BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Tonight is our annual BIG Life Goal Setting Broadcast. You have the potential of writing goals that will radically change your life, and I will be your guide. I will show you in very practical steps how to dream, how to plan, and how to take action without being overwhelmed. This could be a moment in your life that changes your trajectory. It could be the moment you take the first step towards your truest potential and the life you most desire. I began writing goals 10 years ago. I vividly remember sitting in a park in El Paso, TX wearing a green hoodie and putting wishes in writing, then forming a plan of action to make those wishes goals I would actually achieve. I stepped into the current decade we’re now ending with a written outline of the life I truly wanted … and it worked. 10 years later I now fully live that life. Goals work. I speak from the perspective of a life that has been radically changed in every way by written goals. But, even more than a goal weight, financial success, a happy marriage or a passionate career, I stepped into something truly life altering. In the process of writing goals and working to achieve them, I became more like the woman I was created to be. This is why I’m so passionate about helping people write goals. I know their true power. I know this process can help you not only live the life you truly want, it will guide you in becoming the person you were created to be. And that my friends is SUCCESS. I’m not just talking about your degree or your career, I’m talking about who you were created to be as a person. When you become more like who God had in mind when he formed you, everything else falls into place. When you become more like who God designed you to be from the very beginning, you shed all the layers of doubt and insecurity, and you boldly step into your highest potential. This is what 2020 can be for you. This is what God directed goals can do in your life. We often put labels of professions on this, which then overwhelm us with indecision not knowing what we want to be when we grow up. Hey, can I have a moment of total and complete honesty here with you … I had no clear picture what I wanted to be until I stumbled into it in my 30’s. Drop the label. Don’t get stuck in WHAT you’re going to do in life. You can really do anything you want to do. If you wanted to go back to school, you could. If you wanted to be a nurse or a teacher, you could. Others with less time and less resources, who were older than you with more kids than you have done it. There are no limits in what. God has created an entire buffet of options for you and I believe he says, “my daughter, it’s all available to you, what do you want?” I’ve discovered this journey is so much more about the HOW than the WHAT. It’s HOW we live that causes us to become. You can be a wealthy professional and be broke and greedy. You can be a freaking fitness model and be insecure and jealous. You can be a life coach and be miserable and stuck. What if our focus became more about becoming who we were created to be. God didn’t make you broken. You do not have some inherent flaw in you that renders you incapable of change or growth. That’s nonsense. And for many it’s served as an impenetrable excuse through the years. We now have a choice … carry the excuse and continue to live below our potential, or drop it and step on up to the more that is available to us. What if we simplified our focus into becoming exactly who we were created to be. THE PERSON OF YOU. You were never created to be negative or grouchy. You were never created to be addicted or enslaved. You were never created to be overwhelmed or hopeless. THAT IS NOT WHO YOU ARE. Not you at your core. Not the woman God created. Let’s be specific with this:

Are you ready for what God has made available to you in 2020? Have you prepared yourself for the next level of living? Think of your life like a video game. There are levels of the game. No one ever gets through a level in one try. You try, you fail and you try again. You keep trying until you learn the challenges of the current level and you conquer them. Then, the next level is made available to you. And what do you do when you get there? You fail again, and you learn. The only way to level up in this life is to learn the challenges and conquer them. God has a next level of living available to you in 2020. My kids taught me about hacks you can buy in games now to rack up the points, acquire the weapons, and skip ahead to new levels. Hacks. Shortcuts. Secrets to success made faster and easier. Free game apps on our cell phones are worth millions of dollars … how? The sale of hacks. You don’t have to earn it, you can just buy it. How did the makers of these games know their free apps would be a goldmine of money … because they know human nature. We’re all looking for the hack. How can I get to the next level faster and easier, without continuing to battle the level I’m on? We are so susceptible to the magic pill, the quick fix, the overnight rich. Who remembers the vibrating belts everyone wanted for Christmas about 10 years ago because they would magically give you abs without a single sit-up. Hmmmm … where are those today? Now we can just paint on the muscles and definition … it’s called contouring. We want to be better. We want to level up. We want more. But how do we get it? Let me tell you WHY we so desperately seek that next level of living and that advancement from where we currently are … are you ready for this? BECAUSE WE WERE MADE FOR MORE. WE HAVE MORE IN US. Our souls are crying out for more because we were never meant to settle for our current level of life. We are meant to move forward. We are made to conquer. BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO CHEAT YOUR WAY THERE. Within you is already everything you need to move to the next level of living. Within you is already everything needed to overcome and conquer the challenges you currently face. It’s already in you. How am I so sure? As a follower of Christ, you have Christ living IN YOU. Honey, that’s what I would call FULLY EQUIPPED! The power of God resides in you. Remember Ephesians 3: 20 “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” In Joshua chapter 5 we read about God causing the walls of Jericho to crumble. Walls which had kept people out. Walls which could not be scaled and could not be torn down. Impossible walls … and God caused them to crumble with nothing more than marching around them and blowing trumpets. If the power of God can causes walls to fall, don’t you think that same power can cause your walls to fall? Those walls that you’ve run head on into and can’t seem to overcome … The struggle you’ve faced and felt defeated over … The habit you just can’t see to break … Will you trust the power of God living in you to start breaking down those walls in 2020? Will you be ready to step into a land you’ve never seen before? Are you prepared to breakthrough to the next level? You’ve been playing little, surrendering to the defeat of your current level. May I remind you, that defeat was never meant to knock you out of the game. That defeat was meant to be your teacher, showing you what doesn’t work, therefore leading you to what does. Every struggle you’ve faced this year has served a purpose … a refining purpose. Don’t let the hardships of 2019 go to waste. Now it’s time to use those hardships to conquer this level a...

