BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

We’re all seeking the secret to getting to the next level of life. How do you level up? How do you graduate to more? How do you get that promotion to higher grounds? How do you climb up from where you have been and taste what is available now? I’m completely humbled by the journey God has taken me on in my life. Today that journey brings me to a place I could have never imagined. A place of stepping up to a microphone every morning and hosting Spotify’s number 1 devotional podcast in the world, in my country twang and funky play on words. Today I get to create adventure retreats for women and take them to beautiful places all across the country, and these retreats aren’t just fun, they change lives. I mean seriously ya’ll, I have the best job in the world! That’s today … but let me tell you about the first 9 years of this decade on this journey. I struggled. Struggled hard. I created, and few listened. I hosted and little showed up. Our family often went in the red with my crazy ideas that once again fell flat. BUT GOD … remember the devotional from earlier this week … BUT GOD. I struggled and I failed … BUT GOD. But God had so much more available to me … and the way there was directly through the struggle. I had to be willing to struggle right through it. Keep showing up in the failure and get better. Keep believing that maybe it would work the next time, then shake off the discouragement when it didn’t. How do you get to the next level of life? How do you graduate to more? How do you get that promotion to higher grounds? How do you level up? YOUR ROCK THE CURRENT LEVEL YOU’RE ON. YES, exactly where you are today, you show up with the best God has placed within you and you rock this. I truly believe the only way this simple little country girl from Ava, MO stepped up from being the french fry manager at McDonald’s to hosting the number one devotional podcast was rocking every single level of life in between. I’m going to tell you a little secret … I loved working at McDonald’s. And I’ve loved every entry level position after that. Loving your job has nothing to do with your boss or your position … it has everything to do with your perspective and attitude. When you can rock your current level in life and be faithful with what is expected of you today, you prove yourself capable of more. How could we ever expect to be entrusted with more if we’re ungrateful with the offerings of today? How could we ever think we will level up if we’re not showing up exactly where we already are. You won’t magically start showing up with a better attitude when you’re promoted in life. It doesn’t work that way. And your creator knows it! God laid out a plan for us in scripture. A 3 step plan to rocking life and leveling up. I Corinthians 15:58 “Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Now let’s break it down. First, be steadfast. Steadfast is from the root word SIT. In other words, you must be seated. Be settled in the truth. We live very unsettled lives in an unsettled world. We are tense, uptight, anxious and always stirred up about something. And God says be steadfast – sit down – settle down. Be RELAXED. Did you know you can be working and still be relaxed? God never intended for you and I to go through the days of our life so unsettled. Don’t you know you are way too blessed to be stressed. Stress is the plan of the enemy. Have you fallen into his trap? You see, as long as you are stressed and anxious, you can never be seated in truth. You can never be steadfast in knowing who you are and who’s you are. Today, take a seat in what you know to be true. You are forgiven, you are chosen,

This morning we woke up to 27 days left in this decade. 10 years of living and it all comes down to these final 27 days. What could you do with this time? The options are many, however the most popular choices will be to stress and rush. And what do we miss if we fail to savor these days? We miss the opportunity to fully live. Have you ever thought about each day of life as the opportunity of a lifetime? Seriously, the gift of living. Could there be a greater gift? I’m here in San Antonio, TX today to attend the funeral of a BIG Life girl. Jasmine was a 30 year old mama with 2 little girls, who ran out of days. Her days were limited to 11,253, and then her opportunity to live came to an end. It seems so tragic. A family grieving a tremendous loss of a bright and hopeful life. Jasmine didn’t receive these final 27 days of the decade. BUT WHAT IF YOU DO? Will you live every single one of them? Today has a number on it. It’s a number in your allotted days of life. A countdown on your opportunities. It’s assigned number means it counts. Think about it, when you’re teaching your children how to count and they say 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 … you would say oppps, you missed one. Remember number 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. That number 5 is important. It may not be your favorite number, but does that really matter? 5 is still important and you can’t just skip over it. Your days are numbered, whether you’re counting or not. And while you may not see the magic in this day, just a Thursday in the middle of a busy season and stressful time, this day is of tremendous importance. Don’t just skip over it. This is day #339 of 2019. Isn’t it crazy how fast these 339 days have flown by since we celebrated New Years? How many of those days have mattered? All of them. Every single day has mattered. Have you been counting them? More importantly, have you MADE them count? Psalm 90:12 says “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Teach us God. Teach us. Help us to get this right. When is the last time you simply prayed, “God, help me to get this right.” Teach me how to live this day right God. I don’t want to waste this day. It’s important. I can’t just skip over today and expect to arrive to a better day tomorrow. Today is #339 and I can’t get to #340 without it. Help me get this day right. Your greatest gift is your time. The time God gives you is precious. How are you spending it? You will never, ever, ever in all of eternity get another shot at this day. This number in your life will never come again, so don’t you think it’s important to consider how you will spend your time today? Who gets your time? What gets your time? Would you give your money to just anyone? I mean would you mail 60 bucks to FaceBook? Think about it. Would you be comfortable with tucking three 20 dollar bills in an envelope and sending it in to the FaceBook? No. Well, then shouldn’t you consider the cost of giving it 60 minutes of your time? You can always make more money, but sister you can’t make more time. Would you put a 5 dollar bill in the pocket of the stranger who upset you? Of course you wouldn’t. Then why would you give them 5 minutes of your day being upset over them? Don’t you understand 5 minutes of your LIFE is much more valuable that 5 dollars of your earnings? At the very end of this day, you will have spent 1,440 minutes on something. Will it be of value? Will you come to the end of this day even remembering what you did? Or will it be just another Thursday that your survived and #339 is marked off the calendar as a day without return. Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Help us to do this right today. Help us to see our time as more valuable than our money.

