BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

What is one thing God has done for you specifically? How do you know he is real? Where have you personally seen him work? THAT IS YOUR TESTIMONY. How do you share your testimony without making it about you? MAKE IT ALL ABOUT JESUS. Here’s the truth – nobody really wants to know all the details about how bad things were for you. Nobody needs to hear a 45 minute long story that proves your life was worse than theirs. A testimony is not a competition of the worst beginnings. Testimony is a life so changed by God that your lifestyle becomes the evidence. You tell them what God did for you, then you live in a way that shows it’s true. I first started going to church when I was 15. My parents were trying to make up for lost time, so we went not only on Sunday mornings, but on Sunday nights for double credit. Oh how I dreaded testimony time every Sunday night. Without fail there were the same old women that would stand up and say the same exact things every time. One woman was Irene Davidson. (Her husband was Harley Davidson.) Irene would be the first to stand during testimony time and she would say, “I just had to share how good the Lord has been to me. He’s never left me a single day.” Then she would give a recap of her day. “I had oatmeal for breakfast and it set on my stomach good, praise the Lord. I worked in my garden today and the sun was shining on my back, praise the Lord. Harley is still walking and here with me tonight, praise the Lord.” Then the next little old woman would stand and share her testimony. It all meant nothing to me. What’s the point? But one night, my Daddy stood up and gave a testimony. He said he was a sinner saved by grace and every blessing in his life was because of Jesus. That one hit me. For the next 3 years I went most every Sunday night and testimony time became something different for me. It became a time when I struggled with the Holy Spirit who continually prompted me to share my testimony. But here’s what held me back – I didn’t know what my testimony was. I was a good girl with a good family, living a good life. What had Jesus really done for me? Was it anything worth talking about? Does anyone else feel that way? You feel that either there’s nothing worth talking about, or nothing you would be willing to talk about, so your testimony isn’t shared. Or when you have shared your testimony it was just a story of how horrible things were for you and Jesus was a little sprinkle on top to label your self-story time as a testimony. Today, we will open our Bibles and read precisely what a testimony looks like and the affect it can have. Then, you will receive a challenge to prepare your 2 minute testimony. I wish someone would have told 15 year old Pamela that she had a testimony of how Jesus changed my life and gave me the tools to craft it. 50 year old Pamela can still benefit from that today, so today she’s going to get it! In John 4 we read of Jesus encountering a woman at the well. This woman was drawing water in the heat of the day all alone. Why was that? Because she was an outcast. She was talked about by the other women, looked down on as ‘less than’, and unwelcome to be at the well with the others in the morning when it was cooler. So, she labored in the full sun alone at the well. One day, Jesus met this woman at the well and asked her for some water. This sparked a conversation between the woman and Jesus. Jesus addresses her shame, knowing exactly why she’s at the well alone. He says to her in verse 18, “You have had 5 husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now.” Why would he do that? He wanted this woman to know he knew everything about her, and yet he still chose to be there with her. Then, for the first time, Jesus reveals his true identity. He says in verse 26, “I am the Messiah!” The whole world had been waiting for the coming of the Messiah, the one who would change everything. And this is the woman chosen to hear from Jesus himself that it was really him. And he wanted to make it clear that he knew her life hadn’t been easy. He knew she was shamed by her community. He knew she carried deep hurt. And he chose her to be the very first one to know who he really was. He says, “I know who you really are, now let me tell you who I really am.” That’s what Jesus wants to show us. “Here’s who you really are, and this is who I really am.” That’s what changes your life! Who are you, and who is Jesus. That’s your testimony! After her encounter with Jesus, the woman returns to her village and she shares her testimony. What was it? Verse 40, “He told me everything I ever did!” That’s it. She didn’t have to rehash how horrible life had been. She didn’t have to place blame on her previous 5 husbands who had likely left her ov

Are there parts of you that are hidden away? A secret shame, a private hurt, a lonely fear that resides in the darkness you don’t talk about. Jesus knows about it and he wants to heal it. Hebrews 4:13, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes.” The parts of you that are hidden away in darkness are seen by your loving God. Now, he calls them out of the cave, out of the pit, out of hiding. You’re not a whole person when parts of you are still hiding. Jesus wants ALL of you. He calls all of that secret shame, all of that private hurt, and all of that lonely fear out of the cave of exiles. In his presence, those parts of you are healed and you are made whole. The cave is not the place for you, my sister. It’s not the place for any part of you. God sees it all now. And guess what, he’s not turning away from you! Why is it we hide things as if we can fool God? We can hide that shameful part of us from the one who created us – we can look whole – we can appear healed – while there are pieces of us exiled in the cave we don’t talk about. Jesus stands at the cave and calls every piece of you to come follow him. This past weekend at retreat, a beautiful soul named Michael shared the pages of her journal with me. She is an extremely talented artist and she paints visual images of scriptures within her journal. One painting she titled “The Cave of Exiles”. At the mouth of a dark cave stands a little sheep, staring into the abyss. Next to this sheep is Jesus, the great Shepherd. He too is staring into the abyss. Jesus stands ready with his staff. Ready to go into the cave and rescue what has been hidden. Ready to capture the pieces that may run and hide. Ready to restore the broken pieces of the sheep and make that precious sheep whole again. Michael told me that sheep is her. She had hidden away her shame, her fear, her loneliness, the abandonment, the criticism, the failure, the rejection and the trauma. The dark cave held the pieces of her she didn’t know what to do with. The pieces of her that haunted her. She thought she could be fractured like that and live whole – but she was wrong. A piece of her was always exiled in the cave. So Jesus showed her how he is her Shepherd and he would go into that cave to gather all the exiled parts of her hidden away in darkness. And he would call each one out. “Come, shame. Come, fear. Come, loneliness. Come, abandonment. Come, criticism. Come, failure. You come, rejection. Come, trauma.” Some would come to the call of the Shepherd easily, but one would hide. One would run deeper into the cave, lost with no way out. But Jesus would not leave this exiled broken piece of his sheep in that darkness. He would go into the deepest, darkest parts of the cave and use his staff to find the part that would run the hardest. For her, that was the rejection. Every other hidden part of her had responded to the call of Jesus, but that rejection had hidden and it had hidden her entire life. She may have looked whole to the rest of the world, but a part of her was still in the Cave of Exiles, wandering, hurting and alone. But Jesus wanted his girl WHOLE! Using his shepherd’s staff, he would capture that rejection from it’s hiding, call it out of the cave, and restore his sheep to be whole again. The healed rejection would reveal a greater purpose in her story. The hidden rejection would have forever left her unwhole with a piece of her still exiled in the cave. Colossians 2:10 tells us, “Our own completeness is now found in him. We are completely filled with God as Christ’s fullness overflows within us.” We are not complete when parts of us are still hidden away. Jesus wants his girl whole with nothing left in the cave! Scripture tells us caves are often where people would hide. David hid in caves while King Saul sought to kill him in a jealous rampage. Years of David’s life was spent hiding. Hiding what was under attack. And really, don’t we do the same? We hide what is under attack. The enemy has zeroed in on those weak parts of us, attacking that wound, reminding us of our hurt, stirring up our fears. So, we hide it away. These hidden parts of us leave us fractured and unwhole. We try to continue on with life like it doesn’t matter, but it does matter. As long as a part of us is still in the cave, we are not whole. The shame remains. The fear resides. The abandonment curls up in the darkness. The rejection sits alone in the cave. As far away from that cave as you have tried to go, there’s a part of you still in there. You’ve tried to fill these holes with relationships, with successes, with pretty things, but nothing has worked – at least not for long. And that is why Jesus stands at your Cave of Exiles with you now. That is why he’s prepared to go in and get every part of you.

Isaiah 14:27, “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has spoken – who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, who can stop him?” 1 Corinthians 1:9, “God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

You have a job to do. A job that often gets twisted in a way that either puffs you up with pride making you think you’re better than someone else, or your job gets twisted in a way that makes you carry the burden of changing someone else. Let’s be clear – saving someone is not your job. Girl, you are not Jesus. Nor can you make everyone happy. You’re not a taco. Your job is simply this – SHOW THEM JESUS. In this world, you reflect the light, the love, the power of Jesus. That’s your job. How it is received and what others do with that simply isn’t your business. Gosh, we get that all twisted, don’t we? And when we do, it becomes more about us than about the glory of God. And it becomes our burden to carry, our stress to worry about, and our pressure to make them change. Moses was called by God to speak truth to Pharaoh. The truth was, Pharaoh was holding God’s people as slaves. The truth was if Pharaoh didn’t let God’s people go, terrible things were going to happen to him and his people, the Egyptians. Moses job was to be a representative of God to Pharaoh, but his job was not to change Pharaoh, convince Pharaoh or save Pharaoh. Anytime Moses got his job twisted and took on undue pressure and stress, he wanted to quit in frustration. Yeah, that’s what happens when we make things about us instead of about God. First, Pharaoh had refused to listen to God. Exodus 5:2, Pharaoh declares, “Who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.” So, that’s when God uses his servant Moses to reflect his glory, speak his words, and deliver his message for him. Exodus 7:1, Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pay close attention to this. I will make you seem like God to Pharaoh.” When Pharaoh wouldn’t acknowledge God, he continually sent him an example in Moses. A man he could see and hear who represented God. Moses didn’t have to come up with the plan on his own, he simply had to represent God. Moses didn’t have to speak words of his own, he simply had to represent God. Moses didn’t have to change Pharaoh, he simply had to represent God. And God made Pharaoh to see God in Moses. My friends, that’s our job. As followers of Christ, we are to represent him. Your mission today is to show others Jesus. You, my friend, you are God’s love letter for the world to read. It’s YOU God wants to use for the person who will never read his Word otherwise. You get to bring Jesus to that table! You get to bring Jesus to that room. You get to bring Jesus to that gathering. That’s your job. 2 Corinthians 3: 2-3, Paul writes and says, “Your lives are a letter everyone can read and recognize. You are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This ‘letter’ is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. Is is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.” What Christ has done in your life is now his letter to the world. You are his example. You are the letter they will read, and you get to show them Jesus simply through the way you live. What a big job we have! And the moment you put the weight of that job on your shoulders, then it makes it about you more than about Jesus. That’s not the way to do your job. You aren’t writing the letter. Jesus is writing the letter. It’s a letter written in your heart. As you live from the heart, everyone can read and recognize the author of your story. Your entire life then points to Jesus. And THAT is what we’re here to do as his disciples. How someone interrupts the letter Jesus has written in your heart is not your problem. What a single person does with the letter of your life is none of your business. If it were, then it’s about you. This isn’t about you. This is about the work of Jesus and your willingness to let his work show in you. Much later in the book of Exodus, Moses goes up to a mountain and comes face to face with God. He spends time with God. And when Moses comes back down from the mountain, his face was radiant. The glory of God was shining in Moses face. His encounter with God on that mountain changed him. It changed his presence. He literally reflected the light of God. And this isn’t just some Old Testament miracle that doesn’t apply to us today. No, actually, the same thing happens to us now. When we spend time with God, our face then gets to shine his glory! We become the letter perfect strangers read and learn about Jesus! We become the letter our loved ones who have strayed read and experience the life-changing love of Jesus. Not because of who we are, but because of who HE is in us. Later in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul writes in verse 17-18 (MSG), “Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are trans

God has promises for you. His word is full of promises over your life. But have you read his word to know his promises? Is it important to know God’s promises for you? Absolutely. But it can’t stop there. This has to go beyond just knowing. Now, you step into believing his promises. Trusting his promises. Living absolutely dependent on his promises. Where in your life are you completely depending on the promises of God for you? You need to know God isn’t just a promise maker, he is the promise keeper. Do you know God as YOUR promise keeper? Do you know him as the one who will never fail you? If you do, he will lead you into wild, faith-filled spaces you could never reach alone. But if you don’t know God as your promise keeper, you will get stuck in your wilderness questioning his power and questioning his faithfulness. That questioning isn’t failure … but here’s what is … questioning that leads to doubt, doubt that leads to fear, and fear that leads to disobedience. And that’s exactly where it will lead you. Here’s the root of our disobedience – we question if God will really get it right. We question if God will really follow through on his promises for us personally. We doubt we’re that known and that loved by a God this big. And when we don’t know God as our promise keeper, then we don’t believe he can really get it right for us forever. Can God really get it right for you forever? Can you trust him that much? Let me tell you what that level of faith looks like – that looks like staring down the impossible and believing with God it’s still possible. That means refusing to allow your mind to be overwhelmed with discouragement when there’s every good reason to believe there’s nothing more or better for you. That means stepping in faith when you can’t fully see the step and you don’t know how your foot will land. And when that foot lands wrong, faith is willing to step again. When we left off yesterday in our study of the book of Exodus, we see Moses’ obedience was met with a stubborn Pharaoh who doubled down on his harsh treatment of God’s people as his slaves. This left the Israelites without hope and desperate. This move of God had only made things worse for them with not only more work, but harder work. It’s easy to believe and trust God when he’s making things better. Yay, Lord – you can do it! But what about when God’s plan makes things worse? What about when things get harder instead of better? Let’s be clear – that can happen and that does happen. Just because things have gotten harder for you doesn’t mean God has turned his back on you or cancelled his good plans for your future. Everything you’re experiencing right now is temporary. This hardship is temporary. This struggle is temporary. This setback is temporary. God holds an eternal good plan and you can trust he is leading you there no matter how hard this specific step may be. At this point is where God gives 7 promises. 7 statements of “I will”. Do you know if God says he will do something, all the other powers in this world combined can’t stop it even for a second. When God says he will do something, it’s as good as done. You can count on it. You can know it for sure. You can plan your entire life around it. Every one of his promises will be fulfilled. He’s not only the promise maker, he’s the promise keeper. The 7 “I will-s”, listen for them. Exodus 6: 6-8: Therefore say to the people of Israel: “I am the Lord. I WILL free you from your oppression and WILL rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I WILL redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I WILL claim you as my own people, and I WILL be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. I WILL bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I WILL give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!” Now remember the reality of the circumstances and conditions when God is declaring HE WILL do all of this. God’s people are slaves. They’ve always been slaves. For 400 years they have been nothing but slaves in Egypt. They’ve made peace with being slaves. They think as slaves, they walk as slaves, they talk as slaves, they work as slaves. It’s all they’ve ever known for generations. They don’t know how to receive a promise of freedom. They don’t know how to believe a promise of anything different. All they know is they had just gotten their hopes up for the first time ever and believed Moses was actually going to lead them to freedom and just when they were willing to follow him out, the chains got heavier. Pharaoh and their slave masters are now relentlessly brutal, punishing them for even thinking they were going t

Walking in God’s will should make life easier, right? Being on the right path should always feel good, right? Surely God’s divine will comes with guarantees, stamps of approval and fast passes, right? Nope. Not in my Bible. It’s easy to say things like, “If it’s God’s will, he will make it happen.” Okay, so what does that look like exactly? Does it mean the money will just be there? Does it mean the blessings will just pour down? Does it mean you’ll supernaturally always feel so good about it all? Let me tell you honestly, if it’s God’s will, you may have to endure massive hardship to walk in it. If it’s God’s will, you may feel stuck and still not see things change. If it’s God’s will, things may first get worse. And that’s where we’re out. If God’s way takes us through things getting worse, then we quickly decide our way is far better. We’re so quick to settle for less if God’s ‘more’ first means hardship. But what are we forfeiting when we do? Plain and simple – you’re forfeiting God’s divine will, which is always BEST. This is a hard sales pitch. But if I paint God’s way as the easiest way through every obstacle, you’ll continually wonder why things are sometimes hard on the journey of following God. You cannot determine God’s direction by feeling or conditions. Just because your boss is a difficult beast doesn’t mean you’re at the wrong job. Just because you’re going through health struggles doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. Just because your kids are on the wrong path doesn’t mean you were a horrible mother. And just because the journey is hard for you doesn’t mean you should turn around and go back to where you were. We’re so quick to put words in God’s mouth. Did God say turn around and go back? Did God say to quit? Did God say to assume the guilt? Or was that your own voice in your head? Here’s what I’ve come to learn … I simply can’t trust that voice in my head when things get hard. When I’m running, the voice in my head becomes an absolute diabolical liar. That voice starts telling me I don’t have time for this run. When that doesn’t work, that voice will then begin telling me how hard it is to breathe. But it wasn’t hard to breathe until that voice started saying that. That voice in my head will begin telling me about my knees, and then dang if I don’t start noticing every little ache and pain. That little voice can talk me out of every workout every time … if I let it. But, it’s much bigger than just running. Any time things get hard, that little voice can stop me in my tracks. And my voice has learned me so well, because it will even say things like, “It must not be God’s will because this is just so hard.” But I’ve checked that voice with the word of God and it ends up it’s simply NOT TRUE. God’s word tells me his divine will and holy plan will take me right through the threat of the sea, right through the barren wilderness, right through every reason I never wanted to go in the first place … and his plan for me through it all will be good. It may not feel good in the process, but my feelings cannot sit on the throne. God’s will was for Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and into God’s promised land. God had warned that Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he wouldn’t make it easy on the Israelites. God’s promise was to be with them through it all, but they would still have to go through it. Is that enough for you? Is God’s promise to be with you through it all enough for you to walk with him in this? Or are you still waiting on his promise to make it easy for you? That promise will never come, my friend. He will be with you, he will make a way for you, he will strengthen you, he will guide you, but there will be some ridiculously hard days along the way. And never miss those hard days are for a purpose. God is doing something in you through the struggle. Moses obeys the Lord and goes to Pharaoh and delivers the divine message. And if Moses is obedient to God, things should go good – right? Actually, no. Things are about to get worse. Exodus 5: 1, “Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.'” Verse 2, “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.” Now, things get worse because of Moses’ obedient ask. Verses 6-9 “That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foremen: “Do

Your heart is up to you. How you perceive things, how you feel about things, and what you do about those things is completely your own choice. God will not force your heart to change. Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” If your heart gets hardened or twisted, everything you do becomes tainted. A hardened heart will have you doing things you said you would never do, showing up as someone you never wanted to be. Protect that heart of yours, my sister. It’s constantly under attack. As we study the book of Exodus, we see God’s plan to set his people free from the captivity of the Egyptians. But there’s something in the way of their freedom – an Egyptian King called Pharaoh with a hardened heart. A Pharaoh considered themselves a god. They were to be worshiped. They were above everyone and everything else. They had been raised and trained to thrive on ego and pride, and destroy anything that threatened their god like status. That heart was hard with no room for care or concern for anything other than their own success, comfort, gain or praise. When it all becomes about YOU, what you can do and what you can have, you get yourself a heart issue. Check your heart now, Sis. Has it become about you? About YOU being right? About you winning? About this being easier for you? About your comfort? About your gain? About your appearance? If it has, then it’s become a heart issue. And the condition of your heart determines the course of your life. God knows your heart. He knows what has become a priority in your heart. He knows if it’s all about what you want. He knows if it’s all about how you look. He knows if your heart has become so full of ‘self’ that there’s no room for him. And get this – HE WILL ALLOW THAT! God will allow a hardened heart and the destruction it brings. He will never force your heart to change, that’s always up to you. God has called Moses to speak to Pharaoh about letting his people go. But God already knew the condition of Pharaoh’s heart, so he warns Moses. Exodus 4:21, And the Lord told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.” Can I be honest – this has always confused me. Why would God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Why would God impose this difficulty? Why would God make someone so difficult and stubborn? Ahhhhh … he didn’t. God didn’t CAUSE Pharaoh’s heart to be hard, but God ALLOWED Pharaoh’s heart to do what HE WANTED. God didn’t force a change of his heart. The Lord knew how hardened and prideful his heart had become, and he simply allowed Pharaoh to determine the course of his life from that heart. Was God ever out of control? Not for even a second. He already knew the course ahead. He knew exactly what it would take to free his people. He knew how he would use Moses. He knew how Pharaoh’s heart would respond, and he determined to display his miraculous power through it all. In 10 chapters, we read of 12 separate times Pharaoh’s heart condition caused him to create problems for everyone around him. Did you know this really is a heart condition? We’re all dealing with a heart condition. A heart that is stubborn. A heart that wants it’s own way. A heart that has gotten hurt so it’s become calloused. A heart that has built walls. A heart that has gotten twisted. A heart that is puffed up and selfish. And did you know that heart condition of yours affects everyone around you? Maybe you’ve been affected by the heart condition of someone around you. When someone you love gets a hardened heart, gosh they can hurt you. When someone you love gets a twisted heart, they can create massive messes and you end up right in the middle of that mess. You can see how their heart condition created problems for you – but recognize your heart can do the same thing to others. Pharaoh’s hard heart created a disaster for his own people. They were attacked by 10 plagues. Each plague worse than the one before. And after each plague, Pharaoh would beg for relief, and relief would come. But the moment relief came, his heart went right back to being hardened again. Gosh, is that us? Our hardened, stubborn heart meets hardship, so we crack a bit. We let God in. We seek his help. We surrender to him. But the moment our circumstances get better, we go right back to our old ways. Yip – that’s us! That’s a heart issue, my friend. One of the plagues was an infestation of frogs. Frogs were absolutely everywhere in Egypt – everywhere but where God’s people were. Pharaoh’s palace was overrun by frogs. Pharaoh begs Moses to plead with the Lord to take away the frogs, and if he does, he will let the Israelites go. S

