BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

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.

God is in covenant with you. He has spoken a promise over your life, one he will not break. He is in agreement with how he will care for you, how he will bless you, and the future he has waiting for you. The crazy thing is, you may not be in agreement with him – you may be fighting him. You may not even believe him. But that does not change God’s covenant with you. We really don’t talk about covenants much today. Now, we sign contracts for our agreements. And we often break our contracts and cancel our agreements. Yeah, I thought I wanted to stay here for a full year, but now I don’t, so I’m breaking this lease. I thought I wanted to be married to you for the rest of my life, but nahhhh, I’m not feeling it now, let’s get divorced. Contracts are now something we scroll through to simply get to the bottom of the page, click agree, and submit a digital signature. They don’t even mean anything to us anymore. But a covenant – a covenant was sealed with blood. A covenant is irreversible and forever. And God has a covenant concerning YOU. He made that covenant with Abram, and it was a promise for all his descendants. 4,000 years later, you and I are his descendants. We are among the counted stars God promised him so long ago. My sister, YOU ARE INCLUDED. You were included then and you are included now. A blood covenant was a seal of a promise, and while the scene of a covenant would look quite gruesome to us today, in the day of Abram, it was quite familiar. Animals would be killed, and their carcasses would be split in half. The two halves would then be laid out on the ground with a narrow path between them. So, essentially, you would have the left side of cow on one side of the path, and the right side of the cow on the other side. The same with a goat. Each animal split in half, divided with a narrow path between them. Then, the parties going into agreement with one another would walk that path together, often holding hands. They would recite the terms of their agreement together as they passed through the slain and divided animals. Each would make a commitment that if they broke the promise to the other, they themselves would be torn apart like these sacrificed animals. Blood would be on them and their families if they broke their promise. A covenant was never made with the thought of breaking it in the future if something changed. A covenant was never a decision made in the moment like a midnight wedding in front of Elvis in Las Vegas. A covenant wasn’t a “let’s give this a whirl and see if we like it” kind of thing. A covenant was an all-in commitment with agreed upon non-negotiable terms. If you and I walked hand and hand through a path of split animal carcasses, making a covenant to go into business together – You and I were in business together forever. No loop holes, no expiration, no addendums. Done deal. Hmmmm, imagine if weddings today looked like true covenants. Animal carcass is a very different color choice than most are going for these days. And that level of commitment is hard to find too, huh? So, remember how God makes a promise to Abram that his descendants will be as many as there are stars in the sky, and while Abram and his wife are now old and can’t have children, he dared to BELIEVE GOD, and because of his faith he was counted as righteous. That was an awesome moment of faith. Wow. Then, God makes another promise to Abram. (And that’s really how God works. If you can believe him for one promise, then he’ll make more promises to you. If you trust God with one thing, he will trust you with more.) So God sees that Abram will trust him with something as impossible as children at this point in his life, so God starts making more promises. Genesis 15:7, “Then the Lord told him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur to give you this land as your possession.'” This land was the sought after land of Canaan. Abram had no way of obtaining this land. No way of fighting for it, buying it, or claiming it. So he couldn’t understand HOW God was going to give it to him. And that’s when Abram says, “Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?” Remember, it’s okay to have questions. It’s okay to believe and have unbelief at the same time. God can handle our questions. He can handle our fears. He can handle our tendency to over-think. And he will handle it if we give it to him! Just give him those doubts. That’s what Abram did. He didn’t pretend to understand what he couldn’t understand. He didn’t try to manufacture a feeling that wasn’t there. He didn’t hide behind fake faith. No, he honestly said, “Lord, how can I be sure?!!!!” And now, you have to know what God does next! This is how God responds to the questions of our heart. This is how God responds when we bring him our fears and doubts

Do you have something you’re believing God for, but you’re still battling for it to make sense in your mind? Some days it’s easy to believe what could be, and other days you wake up to current reality so hard that you can barely get out of bed. What do you do on those days? On the days when what you believe God CAN do and what is happening right now seem to be a world apart. On days when the gap between what you’re believing for and what you’re going through is a massive divide. What do you do on those days? You get real with God. Yes, just be honest. God wants to fill that gap, so don’t hide it from him in shame, invite him into it! Lord, I believe you can do anything, but right now nothing seems to be happening, so come fill this gap. I hear you, Lord – but I don’t see you, Lord. I need more help from you here. That’s the kind of relationship God is calling you into. A real one where you’re honest and you hold nothing back from him. There was once a father who’s son suffered from convulsions and seizures. The father brought his son to Jesus for healing and says, “Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” Can’t you hear the desperation in the father’s plea. Have mercy. Please, if you can help us, I’m begging for your help. And Jesus says this in reply, “What do you mean, ‘If I can?’ Anything is possible if a person believes.” Mark 9:24, “The father instantly cried out, ‘I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!'” There it is. That’s what you do on those days. On the days when you’re believe what could be, but your reality nearly cripples you. On the days when you believe what God CAN do but it’s a world apart from what is happening right now. On the days when there’s a massive divide between what you’re believing for and what you’re going through. On those days, you cry out to Jesus with all your belief and all your doubt, all your knowing and all your questioning, all your surrender and all your desire to still control it – “Jesus, I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” What? You think God would be disappointed if you admitted you struggle with part of you not believing he can get it right? You think God would be hurt by your questioning? Girl, God knows exactly how you really feel. He knows precisely how you’re struggling to fit his promises and your reality in the same box. He knows about that gap between what you’re believing for and what you’re going through, and all he wants is for you to stop hiding it from him and invite him into it. Lord, here’s the gap I’m struggling with – the things I don’t understand – the things I can’t see even being possible at this point – and I’m inviting you into this gap where my unbelief resides. Here’s my unbelief, help me to overcome it. I believe you, God, but I’m still struggling. You don’t have to hide in shame over your unbelief, you have to ask God to help you in it. You don’t have to be ashamed of the desires of your heart that are a far cry from current reality, you just have to invite God into the gap between the two. The father cries out to Jesus in honesty, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” And do you know what happens next? Jesus commands the spirit to come out of the boy, takes the him by the hand and helped him stand. As the father was struggling with holding both his belief and unbelief, Jesus healed his son. Jesus doesn’t need your belief to be perfect and without wavering. What he’s asking of you is to acknowledge the part of you that still struggles to believe and just invite him into it. Help me here, Jesus, where I still don’t get it. I believe you can get it right, but I’m still holding part of this back. Help me to surrender it all to you. In our study of Genesis, we see the 75 year old Abram who was married to his barren wife Sarai, and they couldn’t have children. All Abram wanted was a family. But the reality was, it was impossible. What’s the point in continuing to hope for something that is totally impossible? And that’s when God takes him outside and says, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” WOW! Amazing. In that moment, Abram believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. Then when God told Abram what was next, Abram went from a place of believing to a place of doubting. He was back in the gap of reality not aligning with God’s promise, so he questioned. And that’s what we’re supposed to do. Questioning is okay – but it must be correctly placed. Questioning doesn’t stay in your head. Questioning doesn’t stay in your heart. Questioning doesn&#

What do God’s rewards look like? They look like impossible things being made possible. They look like things you could have never even dreamed up in your own mind. God’s rewards are bigger, better and sweeter than what you even asked for. They are exceedingly great. And God rewards the ones who have messed things up. He rewards the ones who have failed along the way. The ones who thought their plans were better than God’s instructions, so they did their own thing their own way. God doesn’t cancel his rewards for the less than perfect, he leads them right to his rewards with grace and mercy. He covers us, forgives us, guides us, teaches us, and redeems us. Again and again, he rewards us in ways we could never be good enough to earn. Yesterday as I was wrapping Christmas gifts for my family, I realized God’s rewards in my life. Is my life perfect – no. There are some messy uncertainties, hurts and unhealed wounds. There are some struggling relationships and painful distances. Each of those gifts will be shipped in boxes today because no one is coming home … and I’m okay with that. We will be alone for Christmas, but fully aware of God’s exceedingly great rewards. I don’t get to share everything with you here because some things are private. But sometimes things need to be shared so God’s glory is made known. In the past year, we’ve walked a path with both of our daughters that seemed hopeless. Just this last Christmas, not only did they not come home but they wouldn’t even call. I didn’t tell you that. Every morning I was charged with the task of showing up here with a new devotional to share in pure delight as our family was broken. God has taught me how to walk through hard times and still be filled with joy. He’s taught me how to walk through the dark valley while talking about beautiful promised mountaintops. And let me tell you, HE’S NEVER FAILED ME ONCE. Last year at this time, one daughter’s marriage had fallen apart and she was walking away from her husband and her 2 year old son. That’s the truth. It didn’t look like it could EVER be okay again. The other daughter was going her own way in darkness, leaving a trail of disaster behind her and blaming us for most of it. She was caught in a world of chaos, bouncing from couch to couch and struggling to buy food. But God did not fail us. He didn’t walk away and leave us to try and fix it. In fact, we had nothing to do with fixing it. We prayed – God worked. We’re still praying – and he’s still working. But let me tell you how radically different our family looks this year. In one year, the daughter who was leaving her husband and 2 year old son is with her little family, they’re in Church and they’re seeking God. She sent me 2 texts this week. 1 text was of the 3 of them in matching Christmas pajamas all piled up on the couch together. That’s a miracle! Their divorce is cancelled! The 2nd text was telling me how they caught their little boy talking to himself and then realized he was praying. He was saying, “Thank you for Poppy and Franny.” (I’m Franny!). She told me they’ve been praying together as a family, and he’s started repeating them. Y’all that’s an exceedingly great reward! I didn’t do that – GOD DID THAT! My other daughter now has a baby girl of her own, and she’s the most perfect thing you’ve ever seen. Their life is not easy, but they have their little family together and they’re trying to give their baby girl the best they can. Yesterday she sent me a video of my smiling grandbaby as she absolutely lights up over her mama’s voice. It’s a miracle. I didn’t even know this was possible 1 year ago! And here I am, wrapping presents to ship to the homes of my children which God is working in. Here I am walking in the middle of undeniable miracles and exceedingly great rewards. Last year I never imagined this could be our family because it all looked so impossible. That’s what God does – you need to know that. You need to know that, because maybe this Christmas is dark and hopeless for you. Maybe you’re walking through the unimaginable and you don’t see how it can possibly get better. My friend, God can work in this, he can work through this, and he can work with this. Invite him in. Believe him. That’s the key – don’t just believe IN God, but truly BELIEVE GOD. Believe he is unlimited in power. Believe he sees every detail of your life and cares. Believe he knows the desires of your heart and is responding. Believe nothing is impossible for him. Read his promises and believe they are for you, they are for your family, they are for your future. BELIEVE GOD. This week, in our study of the book of Genesis, we’ve seen how Abram failed to trust God fully and