There’s one thing that helps me when going through a problem. One thing that gives me permission to still find joy on the journey when the journey is darn hard. This one thing is knowing down deep within that there’s a purpose. There’s a purpose in my problem. There’s a purpose in my pain. There’s a promise being fulfilled and a purpose being developed. We can take a lot … as long as we know it’s not all for nothing. As long as we know somehow or another it’s going to be used for something good. As long as we know this long hard road is leading somewhere worth the journey. Time and time again in the hardest parts of my life, there has been a single scripture I’ve repeated. When someone comes to me struggling to live a good life today because of a nightmare childhood, there is a single scripture I share. When someone comes to me in the middle of a crisis that doesn’t make sense, there is 1 scripture. Today, in the middle of a season that doesn’t make sense, I come back to that scripture. Today, perhaps as you feel stranded in a desolate land of disappointment and defeat, I share that scripture. Genesis 50:20 – “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” There is a purpose for everything you’ve gone through. How God is going to use it all may still be unknown to you, but you can trust nothing will be wasted. What’s the worst thing that ever happened to you? God wants to use it. What painful thing has happened to you this year? God wants to use it. Your problem is positioning you. My family has gone through a few hard times in past years. We are here today having survived the storm and we see how God has used it all for good. He has used our story to help other families. Do I believe it was ever God’s desire for my daughter to go through this, for my Dad to go through this, for our family to suffer? No. But it happened. And when bad things happen and we invite God into the process, God goes to work using it for good. I bet your family has a story as well. A story of struggle. A story of storms and mountains. Are you still clinging to that heartache? Are you replaying the story over and over again in your head of how unfair and painful it was? Or have you surrendered it to God and let him work? Can God use it? Oh you bet he can! You likely know the story of Joseph in the Bible. He was the favored son of Jacob. Out of 12 boys, Joseph was like the golden child. Now favoritism never sets a family up for unity does it? This was a recipe for disaster from the beginning. Joseph was highly favored by his Daddy and his 11 brothers were highly jealous of him. They were so jealous of him they threw him in a pit and left him to die. That wasn’t good. Of course this was intended for harm, but God saw it all and said “I’m going to use this for good.” Joseph had to be set apart because God wanted to use him to save the lives of his entire family in the future. He was being positioned. Positioned by a problem. Then Joseph goes to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. And again it was all used as part of God’s plan for good to him and his family. Nothing Joseph went through was wasted. There was a bigger purpose in everything. And my sister, the same is true for you. You are being positioned for God’s favor. You are being placed in alignment with your purpose. Your problem is your positioning to bring you in alignment with your purpose. Funny, I always thought favor and purpose would feel a whole lot different, how about you? I envisioned lottery tickets and overnight success. I envisioned big grand breakthroughs and turn arounds. But instead God works more through crisis than lottery tickets. He leads you through problems to take you to your purpose.

