BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

God designed life with a great balance. Where there is darkness, he brings light. Where there is struggle, he creates growth. Where there is bad, he promises good. There is not one without the other. It’s the yin and yang of life. The pull and the push required to help us become who we were created to be. God has a personal message for you today in Isaiah 43: 1-3 (Message translation): But now, God’s Message, the God who made you in the first place, the One who got you started, “Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your name. You’re mine. When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead end— Because I am God, your personal God, your Savior. Let’s get the bad news out of the way here. There will be times in your life when you’re in over your head. Times when you don’t know what to do next. Times when nothing seems to go right. You will go through rough waters, it won’t always be smooth sailing for your journey. You will find yourself between a rock and a hard place, darned if you do and darned if you don’t. You will face-plant yourself in a dead end. It’s all right here in this scripture. This. Is. Life. We were warned. Yet somehow when things happen to us we’re so shocked. We throw Hollywood worthy pity parties for a party of one. Let me tell you this straight up, not one “why me” will ever solve a single thing in your life. Ever. Why you? Because you’re human. Because you’re alive. That’s why. I used to believe if you’re a good person and you love God, especially if you’re seeking to follow his will, then you’re insulated from hardships. And then I witnessed a sweet little girl named Phoebee lose her life to cancer and my theory was blown to heck. I had somehow twisted God’s word to believe I was entitled to things such as a healthy family. And then I saw a family much more sacrificial, much more Godly, much more lovely than my own lose their sweet little Phoebe. If they weren’t entitled to health, how could I possibly be? If Phoebee wasn’t entitled to a long life, how could I be? And that’s when I came to this reality … I’m entitled to nothing so I’m grateful for everything. When you realize everything you have, EVERYTHING, is by the grace of God and you aren’t entitled to a single bit of it, then your life is opened up to be truly grateful for everything. You earned none of it. It was given to you. And it was given to you with a great responsibility to take care of it. You don’t just receive a healthy body by the grace of God, not take care of it and expect to magically remain healthy. Nope it doesn’t work that way. You don’t receive a clean slate, a fresh start and opportunity for a do-over and not be required to DO anything. Your participation in your life is required. You are entitled to nothing. Once you understand that, you can be truly grateful for everything. And with that gratitude comes a sense of responsibility to take the best darn care you can of that which you have been given. So, that’s the bad news … some crap is going to happen in your life. Hard days will come. Your seemingly good plans will fall apart. Now the good news. I mean the ridiculously good news. God’s already redeemed you. You may not see it yet or feel it right now, but you’ve already been redeemed. Every bad thing that’s ever happened to you is in the process of being whipped into something of purpose. Lives will be touched because of what you’ve experienced. You will be used to make a positive impact. This is part of your legacy. You are redeemed.

Most every morning I hear my husband singing in the kitchen “here comes the sun, little darling, here comes the sun and I say, it’s all right.” Mornings are my favorite. That’s one of the many reasons why. Here’s another: Lamentations 3: 22-23 says “The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.” Here in BIG Life we say each day we are the recipients of the greatest gift wrapped in the rising sun, the gift of a brand new day of life. I’m a total sunrise junkie. There’s just something about watching the sun appear on the horizon to shine upon the new day. Being here on the island for the past 2 weeks, I haven’t missed a single sunrise. Every day I’ve walked onto the sand and waited for that moment, that moment when the slate is clean and God’s mercies are new with his unfailing love. Morning. Watching the sunrise, I’ve learned 3 valuable things about life. 1. The photo never captures the full picture. No matter how good your camera is, the beauty you see simply cannot be fully captured in the photo. It’s almost frustrating to not be able to document the true beauty of a magnificent sky. In fact, it can be so frustrating, you can miss the magic of the moment trying to get the perfect picture. IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Nothing compares to the real deal. I can work to get the right angle. I can use a filter. I can even touch my phone screen to adjust the lighting and make the colors pop (hey, did you know that’s a real thing. I discovered yesterday morning during the sunrise how many people don’t know about this little trick of magic. On your cell phone, when you’re taking a photo, touch and hold the lightest part of the screen and it will adjust the exposure and give you a more colorful dramatic picture! You’re welcome.) However, you still won’t capture the absolute magnificence of what your eyes behold in that moment. You have to be there to really see it. I wonder if God designed it that way so that we would stay in the moment? I wonder if what he really wants is for us to show up for life and see it for ourselves instead of settling for the photo of it? The greatest beauty in your life is found when you show up for it. Show up for it. For what? Real life. Ordinary every days of life. This is the real stuff. God doesn’t just save beautiful sunrises for Saturday mornings, he brings them on Wednesday mornings, right in the middle of the week and says I hope you show up for it. Someone once told me to consider the magnificent paintings in the sky as God’s personal work of art just for me. Imagine that he would love you that much. That he would make the sun to rise in it’s beauty and splendor just for you. My favorite color is hot pink. Last night we walked up the coast to a fabulous restaurant right on the sand and there in the sky were the boldest, deepest shades of my favorite color. Could it have been for me? Why yes, I believe it could have been. Don’t you know God loves you that much? Don’t you know he is that involved in the details of your life? Don’t you know he would paint the sky just for you, his beloved daughter? Oh what more would he do to turn your eyes upon him and capture your heart … there’s nothing he wouldn’t do. He works through both blessings and burdens to show himself at work in your life. He appears in both success and struggle, happiness and heartache, sunrise and sunset. All of this to prove his eye is on you and his plan is for you. But, the picture you get will never capture the full reality of what is happening. The second thing I’ve learned while watching every sunrise here is: 2. There are things happening you can’t see.