Whatever problem you are facing right now, whatever the threat may be on your future, know this – GOD WILL PROTECT YOU. He will come through for you. God will meet your needs and you will be taken care of. You likely don’t feel worthy of that because maybe you’re not 100% innocent in the problem you’re facing. Oh come on, can we be real for a minute? This might not be all your fault, but you weren’t perfect and you have some level of responsibility here. You put your trust in the wrong people. You allowed your priorities to get out of line. You willfully overlooked the red flags because you just wanted it so bad. You stopped showing up as your best self. Maybe you don’t deserve this problem, but you’re part of it now. BUT GOD WILL STILL PROTECT YOU IN THIS. God will still come through for you. God will still meet your needs here and you will still be taken care of, even when you’ve been a little (or a lot) wrong too. Yesterday we read about Abram creating unnecessary problems on his journey because he didn’t trust God to be enough. But God didn’t cancel his promises over Abram because of it. God was still there. God was still working. God’s good plans for Abram still stood, even through the problems he had part in creating. Now, after Abram’s self-created problem, God speaks to Abram in a vision. Genesis 15:1, “Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.'” Did you know God has a reward for you? A reward you don’t deserve, so you can’t earn it. A reward of sacred gifts and favor, goodness and mercy. A reward of Heaven’s open storehouse. A reward of breakthroughs and blessings in miraculous proportions. And it has nothing to do with what you do, it has to do with what has been done for you. This is about God. God WANTS to reward you, and his reward will not be stopped. God blesses because he is good – not because you are good. How can God do that? Won’t his blessings be wasted if he gives to us even when we aren’t deserving? Oh honey, you’re viewing this from a limited perspective. God is unlimited. Nothing is wasted in his hands. Here’s what he knows – his blessings will always draw you back to him. When God shows up and does a miracle in your life, you can never forget it. When God gives you what you could never be good enough to deserve, you are forever grateful to him. Something happened in Abram when he saw God’s faithfulness even after his self-created mess caused by his lack of trust – he never had to doubt God again. When you know God is faithful, you become more faithful to him. Has God shown himself faithful to you? Doesn’t that make you want to be faithful to him? Has God proven you can trust him with those little things and those big things alike? Doesn’t that make you want to trust him fully with EVERY thing? God had told Abram to go to a land he would show him, and he had specifically told him NOT to take any of his father’s family with him. But, Abram took his nephew Lot. It made sense to him to bring along help. It made sense to him to have strong arms for the long and uncertain journey. Abram had trusted what made sense to him more than he trusted what God had told him. And this created problems. Abram’s nephew Lot (the one God told him to leave at home) was captured in war by enemy armies, so Abram had to go rescue him. Once Lot was rescued, a King wanted to reward Abram with great riches. These were things Abram didn’t need for his journey, but it must have been tempting. I mean for real, girl, if someone is offering you a designer purse and those famous red bottom shoes by Christian Louboutin, you want it, right? You don’t need it, but wow, it would be nice. But what if God had been teaching you the lesson of TAKE NOTHING WITH YOU. TRUST ME ENOUGH TO REFUSE EVERYTHING ELSE. Abram is offered a great reward by the King, but Abram was fresh off some self-created problems to learn a hard lesson, so he refused the reward. He says to the King in Genesis 14:22, “I solely swear to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will not take so much as a single thread or sandal thong from what belongs to you.” That’s a man who has learned the lesson. That’s a man who is no longer tempted to take along what God told him he doesn’t need. And THAT IS A MAN WHO GOD HIMSELF REWARDED. This is when God says, “Your reward will be great.” In fact the KJV says your “exceedingly great reward.” Not just great, but EXCEEDINGLY GREAT. Now that’s exciting! When you start trusting God more than you trust what you can earn, what you can collect, what you can buy, or what you can create, God starts offering HIS EXCEEDINGLY GREAT reward. I’ve al

How good do you have to be to live in the promises of God? Where’s the cut off line for that? Do you wonder if you could ever be good enough for God to really love you? Do you fight to get yourself in that good positioning, then struggle to stay there? And when you’re not there, when you know you’re falling short, do you fear God’s promises over your life being withdrawn? Well, listen closely sister, this one is for you – God’s promises depend on GOD, not on you. God alone is good enough. God alone fulfills his promises. Jesus has made you forever good enough and you don’t have the power to undo that. God’s promises for you are true whether you believe them or not. His promises are at work all around you in every detail, even when you fail to remember them. You can’t cancel God’s promises, but you can create unnecessary problems when you forget them. In our study of Genesis, we started with Adam and Eve, then 9 generations later we have Noah. 9 generations after Noah, we have Abraham. Abraham’s birth name was Abram, so don’t be confused when you read scripture and you see both names being used. In Genesis 12, Abram received a mission and a promise from God. First the mission in verse 1, “Leave your native country, your relatives, your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.” Now, the promise in verse 2 & 3, “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” Imagine knowing with absolute certainty that God is blessing your mission. Imagine knowing you will most definitely succeed. Imagine knowing God himself has promised to take care of you and clear out anyone that might come against you. That was the promise Abram received. But Abram was not perfect. He was chosen, but not perfect. He was blessed but still flawed. He didn’t always get it right. God specifically tells Abram not to take any of his father’s family on this journey, but he takes his nephew Lot. Why would he do that? Maybe he thought he would need help for the journey. You see, sometimes we think we need help and we start grabbing people to take with us, forgetting that God alone is all the help we need. This nephew of Abram’s causes him many troubles on the journey, and that’s what happens when we don’t trust God enough to follow him completely. Does God remove his blessing when we fail him? No. But we create unnecessary problems for ourselves. What unnecessary problems are you living in right now because you didn’t trust God to be enough? What stress here is self-created? What overwhelm was formed with your own choices, not God’s hand? Do you see it? Yeah, you did that. You can’t go back and undo it, but you know what you can do – You can learn the lesson and move forward. God’s blessings are still on you and you can trust him fully. One thing I’m learning about God is how incredibly patient he is with us. Wow, I’ve been so slow to learn the lessons. It’s taken me YEARS of unnecessary problems to see God is all I ever needed. It’s my lack of trust in him that creates my worry. It’s my lack of full obedience to him that builds my overwhelm. And yet, he blesses me. Still he guides me. Still his good plans for me stand. He is patient with me. He was patient with Abram. And oh honey, he is patient with YOU! Abram’s journey of faith with God takes him to Egypt where he faced the power of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. And this is where fear struck Abram. He knew his wife Sarai was beautiful and she would be noticed by the Egyptians. And he feared the Egyptians would be jealous of him and kill him so they could have his beautiful wife. So, Abram concocts a plan to protect himself from harm. And here’s his plan: “Sarai, tell them you are my sister. Then they will spare my life and treat me well because of their interest in you.” And sure enough, the plan works … for a little while. That’s the thing about our plans. They work … temporarily. God’s plans work … eternally. Our plans eventually fail and then we’re left with a mess. God’s plans are without fail and are guaranteed success. Abram is working in his own plan instead of God’s plan now, and temporarily it worked. Pharaoh loved the beauty of Sarai and took her into his palace and married her. To impress Abram, believing this was his sister, Pharaoh sent him many gifts. But this was NOT God’s plan – this was Abram’s plan. Abram’s plan of self-protection soon turned into a problem. Verse 17-19, “God sent terrible plagues upon Pharaoh and his household because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharao

Your identity is a definition of who you are to you. It’s how you see yourself. It’s the value you place on your own life. Identity. The world wants to twist your identity so you never see yourself for the truth of who God says you are. God does not see you as a failure because he never saw you as a performer. (Hmmmm, let that soak in for a second.) God is neither impressed by your performance or distraught over your missteps. He is sovereign. He is mighty. He is great all alone, just by himself, and he simply invites YOU into HIS goodness. Let me tell you who you are, my sister, so you start seeing yourself a little differently. You are a funnel. You are a vessel through which God pours his blessings. A funnel’s purpose is to allow a flow from a larger thing to a smaller thing. If I’m pouring grease from a big skillet into a little bottle, I need a funnel. You are the funnel. God pours out his blessings, but he uses a funnel for his flow. His people are his funnel. And the funnel is constantly being filled, even as it gives, because the source never runs out. When you are the funnel receiving from God, you can fill a million different bottles while never running empty yourself. But the moment you stop the flow through you and try to keep it all for yourself, you create a mess. Yip, you know that. Now think about this. As the funnel, the moment you start trying to give solely from yourself, you run dry. The moment you start trying to create the blessings on your own, you fail. The funnel does nothing but allow the flow through them from the source. The funnel can’t get puffed up with pride, thinking they’re great and every little bottle receiving from them should be grateful. No, what the receiving bottle does with what has flowed through the funnel is of no concern. The funnel is to allow the flow, not measure the response. You’re the funnel. And funnel, it’s really not about you. Just let God’s blessings flow through you. Here’s a statement for your identity. It’s one I’ve clung to for the past 16 years. I’m blessed by the blessor to be a blessing. God is a blessor. All blessings come from him. Ephesians 3:1 reminds us that it is God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Every good thing you have came through the hands of God. It’s all his and he poured it out on you – and I bet he used a funnel to get it to you! He used someone to bless you. Someone spoke into your life. Someone gave you a chance. Someone opened the door for you. Someone made space for you. Someone showed you love. They were your funnel! They were blessed by God to be a blessing to you. And once you’ve received a blessing from God, you become the funnel. Now, you let the blessings flow through you onto the next person who needs the goodness of God. The divine giver never stops giving as long as the funnel keeps the flow open. We’ve been studying Genesis and we saw how the whole earth had been infected by Satan and his demons and become evil – all but 1. That one was Noah, and Noah was different. So God started over with just Noah and his family on the ark. Now, 10 generations after Noah comes Abraham. Abraham is know as the “father of faith”. We first learn how to be faithful through the life of Abraham. Abraham was an ordinary man who had the identity of a funnel. He knew everything he was given and everything he could do was for the purposes of God to flow through him to others. Let me tell you, it takes FAITH to receive a blessing from God and not hold on to it. It takes faith to allow the best stuff to just go right through you. God tells Abraham in Genesis 12:2, “I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.” Blessed by the blessor to be a blessing. God is saying – Abraham, your fame will not be for you. This won’t be about you. This will be about my power working through you. Your blessings will not be yours to hold on to. You’ll be asked to surrender your blessings over and over again. Sacrifice them, release them, trust me with them. And as long as you do, my blessings will never run out. But God is not only saying this to Abraham, but my sister, he is saying it to YOU. He will bless you beyond measure, but it can’t become about you. It can’t be about your followers or your numbers. It can’t be about the purse you carry or the car you drive. It can’t be about your comforts and your cares. As a funnel of God’s blessings, you have to have a continual openness that never holds back. A faith that says, “God, if you give it to me, it’s not mine to keep – it’s yours to pass through me onto others.” Abraham was blessed to be a blessing. Your blessings are for one purpose – for you to become a blessing. But have you gotten that a little twisted? Abraham’s birth name was Abram. A

There is a divine design over your life. The divine designer behind it is God. He wanted you, so he designed you. He used generations before you to perfectly align to bring the world YOU. Now, here you are in your lifetime. My friend, what are you doing with this one opportunity at life? It’s so wild to think about how incredibly short our lifetime really is in relation to creation. We are truly here but a moment, then our life is over and the world continues on without our existence here. But while we are here, our existence is for a purpose. We’re not here by chance, we’re here by CHOICE, and that choice was God’s. You continue to be here by choice. Every day of your life is a choice for God to continue to sustain you with his breath. His desire is that you not waste what you have been given. Live this one life you have been given in a way that it matters. Think about this – someone’s future flows from you. Someone’s life depends on your life. You’re being used to impact eternity. It’s easy to dismiss ourselves as too ordinary for that kind of impact, but I assure you, God uses ordinary people for extraordinary purposes. Isn’t it true for you? You’re here today because of someone else. God used someone in the past for your today. Someone grew you in their womb. Someone fed you when you couldn’t feed yourself. Someone may have spoken a word that forever changed you. Someone may have shown you Jesus for the first time and changed your eternity. Weren’t they ordinary people? Your mom was quite ordinary, maybe even quite flawed. That teacher was quite ordinary. Maybe it was even an ordinary stranger, but what they did made a difference in your life. Now, you get to do that for someone else. You get to be that mom, or that teacher, or that friend, or that stranger. Do something that matters! Noah and his wife had 3 sons and their wives on the ark. After the flood, they were the only humans alive. And from them, God would repopulate the Earth. Noah’s sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth. And from one of them came … YOU. Without one of them, we don’t have you. Your exact DNA required either Shem, Ham or Japheth – the sons of Noah. And remember this, Noah was just an ordinary man but he lived DIFFERENT. He wasn’t said to be the best looking, the strongest or the smartest, he was just said to be different and God liked what he saw in Noah. And THAT is who you come from! You come from someone who was willing to be different. Someone who was radically obedient to God. Someone God used to change everything. That is your lineage! That’s where you come from. One life led to your life, by design. When Noah and his family left the ark, God did something very specific. Genesis 9:1, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth.'” Guess what – that involved YOU. God knew you would come from 1 of Noah’s 3 sons. Your life would depend on them. And their life was blessed by God personally. My sister, you flow from blessings. You were designed by fruitfulness. Countless miraculous things have had to happen over all these generations just to ensure your life is here today. And here you are, not understanding the full impact of your lifetime. You’re failing to understand that someone’s future flows from you. Someone’s life now depends on your life. God wants to use YOU to impact eternity. I remember the very first person I ever heard pray for me. He was an ordinary man named Bill. He was the father of my middle school best friend Sarah. While at Sarah’s house, she and I got into one of those 13 year old girl arguments. Who knows what we were upset about – but looking back I’m sure I was at fault – I was far wilder and brattier than she was. Sarah’s dad sat us both down in the family room and talked to us. I don’t remember what he said, but I remember he said it out of love. He didn’t condemn either of us. He didn’t shame us. He lovingly talked to us. Then, he prayed for us. Right there, in that living room, I heard the very first person pray out loud for me. He spoke my name to God. And quite honestly, it planted a seed in me that never stopped growing. I’ve never told him thank you. He’s probably never thought of me again since then and doesn’t even remember that day. But that man, Bill Henry, made a forever difference in my life. He was different and he did something different for me. One life that impacted my life. Now it’s my turn – who’s life will I impact? This is how God works. He uses one life to create the next life. One life to impact the next life. One life to save the next life. And my friend, if you don’t show up in the fullness of who you were created to be and walk out the life you have been given, there will be more than one