There are seasons in our life where things seem to all be going wrong. Where our efforts seem to be in vain because our progress is so little. A season where the days seem so long. Are you there? Is this your current season? There’s an important word I’ve used here, and it’s a little word with potentially massive impact. You likely missed it, as we do in life. We miss the little things which can make a big difference. Things SEEM to be going wrong. Your efforts SEEM to be in vain. The days SEEM so long. It may seem a certain way, but it may not actually BE this way. It may feel like it and look like it, but what if there’s so much more going on in this season of your life that you cannot see. And what if it’s all for a great purpose. A purpose that will make all of this totally worth it. I’ve been on Facebook for 10 years. It’s a love/hate relationship, so I’ve learned to be very careful in how I use it. Without intentional care, I could spend my life watching you live your life and miss living mine. Over the past 10 years I have to wonder how much of my kids growing up I sacrificed because I was on my phone scrolling through photos of someone else’s kids growing up. Gosh, I really hate that. But I love my Facebook memories. Even more than looking back at what I was doing in the past, I like looking back to see what I was thinking in the past. Does anyone remember back in the day when Facebook had a little writing prompt to start your posts. It would say Pamela is thinking …. We were all learning how to use social media, so with this writing prompt, it seems we all documented our thoughts a little more back then. Now we just share hilarious memes. Yesterday I saw the funniest meme that said “You know you’re an adult when you watch Home Alone and wonder how much his mortgage must be.” Oh and my favorite one for Thanksgiving said “If you know you can’t cook, don’t try to learn on Thanksgiving. Open that can of cranberry sauce and sit your butt down over there.” We had to giggle over that one as my aunt not only spilled all the drippings from the turkey into the oven, she made an uneatable cranberry salad and burned her store bought pumpkin pies. But my Facebook memories tell me what I was thinking 10 years ago. 10 years ago, the beginning of this decade coming to a close now. 10 years ago, this is what I said: What if I’m already doing this thing right, but I’m not sure right now? What if the surprises along the way are really speeding things up, even though it feels like they’re slowing me down? What if all I want is barreling towards me, even though I can’t see it right now? And what if when it arrives it will exceed my every expectation? And now, with the gift of perspective and 10 more years of living under my belt, I look back and say YES. I couldn’t have even imagined how all things were going to work out. I couldn’t have imagined the process and the path, but God has been faithful on the journey to today. I couldn’t see it, but it was there. Honey, you can’t see it right now … but it’s there. It may SEEM hopeless, but it’s not. You may feel like you’re being held up and delayed, but you may very well be on the fastest track to a beautiful future. It may not look like things are coming together for you, but it may very well be barreling right towards you and you just don’t know it yet. And the dreams you have today may seem big, but maybe, just maybe, your great big God has even bigger plans. Don’t be discouraged by what you see right now. Don’t be overwhelmed by your feelings today. What it “seems” is only what you can see and imagine, but 1 Corinthians 2:9 reminds us “No eye has seen, no ear has heard,

Are you available? To be available means you are open to something. Or are you occupied? Occupied with the busyness of life and all you have to do. God has a question for you today. He’s not concerned with your ability, he wants to know your availability. God can equip you with anything and everything you need. He can supernaturally strengthen you, he can raise you up, he can enlighten you, he can give you wisdom you’ve never had before. Oh yes, he can equip you with an abundance of ability. But what he won’t do is force you to be available for what he can to do in your life. Availability is up to you. How much of God’s goodness and provision have we missed because we simply haven’t been available to receive it? I’ve been so darn busy, filling my days with duties and distractions, maybe I’ve missed what God has been offering me. I’ve decided I don’t ever want to miss it again … how about you? What can God do in a life that’s available to him? Oh, it’s easier to make a much shorter list of what God can’t do with an available life. It is our availability that serves as an open door to the greatest works of our Creator. Yesterday evening I came across a black and white image on FaceBook posted by my friend Laura. In bold at the top of the image it read “GOD SAID:” Alrighty, that got my attention, so I kept reading. What did God say? Now what I’m about to share is likely a personal message someone received from God. However, I know a message is for me to receive and also to share when I feel my spirit leap. Ya’ll my spirit was doing back flips inside my chest when I read this. “God said, I need you to get excited again. I need you to remember you’re not in this thing alone. I’m working on your challenges, I’ve already assigned angels to you. So let go of the stress and just trust me; I’ve got a pretty incredible ending in store. In fact, that’s why you need to get excited again … because the happy ending I’ve got coming is going to ROCK YOUR WORLD!” Did you feel that too? Did that just move something within you? Get excited my sister … God is about to do something … if you will be available! I went to bed thinking about this, and I woke up thinking about it. Thinking about God calling us to be excited about what he is doing, and what he is going to do in our lives. Then I turn on an Elevation Church Podcast while I’m putting on my eyelashes this morning (yes, I wear my lashes while I record live each morning at 7 am because lashes just make you sound better). The first word I heard on that podcast was the pastor asking “are you available?” There it is. Just like a potential date, first you have to be available, then you need to be excited. No body wants to go on a date with someone who acts like they “have to.” I’ll go to dinner with you if I have to. I’ll be there if I can get everything else done first. Geeze, you wouldn’t be eager to date that one, now would you? Well, how do you think God feels?