A few years ago I read a book that changed my perspective on prayer. It explained prayer as allocating God’s power. So imagine when you pray over a specific situation or person, you’re sending God’s power in that direction. Sometimes I don’t know the words to pray, so I simply call out to God with that person’s name, knowing God’s power is directed there. In Daniel chapter 9 we read of Daniel praying, then being visited by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel said to Daniel in verse 23, “The moment you began praying, a command was given.” Did you know that my sister? The moment you begin praying, a command is given. God hears you and his power is directed by your prayers. So, once again, I remind you of that concern, that worry, that problem, and I ask you, have you prayed about it? Maybe you don’t know exactly what to pray for and that’s perfectly okay, you can simply start by saying “Lord, my marriage.” “God, my child.” “Father, my future.” This is 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. 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 God, show your true power. Show your true love. That’s who you really are. Show us. Let us see you all around us today. Imagine how different your day would be if you saw God’s hands at work in every detail of your life. Father, reveal who you are!

Today I am going to do another take on my bonus podcast from last Christmas Titled – 3 Men Wise. I am borrowing from the 3 wise men of the Christmas story to talk about the 3 “Men” in my life who have added to my understanding of love. The first man who taught me about love was my father. I learned from him the bond between father and child and that Life – Love is apposed. There are other options to God’s plan for our life. There are forces of destruction, internal and external that seek to separate us from God’s love. The primary tool of destruction being the double barrel weapon of doubt and deception. In the first 2 chapters of Genesis, God CREATED! He created the heavens and the earth. The stars, the light, the seas and mountains and beasts and trees. He created us and the perfect Garden for us to live in. ALL of this Creation, HE did! A great masterpiece of work. And with one question from the serpent in Gen 3:1, the first barrel of destruction was fired – DOUBT? “Did God really say…?” All of that creating from God and with 4 little words…destruction is so easy while life is hard. And once the opening of doubt is formed from the first barrel of destruction – BOOM, the second barrel. Deception. Eve said I was DECEIVED! In other words, I was tricked into believing a lie. I was very close with my father. I knew he loved me although I don’t think he ever told me. We had a special relationship formed through a split home at a very early age. I visited my dad on weekends and holidays. I was his only child and he wanted to be with me more than anything. But Life – Love is apposed. If uncorrected, the double barrel weapon of doubt & deception can lead to ultimate destruction. My father died a homeless man on the streets of Las Vegas, taking his own life because he believed a lie about himself. That it was too late for him, too much damage done, no way to repair what he had broken. What I learned about love from my father – was that love is a choice, and it has REAL consequences. The offer is made to accept and live in God’s love, but we must choose it. Deut 30:19 says; “God sets before us Life and Death”. It’s up to us what we choose. Will we believe God’s truth or the enemy’s deception? God has done His part. He has SENT His love to us this Christmas. What will we do with it? Choose life, choose love. I wish my father would have and I miss him very much. Logan: The second man who taught me about love is my son. My boy, my soldier who is just a few days from returning home from South Korea. I learned from my children the bond between a father and child. I believe the closes we will come to understand God’s love for us, is our love for our children. As a VERY imperfect man, I would go through hell and back to rescue my children. HOW – MUCH – MORE – our Perfect Father? I am currently going through this with one of my children. If she only knew how much I really loved her… she would not be on the path she is on. If we only knew how much God loves us… we would not go astray. What I learned about love from my son – is that love is a strength, not a weakness. A necessary component of love must be tough love. That as a father, I must be strong enough to let him fail. To let him fall and skin his knee and pick him back up to try again. That it’s not my job to protect him from life, but to prepare him for it. If I am concerned for his character over his comfort – what about our Father for us? It helps me to see why He lets life touch me. It’s because He does love me, not that he doesn’t. My love for my children (just as our Father’s love for us) should be a source of strength for their life.

My favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night. It’s one of those songs I sing every year during a candlelight service that gets me all choked up. It says: “A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees. Oh hear the angel voices. O night, divine. O night, when Christ was born. The night when Christ was born. The manger scene, yes the scene that changed our lives. A thrill of hope. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices. Does Christmas still thrill you? Are you truly excited about Christmas? If I were to remind you today that Christmas is 2 days away, would you say “I’m THRILLED” or would your mind immediately stress over all you still have to do? Has your long list of chores and duties robbed you from the wonder of Christmas? Plan the party, trim the tree, max out the Visa, stuff it, wrap it, pack it, ship it (oh wait, it’s too late to ship it), make it, take it, fake it. Over eat, feel disgusting, and be angry at yourself for falling completely off the wagon again. Dang it … why do we do that? Where’s the thrill of hope in that? Jesus came to this world on that holy night to offer you and I hope. A hopeless world received hope. You and I, hopeless in our overwhelm, hopeless in our bad habits, hopeless in our stress and mess, we received hope. This is our gift. It is hope. Hope that there’s a purpose in all of this. Hope that we’re not alone. Hope that there’s good plan and we haven’t missed it. Romans 15:13 says “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Understand our God is the God of hope. You are not hopeless. There is not a single situation in your life that is hopeless. God reigns over all. He is sovereign. He is powerful. He is true and he is just. He is here today to fill you with joy and peace so that you may ABOUND IN HOPE. Hope in the time of year when hope is supposed to be our default emotion, yet truthfully this has become the time of year we hurt most. We ache for those who won’t be around the table this year. We yearn for things to be more perfect than our reality presents. We wish for things to be different, but they’re not. Add on the pressure of “it’s the most wonderful time of the year” and we’re pretty darn convinced everyone else’s life must be a lot better than ours. It is an undeniable work of the enemy to rob you of your hope. How does he do that? He causes you to focus on all that is wrong. Why? Because as you’re zeroed in on the problem, you are zapped of the power to do a darn thing about it. You are awake all night worrying, so of course you wake up too exhausted to show up as your best self the next morning. It’s a snowball effect of the yuck in your life, blocking your view from all that is still undeniably beautiful. And when the yuck builds up and that’s all you see, you become weary. We are weary. Weary from the fight. Yes, the fight to at least LOOK like we have it all together. What do the weary need? Hope. “A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.” ~ O Holy Night Jesus offers hope and hope should provide a thrill. This whole thing should be thrilling, exciting, and full of anticipation. That manger scene, those songs we sing, the gifts we give in remembrance of his birthday, this should be a THRILL. But is it really a thrill for you? Have we gotten so wrapped up in the “be here’s” and “do this’s” that we’ve lost the thrill of Christmas? If you didn’t wake up excited today, perhaps you’re doing it wrong. I mean seriously, those of us who woke up to life in the absence of a true crisis,

POTENTIAL. Ya’ll know I love my P words. But this one in particular has been running through my mind continually. I believe ‘potential’ is the key we seek for the changes in our life we desire. The potential for more in your life. The potential for better of yourself. The potential for a higher level of living. This is the potential for finally breaking through every single thing that has ever held you back in the past. The story you tell yourself, the nightmare you replay, the lies you’ve believed. The disappointment you carry, the hurt you hide, the fear you live with. The hope you had, the hope that is now growing dim. Will it ever change for you? Can it? And then the honest question we all ask ourselves but never talk about … do I even deserve change at this point because I’ve allowed this for so long? The potential is there. The question is will you tap into it? Will 2020 be the year you believe your potential. See you potential. Taste your potential. Live up to your potential. There’s another P word I love and you need to know about this one too. POWER. There is a power at work within you that is above anything you can imagine. This power is stronger than anything you could have ever done in the past that you now regret. It’s also stronger than anything you didn’t do in the past that you regret not doing. This power is stronger. Ephesians 3:20 tells us about this power: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” This power at work within you can cut right through the lies you’ve told yourself and the stories you’ve believed. You believed you were unworthy. You thought you could never change. You surrendered to the defeat and here you’ve sat with a broken heart that believes this is all there is for you. And here is the power to tear down those walls now. The walls that have held you in, trapped in a life you dread waking up to. There’s so much more for you now. God showed us in the bible how he can break chains and shake open prison doors to set people free. That was his power at work, and that same power is now working in you. The power at work within you can break all the chains. The chains of every bad habit, and yes that includes your bad habit. That one you don’t talk about because you fear if anyone ever knew your truth you would be judged. God knows. He knows all about that chain my sister. And more than anything it breaks his heart because he knows how it has held you back. You may keep that habit in the dark, but your God isn’t afraid of the dark. He is here to invade every dark corner of your life and unleash the power to set you free now. The enemy tries to convince you it’s just who you are, accept it. But if you have to hide it, are you accepting it? No. Because you can’t accept something that God never created you for. It’s a foreign object in your life. It doesn’t fit. Hiding and eating in secret doesn’t fit. Watching those things in secret doesn’t fit. Talking to him in secret doesn’t fit. Smoking in secret doesn’t fit. Entertaining those thoughts in secret doesn’t fit. Spending that money in secret doesn’t fit. Creating those lies in secret doesn’t fit. Going there, doing that, saying that, it doesn’t fit. It doesn’t fit because it’s not who you were created to be. This is NOT who you are and it doesn’t have to be who you become. Anything you’re struggling with can be overcome by the power of God that is working in you. IN YOU. The power of the almighty, the one who created the mountains … don’t you think that power at work within you can move some mountains? Think about that. You’re facing a mountain of an obstacle in your life.