If you have a dog, you understand the importance of obedience. If you have a big dog that can launch you into a face plant, you really understand the importance of obedience. Our yellow lab is appropriately named Tank. He’s 130 pounds of curiosity and ambition. He loves his mama because I sneak him table scraps, but he listens to his Daddy because Daddy disciplines him. He knows Daddy means business so the command to sit is met with a butt that drops to the floor. My command to sit is met with a look of “no thanks, I’m not interested.” Yes, he responds to me as if I’m an unwanted salesman. A dog has one master, and I’m not it. We are the same. We will be influenced by our master, that which powers over us. The question is, what is your master? Matthew 6:24 says “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Can money be your master? Absolutely. But so can your work. So can the home you live in and the things you own. So can the opinion of others and your incessant need to impress or please. When something or someone is elevated as your master, it essentially owns you. It dictates your perception and your actions. I’ve been owned by a career before. My full worth and identity was derived from the number of clients I had and the money I was making. It became all about the car I was driving, the clothes I was wearing and the house I was living in because a girl who’s trying to be successful must look successful. And in the process of trying to look so darn successful, I became quite miserable. My work was a cruel master and I was an exhausted slave. If you can’t walk out of the door with a full face of makeup, the question is, who are you trying to impress? Stop and check yourself, because vanity can quickly become an imbalance of show and praise that leaves you dang empty on the inside trying to be someone you’re not. Why would God warn us of this? Because he knows how dangerous it is to be ruled by something that does not love you. A master who does not care for you in return uses you up and walks away when your best is gone. Your money does not love you. Your job title does not love you. The likes on Facebook and follows on Instagram do not love you. It could all be gone tomorrow and then what? But God promises he is the master that will never leave you nor forsake you. He is a constant steady. He is the one and only guaranteed continual in your life. Money may come and go. Beauty is a pursuit that only gets harder with age and honey you ain’t getting any younger. Everything starts going South, literally. That house you so desperately love today will be going out of style in the not too distant future. Yes, remember when orange and brown linoleum was a thing? It went out, right? So will those wood floors you paid bookuu bucks for and you’ll be looking to cover them with the new trend of carpet. Oh my gosh, if green shag comes back in style it’s going to be a nightmare. I stayed at an airbnb recently that had a big green shag rug and sadly I must admit I liked it. It’s coming ya’ll! Remember how Grandma’s house was always dated and out of style … that’s going to be you with your shiplap walls and white cabinets. If you put your value and worth in what you have, it’s always going to be threatened. Someone will always have newer, bigger and better and here you’ll be on the hamster wheel of happiness chasing after an ever moving target. When God is your number one, your whole world can fall apart and you will still stand. You can be surround by chaos and calamity and remain grounded. It is God, when given the right position in your life, who will never let you down.

Our God is the God of full circle. He is always at work to bring all things together for good. He is forever using mayhem for miracles and destruction for destiny. He is the one who creates beauty from ashes, and he’s also the God who allows the fire to first create the ashes before he forms the beauty. Sometimes we see that full circle evidence the same week, and sometimes it takes 25 years. Regardless of the time it takes to see it and recognize it, the truth is, God is still using all things for good and bringing us full circle. On Friday, I took one of those classic jumping pictures you’ve likely seen of mine. It’s not that I can jump high, it’s that I understand angle. I know the right angle of the camera along with perfect timing of a video screen shot will capture a below average jump and make it look impressive. I’ve taken hundreds of these jumping photos and taught thousands of others my tricks, but this particular photo on Friday captured a full circle moment. Behind me in the photo was Memorial Medical Center. A hospital in Savannah, Georgia. The hospital where 25 years ago God used the hands of doctors and nurses to save my life. The hospital where a blood clot was discovered, lodged in the stem of my brain causing a massive stroke. The hospital where I was carried in by my newlywed husband, but unsure if I would ever come back out. The very place where that young soldier helped feed and bathe his 19 year old bride. The halls where I learned how to walk again. And now, here I am 25 years later, whole, healthy and restored, jumping for a photo. Jumping because God has done a work in my life. Jumping because it was all used for good. Jumping because what started here was dang messy, but what is now here is my message. Jumping because I can, and that was God! God is always at work to bring us full circle. He uses what was once broken to break strongholds today. He uses what once hurt us to bring full healing now that reaches beyond us into the lives of others. If there’s ever been a full circle story, it would be Moses. He was born into a world of trouble and chaos where every baby boy was to be killed by the Egyptians. So his mother hid him in a basket and sent him floating down the Nile River. There on the river, the daughter of the Pharoah of Egypt found baby Moses and took him in as her own. She would need someone to feed the baby and guess who she found … a woman who had just given birth but had lost her child. She had the ability to feed her new found baby. Guess who that woman was … that’s right the little mama who had sent him down the river to save his life. Now here she is in the palace, helping raise her son. Full circle. But wait, there are bigger circles at work here. Oh girl, you know sometimes we see little circles where God is working, but we have no idea the bigger circles he’s still working on! There’s something so much bigger than you in the works, but it involves you and it involves your hardship. You just can’t see it yet. Moses grows up in Egypt, but he has a heart for his birth people, the Israelites who are slaves here. And when God is ready to lead the Israelites out of slavery to freedom, who does he use? Moses. The baby who Pharaoh himself had ordered to kill. The baby who became his grandson. The baby who is now rising up as a leader and changing the destiny of thousands. God used Moses. But first, there was a mama who feared for the life of her baby and had to let him go. And there was a God who saw it all and allowed it to happen. He saw her tears. He heard her cries. He saw her act of sacrifice as she let that basket float down the river. A river infested with the most deadly snakes in the world. And all this time, he had a plan. He had a plan to use it all for good. He had a plan to bring it full circle.