Does God ever get frustrated with us? Is there ever a point where our loving heavenly Father gets angry with his girls? Yes – but it’s likely not over the things you’ve been worried about. We screw things up. We fail to get it right. We struggle. We fall short. These are the things we worry about within ourselves, so we continually dismiss ourselves. And let’s be clear – that’s not what God is upset over. Girl, he knows you struggle – he created you to need him. He knows you fail – he forgave you before the first misstep. You can get over all of that, because God certainly has. So, what is God upset over? When does he look at you with anger? It’s not when you’re unable – it’s when you’re UNWILLING. The unwilling mind that continually makes excuses reveals the unwilling heart that simply DOESN’T WANT TO. You don’t want to be the one God chooses. You don’t want to be the one he sends. You don’t want to be the one called to do that work. And really you don’t want to be available because you don’t want to change. You don’t want to be uncomfortable. This is where God grows angry with Moses. Moses didn’t want to be the one because he didn’t want to leave his comfortable life. He preferred to stay exactly where he had been hiding for 40 years. Why? Because there he was safe. No one hated him. No one was hunting him. His days were predictable and controllable. I wake up and I do the same things every day and I go to bed every night in the same way. Moses had a sense of control over his simple life with his family and the sheep. He was unwilling to give up his comforts, but ultimately he was really unwilling to give up control. Is that you? You don’t want to be uncomfortable. And you certainly don’t want to be UNcertain. You need a sense of control, of knowing what’s going to happen and how it’s all going to work out. So any hint of discomfort, you just dismiss yourself. Any uncertain loose ends you’ve tied into knots that hold you steady (and stuck). You’re driven by a desire to control it all far more than a desire to follow God in it. Ugly truths we don’t talk about. It’s easy to paint it pretty and declare we’re being faithful where we are with humility and perseverance … but sometimes when you chip through that paint you find an unwilling spirit to do anything different. And THAT is what frustrates God. This is what gets him angry with his girls. Maybe you’re not unable, you’re really unwilling. The Lord tells Moses to return to Egypt and lead his people to freedom. He’s promised to be with him. He’s promised his hand of victory over them. He’s even shown him 2 very clear miracles to give him confidence in God’s personal power over this mission. And here’s what happens next – Exodus 4:10, “But Moses pleaded with the Lord, ‘O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I have never been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.'” Moses had an insecurity. Ultimately he didn’t think he had anything good enough to say to the Israelietes to convince them to leave, or to the Egyptians to convince them to let his people go. So he points out his inadequacy to God. God didn’t get mad about it. He understood Moses’ fear. He understood that he felt inadequate for such a huge job. And here’s God’s response to Moses, verses 11-12, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.” How awesome is that? God reassures Moses. Moses, I made you exactly as I wanted you. If you can’t do something it’s because I wanted to do something different through you. Remember what God says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My power works best in weakness.” God knows how he created Moses, and he knows if there’s a problem with his ability to speak – that’s just room for God to speak! That’s a person who is not self-sufficient so they can be God-sufficient! God isn’t angry with Moses for not being self-sufficient. He’s reminding him he won’t have to do the speaking by himself – God will do it through him. Girl, I don’t know what you’ve been saying you aren’t good enough to do – but maybe you need to be reminded right now that God’s power works best in your weakness. The exact areas where you’ve struggled and where you’ve failed can now be the perfect space to display God’s power. Here’s the thing – I really don’t need to be impressed by all you can do. That doesn’t help me at all. In

Fear cripples us and keeps us stuck. Fear has our mind thinking thoughts we have absolutely no business thinking. Fear has us playing little, assuming the worst, and dismissing ourselves from the wild, faith-filled spaces God is calling us to. Do you want to taste the fullness of life God really has available for you? You must overcome the fear that has held you back. Do you want to experience God’s power unleashed in your life, leading and guiding your every step? You must break free of the fear that has sold you on less. There’s more in you. There’s more for you. You’re capable of more. You’re created for more. But fear will always steal your ‘more’ and trade you for far less. You must decide if you’re going to stand by and allow that to continue in your life. Fear shows up everyday as your worry-filled thoughts. Worry is the nasty little off-spring of fear. And here’s what that looks like in real life: The average person on an average day has about 40,000 thoughts. 80% of those thoughts are negative, fear based, worry filled thoughts. And of those 32,000 worries, 85% of them never actually happen! 27,200 absolute wasted thoughts on negative things that never even happen – ON A DAILY BASIS. We are on a perpetual loop of worrying about things that don’t matter and, get this, probably won’t even happen! All while there is so much MORE in us and for us. What a waste of the MORE we are capable of and created for. God’s looking for a few girls who will decide to grab those fears by the tail, stare them down and realize they have NO POWER over you. You see, until you do, you run around afraid of things you could have conquered a long time ago. Until you dare to overcome those fears, those fears overcome you, then what are you missing? What life does God have available for you if you would get out of the negative, worry filled loop, and replace it with big faith in action? Oh girl, he would lead you to some wild, faith-filled spaces you could never reach alone and you would discover how much MORE there always was for you. Moses had spent 40 years living in fear. Back in Egypt he witnessed the Egyptian slave master abusing one of his own people, and in anger Moses killed the Egyptian. When the King found out, he came after Moses. Moses fled hundreds of miles away to the region of Midian. There in Midian, he chose to forget the palace he came from, and opted for a life of hiding as a shepherd in the fields. He lived a quiet, simple life – but all that time there was so much more in Moses. I wonder what MORE is in you, but you’ve been running from it. You’re afraid of what comforts you might have to leave, what sacrifice might be required of you, and what failure you could face, so you’ve stayed right where you are. You don’t dare answer the call for more. You don’t dare pursue a deeper passion within you. No, you just stay right where you are and dismiss everything else. Hmmmmm … seems to me there’s more in you, my sister. And it seems to me God might be calling you out. Here’s the truth: God doesn’t need one more of his girls to play little, go with the flow, fit in and do what everyone else is doing. No. God wants some of his girls to refuse those negative, fear based, worry filled thoughts and take them captive, just as his word tells us to do. 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Your thoughts aren’t going to just change, you will have to MAKE THEM! No, worry, I will not allow you to flood my mind today. No, negativity, you don’t get a seat at my table. No, fear, you’re not welcome in my home. Now, what will you think about instead? What will flood your mind? What will get a seat at your table? What is welcome in your home? You get to decide that. If 85% of the things we worry about never even happen, then how about we stop worrying about them. How about we start focusing on the good things that can happen? How about we start dwelling on the promises of God we hold? How about we start seeking the good plans of God unfolding here for us and intentionally start stepping smack dab in the middle of them with an open heart, open mind and open hands. Yes, Lord – I’m ready for what you have for me. Fear will not hold me back here! So here’s Moses, hiding in fear for 40 years in Midian. Reliving his mistakes and failures, knowing he can never return to his home in Egypt because of what he’s done. And this is when God shows up! God acknowledges that Moses alone cannot rescue his people from Egypt, that this is a job for God’s own mighty hand. God promises Moses that he will raise his hand and strike the Egyptians. That his hand will cause the Egyptians to even look favorably on him and the Israelites and they will walk right out of Egypt, free. Not only free, but carrying the wea

There are some things you can work your way through. There are some things you can talk your way out of. And then there are some things that no matter what you do, it simply will never be good enough. You do not have the power to change this. You do not have the strategy to fix this. And maybe you’re facing one of those situations right now. There’s nothing you can do to change the trajectory of where this is going. It’s going and you can’t stop it. That can truly leave a person feeling hopeless. Like you’re in the middle of a whirlpool and regardless of what you do, you’re getting sucked in and going down with this. For the hopeless soul listening right now who has watched every hope they were holding on to go down the drain, may I remind you that Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace as you TRUST in him, so that you may overflow with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The God we love, the God we serve, the God we are here to hear from today, is the God of HOPE. He holds hope. He reigns over all hope. Our God is a hope dealer! Overflowing hope fills us when we trust in him. My friend, this situation may feel hopeless, but the God of HOPE is here to fill you with hope again. Hope that while you can’t change this, GOD CAN. And let me tell you HOW God can change it: With his hand! As God is giving Moses instructions on leading his people out of slavery in Egypt and into their promised land, God knows it’s truly a hopeless situation. Hopeless without God’s hand. There’s no way the Egyptians are going to allow their 2-3 million slaves of free labor to walk right out of captivity. There’s no way the Egyptian Pharaoh is going to just hand over the Israelites that have slaved away for 400 years. There’s absolutely nothing Moses could say to convince Pharaoh to let them go. There’s no war they could wage against their captors that would set them free. It was impossible. Impossible without God’s hand. But with God’s hand, it was already done! God says to Moses in Exodus 3: 19-22, “I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand forces him. So I WILL RAISE MY HAND and strike the Egyptians, performing all kinds of miracles among them. Then at last he will let you go. And I WILL CAUSE the Egyptians to look favorably on you. They will give you gifts when you go so you will not leave empty-handed. Every Israelite woman will ask for articles of silver and gold and fine clothing from her Egyptian neighbors and from the foreign women in their houses. You will dress your sons and daughters with these, stripping the Egyptians of their wealth.” God’s hand would do the impossible here. God’s hand would turn this situation around. Again, a situation that had been absolutely as bad as it could possibly be for 400 years. At this time, the Israelites had never known anything but slavery. Their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers were slaves here. It’s who they were and what they did. It was their lot in life. Nothing had ever been different for them, so why would they even dream of something different now? I bet there’s something that’s been passed down to you that’s always been. You don’t even know to dream of something different because it’s never even crossed your mind that there might be more for someone like you. BUT THERE IS. There is more. It doesn’t matter if the thing you’re facing is the thing that the past 10 generations in your family has faced, it can change here. It doesn’t matter if you’ve always been the one to screw it up, that can change here. How will it change? The hand of God! The hand of God will cause impossible things to become possible. The hand of God will change minds, cancel agreements with evil, and set prisoners free. The hand of God will break chains, terminate assignments of Hell, and cause the demons to flee. The hand of God will open doors, part seas, and make a way through the wilderness. Only the hand of God. Only the hand of God over this will change it, and the hand of God is all you need to change it. How do you get the hand of God on you? Is there a criteria for being good enough? Is there a list of things you have to do, give up and change before God’s hand is over your life? That’s certainly what I used to think. I was so caught up in a performance mindset, always trying to earn God’s approval and applause, just hoping everyone else would like me too. God totally wasn’t impressed with me either. I struggled to live in grace because I was performing to earn what is only given to the undeserving, and I had to be humbled to understand I was undeserving no matter what I did. Ezra 7:9-10 says Ezra “had the gracious hand of God on him.” (Then it tells us WHY.). “This was becau

Within your breath, God has given you a divine gift. A gift that taps into the greatest of powers and deepest wisdom. Yes, right here in your breath. From the moment you were born, you’ve been doing it, without even being aware. Right now, it is happening. And today, God says, “My girl, I want you to now know what you’ve been doing your entire life and start doing it with intention.” At this moment, take a deep breath in. Now, slowly let that breath out through your mouth. Do it again, notice the sound of your inhale and your exhale. This sound is not an accident, it is divine. This sound is the call of God’s name. Do it again and listen. Breathe in. Breath out. This is God’s name. With each breath, you’re calling to your Creator. Your inhale makes the sound of YH. Your exhales makes the sound of WH. Together, inhale and exhale, we speak YHWH, the original Hebrew name God revealed of himself to Moses. Your Bible likely adds a few vowels to make a word we can pronounce, Yahew, but God’s intentions were for us to continually breathe his name. Open your Bibles, let’s check this out! Moses had an encounter with God in Exodus 3. God appears in a burning bush and calls out, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. Then God proceeds to tell Moses he is aware of his people’s sufferings and he has come down to rescue them. God says to Moses, “Now go, for I am sending you.” But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to do this?” God answered, “I will be with you.” But Moses protested again, “The people will ask me who sent me.” So, God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people: YHWH has sent me to you.” What a bold move for Moses to ask God for his name. He feels so unqualified for this mission. So lacking. The imposter syndrome must have been screaming within him. “Moses, can’t rescue anyone. The last time you tried to help your people, you ended up killing someone. Now you’re running and hiding. There’s no way God is calling you.” But God says two things to Moses that give him the confidence he needs to step into his purpose. 1. Exodus 3: 14, “I Am Who I Am.” (we studied this yesterday) This means God has no equal. If you put God on one side of the equation, there’s absolutely nothing that can be equal to Him on the other side. God equals Only God. It has been said that our God is the “becoming one.” I never understood that until I took God being the “I Am” literally. God becomes whatever is lacking in our time of need. When we say we are too weak, God says I AM your strength. When we say we are stuck, God says I AM your way out. When we say we are hurting, God says I AM your healer. When we say we are in need, God says I AM your provider. God is mysteriously and miraculously always able to become everything you need. He is continually BECOMING your I AM. Moses felt completely unqualified, but God is telling him, “I AM QUALIFIED! I have everything you will need. I have the strength. I have the plan. I have the provisions. I have made the way. Trust me, I Am.” What do you need today? Can you lean in and hear God as he whispers to your soul, “I AM.” It’s who God is. It’s what he does. It’s his name. 2. Exodus 3:15 (NLT), God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has sent me to you.” This is the name Moses’ ancestors have called him by. This wasn’t new. This was the God he has heard about his entire life. He is YHWH. Moses’ mother’s name was Jochebed which literally meant “YHWH is glory.” And now God is showing Moses, with every breath he takes, he is calling out to God. Inhale, YH. Exhale, WH. Without vowels, only the consonants of YH and WH, it’s a name we breath. We are literally created to breathe the name of our creator. YHWH represents breathing sounds. When pronounced without vowels, it sounds like breathing. A baby’s first breath speaks the name of God. YHWH. God hears, God draws near, God responds. And think about this, what about when tragedy strikes. You know, when life hits you so hard you can do nothing but moan and gasp for air. The harder you try to catch your breath, the louder you speak the name of God. Inhale, YH. Exhale, WH. Within the past few years, I’ve received phone calls from two of my best friends after each of them unexpectedly lost their husbands. They couldn’t speak. I only heard these deep, moans and gasps. They cried out in pain. I didn’t understand it then, but I do now, they were calling on the name of God. And God met them there in the worst moments of their lives and he has carried them through.

Right now, if you’re taking notes, write God, and an equals sign. God (=). What does God equal? What equals God? One cup plus one cup equals two cups. They are the same. One is no greater than the other. So what equals God? Could you put holy on the other side of that equation? God = Holy? God is holy – yes, but holy does not equal God. God is so much more. How about power? God = Power? God is power – yes, but power does not equal God. God so much more. Oh but the greatest is love, right? God = Love? God is love – yes, but love does not equal God. God is so much more. There’s only one thing that can hold it’s weight on the other side of this equation. God = God. There is simply no one and no thing that can equal God, but God. There are no words to properly describe him. No number to measure him. No description fully fitting of him. God is God, the highest, the greatest, the most powerful, the never-ending, always was and always is. And our human minds struggle to comprehend that. We need a beginning. We need a measure. Because we only think in limits. But God is limitless! When God spoke to Moses in the burning bush and called him to lead his people out of captivity in Egypt, he tells Moses to tell the people he was sent by “I AM”. Well what does that mean? Exodus 3: 13-14, “But Moses protested, ‘If I go to the people of Israel and tell the, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name? Then what should I tell them?’ God replied to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” In these days, anytime someone had personally heard from God, they came back with a name for God. When Rahab was thrown out into the desert and miraculously provided for by God when no one else cared about her, she calls God El Roi, the God Who Sees Me. When Abraham is about to sacrifice his son on the mountain, and God sends a ram for the sacrifice in his place, Abraham calls God Jehovah Jireh, the LORD Will Provide. When Gideon encounters an angel, he calls God Yahweh Shalom – The Lord Is Peace. So understand what Moses is asking God here – He is asking God what he should call him after this encounter. He’s being sent on a mission, but what will your name be on this mission, God? God answers, “I AM WHO I AM. You tell the people, I AM has sent me to you.” What could that possibly mean? Well, quite simply, it means EVERYTHING. You need to understand who your God is in your current situation, your current problem, and your current need. How will he show up for you? What will he do for you? How can you count on him? Answer – In every way, in every thing, for all things. God will show up for you in every way in this. He will do every thing he needs to do for you here. You can count on him for all things, there is absolutely NO FAIL in God because there is no equal to God. Nothing is bigger. Nothing is greater. Nothing is too hard. Nothing is too far gone. I once heard it put like this, “God is the becoming one.” What does that mean? That means God becomes whatever is lacking in our time of need. The name, “I AM” invites us to fill in the blank to meet our need. I need strength right now. God says, “I AM strength.” I really need provisions right now. God says, “I AM provisions.” I just need peace here. God says, “I AM peace.” I just need to know they way through this. God says, “I AM the way through this.” I need answers. God says, “I AM the answer.” I need healing. God says, “I AM healing.” I need help. God says, “I AM your help.” My friend, whatever it is you need today, GOD IS your answer. He becomes whatever is lacking in your time of need. There’s absolutely nothing he can’t do, no need he can’t meet, no emptiness he can’t fill. So, this is God’s invitation to you. What do you need today? Really, what is it? Big or small, just say it. Yes – for real. Speak it right now. Acknowledge that need. Big or small. Nothing is dismissed here. What do you need? Now, here God say to you, “I AM”. I am your answer. I am your strength. I am your peace. I am your way. I am your healing. I am your help. I AM. Moses’ question to God is what name should I give you for this specific impossible situation, Lord? Your people have been stuck in slavery for 400 years. We are beat down and broken. We have no way out. The Egyptians aren’t going to just let us walk away. This won’t just get better. What specific name can I use here for you, God? God, what will you equal here for us? God’s answer? God = God. I will equal everything for you. I will meet your every need. I will guide your every step. I will make the impossible possible. I will become everything that is needed every moment o

How many of you know God doesn’t work within our limits. He doesn’t see things the way we see things. God simply does not fit in our box. EVER. You likely have an unspoken box of how and when God can use you. He can use you when you are successful. He can use you when you are liked. He can use you when you look good. Those are boxes. Your boxes, but not God’s. The truth is, God can use you when you are struggling. God can use you when you are the least likely and the least liked. God can use you when you look rough, sister. In fact, sometimes I’ve found when there’s less of what I would desire, there’s a whole lot more space for Jesus. Stop limiting when and how God can work. If you’re down right now, let me remind you, God works in the pits. If you’re stuck right now, you need to know God sees exactly where you are and he knows the way out of this. And the beautiful thing is, God doesn’t need to wait until he gets you all fixed up again to use you for his good purposes – he wants to use you exactly where you are. Moses was the Israelite baby threatened by the King of Egypt to be drown in the river. His mother placed him in a basket and sent him floating down the river, trusting God to save him. Down the river, the king’s daughter found baby Moses and rescued him. Then, as only God could do, he arranged for the baby’s mother to be paid to raise him while he was little, then he would go with the king’s daughter to the palace to be raised in royalty. Moses received the best of both worlds – he learned about faith in God from his Israelite mother, and he learned how to lead in the palace from his royal adopted family. This was God setting him apart for divine purposes. But one day, something terrible happens and in Moses’ eyes, it would be the end of his good life. He sees an Egyptian beating one of the Israelite slaves. Moses knew that while he was dressed like an Egyptian, he was one of the Israelites. So he defends his people and kills the Egyptian, then hides his body in the sand. This began a series of running and hiding for Moses. The King, essentially his adopted grandfather, is trying to kill him. He can never go back home to the palace. So he ends up in the region of Midian where he’s a nobody, working for a farmer. Surely Moses thought he had ruined his life. Surely he thought God could never use him now. And just when Moses thought he couldn’t be used by God, he was perfectly aligned! This low place is precisely where God could best use him. Not in his palace, not with his riches, not with his great successes and power. No, instead with his humility as a mere worker in the fields where he was a nobody – that is where God could best use him. Now that he’s out of the palace, God would empower him to deliver his people. The place that looked like rock bottom where Moses is stuck hiding, is the place of the firm foundation where God would rebuild him into the leader for an entire nation to find freedom. God wasn’t finished with Moses just because he had failed. God wasn’t finished with Moses just because he was in a hard place. God was just getting started. My friend, God isn’t finished with you just because you failed. He’s not finished with you while you’re in this hard place. Nope – he’s just getting started. What’s actually happening here is a divine stripping of self so you can return with holy power! Less of you – more of Jesus! Just when you think you’re out, God say’s you’re in. Just when it feels too late, God says it’s his time. And remember, when God says it’s time, it’s the right time, then it’s quick time! Now, it was quick time for Moses. But understand, Moses is not young at this point. It’s easy to read this story in Exodus chapter 2 and assume that Moses is some young man with a youthful spirit and his whole life ahead of him. No, actually, at this point, Moses is 80 years old! He was 40 years old when he killed the Egyptian and ran from the palace, and now he’s spent 40 more years hiding in Midian as a nobody working in the fields. And this is when God chose to call Moses. At 80. Purpose at 80. Calling at 80. Change at 80. And what – you’ve been using the excuse of it’s too late for you?!!! Exodus 3, God appears to Moses in a burning bush and says, “Moses, Moses!” He replies, “Here I am.” Then the Lord says, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. NOW GO, FOR I AM SENDING YOU to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.” To this 80 year old