Welcome to Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving where your jeans fit tighter and everything is on sale! It’s always interesting to me that we go from the day we declare our gratitude for all we have, and jump into the day we need to go out and buy more. Americans will spend approximately $5 billion in this 24 hour period on Christmas shopping. Half of today’s shoppers will go into debt with their purchases. Countless fights will break out among proper, wool-coat wearing women in overly crowded stores. Pushing and shoving, sprinting through the isles in a frenzy, absolute mayhem in the local Walmart over that hot deal, all while Christmas music plays happily in the background. Joy to the world. Why? Let’s stop the madness for just one moment and think about why we’re doing this. Oh yeah, because we’re celebrating Jesus. (with my sweetest southern voice) Then we come home and do the chore we all dread doing … we have to wrap all those presents. Did I mention decorating the house too? The majority of families will decorate their homes today and make them festive … it will start of merry, but then it turns into absolute frustration when that 2 year old pre-lit tree only lights up on the top half, and your house is consumed by a massive mess. Ya’ll I made the mistake of buying a flocked Christmas tree last year. You know the ones that look like a beautiful fresh snow has fallen on the branches. Yeah, well my tree was straight out of a blizzard with huge clumps of fake white snow that cover every inch of green tree underneath. And it snows … constantly. In my house. From my flocked Christmas tree. There’s a never ending pile of white crap collecting on my dark wood floors that can’t be swept up … it just merrily floats around, landing for brief moments then goes about making a mess somewhere else. I’m angry sweeping my floors for the 10th time today. Why? Oh yeah, because we’re celebrating Jesus. I’ve witnessed epic fights in my neighborhood as husband and wives try to hang Christmas lights on the house. He’s not doing it right, she won’t stop bossing him around, he gets mad, climbs down off the ladder, slams the door, and now she’s outside by herself decorating the darn house. Why? Oh yeah, because we’re celebrating Jesus. And here we are in the season of never ending dinners, parties and performances. Each one requires a different outfit and time you don’t have. Suddenly our lives are filled with all we HAVE to do, where we HAVE to go, what we HAVE to buy and HAVE to wear. Why? Oh yeah, because we’re celebrating Jesus. Do you ever just want to yell STOP?!!!!! I don’t want to go into debt buying presents that will likely go unused in a few months. I don’t want to go all these places and wear a fake smile and suck it in the entire time. I don’t want to hang up all those Christmas lights to make my house look like the neighbor’s house, because honestly I really hate taking them all back down. I don’t want to … but I feel like I have to. It takes one brave soul in each family, in each neighborhood, in each friend circle to say … hey ya’ll I’m just going to enjoy Christmas this year and not do all the extra. Okay? I’ve seen it … I’ve seen the sigh of relief in everyone else once given permission to only do that which brings them happiness and honors the season the way they want to honor the season. Maybe you love decorating and shopping … then girl, go for it as you remember Jesus, but don’t insist that everyone else stand in line with you. It reminds me of Jesus going to the house of Mary and Martha. Luke 10: 38-42 “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened...

Every morning when we wake up, we get to choose our attitude. Any attitude we wish is available for the taking. We can put it on and wear it the entire day, and just like the right pair of shoes can change the outfit, the right attitude can change your experience. Most days we wake up unaware of this choice. We wait and see how our jeans fit, how our hair looks, and what the weather is. Good day, good attitude. Bad day, bad attitude. Average day, average attitude. We allow our experience to dictate and determine our perspective. But within us is the power to change our entire experience, regardless of circumstances. Today we have the extreme gift of waking up to a day when the preferred attitude is predetermined. It’s Thanksgiving, and what do we do on Thanksgiving besides eat a feast … we give thanks. Yes, we knew to wake up with an attitude of gratitude today. I’m here to tell you if you maintain that attitude of sheer gratitude throughout this day, your experience will be radically changed. Will everything be perfect? Nahhhh, probably not. I mean we all have that slightly crazy family member, right? But with a different perspective you will see the goodness in every detail. Melody Beattie said ““Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” This is my first Thanksgiving without my Daddy. My first Thanksgiving without any of my kids. However I’m surrounded by a million reasons to still be grateful, and it is my predetermined gratitude that will highlight and magnify them all. Maybe you too will be missing someone around the dinner table today. There can still be gratitude. Gratitude for all the years they were there. Savor those memories and let there be more gratitude than sadness. Maybe your own seat is occupied by a woman who carries a heavy load and deep burdens because of life’s current circumstances. There can still be gratitude. Gratitude for all the times God has gotten you through in the past, and the promise he will carry you through this too. Unlock the fullness of life today with your thanksgiving. We truly have so much to be grateful for. Did you know if you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world. Did you know if you have any amount of money in the bank, in your purse, or even some spare change hidden in your couch cushions, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealth. That’s me. Isn’t that you too? Girls, do you know what this means …. this means we are wildly rich and ridiculously blessed! Even in our current less than perfect life scenario, we have so much to be grateful for. Recognize it now. This is you. Wildly rich and ridiculously blessed. That is your truth. Now, what will you do with it? Who will you thank? Luke 17: 11-19 tells us a story of 10 men sick with leprosy who met Jesus. Jesus healed all 10 of them, but only 1 came back to thank him. Now Jesus was literally shocked by this and says “were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other 9?” But to the 1 who returned to give thanks he said “rise and go; your faith has made you well.” We gather today as the wildly rich and ridiculously blessed. The ones who have an abundance of proof in their lives of God’s goodness and grace. The ones who have been saved and redeemed. The ones who have been given more than we could ever deserve. The ones who have proven to be ungrateful in the past, caught up in the details, rushed through it and missed the overall truth in our lives … we are SO FORTUNATE. So here we are, among the masses who have received, but among the few who have returned to give than...