One of the most powerful prayers I know to pray is the wreck it prayer. God, here are my plans, if you have something better in mind, wreck it. And often he does. I can spend days creating an elaborate plan of action, I can even be in the middle of working the plan, and here’s God just like Miley Cyrus warned … he came in like a wrecking ball! Boom, what I thought would work, doesn’t. Bang, how I imagined it would be, isn’t. Crash, when I thought it would happen, it didn’t. Disappointment is a strong possibility on this journey of faith. I still don’t understand why God allows some things that seem so bad, and yet prohibits other things that seem so good. If I didn’t know better, I would think He just doesn’t care. I would assume He was just too busy. I would believe He was punishing me. But I know better. I know better, but sometimes I don’t “feel” better. I once had a turning point in my faith. It wasn’t one of those turning points of God shows up and does something miraculous in a fashion he can’t be denied. No, my turning point was a moment of raw honesty after being knocked to my knees. We had built a successful business, then we left that business to help start a Church. In my head, I believed our faithful sacrifice for God’s work would be met with his miraculous provision. In my head I had it all worked out. I would go in faith and God would go before me with open doors. To my absolute shock, I went in faith and my faith was met with slamming doors and dead ends. Every day I woke up believing today would be the day it would all change … and it didn’t. It just kept getting worse. We were completely out of money and as self-employed individuals we knew the pipeline of our business had absolutely nothing in it. We were in trouble. But you see, I’m naturally an optimistic person. I believed. And I was disappointed. That disappointment crushed me. One day, sitting on the couch, my husband looked at me and said, “why don’t you just admit you’re mad at God.” To me, that was absolutely absurd. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t say it. I mean, he’s God. What if I hurt his feelings? He has lightening bolts in his hands, I really don’t want to insult him. My husband continued to push and he said, “Pamela, you think God doesn’t already know how you feel? Just say it!” And then the words came out of my mouth … GOD, I AM SO MAD. I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY FAITHFULNESS. That day began a change in me. That change only came after a crushing. There have been many crushings since then. Prayers that seemed to go unanswered. Pain that feels unresolved. Restoration I am yet to see. And God has been working in every detail. Looking back I see it. I see now what he was doing, but I sure couldn’t see it then. So today, I must trust he is once again working and the crushing is for a purpose. Your crushing is for a great purpose as well my friend. What doors have slammed in your face? What dead-ends have you come to? Where have you been disappointed with the payout from your faithfulness? It’s okay to be disappointed. It’s okay to be mad. God can handle your emotions. You don’t have to feel guilty for honest feelings over the crapfest you woke up to today. You won’t hurt God’s feelings with yours. God doesn’t expect you to always like it, but he does expect you to trust Him anyway. And here’s what no one tells you about trust; it still feels scary even when you fully trust. Just because you trust doesn’t mean the ride is easy. I trust if I jump from an airplane with a parachute on my back, the parachute will open. Trust allows me to jump, but my hands will still sweat and my legs will still shake.

In this life you will have battles to fight. It’s guaranteed. We were never promised a trouble free life. But we were promised victory through Christ Jesus. There will be victory! Whatever you’re facing, whatever your struggle, somehow, someway, there will be victory. Sometimes our human eyes and limited understanding struggle to see it because God’s ways are far above our own, but there will be victory. A few years ago I hosted an adventure retreat on a ranch in Oklahoma. Opening night was a surprise adventure. We were all go ziplining … in the dark! Now, not everyone was as hyped about this as I was, so first we had a pep rally to set the mood and get us fired up. You know, sometimes courage has to be stirred, and I was the stick to stir it up. Here I was with my face painted like an NFL football player, decked out in camouflage. The back of my shirt read “BUT DID YOU DIE? No … then it was an adventure.” I spoke about chances and opportunities. I talked about fear and courage. I taught about the game of life and the dangerous sidelines. I told them about the battle required for the life they were created for. Then the music started playing. Our battle cry. It goes like this: I believe (repeat) I believe that (repeat) I believe that we will win (repeat) The voices of over 100 women roared “I believe that we will win” as we huddled in close, jumping in unison and pumping our fists. Oh can’t you just feel the energy and excitement? Can’t you feel the power and passion? Can’t you just feel the warmth running right down your leg as you jump and shout? Oh yes, we are women who have given birth to babies and in the excitement of it all, I had forgotten my bladder ain’t what it used to be. I legit peed myself in all the excitement, and I looked around to find I wasn’t the only one who had paused in mid jump to cross my legs to regain composure. We walked out to that telephone pole that stretched high into the pitch dark of the night, and we each climbed that pole. One by one, we disappeared into the darkness as we climbed above the trees to a tiny platform. Then, with no lights and no knowledge of what was below or what was ahead, we jumped. It was exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. And anytime you come to the end of the night wearing camouflage, with your face painted and pants smelling a little bit like urine, you know you just had yourself a victory. You and I are in a battle. Every day we are fighting. We’re fighting to live the life God has created us for and we’re fighting against the enemy who’s only goal is to steal, kill and destroy everything Jesus died to give us. But you and I are champions. We are more than conquerors. And understand when you are MORE THAN A CONQUEROR this means you have a habit of winning. You show up and win over and over again. You win when no one thought you would win. You win when everyone else counted you out. You win when everything was stacked against you. You win when you get knocked down because you simply won’t stay down. I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN! Get an image of this sister, because this is who God made you to be. This is MORE THAN A CONQUEROR. A champion. You were created to be a champion in this life. Whatever battle you’re up against, may I remind you that God is for you, not against you. He has made a way for your victory. Exodus 14:14 says “The Lord himself will fight for you, just stay calm.” Who needs that reminder this morning? Everything in you wants to freak the freak out right now. But God is saying, stay calm, I’m fighting for you. God is with you. You are not alone in this. Who doesn’t feel quite like a champion? Who feels more like a loser … or even more so like a quitter. Understand,

