BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

The final week of Jesus’ life shows us how he prepared for the end by living now. His final week shows us how to live, knowing our time is limited, this life is temporary, and we have a mission to fulfill. Matthew 11-15 Mark 11-15 Luke 19-23 John 12-19 Scripture: Philippians 2:5 “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” We know how the final week for Jesus ends – and so did he. He knew the cross was coming, and he knew his death was not defeat, it was victory. It was mission complete. With the example of Jesus, knowing he was about to die, knowing every detail of what was to come in his final week, what if we stopped fearing death and truly lived in the time we have? What if we truly treated each day as purposeful and valuable, knowing it takes us one day closer to our reward – an eternity in Heaven. What if we could treat our time here as important, but remember this is just the beginning. When our time is up on this earth, it’s not over, it’s just the beginning of what we were truly created for. You were created for eternity. Your soul was designed for forever connecting with your Creator. Your existence on this earth is a tiny pre-show where you grow to know your Creator and choose his path of salvation so you can dwell in your forever with him. The Garden of Eden is restored. We’re back where we belong. A perpetual paradise with God. The only way we get there is with Jesus. And what Jesus did in his final week not only makes it all possible, but his final week gives us a blueprint for living well. The final week of Jesus’ life wasn’t just about what he endured – it’s about what he demonstrated. He shows us how to live with purpose. He shows us how to love under pressure. He shows us how to surrender through struggle. He shows us how to trust God completely, even when it’s hard. Jesus Didn’t Just Die for Us—He Modeled Life for Us In His final days, Jesus compresses a lifetime of teaching into lived example. Under pressure, facing betrayal, injustice, and unimaginable suffering, He reveals what a God-centered life actually looks like. We often ask, “How should I live?” Jesus answers that question most clearly in the week leading to the cross. The cross is where He paid for our salvation. But the path to the cross is where He showed us how to live. In 1 week, Jesus would finally hang on the cross and speak the words, “It is finished” … but before he said ‘it is finished’, he showed us how to begin. To begin our journey to our final destination. Final destination is where Jesus was going to prepare things for us. That’s where God’s children are destined. That’s our promised land. And this entire life here on earth is the beginning of our journey there. You’re in the beginning – already on your way to Heaven. Now, live well, my friend. This will all be over soon. This week, study the path to the cross Jesus walked with tremendous intention. He moved forward without rushing. He was fully present in every opportunity. He sought his Father through the struggle. And oh how he loved with his life. He did more than die for us. Dying for us would have been enough. But Jesus showed us how to live. To live with eternity on our mind. To love with our entire being. And to be loved by God. 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 asked God for one thing and you feel like you got something totally different? Jesus tells us, “ask and you will receive”, but maybe you’re not so sure that applies to you because you haven’t gotten what you’ve asked for. Yes, girl, ask. He wants you to ask. He answers every time you ask – it just might not look like what you thought it would. The Israelites were hungry in the desert and they asked God to supply their needs and give them food to eat. AND GET THIS – The next day they woke up to manna!!!! We know manna as this miraculous bread directly from God which sustained the Israelites where there was nothing else to eat. But let me tell you, THIS WAS NOT WHAT THEY WERE EXPECTING. Exodus 16: 13-15 “The next morning the area around the camp was wet with dew. When the dew evaporated, a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground. The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. ‘What is it?’ They asked each other. They had no idea what it was. And Moses told them, ‘It is the food the Lord has given you to eat.” I propose they woke up that morning and saw this white dewy, sticky substance all over the desert ground and they really said “What in the world is THIS?” I don’t know, maybe they were expecting Sarah Lee herself to appear at sunrise baking her fresh loaves of bread, but this … this is not what they were expecting. What is this and what am I supposed to do with it? Understand, nothing like this dewy, flaky substance had ever been seen before. This was totally new to them. And quite honestly, it didn’t look like the miracle they were expecting of the God they were counting on for survival. And this is why they called it manna. Manna literally means “What is it?” For real, that’s the defintion of manna – what is it? And if you don’t know what it is, you certainly don’t know what to do with it. The Israelites expected food they recognized. God gave them something they had to learn HOW to use. Sometimes the reason we miss God’s provision is because it doesn’t match our expectations. We expect things to look a certain way, but God works in the unexpected. You can’t figure him out. You can’t predict him. Your God is continually going to show up in ways that surprise you. And honestly, sometimes it’s initially a disappointing surprise. A question of, really, what is this? What do I do with this now? Can you see how what God has given you is provision, even if it doesn’t look like the “bread” you were expecting? The confusion you currently feel is the first stage of revelation to God’s answer. In the beginning, you’re asking, “Why did this relationship end?” – later you see God’s protection in it. In the beginning you’re asking, “Why did I lose that job?” – later you see God’s great redirection. In the beginning you’re asking, “Why did this happen to me?” – later you see God’s preparation for something better he had for you next. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean God isn’t in it. The Israelites didn’t understand this bizarre looking substance all over the ground that morning, but it was still their miracle. Now it was time to learn what to do with their miracle. And my friend, if you’ve asked God to show up for you, he has … maybe you just don’t understand what he is doing. It’s time to learn what to do with the minunderstood miracle he has given you. In studying manna, this miraculous bread from Heaven that appeared on the desert ground each morning, I’ve learned the most practical and applicable lessons for exactly where we find ourselves today. Lessons on what to do with God’s answers that you don’t understand. It is believed that this manna was like a coriander seed covered in dew. Not loaves of bread, but a seed which could become something. Not a seed to be planted, but a seed to be ground. When worked, when crushed by hand, when grinded out, this substance miraculously covering the desert floor each morning became much like wheat and could be used to make bread. It wasn’t what they expected and they didn’t recognize its potential because IT HAD TO BE WORKED. They prayed for bread and they got something they could USE TO MAKE bread. God didn’t drop baked loaves into their hands. They had to go out each morning, they had to gather this strange substance from the ground, then they had to prepare it. Now remember, they’re in the middle of the desert where nothing grows or flows. This is literally a life-saving miracle. This was bizarre and beautiful. But it was only bizarre until they worked with it – then it became beautiful. I don’t know what bizarre thing you might be facing right now, but maybe this is God’s answer to your prayers, but some effort is required from you now to see it as beautiful. You have to get out there and gather this up. You’ve got to grind this out. You’ve got to work with this. And when you do, it will become exactly what you truly need. What if the very thing you’ve been confused about… The thing you’ve been questioning … The thing you’ve been overlooking … IS ACTUALLY YOUR MANNA?!!!! What if you’ve been asking God for bread, and he’s been faithfully covering the ground in front of you every morning and you just keep walking past it because you don’t recognize it. Well, my friend, you’ll never recognize it for what it could be if you don’t work with what God has given you! If you’ve asked God, he has heard you and he is moving on your behalf – just perhaps not in a way you recognize. But it’s here. Can you see it? What will you do with it? 