The enemy will always try to stop God’s plan. His forces of evil will always try to interrupt God’s goodness. Hell will always come against Heaven’s objective. However, Hell never wins. Evil will be overcome by good. The enemy is forever defeated by God. Hell may look like it wins a few rounds, but the war has already been won by the Lord. God is not cornered. He’s not stuck. He’s not worried, stressed or overwhelmed. He forever holds victory in his right hand. Maybe what you’re experiencing right now looks like a win for the enemy, but his defeat is guaranteed. God will turn this around, and he will turn it around BIG TIME! That’s what you really need to know, my friend. God will turn this around. The things that are against you right now will not always be against you. The things that have overwhelmed you can be under you as you rise up in the power offered to you through Jesus. The tide will turn and what’s been going out will start coming in. Prodigals come home. Walls come down. Chains are broken. Seas are parted. The mouths of lions are sealed. Blind eyes are opened. Dead bones shake. In our study of Exodus, we last left off with the Israelites as slaves in Egypt, and while under affliction, they grew. The harder things became, the more they grew in number and in strength. We see that no amount of affliction can defeat God’s purposes. We also see that fear causes us to make terrible decisions and become someone we were never created to be. The new King of Egypt was so fearful of the growing presence of his enslaved Israelites that he did unspeakable things to control them. His fear became a tool for the enemy to use. Did you know Satan works in your fear? Your fear is a open door that allows the enemy access to your heart and mind. In fear, you make horrible choices. In fear, you say horrible things. In fear, you not only miss God’s plan, but you partner with the enemy’s. In fear, the King of Egypt partnered with Satan’s plan to wipe out the Israelite population. Here’s what Satan knew – he knew the Messiah would come from the children of Israel, so he wanted to destroy them. All he needed was a fear driven soul to give him an open door to work. The fear driven soul of the King gave the enemy an opportunity to kill God’s deliverer before he was ever born. BUT THE PLANS OF THE ENEMY NEVER WIN AGAINST GOD. He may try. He may win a few rounds. But the war has already been won through Jesus. Satan tried to stop that, but he was not successful. The fear-driven demands of the King bring about the order in Exodus 1:22, “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.” Imagine being a pregnant woman at this time. Imagine having a newborn baby boy. Imagine knowing they’re coming to take your baby and throw him in the river to drown him. When you’re facing evil like that, what do you do? You trust God! You trust God to do what only God can do, as you do everything you can do. Exodus 2 tells us of a couple that got married and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She hid him for 3 months. But, as we know, 3 month olds aren’t exactly quiet, so they could no longer hide him. In complete trust of God, the mother places the baby boy in a basket and floats him down the river. A river filled with crocodiles! And here we see God align the most beautiful unfolding of providential provision for the mom who trusted him. The King’s daughter is downstream bathing in the river and she sees the baby floating in a basket. She rescues the baby. Then, get this – in the way only God can – it all turns around! The Princess comes to the baby’s mother and says, “Take this baby and nurse him for me.” The princess told the baby’s mother, “I will pay you for your help.” So the woman took her baby home and nursed him. She was then PAID to lovingly take care of the baby she had to give up. That’s what God can do in impossible situations. He can turn it all around. This is not too far gone for God to work. This is not hopeless in the hands of the Lord. He can work here. He can turn all things around and use them for good! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

No amount of problems can stop God’s plan for you. Nothing can cancel God’s purposes. God’s will WILL fight through every adversity, through every affliction, through every trouble and prosper on the other side. Every time. Guaranteed. God is undefeated. Victory is forever in his right hand. But, as God’s people, we will go through our fair share of problems. We will face adversity. We will endure affliction. Trouble will come our way. We live in the real world and there are no faith bubbles to protect us from real life. HOWEVER – we are promised in Romans 8:28, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose for them.” That means God works in every detail of our lives into something good. It may not be good in the beginning, but it will be worked into something good. Just like baking powder in a cake, you don’t want a teaspoon of that in your mouth, but it’s a detail worked together for good in your cake. Maybe what you’re facing right now is a teaspoon of baking powder. Singled out, this situation is unpleasant and undesirable. But nothing in your life is a stand alone event – ever. All things are working together. One thing always leads to the next thing. Some things just don’t feel good in the unfolding, but you haven’t seen the full picture yet. You know who has seen the full picture? God. God says in Isaiah 46:10, “Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.” God has a plan, we’re promised it’s a good plan, and it absolutely WILL happen. God already knows it, sees it, holds it, and is making a way to it. After finishing our study of the book of Genesis last week, we see the unfolding of tremendous affliction for God’s people in the next book, Exodus. Remember Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery and ends up in Egypt. 22 years later, Joseph has risen to the 2nd in command of Egypt and controls the only food in the country during a famine. Joseph’s brothers come to him from Israel, begging for food. He graciously saves them and their families. This is how the Israelites move to Egypt. They’re starving and Egypt has the only food during the famine. Now, several generations later, the Israelites are still in Egypt and they have greatly flourished. They’ve been prosperous, multiplying, spreading out, and gaining power. And now, generations later, there’s a new king in Egypt, and this King sees a great problem with these successful Israelites in his land. They have done so well, they could take over his land if they wanted to. The King is afraid, so the oppression begins. Fear makes us do stupid things. Fear turns us into people we don’t want to be. This King was afraid, so he began to do horrible things. I promise you this – fear could drive you to do the same. Fear will have you twisting truth, creating sides, and stirring fights. Fear will bring out the ugliest side of you. My sister, where has fear been growing within you, causing you to act in ways you hate? Fear turned the mighty and blessed King Saul into a crazy man on the warpath. Fear can do the same to you. When my daughters were teens, I allowed my own fear to cause me to parent in a way I’m not proud of. My mind became filled with fearful thoughts and I went into overdrive trying to control everything and everyone. Rather than leading from love, I lead from fear. It wasn’t the best me. Can you see how fear has caused you to do some stupid things? Can you see how fear is turning you into someone you don’t want to be? Bring that fear to God now and ask him to lift it from you. It is not God’s will for you to operate out of fear. His word tells us hundreds of times to NOT FEAR – why is that? Because fear changes who we are and what we do, and it’s never good. The new King of Egypt was filled with fear, so he became an evil man with evil orders. Don’t ever assume unchecked fear couldn’t do the same to you. You were never created to be fear driven – you were designed to be faith driven. Anywhere you have fear, there is an invitation for faith. Faith that God is good. Faith that God is for you. Faith that God holds it all. Faith that God is working. The new King says in Exodus 1:9-11, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are strong than we are. We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor.” Was that fair? Absolutely not! But did it cancel God’s good plans? No – In fact, it furthered them! As the people of Israel face horrible conditions and unfair treatment, they continue to grow. The more the Egyptians oppressed them, the

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” This is one of the most memorized and quoted scriptures. Empowering, motivating, reassuring … yes … and it’s a call to action. Notice it doesn’t say, “I can do all things through Christ who does it for me.” Unfortunately, many times we view God as a genie in a lamp. God was never supposed to do your work for you. Think about Noah. God told him to build an ark, a huge boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet tall. If the ark were a house, it would have been over 100,000 square feet. Translation … it was big. Really big. There was a flood coming and his ark would be the only way of survival for man and animals. Now God being God, couldn’t he have just built the ark himself? But that’s not the way God works now is it? God told Noah to build the ark and Noah worked for nearly 100 years to build what God could have done in an instant. That almost doesn’t seem fair now doesn’t it? There are likely areas in your life where you wish God would show up and just do the work for you. But God called you to BUILD A LIFE and that requires work. Will you work for it? Let’s break this scripture down so we will never hear it the same. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. “I.” Who does it say? “I.” This is personal. You should be owning it. Insert your name into this scripture. Pamela can do all things through Christ who gives her strength. Yes, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. “I can.” Not “maybe, sorta, it might happen or it might not”, no! I can. Say that with me. I CAN. Sometimes we just need to remember we are more capable than we ever give ourselves credit for. We have all the potential within us. We are fully equipped by our maker. Listen to me right now … you are not broken. You are not incapable. You are not helpless or hopeless. You were made for more. You are capable of more. You are worthy of more. And you CAN. Now the third word “do.” “I can do.” Does that mean think about, contemplate, sit around and rationalize, talk about and plan for? No. “I can do.” This is a call to action. I can do. Your life requires action and you CAN DO IT. I know you can. You can rise up and make the changes you desire. You can radically change your life. What has the first month of this year of life been for you? I’m not asking what has happened to you, I’m asking what you’ve done with it. Have you done what you can do? Have you taken action? Have you stepped out in faith? Or have you chosen to just remain where you are and think about what could happen? Have you been wishing for change but never doing anything about it? Let me shoot it to you straight … that’s never going to work! You can do it and you must do it. It’s time to go, do, show up, move forward, step ahead, now. Today. Be in action. Why are you sitting on those dreams and desires? God’s Holy Spirit moves and prompts us from within, but it’s up to you do to something about it. You can do ALL THINGS. Did you hear that? How many things can you do? Can you only do SOME things? Are there some things that will just be too hard? Are there some things that will be impossible for you? Nope, that’s a lie the enemy has sold you. YOU CAN DO ALL THINGS, and that includes “this” thing that you need to do today. The thing you’ve been avoiding – the thing you’ve been dreading – the thing you’ve tried before and failed – you can do it. The enemy wants you to believe you can’t. He wants to remind you of your past epic failures. He wants you to dwell on your weakness and shortcomings. DON’T LISTEN TO HIS NONSENSE TODAY. God says you can do all things, believe it! How? THROUGH CHRIST. I can do all things through Christ, and that means this is a partnership. When you live your life as a partnership between you and God, you realize he does his part and you do your part. He goes before you to make a way, he walks beside you to guide you, and he walks behind you to cover your back. Through Christ you can do all things today. With this partnership you are able. With him before you, beside you, and behind you, nothing will be impossible! Nothing can come between you and your destiny. Nothing can stand in your way. When God is for you, who can be against you? And just in case you forgot, yes my sister, GOD IS FOR YOU! And now the grand finale “I can do all things through Christ who GIVES ME STRENGTH.” And this is where it gets real and it gets personal. Why didn’t the scripture just end after “I can do all thing through Christ.” I like the idea of that. But this is the part we sometimes miss. It WON’T BE EASY. It was never supposed to be easy. You’re going to need strength, strength you didn’t even know you had. You don’t even know how strong you are until you have to be strong. That’s the kind of strength God is talking about here. Strength li

God will do what he intends to do. Nothing can stand in his way. Nothing can stop him. The question is, will you accept his open invitation to be part of what he’s doing, or will you miss out? The phone is ringing. This is your opportunity to be in partnership with the Almighty. To to be divinely led by the Spirit, and walk in purpose,. To step into the good plans God has always had for you and be part of something greater than you ever imagined. The phone is ringing. With this invitation is your option of choice. Will you say yes … or will you keep believing you’re not good enough? Will you dismiss the potential God has placed within you … or will you dare to believe God wants to use you for more? Will you dwell on your long list of shortcomings and failures … or will you dare to accept what your Creator has spoken over you? Just how much of God’s plan for your life do you need to see in advance before you’re willing to trust it? How certain do you have to be of the future before you leave the shores of today? Understand, your tight grip on certainty and comfort potentially forfeits you ever holding what was truly meant for you. Those hands have to be open, sister. Open to the unknown with the All-Knowing. In Isaiah chapter 6, God is looking for one who will partner with him in a mission. One who is courageous enough to believe maybe they could be used by the Creator of the Universe for something more. The Lord said in verse 8, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” The phone was ringing. And here’s this young man, Isaiah, at about 18 years old who immediately answers, “Here I am. Send me.” Send me where? Oh, well I don’t know exactly. To do what? Yeahhhhh about that, I’m not sure. For what purpose? Uhhhh, well that’s unclear, but I’m all in. I’m here, I’m available, send me. Isaiah was signing a blank check to the Lord, declaring a universal YES to God’s plan for his life. He didn’t know where God wanted him to go, but he agreed to go anyway. He didn’t know how God would use him, but he believed God could do anything he wanted to do and he simply wanted to be part of that. So, he did the only thing that needs to be done, he declared himself AVAILABLE. The phone was ringing. Isaiah simply answered – “Umhhhh, hello? Yes, I’m available!” Although Isaiah sounds confident with his bold response to God of “Here I am. Send me!”, the truth is, he felt extremely inadequate. Just 3 verses earlier Isaiah says “It’s all over! I am doomed!” He felt unworthy. He saw himself as inadequate. But he was called. The phone was ringing. All Isaiah had to do was answer. “Yeah, hello God? Here I am. Sure, I’m available.” Unworthy and inadequate do not seem to go together to create called, but they do. This is God’s math, and in God’s math that’s the perfect combination of purpose. Unworthy + Inadequate = Called. It doesn’t matter how unworthy you believe you are. It doesn’t matter how inadequate you have felt before. All that matters is answering the call. The phone is ringing! I understand that feeling of smallness. I struggle daily with the voices that tell me I can’t possibly do great things. That old Imposter Syndrome kicks in and tells me this is all a facade and soon it will come crashing down. And when you know something will come crashing down, you prepare. How do you prepare? You hold back. You stop the investment. You withdraw. You search for signs that it was all too good to be true and you find the cracks. The cracks in you. The weaknesses and faults you tried to hide, but they’re there. Staring at these cracks, you see the potential for the crumble and you run. You run from what you could be doing because ultimately you feel too inadequate to keep doing it. Trust me, God sees those cracks. He knows every weakness and fault within you. He knows your potential to royally screw this thing up, and he still believes in your potential to get it right. And he calls that potential out. He’s calling. My sister, you are called! Your struggle with feeling unworthy and inadequate do not trump this calling. You’re not dismissed from God’s power. The call is here and it’s here for you. Girl, it’s time to answer the dang call. I’m here. I’m right here. I’m ready. Ready for what? Well, that’s not for you to know right now. Right now, you sign the blank check to God and speak a universal yes to God’s good plans for you. All he needs to know is that you’re available. What can God do with a life like yours fully surrendered in availability? Oh girl, what could he not do?!!!! In response to Isaiah’s availability, God spoke through him and gave him words we still read today, nearly 3,000 years later. As if th

You’re facing a situation you think is terrible, but sister, what if it’s not really what you think. You’re stepping into this assuming one thing, but what if God wants to reveal to you another. God is asking you to stop fighting this and trust him here. Trust this isn’t what you’ve built it up to be in your head. Trust it’s more than it appears on the surface. Trust that maybe this is FOR you, not against you. What if life isn’t happening to you, but it’s happening FOR you. What if God really is in the details and the very thing you’re resisting is God’s good plans for you unfolding in mysterious and unexpected ways. 10 years ago I pulled off an epic stunt at a retreat. I still love to talk about the epicness of this hilarious switch-aroo today. In 2015, I hosted a ranch retreat in Texas with over 100 women. There, I partnered up the participants into pairs for retreat “imitations”. The moment I said initiations, each mind began painting their own picture of the challenge that was about to happen. But, what if the picture they were painting in their own mind was wrong -what if this really wasn’t hard at all. What if their negative assumptions were responsible for everything they were about to feel? On a tray I had a clear glass fishbowl full of goldfish. Not crackers, real fish. They could see them swimming and they watched me reach my hand into the water, grab the fish one by one and put each one into a red solo cup. Exactly enough cups for each partnered pair, each with a live fish. Then I announced one person would be the feeder and the other would be the eater. Choose their positions now and blindfold each other. As the blindfold was put on their eyes, they could still see me scooping out the fish into the cups to be distributed. As you can imagine, they are panicking. They are questioning my choices as a leader. They are wanting to escape the situation, but here they are on a stage, preparing to be the person to either feed someone a live goldfish, or worse, be on the receiving end of the transaction. After they are securely blindfolded, I reveal a hidden can of peaches in heavy syrup. Peaches perfectly cut to the size of a goldfish, as well as perfectly slimy in their syrup, just as you would imagine a slimy fish. The cups are switched and the peaches are distributed in place of the real fish. What follows is complete pandemonium. Grown women are squealing and squirming reaching into a cup they cannot see, to grab a live goldfish … or so they thought. All while the other blindfolded part of the duo is shivering with her mouth open, awaiting the fish. I’m screaming over a microphone, “Don’t chew, eat it whole. You’ll be fine. This is completely safe! They’re organic!!!” There’s such chaos and panic during the exchange, no one ever stops to realize, wait … this isn’t what I think it is. The feeder is convinced the fish is squirming in their hands, and the eater is absolutely certain they are indeed swallowing a live goldfish whole. There’s gagging and crying as they hype themselves up to complete the challenge. And they did it! One person peed a little, but the challenge was completed. As they remove their blindfolds they see me holding the cans of peaches, and then they realize they were just freaking out over absolutely nothing. Nothing. All along it was a peach. But sis, when you think it’s a live goldfish, it feels like a live goldfish. It tastes like a live goldfish. Maybe, just maybe, you’re THINKING about things wrong. Maybe you’ve assumed this is going to be way worse than it is. Maybe you’re stuck on what you see before and it’s warping what you’re experiencing now. Maybe things have changed since you first started and those things are no longer the same. Perhaps there’s something in your life right now you’re stressing and fretting over that really isn’t a threat at all. You’ve just assumed it’s a threat because of what you’ve seen before. Stop and consider it may not be so bad after all. Remember, you said you believe God is in the details of your life … then okay, trust the details. Before you freak out, have you asked God to help you see this for what it is? Have you asked him for wisdom? Have you asked him for clarity? Or are you still having flashbacks of what you saw before and blindly assumed that’s what you’re about to experience now? If the participants in my gold fish initiations would have stopped to think, they would have realized the blindfolds were to hide the trick. Eating a goldfish was bad enough. Why blindfold them too? I didn’t want them to see because seeing the switch would reveal the trick. Honey, if you can’t see what’s really happening, stop panicking and ask God to reveal where you’re being tricked into the wrong t

Today’s unscripted devotional is from Psalm 23:5 and Matthew 12:24. Jesus, the good shepherd, has healing for your mind today! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