Have you seen it going around on Facebook? The 10 year challenge. Post a photo of you today compared to a photo of you from 10 years ago. Sounds scary because, girl, you’ve gotten older! However, have you noticed what I’ve noticed? Everyone looks remarkably better today at 10 years older! What?!!!!! Ya’ll we’re getting better with age! We’re basically fine wine and cheese with our aging process making us better. Stop and think about it … are you getting better? How far have you come in the past 10 years? You’re not who you once were! This is all a result of God’s work in you. He’s refining you. How? Through the fires! It wasn’t an easy, comfortable life where every step was known in advance and every turn was well marked that brought you here. No, it was the stumbles. It was the hardships. It was the season where there was a lot more month left at the end of your paycheck. The money ran out ya’ll! Like digging for change kinda broke! Remember those times … or maybe you’re still in them. It was the season of crying yourself to sleep asking why this was happening to you. It was the season of long days and little progress. Fires. And today you’re better because you’ve been refined. You’ve been stripped of the crap that didn’t matter. How many of us know that’s not a fun process, being stripped of the crap that doesn’t matter. You don’t magically wake up one day in the middle of bliss and realize what’s important. No, that realization only comes in a time of hardship where you were forced to let go of the extra because it took both hands to cling to what was crucial. My friend Ashlee just lost her home in a fire. She walked out with her family. The day before the fire she would have told you her cars were of tremendous value. The next day as they all smelled like smoke and the cars had gone up in flames while sitting in the garage, she held what was of true value. Refined by the fire … literally. 10 years ago our family was held to the flame and felt the heat. We were battling to keep our daughters. After having them in our home for 4 years, the finalization of the adoption through Mexico was threatened and we spent a Thanksgiving in hiding with them. Hiding just to keep them. Hiding to buy time and more attorneys. Do you know how we afforded those attorneys? We sold everything. Everything. Our dining room table, the fancy bedroom furniture, our son’s little motorcycle, the basketball goal in the front yard. The truck was for sale. We were begging for someone to come and take all the “stuff” we had worked so hard to buy. Why? Because we were holding on to what was most valuable with both hands. Our family was refined by that fire. Two little girls who were once abandoned by everyone they knew, were now witnessing a family and circle of friends fighting with everything they had to save them. Those girls are now all grown up, and they still know they were fought for. They still know this family will do anything to save them. And now, with the 10 year perspective, in our next battle for one of our daughters, we understand the value of the fires we went through and the power of God, love and family. Because of the refining, I can wake up in the middle of chaos and KNOW my God is still working. Once again, God wastes nothing. What you went through 10 years ago is being used today. The lessons you learned and the fires you were threatened by then continue to serve their purpose in your life now. Don’t forget what you’ve gone through. Never forget where you’ve come from. God has been faithful, and he will continue to be faithful. Philippians 1:6 “Be confident of this, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Yes sister,

Have you ever taken an honest look at your life, where you are, how you are living, and who you’ve become, and honestly been a little disappointed? Or maybe a lot disappointed? This isn’t how you imagined your life would be. You thought by now you would have things figured out. You thought by now it would be easier and you would be happier, but the reality is a little shy of the dream. These are your ruins. The leftovers of what you imagined life could be. The remains of what once looked so promising, but now is a messy problem for which you don’t know the answer. Ruins. The ruins of a family. The ruins of a career. The ruins of your once promising potential. The ruins where we’re reminded of our pain, disappointment and shortcomings. The ruins where we once had great hope for the future, but now we seem hopeless in the loss. It’s what’s left. Show me your ruins, and I’ll show you where God is primed to work in your life! Our almighty God specializes in restoration. If he had a TV show, he would knock Fixer Upper right off the air. You think it’s amazing to see an old house fixed up and turned into the perfect mix of open spaces, large windows and shiplap … girl, wait till you see what God wants to do with your life! You won’t believe what he can do with your ruins. Not only what he CAN do, but what he WANTS to do. What he’s willing to do. What he’s trying to do, right now. You don’t have to hire God to come in and restore your life, then sit on a waiting list for your turn, hoping at some point his work schedule clears up and he has time to work on you. He is available TODAY to begin the renovation. He is eager to take what’s left and turn it into something beautiful. You’ve seen him do it in other’s lives. You’ve seen the rags to riches stories. The radical transformations from hopeless to happiness. The restoration of families. The healing of a body. The breakthrough in a dream about to go out. You’ve seen it … you know it CAN happen … and yet you question if God would ever do it for you. Why? Why have you discounted yourself from restoration? Why would you ever question that exactly who you are, is who God has chosen to do his greatest work in? If Joanna Gaines can turn a trashy dump into the house every single one of us would LOVE to live in, don’t you think the one who created the entire universe, the one who made the deep aqua oceans, the one who formed the majestic snow capped mountains, the one who painted the sky in the most brilliant of colors … don’t you think he could make something of the leftovers of your life? Don’t you think he can fit together these broken pieces? Don’t you believe he can restore what has been lost? Don’t you know he can rebuild all of this? This is his specialty. He is a restorer. He is a redeemer. And he is YOUR restorer. YOUR redeemer, here to do a personal work in your life. Now. Isaiah 51:3 says “The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.” Zion was a hill in Jerusalem. The hill on which a battle had taken place. Much like our lives … where a battle has taken place. Where we have fought and sometimes lost. Where war has been waged and we have sometimes fallen short. Where dreams have fallen apart, progress has been stolen, and hope has been threatened. And this hill, Zion, became a fortress and stronghold representing the kingdom of God. God looked upon the ruins of Zion, what had been destroyed and what was left, and he had COMPASSION. Those same eyes of compassion look upon you today. God sees what you have lost. He sees where you are hurting.