Yesterday morning I led the 12 women here for the BIG Life Goal Setting Retreat on a walk on the island. The sun was shining, the beach was practically all ours and we set our sights to the west and we started walking. We reached the tip of the island and turned around. And that’s when it hit us. This head wind so strong you had to lean into it. When did this happen? We didn’t even notice the wind when it was at our back, but the moment we turned around and started in the direction of home, boom RESISTANCE. What does resistance in life mean? What does it mean when we have to push so hard to make any progress at all, when going the other way seemed so much easier? It means we’re going home. Home represents where we belong. Home represents who we were created to be and the life we were created for. It’s time to come back to it. And you need to know, the journey back will be a whole lot harder than the wandering off was. Where have you wandered away from the woman you were created to be? The woman you truly are. That woman is happy and healthy. That woman is grounded and grateful. That woman is content and confident. Have you walked away from her? Where have you wandered away from the life God created you for? That life is filled with purpose and passion and power. That life is fulfilling. That life is meaningful. That life is one you would want to wake up to today. Did you? It’s time to turn around and head home. Come back to who you were created to be so you can live the life you were created for. Jesus shows us exactly how through a story found in Luke 15: 11-32. The story of the Prodigal Son. You likely remember the story, but perhaps missed the most powerful sentence in it all. “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father. What had been happening here is the son had been walking in the wrong direction. He had wandered away from home. And you better believe the way there was darn easy. It was easy to walk away with all that money and go have fun. It was easy to walk away from his responsibilities and live free and wild. Just like it’s darn easy for us to walk away from who we were created to be and stumble into being a woman who is stressed, worried, unhealthy, and unbalanced. It’s easy because the wind is at our back and we just keep going and going and going. There’s zero resistance going with the wind. And guess what, if we just go with the wind, we will often get ourselves in trouble. The boat we talked about yesterday will end up shipwrecked on some distant shore if we just go with the wind. And that’s where some of us are … shipwrecked. Waking up in a life we don’t love and a body we may not even recognize. We have become someone we were never created to be. And it was all so easy. It’s easy to get to this point. It’s easy for the house to become a mess, right? You don’t even have to work at the mess, it just naturally piles up.

If you were to launch this year, what would that mean for you? If you were to go all-in, holding nothing back, really have your take off, and break free from the shallows of living, what would life look like for you? This is a question posed to our group of 12 women at our BIG Life Goal Setting Retreat last night. Imagining our launch. Not only imagining our launch, but daring to believe we are truly ready for what God has available to us, then boldly going there. Within scripture is a story of Jesus calling a fisherman to launch. Simon was a professional fisherman and he had a really bad day at work. You ever just have one of those bad days where nothing goes right and the things that should work don’t? Yeah, that was how it had been for Simon. Simon pulls his boat up on the shore and is washing his nets which means he’s done. He’s packing it up and going home. He had tried all he knew to try and was catching nothing. Then comes Jesus. Someone listening right now has tried all they know to try. You’ve done the things which worked in the past, and it’s not working now. You’re discouraged. You’re frustrated, and you’re ready to pull this boat up on the shore and call it quits. Then comes Jesus. Today, right here right now, to get in your boat. And when Jesus gets in your boat, some things start changing! Are you ready for Jesus to get in your boat? Are you ready for him to help you make a change and have that change stick this time? Are you ready for your breakthrough? Are you ready to follow through? Are you ready to launch? Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and says hey, let’s go back out. Now remember, Simon was frustrated after a long unsuccessful day fishing. This wasn’t fishing for leisure, this was fishing for livelihood. If Simon didn’t catch fish, Simon didn’t get paid. All his time, all his efforts for nothing. I bet you’ve had a similar experience. You put in the time and you put in the effort, and it didn’t seem to pay off. You tried the relationship. You tried the diet. You tried being authentic. You tried biting your tongue. You tried to have faith. You tried to surrender. And no matter what you did, it didn’t work. So here you are today, disappointed with your progress. Frustrated with the delay. Questioning your ability to really make this year any different. And what does Jesus say? Let’s get back in the boat. So Simon takes Jesus out where he had been fishing all night long with no success. And Jesus says in Luke 5:4 “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Launch out into the deep. And what happens next? Don’t jump ahead in the story just because you know where it’s going .. because the truth is, in your story, you don’t know where it’s going yet. So let’s keep it real. What happens when Jesus says to Simon “launch out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch”? Simon says “Come on dude, I’ve already tried this. It didn’t work. There’s no fish here man. But okay, whatever you say.” That’s the reality of it. Jesus, what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. I feel like I’ve already tried this. I’ve been here before and it didn’t work for me. This is the place where you start questioning if there’s something wrong with you. Why won’t this work for you? Why can’t you be successful? Why can you just not seem to make anything work? And sometimes this is where we get stuck. God tells you to go back out and try again, but you’re not willing to try again because of past experiences that tell you it won’t work. But honey you’re dealing with God … you think he isn’t Lord over your situation? You think he can’t make a radical change here...