There’s something divine happening that you simply cannot see. Something bigger than you and beyond your current circumstances. Here’s exactly what is happening, and it’s happening RIGHT NOW: God is taking every intended harm against you, and he’s turning it around with the intention of using it for good. That’s absolutely guaranteed. Certain. No doubt about it. God is taking every intended harm against you, and he’s turning it around with the intention of using it for good! Can you believe that? You have an enemy in this life – a despiser of your soul – a schemer of your demise. The powers of Hell are against you and their intentions for you are to kill you, steal from you and destroy you. That’s Hell’s plan. Satan has actively sent his demons to roam this earth and ruin your days. That’s truth. But never, ever forget this – God sits high upon his throne with his eye on you. Yes, you. God sees you. He has never once taken his gaze away from you. He sees everything that has ever happened to you and he says HE CAN FULFILL HIS INTENTIONS OF GOOD FOR YOU AND THROUGH YOU. Nothing the enemy has done to you has cancelled God’s good plans for you. At the end of Joseph’s life, his brothers come to him in fear of retaliation for their sin against him. For 22 years they had caused him such extreme hardship, and it was no accident. They intended him harm. They meant to destroy him. But their intended harm was not beyond the power of God to turn it around and use it for good. And this is what Joseph knew – He knew the mysteries of God were unfolding on his hardest days and sweetest days alike. He knew God could be trusted. He knew God is faithful. He knew God’s good plans could not be cancelled by the years of struggle. And this is how Joseph stands before the people who hurt him most and says in 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.” The harm Joseph’s brothers intended against him was used by God to place him in Egypt where the only food would be stockpiled during a 7 year famine. The selling of Joseph into slavery would lead him to become a leader in the palace of the King. Now, Joseph sits in the palace with complete control of the only food in the land, and he saves the brothers who sold him. Everything was turned around and used for good. That’s what our God does! Our God takes the intended harm against us and turns it around and uses it for the good of not only us, but the lives of many. It’s now bigger than just you. It’s about the other lives you will now impact. And that’s the mystery of God. The mystery of how God works in the unseen to bring his divine plans to our lives, and unfold that mystery to be so much bigger than just us. Lysa Terkurst says, “When things don’t make sense, leave room for the mystery of God.” Leave room for the mystery of God. What does that mean to you? Does that mean you stop trying to control it, fix it or figure it out? Yes! Leave room for the mystery of God. Does that mean you surrender this mess to God and let him have his way in you? Yes! Leave room for the mystery of God. Does that mean you trust God to get it right, even when it doesn’t look or feel right? Yes! Leave room for the mystery of God. Now maybe you’re sitting in a pit of despair right now and you don’t know how you will ever get out of this. The mystery is all you see. Just an unsettling darkness of uncertainty. Remember this – darkness isn’t even a thing, my sister. You don’t turn on darkness, so you can’t turn off darkness. You can only turn on light. Darkness is an absence of light. Darkness is a void. The moment you turn on the light, the void is filled. Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” You have the ability to turn on the light, my friend. You don’t have to sit in this void. God’s word is your light in the darkness. This is how you get through this. This is how you find your next step. You turn to the word of God. Now, notice this, God’s word is like a lamp to guide you feet. His word is a light for your path. You know what it’s not? It’s not like the noon day sun. God could have said his word is like the light of the day. He could have said it’s like the bright glow of a bonfire. But he didn’t. He said it’s a lamp to guide your feed, a light for your path. It’s not like broad daylight. But isn’t that what we want? We want our life to be lit up with everything in broad daylight. Make it bright – make it clear – remove all uncertainty. But, that’s simply not the way God works. Instead, he gives you his word that guides your next step. And while he guides your next step with the light of his

What if God could help you forget? What if you don’t have to carry this pain with you into your future? What if your wounds could be completely healed and every ounce of hurt redeemed? What if you don’t have to replay the story one more time? What if all that happened to you in the past, all the wrong that was done, all the harm inflicted, what if God could help you just forget it? I know that sounds too good to be true – but this is possible spiritually! But would you want to? Would you be willing to receive that level of healing? There’s a story in the bible of that level of healing from past hurts. And, Sis, it’s recorded in the Bible because God wants us to know of his power then that’s still available now! I believe today God is asking if you’re ready to forget. Are you ready to be completely healed from that hurt? Are you ready for total restoration of what happened in the past? Some aren’t ready. Some simply aren’t ready to let go of the story. Some aren’t ready to turn over the hurt. Some want to hold on to that suitcase of packed up pain and drag it around into every new season of life that comes. There’s no judgement here. That’s what pain makes us do. It makes us carry baggage that weighs us down. It fills our hands so we aren’t available to receive anything new or different. It causes us to get stuck in the past because it’s too heavy to continue into the future. But God wants his girl HEALED! He wants your hands free. You are not meant to carry this burden, my sister. This pain you feel is too heavy. This story that hurts you cannot continue to replay. You will get stuck here. You will lose your joy here. You will become a shell of the vibrant person God created you to be. So, God wants you to know about Manasseh. Yes, that’s your answer here. Manasseh. Even if you don’t yet know what that word means, can’t you feel the effects of it over your burdened spirit? Manasseh. Can’t you feel you ache of what happened and the pain of what they did lighten? Manasseh. Manasseh over your broken heart. Manasseh over all that wasn’t fair to you. Manasseh over your shattered dreams. Manasseh over what was stolen from you. Manasseh over your deepest hurt. Manasseh. What does Manasseh mean? To understand fully, you must first remember the story of Joseph. Well it’s a good thing we’ve been studying the life of Joseph in Genesis! Joseph from the dysfunctional family where his father’s favor caused his jealous brothers to sell him into slavery. He’s in a pit, then he’s in a prison. He was accused of doing things he didn’t do. He was used. He was forgotten. But, through it all, Joseph remained faithful. No matter how unfair his circumstance were, he trusted God. After 22 years, Joseph becomes a powerful man, second in charge of all of Egypt. His trust in God in all the unfair places led him to great success. But … But imagine the hurt he still carried. All the people, his own family, that had betrayed him. People he loved. People he trusted. They had hurt him. It was still there, replaying in his mind. He had to ask why. Why did his brothers do this to him? Why did every friend he make turn on him and use him? Why was he continually punished for things he didn’t do? But, here’s what God did for him … he made him forget. God blessed Joseph with a son. That’s son’s name was Manasseh. Manasseh, in Hebrew means to forget. Genesis 41:51, “Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” God has made me forget all my trouble. All that has happened in the past. All that pain. All that hurt. All that was unfair. God just took it from me. He healed me. He healed my heart and he healed my mind. The memories no longer torment me. The stories no longer play on a perpetual loop. All that was intended for harm has been turned around and used for good. Years later, Joseph stood in a position of power over the ones who had hurt him. With nothing but healing in his heart and mind, he saved them from starving. How could Joseph not have bitterness toward his brothers? How could he not hate his abusers? How could he have even an ounce of compassion on those who brought such harm into his life? MANASSEH. “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” Joseph was no longer telling the same old story of hurt. He had shut that down and God had taken that burden. What happened to him in the past no longer hurt him. There was no limit on his future because of the pain he had been through before. Manasseh, God helping him forget, opened his eyes to God using everything for good now. And when Joseph’s eyes were opened to the good God was doing, he was used for that good! And my sister, this is what God wants to do for you. He

God has healing for you. I’m not just talking about your physical ailments, but your deepest hurts. The wounds within that no one can see, but you continually feel. There’s a healing for those wounds only God can give. There’s no self-help book, no new relationship, no 5 step program that can bring that healing – ONLY GOD. My friend, for every wrong that’s ever been done to you, for every pain you still carry, there’s the sweetest healing available for you directly from God. Yesterday I experienced one of the most beautiful moments of my life. My youngest daughter is engaged to be married to a young man with a really hard past. He’s only 19, but those 19 years have been filled with continual hurts that have created wounds within him. Unhealed wounds often cause us to wreck our own lives without even realizing it. This young man doesn’t want to wreck his life as he’s seen every other man in his family do. He’s a Daddy now, and he wants better for his little family. He wants something different. He wants Jesus. So yesterday, shortly after I recorded the devotional, he came to me and told me he was ready. Ready to fully surrender his life, receive his healing, and take his first step of obedience in baptism. I sat down with him and read Romans 6, explaining that Jesus wanted to set him free from the power of sin and give him a new life. Romans 6:14, “Sin is no longer your master.” For this young man, it was more than just the sins he had committed, it was also about the sins that had been committed against him. The sins against him had become his master. Hurt ruled his heart. A continual replay of who had chosen drugs or alcohol over him was on a loop in his mind. The only future he knew was the one he had seen repeated in his family, and it wasn’t a future he wanted. As we stood in the water, he prayed aloud. Not a scripted prayer, but a prayer from his broken heart. A prayer to receive healing from sin. He asked Jesus to heal the wounds of everything that had ever been done to him. He asked for the negativity, the emotions, and the hurt to be washed away in the water. He prayed to come up out of that water with no walls and blocks to him being a good husband and a good father for his own family. (That’s generational curses being broken!) Just before he went under the water, he said, “I’m ready!” That’s healing only Jesus can do. Healing of the heart. Healing of the mind. This is the kind of healing Joseph received. Joseph, the man we’ve been studying in Genesis who was nothing but good, but continually had bad happen to him. He had every reason in the world to be hurt, yet he sought healing. And that healing let him to being a life changing blessing to others. After 22 years of hardship, all started by his brothers selling him into slavery at the age of 17, Joseph is now in charge of all of Egypt. There’s a famine in the land and people are starving. The only food was in Egypt, under the care of Joseph. Back at home in Canaan, Joseph’s father Jacob and the 11 brothers are starving. With absolutely nothing left to survive on, Jacob sends his sons to Egypt to beg for food. And there, they stand before the man in charge completely unaware that it’s their brother. They didn’t recognize Joseph, but Joseph recognized them. Right there in front of him, in their most vulnerable and desperate state, stand the brothers who caused him so much pain and hurt. They’re begging for food. What do you do when the ones who have hurt you the most now ask you for help? Well, if you’re unhealed, you likely lash out. Hurt people hurt people. But Joseph stands before his brothers healed. He’s no longer hurt. God has healed him from within. And let me tell you what that looks like – Genesis 45, beginning in verse 3: “I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. “Please, come close,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, who you sold into slavery in Egypt. But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh – the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.” That’s a healed man talking right there! A man God has worked on to release all the pain and replace it with purpose. To release the hurt and repla

God’s timing is not our timing. I’ve been waiting on a few things for 7 very long years. It’s not the way I would have planned it, but it has a purpose. God’s purpose is greater than my plans. God’s timing is greater than my timeline. Here’s what I want you to write down today: When it’s God’s time, it’s the right time, then it’s quick time. You could wait for years for God’s time, but then when that time comes and it’s right, it will happen quick. You may be moments away from quick time, my sister. You simply do not know the timing for what God has aligned for you. But don’t lose hope in the wait, God has aligned the time for you. The right time is already held in God’s hand. He’s already seen the time, held the time, and making a way to that time. You’re already on your way to that right time that becomes quick time once you get there. I like to think of it like the trip you’ve been planning. After packing and preparing, you board the airplane and you’re officially on your way. Oh the anticipation when you know you’re on your way. You’re not there yet, but you’re on the way and that’s exciting. Because, you know the moment you get off that airplane, you’re officially there and boom – vacation just starts happening so quick. You’re on that beach, that sun is hitting, and you’re feeling great. Oh to be on the way to that vacation, because on the way you know it’s already starting. My sister, you’re on your way. You’re on your way to the purposes God has for you. You’re on your way to that breakthrough. You’re on your way to the unfolding of what you’ve been waiting for. Then, the moment will come when boom, all of a sudden you’re there and it’s happening. For anyone who’s ever been pregnant, you know no matter how long and hard that pregnancy was, the moment came when the time to be pregnant was over. And the moment you saw your baby for the first time and held it in your arms, that long pregnancy no longer even mattered. The day came when you brought that baby home. Then that baby started school. And you may have waited a long time for that baby, but when it was the right time it became quick time. My sister, God’s plans for you are good – You’re already on your way to those good plans. Maybe it’s not the right time yet, but when the right time comes, it will happen quick! In our study of Genesis, we follow along with the wild story of Joseph and his dysfunctional family. After Joseph was sold into slavery by his 11 jealous brothers, he ended up as a servant in the house of Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. There, everything he did was a success. Soon he was in charge of Potiphar’s entire household and everything he owned. Life wasn’t bad at all for Joseph. But highs are typically followed by lows, and the high was coming to an abrupt end. Potiphar’s wife found young Joseph very handsome and she tried to seduce him. When that didn’t work, she became angry and accused him of things he didn’t do. And that’s how Joseph ends up in prison. Punished for a crime he didn’t commit. Waiting. While in prison, Joseph continued to be the good man he had always been, and even there he had success. He became a favorite of the prison warden and was put in charge of all the other prisoners. Genesis 39:23, “The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.” Yes, while in prison, the Lord was with Joseph. While unfair things happened to Joseph, God caused good things to happen for Joseph. Did you know both things can be true at the same time? You can be in an unfair place and God can bless you. You can be stuck waiting, and God can be blessing you with things right now. You can be stripped of everything else, and have everything in God. You can be all alone, and yet never be alone. Can you see the success God has given you even in your undesirable circumstances? Will you behold his blessings even while you’re burdened? Will you welcome his wonder while you’re waiting? In prison, Joseph is liked by everyone and people start coming to him for interpretation of their dreams. One person he helped with his gift was Pharaoh’s cup bearer who was also in prison for offending his master. When Joseph helped the cup-bearer, he says to him in Genesis 40:14, “Please remember me and do me a favor when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh, so he might let me out of this place.” The cup-bearer is released from prison, but guess what – he completely forgets all about Joseph, and verse 23 says “He never gave Joseph another thought.” Gosh, do you ever feel forgotten? Do you ever feel like the people you help aren’t willing to help you? Do you feel like everyone else gets their time and you

What you don’t trust, you will try to control. If you don’t trust someone in your family, you will try to control them. If you don’t trust your dog, you will try to control it. If you have a high tech car that can drive itself, but you don’t trust it – you will control it yourself. And if you don’t trust God, you will try to control your life. When you don’t trust God to get it right, you will assume the position of having to force everything for yourself. When you don’t trust God’s timing, you’ll try to control the timing. When you don’t trust God’s plan, you will follow the plan you can control. A controlling person is a distrusting person. A distrusting person becomes a controlling person. I trust my dog. He is trained, he is obedient and he stays close. Because of that, when possible, he is off leash. I no longer have to control him because I can trust him. I trust God. He has always been faithful to me. His promises have held true every single time. I no longer put God in my little box of limited understanding because I trust him. How about you? Are you in a place in your life where you full on, face to the floor, open hands, absolute surrender, TRUST GOD? If you are – do you notice how your need to control things has just faded away? When faith rules, the need to control fades. Where faith takes the throne, the need for control quietly falls to its knees. Control must bow to my faith instead of faith bowing to my control. As we study the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis, we see the most genuine example of trusting God regardless of circumstances. While Joseph couldn’t see how being sold into slavery would ever be remotely okay, he trusted God. While Joseph couldn’t see how being falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit and being thrown in prison could be a good thing, he trusted God. He never tried to control the situation or the outcome, instead wherever he was and whatever was going on around him, he did his best. How do we know Joseph did his best? While Joseph is in prison, Genesis 39:23 says, “The prison warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.” God didn’t just make things work – No, Joseph worked and God brought the success. Joseph did everything in that prison. All the work – more than was required. Joseph brought his best and God brought the blessings. But when we find ourselves in an unfair, difficult or unwanted situation, here’s what we do – “GOD, GET ME OUT OF THIS MESS. I DON’T DESERVE THIS!” We throw our pity party and wait for the rescue. We don’t work hard. We don’t give our best effort. No we typically get pitiful, then we grow miserable, then we become bitter. Pitiful, miserable and bitter because we can’t control it. In all of God’s word, I’ve never seen him bless pitiful. I’ve never seen him bless chosen misery. I’ve never seen him pour out his blessings on the bitter. But for the one who will trust him and do their best in the unfair, in the difficult, and in the unwanted – THEN HE BLESSES. For Joseph, God continually responded to his trust and best effort with success. Success to get out of the pit. Success in his master’s house. Success in the prison cell. And eventually, success in the palace. Joseph didn’t seek control. He sought God’s control. When you know the end of Joseph’s story and you see he ends up wildly successful in a palace, saving his own family that tried to harm him, it becomes easy to read the hard parts and see how God was working. But as the story was unfolding, Joseph had no idea where it was all leading. He didn’t know what God was doing. Yet he trusted. I don’t know the whole story of my life. I have not seen how these hard parts will be used – but I trust they will. I don’t know how God is going to work all this out – but I trust he will. I don’t know how this is going to one day be good – but I trust when he says he has good plans for my life, they will be good. My trust demands my hands to open and relinquish control. Now, how about you? Will you open your hands and trust God to get this right? Will you stop trying to control it and instead be faithful in it? Will you first give your best so then God can bless it? Here’s the problem – we start assuming what a good God should do, then we try to hold God accountable to our plan. Oh what disappointment we set ourselves up for when we create the plan for God and try to hold him to it. My friend, it simply doesn’t work that way. Our eyes have not seen, our ears have not heard, and our minds have not even imagined the things God has prepared for those who love him. Our wildest dreams don’t even come close to God’s good

How crazy was your Christmas? Just how dysfunctional are your family gatherings? Or maybe, there’s so much brokenness in your family, they don’t even gather anymore. Siblings don’t talk. People are uninvited. There are misunderstandings, blow ups and hurt feelings. Or maybe your family dysfunction is hidden to everyone else. You show up in matching outfits, you smile for the photos, you fake the joy. The show is good, but behind closed doors, there’s a real problem. And through all of that, you think you’re alone. Those thoughts of being alone and singled out in a problem make you feel dismissed. But let me tell you something – you are singled out in a promise. You are set apart for a purpose. In the middle of a dysfunctional family can be a single soul who God will use to change the trajectory of every future generation. The crazy doesn’t have to go away for that to become true. The problems don’t have to be solved for that to unfold. One thing has to happen – A single soul must decide to be different with God. That person must trust God so completely that where they came from doesn’t become their destiny. That person must trust God so fully that what they’re going through doesn’t detour them from where they’re going. The level of dysfunction that Joseph comes from is undeniable. His father, Jacob, was the trickster who stole a family blessing and birthright from his older twin brother. His grandmother, Rebekah, aided in the deceitful plan to steal that blessing. His uncle wanted to kill his father for many years, hunting him down to get even. Joseph is born into crazy. I don’t know – maybe you were born into crazy. You come from a long line of quarreling, immorality, and jacked up choices. Maybe you come from a broken home with a painful childhood, and trauma is all you know. Well let me tell you something – trauma is not your tomorrow. Trauma may be part of your testimony, but honey, it is not your trajectory! Joseph’s father had two wives and two concubines. Imagine that. Joseph is the youngest of 12 boys, all a bunch of half-brothers sharing the same father. But there was a clear favorite. Joseph was Daddy’s favorite. And clear favor over one child creates clear family fallout. Parenting 101 begins with showing our children the same level of love and attention. The one who feels like a black sheep will always wander. Joseph’s parents didn’t attend that class. Instead, his Daddy made him a special coat and draped it over his favorite son. Favoritism didn’t only set him apart, it put a massive target of jealousy on his back. Genesis 37: 3-4, “Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph – a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.” This special coat we often call the ‘coat of many colors’. To understand this coat is to understand the problem. This was not a working man’s coat. It was a long coat of privilege. Wearing this coat, he would watch his brothers work hard. Just how do you feel when you’re working hard and someone is sitting and watching you as if it’s your job to serve them? Not good. Especially in family. And all of this dysfunction leads to Joseph’s brothers wanting to kill him. Life would be easier if he weren’t sitting in his fancy coat, being better than them in the father’s favor. They throw him in a pit, sell him to a group of traders traveling through, then took the special coat of favor, covered it in animal blood and convinced their father that Joseph had been killed by wild animals. Guys – this is CRAZY. And yet, this crazy didn’t limit God’s ability to work in this family. This dysfunction did not dismiss God’s desired destiny for a single one of them. And your family dysfunction doesn’t dismiss your destiny either, my sister. The crazy you come from, or the crazy you’re going through doesn’t limit God’s ability to work in your life, nor does it limit his promises for your future. The father’s favor created a real problem. Do you know why? Because the father’s favor of one meant a limit for the others. But this points us directly to the contrast of our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father is unlimited in his favor. He can pour out his undeniable favor all over me, and still have an unlimited abundance of favor for you too. What he has done for me, he can do for you. And what he’s done for you, he can do for me. When you see a soul that’s been saved, rescued, healed and redeemed by the mighty work of a loving Heavenly Father, here’s what your first thought needs to be – WOW, I SEE WHAT GOD DID F

