on time.” Nope. God isn’t interested in magically transporting you to work in record breaking time so you won’t be late, but he would totally be game for helping you get your butt out of bed if you would ask him. Here’s what we typically do when we’re trying to be healthy and lose weight – It’s Friday morning, weigh in time. We step on the scale and we pray “please Lord, please let it go down. Please, come on God. Let the number be less.” Now why didn’t we pray on Monday morning that God would help us resist the doughnuts in the office? Seriously, why didn’t we ask God for help when it mattered instead of when we’re stepping on the scale? We want God to pull off a miracle without our participation. God doesn’t work that way. How many times have we prayed for God to let us get by with our wrongdoing instead of praying God would help us to STOP our wrong doing? You see, God has zero interest in helping you get by with it, get away with it, or continue life one more day settling for bad habits, sinful decisions, and little life living. In fact, it’s disgusting to him. Why would he want to help you hide it? Why would he want to help you reap the benefits from something you weren’t willing to do? God isn’t interested in your comfort – he’s interested in your character. He wants YOU to be better. He wants you to live up to the potential he placed in you. And you can’t do it on your own. So here’s where that leaves us. SURRENDER IT ALL TO GOD. Right here, right now this morning, surrender to God. You can’t do this without him. You can’t change without him. You’ve tried this already on your own. Now it’s time to invite God in and ask him to strengthen you. Ask him to provide the power to break the habit, to turn the other way, to resist the temptation. God will be faithful. The answer is Jesus. There is power in his name. Call on him. Now. What are you struggling with? Where have you been giving up?

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.” These are words spoken by Jesus during his Sermon on the Mount, and he wants to remind you of the power of what you are asking for and the power of what you are seeking today. Everything you are going through is preparing you for what you asked for. Let me shoot it to you straight. How will you ever know Jesus is a healer if you don’t first face the illness? How will you ever know Jesus is a provider until you have lost the job, face the impossible, and are pretty darn sure the money has run out? How will you ever know your God is a mountain moving God until you are staring down the mountain? The difficulty, the failure, the struggle you find yourself in right now is preparing you for the breakthrough you seek. Strength first comes through struggle. We know that. The only way to build a muscle is to work it through resistance. We pray, “Lord, please give me strength” – well how else is he going to do that without some resistance to grow your muscles of faith and perseverance. Look around, you’re just in life’s gym. Opportunity for strength and growth is everywhere. Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find. And sometimes the preparation process for what you asked for can be a hot minute. It can seem to take forever to climb to that next level of living you seek – to get off the struggle bus – to break the bad habit – to repair the relationship – to be restored. But don’t you know you’re worth the investment? You’re worth the time. And if you do not give up, you will receive, you will find and the door will be opened. You’re likely just one of those overnight success stories 8 years in the making. It’s easy to see the success of others on the surface level and assume it must have been easy for them to lose the weight, their marriage looks like a walk in the park, everything they touch just turns to gold … oh sister, you have no idea all she went through to prepare her first for what you see today. But I bet she’ll tell you it was worth it. I bet she’ll tell you she’s glad she asked. I bet she’ll tell you she’s grateful she endured the process. Sometimes our God works instantly, and I honestly love it when he does. When he shows up and does the miraculous the moment I ask. When breakthroughs are immediate. When resolution comes quickly. But typically he allows me to go through a long preparation process first. A hard fought battle before the victory. A series of valleys and pits and lions on the prowl first … then the sweet taste of mountaintop success. I know God is a healer because of what I survived. I know God is a provider because of what we made it through. I know God answers because we’ve asked for some big things and YEARS later, I’ve been able to look back with proper perspective and see HE DID EXACTLY WHAT I ASKED FOR and it blows my mind. Not always in my way and certainly not in my timing, but I asked and he answered and I did indeed find what I was seeking. The words he spoke on the sermon on the mount apply to my life, and they apply to your life today. So, let me encourage you today. Everything you are going through is preparing you for what you asked for. Your soil is just being plowed and who knows being plowed is a painful process? Things have to be dug up and overturned. But the seed is being planted and eventually the harvest will come in your life. It’s just a process. Be willing to go through the process of preparation. Be willing to keep getting up every darn day and doing everything you can...