As good as you are, or as flawed as you are, you are 100% dependent on God’s faithfulness. Without his faithfulness, you don’t wake up today. Without his faithfulness, the sun doesn’t come up. Without his faithfulness, things are never made right. You are surrounded by constant proof of God’s faithfulness and your every breath depends on it. HE WILL NEVER FAIL YOU. God has made promises over you. He is in covenant with you, and God does not break his covenants. You may fail, but he does not. You may doubt, but God is always 100% certain. He’s certain he loves you, he’s certain he chooses you, he’s certain he wants to bless you. Imagine that for a moment – the creator of the entire universe WANTS TO BLESS YOU. He wants to make something happen just for you. With one word from him, it can happen. Doors can open, circumstances can change, the impossible can suddenly be made possible. He never stops wanting to bless you. After Noah comes out of the ark with his family and the animals, they start life over again in a world that has been renewed by the flood. And God creates a sign in the sky of his promise over all life on Earth. What was the sign of God’s promise? What was the signature of his covenant? IT’S THE RAINBOW. Genesis 9: 11-16: God says to Noah, “Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will flood waters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.” Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. (That means me and you because we are part of the generations to come from Noah! We are the recipients of this covenant with God). I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again with the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” Did you know, a rainbow is actually not the arch shape we see? It’s actually a full circle – we only see half of the circle. Okay, why hasn’t someone ever told me that before? I was flying over a tropical island one time and looked out of my airplane window to see the full circle of a rainbow over the entire island and I flipped out a little thinking Jesus was surely coming back in that moment. It’s a full circle. Complete. Whole. God’s promise is full circle. It isn’t just a half promise, it’s a complete promise. Remember that when you see a rainbow. Why are we anything less that absolutely impressed by the miracle of a rainbow? Why do we look at those perfect colors circling our sky and dismiss it as the result of something ordinary happening. GOD MADE THAT HAPPEN. It didn’t have to happen just because that’s what light does through the rain, no it happens because God designed it to happen. He sends us signs of his promises. But, notice God says here, “I will remember my covenant with you and all living creatures.” Then he says “When I, God, see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember.” God remembers you and he remembers his promises. He is 100% faithful. He will follow through. Sometimes we’re blessed with this magnificent reminder in the sky. And if it’s anything less than magnificent for you, you’ve allowed life to numb you. Be the one who stops everything to stand in awe of God. Be the one who makes a BIG DEAL out of the wonders of God. Girl, be IMPRESSED BY GOD! Be blown away by his power and majesty. Be amazed by his works. That rainbow in the sky didn’t just happen because of some scientific truth, it happened because God ordained it to happen and he created it. Now you get to behold it for a moment. But ultimately, God created the rainbow as HIS REMINDER. He says I WILL REMEMBER MY COVENANT WITH YOU. God says, “When I SEE the rainbow, I will remember.” God remembers you. He remembers his promises. And not just when it rains and the sun hits it just right – he remembers you and his promises over you eternally, non-stop, all the time. Sitting on his throne in Heaven, he is reminded, and here’s how – his throne is circled by a rainbow. Literally. The apostle John was gifted with a little visit to Heaven to see things we cannot see. This is John, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples. He was a fisherman who Jesus invited to leave his nets and come follow him, so he did, and his whole world changed. He was there by the cross when Jesus was crucified. He was referred to as “the one Jesus loved”. John is the author of the book of Revelation, and he wrote that book because God revealed to him the things of Heaven and what is to

God is your remedy. He knows how to solve your problem. He knows precisely when your problem will end. He has a plan, his plan is good, and he will perfectly fulfill that good plan. My sister, God has not forgotten about you. He hasn’t overlooked you. He hasn’t dismissed you. He hasn’t turned a deaf ear or a blind eye toward you. You are seen. You are heard. You are loved. You are remembered. Genesis 8:1, “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat.” God remembered Noah. God even remembered the animals. They had been in the ark while it rained nonstop. They had been floating while absolutely everything else was wiped out in the flood. Imagine being on the boat you’ve been building for 120 years and watching every living creature outside of that boat not survive. Wouldn’t you be glad you were crazy enough to build the boat?!!! Imagine watching the trees be covered with water, the hills be covered with water, and eventually every single mountain peek on earth being covered with water. That’s where Noah was. For 150 days, exactly 5 months, Noah had been on that floating boat with his family and all those animals. It must have been a long 150 days. It must have felt like forever. He must have asked if they would ever make it out. Would this flood ever come to an end. And exactly at that point is when we’re told BUT GOD REMEMBERED NOAH. God had not forgotten about him. He hadn’t left him floating in a problem without a rescue plan. There was always a plan. Right now, you may feel like you’re floating in a problem without a rescue plan. Oh, but God has a plan. That plan is good, and that good plan will be perfectly fulfilled. This will not continue forever. An end to your problem is already in the works. After 150 days of floating with no land in sight, the ark came to rest on the mountain of Ararat (ehh-rr-at). The Bible is actually very specific about it’s location, and let me tell you what has recently happened. The ark is believed to have been found – and guess where. On top of the mountain of Ararat (ehh-rr-at)! It is a dormant volcano, sitting at 17,000 feet tall, making it still the highest point in Turkey. There are new findings released just this year that scientists believe to have found petrified wood in the shape of a boat, measuring exactly 450 feet long and 75 feet wide, on the top of Mount Ararat. Nothing grows at this elevation. Those peaks are covered in snow. And yet, here is this wood and the remains of tar. How absolutely amazing is that? For Noah, the rain stopped after 40 days, but the floating didn’t stop for 5 months. Now, after 5 long months, they sat lodged on top of the tallest peak in Turkey, still surrounded by water – and they waited. Waiting isn’t easy, but sometimes God has us wait. Why? Because he’s doing something. There’s a purpose in the wait. Sometimes he’s doing something to prepare the path for you, and sometimes he’s doing something to prepare you for the path. But he’s always doing something in the wait. My friend, you can trust the wait. Psalm 27:14, “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.” David wrote that in one of the hardest seasons of his life. He was hiding from King Saul who had turned on him and was hunting him down to kill him. David was on the run, hiding in caves, and living in the wilderness. He was without a home, without shelter, without help. And he is somehow writing, “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.” Notice how his writing is repeated. He’s telling himself. Wait patiently, David. You have to be brave here. You have to be courageous. YES, wait patiently for the Lord. He was saying this because every ounce of him wanted to give up. Every emotion within him wanted to freak out. Anxiety wanted to overtake his mind. Panic wanted to set in. Hopelessness was knocking at his door. So he wrote his prayers and he trained his mind in the waiting. And God would provide for David while he ended the threat of his enemy, but it wouldn’t happen quickly. The wait was about 13 years for David. And David came out of that wait as a man primed to be used by God. You’re waiting, but you’re not forgotten by God. You’re being primed, prepared, shaped, molded, strengthened into the fullness of who God knows you can be. Just like David, you need to remind yourself to wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, girl, wait patiently for the Lord. And just like Noah, you need to not break down the doors of your boat and try to run out too soon. Noah is in the boat, surrounded by a pair of every species of animal, now stuck on top of a mountain. It’s been 5 months, and still he waits. He’s waiting for the waters to recede. He’s wait

God is asking you to follow him in a way that will require your faith. You’re not going to understand it. You’re not going to be in control of it. Can your mind make peace with the unknown? Can your hands remain open in full surrender? And girl, will your feet move forward to destination UNCERTAIN. Faith would not be required if you had a complete plan with confidence in the next 37 steps. Faith would be unnecessary if your future were certain and the steps there were clear. But that is NOT the life you were created for. That is not the future you’re being called to. Faith will be required here, my friend. Why? Because Hebrews 11:6 says, “It is impossible to please God without faith.” So, these uncertainties you face and the struggles with control you feel are your path to pleasing God. This is your path to faith. You are called to a place where you can’t see everything, you don’t understand it all, and it’s beyond your control … all for the purpose of growing your faith. Look around, you are in the faith growing field. The uncertainties and struggles are God’s divine recipe for your faith to grow. You can’t do this on your own. You don’t have all the answers. You can’t see how it’s going to work. But you have a God who is calling your next step. Will you take it in faith? Next steps are quite practical. The next step is always right in front of you. It’s quite literally doing what you can, where you are, with what you have … and (this is big) … not allowing what you can’t do, what you don’t know and what you don’t have, to keep you stuck. Our last devotional together was episode #2006, “Will You Be Different”. Studying the story of Noah, we see how Noah was different and God was pleased. Humans had become evil in thought and action, but Noah was faithful to God. Noah had a close relationship with God and sought to walk closely with him. God tasks Noah with a job so big that it would take him 120 years to complete – build the ark. This ark would house the only living breathing things through the flood which God would use to start over again. And this is what God says to Noah in Genesis 6: 17-19, “Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat – you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring a pair of every kind of animal – a male and female – into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood.” Imagine receiving this kind of impossible mission. God, how do you expect me to do this? But, Noah lets God continue. He doesn’t interrupt him with his questions. He doesn’t insert his own emotions. He listens. And here’s what God says next – verse 20, “Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive.” God gives Noah a task he can do – he can build a boat. Right where he is, with what he has, he can start building. But, what Noah couldn’t possibly do is gather a male and female of every single air breathing animal. How would he ever do that? They didn’t even have tractors and trailers back then. There were no semi trucks to make a route to gather up these animals. This was beyond anything Noah could do. But God didn’t expect him to do the impossible. What God expected was for Noah to get busy doing what he could do in building, and trust God to do the impossible work. Girls, I can’t stop thinking about that. Who else has been prompted by the Holy Spirit to do something, but you’ve talked yourself out of it because step 5 is so far out of reach that it overwhelms you. So, you never moved beyond step 1. Maybe you started step 1, but you gave up. You got discouraged. You got scared. And instead of finishing that step in faith, you never completed what you could do. You could have built that boat, and if you would have built that boat, God would have brought the animals. IT WOULD HAVE COME TO YOU. You wouldn’t even have to go out and chase it, God would have brought it to you. But you stopped building, honey. And when you stop doing what you can do, using what you have where you are, then God withholds those impossible steps from coming right to you. You don’t have to chase what God has for you. It will come to you. But you do have to do the work to prepare for it. For my single ladies, you never have to chase the man God has for you. God will bring him to you. It will literally happen … but there’s work for you to do right where you are first. And that work is ON YOU. Your faith, your space, your priorities. If you will put in the work where you are, God will align the best things for you next. For my g