How perfect do circumstances have to be for you to be happy? How right do things have to be for you to see them as right? Experts say the average American thinks somewhere between 50,000-70,000 thoughts per day and 70% of them are negative. Just how average are you, my sister? It’s also said that the average person says something negative in every minute of a conversation. Yes, every 60 seconds, we speak a negative statement. It’s practically impossible for us to speak without talking about something that’s wrong. And this is NOT God’s will for his girls. This is not his desire for us. He wants to renew our minds and transform our thoughts. He wants us to be “Just Right Girls”. A Spiritual Goldilocks. Goldilocks was the little girl who wanders into the house of three bears while they are away. She tries their porridge, finding one too hot, one too cold, and one just right. She then sits in their chairs, finding one was too hard, one was too soft, and one was just right. Finally, she tries out the mattresses in the house until she finds the one that was just right and takes a nap. There’s a ‘just right’ for you and your Creator is hoping you will receive it, enjoy it and rest in it. Here’s the problem – we are so focused on what we don’t like, what we don’t want, and what we think isn’t right, that we miss what is just right. Where’s God’s JUST RIGHT for you? Our study of the book of Genesis brings us to the story of a ‘Just Right’ man. A man who walked right. A man who sought right. A man who continually experienced what wasn’t right, but trusted in God to make it just right for greater purposes. Genesis 37 – Joseph was one of 12 boys, the sons of Jacob. Joseph was his father’s favorite and this made his 11 brothers sorely jealous. One day at just 17 years old, Joseph’s brothers sold him to a group of traders for 20 pieces of silver and was taken as a slave to Egypt. This is just the beginning of a series of unfortunate events which he didn’t deserve. He’s sold, then falsely accused, then imprisoned, later used, then forgotten. And through the next 22 years, we see Joseph continually faithful. With each up and each down, Joseph trusts God. With every turn, Joseph looks for what was JUST RIGHT. And he finds that even in unfair circumstances, even in the worst of hardships, even in the greatest of struggles, God was forever doing something that was just right. Never once do we read of Joseph complaining. Never do we see him becoming bitter. Never do we see him being pitiful. There was no blame, no resentment, no hardened heart. Like Goldilocks, he went from one thing to the next, always seeking what was JUST RIGHT where he was. He was in a pit, finding what was just right. He was in a prison finding what was just right. And eventually, he was in a palace finding what was just right. And what was just right to Joseph wasn’t comfort, control, certainty or convenience. No, quite the opposite. What was just right to Joseph was the building of his character and the calling of God. What’s JUST RIGHT to you, my sister? How perfect do circumstance have to be for you to be happy? How right do things have to be for you to see them as right? If I were to ask you how you slept last night, what would your answer be? Would you begin to tell me how hard it is for you to go to sleep? Would you tell me about those hot flashes? Would you tell me about your back, your snoring husband, or your insomnia? That’s what the majority of us would do without even thinking about it. It’s just normal. It’s what we do. It’s habit. 70% of our conversations are going to be negative. But God’s girls aren’t called to be normal – we’re called to be JUST RIGHT GIRLS. Girls that receive what God says is just right for them. Girls who choose to enjoy what God says is just right for them. Girls who rest in what God says is just right for them. Girls who talk about what God says is just right for them. This isn’t toxic positivity – this is the ultimate surrender trusting God to use everything for something good. This is trusting God to get it JUST RIGHT. Let me ask you – Do you really believe God cares about the details of your life? Do you really believe you have the ability to pray about everything and invite God’s personal involvement into your personal circumstances in every moment? Yes? And do you believe he really does have the ability to see what you can’t see and the power to work all things together for your good? Yes? Do you really believe God can FOREVER GET IT RIGHT, and I mean JUST RIGHT? The perfect alignment, the perfect fit with the perfect timing? You see, when you really believe that’s who your God is and that’s what your God does, then you really can receive what’s just right for you. Then

What are you running from? What are you avoiding, hoping it doesn’t catch up with you? In our study of Genesis, Jacob had been on the run for years. He had tricked his brother Esau out of the birthright and the blessing of their father, so he ran. And finally one night, when he was all alone, in his worst place of fear and vulnerability, God met him. All this time, God had been chasing him. Not chasing him to punish him, but chasing him to change him. Jacob’s identity was that of a trickster. Everyone knew Jacob was willing to twist the truth and do whatever was needed to get what he wanted. But most importantly, Jacob knew that about himself. From before birth while in his mother’s womb with his twin brother, he was fighting. His very name declared he was a deceiver. He had cheated his way to success. But still God didn’t give up on Jacob. Isn’t that wild? God still knew his potential and never cancelled his calling. God continued to pursue Jacob. This is the most reassuring thing for a girl like me who has chased after the wrong things, done good things the wrong way, and gotten a little lost along the way. God never gave up on me. My friend, God’s not giving up on you. I don’t know what path you’ve been wandering around on, what mess you’ve gotten tangled in, or what secret you’re keeping – but you need to know this – God is still chasing after you! He still knows your potential. His calling on your life still stands. Jacob had a rare moment of being all alone, and it was in that moment of stillness that God caught him. He had received word that after all these years of being away from his family in a distant land making a life for his own, his brother was looking for him. Yes, the brother he had tricked. The brother he had done wrong. Esau, the burly hunter was hunting for Jacob, and he had 400 soldiers with him. So, Jacob sends all of his workers and all his family across the river to protect them from this attack, and it left him alone in the camp for the night. And there, God finds him. GOD CAN FIND US IN OUR WORST PLACE. Why was God looking for Jacob? Not to punish him. Not to convict him. Quite simply to change him. To give him a new identity that would carry him into his divine purpose. There, in this place where Jacob can’t run anymore, he wrestles it out with God. Did you know it’s okay to wrestle something out with God? It’s okay to struggle your way through faith and obedience. It’s okay to ask God how, when and why. God is big enough to handle anything you bring to him. All he asks is that you DO bring it to him. Here, in Genesis 32, Jacob wrestles with God. And God asks him in verse 27, “What is your name?” Why would God ask Jacob his name? Doesn’t God know who he’s wrestling with? Oh absolutely, God knows. After all, God’s been chasing him. God’s been waiting for the moment Jacob quit running and got alone with him. God asked Jacob his name for one reason – TO CHANGE HOW HE SAW HIMSELF. He replied, “Jacob.” Jacob, the name he had always lived with that reminded him he was always a trickster – always a deceiver – always the one twisting the truth, fighting to get his own way. And in that moment, God gave him a new identity. Verse 28, “Your name will no longer be Jacob. From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” Israel is a radically new name with a new identity. Israel means you have struggled it out with God and relied on him fully. Jacob was struggling with God, demanding his blessing. At no time was God too weak for Jacob. At no time was God limited in power. But with a tremendous act of grace, God let’s Jacob win in the struggle and blesses him. And in this, Jacob for the first time realizes he can’t do life without God. He can’t continue to outrun his angry brother. He can’t continue to force his own way. He can’t continue to cheat and lie. Right here, God is changing him. And that’s what God does. God meets us in our worst place and our self-created mess, and he allows us to struggle it out with him. He covers us in grace we don’t deserve, blesses us in ways we could never imagine, and changes our identity to be fully dependent on him. Jacob now has the new name of Israel. And while he would still often be called Jacob, he knew he was no longer the trickster he used to be. He was a man covered in God’s grace. God didn’t have to let him win, but God graciously gave him the blessing. My favorite part of the story comes next in Genesis 33. Jacob has devised this elaborate plan to send gifts ahead of him to meet his angry brother and the 400 soldiers after him, hoping to save his own life and family from the deserved attack and payback from his previous sin. Everything he had been running from in fear was abou

People can be so weird. I’ve seen good families fall apart when there’s a slight inheritance to split. My uncles nearly killed each other over a 20 year old mounted dear head after my grandfather died. When you start talking about money, or promotions, or next levels, people start getting greedy and the ugly comes out. What do you do if someone is cheating you out of what is yours? What do you do if what was promised to you is taken from you? Remember, we talked about that earlier this week. What God says is yours will be yours. Period. But still, sometimes life isn’t fair and what you’ve rightfully earned is denied by those who hold power over you. How will you handle it when the promotion unfairly goes to someone else? What will you do when the split of the money isn’t fair? What will you do when the contract isn’t honored, your words are twisted, you get sued, you’re overlooked, or you are denied? YOU TRUST GOD! You can’t always trust other people, but you can always trust God. I can assure you of this – God sees exactly what is happening. He knows every detail of this situation and he’s already working on the behalf of the one seeking what is right of him. Is that you? Are you seeking what is right with God? It’s real easy to get caught up in what you want and what you think you deserve – it’s much harder to truly surrender all that and only desire what God says is right for you. What if God says the promotion you should rightfully get isn’t what’s right for you – would you trust him with that? What if God says the money that is owed you isn’t the money he has for you – would you trust him with that? What if the fair thing isn’t God’s thing – would you trust him with the unfair thing? Genesis 30 & 31 tells the story of Jacob after he receives the blessing of his father. Life wasn’t easy, even though he was blessed. He dealt with unfair people and unfair situations. He fell in love with a beautiful girl named Rachel. But, in order for Jacob to have Rachel as his wife, he had to work for Rachel’s father Laban. Laban was unfair. He continually changed his mind and tricked Jacob into working harder and longer for him than necessary. But as Jacob was facing unfair situations with his greedy father-in-law, God was working. I may not know what unfair situation you are facing right now, but I know if you are trusting God for what he says is right, then God is working! And I don’t know about you, but I absolutely LOVE the way God works. He often works in the most unexpected, quirky, behind the scenes ways you would never expect. But there he is working, taking care of those who trust in him. Jacob had made an agreement with his father-in-law for payment. Jacob would care for all Laban’s flock, and he would only ask for the imperfect sheep to be kept for himself. The imperfect ones were the spotted ones, the striped or speckled ones, or the black sheep. They were the undesirable sheep. Laban agreed to this, knowing it was a great deal for him to get to keep not only the majority, but the best for himself. But, something crazy started happening – whatever designated undesirable sheep had been declared as Jacob’s, suddenly all the new born sheep would be marked in that way. Jacob was suddenly getting ALL the sheep. As soon as Laban would catch on, he would unfairly change his agreement. But as soon as he would change the designated marking of sheep going to Jacob, then that marking would be on all the next newborn sheep, making them all Jacob’s again. Every time Laban would change his mind, God would change the sheep to make them Jacob’s. And here’s what Jacob knew in this continually unfair situation with his family – Genesis 31:6-7, Jacob says to his wife, “You know how hard I have worked for your father, but he has cheated me, changing my wages ten times. But God has not allowed him to do me any harm.” Jacob knew God was in control. When he was being treated wrong, when what was supposed to be his was continually denied, when the deal was continually changed – God would not allow harm to come to him. God simply changed the newborn sheep to match the undesirable specific marking that had been designated as Jacob’s. And every time the deal changed to a different marking, God would change the sheep and they would still be his. My friend, if God can change the marking on the sheep to make it right for Jacob – he can change whatever he needs to change to make it right for you. You don’t have to stress. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have to do anything out of anger, bitterness, or fear. The enemy wants you to freak out and do something stupid here. But don’t you do that. You’re God’s girl. God’s got you! Repeat after me: I won’t do anything stupid he

Remember the twin brothers, Esau and Jacob, that are born to Isaac and Rebekah? Remember how Esau is born first, but Jacob is born holding onto his foot. Then, one day, in Esau’s hunger, he trades his birthright to Jacob for a single bowl of soup. Now, because of Esau’s failure to value what he was still waiting for, he’s forfeited his future double inheritance and the spiritual leadership of his family. Two chapters later, in Genesis 27, we come to a story titled “Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing”. Let’s set the stage for this story – Isaac is now an old man and in his final days he’s ready to give his blessing to his oldest son. He says to Esau, “Go hunting then prepare my favorite dish, and bring it here for me to eat. Then I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you, my firstborn son, before I die.” But there’s a problem. Rebekah, the mother, was listening and she got in the middle. Rebekah favored her younger son Jacob and she wanted him to receive the blessing. Oh the messes meddling mothers create. Mama, listen to this warning in God’s word – STAY OUT OF IT. You don’t need to get in the middle of your adult child’s business. You don’t need to fix this. Rebekah tells Jacob, the younger son, to go out and kill their own goats and bring them to her so she can quickly make the meal herself. Then, she would have Jacob bring the meal to his father, posing as his older brother, and receive the father’s blessing. But, there’s one problem – While Issac is now old and blind and wouldn’t be able to see the difference, he would be able to feel the difference. Esau was a hairy beastly man, while Jacob was a smooth mama’s boy. But, the meddling mother had an answer for that problem too. She skinned the goats and covered Jacob’s arms and neck with their hairy skin. This is next level meddling, y’all! Jacob, covered in the skin of a hairy goat, goes in to his father, serves him the meal his mama had sneakingly made, and Isaac blesses him. Feeling the hair on his arms, convinced this son was the first born Esau, the father says: “From the dew of heave and the richness of the earth, may God always give you abundant harvests of grain and bountiful new wine. May many nations become your servants and may they bow down to you. May you be the master over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. All who curse you will be cursed and all who bless you will be blessed.” Now, Jacob has received the blessing and he leaves his father. Immediately after, here comes Esau in from his hunt with the fresh cooked delicious meal his father had requested. Esau says, “Sit up, my father, and eat my wild game so you can give me your blessing.” But Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” Esau replied, “It’s your son, your firstborn son, Esau.” Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably and said, “Then who just served me wild gave? I have already eaten it, and I blessed him just before you came. And yes, that blessing must stand!” When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry, “Oh my father, what about me? Bless me, too!” he begged. But Isaac said, “Your brother was here, and he tricked me. He has taken away your blessing.” Esau exclaimed, “No wonder his name is Jacob, for now he has cheated me twice. First he took my rights as the firstborn, and now he has stolen my blessing. Oh haven’t you saved even one blessing for me?” Isaac said to Esau, “I have made Jacob your master and have declared that all his brothers will be his servants. I have guaranteed him an abundance of grain and wine – what is left for me to give you, my son?” Esau pleaded, “But do you have only one blessing?” Can’t you just hear the desperation of the son begging for his blessing? And can’t you hear the desperation of the father who has nothing left to give? Oh the pain of being tricked, of being cheated, of being without blessing. Who stole your blessing? Who got what was supposed to be yours? Who took your place? NO ONE. No one can take what God has for you. No one can fool God. If it’s yours, then it will forever be yours. If someone else got something, there’s absolutely zero limitations imposed on what you can still get. God is not limited. God can bless a million other people while still fully blessing you. You don’t have to compete. You don’t have to be jealous. Your fear is unnecessary. 2 Corinthians 9: 8-9 MSG, “God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways. He trows caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out and never wear out. This most generous God is more than extravagant with you.” God wants to be extravagant in his gene

Genesis 26:12, “When Isaac planted his crops that year, he harvested a hundred times more grain than he planted, for the Lord blessed him.” Imagine a blessing of 100 times more than could be expected this year. 100 times more than you deserve. 100 times more than what is reasonable. How do you get that blessing? 1. You plant. 2. Allow God to bless your work. Isaac planted his crops that year. He didn’t expect God to bless something he wasn’t willing to do. Isaac didn’t expect God to multiply something he wasn’t willing to start small with. Isaac tilled the ground that year. Isaac planted the seeds that year. Isaac pulled the weeds that year. God blessed the harvest that year. This year, there is work for you to do. You’re at the very beginning stages of that work this year. You have goals which are the action steps towards the life you are imagining for 2026. But only God can turn that work into an abundant harvest. You could plant all the seeds perfectly – you could pull every single weed – but if God doesn’t bring the sun, your harvest will never come. My sister, you could follow a perfect meal plan, you could go to the gym every day without fail – but God blesses your health. You are 100% dependent on the Lord for your harvest this year. However, the harvest of this year depends on one thing first – Your work of planting the seeds. That’s your job. God can do anything, but he will not do what you’re called to do. Listen to me, my sister. There’s work to be done in your life this year. God isn’t going to do that work for you. He’s not going to declutter that house for you. He’s not going to set your alarm for you. He’s not going to put in the application for you. He’s not going to do your homework or your workout. Those are seeds for you to plant. The truth is, you’re standing here today with seeds in your hand. There are so many things you can do. Small steps are right in front of you. Simple beginnings are aligned for you. But every time you choose not to plant the seeds, you forfeit your harvest. You have no idea what God was willing to do for you last year if you would have just planted the seeds you had. But everything you failed to work for, work in, work on, and work through, God was denied his opportunity to bless. If you would work through this, God could bless it. If you would work on this, God could bless it. But where you delay your work, you deny God’s harvest. What could God bless in your life this year? Absolutely EVERYTHING. Everything you’re willing to get up for. Everything you’re willing to show up for. Everything you’re willing to push through for. The work of your hands is the beginning of the work God can multiply, but he won’t start it for you. Yesterday, I took the retreat girls to the Pathways Project house in the tiny town of Galena, MO. This is a rescue house serving as a safe place for women and children rescued out of sex trafficking. We were there to open hundreds of Amazon boxes with all the furnishings for this sacred space. We put together beds and book shelves, desks and cabinets. We filled the space with welcoming furniture and decorations. The doors will open by the end of this month to begin welcoming those souls in need as a pathway to healing and restoration. The building was given to the Patheways Project. Literally, just given to them without even asking for it. Every single item needed was ordered and delivered to their door. Then an army of BIG Life girls in matching shirts show up to put it all together. But let me tell you how it all started … it started with an ordinary woman who couldn’t turn her head the other way when she learned about sex trafficking in her area. It started with her hard work with no building, no funding and no vision for the future. It started with showing up for one girl who had been in over 30 foster homes and ended up on the streets being controlled by a trafficker, and offering to meet her for coffee. She cared about one girl and just kept caring. Then, more came. More girls came needing help. More people came offering help. A building came. The furnishings came. The army showed up. And God is blessing the simple, faithfilled work with a 100 times kind of harvest. Is it still work – oh you better believe it! Ask a farmer when the work ends – It never ends. When the harvest comes, the work doesn’t end. Harvest season is perhaps the hardest work. Go collect your bounty or it will rot! Maybe you’re all about the harvest, but you’re not willing to plant the small seeds that look like nothing in the beginning. God can’t bless that. Maybe you’re willing to plant, but you’re not willing to stick with the work. You’ll start strong, but you’ll fizzle fast. God can’t bless that. Notice this, it says, “Isaac p

If you don’t know what you really have, you can never be really grateful for it. If you don’t understand the value of what you have, you will fail to protect it. What you have is of the greatest value, but maybe you have overlooked it. And through your oversight, you have traded your best for something so far less. You have settled for something completely inferior simply because you didn’t understand what was truly yours. Our study of the book of Genesis brings us now to the story of Jacob and Esau. These are the battling twin brothers who teach us 2 valuable lessons. Esau was born first, and Jacob was born holding onto his heel. And this was the beginning of a sibling rivalry that would make Jerry Springer shake his head. In these days, the first born received the birthright and the blessing. The birthright was a double portion of inheritance and the role as spiritual leader of the family. Because Easu was born before his twin brother Jacob, according to custom and tradition, the birthright belonged to Esau. In a moment of weakness, Esau traded all of this for a single bowl of soup. How foolish is that? Genesis 25:29-33, “One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, ‘I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!’ ‘All right,’ Jacob replied, ‘but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.’ ‘Look, I’m dying of starvation!’ said Esau. What good is my birthright to me right now?’ But Jacob said, ‘First you must swear that your birthright is mine.’ So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.'” Verse 34 in TPT, “Then Jacob gave Esau some lentil stew and bread. When Esau had finished eating and drinking, he just got up and walked away. Esau cared nothing about his own birthright.” Was the birthright of tremendous value? Technically, yes. However, if the one who is in line to receive it does not value it, then the value is forfeited. A double portion of the inheritance, forfeited. Spiritual leadership, forfeited. And Easu didn’t even care because he didn’t value what was rightfully his. He was happy with his bowl of soup. What is our bowl of soup? Where have we settled for far less than God says is our birthright as his girls? What have we failed to value as the daughters of the King and forfeited in our hunger for something now? What we want most is often forfeited for what we want right now. We want that God appointed relationship, but we will settle for the one available for a meet up now. We want to walk in God’s calling, but we will settle for a guaranteed paycheck, 401K and insurance. We want peace, but we will settle for distraction. We want healing, but we will settle for a bandaid. We want a word spoken from Heaven, but we will settle for a word spoken on TikTok. Do we really understand, appreciate and value what is ours as God’s girls? Jeremiah 29:11, God says, “For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” • Where have we traded God’s best plans that were still in the wait, for the secondary self-construed plans we could have right now? • Where have we dismissed ourselves from God’s desire to prosper us, and settled for something so much smaller out of comfort? • Where have we taken God’s offering of hope for our future, and turned it into worry, stress, and doubt? You see, we know what to do with worry. Stress is so familiar. I know how to wake up to doubt. It’s all becomes so comfortable. What’s not familiar is hope. What’s not comfortable is the idea of truly prospering in God’s plans. How do I feast on what I can’t see? How do I get filled by what I can’t hold in my hands right now while I’m hungry? You’re hungry. You’re hungry for something, anything. This emptiness you feel within is eating you up on the inside. And this is where the enemy of your soul will come in and offer the little you can have right now to keep you from having the fullness of what is rightfully yours. What is rightfully yours as God’s girl is his Holy Spirit to guide you in your every step. And that spirit doesn’t allow you to be weak or fearful. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.” That’s what is yours. You have power. You have love. You have self-discipline. It’s already yours. Given to you by your Heavenly Father. Are you going to forfeit that power over your every tomorrow for a bowl of soup you can have today? You will if you fail to value it. If your phone keeps you distracted, you will never hear the whisper of God’s spirit that gives you supernatural strength and guidance for your ne