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

Today, I will teach you one of my greatest secrets to living well. A tool that has guided me countless times. It is a tool you’re guaranteed to already have, but perhaps no one has taught you to use it yet. That changes today! But first, I must take you to Hebrews chapter 11. A chapter on faith. It starts off in verse 1 with “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” The message translation says it like this: “Faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.” What can faith do in your life? What has faith done in the lives of others? The next several verses in Hebrews 11 list people who’s lives were changed by faith. My favorite comes in verse 11. Listen to this: “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.” Enabled because she considered God faithful to his promises. Enabled means given power and the ability to do something. Sarah, the 90 year old barren woman unable to have children her entire life, still believed God was able. And because of her faith, God did something miraculous in her life. Because of her faith she was strengthened and empowered. What will you be enabled to do because you believe God is faithful to his promises? What will you receive because you have an unwavering faith? What will you be strengthened to do that is beyond your own abilities, as a result of your faith in a God who is able? Your faith is the game changer. God responds to your faith. As a teenager, my parents would say these 5 magical words which would keep me on the right path. Before I would leave for a date night they would say “we have faith in you.” They didn’t preach at me. They didn’t nag me. They simply told me they had faith in me. Faith in me to make the right choices. Faith in me to do the right thing. Now do you think there was any way I was going to go out and mess that up? Their parenting technique was brilliant! We have faith in you. It drew me in to their plans. My husband now says the same thing to me before I take a stage. It’s his “go get ’em tiger” pep talk. I have faith in you. He believes I will do great things. He sees something in me I sometimes don’t see in myself. He has faith in me, and it brings out the best in me. Yesterday I was texting with one of our BIG Life girls, Georgette. She’s on a mission to take back her health and claim all the days offered to her by God. Yesterday was a huge day of temptation as she catered in Thanksgiving lunch for all her employees. Pies … everywhere. Delicious pies. Pies happen to be one of Georgette’s weaknesses. She text me saying she didn’t know if she had the willpower to overcome this temptation. I told her “Georgette, I believe in you.” Sometimes we won’t do the hard things for ourselves, but we’ll do it when someone else believes in us. AND SHE DID! When someone has faith in you, you’re willing to bring your best for them. And the same is true for God. Your faith in him draws him in and he just can’t resist showing up in your life to work! Sarah was enabled to do the impossible because she had faith that God would do what he said he would do. AND HE DID. What has God promised you? Really, do you even know? If you haven’t studied his promises to you, then how can you specifically tell God you have faith in him to follow through? Have you ever prayed God’s promises over your life? Oh this is powerful stuff right here. Let me teach you how. What are you needing in your life right now? Do you need guidance and direction? Do you need provision? Are in need of healing or strength, peace or wisdom?

I have a truth bomb to drop on you this morning. A truth that perhaps you haven’t thought about. This truth is going to change your day – FOR REAL. Are you ready? Now I mean, are you really ready? This one is big. Write this down … God’s end goal is ALWAYS promotion. Every struggle is a setup for you to get up and step up. God wants to take you to new levels of living. His will is for you to rise up every single time, to keep getting better. God wants to promote you in every area of your life. Listen to me here, GOD DOESN’T WANT YOU TO BE STUCK. The mess you’re in right now was never intended to depress you. The opposition was never intended to overwhelm you. You were never intended to settle here and call it good enough. Never. I know sometimes it feels like God is against you. Like he’s punishing you, but this isn’t punishment … this is priming for your potential. Preparation for promotion. Positioning for what is possible. (I’m throwing down P words like a rapper today … do I have another one in me?) This process is your positive passage. This pain could be your push. You are God’s beloved. His chosen. His girl – his end goal is always to promote you. But you have a role in this. A role in your promotion to step into your potential … You’ve gotta quit giving up, quit playing little, and quit complaining about the process. You’ve gotta overcome some things to get that promotion. You’ve gotta prove you’re ready in your mind, body, soul and attitude. God is asking you today … just how bad do you want to be promoted? How bad do you want to get off the struggle bus? How bad do you want to break free of the very thing that’s been holding you back? How bad do you want to change? How bad do you want to once and for all battle your demons and WIN? How bad do you want to step on up to the next level? Well let me tell you, God wants it for you more than you do. He isn’t giving up on you, so you’ve gotta stop giving up on you. All the things you dream of for your life are just a fraction of what God has available for you – Not only available for you, but planned for you – created just for you. Promotion in your position. Promotion in your relationships. Promotion in your health. Promotion in your finances. BUT FIRST, A TEST. God wants to know if you are really ready for the promotion he has available for you. Don’t you see, the struggle you woke up in again this morning is your test. The very things coming your way today are your test. This is your test before promotion. How will you handle the conflict? How will you handle the frustration? Will the stress overwhelm you? Will the temptations sink you again? Will the distractions get your attention again? Will you give your best or will you give your leftovers? Don’t you see, it’s all a test. Galatians 6:9 says “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” And oh how God wants you to reap the harvest of blessing he has available for you. He is rooting for you. He wants you to pass the test. He wants you to prove yourself ready for promotion. He’s just hoping you won’t give up again like you have so many times in the past. He’s just hoping you will keep a good attitude and shut up that complaining mouth. He’s just hoping you’ll dig in deep and turn away from that shallow living. Hey I know it’s exhausting fighting the same battle over and over again. I know the struggle can be overwhelming. I know defeat takes the wind out of your sails and weakens your confidence. I know – I’ve been there. Me too sister, me too. But here’s what I know. My God is FOR ME. He is for me. His end goal is to promote me,