God has a purpose for you, and it will require you to be different. To be different, you must do something different. Different than what you’ve always done. Different than what everyone else does. Different than what is easy for you. If you’re willing to be different in the new year of life coming to you, then God wants to use you for greater purposes than you can imagine. But if not – if you’re not willing to be different, then you simply miss it. You miss what could be. You miss what you could do. You miss the potential of things you haven’t even dared to imagine yet. Genesis chapter 6 tells us of a world gone wrong and one man who was different. That one man was Noah. The world had gone wrong because Satan and his demons had contaminated the earth, literally. I never understood this until I really stated digging in and studying, but verse 2 says, “The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” What exactly does that mean? The sons of God are heavenly beings. They’re angels. But scripture also tells us that angels do not marry, so what angels are marrying the human daughters? Answer: The fallen angels. When Satan rose up in jealous competition against God, he was banished from heaven and thrown down to Earth. The Book of Revelation says 1/3 of the angels fell from glory with him. Those fallen angels are what we refer to as demons. So, what has happened on earth here in Genesis, is Satan’s demons have married the women and they’ve infected the human population. Of course this was Satan’s plan. He wanted absolutely NOTHING good left here. If he had fallen from Heaven, he wanted to ensure no one else could be there either. As the women had the children of demons, the world got worse. Genesis 6:5, “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.” God’s heart is broken over the condition of his people. Evil was everywhere. So, God decided he had to destroy everything. BUT, one man was different. God saw that one man and knew because he was different, something different could happen for the future. When we are different, we create different. When we are different, something different can flow from us. God is looking for different. God saw something different in Noah. Verse 8 from the MSG translations, “But Noah was different. God liked what he saw in Noah.” Noah stood out because he wasn’t willing to do what everyone else was doing. Noah wasn’t infected by the wickedness around him. He hadn’t settled for what had become normal. Verse 9 says, “Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.” Was Noah perfect? No. The only perfect one to ever walk the earth was Jesus. Noah wasn’t perfect, but he was righteous and considered blameless. He sought to do what was right. His heart was pure. He sought God first and fully. How did Noah do that when the world had become so wicked all around him? He walked in close fellowship with God. He had a relationship with God. He made space for God. He talked to God. He listened to God. And that is our very clear and simple answer for today. How do we navigate our way through a very fallen world full of things that have gone wrong? Answer: We have a relationship with God. We talk to him and we listen for him. Once again, we’re back to MAKING SPACE FOR GOD. One week ago today we talked about the final 40 days of 2025. We declared we would make space for God in these final 40. How are you doing with that? Is God getting space, or has life naturally crowded him out again? My friend, if you’re going to be different in 2026, then you have to do something different now. What makes you different is your relationship with God. Give him priority in your life. The world doesn’t get to crowd him out, He crowds out the world. You don’t have to find a space for him in your busy schedule, your busy schedule must bow to God. His space comes first. Nothing gets done and nothing happens until God gets his space. Well that’s different, isn’t it? Yes, it is! And different is what God is looking for. Noah was different. God liked what he saw in Noah. God is looking for a girl who will live different in these final days of 2025 and pave the way for a radically different new year. Will you be different? You’re being called to something different, my friend. It’s time to do life different. You don’t have to be perfect. You just need to seek God first and look to him to do what is right. You need to give him time and space so your relationship grows. Because Noah was different, God decided to save

Every morning when we wake up, we get to choose our attitude. Any attitude we wish is available for the taking. We can put it on and wear it the entire day, and just like the right pair of shoes can change the outfit, the right attitude can change your experience. Most days we wake up unaware of this choice. We wait and see how others are acting, how our hair looks, and what the weather is. Good day, good attitude. Bad day, bad attitude. Average day, average attitude. We allow our experience to dictate and determine our perspective. But within us is the power to change our entire experience, regardless of circumstances. Within you is your choice of attitude, and your choice changes everything you experience. Today we have the extreme gift of waking up to a day when the preferred attitude is predetermined. It’s Thanksgiving, and what do we do on Thanksgiving besides eat a feast … we give thanks. Yes, we knew to wake up with an attitude of gratitude today. The calendar tells us today is the day to wake up to thanksgiving. What would your life look like if you continually gave thanks? I mean in the presence of real life, less than perfect scenarios, would things begin to look and feel different if they were covered in the gravy of gratitude? Yes, the gravy of gratitude – let it cover everything! Gravy on that turkey, gravy on those potatoes, gravy to soak your bread in. Yum. Where do you get that gravy? If you’re not a true cook, you may not know where gravy comes from. Honey, you don’t buy that gravy, you make that gravy from what you already have. You use the leftover grease or broth to make gravy. The gravy of gratitude is made from what you already have. You can’t buy gratitude. You may think once you have what you really want then you’ll be grateful, but I assure you, that’s not the way it works. You’ll always want more or something else. Gratitude comes from what you already have. Melody Beattie said “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” I don’t know who you might be missing around the table this year, but I’m truly sorry. I’m deeply sorry for your loss. I’m sorry for the division. I’m sorry for the dysfunction. I’m sorry for the distance. For whatever has caused the empty seats around your table, I’m so sorry. I’m missing important people too. No kids. No family. No friends. It’s just my husband and I. But God has given me so much bacon in my life already that I have all this leftover bacon grease from what he has given me before, that I can make the gravy of gratitude today. I have everything I need to be grateful, and now everything I have will be better because of that gratitude. Today, may you see what is here over what isn’t. Unlock the fullness of life today with your thanksgiving. We truly have so much to be grateful for. Let me throw my favorite absolutely overwhelming statistics at you, like I do every year on Thanksgiving: If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world. (Is that you? Do you have food in your refrigerator? Do you have clothes on your back? Do you have a roof over your head and a place to sleep? You are wildly rich, my sister!) If you have any amount of money in the bank, in your purse, or even some spare change hidden in your couch cushions, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealth. (Is that you too? You may not have a lot, but you have a little. You are ridiculously blessed, my friend!) That’s me. I qualify for both of these categories. Isn’t that you too? Girls, do you know what this means …. this means we are wildly rich and ridiculously blessed! Even in our current less than perfect life scenario, we have so much to be grateful for. Recognize it now. This is you. Wildly rich and ridiculously blessed. And you know what, you’re entitled to absolutely none of it. When you’re entitled to nothing, you can be grateful for everything. You are wildly rich and ridiculously blessed. That is your truth. Now, what will you do with it? Who will you thank? Luke 17: 11-19 tells us a story of 10 men sick with leprosy who met Jesus. Jesus healed all 10 of them, but only 1 came back to thank him. Now Jesus was literally shocked by this and says “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine?” And Jesus said to the one who had returned to thank him, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” All 10 men had received healing, but to the 1 who returned to thank Jesus, he received more than healing of his illness. The Greek word Jesus used was ‘sozo’. Your faith has ‘sozo’ you. This w

Adam and Eve were God’s first creation in which he said it was “VERY GOOD”. He made them in his own image and placed them in the middle of paradise to live closely with him. We know they failed, but God covered them in grace with the first sacrifice and clothing made in animal skins. Then he blessed them. You see my friends, our shame is covered by grace and we are wrapped in blessings. God doesn’t keep going over the wrong that has happened, he moves forward in blessings and the good plans he has for our future. Adam and Eve were first blessed with two sons. Cain and Abel. The first babies ever born. The first siblings. And do you know how that turned out? I’m not sure why we feel so disappointed when we experience family struggles for ourselves – the very first family had complete dysfunction. God never promised us perfection in our families, in fact, his word gives us example after example of problems and struggles in families God has chosen and blessed. Mama, you can quit feeling sorry for yourself now – you’re not the only one who is dealing with chaos. Cain was the oldest son and he became a keeper of the land. Abel was the youngest son and he became a keeper of sheep. Yes, they had jobs. Why? Because work is good for us! We are designed to need daily purpose. We are also designed to serve God with our best. Genesis 4:3, “When it was time for harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. (Notice, what did Cain give God? SOME of his crops. Circle ‘some’.) Verse 4, “Abel also brought a gift – the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. (What did Abel give God? The BEST portions. Circle ‘best’.) So, Cain gave some of his harvest, but Abel gave the best of his harvest, and God knew the difference. He knew the heart, he knew the intent. So, here’s what happened – Verse 5-6, “The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. ‘Why are you so angry?’ the Lord asked Cain. ‘Why do you look so dejected?’ The world sees comparison and jealousy for the first time. And God gives a warning. Verse 7, “You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” Woah – that is a powerful warning and it still stands today. The moment you stop doing what is right, then sin tries to come in and control you. The Passion Translation says it like this, “If you refuse to do what is right, sin, the predator, is crouching in wait outside the door of your heart. It desires to have you, yet you must be its master.” Here’s the lesson – Offering less than your best leaves an open door to the enemy. And where does the enemy attack? Your heart! You know when you’re not giving your best. You know when you’re just checking a box. You know when you’re just punching the clock. You know when you’re going through the motions, and showing up because you have to. AND SO DOES GOD. God didn’t accept Cain’s offering for one reason, and one reason only – it wasn’t his best. God wants our best and he’s not fooled. But why does God want our best? Does he really need anything from us? Everything is his, and if God wants something he can either take it or he can create more in one word. He most certainly doesn’t need our best, so why does he only accept our best? Here’s why – Because God knows our best is what’s best for us. God knows the moment we start holding back and checking out, we are in danger. When we get lazy, we leave the door to our heart cracked open. That’s how sin slips in and attacks. And it attacks the heart. It hardens our heart, turns our heart away from God and to the things of the world. It builds walls around our heart to keep others out. This is why God asks for your best. Not because he needs your performance. Not because he needs your money, or your work, or your time. But because he knows it’s best for you to offer your best. You were designed to give him your best. And when you’re not working within your design, you’re not living your best life. When you’re not living your best life, you’re settling for less and less is what you get. God invites Cain to recognize where he was giving less than his best and fix it. But Cain doesn’t. Here’s what he does instead – he attacks his brother Abel, and he kills him. The very first couple with their very first children, and this is the family chaos. Yip, it’s real and now maybe your family chaos doesn’t look quite as bad. If you want to end the chaos, the answer is to give your absolute best. God has given us the power to overcom