If you getting better and living bigger in this new year is all based on you, this is going to be a struggle. If it’s all about who you are, what you have, what you can do, and what you want, you are gearing up for an impossible battle. This isn’t all about you. This isn’t all about what you can do. If it is, you will be limited by the same exact things that have limited you in the past. Nothing will change. Nothing will stick. You weren’t created to live this life without the personal involvement of your Creator, so if you’re focusing on you, honey, this is going to be a hot mess! You are going to be sorely disappointed over your lack of progress and continued struggle with the same ol’ things. But, girl, let me tell you, if you are doing these things through the power of Jesus Christ, NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE! If this is about becoming who God created you to be, and living up to his good plans for your life, there’s not a single wall, sea, chain, or mountain that can hold you back. The question is – what is 2026 about for you? Is it all about what you want to do, where you want to go, what you want to change – or is this about God’s plans for your life and his original design of who he imagined you to be? When your focus is on God, walls crumble. When your thoughts are centered on the Almighty, impassable seas part. When you are worshiping Jesus, chains break and prison doors are opened. When your faith is in God, mountains obey your command and move. So, are you focusing on God, or are you focusing on your problems? Are your thoughts centered on the Almighty, or are you thinking about the overwhelming changes required? Are you worshiping Jesus, or are you worrying your way through another day stuck here? Is your faith in God, or are you counting on your hard work to be enough to change things this year? If this is all about you, then your grit will eventually run out, and you will come to a grinding halt. But honey, if this is about what God is doing in you and through you, then there are zero limits on the possibilities here! 2 Timothy 1:9 “God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time – to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.” When this becomes all about your works, you are plugged into an extremely limited power source. You will get tired. You will grow weary. Your willpower will waiver. You will get frustrated. And maybe on the 9th day of this brand new year of life, you’re already feeling that. Those goals are already wavering. Some have already given up, believing they can never change. Why do we have such a tendency to fail? Because we’re human. You are human. You are not the power source. You are a carrier of the power source. Sis, this isn’t about your works, this is about the One who will work in you! I travel with a portable charger. With this power pack, I can charge my electronic devices anywhere at any time. However, eventually that power pack will run out of power. It will go dead. It is not self-sufficient. It must be plugged into the direct source of power to be recharged. Once recharged, it has power within it to give again. We are the portable charger. We can do things. We can make progress. We can achieve goals. We can make changes. However, never forget, Sis, WE ARE LIMITED. We are not self-sufficient, stand alone creations, meant to give and never receive. We aren’t meant to work and never worship. We aren’t meant to show up with power without first receiving power. Do you want to know my secret to showing up with this amount of energy every day to pour into you? My secret is I get recharged every single morning first! And I’m not talking about caffeine. I’m talking about plugging into my source of power, my source of energy, my source of strength, inspiration, motivation, guidance and peace. If I don’t plug into him, I have nothing to give you. I’m as worthless as a dead portable charger. I’ve got nothing. God is our source. We carry his power, but we continually need to plug into him to receive what we then give. You are filled to be spilled, but you must first, and continually, be filled. If you only focus on what you can produce, you will eventually run out of power and production will stop. Remember when you used to produce? Remember when you were once showing up with so much power? Yeah … was that because you were plugged in then, and you forgot to plug in now? You’re on low battery, Sis. You forgot you weren’t created to do this on your own. Get this straight right now at the beginning of this year and you will save yourself some major disappointment. If this becomes a focus on your works, it’s simply not going to work! God didn’t call you to a great purpose because of the work you can do. He called

When exactly should you pray about something? How big of a deal does it need to be before you bring it to God? Does God really have time to be concerned about every little detail of your life? Honey, there are 70 billion trillion stars in the sky, and God calls each one of them by name. He counts the sand on every shore, and numbers the very hairs on your head. Yes, he has the capacity to handle your prayers about every detail of your life. But not only does he have the capacity, he has the care. Philippians 4:6-7 gives us a great guide on what to pray about – “Pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. THEN you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” There’s nothing you can’t or shouldn’t pray about, because there’s nothing God doesn’t care about or hold power over. How long do you pray about it? Until you have peace over it. Peace is God’s gift in response to prayer. And something truly amazing happens when you have God’s peace – you no longer have to force your way, manipulate the situation, or stress over the details. God’s peace filling our hearts and minds allows us to flow with God’s design and live in alignment with his good plans for our lives. Again – how do you get that level of peace? Only by praying about it. What should you pray about? Everything! It’s a trick of the enemy to make you feel unimportant to God. It’s a lie from the pits of hell that tell you God doesn’t have time for your specific prayers. He is fully capable of calling all 70 billion trillion stars in the sky by name, counting the sand on every shore, and handling your every concern brought to him in prayer. The question for you today is, HAVE YOU PRAYED ABOUT IT? Not just worried about it. Not just played out every scenario in your head. Not just talked to family and friends about it. Not just complained about it. PRAYED ABOUT IT. Have you asked God for help? Have you asked him for clarity? Have you sought him for discernment? Have you surrendered the outcome to him fully? If you have, then you can take your next step as he directs, or wait has he prompts, all in utter and complete PEACE. This week, my friend Catherine taught me the most powerful prayer and I want to share it with you today. When you come to God with a specific problem, a specific request, a specific choice that needs to be made, start your conversation with God by praying this: Lord, at the beginning of this time, would you get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to this matter. It’s our own heart that gets in the way. Our heart is how we “feel” about it. When we want what we want more than what God wants, we begin twisting things. When our feelings sit on the throne, God isn’t directing our lives, we’re doing it. And listen to me – you aren’t good on that throne! You seriously suck at directing your life on your own. We start forcing doors open when our heart is out of alignment. When our heart is set on one thing, we miss the other thing God has for us. Our feelings lead us down halls we don’t belong and into rooms never meant for us. So, to begin, we ask God to get our heart to a place that it has no will of its own over the specific matter. God, I fully want YOUR will, your way, in your time. Remove my feelings from it. Genesis 24 tells the story of Abraham’s servant setting out on a mission to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac. This wife would be very important because she would be the mother of all these promised future generations blessed by God. It couldn’t just be any pretty girl, it had to be the RIGHT girl. How do you know for sure you’re making the right decision, choosing the right person, going in the right direction? There’s only one way – YOU PRAY ABOUT IT. You pray until your feelings are surrendered, your thoughts are hushed, your heart is in alignment, and you are filled with God’s peace. So here’s what Abraham’s servant did before this monumental task of finding a wife for the son Isaac – he prayed. Genesis 24:12, “Please give me success today.” Woah – that’s powerful! Lord, please give me success today. This morning, did you ask God for success? Why wouldn’t you do that every day? Oh yeah – because you don’t really think God cares that much about you. HE DOES! He cares about your decision. He cares about your next steps. He cares about your relationships. He cares about your work. He cares about your health. He cares about your today and your tomorrow. When you seek God first for success, it’s a heart in alignment with the truth that God is the source of your success. Not your brilliant ideas, your big plan

Join Pamela for an unscripted study of how God blesses the life of obedience and surrender. Genesis 22 & 24. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

The ultimate act of obedience is to offer the thing we love most. It would be easy for me to give you something from my closet that I never wear – but to give you my favorite thing would be a real sacrifice. Sure you can have my Amazon earrings, but the jewelry I bought in Italy is a totally different story. That’s a treasure to me. It would be unfair of you to ask me for my treasure. God asked Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his greatest treasure. His son. The son he loved with every fiber of his being. The son he had prayed and waited his whole life for. And honestly, what an unfair ask of God – right? But today, we will take another look at Genesis 22 and reveal the unmatched love of God within the story of an unfair ask. When God asked Abraham for the ultimate demonstration of his love and sacrifice, he asked him for his son. When God the Father wanted to show us the ultimate demonstration of his love and commitment to us, HE GAVE HIS SON. God knew just how unfair it was to ask for Abraham’s son, because he was preparing to do it himself. All these years, I’ve avoided the story of Abraham’s test of faith because it seemed so cruel. Was he really willing to sacrifice his son? Was he really prepared to lay his son on the alter? He most certainly was – and here’s why: He knew God could do anything. His faith was stronger than his feelings. And just as he laid his son on that alter, God provided a sheep for the sacrifice instead. That day, God came through with a substitution in the form of a sheep. A sheep that would be sacrificed for the cleansing of sin. And about 2,000 years later, God came through with the ultimate substitution – his own son. Jesus is called the Lamb of God, the perfect lamb without blemish or spot, sacrificed on a cross to redeem us. God gave the ultimate sacrifice of his greatest treasure. His ultimate demonstration of love and commitment to us is in offering his son, Jesus. He saved Abraham from having to give his son, and God himself gave us his. What greater love could there possibly be? When God tested Abraham with this unfair ask, he specifically said, “Take your son, your only son – yes, Issac, whom you love so much.” Do you see the divine connection here? God did that for us! God took his son, his only son, who he loved so much. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God did that. He did it for Abraham. He did that for me and for you. The unfair ask, the unthinkable sacrifice, the ultimate demonstration of love, has been done for us! Why? To save us from the life we deserve. We often say things like, “I work hard, I deserve a new car”, or “It’s been a bad day, I deserve to relax”, or “a woman like me deserves to be treated better.” That sounds good – but let me tell you something, we should never ask for what we deserve. We’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve all failed to measure up. What we deserve is death. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” Because we’ve gotten it wrong before, we really don’t “deserve” what is right. So let’s be clear – God says you don’t deserve it, but he says you’re WORTH IT! What is the life you really deserve? Do you deserve to be successful? Do you deserve to be happy and healthy? Do you deserve to get to go on vacation, have nice things, and be treated good? It’s easy to assume we are deserving of a good life because of our efforts and performance – but we have never once lived up to the standard of self-righteousness. No one has and no one can, except for Jesus. We don’t get what we deserve because Jesus accepted what he didn’t deserve. Jesus came to pay a debt he didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay – So, Jesus unfairly did it for us. I could never ask someone to give up a life to save my life, but that’s precisely what has been done for me. That’s what has been done for you. The ultimate sacrifice. My favorite detail in the story of Abraham is in verse 6, “So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders.” The son is carrying the wood for the sacrifice of his own life. Oh, the foreshadowing of what God was preparing to do. God’s only son, Jesus, our savior – he carried the wood for the sacrifice of his own life. John 19:17 tells us Jesus carried the cross by himself and went to the Place of the Skull, Golgotha. There, they nailed him to the cross and Jesus gave up his life willingly. He carried the wood for the offering on his own shoulders. Jesus did that! What God spared Abraham from, he did for us. Abraham walked back down from that mountain with his son. God watched his own son be crucified on that

Have you ever held back from God because you were afraid of what he would ask of you? I certainly have. I was once convinced a surrendered life would be a boring life – wow, was I wrong! I once believed releasing the desire for my own way would be the end of my desires – again, I was really wrong. It was the beginning of something so much more. What will you do when God calls on you? Will you hide? Will you play little? Will you dismiss yourself? Will you withhold? Or will you believe in the goodness of God enough to say, “Here I am.” I believe that’s exactly what is happening today. God is calling on you. He’s calling on you to trust him. He’s calling on you to take the next step. He’s calling on you to go for him. He’s calling on you to change something, surrender something, do something different this year. Will you answer his call and say, “Here I am.” What would happen if you did? You would get to see and experience the things only God can do. Will it be scary? Maybe. Will you feel inadequate? Probably. Will it be worth it? Absolutely! In our study of the book of Genesis, we’re reading about the life of Abraham. Remember, he and his wife Sarah had waited their whole lives for a promised baby. Finally, at the age 90, Sarah miraculously becomes pregnant, and Abraham becomes a father to Issac at 99 years old. Abraham had believed God’s promise, and now he was walking in the fulfillment of that promise with his long awaited son. And then we come to a chapter titled “Abraham’s Faith Tested”. Whew, have you ever been in one of those chapters of your life? This is where the hard stuff happens. This is where things don’t make sense. And this is where you get to see that through it all, God is forever faithful with his providence and power. Genesis 22 begins with, “Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. ‘Abraham’ God called. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Here I am.'” With over 100 years of life experience, Abraham knows he can trust God. He knows whatever God calls him to, God is going to provide for him to get through. He knows the promises God has spoken over him are undeniable and irrefutable. He lives in the reality that God does impossible things. I wonder if maybe we have forgotten that. Have you forgotten the impossible things God has done for you before? Have you skimmed over the promises your Creator has for you? Can you look back and see that God has always been with you and always made a way? The more you know that, the more you can trust him here. And when you fully trust God, you can reply to his every call with, “Here I am.” What God speaks to Abraham next was unthinkable. Verse 2, “Take your son, your only son – yes, Isaac, whom you love so much – and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” Wait God – WHAT?!!!!!!! This is the son I’ve waited my whole life for, the one every promise hinges on, and now you’re asking me to sacrifice him? To give him up? That doesn’t make sense. Have you ever tried to make sense of the supernatural? Have you ever tried to plan for the impossible? Have you ever tried to calculate the miraculous? Here’s what we do – we flip out, we freak out, and we stress out. When we can’t see it, control it, or fix it, we struggle with it. But God is NOT STRUGGLING. Please hear this loud and clear. Whatever you are struggling with, God is not. Does he care? More than you can imagine! But is he struggling? Not in the slightest. He already has a plan and he perfectly holds the power to fulfill his plan. Whatever you’re struggling with right now, I have a simple and powerful prayer of faith for you today. Right now, think about this area of struggle in your life. That person, that relationship, that uncertainty, that hardship, that hurt – and now repeat this prayer: “God, I know you’re not struggling. Thank you for having a plan through this.” So what does Abraham do when asked to give up his son? Well, we don’t see him flipping out, freaking out, or stressing out. We see him responding in obedience. How? Because he knows by experience that God can be trusted. Here’s what happens next. Verses 3-8: “The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ‘Stay here with the donkey,’ Abraham told the servants. ‘The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.’ So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Is

All good will come under attack. In a garden of beautiful potential, there will be weeds. Everything you plant in your garden will be attacked. To assume otherwise would be naive. You woke up this morning in a garden of beautiful potential. Here, in this year, supernatural things can happen in your life. Things you have been waiting YEARS for have the potential of happening here. Seeds you thought were dead are about to breakthrough the ground. Yes, breakthroughs are here. Growth is here. Proof of all you have been praying for, working for, waiting for, is about to be seen. And my sister, it’s all under attack! Why? Because it’s good! God is doing something sooooo good in you. He’s been moving in your life, working in the details, preparing you for this new year. You’ve felt it. You’ve felt dreams being whispered again, hope being stirred, strength being received. And now … things get noisy! Your adversary, the devil, he is loud. 1 Peter 5:8, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” He roars! He creates noise. What does the noise do? It distracts us. It creates fear. I wonder who woke up to distractions, problems, and discouragements today, on just the 2nd day of this new year. It’s not starting how you wanted it to start. Why is that happening? Because you are on the cusp of breakthrough. You are daring to believe the promises which God has spoken over your life. You are claiming the power, the love, and the self-discipline God’s spirit has offered you. You’re starting to write goals from God’s word, goals God wants to pour his power into! And if the enemy of your soul can’t rob you of that offering, he will certainly try to distract you from it. There is noise! Oh, you will probably hear the noise today. Sometimes it shows up in loud, chaotic roars that send shivers down your spine. But most times it shows up as the little voice in your head that tries to talk you down. The voice that says you can’t. The voice that says you’re not good enough. The voice that says you’re not worthy of the changes you desire. The voice that says it will never happen for you. The voice that says it’s too late. That is NOT the voice of God. That is the voice of darkness. That is goodness under attack. Today, we will look at the perfect little story hidden within the pages of your Bible to give you the exact words to speak and next steps to take when the enemy shows up with his distractions and discouragement. It’s the story is of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was charged by God to rebuild the destroyed wall of Jerusalem. These walls had been in ruin for over 100 years, and it was time to be rebuilt. For 100 years, people had looked at these torn down walls that had left their city vulnerable to attack, and of course everyone had wished for something to change – but no one had been willing to do anything about it. I wonder what desperately needs to change around you, but no one has been willing to do anything about it? What if God is charging YOU to be the one who gets to work now? Oh, I believe he is. No more wishing and complaining. No more waiting. It’s time for the work to be done, and God chooses YOU! The good work starts now! Nehemiah had been doing a good work of rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem. But remember, all good comes under attack. His enemies did not want him to rebuilt the wall and they tried to discourage him. But Nehemiah would not be discouraged. Say that with me, “I WILL NOT BE DISCOURAGED!” Nehemiah 6:1-4, “When word came to our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it, my enemy sent me this message: ‘Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.’ But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: ‘I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?’ Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.” You have good work to do in 2026. Rebuilding of what the enemy has destroyed. Rebuilding of what has been broken. Rebuilding of what you thought could never be. And your enemy, plain and simple, DOES NOT WANT you to do this work. No, he doesn’t want you to grow in your faith. No, he doesn’t want you to be healthy. No, he doesn’t want you to be confident. No, he doesn’t want you to have good relationships. No, he doesn’t want you to have energy and joy. No, he doesn’t want you to be happy or successful. Heck no, the devil doesn’t want any of that for you. So you better believe he has been scheming to distract you and discourage you. What should your reply be? Just like Nehemiah. “Enemy, I am carrying on a great project and I don’t have time f

Does God care about you having fun? Does he care about you doing things you love to do? Does he want you to enjoy life? Yes – as long as it doesn’t become the entire objective of your life. As long as God still gets first place, fun is one of those things that he gives us as a result. Our Bibles are full of scriptures that tell us of the joy and pleasures in the presence of God. Does that only apply to Heaven after this miserable life? No. Jesus even taught us to pray that God’s kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven. Joy and pleasures here – how? Well, we can be in God’s presence now, and when we are, we get to enjoy the fullness of life. Look at creation and you’ll understand God’s nature. He loves beautiful things. He loves mysterious things. He loves quirky and bizarre things. Watch a few episodes of Planet Earth and you will see God’s fun nature on full display. He was having fun creating this world, now he invites you and I in on the fun. Misery is always an option, but it’s never a good one. The enemy of your soul loves to make you feel like the best stuff in life must come in rebellion to God. Like you can’t have fun and follow Jesus at the same time. Hmmmmm … hang around with me for a day and I think we can prove the devil wrong. We can follow Jesus into some wild, faith-filled spaces we could never reach alone, and we can be the funnest girls there! Fun is my middle name. It’s actually my job. It’s my calling. I create fun for people and then I invite them to play. And ultimately in the fun, we experience the love of God and the joy of Jesus. I can’t spread the love of God and the joy of Jesus by being miserable and turning everything into a dreaded burden. And my friend, you can’t either. We are here as the representatives of Jesus. Represent him well! When Jesus walked in a room, people gathered. Heck, they even tore the roof off a house to get in a crowded room with Jesus. He had something radically different and that energy was felt in his presence. Now, we carry that same Spirit of energy. Don’t dampen it. Revive it. Unleash it. People are drawn in by that positive energy and fun vibe and you can then easily point them to Jesus. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Understand that Jesus not only offers a full and abundant life in Heaven, but he offers a full and overflowing life right here and now. The way you live your life is what brings Heaven to Earth. You’re here to represent Jesus – Is he remotely appealing to others when they look at you? In the final hours of my Daddy’s life, the veil between Heaven and Earth had grown very thin and while laying in that hospital room, he could experience Heaven. Fully aware, he told us what he saw and experienced. My Dad let out deep belly laughs and giggles as he said, “Jesus is so funny! Everyone is so happy here!” I believe that with every ounce of me. And I believe we are called to represent Heaven here on Earth. So, let’s look at 4 scriptures for our FUN Goals and confidently write a few goals we don’t have to feel guilty over in our fun. Scripture 1: Psalm 90:12 TPT, “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.” When you realize just how fast this life goes by and how limited your days really are, you recognize the value in each day and you are no longer willing to waste your days. Girls, let’s make these days count. Have you ever noticed how it feels like time goes so much faster than it used to? And we all feel that way. Why is that? Well, there’s actually a scientific reasoning behind it. When you were a kid it seemed like an eternity from one birthday to the next, right? And now it feels like your birthdays come around so much faster. Here’s why. When you’re 8 years old, you only have 10 years of life experience to compare 1 year to. 1 year represents 1/10 of your entire life. It’s bigger to you. But, when you’re 40, 1 year is only 1/40th of your life, so it seems smaller in comparison, therefore going by faster. Now, here’s what you need to know – the older you get, the faster time will continue to go. If one year goes this fast at your age already, imagine 20 or 30 more years from now how you’ll blink and there goes another year. And that means your time to do everything you wanted to do with this one life is running out faster than you imagined. We don’t have to live in fear of running out of time when we live in awareness of the value and brevity of our days. My absolute favorite movie to watch at the beginning of a new year is “About Time” with Rachel McAdams. Without spoiling the movie, it’s about a family where the men are time travelers