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 it feels like we don’t have enough. There’s not enough time. Not enough money. Not enough help. Not enough energy. Sometimes we feel like we’re not enough. We’re not good enough. Not smart enough. Not pretty enough. Not anything enough. So, we walk around looking at our life as if nothing is enough. We’re always lacking. Always in need. Always coming up short. Always feeling if we had more of this or more of that we would be better and do better, but we don’t. So we don’t. We don’t live better because we’ve blindly assumed we always need more in order to do so. All while the one thing we truly need, and already have, is God. If you have God, then you will always have what you need. He’s a good father and he takes care of his girls. So here’s what’s really happening – God designed your entire life around a relationship with him. If you have an abundance of everything, guess what … you no longer need the Almighty. When life is good and easy, you fail to recognize your total dependence on the One who has made every single detail even possible. Hey girl – you didn’t wake up today without God. God allows a need to bring you back to him. Your daily need actually creates a daily relationship with your Creator. Your need and his faithful provision forms a level of trust you wouldn’t know otherwise. In our study of the Israelites in the wilderness, they’re now free from slavery in Egypt, but wandering through a desert without provisions. Nothing grows or flows in a desert. They have a daily need and that daily need was designed by God to bring his people to him. Here, God shows up in really out of the norm ways to provide precisely what is needed. Exodus 16: 4-5, God says, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.” Yes, God gave them enough for the day only. Enough. Just for one day. Why? To build their trust and test their faith. Maybe that’s where you are today. You have enough, but it’s only enough for today. You have no idea how you’re going to make it through tomorrow. You don’t see tomorrow’s provisions here today. And what are you going to do next month? How the heck is this going to work next year? What you have certainly doesn’t look like enough and the truth is you’re freaking out a little. How will you make this work? How will you find the strength? Where will you go for what is needed later? But maybe, just maybe, in this season God is building your trust and testing your faith. Will you trust his provision is here for today and see that it is enough? Will you have faith he will do the same for you tomorrow too? See what God has done for you today and trust he will do whatever is needed tomorrow too. Maybe you’ve gotten ahead of yourself and that’s why you’re so overwhelmed. Your mind is already in next week, next month and next year. Girl, you can’t see God’s hand way out there, but you can see his hand right here. Just stay here with God. What happened when the Israelites didn’t trust for God’s provision the next day and gathered extra of this bread from heaven on the ground just in case? Verse 19-20, Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them.” This break in trust and lack of faith created a rot in their provision. It went bad. And sister, the same exact thing happens to us now. When we start thinking God is not trustworthy for our tomorrow, we create a rot in what we do have. Things go rotten for us. What has grown rotten in your life? What has gone bad? Could it be because you tried to do this thing on your own? Could it be because your priorities got all out of order? Could it be because God was no longer the recognized provider? Could it be because deep down, you really didn’t trust God was going to show up and do anything for you? Could it be because you needed to know exactly what you would have tomorrow, and this need for security and certainty just turned everything bad? God wants us to depend on him daily. Honey if you have this whole thing figured out with your fool proof 10 year plan, why would you need God? Eventually you would stop seeking his hand because your hands are already full. So, he fills your hands, but he fills them with only enough for today. And that is enough. Yes, this is enough. Say it … I HAVE ENOUGH. Why does God work this way? So you keep coming back tomorrow. A daily relationship. A daily trust. A daily connection. That’s the whole point. God wants a daily connection with you. You were created to need him, so stop trying to build a life where you don’t need him for every day. I may not be exactly comfortable with the unknown. I may not see how in the world this is going to work out. I may not understand how God is going to show up tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. But, I know today he has given me enough. I have enough. So do you. The Israelites soon became ungrateful for their daily supply of ‘enough’ and started grumbling and complaining. Whining and wallowing. As a result, they sacrificed where God was leading them and settled in the desert for the rest of their lives. Their potential was unmet. Their Promise Land was unattained. All because what was enough for the day was not enough for their happiness. Read that again. What was enough for the day was not enough for their happiness. Oh sis, don’t let that be us. If it’s enough for today, will it be enough for you to be happy over? Don’t let us be spoiled brats complaining over the miraculous provision of God each day. Don’t let us complain over the job we hate while we’re not doing a darn thing to change it. Don’t let us worry over the stresses of tomorrow when tomorrow hasn’t even shown up yet and today is going unlived. Don’t let us waste what we have been given today with an arrogant assumption there will always be more. More time, more opportunities, more blessings. No, what we have is for today. You can’t save this time for tomorrow. You can’t hold back these opportunities for when you feel more ready. You can’t store up these blessings and hope to pull them out in the future. It’s here for today. Girl you have enough. Enough for today. Receive it with gratitude, don’t waste it, and trust that tomorrow will come with tomorrow’s provision. Enough. This is enough. It is enough for me to be happy. It is enough for me to be grateful. It is enough for me to work with. It is enough for me to trust God. This is a test. A test of trusting God on the daily. How are you doing with that test? Look around, God has given you everything you need for today. You have enough. Now gather up what God has given you and use it today because this stuff can’t be saved for tomorrow! You’ve got some living to do here and you have just enough to live today! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Whatever your problem is, your solution is nearby. God does not promise a problem free journey, he promises provision for every problem along the way. Look around, your solution is likely less miraculous in appearance than you imagined and actually more practical in nature. It’s the offering of the little you have which somehow becomes enough to feed thousands. It’s the marching in circles that brings walls down. It’s the singing of praise that makes chains fall off. God works miraculously through the practical. Don’t miss the solution he is offering you today as you wait for something that appears more miraculous. Yesterday we read about Moses leading the Israelites in the worship of God after he saved them from their enemies. Real worship for an audience of one broke out in the desert! Women dancing with their tambourines, praising God! Awesome – let’s see what happens next. Now the Israelites are in the desert and what’s lacking in a desert? Water. That’s a problem. Exodus 15:22-24 “Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for 3 days without finding any water. When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink.” Here we have a real problem. No drinkable water in the middle of a desert. Imagine walking from Yuma Arizona to Tuscon with no water. That’s a problem. So, God offered a solution. A