Jesus did not come and die for you so that you could live a defeated life. He came to give you victory. Yes, victory in the area you’ve been defeated. Victory in the very circumstances of your life where you’re struggling most. We become slaves to the things which we cannot control. Jesus came to set the captives free. What do you need freedom from? What is holding you back? What has towered over you for far too long, making you feel weak and incapable? Where is your defeat … Jesus wants to meet you there. I work with a whole lot of women. I know women, I happen to be one of them. And I know this, we struggle. Hardcore struggle. We struggle with not being enough, then being too much. You think this struggle is by accident? Goodness gracious no … it’s by the design of an enemy who knows your potential and is threatened by you. Girl, if you weren’t a threat, you wouldn’t be attacked. Most of us have a weak spot and it’s attacked on the daily. I see it beginning at such a young age in elementary girls, following us through to adulthood and wrecking havoc in every stage of life. What is it? Oh you likely know because you’ve personally fought in this female war … the battle of our bodies. Yes, our curves, our bulges, our lumps and bumps, wiggles and jiggles, the areas that are too much and the areas that aren’t enough. Men, well they can sport a popping belly reminiscent of a 6 month pregnancy and not give a flying flip, while we’re over here incessantly covering our pooch with our strategic placement of folded arms. I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s … the smaller your butt could possibly be in your jeans, the better. Then somewhere along the way they changed the game and now it’s all about slim thick. That booty be poppin’, but make sure that tummy is flat as a pancake. Some obsess. But most of us … most of us secretly hate parts of ourselves and as a result we play little. We don’t show up for the opportunities, we don’t step up and shine … why … because we’re not in love with our bodies and we’re hiding parts of us so the world doesn’t see. And … the enemy wins. He wins because the amazing, beautiful, powerhouse that you are sits it out. When you sit it out, your impact isn’t made. When you sit it out, your full love isn’t given, your voice isn’t heard, your gifts aren’t shared. And the world around you is missing out because you’re too busy still trying to strategically fold those arms. DANG IT THERE’S MORE TO YOU THAN THIS! Imagine your creator witnessing this. Knowing what is in you, because he put it there. Knowing full well what you’re capable of because he made you for it. You, his beautiful masterpiece, hating parts of yourself. You, his beloved daughter, resigned to a life of defeat in this area when victory has always been yours. So, let’s get to the nitty gritty here … let’s talk about what needs to change. If you’re struggling with your body, please understand at the end of your life you won’t look back and wish you would have forced yourself to fit into those jeans. You won’t hate how you looked in the photos. Here’s what you’ll hate … you’ll hate you weren’t in the photos. You’ll hate all the times you didn’t show up for your life over ANY reason that held you back … especially your jean size. And you’ll hate any days of your life that were available to you, allotted by the almighty for you to live, but you forfeited and missed them because your life was cut short over a lack of self-control, health and care. Don’t let this be you. Has the enemy been attacking your confidence through your body? Understand the devil doesn’t care about your jean size.