Home/Money/Career Does God care about where you live, where you work, how much money you make and how you spend it? Absolutely. Jesus tells us to look at the birds and notice how God takes care of them, then know how much more valuable you are than the birds to God. Jesus tells us God is so intimately involved in the details of your life that he numbers the hairs on your head. NUMBERS. Not only counted, but numbered. Meaning when one hair falls out, he knows precisely which hair it was. And if God has the care and capacity to number your hairs, then I assure you he has the capacity to care about your home, your work and your money. Also, be aware of this – Satan loves to meddle in these things as well. He schemes in Hell how he can bring chaos and disorder to your home. How he can make you miserable in your work. How he can make you so consumed with the pursuit of money that your priorities become twisted. How he can make you continually unhappy because of what you don’t have and miss the blessing of what you do have. The spiritual battle is for real over your home, over your money and over your work. God wants to bless you, and Satan wants your blessings to become burdens. And that is why we must seek God for our goals. How do you live in the blessings without them becoming burdens? How do you pursue good things without the pursuit consuming you? How do you get every single thing God has for you without getting what the enemy pushes on you? Today, we will look at 5 scriptures directly from God’s word for guidance in setting our home/money/career goals for 2026. Scripture 1: Matthew 25:29, “To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.” Here’s what God knows – If you won’t take care of the little house, you most certainly won’t take care of the new big house. If you won’t show up on time for your hourly pay job, you won’t show up on time for your higher level promotion. If you don’t spend $100 wisely, you certainly wouldn’t spend a million wisely. We are continually revealing what we will do with more. Scripture says God has the ability and resources to generously provide everything you need. There’s nothing he can’t do and nothing he can’t give. It’s all under his power. We also know God is not a greedy God, but he is gracious and generous in abundance. He likes to pour to not just fill your cup, but overflow your cup. But, God is not foolish or reckless. In his divine wisdom, he watches to see how you use what you are given before giving you more. What if our prayer shifted from “Lord, give me more” to “Lord, I want to be faithful with what I already have. Thank you for this, now I want to use it well.” GOALS: • Be faithful with the work I have. • Care for what I have been given with delight. • Waste nothing. Scripture 2: Romans 12:13, “When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.” We aren’t given homes to hide behind our doors and create our safe little spaces. We aren’t given money to keep buying more stuff so we can hoard our treasures. We are entrusted with homes to offer hospitality. We are entrusted with things to give them. Out of greed, cynicism and self-protection, we have closed our doors, closed our hands and closed our hearts. God says, OPEN THEM BACK UP! Have you ever prayed for God to show you the needs around you, then you suddenly started noticing people you’ve never noticed before? Why are these needs around you? Because God put you in the middle of them to help! Stop falling for your own fear-driven excuses of not having time, not know what to do, and not being good enough to help. God wants to make you EAGER to help in 2026! GOALS: • Open my home, open my hands and open my heart to help • Be moved by what moves God, then get in motion • Offer my time, talents and treasures with no strings Scripture 3: Proverbs 2:9-10, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.” I don’t have barns with grain, nor do I have vats with wine, but I do have a business – I do have a family – I do have a bank account. And I know without a doubt those things get filled when I honor God by offering my best. God’s economy works very different. His math doesn’t make sense. The more you give him, the more you somehow end up having. God doesn’t want your leftovers, he wants your best. You honor him by offering your best. In a very practical sense, this means making everything you have an available offering. Have you ever given away something you really love? Just how good did that feel? Gosh, nothing compares

RELATIONSHIPS God cares about our relationships. He loves relationship. Think about this: Even God didn’t do his work alone. He specifically designed the trinity of himself, his son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to work together. That should tell us how important relationships are to God. In fact it’s why he created YOU. You were designed for relationship. You were never intended to do this life alone. God could have created Adam and stopped there. He could have enabled Adam to do everything alone. He could have made him a one man show with all the time in the world to do all the work – but he didn’t. God specifically created Eve for Adam, then blessed them with children. RELATIONSHIPS are God’s design, so YES, he cares about your family, your friends, your circle. And his word has so much to say as a guide to writing goals for those relationships in 2026. From his word, we discover our deepest and most powerful goals. Remember this, relationship goals are always about how YOU SHOW UP in your relationships, not how anyone else shows up. You cannot control them, so let them. When you let them, you ultimately let you. You let you show up as the wife, the mom, the daughter, the sister, the friend, the coworker, the neighbor God wants you to be. Relationship goals are 100% about how you show up, not about others showing up. Can you trust God enough in 2026 to get it right on his end when you are faithful with yours? I have 4 scriptures on relationships to share with you. Each of these becomes a guide for your goals. Scripture 1. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 (it’s the wedding scripture), “Love is patient, love is kind …” and it goes on for 4 verses giving us a list of how to specifically live in love. God knew we would struggle with this, so he literally spells it out for us. He says, “My girl, this is what you do and this is what you don’t do.” God actually knows what he’s talking about with relationships, remember he designed them and desired them for himself and you. Trust what he says and apply it to every relationship you have. Breaking down this familiar scripture point by point, we’re going to look at different translations to apply God’s word to our goals. Verse 4: “Love is patient, love is kind.” That means you don’t give up, it means be intentionally thoughtful. “Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.” That means don’t obsess about what you don’t have or what they don’t do, it means don’t force yourself on them, don’t demand to be first like you’re more important. Verse 5: “Love does not demand it’s own way. It is not irritable and it keeps no record of being wronged.” That means don’t keep score, it means don’t be overly sensitive and easily offended. Verse 6: “Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.” That means stop finding delight in what is wrong. Stop talking about them. Verse 7: “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” That means you always look for the best, it means you never take failure for defeat, it means you remain steadfast during difficult times. Do you see the relationship goals you need here? Yes!!!!! Go back, verse by verse, looking at different translations like the MSG translation, TPT translation, NKJV translation, AMP version. You’ll end up with the most powerful goals from God’s word for HOW YOU SHOW UP in your relationships. It has nothing to do with them, and everything to do with YOU! GOALS: • Be intentionally thoughtful. • Let them. (Read the book – The Let Them Theory) • Be un-offendable. • Stop talking about who is wrong and what they’re doing. • Look for the best in others. Scripture 2: Romans 12:18, “Do all you can to live in peace with everyone.” Does God want you to be at odds, nit picking, bickering and pointing fingers? NO – he wants YOU to do everything YOU CAN to live in peace with everyone. With who? EVERYONE! Yes, including your ex. Including your most difficult coworker. Everyone. It doesn’t matter what they do, it matters what you do. And what you do is everything you can to live in peace. God’s words! GOAL: Be at peace, keep peace, speak peace. Don’t be difficult. Scripture 3: Proverbs 18:21, “The tongue can bring death or life.” The words you say are either killing relationships are bringing them to life. What are you saying and how is it affecting others? You’re responsible for that. The words you speak to someone can live with them for the rest of their lives. Your words become a soundtrack in their mind they will play over and over again. You have no idea the power of every word you speak, so speak carefully. GOAL: Speak positive, life giving words of truth and affirmation. (

Welcome to the final countdown of 2025. Together, we will use these final days to fully seek God for guidance in planning the new year of life in the offering. What will you do with 2026? How will you live your days? What will you pursue? Who will you become? Life can just happen to you – or you can answer the call to live up to your potential as God’s masterpiece created in his image. Which will it be for you? It’s a decision only you get to make. You either settle, or you go for it. You either dismiss yourself, or you dare to believe God created you for more. You either belly up to the table God has set for you and dive in, or you refuse your seat and survive on scraps. Have you ever thought about what it actually means to be created in the image of God? It means that you and I set apart to uniquely reflect the power of our creator unlike any other creation. Within us, we have the potential of doing great things. You know, Jesus actually really meant it when he said, “Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works …” (John 14:12) Within you and I is the potential to do really great things. So … why don’t we just do them?!!!!! For real – let’s live up to our design and dare to be and do everything Jesus says we can. What if that’s what the new year is about? About daring to live up to your God-given potential. About doing the great things Jesus said you could do. About becoming everything God imagined when he created you in his image. You can’t live that life without seeking God first. Oh you can work and grind and strive and you can experience temporary highs and momentary successes, but they always come crashing down. Did you know people who achieve a big financial goal typically feel a depression after reaching that goal? You know why – they have the money, they are finally successful, they built the business, met the goal, but they still don’t like who they are. Every goal you will ever have is a temporary high from which you will come crashing down if you’re not becoming who God created you to be. If the inside doesn’t match the outside, the battle will rage. I’m a HUGE fan of goals. I’ve dedicated the past 16 years of my life to creating a goal setting system that really works. In the process, my life has radically changed. Yes, I’ve met some huge goals along the way. I’ve run the marathons, I’ve built the business, I’ve built the big house – then I sold that house and decided I’m better suited for being homeless and traveling, I’ve seen beautiful things and had awesome adventures. And all along, God has been sweet enough to let me do all those things while patiently waiting for me to discover something so much bigger, deeper and meaningful. It’s not the goal you set – it’s WHO you become to achieve that goal! The rest is just details my friend – it’s WHO you are becoming on this journey. This is the journey of becoming the image of God. Becoming the reflection of his light. Becoming the bearer of his good news. Becoming the vessel that carries his Spirit and shares his love. Does God care about the goals of achievement, the goals of success, the goals of personal dreams and desires – ABSOLUTELY!!!!!! As you surrender your life fully to Him, he becomes the author of your desires and they grow like seeds leading you to the live you were always designed to live, producing the fruit that honors him. God loves goals and here’s how I know. God is a God of vision. He had a vision for his creation, then he spoke it into existence. And when he created you and I, he created us in his own image with the ability to share his vision, speak it, create it and live it! The enemy of our soul also love goals. Goals that busy us, distract us, divide us and discourage us. Satan is happy to let you be successful and gain everything you’ve ever wanted if it means you lose your soul. Satan is always delighted to distract you with busy work so you never achieve your real life work. But most of the time we never reach success – we’re down here struggling with disappointment. We’ve lost our confidence, forfeited our power, twisted our identity, and settled for lesser than versions of who we were created to be – and the enemy of our soul is DELIGHTED! Well it’s about time that nonsense STOPPED! That’s why we’re doing GOALS and we’re doing them with GOD FIRST! Before you begin writing the things you want to achieve and the places you want to go in 2026, we will seek GOD FIRST. I really do believe Jesus when he says in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Everything else comes when you put God first. His kingdom means his way, his timing, his plan – seek th

GOAL SETTING BROADCAST TEXT KEYWORD GOALS TO (205) 709-2582 The day after Christmas… The day you wake up 5 pounds heavier to a big mess… The day after all the excitement… What do you have after the excitement? I assure you, life is a series of ups and downs. There will be things to look forward to, then those things will pass and there will be a lull. Almost an emptiness. A lost feeling. An uncertainty about where to focus your efforts next. Have you ever heard of a “Goal Hole”? It’s the hole you find yourself in after reaching a big goal. It’s that unexpected loss of motivation once you’ve arrived to where you were striving to get. It’s the day after Christmas, when suddenly you’re regretting all the Christmas decorations you put up this year. Can I trick you into believing you “GET TO” take them down now? What about the day after Jesus was born? This miraculous promise Mary had received was now a real life baby laying in a manger. Yeah, now what? If you study the 4 gospel accounts of Jesus, (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) each give different perspectives and details. Mark and John begin with Jesus being baptized as a man at about 30 years old. But Matthew and Luke go back and tell of the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus. Luke focuses more on the shepherds who came to see baby Jesus, but Matthew focuses more on the wise men that came. Can I be honest – I always got the two confused. I assumed it was just a difference in terminology thinking maybe shepherd meant the same thing as a wise man. And it’s actually, quite opposite. A shepherd was considered a very low class, often even shady fella. Yet, that is who God sent an angel to in Bethlehem and told them to go find the new born savior of the world lying in a manger. I love how God intentionally chose to send shepherds when the world would have never chosen them. But Matthew focuses on the other visitors looking for Jesus. They are the wise men, and they are literally very wise. They are scholars who studied the stars. And for these astrologers, they knew something magnificent had happened the night Jesus was born because a new star had appeared in the sky. Did you know that star is the reason why we put a star on top of our Christmas tree? It’s the reason why pictures of the nativity scene include a star. These wise men, scholars of the stars, knew from prophesy in the book of Numbers that a star would rise from God’s savior. And now, they’ve seen the star! Matthew 2:1-2 MSG “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him.” That last sentence just jumps off the page and grabs my heart this morning, on the day after Christmas. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him. This is what we do today. The day after Christmas, we are on pilgrimage. A mission, a journey, a quest to find and worship Jesus. We were thinking of him yesterday as we celebrated his birth, now today, we look for him! If you want your 2026 to be radically different, declare it to be the year of your PILGRIMAGE TO FIND AND WORSHIP JESUS! Where will you find Jesus today? Where will you find evidence of his saving grace in your life? Where will you notice his fingerprints on the unfolding miraculous details that otherwise appear so ordinary? Where will you look and find, this is undoubtedly the work of Jesus in my life! There’s simply no other way to explain this! This “band of scholars” we read about on their pilgrimage to worship Jesus are commonly referred to as the 3 wise men. They’re in the nativity scene, with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, divinely led to Jesus by a star in the sky. They found Jesus because they were looking for him. Just as we will find Jesus when we look for him. But, if we’re not looking today, we may overlook his presence in our lives. We may focus on the mess and miss the miracle. We may dwell on the burden of work and miss the blessing of worship. Let’s go looking for Jesus today! Let’s go on this pilgrimage to find and worship him! Let’s set out on a journey to seek him in every detail as life unfolds. Let’s be on a mission to recognize his fingerprints on all that appears so incredibly ordinary, and realize how truly extraordinary it is. Girl, you have no idea what Jesus did to make all of this possible for you. You didn’t even see the mountains he had to move to bring you here. You were never even aware of the seas he had to part to make this path for your next step. You were completely clueless of the battles he fought as you slept peacefully just last night. But if you will dedicate your journey to looking for him, your whole life will chang

The Bible has over 300 specific prophesies about the coming savior of the world. Hundreds, even thousands of years before, details like: He would come from a virgin birth, he would enter into Jerusalem on a donkey, he would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, he would be pierced and crucified, he would be resurrected back to life. The odds of 1 man fulfilling just EIGHT of the over 300 prophesies is statistically IMPOSSIBLE at 1 in 100 quadrillion. And that’s for only 8 of the prophesies. Jesus perfectly fulfilled each of the over 300 prophesies and details foretold. Jesus is the Messiah. He is the savior of the world. He is the one angels spoke of. It’s our Jesus, and now we celebrate him! Make it about Jesus!!!!! Read the Christmas story – Luke 2: 1-20 Vs 19: Notice what Mary did … “But Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.” Scripture often uses the word heart to represent the center of our thoughts and emotions. As she saw her miraculous new born baby laying wrapped in a manger, kneeling next to Joseph and now these shepherds who have come revealing what the angel had said about her baby, she kept it in her heart. She’s sitting in the moment, noticing everything, recognizing this is a profound spiritual experience. She’s seeing how God had worked through everyone and everything to make this happen. She’s noticing the divine alignment of every detail. She’s seeing how they had to travel at such an inconvenient time so she would be in Bethleham to give birth. She’s seeing how there had to be no room in the inn and the only place to lay her newborn baby would be a feeding trough, just as the angel told the shepherds he would be. She’s seeing how Joseph had every right and every reason to leave her when she mysteriously shows up pregnant, but God didn’t let that happen. God had aligned every detail, and now she’s sitting in the middle of those details, thinking about them and keeping them in her heart. She’s amazed by God. She’s content, fulfilled, humbled, grateful. And this is who we are called to be this Christmas. We’re called to be the one who notices the divine alignment of every detail in God’s work. Notice it. Sit in your moments and recognize the miracles in those moments. This does not require the presence or participation of another living soul … just you. Intentionally noticing. Noticing the beauty. Noticing the moment. Noticing the miraculous. These days hold the potential for precious memories, but you miss those precious memories if you rush through them and focus on trying to make things perfect. Stop. Just be here. Be fully here. Notice. It’s okay if the house gets messy. It’s okay if the kids get wild. It’s okay if everyone is still in their pajamas. It’s okay if dinner is served late. It’s okay if you eat dessert first. It’s okay. You don’t have to control it or fix it, just notice all the good there is to notice. Notice the sounds. Notice the smells. Notice the flavor. Notice the sights. Notice the moments. My sister, you’ve been missing entirely too many of your moments. Moments that held the potential for precious memories. Moments that were nothing short of miraculous. Don’t miss these! Mary kept these things in her heart and thought about them often. It’s time to store up some beautiful things in your heart so you can think about them often. Notice the beauty in the moment, as is. See the life that is unfolding in front of you, this is life that is passing and you’ll never get back. My prayer for you today and the coming days as you celebrate the birth of our Jesus, is that you have intentional and on purpose Mary moments. That you remember this. That you slow down. That you pause. That you listen. That you feel it fully. That you store up that moment in your heart so you can think about it often. Remember this, your time on this earth is a gift to be used wisely. Don’t waste your words or your thoughts. Consider even the simplest action you take, for your life matters beyond measure … and it matters forever. You only get one shot at this thing called life … start noticing it as it happens. Every time you hear or say Merry Christmas, think about a Mary Christmas. Mary, the noticer. Mary, the one who stored up precious and miraculous moments in her heart so she could think about them often. We’re called to be the one who notices the divine alignment of every detail in God’s work. Notice it. Sit in your moments and recognize the miracles in those moments. My friends, my your day be filled with Mary Moments, and may you have a Mary Christmas. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Sometimes God’s blessings don’t exactly look or feel like blessings. Sometimes they feel like an inconvenience. Sometimes they look like an unwelcome change. Sometimes blessings come in the form of everything you think you want absolutely falling apart. Mary had her life planned out. This little small town girl was engaged to Joseph, they were going to get married within the next year, they would then have a house of their own and start their little family. She would grow her own little garden, make perfect loaves of sourdough bread, and sew matching clothes for her family. That was the plan. It was a good plan and it was all coming together. All her good plans were interrupted by a visit from the angel Gabriel. Out of nowhere, Gabriel delivers a message from God and basically says, “So, Mary – you are so favored by God that your plans are going to be wrecked. Before you get married, before you get your own little house and before you grow your garden, you’re going to be miraculously pregnant and have God’s son!” In a time when adultery was punishable by death, this did not feel like a blessing. This was a crisis. Joseph would know there was no way this baby could be his, so he would surely leave her, then everyone would assume Mary had been unfaithful. Judgement would come. Punishment. Shame. There was no possible scenario Mary could imagine in her head that would make this socially acceptable. Knowing how this looked and felt to Mary, here was her reply – Luke 1:38, Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” That would be easy to say if an angel has just told you you’re winning the lottery. Okay, LET IT BE! That would be easy to say if an angel had just told you the doors have been divinely opened to your dreams and it’s all going to happen for you. Yes, may it come true! But Mary has just been told her whole world is going to flip upside down. She will have a mysterious pregnancy no one will understand, which will likely mean she will lose her fiance, she will be shamed in public, and maybe even stoned to death. And to this Mary says, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” My friends, this is what really trusting God’s plan looks like. This is a picture of faith when it not only doesn’t make sense, but when it scares you to death. God, I trust you so much, I CHOOSE your way even when it’s the hard way. There’s a song by Ben Fuller and Carrie Underwood called “If It Was Up To Me”. It says: If it was up to me, there’d be no gravel roads No wounds, no blisters on my soul Pain might come, but it wouldn’t come for me If it was up to me, I’d take the easy ride But I’d miss the grace that changed my life Thank God, I’m not the one in charge of things I’d never know how good your plans could be If it was up to me You see, if it was up to me, I would have skipped every hard day I’ve ever had. But I would miss the extra sweetness of the good days. If it was up to me, I would have never gotten sick, I would have never lost a loved one, I would have never experienced pain in my most important relationships. But then these knees would have never hit the floor and I would have never known the power of my prayers. I would have forfeited my testimony, missed my calling, missed my purpose, and missed the lives I’m here to impact. I’m sure Mary wouldn’t have chosen a mysterious pregnancy that would potentially ruin her relationships and her reputation, but she accepted God’s plan with tremendous faith. God, if you’re saying it, then I trust it. God, if you’re telling me this is a blessing, even when it doesn’t look like it or feel like it, I will receive it as a blessing and walk in it with gratitude. God, I am your servant. May everything you have said about me come true. Whew – I’m not so sure I’m there yet on my faith journey, if I’m being honest. I still have my idea of what would be best. I still hold on to what a blessing looks like and when it doesn’t look or feel like a blessing, I tend to fight it. BUT I WANT TO GET THERE! I want to receive every inconvenience, every change of plan, every heartache and disappointment, every hardship and every delay, with grace and faith instead of doubt and complaining. I never want to whine again. I never want to be pitiful again. I sure want to be a whole lot more like Mary. I’m just not there yet. But do you know how we get better? We see examples of who we want to be and how we want to live. Mary is our example. It’s easy to read this story, knowing what we know now, and think Mary was lucky to be chosen. Oh, but first, Mary’s entire world was flipped upside down and every plan she had stood to be sacrificed – YET she said, &#