My family has two very unlikely Christmas traditions. When we gather around the table, we play. Our first game is BINGO. My great-grandma started the tradition before I can even remember. She loved her BINGO. In the center of the table is a pile of random wrapped gifts. When you BINGO, you unwrap a gift. Then when the next person has their lucky number called, they either steal your gift or unwrap a new one. Last year we ended up with a lot of food items in the wrapped gifts and we made a rule, whatever you unwrap, you have to eat it. It was all fun and games eating lollipops and caramel popcorn until someone unwrapped the sardines in mustard sauce … that didn’t end well. But dang was it funny. Later in the night, we break out the poker chips. High stakes go down when my family gathers around for some Texas Hold’Em. Half of us don’t know what we’re doing, some are trading cards under the table, mama was always stealing Daddy’s poker chips to grow her pile, and Daddy was forever singing Kenny Roger’s “Gambler.” Gosh, I’m going to miss him singing this year. But, we’ll still play. Literally, we will still play and we will play the hand we’re dealt. Life doesn’t always go the way we imagined. Plans change. People get sick. Families split. Jobs end. Feelings get hurt. We win … and we lose. And there’s a whole lot of it we just can’t do a darn thing about. It’s the cards you were given. I can’t tell you how or why some people seem to get such good cards in life while others are handed a hot mess of a hand. I can’t find the logic behind some circumstances in life. Some things just don’t make sense to our human minds and limited perspective. We see right here and right now and sometimes that looks like a 2 of hearts and a 5 of clubs in your hand with nothing matching up and no hope of anything better coming. What do you do with that? Especially what do you do with that when the gal in the seat next to you is squirming because she’s got something good working. Why did she get her hand while you were dealt yours? Maybe you sat in the wrong seat. Maybe those cards should have been shuffled one more time. Should you fold, or should you stay in the game to see one more card? I’m no poker expert and I’ve never played for real money, but I know this much … some hands you get all the right cards, and some hands you don’t … it’s all in how you play them. My husband Lonnie is a winner. I mean that. That man is a winner. He’s good to his core and takes better care of me than I deserve. He’s also a darn good poker player, and it’s not because he’s lucky. He just knows how to play his cards. Whew girl, don’t you see God’s life lesson coming your way right now? Bad cards are part of it sometimes. Unfortunate things, hard times, difficult situations are all in the deck of life and sometimes they end up in your hand. The only thing you can do about it is play it well. You can’t determine what’s coming your way, but you can decide what you do with it. It’s been said that life is 10% what happens to you … 90% how you respond to it. It’s not the player with the best hand that always wins … that would make every poker champion just lucky. It’s the player who plays the hand they’re given best that wins. It’s in the response. The cards are just 10% of the game. The other 90% is how you play it. I always think of our poor unlucky friend Job in the bible. Job had a good life and then he lost everything. I mean EVERY THING. First his employees were attacked and killed. Then a fire came and killed his animals. A windstorm blew down the house and all his children were killed. After receiving all of this news at once sitting at the table,

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. 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.” 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 Elisha, 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. What you have today is the seed of tomorrow’s harvest. Be faithful with the seed and the harvest will be abundant. Neglect the seed of today and tomorrow you have even less. 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. In the beginning God created, then he never had to create again. Why? Because the seed was in the creation. He created one oak tree, then that tree would multiply from it’s own seed. He created one man and one woman and gave them the ability to multiply. Within you and in your hands at this moment is everything needed to create so much more. Honey,