What if I told you direct access to the single most powerful force in this world is available to you today? Would you be so bold to use it? If the power is available, would you believe that you’re worthy to tap into it in your life … or would you shrink back and tell yourself you’ve never had power to change a dang thing in your life, so why try it now? Sadly most of us hear about this power, even believe it’s true, yet dismiss ourselves from carrying it within us. GIRL, YOU ARE A POWER HOUSE!!!! And here’s why … 1 Corinthians 3:16 says “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” Then Zecheriah 4: 6-7 says “It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord, nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in (the) way; it will become a level plain before him!” Understand what this means. You have the spirit of God living within you and that spirit can move mountains! Power house! There is power living within you and it’s not meant to just stay inside of you, that power is meant to flow from you and touch every area of your life and the lives around you. It’s a trick of the enemy to make you believe you’re powerless. It’s also a trick of the enemy to make you believe that while God is powerful and capable of moving mountains, he’s not interested in moving yours. That’s crap. I call absolute total and complete crap! Why would God place his spirit within you, give you his mountain moving power, then not care about it? So, the question becomes, how do you access this power? Answer, you pray. And there goes your attention. Prayer is honestly boring sometimes isn’t it? You’re busy, you’ve got things to do and being still ain’t one of them! We’ve been tricked into worrying about things, complaining about things, and stressing over things instead of doing the one thing that actually changes things … praying. And I say we mainly as me, because dang I sometimes forget the power I have dwelling right inside of me. This weekend I was the recipient of many prayers. I posted on social media on Friday night after my TEDTalk practice and asked for prayer for my emotions. I wasn’t nervous, I was a weepy mess. I got one sentence into my practice and started crying. Now, ain’t nobody want to watch some woman on a stage crying over something they don’t understand. But there I was on the night before the biggest opportunity of my life so far, and I can’t get it together. So, I prayed and I asked others to pray. And hot dang if it didn’t make a HUGE difference! I shouldn’t be surprised by that, and yet somehow I’m still blown away by God’s direct response to our requests. Knowing this power, I recently started doing a thing. I started playing a game with my prayers. I started looking for random people that I come across, and secretly pray ridiculous blessings over them. Driving on the road a trucker passed me and I felt moved to pray for him so I asked for undeniable favor in his life. A young man was extra kind to me in the store, so I walked behind him (that sounds creepy, but I did my non-creepy walk) and I prayed for complete healing and restoration in every area of his life. It’s become a game. I see someone and I imagine what they may need, and while they have no idea, I just pray. If I am a power house, housing God’s spirit within me which has the power to move mountains, why wouldn’t I send out that power into the world? Why wouldn’t I want to share it with strangers? Why wouldn’t I want to pour it out on my family? Why wouldn’t I want to tap into that power in my own life? FLIP THE DANG SWITCH WOMAN, YOU’VE GOT THE POWER. In John chapter 16, Jesus has gathered the disciples,

There’s a moment in our lives when we face the biggest invitation to just coast, go through the motions, call it in, and give less than our best. A moment when we wake up without direction and no real excitement to find it. When is that? Surprisingly it’s not after disappointment. The most volatile time for our motivation and determination is after success. After the goal is achieved, the finish line is crossed, the fear has been conquered … then we celebrate? No, then we struggle. It seems no one prepares you for what comes after success. When you should be feeling so overwhelmingly full of happiness, you’re instead met with an emptiness of ‘well, now what’? You worked for YEARS for that degree … and now what? Oh yeah, you have to actually find a job. That’s a bummer. You trained for 6 months for that race, race day came and went … and now what? Why go out there and run, you’ve already crossed your finish line. You work your butt off, like literally, to reach your goal weight and zip up them jeans … and now what? Now you still don’t get to eat pizza? Still now ooewey gooey brownies? Oh come on man! I’m just assuming, but I bet the percentage of newlywed couples who fight on their honeymoon is overwhelming. Why? Because the big celebration has come and gone, the day is done, and now what? Now I wake up to your bad breath. Now I’m left with forever with a flawed human being who leaves clothes on the floor, doesn’t close the bathroom door, and oh my gosh … he snores. Let’s talk about AFTER success. No one prepares you for this stuff. The emptiness of not knowing what to do next. The aching for the days of knowing what you were working for with clear direction. Here you are with the degree, the ring, the promotion, the medal, the house, the baby … you have what you wanted and you feel so dang guilty for it not being enough. Shouldn’t you be on cloud 9, energized by the experience, and 100% confident of your next move? But instead you feel a little empty, a little lost, and disappointed, regardless of how amazing it was. I’m here to tell you that’s completely NORMAL. It’s also normal to go into a dark hole of sadness after success. Yeah, no one tells you about that now do they? It’s normal, but it’s also optional. It’s normal, but it’s not mandatory. It may happen a lot, and it may have happened to you in the past … but it doesn’t have to happen to you now. I believe this shocking feeling of emptiness after success is nothing more than PROOF. Proof you were created for more. You are capable of more. You are worthy of more. There’s still more for you and more in you. This isn’t where you’re supposed to set up your camp and stay forever. This success, this breakthrough, this next level accomplishment was awesome … yes, celebrate the heck out of it … but it’s just the next step on your climb up to the life you were really created for. I have a dear friend named Cassie. She’s one of those people everyone loves. She’s a magnet, an energizer, a ball of pure joy. For years she hid a struggle with infertility behind her bigger than life smile and laugh. But I knew. I knew her struggle. I knew her emptiness. Countless ups and downs and hundreds of negative pregnancy tests through the years. Then it finally happened … she was pregnant. It was the longest pregnancy ever … I believe this woman was pregnant for like 17 months, or so it seemed as we awaited the birth of this longed for, prayed for child. And then it happened … baby Sarah was born. Cassie was now a mom. And life went on. Cassie went back to work on a few hours of sleep, exhausted and slightly overwhelmed. That’s reality.