We all want something better in life for 2020, but do you understand the ingredients and process required for the life you desire? I come from a long line of good cooks. My mama taught me the secrets of a a thick flaky piecrust and a coconut cream filling with 3 inch high meringue worthy of the blue ribbon. But it’s her homemade bread that is most legendary. No one makes yeast rolls like my mama. I know her recipe and I follow it exactly, yet my bread still doesn’t rise quite like hers. So over Christmas I sat down with my mama and I watched her. I watched her flour drenched hands mix and knead and create and I saw exactly what I had been missing. Our ingredients had been exactly the same, however there was one difference between how my mama makes bread and how I was making bread. She takes her time working with the dough … I rush through the process. I’m gentle with the tender dough trying not to disturb it, she’s aggressive and relentless in kneading and mixing and working. And this is why mama’s bread rises twice as high as mine. The kneading process. The part where it’s pushed down, torn apart, squeezed, mashed together, and worked. This is what creates the rise. Could we be much the same? We only rise after the hard parts? In fact, we only rise as a result of the hard times. We all want to rise up to that next level of living and leave behind past troubles and hardships. We all want to excel forward and skip over the struggle. We’re seeking what can make it easier and get us there faster, when in fact it was never the ease and never the speed that helped us achieve anything. It was the kneading. It was the working. To make homemade bread you need yeast. Yeast comes in a tiny little foil package with an expiration date printed on it. That yeast holds the potential of delicious bread, but it will never become anything if not used. Within you is the same potential. Potential wrapped up in a tiny package that seems unimpressive. And yes, your potential has an expiration date on it. If not used in a timely manner, it loses it’s power. I’ve thrown away yeast I didn’t use in time … I’ve also thrown away potential I didn’t use in time. How about you? Girl, what are you waiting on? If your creator gave you potential, why aren’t you ripping into it? Don’t save this up. Use what you have been given! Every ounce of potential was given to you for the purpose of USING IT, not storing it. You are not a storage container put here on earth to just house holy potential. You are a living, breathing soul sent here to live your life, make your impact and rise up in your potential. But potential must be kneaded. It must be worked. It never just happens on it’s own. Without giving away the family secret to our world class homemade bread, let me tell you about the ingredients added to the potential of yeast. Eggs … they’re broken. Water … it’s hot. Flour … it’s crushed. You want a BIG, beautiful life? It comes with an expiration date and it’s made of what was broken, it’s made of trouble, and it’s made of what was crushed, then it’s all worked together. Not just mixed together, worked together. Worked and worked and worked. Could there be a purpose in the broken things in your life? YES! Absolutely. What has been broken will not be wasted now. God is ready to use that to create something bigger and better than you ever imagined. If the egg is never broken, it’s never used. Honey, if you’re never broken, you can never be used. You weren’t put here on earth to just sit there and look pretty. No, there’s a purpose for you and that purpose is revealed in the breaking. Embrace it and see what’s inside of you! Where are the broken things in your life … this is what...

Sometimes good plans fall apart. They say it’s so better plans can come together, but in the moment it doesn’t feel better, does it? It just looks like a mess. A mess of broken pieces. A pile of what could have been, but now isn’t. What do you do with the broken pieces? How about you give them to God! Oh my sister, you cannot imagine all God wants to do with the parts of your life that didn’t work out! You cannot fathom the work he can do in your mess. Have you ever read a story and been impacted by it, then had it actually happen in your life? Let me tell you what happened yesterday. My friend Michelle shared a Facebook post that immediately moved me to tears. Her post said: Today i was walking in the supermarket and suddenly I heard a noise of things breaking. I turned down an aisle and saw a group of people staring at an older lady who had hit a shelf containing plates and glasses with her cart. Many had fallen to the floor and broken. Kneeling on the floor embarrassed, the lady was frantically picking up the shattered pieces, while her husband peeled off each bar code saying “we have to pay for all this.” What a sad scene. Someone has a mishap and all eyes were on her. When I knelt beside her to help, a man also knelt beside us and said, “leave it, we will pick this up. Let’s get your information so you can go to the hospital and have that wound on your hand looked at” The lady looked at him and said “but I have to pay for this.” The man said, “No ma’am, I’m the manager and we have insurance for this. You don’t have to pay for anything. Let’s get you taken care of.” Now this is where it gets good. The Facebook post then said: Close your eyes and imagine God doing the same for you. Collect the pieces of your broken heart from all the misteps and blows that life has thrown at you. God will heal your wounds and your sins and mistakes will be forgiven. This is the warranty called grace, that when you accept Jesus as your savior, the manager of the existence of the entire universe will tell you “everything is already paid for … go on your way.” When I read this yesterday morning, two things happened: 1. My eyes were immediately filled with tears, receiving this very personal message from God knowing he he taken care of all my broken pieces. 2. I knew this was a devotional in the making. But then God, being the God who puts the awe in awesome, allowed me to experience this lesson personally. Yesterday afternoon Lonnie and I were at the grocery store. As we were putting our items on the belt to checkout, a glass jar of capers slipped right out of Lonnie’s hand and met the fate of the cement floor. The jar shattered and capers scattered, and I nearly shouted “God’s got this!” but that would have been awkward. Ahhhh, that God would allow me kneel down and attempt to pick up the pieces myself and then have our sweet cashier Wendy on que from God say, “no honey, don’t you worry about that, we will take care of it.” I had already picked up the larger piece of the broken glass which included the barcode and offered it to Wendy telling her we would pay for what we had broken. She quickly met me with “that’s nonsense, you don’t need to pay anything.” To think I broke it, but I didn’t have to buy it. It was covered. This is exactly what God has done for us. He knew we would break the covenant. He knew we would go astray. He knew we would mess things up. He knew we would drop the ball, we would shatter his good plans, we would stray from the wholeness he had offered, so he sent Jesus to cover us. The manufacturer’s warranty that blankets our every mistake, that’s Jesus. Yes I broke it, but Jesus fixes it.