God can use anybody. Anybody can be used by God to show his power, to prove his majesty, to fulfill his divine plan. You with your past failures, your current problems, your list of what you can’t do or don’t have, your limitations, your insecurities and fears … all of these things are tools for great works in the hands of God. You haven’t dismissed yourself from what God wants to do, you’ve given him something to work with. In the middle of your impossible is where God does his finest work. Why? Because this is where you KNOW it was God! Your life has been primed for his work. Could this be why you’ve gone through all you’ve gone through? Could this be the purpose behind the pain and the message out of the mess? Because God wants to use you? Yes, ding ding ding … Johnny, what does she win? You win a future filled with hope. But wait, there’s more you also get a destiny designed by your creator and a story only you can tell! We’ve seen it throughout scripture, God can (and will) use anybody. Saul, the wild man on a mission to kill the followers of Christ was forever changed by God, given the new name of Paul, then used to write the majority of the new testament we read today. God could have chosen anybody, but he chose the guy with the past. He chose the guy who had gone down the wrong path for years. He chose him, and he used him. Honey, your past does not dismiss you from God’s plan for you. Moses had a speech impediment. He wasn’t “normal”. He stuttered. And God chose this man who couldn’t speak well to stand up to Pharaoh and say “LET MY PEOPLE GO!” He used him to lead an entire nation out of captivity. He used him to part the Red Sea and save thousands. God could have chosen anybody, but he chose the one with a handicap and insecurity. He chose him, and he used him. My sister, your insecurity with what may be wrong with you does not disqualify you from God’s mighty power working in you. Have you ever thought about the women God chose to create the lineage of His son Jesus? Women who would be part of the generations passing down their blood, their customs, their children, to become the Earthly heritage of the Almighty. Check it out, it’s kind of a boring read in Matthew 1: 1-16, but dig deeper into the names and it’s like a soap opera! Out of all the women in the world at that time, why did God choose who he chose? Why did he work through these situations? When God could have chosen anyone and done anything, why did he choose this way? Could it be to remind you, over 2000 years later, that he can use anybody … and he has chosen YOU. Of course we know God chose Mary. The young unwed girl who’s sudden pregnancy would cause immediate shame and condemnation. Why wouldn’t he have chosen an experienced 30 year old mother? Someone who wouldn’t have been criticized and outcast by pregnancy? Why couldn’t he have at least waited until Mary’s wedding day even? He could have, but he didn’t. May it be a reminder to us today that God can work through any shame, any criticism, any unfortunate situation or untimely circumstances. What if God is working like this right now in your life? I don’t mean a virgin birth, I mean that untimely inconvenience you’re dealing with right now. The very thing you can’t believe is happening NOW. In your mind this could have been timed so much better, but the fact that it’s happening right now has you all stressed out. Oh girl, God’s timing is perfect and he knows exactly what he is doing! Let him use you in THIS time. Go back a few more generations in the lineage of Jesus and what you’ll find are a whole lot of messed up women with past mistakes and histories of guilt and shame, yet they were the ones God chose and their names are liste...