Your feelings about a situation do not change God’s power over that situation. God is not limited by feelings. God is not limited by chances or odds. God is not limited by timelines or conditions. If God speaks it, it will happen. Done. Deal. Your circumstances may not be telling you the truth. There could be sooooo much more happening than what you see. There may be an act of God Almighty happening in places you cannot yet see. You may not feel it yet, but your feelings do not limit the power of God. Mary was a young teenage girl living in the tiny, forgotten town of Nazareth. Nazareth was nothing. It was miles away from a road and didn’t have a good source of water. No one important had ever come from Nazareth, and no one there had ever done anything great. This town had never been mentioned before. I come from a small town like that. A small town where everyone knows who you are and what you’re doing. It’s the kind of town where you don’t see examples of anyone ever leaving or doing great things. So, I never dreamed of leaving. The jobs available in my small town were the jobs I imagined having. My mama worked at the only factory in town, so I assumed I would work at that same factory. The thought that God would have something different for me was completely foreign. I was a no one with nothing, and there was absolutely nothing special about me. That’s what happens in small towns. You only know what you know, and you simply don’t know much. Nazareth was a town of only a few hundred people. Mary growing up in Nazareth meant she was a humble, small town girl, who likely never considered herself to be anyone special. But just because you don’t feel special doesn’t mean God doesn’t consider you special. Just because you never expected God to do something special for you doesn’t mean God isn’t already working in the unseen in special ways for you. In Luke chapter 1, we’re unexpectedly introduced to Mary, living in her tiny country village. Verse 26-33, “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, ‘Greetings favored woman! The Lord is with you!’ Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. ‘Don’t be afraid, Mary,’ the angel told her, ‘for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end.'” Mary was not expecting this. Her life was simple and uneventful. She likely spent her days doing laundry, sweeping dirt floors, helping her mother cook meals, training for her upcoming opportunity to have a house of her own once she married Joseph. She had never been told she was favored before. She had never been singled out and chosen. She had never dared to dream of anything different or bigger for her life. Yet, here was this angel telling her the most unimaginable things. Telling her she was chosen to be a mother to a future King that would reign forever. But this didn’t make sense to Mary. How could this happen? She was a virgin, awaiting marriage to Joseph. And what the angel is telling her is, “That’s why I’m here – to tell you that your limited circumstances are not revealing the truth to you, your conditions are not true, and what you feel doesn’t matter.” You think you’re a nobody from nowhere with a very certain and limited future ahead of you, but God sent me to tell you there’s something happening that you cannot imagine!!!! Yes, that’s what the angel was telling Mary. And that’s what I’m here to tell you today. You may feel like a nobody – you may come from nothing – you may have never done anything great in your entire life – but God has so much more for you. You have been chosen for more! There are things happening in the unseen that you have not dared to imagine yet. Why you? Because of God! God chose you! Ephesians 1:4, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” You see yourself as the girl that never quite seems to get it right – the girl who starts but always stops – the girl who gets in her head and gets stuck – the girl who says she will, but then she won’t – the girl who secretly struggles and feels flawed. BUT GOD SEES SOMETHING DIFFERENT IN YOU! God sees you without fault. Holy. Perfect for his good plans and unlimited power. God sees the girl he has chosen for his blessings and favor. God sees the girl his power can work perfectly in. Why? Because you have areas of weakness. It&

The number 1 question I receive is, “How do I know God’s will for my life?” What they’re saying to me is, how do I know God’s voice? How do I know if that thought, or that feeling, or that stirring within is from God or from the devil? Maybe you don’t trust yourself anymore. You’ve made so many wrong choices, acted on impulse chasing after the wrong things, that now you can’t trust yourself. That’s actually good. Coming to the place where you know that you alone can’t get this right is a great place to be. Knowing you’re not self-sufficient is a beautiful first step of a surrendered life. Knowing you can’t lead yourself is how you learn to follow Jesus. But there’s one way to learn to trust your inner voice – let that inner voice be filled with God’s words. If it’s God’s word, then it’s not wrong. However, on a very practical level, how do you get God’s words to become your inner voice? ONE WAY, my friends, ONE SIMPLE WAY. The only way God’s word gets in you is to put it there. Read it, listen to it, study it. The more you read God’s word, the more his word gets in you. The more his word is in you, the more you will hear his voice. Think about it like this – what is someone’s voice? It’s the words they speak, right. So if you want to hear God’s voice, you’re looking for his words. The Bible is filled with God’s words! This is how you get his voice. How do you know God’s will for your life? You read his word. How do you come to know the difference between a thought or a feeling that comes from God verses the ones that come from the devil or your own imagination? You read God’s word and learn what his voice says. That’s how you’ll recognize it. If you’ve been listening to me very long, you know my voice. You know the things I say. You know the words I use. So, if you were to read this devotional instead of listen to it, you would still know it was me. You would even read it in your head with my voice. You’ve heard me say, “Good morning, Beautiful” so many times that now when you see it on a coffee mug, you’re like, “Oh, that’s Pamela!” You recognize me now because you know my words. If you know God’s words you’ll recognize him. Plain and simple, there’s no other way to know God’s voice. When people talk about, “Well, the Lord told me this or that …” there’s a filter to put that through – Does that sound like God? If someone says, “Well, the Lord told me leave my husband and chase after yours”, I know that’s not from God because it doesn’t sound like God. How do I know what God sounds like? I READ HIS WORD! Even on days when I feel like the words I’m reading don’t make sense or don’t apply to my life right now, I’m learning God’s voice. Nothing is wasted when it comes from him. So, let’s be clear – if you’re questioning how to know God’s will for your life and how to hear from God, the answer is you get to know his voice. His voice is the words he speaks, and our Bibles are a written transcript of his words. And while you may not be able to open your Bible to the exact answer to your questions and see in black and white what your next step is, you’re learning to recognize his voice. And once you recognize his voice, then you start noticing those thoughts, those feelings and those little stirrings you sometimes feel are actually God speaking directly to you. You’ll miss them if you don’t know his voice. And you only know his voice by reading his word. Before you can hear it, sense it or decipher it, first you have to read it. Oh I know, you want to HEAR God speak to you, but you don’t want to READ it. Well, my sister, you’re not going to hear it until you read it. Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden your word in my heart.” The person who has hidden God’s word in their heart is the person who can then hear from God and know for sure it’s him. Of course the enemy of your soul would prefer you NEVER tap into knowing God’s voice. That’s why he fights so hard to keep you distracted and busy. That’s why you find it so hard to sit down and read your Bible. There are divine words in there for you, and those words are your weapon against the devil. Here’s the weapon most of us don’t realize we have – When we pray God’s words, we are affirming who God is and what God says as an offering of faith to God, as a reminder of truth to ourselves, and as a block to the enemy. Do you realize you have all the right words to pray IN YOUR BIBLE! You don’t have to conjure up words on your own – just repeat what your Father said. If you’re praying for someone who is sick

There’s two sides to every coin. Just because the coin lands on heads doesn’t mean tails no longer exists. They’re both there. They co-exist together, heads and tails. God sees your situation much like a coin. There are two sides to it. The two sides co-exist together. Now, he’s asking you to see the two sides and trust him with the flip. Hold on to that, because we’re coming back to it. An ah-ha moment is just a few minutes away! Know there are the two sides and trust him with the flip. We’ve been studying the story of Abram and Sarai, the old couple never able to have children. For 25 years, Abram has waited for God to fulfill his promise of future descendants. In Genesis chapter 17, God gives them each a new name. Abram becomes Abraham, which means the father of many nations. And for Sarai, she becomes Sarah, which means “mother of nations.” Now, with new names given by God at the age of 100 for Abraham, and 90 for Sarah, they are visited by 3 men. And what they didn’t know at the time was, these 3 men weren’t just strangers wandering through their town, it was the Lord and 2 angels. Genesis 18, starting in verse 10: “One of them said, ‘I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!’ Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself and said, ‘How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my husband is also so old?’ Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.'” Hmmmm, did you catch that? Verse 14, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” The Hebrew word used here for ‘hard’ is hă-yip-pā-lê. Is anything too hă-yip-pā-lê for the Lord? Too hard. Maybe you’re facing a situation right now that seems too hă-yip-pā-lê. Instead of getting better, it’s getting worse. It’s too far gone, too broken, and too late. Too hă-yip-pā-lê. Too hard. But this word, hă-yip-pā-lê, too hard, has another meaning. We find this same Hebrew word in Psalm 139:14, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Your works are hă-yip-pā-lê, I know that full well. hă-yip-pā-lê means too hard on one side of the coin, but on the other side it means wonderful! Same word, same coin, both are true. If it’s too hard, on the other side of it is something wonderful! Abraham and Sarah having a baby at their age with her old womb was too hard … and it was wonderful! God flipped that coin and gave them a wonderful miracle. Let me tell you, God can do that! Whatever hă-yip-pā-lê you’re facing at the moment is too hard for you alone, but on the other side of it is something absolutely wonderful. When you’re on the side of the coin that is too hard, know this – When you’re not okay, God is still good. God is good even if your heart hurts, even if your whole world seems to be breaking. God’s goodness doesn’t depend on your situation. You can continue trusting him despite your circumstance. He is still good even when life is not. Wonderful is on the other side of this, and God can flip it at any moment. hă-yip-pā-lê too hard – hă-yip-pā-lê wonderful. God is the God of both sides of that coin. There’s a saying I love that says: I asked God, “Why are you taking me through troubled water?” He replied, “Because your enemies can’t swim.” Your enemy can’t survive the part of this that’s too hard. Your pride can’t swim in those trouble waters. Pride drowns in this hardship. Your self-sufficiency will be found insufficient, and it will be left in these troubled waters. Your plans can’t swim. They’re dropping to the bottom. Your money doesn’t save you and your good looks won’t help you in these waters. The story you tell and the fake facade you’ve built around you are washed away here. These are all your enemies. The things you’ve battled from within. And God takes you through this troubled water because your enemies can’t swim. It’s too hard hă-yip-pā-lê here in this troubled water by design. What’s the design? So you can walk out of this trouble free of everything that has been holding you back, everything that has been eating at you from the inside, and you can experience God’s hă-yip-pā-lê, his wonderful! You don’t have to hate the hard seasons, on the other side is something wonderful. Abraham and Sarah had experienced the hard side of the coin for years and years and years. And now, here&#82

When God moves, a shift takes place. Heaven responds. Mountains start moving. Seas start parting. Walls start crumbling. Chains start breaking. When God moves, impossible becomes possible. It happens in an instant when God moves. However you and I do not know when God will move. We don’t know his timing. We don’t see the timeline of his plan. It’s not our job to understand when or how – it’s our job to know WHO. Who will do this? God will. When? No idea. How? No clue. When life feels uncertain, God is in control. When you feel forgotten, God’s eye is on you. When it feels too late, God knows the time. Isaiah 60:22, “At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen.” So, it still hasn’t happened for you? Then my sister, it’s not the right time yet. But when the right time comes, God will move and everything you’ve been waiting for will go into motion. What God has for you, is for you. You can trust his timing. You can trust his plan. You can trust his move. And let’s be clear – this is God’s move, not yours. You can’t force this – atleast not the really good stuff. You can force the lesser than, imitation version of this. You can cut corners and jump through loop holes to find something you could settle for faster. But if you want the best stuff from Heaven’s storehouse, then you must wait for God’s move. He will make it happen, and he will make it happen at the RIGHT time. When Abram was 75 years old, God promised to give him so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted. Wooohoooo, a word from the Lord. A promise to hold on to! That’s fantastic. Then, nothing. 10 years later, now at 85 years old, the Lord speaks to Abram in a vision. He takes him outside and says to him, “Look up into the sky and count he stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” Another promise followed by nothing actually happening. In this desperate wait is when sad and sick hearts make bad choices and create messes with a servant girl named Hagar and her baby. Abram and his wife were willing to settle. They were willing to accept a baby any way they could get it. But that was not God’s plan. Right now, maybe you’re willing to settle. You’re so tired of waiting that you’ll take a “good enough” version you can have now and sacrifice God’s best that you still can’t have. I’m so grateful God knows his girls. He knows our tender hearts. He knows our loneliness. He knows our minds that so easily play tricks on us, putting lipstick on pigs and creating fixer upper situations that would be a disaster. And he covers us with his grace. GRACE TO WAIT FOR GOD’S BEST. Father, close the doors I would so easily run through that lead to the second rate version of your plans for me. Block the way that leads me to my plans and guide me to the narrow path that leads me to yours. Help me to wait patiently for your move. Patient waiting isn’t just about what we get at the end of the wait, it’s about who we become in the waiting. This is where God molds us. It’s where we find joy in the simple things as we wait on the big thing. It’s where we find that actually God is enough. After Abram waited for 10 years and God shows him the stars in the sky that number his future descendants, guess what miraculous thing happened next. Go ahead and guess. Guess how God moved. Guess how everything changed in an instant. Guess how 10 years of waiting became worth it. It didn’t. Nothing changed. Abram received a renewed promise of children and still nothing changed. No move from God. In fact, following along in Genesis 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, Abram didn’t hear from God again for 15 years. It’s now been 25 years since God first told Abram of his promise over his family and his future. All this time, God could have moved, the wait could have ended, and Abram could have received his blessing. Abram had been faithful. He had been patient. He was the recipient of God’s divine covenant, covered in a promise God would never break, yet here Abram was waiting in the silence of God. God says, “I heard your prayers, now trust my timing.” And he’s actually saying that to YOU today. You’re so quick to say, “I just never hear from God.” But, honey, you just did. He’s responding to you right now. I HEARD YOUR PRAYERS, NOW TRUST MY TIMING. I once put God on my timeline. I kept making deals with God to bring an end to my wait. What was I waiting on? I was waiting for my family to be healed, whole and together. I was waiting for the prodigal to come home. I was waiting for everything to be made right again. I would get my hopes up for a specific timeline, and it wouldn’t happen, so I would continually extend the timeline. “God, by next month.”

Do you ever feel like you’re not the main character in the story? Like God’s promises aren’t for you? Like the good plans don’t include you? Like you’re left on the outskirts watching everyone else get their turn and their blessings? My sister, I want to tell you the truth about YOU, and if you will receive it, it can change that deep feeling of unworthiness you’ve always battled. This truth can heal that broken place within you that makes you feel like you’re never good enough. Here’s the truth about you – God’s eye is personally on you. You are chosen. You are special. You are seen. You are set apart. There are blessings specifically for you. Your name is known and his plan for you is sure. I encourage you to look up Jeremiah 1:5 and read it in several different translations. MSG – “Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you.” TPT – “I had divine plans for you before I gave you life, and I set you apart and chose you to be mine.” AMP – “Before I formed you I knew you and approved of you as my chosen instrument.” GNT – “I chose you before I gave you life and before you were born I selected you.” You know what this tells me – it tells me it was never up to you to get chosen. It was never about your performance or your success. If God chose you before you were even born and set you apart for his holy plans and approved you as his chosen instrument before you ever took your first breath, that means you were good enough in the mind of God from the very beginning. It means you have always been worthy because God designed you as worthy. Situations and circumstances do not determine your worth, DESIGN determines your worth. God designed you as worthy. You are the main character of God’s plans for your life. Every day of your existence is covered in the personal promises of God. If you’re on the outskirts, honey, it’s because you’re sitting where you don’t belong. You are seen, known, chosen, set apart, approved and loved. Nothing about that tells me you’ve been overlooked or dismissed. You may feel unimportant, but your feelings are not fact. They are fickle. Stop being led by feelings and be led by what God says about you. Let me tell you something, the day you stand up with some fire in your eyes and courage in your gut and declare, “God has good plans for me!”, everything changes. Within the well-known story of Abram and Sarai awaiting their promised baby from God, is an unlikely character. A servant girl named Hagar. She has no home of her own, no family of her own, no big plans for her future. She seemingly just belongs to Sarai as her servant. But Hagar belongs to God! While her positioning seems less important, she is of tremendous importance to the God who created her and chose her. He sees her. He hears her. And he has good plans her. Hagar got caught in the middle of Sarai’s bad idea born from a sick and broken heart. Sarai so desperately wanted her promised baby that she steps in and tries to help God. Anyone else ever try to “help” God? I mean surely God has his hands really full trying to handle the problems of the whole world and he would appreciate my help with my problems. I’ll just help myself and save God the trouble. You’ve heard it said, “God helps those who help themselves.” Hmmmmm, totally NOT in your Bible. For real, that’s not at all scriptural. God helps those who call on him, those who trust in him, those who are hurting and weak. NOT THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES. Those who help themselves instead of seeking God’s help create messes. The self-sufficient eventually become self-destructive. Why? Because self-sufficient is sin. It is not God’s will for you to make anything happen on your own. Sarai decided to make that baby happen with her own plans, so she talks her husband, Abram, into sleeping with her servant, Hagar. Abram agreed, but Hagar had no say in this arrangement. It wasn’t her plan. It wasn’t her desire. It became her assignment by the people she worked for. So, to the delight and scheming of Sarai, Hagar the servant girl becomes pregnant by Abram. But then guess what happens? Jealousy! Envy! Competition! We have a girl quarrel over God’s blessings. Genesis 16, starting in verse 4, “When Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt.” (Hagar became proud and treated Sarai as insignificant because of her infertility. She basically flaunted the fact that she was the pregnant one. Finally, for the first time, Hagar was someone important, and she didn’t handle it well.) “Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she

Have you ever wanted something so bad, but you couldn’t get it? Have you ever desperately longed for something to change, but it still wasn’t changing? Your whole body begins to ache. When there’s this one thing you truly want but it’s left unfulfilled, eventually even the good areas of your life have a dark heaviness over them. When what you’re hoping for isn’t happening, you hurt. That’s natural. You’re human. Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Meaning when what you hope for is continually delayed, your heart becomes sick. And my sister, when your heart becomes sick, you are in danger of doing really stupid things to make you feel better. Have you ever done something you knew wasn’t right, but it was the only way you had a chance of getting what you wanted? You cheated. You twisted things. You ran right through the caution tape and ignored every red flag. You rushed it. You forced it. You got your way. And your way ended up being a mess. You were temporarily happy, then sorely disappointed. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, and a sick heart is very susceptible to bad choices. Desperation is not a place from which to make plans for the future. Desperation is a place for your knees to hit the floor and seek God. Your heart cannot be trusted here, but God’s can. Let’s continue our study of the book of Genesis, picking up in chapter 16. Abram and Sarai are now in their 70’s and 80’s and they’ve never had children. Back then, being barren was a social stigma. You were looked at with curious eyes, wondering why you were being punished. If you weren’t blessed with children for your lineage, then surely you were cursed. Cursed for what, became the question everyone had when they looked at you. Surely you had some sort of hidden sin, some sort of disobedience to bring this deep shame upon you. Everyone knew Abram and Sarai had prayed for a baby, and as the years went on and on and on, it was an added shame to know God wasn’t answering them. Sarai felt cheated. She felt punished for some unknown sin she didn’t know how to fix. All she had hoped for was a baby, and now at 76 years old, her heart had grown sick from all that hope being deferred. Waiting and waiting until now, all hope was gone. It was too late. Hopeless. Heart broken. Sick-hearted. Desperate. And susceptible to any idea that might fix her problem and change the situation. Again, this is a dangerous place to be. So Sarai gets an idea. An idea born from a sick heart. Genesis 16: 1-2, “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, ‘The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.'” That’s a broken sick heart talking. That’s an idea born from a place of brokenness. And it was a bad idea. Abram sleeps with his wife’s servant, and that woman does become pregnant. What follows is straight out of a Jerry Springer episode. Chaos. Drama. Division. Jealousy. Disaster. Why? Because a sick and hurting heart was bearing ideas and making the decisions. If you’re in a place of dark hopelessness, hurting because what you’ve wanted simply isn’t happening, please know this – God wants to hold your heart. He wants to heal your heart that has become sick from the continual delay of what you’ve been hoping for. And he CAN HEAL THIS. Somehow, someway, he will make this okay. Psalm 147:3, “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” We are the sheep and he is the good Shepherd. We desperately need him to bandage our wounds and heal our hearts. If your leg were broken, I wouldn’t judge you because you’re walking with a limp. So my sister, if your heart is broken, there’s no judgment for past choices made in your hurt. There’s healing for that. You can trust God with this. You can trust his plan. You can trust his way. You can trust his timing. You can’t trust your own. Not when your heart is sick and hurting. Psalm 55:22 TPT, “Leave all your cares and anxieties at the feet of the Lord, and measureless grace will strengthen you.” Can you believe that could be true for you? Could you receive God’s measureless grace to fill these holes and somehow bless you in this reality? God’s grace is his undeserved favor, love and divine assistance. It’s his involvement in the details of your life. God’s grace makes impossible things possible, it makes dark things to be filled with his light, it turns Hell’s intended harm into Heaven’s good. Grace turns barren wombs into future mothers, long waits into destined timelines, broken relationships into stories of redemption, and sick hearts into a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.