There’s nothing in your life God can’t work with and through. There’s nothing in your past he can’t use, and nothing in your future he will be shocked by. He knows the end from the beginning, and while you are given free choice in your life, you can’t screw this thing up beyond God’s repair. There’s no mess he can’t make a message out of, and no pain he can’t create purpose in. There’s no curveball that can be thrown in your life that can’t be knocked out of the park with God’s power. In this new year of life God will be working in your circumstances to bring you fuller into his plan. He will be working through your struggles to make you more like who you were created to be. He will be working in every detail to guide you in living up to your potential. And through it all, he will change you. That’s what God does, he works through seemingly ordinary events and struggles common to everyone, and he uses it all to change you. Change how you see yourself. Yes, change your identity. Many of us are struggling our way through life because we have a case of mistaken identity. We’ve taken on the role of a character we were never intended to be. We’ve assumed the position of a wanderer not knowing the way, when we have a destiny deep within us. We’ve put on the clothes of a stressed worried soul, when through Christ we are clothed in righteousness and commanded not to fear. Mistaken identity. Do you know who you are? Do you understand the power dwelling within you? In scripture we see several people who had taken on an identity of less than favorable circumstances, then God comes in and rocks their world. And it starts with a name change. Sarai was a broken, barren old woman whose entire world was defined by her inability to have children. It had consumed her for decades. Her value and worth was wrapped up in this one thing. She was broken. Then God shows up. But you see, God had always been there. He had always had a plan. He had made a way, but her entire life she couldn’t see the way. For years (I mean like 70 years) she waited for a baby until all hope was gone at the age of 90. And what happened? First, God changed her identity. He changed her name from Sarai to Sarah. And with that, her whole world changed. Her husband who was named Abram was given the new name Abraham, meaning the father of many nations. And the father of many nations he became. 40 generations later, through this exact lineage came Jesus. But first there was a broken woman who God gave a new name, and a new identity. 6 days after my high school graduation I received a new name. I went from Pam Freeman, the daughter of Roy and Linda Freeman, to Pam Crim, the wife of Lonnie Crim. With my new name came a new role, and a new identity. 5 years later my name changed once again. With the birth of our son Logan, I became Mom. And at some point in the future another birth in our family will once again change my identity, and I will become a Grandma. (Side note, I’m totally on the bandwagon of choosing your own super cool Grandma name … I will be Granny P because you know my love of P words up in here!) What if this year, God wants to change your identity. He wants to change how you see yourself. What if you’ve had a case of mistaken identity and the reason why life hasn’t been working is because you’ve been playing your role as someone you were never created to be? Allow your mistaken identity to come face to face with Jesus and watch your world change! My favorite name changing game changer in the Bible is of course Paul. Paul, the great crusader for Christ who wrote the majority of the new testament we read today, was once Saul, the persecutor of all Christians looking for a head to cut off. But when Saul encounter God on the road to where he was g...