You have a rescue story. A story of what could have been, but you were miraculously rescued from it. A story of a path you were on, then an intersection that changed everything. A story of despair, now exchanged for a story of hope. This is your rescue story. Some mornings I wake up with a song stuck in my head, singing it over and over again. Typically that’s how I know the direction for the devotional. And it’s funny, I typically don’t get it for the first 30 minutes of the morning while the same lyrics run through my head. Then it’s like a lightbulb moment …. Oh, that’s what you want me to talk about today … I gotcha God! So, what did I wake up singing this morning? Zach William’s ‘Rescue Story’. You were the voice in the desert Calling me out in the dead of night Fighting my battles for me You are my rescue story Lifted me up from the ashes Carried my soul from death to life Bringing me from glory to glory You are my rescue story We all have a rescue story. A story of what God saved us from. Some of us know the story because we came dangerously close to the other side of it. We danced with the devil. We battled in the darkness. We hid in shame. We watched life crumble and we stood in the wreckage. Today when we look back, we have no doubt God swooped in and straight up rescued us. Those are the people I like to stand next to in Church. You know why? Because they KNOW they owe everything to Jesus, and they hold nothing back. They have a full surrender to God because they remember that stripped down place where they were nothing without him. Their rescue story is written all over them! And when someone knows they have been rescued, they live with a gratitude for freedom like none other. And then there’s people like me. People who have no tattoos to tell the story. No apparent scars from the struggle. No poignant moment where Jesus and his angels held back the demons of hell in the battle over me. There’s no clearly marked path of destruction I’ve ever wandered my way down, in desperate need of a rescue or I would never come back. So, what’s my rescue story? Is that you too? The girl without a real rescue story? We tread dangerous ground … the ground where our track record may make us feel puffed up and self-righteous … the ground where we may forget our inherent need of a savior. Let me speak to the fairly successful, pretty well put together, 90% of the time goody goody. (Hey, I can say that because that’s the class I would typically fit in, so hold the hate mail.) Are you listening my fellow goody goody? YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT GOD HAS SAVED YOU FROM! Romans 3:10-12 puts us back in our rightful place “None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless and no one does good.” Your wayward path may look like more like mine … the path that says “hey I’ve got this, I can do it on my own.” The path that tells us we’ve got what it takes and we forget that actually, NO YOU DON’T GIRL … YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT GOD. The path with countless accolades that tells you you’ve earned this with your hard work, good looks and raw talent. Girl, sit down! It could all be stripped away today, then what? You’re entitled to nothing. Everything you have came first through the hands of God. Remember that time when you stumbled and you struggled? Remember when your path to success had a roadblock and you got all frustrated in your delay, blaming people for holding you back and being all jealous of you? Ahhhhhh, want to know what REALLY may have been happening? Your rescue story. You may have been going 100 miles per hour on a collision course with disaster,

Fair warning now, you probably won’t like what I’m throwing down today. This may make you so uncomfortable that you need a passport to get back in your comfort zone. May the brave continue listening (or reading). Have you ever done a fast? Fasting is the intentional abstinence from something that is available to me, but a distraction from God. A sacrifice of one thing for devotion to a much more important thing. This is your personal invitation to join me for a 3 day fast … but it’s not what you think! You still get to eat. Ahhhh, doesn’t sound so bad now does it? Galatians 5:17 “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” Do you ever feel like you are at battle within your own self? You make a commitment that would improve your life and then it’s a full fledged war between what you know you should do and what you want to do. 61% of us admit to a current addiction to our cell phones. We know our lives would be better if we would put the phone down and fully engage, yet we don’t. We spend the majority of our days scrolling and checking, distracted and scattered. Is this you? Have your blessings become a burden? Have you allowed your flesh and your spirit to be in conflict over the 5 inch screen you hold in your hand? Scripture tells us because of this conflict, you are NOT to do whatever you want. When is the last time you practiced real self-control over your need to be plugged in and connected? When is the last time you successfully denied the flesh and fed your spirit? Scripture encourages us to fast. Yes, the intentional abstinence from something that is available to you, but a distraction from God. What is available to you 24/7 is connection. Connection to the entire world is always available to you now. Connection to limitless information and resources is always available to you now. However, connection to your almighty creator is always available to you as well. How often are you choosing connection to the world and all it’s information over connection with your creator? Oh dang. We have chosen a connection that leaves us feeling overwhelmed and empty and the reason being we’ve failed to connect to the ONE who can sustain us. We’re googling the answers when we have a direct connection to our God who not only knows it all, but created it all and controls it all. Oh my gosh, how foolish have we been? When is the last time you prayed about a solution before you went to the internet? When is the last time you chatted with God about your decision before asking your 974 Facebook friends for advice? I’m forever grateful for connections through technology. That’s how I get to be part of your day. But dang if my life isn’t noisy as a result of my LED screen and free apps. My family HATES my phone. And you know what’s funny, I hate their phones too. We’re all disappointed over each others connection to the world instead of our connection to one another. We all sacrifice priceless moments together for cheap interactions with the masses. Why? Because we’re doing whatever we want. And what does our scripture today tell us, “you are NOT to do whatever you want.” Get it together woman. You don’t have to be a slave any longer. We’re wasting our lives and ruining our relationships by doing whatever we want. We’re missing days we will never, ever get back because we’re so totally connected, yet truly disconnected from what’s most important. If I’m hitting home with you today, I’m inviting you to join me for a 3 day fast … from your phone or computer. Oh snap, did you just feel the resistance and turmoil inside right then? 3 days. Yes, 3 days. Unplugged.