solution that looked more ordinary than miraculous. A solution that required obedience and trust. The solution could not be found in complaining. As the people complained, dying of thirst and facing the disappointment of finding water that was undrinkable, the water remained as it was. God did not respond to their complaining. As God’s people complain, their problems remain. Whatever you complain about will remain about. How much are we complaining right now, and how much is it helping anything? God isn’t drawn in to our complaints, instead I believe our complainging proves we’re not ready for what he is offering. Our complaining proves the lesson hasn’t been learned and the bitterness is still within us. The bitter water represented the bitterness of the Israelites. Even after witnessing the miraculous work of God as they crossed the Red Sea and were saved from the Egyptian Army, they fall back into complaining and wanting to return to Egypt as soon as they faced the next problem. Isn’t that us … we go from praise to complaint in the same day. Whew God you are so good … to …. Oh my gosh this sucks and I hate it. From shaking our tambourine to shaking our head. God did not respond to their complaining. Mamas, how do you respond to your kid’s complaining? Are you eager to jump in and help when they’re whiny? No! That’s what time out is for. Little girl, sit yo’self over here for a hot minute and work on your attitude. After a little time out and attitude adjustment, my kids would typically come back with a different attitude and a tender voice saying “Mama, can you help me now?” My answer … of course honey, now I can help. Papa, can you help me now? I love the Message translation of the Bible because it often refers to God the Father as Papa. That’s who he is, he is YOUR PAPA. Papa, can you help me now? The people complained and the water remained bitter. Moses cried out to God, and God guided him to a solution. Maybe your complaints in the past proved you weren’t ready, but now you’re here with a better attitude, ready to seek God for help. And THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING. God says, of course my girl, now I can help. The solution – a piece of wood that would turn the bitter water sweet and make it drinkable. Exodus 15:25, “Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.” What a simple solution! But how would they have known to do this to make the water drinkable without the intervention of God? That solution was always there. The tree growing next to the water had been growing for years on purpose to be used. God has a solution for all our problems before they ever happen to us. Before they ever came to the bitter water thirsty, God had provided the tree as a solution. Yes we will have bitter water as a problem in life, but we will also have a sweet tree as provision from God. With the problem comes God’s provision, but do we not perceive it? Jesus said he is going to prepare a place for us, won’t he also provide a way to get there? And won’t he be in every detail along the way? All is prepared between here and heaven, his provision has been planted, we just need to seek God with open hearts, open hands and open eyes to see it. Complaining does not open our eyes to solutions. Only seeking God shows us his divine solutions. When Moses cried out to God for help, the Lord showed him the wood. This wood would turn the bitter waters sweet and make them drinkable. It was a practical solution for a real problem. Maybe while you’ve been seeking some miraculous magical feat, God actually has a very practical solution you’ve been overlooking. God, help me see what you’ve placed right here for a purpose. Lead me to the solution. I will stop complaining and I will seek you. Guide me. After turning the bitter water sweet and hydrating them for the next part of their journey, they continued on, led by God. And look at this: verse, 27, “After leaving Marah, the Israelites traveled on to the oasis of Elim, where they found 12 springs and 70 palm trees. They camped there beside the river.” This was a place of extreme provision. An oasis of bliss in the middle of the desert. God was leading them there, they just needed to stop at the bitter water on the way to work on their complaining attitude. There was a lesson to learn before they could come to the place God had for them. God has provision waiting for you too, my sister. A place he is leading you. If you find yourself at some bitter waters complaining and wanting to go back to the way things used to be, maybe you’re here for a sweet little lesson. A lesson on seeking God over complaining. A lesson on provision in the practical found right by the problem. And on the other side of this lesson is a beautiful oasis you didn’t even see coming. More than enough. Abundance and beauty. A place surely worthy of your tambourine once again. You’re going to want to keep that tambourine sister. Pack your praise and keep it with you. God’s just working through this problem to bring you to a better place. 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

Together, we’ve been studying the book of Exodus, telling us of the great exodus by the Israelites from their 430 years of slavery under the rule of Egypt. After plagues troubled Egypt, the Egyptian ruler Pharaoh demanded the enslaved Israelites leave immediately. They left in a hurry. And wouldn’t you after spending your entire life in slavery? Freedom was finally offered that night, and they ran. What follows is God’s people witnessing his mighty hand in personal and powerful ways. God guides them on the correct path through an unknown wilderness with a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night. God literally parts the water for them, making a path of dry land through the middle of the Red Sea, then swallows up all their enemies in the water after them. For the first time in 430 years, God’s people were truly free. The bodies of their enemies washed up on the shore, proving this was really it for them. What do you do when the battle is finally over? What do you do when you look back and see all God has done? You praise God! Exodus 15:1-2, “Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord: ‘I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; he has hurled both horse and rider into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him – my Father’s God, and I will exalt him!’” The people stopped everything and they sang. But who were they singing to? THE LORD. This song is for an audience of one. My friends, that’s what our worship is supposed to be. All for God and only for God. It’s not a show. It’s not a performance. It’s not a check box. It’s not a ritual. It’s praise for an audience of one. Let me ask you, is that what your worship is? May I be vulnerable with you here? Sadly, my worship changes depending on who I’m with. I often think more about what others might feel than I think about the one it’s really all about. I will dumb down my worship if I know those around me might be uncomfortable. I’ll hold back my praise if I think I might be considered weird. While I know that’s not right, it’s something I often struggle with. What does praise for an audience of one really look like? What does worship with a wholehearted focus on God look like? Well, it looks a whole lot like Exodus 15. For 18 verses, the Israelites sang their praise for their audience of one. And it’s recorded word for word here for us to understand what worship looks like. I’ve gone through their recorded song of praise and here’s what I’ve found – it’s a FOCUS ON GOD. Not a focus on self. Not a focus on others. A focus on God. That is worship. 