Do you carry any shame? Is there shame for what you have done? Shame for your past? Shame for your failures? Shame is a feeling of worthlessness. Shame is a disgrace you assign to yourself. It’s a fear of the worst of you being exposed, and that fear makes you hide. But don’t you realize there’s absolutely NOTHING you can hide from God. He sees it all and knows it all. You don’t sneak behind God and get away with things. He’s fully aware of that secret. One of my best friends has a coffee mug that’s a picture of Jesus peeking over a pair of sunglasses he’s wearing and it says, “I saw that.” My friend, Jesus saw that. More than anything he wants to say about it, he wants to DO something about it. Jesus wants to cover your shame. In Genesis when Adam and Eve are disobedient and ate the fruit they were told not to eat, their very first feeling was of shame. Shame caused them to hide. But do you know what God did in response to their shame? Chapter 3, verse 21 says, “The Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.” I’ve never noticed that before. God himself made the first real clothes to cover their shame. God doesn’t desire his sons and daughters to walk around in shame. Shame separates us from him and all he ever wanted was a close relationship with us. This is exactly why the enemy works so hard to cover you in shame. Shame separates us from God. We naturally hide in our feelings of worthlessness and self-assigned disgrace. The devil wants to poke at those unhealed wounds within to make that shame ooze from you. It’s all an attempt to keep you from God. But know this – Jesus saw it and he did something about it! God made the first clothes to cover the first shame in preparation for the coming covering for ALL shame. Notice what God used for the clothes. He used the skin from animals. Those animals had to die, they were sacrificed. Adam and Eve had originally made coverings from fig leaves in the garden to try and cover their shame, but that wasn’t good enough. God sacrificed animals and used their skins to cover them. That sacrifice was required. Shame is only covered by sacrifice. And there’s nothing we could ever sacrifice enough to make us righteous. We can’t change ourselves to be good enough. You could spend every day for the rest of your life trying to perform and earn your righteousness, but you would still fall short. A sacrifice beyond you is required. A sacrifice made by God. God made a covering for shame of Adam and Eve – and God has made a covering for your shame. That covering is the blood of Jesus. His sacrificed life is what makes you forever good enough. Yes, Jesus saw what you did and in response, he did something about it. He died for you. Now girl, you have absolutely zero right to be walking around in that shame. That’s already been bought. It’s already been covered. The high price was paid for you to feel love instead of worthlessness. A huge sacrifice was made for you to be covered in grace where there was once disgrace. That grace will radically change your life. RECEIVE IT! But then, don’t waste it. Don’t waste the grace offered to you. Don’t keep replaying the story. Don’t allow the enemy to poke at those wounds – no girl, bring those wounds to Jesus and let him completely heal you. Grace isn’t a bandaid to just get you through. Grace heals you perfectly. Grace takes your absolute worst and turns it into a testimony. My friend, you have a testimony of how God can meet you in your pit of shame, save you and change you – now what are you doing with that testimony? Are you telling it? Are you using it to help others? Is God getting any good out of the grace he has offered you? Or are you wasting that grace? I’m a girl who performed for so long that I sought the applause of people more than I appreciated the grace of Jesus. On most days, I honestly didn’t even feel like I needed grace because I was really good at performing. I could make things work. I could grind it out until it happened. And people really liked me. It all looked so good on the outside, but something nasty was happening on the inside. God loved me enough to see that and not turn away from me. I must have been disgusting to him in my self-righteous performance while using his name. But instead of disgust, he gave me grace. Grace I didn’t even know to ask for. Grace I didn’t even appreciate at the time. Grace for all I was doing wrong and time to turn it around and get it right. I’ve gone through a few years of deep humbling. It’s been a process of holy conviction that turned my performance into a heavy load I couldn’t carry. Pressure that made me crack. Stress that left this strong willed girl finally giving up. And that’s when grace came in! Grace that made me hate the stage and no longe

I once thought living in full surrender to God would mean my life would become boring. I thought all my fun would end. So, for years I held back. I offered parts of me, while my hands were clinched tightly on my greatest desires. I just knew if I offered it all to God, he would take the best parts away and leave me with a life I didn’t love. Wow – was I wrong. This life lived in wild abandon and total trust in God is the greatest adventure I’ve ever been on. My hands are wide open and I’ve let go of everything, and somehow my life is absolutely overflowing. Those desires I was so afraid to surrender have been changed into even greater things and made realities. Why didn’t anyone tell me how good this would be? Instead, I lived so many years of my life fearful of what God might take away from me and suspicious of what he was withholding from me. Does God hold back the good stuff when we trust him? Can the best stuff only be found on your own, apart from a life of surrender? Do you have to make things happen for yourself? Do you have to look out for #1? Do you have to question God? Let’s be very clear – living like that will cause you to fall. You will fall for the tricks of the enemy of your soul when you begin to think God is keeping something from you. You will fall right into the traps of Satan when you try to get what you want in your own ways. When what you want takes first place and God is put in second, the door is open for absolute destruction in your life. My friends, that’s precisely what happened to Eve in the garden. She was tricked into believing God was withholding the best stuff from her. She thought there was something better for her that God had been hiding. And that’s exactly how it happens. A seed of doubt is planted, questioning if God is holding out on you, so you’re willing to go around him to get what you think you want. What is sin? It’s what God says you shouldn’t do, right? Actually, no. This isn’t about what you should and shouldn’t do. Sin is so much more about what falls short of God’s best for you. Sin isn’t just the forbidden things you’re not supposed to do, sin is what will harm you. Sin is the very thing God is trying to protect you from. Not because he’s withholding the good stuff from you and labeling it as sin. Actually, quite the opposite. God is protecting us from the things he knows would harm us the most. The things that cause shame, guilt and regret. The things that separate us from him. The things that confuse us, bind us, create addictions and separation. But do you know what Satan says? Satan says it’s only called sin to keep you from experiencing more in life. It’s not that bad. It won’t hurt you. You’ll just get to see what you’ve been missing. We live in a fallen world where Satan and his demons roam around like a roaring lion, trying to kill, steal and destroy everything that is good. You are good. Your life is good. The purpose for which you were created is good. The plans God has for your future are good. And it’s all under absolute attack. Everything good has a bullseye for evil. To fight this battle, it is crucial for you to know how the enemy attacks. How does he trick us? What does he say? Here it is – Satan quite simply TWISTS God’s words in a way that makes you feel like something is missing. He twists what isn’t good for you into looking like something that would make you happy. And he tricks you into doing things that will make you hide in shame. You see, once you know Satan’s game, you can quickly see his nasty moves. In a nutshell, the devil tries to make you think sin is not bad and God is not good. Sin is considered sin because God says it’s not good for you. Sin will hurt you. Don’t you think your creator knows what will hurt his creation? I have a Nutribullet blender in my kitchen. On the cord is a permanent tag that reads, “Never immerse in water.” I trust the manufacturer of that blender knows what isn’t good for their product. I don’t need to throw it in my kitchen sink to see if they really know what they’re talking about. Wouldn’t it be absolutely ridiculous for me to believe, “hmmmm, maybe this blender can do even greater things if I immerse it in water and maybe the maker doesn’t want me to know that. Maybe they’re holding out on me, so I’m going to have to try this on my own.” Splash. Stupid. That would be so stupid. The maker knows what isn’t good for their product. You must trust the warning label. Adam and Eve were given one warning label. Just one. They were put in the middle of paradise in the Garden of Eden and given everything they could ever want. And then the warning label, Genesis 2:16, “God warned him, ‘You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden –

Forty. As of tomorrow, November 22nd, we have 40 days left in this year. Just how fast has this year gone by? Wasn’t it just Summer a few weeks ago, and now here we are with only 40 days left in the entire year? 2026 is a brand new year of life on it’s way to us. It’s filled with promise and potential and if you will be consistently available to God, he will fulfill you in ways you never imagined possible. But … we’re not there yet, my friends. It is not time to begin focusing on a new year, it’s time to finish this one right! 40 days separate us from this new year of life, and those 40 days matter significantly. God wants to prepare you, equip you and mold you in the next 40 days. Forty. 40 is a critical number in the Bible. 40 often represented new life, growth and transformation. God worked in the 40 to prepare a way for the future. God changed people in the 40. The preparation for a breakthrough of change happened in the 40. My friends, that’s exciting!!!!! This 40 belongs to God and he’s preparing you for a new year of life in the next 40 days. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days by the devil. After that temptation, Jesus began his ministry on Earth and changed eternity. It rained for 40 days, flooding the entire earth. All life outside of Noah’s ark was eliminated. Then the waters receded and life began again from only that which had been saved. The giant Goliath taunted God’s people for 40 days. Then, the little shepherd boy David slays the giant with his slingshot and a rock and wins them victory and freedom. How many days were between Jesus’ crucifixion and his return to Heaven? 40! Forty. Then, completion, then renewal, then victory. In the next 40 days before 2026 comes, God wants to do a work in YOU! Will you partner with him in the transformational process that brings victory? Will you let him have his time and space in your life for the next 40 days? What have your past 40 days been like? Do you even really remember them? 40 days ago it was October 12th – what do you have to show for those days? Were they significant? Did you grow and get better, or did those days just pass with little to show for them? Don’t let the next 40 be like your last 40. It’s time to go deeper. It’s time for full heart surrender. It’s time to wake up with intention and live on purpose. On the other side of this 40 is that new life, that growth, that transformation only God has seen. God wants to do a work in you! Will you submit to the process? In the early days of Christianity, before someone could be baptized as a Christian, they were to wait 40 days. For 40 days they would simplify their life down to the basics and focus fully on living for Jesus. After 40 days, if they still wanted to commit their lives to Jesus, then they would be baptized. What if the next 40 days was an intentional simplifying of our lives with a focus on Jesus to prepare us for 2026? What if we took these final 40 days of this year and allowed God the space to work in us so we step into the new year changed. What if this is your renewal and re-commitment to Jesus. 40 days of focusing on Jesus. That sounds special doesn’t it … and basically impossible in your busy life. Especially the next 40 days of holidays, travels, gatherings and functions. It’s the busiest time of the year, certainly not the time you can slow down to focus on Jesus. That would be a huge struggle for the next 40 days, wouldn’t it? And do you know what God says about that – Okay, struggle it out! Philippians 2:12-13, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” That doesn’t mean you have to work to earn salvation, that’s a free gift given to you by Jesus, you simply accept that gift. But you do have to struggle to live like you’re saved. Work that out. Fight for it. Struggle with making time for Jesus in your daily life. Did you know it’s okay to struggle with finding time to pray? Did you know it’s okay to have to work to read your Bible and not really feel like it 97% of the time? That’s okay – work that out. Using the next 40 really busy, over-scheduled, cram packed days to re-commit to Jesus would be a struggle for you – AWESOME – work it out! Do it afraid that you might fail. Do it uncertain of how. Here’s what you’re feeling right now – you’re feeling a battle between your flesh and your spirit. Your flesh wants to pretend like you never even heard this. Your flesh is reasoning with why you don’t have time and how waiting until January would just make more sense. BUT YOUR SPIRIT is saying something else. Your spirit is saying, “Wow, I need this.” Your spirit is craving space for Jesus. Your spirit is willing to work this out! Right now,

2 Corinthians 6:11-13 MSG – “I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’ve been living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively.” Romans 2:4, “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sins? 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.” Isaiah 50:4 MSG, “God has given me a well-taught tongue, so I know how to encourage tired people. He wakes me up in the morning, opens my ears to listen as one ready to take orders.” Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Isiah 6:8-9, “Then I heard the Lord asking, ‘Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?’ I said, ‘Here I am. Send me.’ And he said, ‘Yes, go …'” BE CONSISTENTLY AVAILABLE. 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

Have you ever wondered why God would create a tree and place it in the middle of paradise, but not allow Adam and Eve to eat from it? Why would God make it possible to mess up? Wouldn’t it have been better if the option to sin were never even there? God, why put the tree there if it would cause so many problems? I’ve often wondered this. Why mess up paradise with the ability to sin? What was the point? Well, it was CHOICE. Free will is only free when there is an opportunity to do as much bad as there is good. Free will must include a choice. God desired for his greatest creation to choose him from their own free will, so he designed an opportunity to listen and obey him, or not. Unfortunately for us, Adam and Eve chose to not listen. But, the truth is, we would have all done the same. If you’ve ever made a wrong choice in your entire life, if you’ve ever messed up, then you would have eaten the apple too, my friend. But do you realize there are actually two trees in the middle of the garden where Adam and Eve were? There wasn’t just the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, but there was another tree, the tree of life. The tree of life offered eternal life to live forever. The fruit of this tree was not off limits, it was fully available. But the other tree which held the knowledge of good and evil was the one and only limitation given to them. One thing, Adam, don’t eat from that tree. And Adam, tell Eve too. Tell her not to eat from that tree, it will change everything. But, they fail. The temptation to do what they were told not to do is too great and they eat that fruit. Suddenly, their eyes are opened and shame comes into the world for the first time. The other tree stood untouched, the tree that offered life forever. Instead they chose to eat from the tree that brought guilt, shame and regret. It was the first sin. Sin is choosing what we think we want in life over what truly gives life. And guess what … we’re still doing it today. We’re still choosing the wrong tree. We’re still choosing the things that aren’t good for us. We’re still making messes. We’re still leaving the offering of true and abundant life just hanging on the branch. The first mistake was not filling up on the good stuff. They could have been so full eating from the tree of life that there was no room for the forbidden fruit from the other tree. The second mistake was eating the fruit they were told not to eat. The third mistake was hiding in shame. Genesis 3:8, “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.” Shame was never part of God’s plan. Hiding from him was not the design of his masterpiece. But that’s what sin did. And that’s what sin still does. When we do what we know is wrong, we hide. My grandson is 3. When he gets quiet, we know there’s a problem. He’s either eating play-dough, drawing on a wall, or sneaking candy. He hides when he’s doing something wrong. Here we are, grown women, essentially hiding while we eat play-dough. Sneaking around hoping no one finds out. Pulling away from God because of the guilt we feel within. But imagine if Adam and Eve wouldn’t have hidden. Imagine if they would have ran straight to God after that first bite and said, “Oh no, we messed up! Help us!” Imagine if we did that! Wouldn’t everything change? The first mistake was not filling up on the tree of life. The emptiness created space for what wasn’t good for them. The second mistake was choosing to do what they knew was wrong. The third mistake was hiding in shame. Now, their fourth mistake was casting blame. Genesis 3: 9-13, “The the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He replied, ‘I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ the Lord God asked. ‘Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and I ate it.’ (Not only is Adam blaming Eve, but he’s blaming God because God is the one who gave him this woman who messed things up. Hmmmmm, I wonder if we do that too?) Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What have you done?’ ‘The serpent deceived me’ she replied. ‘That’s why I ate it.’ The first sin was also the first opportunity to confess and repent. The first sin was the first opportunity for forgiveness. But shame caused them to hide and blame. Girls, now that we know better, we can do better. It’s not IF you mess up, it’s WHEN you mess up, don’t hide in shame. Don’t pull away from God. And don’t cast blame on anything or anyone else. Take responsibility fo

As a woman, you are specially designed and created to be a servant. Before you stone me, understand that being a servant is not a lowly position. According to Jesus, the greatest is called to be the servant. By divine order, to be great, you must be a humble helper. If you cannot be a humble helper, you will never be great. You will never live in your fullest potential if you are not willing to be a servant. Jesus said in Matthew 23:11-12, “The greatest among you must be a servant. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” My friend, there’s absolutely no wiggle room in this. There’s no gray area. If you’re going to get better and live a great life, you MUST humble yourself as a servant. Every time you assume the position of being better than someone else and above helping them, you have missed your calling. Here’s the question – do you trust God? Do you trust his design? Do you trust he knows what you don’t know and has a better plan? YES? Then trust your positioning as a woman. You are the helper by God’s divine design. Not because you’re lesser than, but because you’re chosen as God’s girl. After God created the first man, he saw it wasn’t good for man to be alone. Genesis 2, the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make a helper who is just right for him.” Then the Lord God made a woman from his rib, and he brought her to the man. GIRLS, WE ARE THE JUST RIGHT HELPERS. Think about that. It’s you. You are specifically designed to be just right. To fit perfectly in partnership with one who needs your help. It’s part of your design. This isn’t something to hate. This isn’t something to fight. This isn’t something to resent. This is something that makes you great. Again, according to Jesus, the greatest among you must be a servant. It is an honor to be the helper. It’s fulfilling to be the helper. The helper is who you were created to be in your greatest and fullest potential. Think about when Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist and knelt down to serve his disciples by washing their feet. Serving didn’t make him beneath them. It didn’t make him weak. It made him great. His humility showed a life-changing love. AND SO DOES OURS. Now again, if you’re pulling away and ready to fight, come back to trusting God. If God designed it, can you trust it? If God aligns it, can you walk in it? God designed the woman to be the JUST RIGHT HELPER for man. I’m blessed to have a wonderful husband. He’s easy to help, quite honestly. And he’s easy to help because he’s good to lead. If he were not a good leader, serving him would be extremely difficult. I must believe this is why the enemy attacks our men with such aggressive intent – if the man isn’t worthy of being followed, then the woman cannot follow and serve. If the woman cannot serve as the just right helper, then she is left unfulfilled by design. If you don’t have a good man to help, what should you do? PRAY FOR HIM. My sister, he’s under attack. He’s hurting. He’s been confused. The way you can be the ‘just right helper’ to a man who is not leading well, is to pray relentlessly for him. You can’t change him, you can’t fix him, but God can! Do you believe that? If you have been given a good man who is worthy of following, then HELP HIM. It is your role. Again, not because you are less than him, but because Jesus has called the greatest to serve and he showed us how. When we fight against this and rise up in with our feisty selves, refusing to be the chosen, called and equipped helper, then we quite simply miss the fullness of our design. We’re actually fighting against the very thing that is missing within us. We’re refusing our blessing. It is a blessing to serve. What an honor it is to be that just right helper. When sin entered the world through that first man and woman, struggles were created. Do you know that one of those very specific struggles is the fight over roles between men and women? It’s the discord and dysfunction in our relationships. To the woman, God says in Genesis 3:16, “You will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” That was NOT God’s design. That’s what sin did. Are you trying to control your husband? Is your husband trying to rule over you? That’s not within either of your designs. He is called to lead you towards God, and you are called to help him on the journey with God. If he’s not leading and you’re not helping, then it’s dysfunction. Lord, please lead us back to our blessed design in partnership. And start with me. Go to work on me! Let the change begin in me. If you don’t have a husband, you are still designed to be the helper. You’re no