This new year of life has been presented to you as an opportunity. An opportunity to do things you’ve never done before. An opportunity to go where you’ve never gone before. An opportunity to become who you’ve never been before. And with this opportunity comes two emotions: Excitement … and Fear. It’s exciting to imagine things actually being possible for you this time. It’s exciting to imagine breakthroughs and successes. It’s exciting to imagine your best self finally showing up to live your days. And it’s also scary as heck thinking about leaving behind old ways. It’s scary stepping into the unknown. Daring to show up at the gym when you have no freaking clue how to work a single machine. When you’re surrounded by firm bodies in spandex and you poured yo’self into some sweat pants, it’s scary up in that gym. Boldy deciding the ways you’ve been coping with the stress are not healthy and you’re making a change, that’s scary. Pouring out the wine and vowing to not cope with it any longer is scary. Pitching the cigarettes, going cold turkey and deciding you’re not willingly giving yourself lung cancer causes fear. Fear if you have the willpower to stick with it this time. Fear if you can fight through the withdrawals. A decision to stop eating your feelings and hiding in shame with a bag of chips, a pan of brownies, a plate of doughnuts, a bowl of icecream, the 3rd helping of fried chicken or whatever your ammo is, that’s scary. Changing what you’ve always done is naturally met with fear. A decision to take your life back and get off your darn phone creates anxiety. How will you resist the urge to do what you’ve always done? How will you break this habit? How will you change? Change creates fear. Understand what you’re doing here sister … that change you are seeking this year, whether I’ve mentioned it or not, is an act of tearing down a wall. We’ve all built walls. Walls that keep us confined in a little life when we were created for a BIG Life! 2020 is the year of tearing down some freaking walls. If you watch any of the popular remodel shows on HGTV, you’ve heard wall tearing down day referred to as “demolition day”. It’s time for some demolition in your life. There’s a word for someone this year. Demolition: This year I’m tearing down the walls that have held me back. I’m moving beyond the things which are no longer serving me and I’m stepping into new exciting territory. Girl, tear down those walls. The walls you’ve built keep you safe in your familiar old ways of living, but they have also kept you stuck in a pattern of settling and sinking. Sinking deeper into sadness as you gain another pound in the week. Sinking deeper into debt as you once again ignore the bill. Sinking deeper into the mess as the junk drawer becomes a junk room, and pretty soon you’re a candidate for the next season of Hoarders. Sinking deeper into a doomed marriage as your only emotion is anger and your only volume is yelling. This is the reality of your comfort zone your walls have created. It’s not happy in here. It’s not hopeful in here. What’s happening inside these walls is your very life is being sucked from you. It’s time to TAKE IT BACK. Take back your life. I’m talking about the one you were created for. Take it back. From the beginning there has always been a bigger life available to you, one you were designed and equipped for, and I’m telling you that life is still available to you. It’s not too late. You’re not too far gone. You’re not hopeless. God has made a way for you, and the way is only through tearing down those darn walls. This morning I woke up to a quote one of our BIG Life gi...

Potential. It’s my personal word for 2020. My focus is to live up to my God given potential and guide others to realize their own. All the potential for the life you most desire is right inside of you. It’s there because God put it there. And your desires are there because God put the real ones there too, guiding you to your purpose. You are purpose filled my sister, and where there is purpose, there is all the potential necessary to make it a reality. Purpose and potential are partners in your destiny. So you have all this potential to fulfill your purpose, and then here’s God with all his power. All his power to make things happen. All his power to move mountains and break chains, power to tear down walls and part seas, power to calm storms and power to miraculously provide. But not everyone is experiencing this power in their lives. And here’s why: We will never know the awesome power of God until we go all-in. We don’t get to see the full effect of God’s power when we’re holding back. When we’re playing little in life. When all we seek is safety and security, we don’t get to see God directed success. Where are you holding back? What do you need to surrender? Many years ago I knew God was offering me an opportunity to step up to the next level of living. But here’s the thing about those next levels, they’re freaking scary! The next level is the unknown, and when you step up you’re leaving behind what you had. I wanted what God was offering, but you see it would require me to loosen my grip on all I had worked hard to build. We had built a mortgage business to be proud of. We earned major bucks and those major bucks bought really really pretty things. I liked all my pretty things. And then God called me away from it. He offered me purpose over possessions. He offered me passion over a paycheck. And the scariest thing is he offered me impact over insurance. I could step up to this next level and make a bigger impact on lives, however we would have to forfeit our provided insurance. Ya’ll let me tell you the behind the scenes stuff of going all-in with God … we paid over $1800 per month for our own medical insurance. And while God didn’t miraculously give us that insurance for free or provide overnight success, God provided exactly what was needed to make it work … when we worked. Now it required us to sacrifice, but all the good stuff does. We sold the big beautiful house with the beautiful swimming pool, and we moved into a 1500 square foot cottage with a 500 square foot backyard. We sold the fancy furniture and decided to embrace empty rooms. We didn’t go to the movie theater for nearly a full year because taking a family of 5 to the movies was an entire week’s grocery budget. But let me tell you what diving all-in gave us … it gave us a life beyond our wildest imagination. It gave us struggles that strengthened us. It gave us peace and patience, and a front row seat to the grace and power of God! So let me say it again, We will never know the awesome power of God until we go all-in. We will never know what was truly possible in our lives as long as we’re tip-toeing in the waters. We will never, ever reach our full God-given potential standing on the shore second guessing everything. God is calling YOU, yes you, to an all-in life. He’s calling you to dive. No more splish-splashing around in this life you have been given. It’s time to dive all-in to the life you were created for, BIG TIME! Steven Curtis Chapman has an older song called Dive. It says: I’m diving in, I’m going deep, in over my head I want to be Caught in the rush, tossed in the flow, in over my head I want to go The river’s deep, the river’s wide, the river’s water is alive