7 times the words “he, him and his” are used. 26 times the words “you and yours” are used. What are they saying? Ain’t nobody but God did it! Their worship was all about God. They recognized God didn’t just give them strength, GOD IS THEIR STRENGTH. (Verse 2) There’s a difference. Strength is not a well to tap into, strength is your God to know, to connect with, to lean on, to trust. God IS your strength, continually, never-ending, forever and always. He is your strength for whatever you’re going through. He’s not just giving you the strength, he’s showing up for you personally AS your strength. That should give you an unshakable level of confidence to face whatever it is you are facing. God IS your strength. Their song says, “The Lord is a warrior. You raised your right hand and the earth swallowed our enemies.” They’re remembering what God did. They’re remembering the parting of the sea and the impossible way God saved them. Their song says, “With your unfailing love you lead the people you have redeemed. In your might, you guide them to your sacred home.” They’re remembering more of what God did. They’re remembering how the pillar of cloud guided them during the day, and the pillar of fire perfectly guided them at night. When they were lost, God showed them the way to go. And here’s what they know – they know nobody but God did that. And when you remember it was all God, then you can worship him fully. One of my favorite songs right now is “God Did It” by Toby Mac & Jamie McDonald. It’s like the modern day version of Exodus 15. Could you sing these words today for an audience of one? Ain’t nobody but God did it There’s no way around Some things you can’t explain away It’s too good for me to doubt Said nobody but God did it Showered me in love When it looked like it was over He went and did just what He does God did it What did God do? No for real, what is it in your life that you can’t just explain away. There’s something that’s just too good for you to doubt. Ain’t nobody but God did that! God went and did just what he does, and he did it for you. Now give him the praise only he deserves. Let’s get real – whoever it is that causes you to hold back your praise has become a block between you and God. You have allowed them a space that God has requested – what’s that space – your focus. If your worship has become limited in the presence of others, then your focus is on them more than it is on God. Now, is God asking you to fix that? Is he asking you to put him back in his rightful first place as your audience of one? Some of the most powerful spiritual moments at our retreats are our times of worship. I blast worship music and I encourage everyone to go find their own private space to be with God. Sometimes that’s what we need. A time when family isn’t around. A time when no one else really knows the depths of our story. A time when our focus is all on what God did. And really, when you realize what God has done for you, you just can’t help but praise him. That’s what Moses and the Israelites are doing on the other side of their impossible. They’re recognizing the impossible things that couldn’t be explained away. They’re voicing the things that were too good for them to doubt. They’re remembering when it looked like it was all over, God went and did just what he does. And let’s be real clear – it REALLY looked like it was all over for the Israelites. With an impassable sea on one side and their enemies charging towards them on the other, they stood completely helpless with nothing to fight with. But GOD WAS THEIR STRENGTH. God did things that simply could have never happened without him. God did things they didn’t even know to ask for. God brought them a victory they had never even imagined. They’re standing in the shower of God’s love and voicing nobody but God did it! And they don’t care how it looks to anyone else – they are overcome with praise for the God who did what only he could do, and he did it for them. Now here’s the really cool thing – over 1,300 years after God’s people sang this song of praise and worship, John writes in the book of Revelation telling us about a vision of the end times to come. Guess what this chapter in the very end of your Bible is titled – “The Song of Moses and of the Lamb”. God shows John what is to come in heaven when the final victory is won – guess what will be happening?!!!! “All the people who had been victorious over the beast (that’s satan) were singing the song of Moses!” Guess what, girls – we will be singing this song of victory in the end! We too will stand in heaven knowing ain’t nobody but God did it! When it all looked like it was over for the world, God went and did just what he does – HE SAVED US! But how about we don’t wait until the end to sing our song of praise? How about we start worshiping for our audience of one right now. We already have evidence in our lives of what only God could do, don’t we?!!!! It’s time, my friends. Time to really worship God! 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

I trust God, but sometimes I like to give God suggestions. You know just in case he was 50/50 on what to do, I like to interject by bright ideas and tell him how he could make things work out really good. I occasionally even tell God how he could do “cool things”, as if he was sitting on his throne in heaven stumped over how he could pull off something cool today and he was waiting on me to help him. Do you do that too? I wonder what God thinks of our ideas of taking the path of least resistance. I wonder how God views our tendency to desire what is fastest and easiest. I wonder how God feels about our complete avoidance of hardship, struggle, and suffering. Well, there just so happens to be a story in the bible about this exact thing. Let’s read it together. Matthew 16, Jesus is walking along with his disciples. They’re doing awesome miracles together and making a huge impact every where they go. In fact, they had just finished feeding the crowd of thousands with a small amount of bread and fish. Now they know his power. The disciples know Jesus is the One. They’re all in. Verse 21-23 “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Understand, Peter was just trying to save Jesus from suffering. He was trying to find an easier way. He was trying to fix this. And Jesus said, THIS SUFFERING DOESN’T NEED TO BE FIXED. THIS HARDSHIP DOESN’T NEED TO BE AVOIDED. That’s a hard pill to swallow. I want my suffering and your suffering to be fixed. Like immediately. I don’t want times to be hard for anyone. If there was something I could do to ease my friend’s pain after her loss, gosh I would do it. If I could lift the suffering of my friend whose world has fallen apart, I would do it. If I could make your marriage problems go away, I would in a heartbeat. If I could solve your financial problems, boom, it would be fixed in an instant. If I could lift your burdens… If I could clear the way… If I could bring you healing … If I could restore what has been broken… I would be like Oprah. You get a new car. You get a good marriage. You get health. You get a whole family. You get a bonus. You get a baby. You get your answers. You all get EVERYTHING! No suffering. No struggle. No waiting. All your problems are fixed and there’s nothing but sunshine and glitter ahead, my friend. I really would fix it all for you … If I could. And to that, Jesus would say to me, “Satan, get behind me!” Why? Because just like Peter, I’m focusing on the wrong thing. I’m focusing on human concerns and overlooking the fact that God’s concerns are bigger, greater, and far beyond anything I can imagine. God is in the eternal game where current suffering will be redeemed. I tend to play in the right now game where suffering is always avoided. In your effort to avoid the suffering, go around the hardship, and skip the waiting line, have you become a stumbling block? Remember, that’s what Jesus called Peter. He was a stumbling block. His attempt to fix everything was in the way of God’s good plan. Honey, what if your attempt to fix everything is in the way of God’s good plan? What if God doesn’t need us to fix anything, and instead he needs us to partner with him in the bigger picture of what he is doing. What if this isn’t about what you’re going through right now, this is about what this will create for the future. What if God has magnificent plans that are so far above and beyond your scope of imagination, but the only way to get to them is through this stuff that doesn’t make sense? You know, this stuff you want to avoid. This stuff you want to skip. This stuff you’ve been giving God “suggestions” on fixing. Okay God, so this is going to fall apart? This is going to hurt? This isn’t going to work the way I had hoped? Now isn’t the time? I don’t like it, but I trust you. I will not try to fix your plans. I won’t get in the way of your work with my suggestions of an easier way. God has been trying to clear the way in your life, and you know what he’s been trying to move? YOU. You with your ideas of how it is supposed to be. You with your plans and good suggestions. You with your complete avoidance of current suffering that are for eternal purposes. What? You think you are above current suffering used for eternal purposes? You think you should be exempt from that? Dismissed because you’ve been a good person? Well, Sis, Jesus wasn’t dismissed and I’m pretty sure he was maybe even a little bit of a better person than even you. If Jesus wasn’t above suffering, why would we ever believe we are? I don’t want to be that stumbling block. I don’t want to be in the way of God’s plans. If God says I have to go through this, then I trust it’s for a purpose greater than my comfort. If God says this has to fall apart, I trust he will be doing something new on the other side of this and when I get there I’ll be more like the woman he created me to be. So, here we are Lord, trying our best to get out of the way. Here we are, surrendering to your plan that doesn’t make sense to us. Here we are, trusting you give and you take away, and our hands are to remain open. Here we are, counting on your timing to be better than our own. Here we are, trusting if you don’t fix it and we can’t avoid it, then you’ll carry us through it. 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