Today, my retreat girls will go with me to the largest natural gathering place for manatee in the world. The cold of winter is beginning to set in, so the manatee have traveled for hundreds of miles to come to their winter home in the warm springs waters of Blue Springs State Park and Crystal River. We will kayak with these massive, marvelous creatures in the wild. We will swim with them. And every single one of us will be in awe of their beautiful and perfect design. GOD DID THAT! In fact, God did that on day 5 of creation. Genesis 1:20, “Then God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with fish and other life’ … So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water.” God created that manatee, uniquely designed it just as he desired, and you know what he said about it – he said it was GOOD! But really, have you see the shape of a manatee. They’re like a big ol’ baked potato with a round tail. And yet we will all be in awe of them. After God designed the manatee, do you know what he did the next day? Something even better. Something he said was not only good, but it was REALLY GOOD! Imagine this scene – The Father God, the son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit all come together for a brainstorming session. They’re gathered to do their most creative and impressive work. Together, they will create YOU. They imagined you, designed you, then formed you. Just as they wanted for the purposes of your life. That’s precisely what happened. The Holy Trinity designing you! Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let US make human beings in our image, to be like us.'” You have always been seen. You have always been wanted. You have always been enough. Genesis 2:7 “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” Let’s make this personal. When I pause insert your own name into this scripture. God breathed the breath of life into _________, and she became a living person. The purpose of life is to live it. Not just survive it, or endure it. Not sleep it away or wish it away. But live it. In order to LIVE this life you have been given and fulfill your purpose, you must be ALIVE. This breath of life God has breathed into you comes with a single expectation. That you would open your eyes, experience life fully and be ALIVE with life. Our scripture today says you came ALIVE – a living person. Not a miserable person. Not a tired person. Not a worried person. Not a stressed out person. But a LIVING person. Will you be a LIVING person? There is no time to waste. We can’t afford to wait until next month to wake up and start living. We can’t sleep away today. James 4:14 puts the brevity of life into perspective with “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” BUT YOU’RE HERE TODAY. You have a chance to live today. What a gift you and I have been given. And remember, with all great things comes great responsibility. Not everyone received the gift of life today, but you did, and you have a responsibility to live it. Today, let’s fulfill our purpose. Let’s do with this day exactly what we’re supposed to do. Let’s LIVE it! The dictionary uses 3 words to define ALIVE: Alert, Active and Animated. We will use that as our gauge and intentionally go to work. Today, we will be ALIVE by being ALERT. Wherever we are, we will actually BE THERE. Repeat to yourself, “right here, right now”. Hey, you will never get this back. Every moment today is a once in a lifetime moment, don’t miss it. Taste your food. Hear the sounds of life. Open your eyes and see life unfolding all around you. You are surrounded by unspeakable beauty. There is beauty before you, beauty behind you. Beauty to your left, beauty to your right. Beauty above you, beauty below you. Beauty within you. God’s creation is begging for you to notice. Today you will savor it because you are alert. Continue to bring your mind back to the state of right here, right now. Second, today we will be ALIVE by being ACTIVE. We refuse to sit and wonder and worry. If we are stuck in a rut, we won’t be by the end of the day because today, we’re taking the next step. We will be in action. We will get up and get going. My Daddy used to see the buzzards circling in the sky and he would say, “Sis, you better look alive!” The morale of the story – buzzards are always looking to prey upon the things just sitting still. Maybe you’ve been sitting still, just thinking about making changes, worrying about all that needs to change, making plans for change, that the buzzards are circling you. Girl, you better look alive. Be ACTIVE today. And third, today we will be ALIVE by being ANIMATED. This means be excited, energetic and lively. Put some pep in your step. You say you don’t have anything to be excited about … ah girl, that’s the

Our God is a God of details. He has literally thought of EVERYTHING. There’s not a single thing he has overlooked. There’s nothing that he hasn’t accounted for. He has a plan and a purpose for all things. To see his attention to detail, look at his creation. This week, we’re studying Genesis 1, the account of creation. We see his glory in the details of this world he imagined, designed, formed and filled. How did God think of making snow falling from the clouds? That didn’t just happen because of an accidental atmospheric condition – no, that happened because God designed it. How did he think of lightening flashing from the sky? What made him create the colors of the Northern Lights or leaves on trees that turn to brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow before letting go? He thought of it all and spoke it into existence. Details – God is not only in them all, he is all up in them. He’s not only over all the details, he’s all over them. Nothing just happens because of coincidence. God knew how brilliant the skies would be. He knew how a stunning sunset would make his creation pause. Someone sent me a video of a sunset savoring dog. This golden retriever would go outside every evening at just the right time, then sit and watch the sunset with intention. This dog’s eyes were fixated on the setting sun as he sat in apparent awe and contentment. Then, after the setting of the sun, the dog would go back inside. And he did it every evening. My sisters – why aren’t we doing that? Why aren’t we enamored by the display of God’s power? My friend Kimberly gets completely giddy when she sees a fall leaving floating through the air. She breaks out in full song and dance, watching that single leave float it’s way down to the ground. She receives that little detail as if it were a special display of God’s love just for her. Now, why don’t we do that? Pick a detail of nature that could be God’s signature sign of love for you. For me, it’s a hot pink sunrise or sunset. I know God is thinking of me with that, because I’m thinking of him. My friend Nicole finds rocks in the shape of hearts, that’s God’s signature for her. I’m pretty convinced that God created mangoes just for me because he knew how much I would love them. What’s your thing? A little detail of creation that will be your and God’s special thing? And when you witness that special thing, will you give God praise for it? One time, as Jesus was riding through a crowd on a donkey, his followers began shouting praises. They declared his glory with their voices, giving him honor. When the Pharisees in the crowd heard the people, they said to Jesus, “Rebuke your followers.” Essentially, tell them to be quiet. Jesus replied in Luke 19:40, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!” Someone or something is going to praise God for the details of his work. Will it be you, or will you let the rocks cry out in your place? God is putting his marvelous works on powerful display all around you, but you’ve been so busy that you’ve failed to even notice. One of my favorite songs right now is called “This Won’t Take My Praise” by Blanca and Taylor Hill. It talks about being down, being attacked, being surrounded as the weapons of Hell form against you, but declaring: This won’t take my praise I won’t let a rock cry out for me And this won’t take my joy Jesus, I’ll lift your name up louder than the noise This won’t take my praise What hardship or struggle has been taking your praise? Instead of joy, you have worry. God wants his praise back. Sometimes it’s not the hardships of life that take our praise, it’s simply the noise of life. We rush right past the details God designed to wow us, and we miss it. And when we miss those details in creation, then it’s easy to miss those details in the unfolding. Our lives are all unfolding one day at a time. Nothing is happening by chance. God is in the details of the unfolding. But when we’ve conditioned ourselves to pass by the details of God’s creation with glazed over eyes and distracted minds, we naturally miss the details of God’s divine workings in the details of the daily unfolding of our lives. We fail to give him praise and we let the rocks take our place. Is there a rock crying out to God because you’ve failed to do so? Is there a rock praising God because you’ve been to busy for that? Something unspeakable happens within us when we start intentionally noticing the details of God’s creation – we start recognizing the details of his work in our families, in our homes, in our lives. When you learn what God’s fingerprints look like on the details of the universe, then you are able to see those same fingerprints