If there’s ever been a clean slate and fresh start to life, here it is! The beginning of a brand new decade. You can step into 2020 with confidence. CONFIDENCE. An area many women struggle with. A determining factor between success and failure. There’s a difference between confidence and self-righteousness. This isn’t arrogance. True confidence comes from four things: 1. Knowing who you are. 2. Knowing whose you are. 3. Knowing there’s a good plan. 4. Knowing you’ve got what it takes to fulfill that plan. WHO ARE YOU? You are a miracle. We often forget that. It’s easy to look at a newborn baby and recognize the miracle in their sheer existence having just been formed and born into this world, but we forget we were once that baby. This is exactly how you were made too. Everything about you is absolutely miraculous. The odds of you even being born were 1 in 400 trillion. That’s a 4 with 14 zeros behind it! It took the exact egg from your mother and the exact sperm from your father to create you. No other 2 human beings could have formed you. Honey, you are no mistake. You are by great design. Every detail of you has been meticulously chosen and crafted together to create life as only you can live it. You are a woman with purpose. A woman specially designed for this very space and time. Walk in confidence knowing you are exactly who you’re supposed to be. WHOSE ARE YOU? You are a real life princess, you know? A daughter of the king of all kings. Girl, straighten your crown! Your Daddy is the owner of everything, the grand director of all, the man in charge and don’t forget, his eye is on you. He carefully watched every detail as you were knit in your mother’s womb. The eyes of God do not look at you with condemnation, they look at you with compassion. He proved his compassion by sacrificing his son to save you. We know a car from Mercedes will cost more than a car from Toyota. A Coach purse will cost more than a Target purse, and a Louis Vuitton purse will cost more than a Coach purse. It’s a matter of the maker. Who designed this car? What label is on this purse? Who made these shoes? Tell me the name and I’ll tell you the value. Girl, your label is above all labels. You have the fingerprints of God on your life. You are valuable beyond measure because of your maker. And he’s not just your maker, he’s your Abba Father. The translation of many words used to describe God in the Bible are that of a Daddy. A sweet Papa. A good good father. And you are his beloved daughter. His chosen one. Snuggle up to that truth. You should find great confidence in knowing you belong to the Almighty. WHAT’S THE PLAN There is a good plan over your life. And while we all must admit in a moment of truth we’ve likely screwed up a few times and halted our own goodness, we are not nearly powerful enough to cancel out God’s good plan. There is absolutely NOTHING he can’t work with and through. There’s nothing he can’t use for good. When scripture says in Romans 8:28 that “ALL THINGS are used for good for those who who love him and are called according to his purpose”, understand that truly means ALL THINGS. This week I witnessed a woman who had almost ruined her marriage with an affair, in turn helping a woman who was hurting from her own husband’s unfaithfulness. In that moment I witnessed God once again using ALL THINGS for good. One woman’s owned mistake became another woman’s guide through the darkness. THAT’S GOD. And it is his good plan. What is “your thing”? Your hurt, your pain, your shame, your mistake, your struggle … will you surrender it to God’s good plan of now using it all for good? Remember, your “thing” was included in the cover of AL...

When God formed you, he had an imagine in mind. A picture of who you could be and the life you could live. He envisioned it, then created you. He formed you with the greatest of intentions. I’ve always wanted to form a piece of clay at the potter’s wheel. It’s probably since watching that old Patrick Swayze movie Ghost that we all want our own personal potters wheel, right? Imagine you’re forming a lump of clay into a vase. As you form it, you know how you’re going to use the vase to hold fresh flowers. Now, knowing what you imagined this vase to become, would you just straight up fail to put a bottom in the vase? Would you leave a gaping hole in the side, letting out water? No, of course not. You know what you’re making and you know what is required to form this clay into a functional vase. If we in our totally amateur artist state would know these basics, how much more would the almighty creator of Heaven and Earth know what is needed in us to function? He would have never had a vision for who you could be and the life you could live, then fail to create you with exactly what is needed to fulfill your purpose. My sister you are fully equipped to step into your destiny. YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES! Yet somehow, we feel incredibly inadequate don’t we? We feel broken. We feel incapable. We feel uncertain. And oh how our feelings get us in trouble! What if in this new year we made a shift? A shift away from these feelings that can lead us astray, and an intentional leaning towards our truth. Scripture is full of your truth. Truths that God has a good plan for your life. Truths that God is using all things for good in your life. Truths that God is for you and therefore no one can be against you. Truths that nothing is impossible for you with God. What if we learned to first choose our thoughts instead of being driven by fickle feelings? Remember scripture tells us in Romans 12:2 we can be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” Is there an area of your life you want to be transformed in 2020? Not only want, but girl you desperately NEED transformation (there’s a word for someone!). You need change and it needs to happen now. Here’s where it starts … in your thoughts. What if you started repeating to yourself daily “I’ve got what it takes! I’ve got what it takes! I’ve got what it takes!” How do I know without hesitation this is your personal truth? Because I know your creator! And I know your creator doesn’t make something lacking what is needed to fulfill it’s purpose. Just as you would never form a lump of clay on a potter’s wheel into a vase without a bottom, God would never form you with an inability to become who he created you to be to live the life he created you for. My guess is you are considering a few goals for the New Year, especially after our Goal Setting Broadcast last night. And I would also guess at least one of your goals centers around being healthier in some form or fashion. Right now you think possibly eating cleaner and exercising more is a good idea. You’re thinking the new year is a good time to quit smoking or start drinking more water, or give up sugar, or join the gym. But tomorrow we wake up to that fresh start, the clean slate of a new year and new decade, and my guess is you won’t really feel like it. Yip, what you think is a good idea today will feel like dread and regret tomorrow. This is where many visions of the new year will die. Those dang “feelings” that tell us we don’t want to. The feeling of not being ready, the feeling of not being sure, the feeling of just waiting another day, the feeling of dread. Then you know what feeling quickly follows … REGRET. I’m assuming there isn’t a single person who chose regret as their word for 2020.