I read a great analogy on life that really puts everything into perspective. It’s deep. Grab your pen, I think this is for you today and you will want to write this down. Life is like a helicopter. I don’t know how to operate a helicopter. Gosh, life can be complicated and confusing sometimes. There has to be a button you could press to get out of this tailspin, but you’re not sure which button is the right one. You’re staring at a dashboard of flashing lights and sirens warning you of immanent danger, but you don’t know what to do to get out of this. Maybe right about now you want to hit the eject button. You want to get out of this. You want to jump from the disaster. But here’s the problem, helicopters don’t have eject buttons, and neither does life. You can’t just escape this. You can’t wish it all away. This tailspin in your life is seen by God, and he is equipping you to handle it. Now, Sis, handle it. You don’t have to continue to spin out of control. You don’t have to be stuck in the same ol’ round and round going down. You have been given the power to change things in your life. You have been given authority over every choice you make. You don’t think you know how to fly this helicopter, but God is asking you to learn. He’s asking you to take responsibility for the choices you make, take control of your thoughts, and demand better of yourself. How do you live this life well? You look to the example given to you! 2 Peter 1:3 MSG “Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.” When you get to know Jesus, you get to see how to start living your life better. He starts showing you how to take control of this helicopter and stop the tailspin. He shows you how to take your wild thoughts captive and make them obedient. He shows you how to forgive and move on. How to fight and conquer. How to love and let be. How to seek and find. How to move forward and overcome. How to rise up and break through. Jesus has miraculously given us absolutely everything needed to live a life God can be pleased with. You are lacking nothing! You think you don’t know how to operate this life, but actually, YOU DO. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength, including fly this helicopter of a life you have been given to live. This confusing and complicated life is yours to live. As you grow closer to Jesus, he will teach you how to better live and stop the tailspin. Your answer is Jesus. Seriously, he is the one who will show you how to raise those wild banshees you call your kids. Jesus is the one who will show you how to love your husband and yourself enough to no longer enable this behavior. Jesus is the one who will guide you to make the choices you don’t know how to make. Jesus is the one who will strengthen you to make the changes you know need to be made, but you’ve been avoiding. Jesus is the one who will take control of this helicopter and set the course … if you will ask him. When you get to know Jesus, things start changing. How do you get to know Jesus? You simply start seeking him. Start talking to him. Start reading about him. Start listening to others who know him. Start studying his words. Getting to know Jesus not only changes your circumstances, but it changes YOU. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” Your life becomes different because honey, you’re different. You’re not who you used to be. Getting to know Jesus changes how you see things. It changes how you show up. There’s nothing in your life that won’t be positively affected when you get to know Jesus more. A totally new life is possible when you’re growing closer to Jesus. I met a podcast listener recently who told me the life she was once living was busting the gates of hell wide open. She was living all wrong and she was doing it big time. She created sheer disaster in her wake. She was carrying around hurt and shame and living in complete fear of what others thought about her. That girl’s helicopter was out of control. Then, she met Jesus. And she not only met Jesus, but she got to really know Jesus. In the process of getting to know him, her life radically changed. Life stopped spinning out of control and she leveled out. She changed her choices and habits. She fixed some messes. She accepted grace and mercy, and made space for the new life Jesus offered her. Now, she uses her story to shine the light in the darkness which has surrounded others. A familiar darkness she once lived in, but Jesus got her out of. For my sister listening today who is in a tailspin of disaster, please hear me now: JESUS CAN CHANGE THIS! This doesn’t have to be your story for another day. This life doesn’t have to crash and burn. If you will take one step towards Jesus, I promise he will take a thousand steps towards you. He will show you how to regain control and stop the tailspin. As you get to know him, he will show you how to make better choices and change your habits. He will renew your confidence and strength so you no longer settle for less than his best for you. With Jesus, you have absolutely everything it takes to live a life God is fully pleased with. With him, he makes all things new and your life is changed. Yes, life is like a helicopter. I don’t know how to operate a helicopter. But I know how to lean in to Jesus and he can show me. Getting to know him is the ultimate answer! 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

Today I’m going to share with you the sweetest scripture I’ve ever read. A scripture so powerful in its sweetness that it stopped me in my tracks. Psalm 27:8 “My heart has heard you say, ‘Come and talk with me.’ And my heart responds, ‘Lord, I am coming.'” Woah. Does that touch you the way it does me? God says to your heart “Come and talk with me.” Let your heart simply respond “Lord, I am coming.” On a weekly basis I receive messages asking about prayer. How do you pray more meaningful and powerful prayers? How do you find the proper words to say that bend the ear of the creator of the universe? What exactly do you ask him? Have we turned prayer into a formal communication for which we do not know the language? Have we complicated the connection and in the process disconnected from the Almighty? David, the little shepherd boy who defeated Goliath, then grew to become a great King with the favor of God, is believed to have written this scripture. He knew. He knew the promptings within that bring him to his Maker, and he knew to simply respond. God says “Come and talk with me.” That’s not an agenda. That’s not a script. That’s not a formality. That’s an invitation to a conversation. A two way conversation. Talk WITH me, not just TO me. I have things I want to tell you, and there are things I want you to tell me. Today, don’t you hear your Father saying to your heart “Come and talk with me.” Yes, you do. Now maybe you’ve allowed the busyness to distract you, and maybe you would first have to tread through layers of guilt and shame before you could bow your head, but today all of that can be removed. Today you can respond “Lord, I am coming.” I’m coming to talk with you. I don’t know exactly what to say. I don’t even know how to start. I don’t even know how to listen for you and be sure you’re talking to me. But I am coming. I didn’t always talk with God the way I do now. I felt distant from him, even unimpressed by him. I honestly felt like he was going to do what he was going to do, and my communication