Do you ever feel alone in your trouble? Like you’re the only one in the world this stuff happens to? I know sometimes in life it feels like you’re constantly struggling to keep your head above water and just when you learn how to swim there’s another tsunami coming your way. Like sweet Lord, I just want outta the water! Every single one of us alive today has a problem of some sort. The enemy likes to isolate you and convince you that you’re singled out in your overwhelm, but honey you’re in great company. The company of all of us who woke up to trouble today. YOU CAN HAVE TROUBLE WITHOUT BEING TROUBLED. Jesus warned us in John 16:33 “in this world you will have trouble.” It’s not just happening to you, it’s happening to all of us. This is life. Trouble is part of it. But you know what else is part of it? Joy unspeakable every single morning. New mercies and grace with every single sunrise. Blessings and goodness that follow us all the days of our lives. We get to choose what we focus on. This new year coming our way is all about our 20/20 vision. Not 2019 vision, 2020. That’s perfect eyesight. That’s the ability to see clearly. In this new year we will see life as we have never seen it before. What was blurry and uncertain in the past will now make sense. Will the trials and sorrows magically disappear? No. But they will be put into perspective. We will still have trouble, but we will not focus on the trouble. With 2020 vision, we have the ability to see God at work in the finest of details and know with certainty God is working for us, for our benefit, for our good and for his glory through us. It is with this chosen focus we learn to endure trouble without becoming troubled. Jesus said in John 14:1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.” To be troubled is to be consumed with trouble. Have you allowed your trouble to get inside of you? Are your problems now part of your identity, causing you to function from a foundation of trouble? When you’re grounded in trouble, all you see are problems. And Jesus says “hey, snap out of it … trust me here!” Everyone’s problems are different, but we all need the same Jesus. He is Lord over my trouble today, and he can be Lord over yours too. In the midst of the storm, he is walking on the water, calming the waves and commanding the seas. While he may not make your problem go away today, he can walk right into it and shield you from the storm. The storms may be raging all around you, but he can get in your boat and keep it afloat. Jesus, come get in my boat! This thing won’t stay afloat without you. After Jesus warned us of trouble here on earth, he said “but take heart, I have overcome the world!” TAKE HEART … what does Jesus mean here? You’re going to have a whole crapton of trouble, but take heart, I’ve got this. Take heart is a both a call to action and an invitation. Your heart will be lured by burdens and worries, but take it back. This is an intentional effort. Hey heart, I take you back. You’re not going to play over here in the darkness of overwhelm and sadness, that’s where the enemy tempts! I’m taking my heart into the light. The light of God’s truth. I get to decide where my heart goes today … darkness or light. I’m responding to the call and taking my heart where’s God’s promises are found. Get out of the darkness girl. Step into the light. Why is your heart so important? Even more than your mind? Because Proverbs 4:23 reminds us “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” If your heart is troubled, everything you do will flow from a place of trouble. Actions from a troubled heart create more trouble.

2020 is only 3 weeks away! 2020 is the year of vision. The year of seeing our God-given potential clearly, the year of new perspective, the year of focus. 20/20. It’s time to SEE exactly what God can do in a fully surrendered life, anxiously seeking to become all he created us to be. As many of us begin to seek our word for the new year, maybe you just grabbed onto a word right there … vision, potential, perspective, focus, surrender, seek. My sister, this new year holds so much potential for you. Oh what God wants to do in your life. Will you let him? Will you let him come in and demolish some walls you’ve built? Will you let him tear down some old ways of thinking and talking, and some habits you’ve formed which have held you back? Will you let him wreck it so he can work it? This is the year of your makeover. The year things can change for you because YOU change. Change from the inside out. Catch a vision of what God is offering you in 2020. Jesus said 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 – you must 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. When you’re born again, you begin to understand you actually are a freaking masterpiece. You are more than a conqueror, you are a champion. You were designed to overcome. And when you catch a vision for who you were created to be, 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 thing that has happened in your past. 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 fro...

Morning. The beginning of a new day. A welcoming of things which have never been before. An opportunity for that which we have never, and will never, experience again. Morning. The time when God’s mercies are new. A time when God responds to our human need personally, in a heavenly way. An offering of life. Morning. When God says, here, this is life, I give it to you my love, go live it. All things good come under attack. So of course our mornings are prime target for battle. If we ever really recognized the offering of a new day for what it is, nothing could hold us down in bed. Nothing could wipe the smile off our face. Nothing could dampen our spirit or spoil our joy. And we all know a strong start is crucial for momentum to build. If we can’t start the day right, we often struggle to get going on much of anything. No doubt there is a battle for your morning. A full on war being waged for your attitude, your energy, and your time. Lamentations 3:23 tells us morning is when God’s mercies are new. Hey, that’s worth waking up for. Have you been? If his mercies are being offered in the morning, what happens if you’re not getting up to receive them? Mercy is receiving goodness which we don’t deserve. It’s the opportunity to try again even though we may have failed yesterday. It’s the chance to do it right and get it right, regardless of our track record. Understand, with every offer of new mercy in the morning, God believes in you. He believes you CAN get it right this time. He believes you CAN turn it around. You CAN make any change necessary because he’s already made a way, he’s placed the potential within you which holds every single thing needed for the change, and his mercy says ‘ahhhhh, today can be her day.’ Heaven is cheering for you with the beginning of each new day. Heaven knows what has been aligned for you is everything to both protect you and propel you. Protect you … yes, random annoying delays like searching for your cell phone for 5 minutes and then finding it’s right where you left it, like forgetting something and having to turn around to get it, like the missed turn that took you on a detour away from your normal route. Oh it could be random, it could be annoying … or it could be divinely designed for you. We gather here and pray for protection every single day, then we complain when we receive it because we see with earthly eyes delays and detours, while God provides a shield of protection. He’s so good at protecting us, we walk through our days completely clueless to what almost happened. Can we just pause and send up a praise for all that ALMOST HAPPENED just yesterday, but God’s protection prevented it so well, we were completely clueless. How shameful it would be to respond to God’s finest protection with our aggravation. His protection is so good, we don’t even see it. It’s like the home security system that shocks potential predators when they even think about breaking into your home, keeping them from ever stepping foot onto your lawn. That’s good security! But you don’t even know how good it is because you never even see the threat come near. Ahhhhh, yes, isn’t that our God. We often don’t even know the ill intent of the enemy, the harm he had orchestrated for us, heading directly our way for a head on collision, but God heroically steps in with a shield of protection and removes us from that collision course. YES HE DOES. But it looks more like a detour on the road you always travel. It looks like the occasional flat tire, or call from the school that causes you to leave work, a missed turn, or the forgotten eggs at the store, all delaying you in your very busy day. Have we been missing it … even worse, have we been complaining about it? God’s great work in the details of our lives.

Have you ever given up on something in the past and just wish you would have kept going? Where would you be today if you wouldn’t have given up? Oh dang! Healthier, stronger, further along perhaps? It’s easy to imagine how life could be if we would have stuck with the things we gave up on, but today, I want you to imagine how your future life could be if you would give up some specific things today. Yes, give up. I mean let go of. Move on from. Surrender. For many of us, we’re holding on to something that is no longer serving us. We’re dwelling on something that has held us back. We’re carrying something that is exhausting us. And in order to move forward to the life God has available for us in 2020, we must let it go. Drop it. Move on. Surrender your right to carry it into this next year. Something I’ve learned is just because you have the right, doesn’t make it right. You have the right to say anything you want to say, it’s called the right of speech … but that doesn’t make it right. There’s just some things you shouldn’t say. And for those of us who have ever stuck our foot squarely in our own mouth, we know this is true. Many years ago I was a receptionist at an office. My boss had been telling me for weeks about a real pain in the butt client he had. One day, she called and I answered. I thought (emphasis on the word thought) I put her on hold, and yelled across the office “Jeff, your pain in the butt client is on the phone.” And then I hear on the other line “uhhhh, excuse me?” Oh I had the right to say it, I was fully justified in my personal description of her, but it didn’t make it right. You have the right to still be hurt over what happened in the past, but does that make it right? Really, does it change anything for you to still carry around this hurt? Does it make it better? You have the right to be frustrated and angry, but honey if it’s not helping you it’s hurting you. You may be stuck in indecision today because you still don’t understand WHY what happened happened, so the question becomes, how much longer will you hold on to your incessant need to know as another day passes you by? A day of opportunity is here … will you miss it because you’re stuck in something that’s already happened? Let it go. You likely imagined this year of life would look a certain way. And the majority of us come to the final 3 weeks and look back with a few questions. Hmmmmm, why did it all work out the way it did? If you’re like me, some areas of your life really surpassed your imagination for 2019 … while other areas are honestly quite disappointing. You didn’t imagine this loss. You didn’t imagine this hardship. You didn’t imagine this setback. You didn’t imagine this struggle, no, not this one. And yet you’re walking right through it. Gosh, I can’t believe this is happening to me … not at this point in my life. How can I be here? You can deny it, but what good does that do? Let’s face the truth … some of our reality is a bit hard to swallow. Things happened you didn’t see coming. Other things didn’t happen that you had really counted on. I have a leadership team of 8 people from across the country. 3 out of 8 of us lost a parent this year. 5 out of 8 of us are struggling with a wayward child. Every single one of us love Jesus, and every single one of us prayed these exact situations wouldn’t happen. Where’s God in all of this? Where is he when you’re struggling to understand why and why not? Answer, he is here, with you. God says in Isaiah 41:10 “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.