with him wasn’t going to change anything. But I was wrong. My communication with him changed everything. After God saved me from a stroke at 19 years old, I found a relationship with him that created a hunger within me for more. I craved reading God’s word. I wanted to understand. I wanted to spend time with him. I had a green study bible at my work desk and I highlighted nearly every page as I studied. I prayed the promises I read and believed them to be true. I grew immensely. But somewhere in the midst of being completely well and life going on, I lost the sweetness of that relationship, and prayer became an obligatory 3 sentences I would repeat before my meals. Then struggle hit in my early 30’s. Business failed, success ceased, doors closed, and my heart grew bitter. I was angry God had allowed these hardships. I had grown distant and distracted as I tried to fix these problems on my own. But nothing worked as it all fell apart. This was a turning point. This was the day I prayed for the first time in a long time. What was my prayer, “God, I’m so angry. I can’t believe you’re letting this happen.” Yip, I literally started talking to him again through my anger. To my surprise, God didn’t turn from me. Instead he responded to my anger with a gentleness and peace I can’t describe. To return to that peace, I began spending more time with God. Instead of just whispering my prayers, I began journaling my prayers. Writing my praises and my requests. Recording the promptings I felt within my spirit. And goodness gracious if our whole world didn’t start changing. We went from parking our car in the garage to hide it from the repo man, to building our dream home with the resort style backyard. We adopted 2 little girls from an orphanage in Mexico. I ran marathons. I met my mentor and he taught me how set goals and live the life I had always wanted. And I did. I kept talking with God … until I didn’t. Life got blessed and busy, and I got distracted. Distracted by all we had and all we were working to get more of. Distracted by all the goodness of the trips and the toys. Sadly, I allowed my blessings to crowd God right out of my life. I no longer had time to journal prayers, that time was filled with more pressing things in a growing family and business. One day I stopped and realized I had totally lost the sweetness of my prior relationship with God. There was no connection. I no longer knew how to talk with him. I didn’t hear him in my life anymore, and I didn’t know how to start again. Struggle had first hardened my heart to God, then success distracted me from my destiny. Then came the game changer. My friend Suzanne taught me the 4 sentence prayer. A simple way to talk with God that came with no strings and no pressure. Just 4 simple sentences and you’re done. The very day she taught me, I went into my closet, I closed the door, and I hit my knees and I talked with God for the first time in a long time. Sentence 1: Tell God what you’re grateful for. Sentence 2: Tell God where you’ve messed up and ask him to forgive you. Sentence 3: Tell God what you’re worried about. Sentence 4: Ask God for help. Sometimes you just need an icebreaker to get a conversation started. Sometimes you just need a clear place to start. That’s what the 4 sentence prayer can be – the beginning of the best conversations you will ever have! If you’re wondering where to start with prayer, this is your answer. It’s not the ONLY answer, but it’s an answer here for you now. 4 simple sentences to begin talking WITH God in a truly effective way. For me, I found going to a quiet place on my knees and actually speaking in a whisper really changed the conversation. My mind didn’t wander off as much. If that’s a problem for you, try it. God is saying, “Come and talk with me.” Oh girl, how I hope you’re saying now, “Lord, I’m coming”, and get yourself to a place where you can start talking with your creator now! Write those 4 sentence prompts on a sticky note and get started. God is calling, answer! Within a few weeks of starting this daily conversation of 4 simple sentences with God, he clearly told me to start hosting devotionals. I hadn’t read my Bible in over 20 years. In fact, I didn’t even have a Bible anymore. I didn’t even know what a devotional was supposed to look like. And I couldn’t possibly be expected to tell people about Jesus … I was an emotional hot mess and couldn’t speak his name without crumbling into a snotfest. But, he wouldn’t release me from this continual nudge, so I agreed to hosting a devotional conference call for 1 week to prove I wasn’t possibly the right girl for the job. 13 years and THOUSANDS of devotional later, it would take nothing short of God’s loud booming voice to make me stop! How did all of this start … I’m just a girl who’s struggles AND successes BOTH had pulled her away from a relationship with her creator, and I simply responded to God’s whisper in my heart when he said “Come and talk with me.” Now, this gets me really excited for you. If God is saying to you “come and talk with me”, what could he have waiting for you? What amazing adventure could he invite you into? What incredible movement could he be ready to show you? What purpose could he reveal? What blessing could he bring? What promise could he fulfill? Maybe you’re in the struggle … see God here. He hasn’t abandoned you. His eye is on you, his hand is here for you, and he has good plans for you. Hear him call to your heart “Come and talk with me.” Let your heart respond “Lord, I’m coming.” And if all you have to come to him with is anger, then bring it. If all you have are questions, bring those. If all you have is a prayer of “help”, then say it over and over again. Help. Maybe you’re in the success … see God here. You’ve been busy and distracted, surrounded by all the things you once prayed for. Don’t let struggle be the only thing that brings you back to your knees. Get yourself there today sister. Respond to his calling and talk with him. You have a whole lot to tell him thank you for. Start there. Thank him for every single blessing you recognize today. Talk with him about the goodness of these details. Did you know you don’t have to close your eyes while you pray? Sometimes when I’m praying over a delicious meal, I look at it intently and smell its wonderful aroma and pray while I take that first bite. Sometimes I open my eyes and look around at all that is good and right and beautiful in that moment and talk with God about my blessings. Today I received the sweetest news that my friend who has been praying for a baby for many years is officially pregnant with a little miracle. I went on a praise walk to thank God for what he has done. I just listened to praise music and worshiped God as I walked. Everywhere I walked today on this little trail were chickens with their brand new, freshly hatched baby chicks. As I praised God, I could see reminders of new miraculous life everywhere. That’s prayer. Closing your eyes is not required for this conversation with God. In fact sometimes I think he wants us to open our eyes, see what he is doing and talk with him about it right there. Philippians 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” The moment you begin worrying about something, it’s an invitation to just talk to God about it instead. Is it possible to really pray about everything. Yes – it’s an open continued conversation with God where you’re looking for him in the details, praising him for the goodness, and seeking him first. It’s a mindset and a heart posture. Won’t you respond to the whisper in your heart that says “Come and talk with me.” And just keep coming back. Keep coming back to this relationship with him where you are strengthened in the struggle and grounded in the success. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook

We’ve all heard the nightmare stories of child stars who become wildly rich and famous and grow up to live a wreck of a life. We’ve seen the stories unfold. In a world where kid’s primary goal in life is to become famous, we know where that road can lead. This is the result of the Instagram and the TikTok. But wait … actually it’s not. God has been warning his children of the pit of ungrounded success for thousands of years. One of those stories is the life of King Uzziah. If King Uzziah would have been living in the 21st century, he would have been Insta-Famous and a top TikTok influencer. And his story is a lesson for every single one of us today. A lesson that meets us exactly where we are. You’ll find Uzziah’s entire story in 2 Chronicles, chapter 26. It’s summed up in 3 headings in my Bible: Uzziah the King, Uzziah’s Achievements, and Uzziah’s Disease. Uzziah became King of Judah at just 16 years old. Verses 4 & 5 say, “He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God. During the time that he sought the Lord, God gave him success.” Where did Uzziah’s success come from? God! How did he achieve success? He sought God. He put God first. God was his priority. He spent time with God. He asked God for help and guidance. He followed God’s promptings. Now, the next section, Uzziah’s Achievements. Verse 7 says, “God helped him.” He fought battles and he won. He built cities and they flourished. He gathered armies and they became powerful. Everything he did was successful. Verse 15, “His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful.” GREATLY HELPED. Oh, God can do that! God wants to do that! Do you understand that God wants to GREATLY help you? He wants to do wonderful things for you. He wants to offer his supernatural powers to do impossible things for you. And he will, as long as you seek him. What could God achieve through you … well, there are no limits. We serve an unlimited God who’s powers cannot be contained and who’s plans are greater and bigger than our wildest imaginations. And the way he has so graciously chosen to work is THROUGH US! And he will work through you in this way, as long as you are seeking him. But what happens after success? What happens after you get what you’ve been praying for? What happens when it all finally comes together? You’re grateful … right? You’re humbled … right? You’re happy … right? But do you stay grateful? Do you remain humble? How long until you need more to be happy? I’ve lived that story of rags to riches. Now mine was less dramatic on the rags and less extreme on the riches, but still it was a journey from a nobody to a somebody in some small circles. And when I became the somebody with the house and the car and the closet full of clothes, I lost myself. God had helped me so much UNTIL I became successful. Then, in success, I no longer felt the daily need for God’s provision. I had bread for the day, I didn’t have to seek him for it. And that’s the danger of success. When I no longer counted on God for my daily bread because I had plenty, I stopped seeking him like I had during the hard times. I know I’m not alone in this struggle. The ups and downs that create our unsteady walk with God. Our wavering little hearts that seek, then they run off chasing their own things. And just like Uzziah, I had been given success as long as I sought the Lord. But, that success threatened to trip me up and make me busy. Too busy to seek God first. Uzziah was greatly helped UNTIL he became powerful. Why the word “until”? Did something change when he became powerful, successful and famous? Yes. And here’s our warning. The next section in my Bible is titled “Uzziah’s Disease”. Verse 16, “But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God.” In his pride, he acted in unfaithful ways, pushed his way in to the sanctuary of God and began doing things he was not chosen to do. And suddenly, leprosy broke out on his forehead. He became a leper. The life of a leper was one of exclusion, suffering and loneliness. They were forced to live on the outskirts and were denied access to everyone and everything. And sadly, this was the life of King Uzziah, the once wildly successful leader, until he died. Not a happy ending. And I have to wonder how short this ending fell from the good plans God had for the young King who once sought him in everything. I wonder what COULD HAVE BEEN in his life if success wouldn’t have caused him to become prideful and then unfaithful? Oh Lord, please block any future success in our lives that would cause us to become prideful and then unfaithful. Remove anything that would get in the way of us seeking you. I will be honest with you, since my first failure of handling success well, I’ve been afraid of wild success. When I woke up one day and realized my entire world had become wrapped up in what I had and what others thought of me, I knew I needed a drastic change. That’s when we sold everything, gave the rest away, and started over in a life with two suitcases. I would rather have God than that big house. I would rather have God than a single other living soul know my name. I don’t want to fail that test again. But what happens when we become the girls who, no matter what the circumstances, no matter the success, no matter the power, we simply WILL NOT STOP SEEKING GOD? No matter the increase, we still humbly bow to God and seek his will over our own … what could happen then? What happens when we are unshaken by success, unchanged by fame, and undistracted by the noise? Could God continue to greatly help us? Could he be glorified even more?!!!!! Proverbs 3: 5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” You can trust that. You can live your life counting on that. You will NOT be let down by this. Now, understand the warning it gives if you don’t live like this. If you don’t trust the Lord with your whole heart, if you start depending on your own thoughts and your own ways, if you stop seeking his will in everything you do, you will be endlessly confused. You will be completely overwhelmed. You won’t know what to do, when to do it, or how to do it. Your paths will be a tangled web of a mess, and you’ll get lost in it. And there you will be stuck in confusion, overwhelm, disappointment and disaster. You will be like King Uzziah … from being supernaturally guided and blessed by the Almighty, to disappointed with the outcome and stuck in the wilderness. This doesn’t have to be us. This isn’t God’s good plan for us. We don’t have to lose ourselves in success. And as long as we keep seeking God, we don’t have to be afraid of success. Where are you in this? Are you in the middle of a mess, not knowing which way to go? Stop everything and seek God with your whole heart. Open up your hands, let it all go, and trust God to guide you. He will. Are you in the middle of success, but recognizing in the process of waking up to answered prayers, you’ve stopped praying like you used to? Girl, hit your knees today. Return to seeking God first and fully. Are you holding back and playing little because you’re afraid of success? Talk to God about that. Don’t let fear cheat you from your destiny. Seek God in creating daily routines and accountability partners that will keep you aligned with God, no matter where success may take you. Trust God and his unknown ways. Keep seeking him first in everything. He will show you the right way. Faithfully take the next step. 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 answer for the problem you are facing is Jesus. The answer for the hurt you are feeling is Jesus. The answer for the person you can’t fix is Jesus. Whatever you are going through, whatever it is you’re struggling to understand, whatever you’re trying to overcome, whoever or whatever you may be waiting on … the answer is always the same. Jesus. The singular point of everything God has planned, aligned, orchestrated or allowed in your entire life is to show you Jesus. When others have let you down, God wants to show you that Jesus will not. When everything else has disappointed you, God wants you to see that Jesus will not. When nothing else has helped you, God wants to show you that Jesus will. When you just don’t know, Jesus does. Right now, take the most uncertain situation you’re facing … through this, God is pointing you to his son Jesus. The sooner you see Jesus as the solution, the sooner you find the solid foundation for your next step, your peace in the middle of the storm, and your joy on the journey. My friend, why is this happening to you? Some would say you’re under attack. And maybe you are. Some would say these are the consequences you have to face for the choices you’ve made. And maybe so. Some would say you live in a fallen world and sometimes bad things just happen to good people. Sure, sometimes. But one thing is absolutely certain – NOT A SINGLE THING will touch your life without first passing through the hands of God. If he allows it, it’s because he can use it to bring you closer to his Son, Jesus. It’s to see more of him, know more of him, experience more of him, and trust more in him. On our journey of life, all of us are learning about the true grace of God. We’re coming to understand how much we truly do need him. We’re growing to see just how involved Jesus really is in the details of our lives. 2 Peter 3:18, “You must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Let me explain it like this … A child raised in a good home by good parents doesn’t necessarily understand how good their childhood was. They don’t know to appreciate everything their parents have done for them. Until they grow up and real life begins to touch them. Then they realize it. My son never once said thank you for all of the hard work of parenting him well. But that first letter from Basic Training in the Army was literally tear soaked with gratitude because he was finally aware of what we had done for him his whole life. This is what God is allowing in our lives now. He’s allowing us to see what he’s always done for us. He’s allowing us to grow in the knowledge of his grace over us. He’s letting us see our absolute dependence on him and his faithfulness every step of the way. God is showing us our need for the one true answer – JESUS! And we’re learning to really appreciate him! Remember a few weeks ago when we read about God instructing the Israelites to smear the blood of a perfect lamb on the doorframe of their house? In Exodus 12, God was going to pass through the land of Egypt with an act of vengeance, but wherever he saw the blood, harm would not fall. His people were protected by the blood. And this is what Jesus has permanently done for every soul who chooses to believe in him and follow him. His blood covers us. When God looks on those who have accepted his son Jesus, he only sees the blood and they are protected. No harm can cross over the blood against the Father’s will. Nothing can touch your life that God has not permitted because of that threshold. If it touches you, God has allowed it so that he can use it for good. Again, what is his plan of goodness? To show you the forever answer for everything in your life – JESUS. How can you better parent your teenager? Seek Jesus for yourself and point your teenager to Jesus. Again and again. Over and over again. The answer is Jesus for them and for you. How can you find the right spouse or the right career? You look for Jesus. Where do you see Jesus showing up? Where is his light being reflected? Where do you see his fingerprints on the details that simply can’t be denied? How can you heal from this hurt, this loss, this betrayal? Jesus. Only Jesus. He alone is the healer of your heart, every other feel good source is a temporary bandaid. Do you want a temporary feel good solution, or a permanent healing? Turn from every other offering and seek Jesus fully. Does that sound radical? Maybe. But let me tell you something, Jesus is a radical dude! He says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” That’s radical. If you’re going to find your way through this, you must fully turn away from everything else and radically seek Jesus – he is the way. If you’re going to really do this right without stumbling and screwing this whole thing up, you must look at everything that is not Jesus as NOT FULLY RIGHT and therefore leading you wrong. Jesus is the truth. If it’s not Jesus, then it’s not truth. If you’re going to really live life fully, walk in your purpose, fulfill your calling, follow God’s divine will and experiences the life you were created for, you must come to the realization that anything that is not Jesus is not real life. It might be exciting, it might look good, it might feel good, it might be what everyone else is doing or what everyone else wants – but it’s not real life. If you want real life, then it’s only through Jesus. Jesus is the way. He is the way you get through whatever you’re going through. He is the way you heal. He is the way you forgive. He is the way you find the right people. He is the way you end up in the right place. He is the way you do the right thing. Jesus is the truth. Jesus holds the truth about you. He is the truth about your future. He is the truth about the world you live in. Jesus is the only truth. Jesus is the life. Every other source that might make you feel alive is an imitation. Only Jesus is THE life. He is the life you most desire. He is the life you crave. Because he is the life you’re truly created for. I once heard we’re each created with a God shaped hole inside of us that only God can fill. That’s by design. God designed you to need Jesus. And everything he aligns in your life, orchestrates in your life, or allows in your life is for the sole purpose of pointing you to the eternal need you just can’t get away from. Jesus. At 50 years old, do you know what I wish I could go back and do different in every single area of my life? I wish I would have realized earlier that Jesus was always the answer. If I could raise my 3 kids over again, I would have sought Jesus more and directed them to Jesus more. I didn’t – and therefore a whole lot of totally optional hardships were required to teach our whole family that Jesus was always what every single one of needed. Did I have Jesus? Absolutely. I just didn’t allow him first place. Did my kids have Jesus growing up? You bet. But they didn’t know Jesus was the divine source for everything they needed and everything they would ever go through. If I could go back and start my business again, I would have built it on Jesus instead of tried to use Jesus as a sprinkle to get his blessings. It would have likely saved a whole lot of hardship. My hardened heart had to be chiseled away at for 15 years. My jacked up priorities had to lead to massive failure and a total fall apart so that the foundation could be rebuilt on Jesus. If I could speak to every friend again who sought my advice, I would tell them to forget everything else I said and START WITH JESUS. Jesus is your way. Jesus is your truth. Jesus is your life. For my dear friend who has been betrayed by the one who was supposed to love her the most, my friend, Jesus is your answer. For my friend who is hurting for her struggling child, Jesus is your answer. For my friend who wants a baby more than anything else, Jesus is your answer. For my friend who wants a good husband to share life with, Jesus is your answer. For my friend who is grieving, Jesus is your answer. For my friend who is in literal pain, Jesus is your answer. Why is that so hard for me to say? Why does that feel like such a cheap answer? Why does that feel like an unclear direction and a let down? Because that God shaped hole within us has believed the lie that something or someone else can fill it. It simply can’t. Jesus is the way. Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the life. So, what was that identified uncertain situation you’re facing … can you see that God is pointing you to his son Jesus? The sooner you see Jesus as the solution, the sooner you find the solid foundation for your next step, your peace in the middle of the storm, and your joy on the journey. Maybe that was the whole point. 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

Exodus 14: 20-30 Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long. So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side! Then the Egyptians—all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and charioteers—chased them into the middle of the sea. But just before dawn the Lord looked down on the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire and cloud, and he threw their forces into total confusion. He twisted their chariot wheels, making their chariots difficult to drive. “Let’s get out of here—away from these Israelites!” the Egyptians shouted. “The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!” When all the Israelites had reached the other side, the LORD said to Moses, “Raise your hand over the sea again. Then the waters will rush back and cover the Egyptians and their chariots and charioteers.” So as the sun began to rise, Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the water rushed back into its usual place. The Egyptians tried to escape, but the LORD swept them into the sea. Then the waters returned and covered all the chariots and charioteers—the entire army of Pharaoh. Of all the Egyptians who had chased the Israelites into the sea, not a single one survived. But the people of Israel had walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, as the water stood up like a wall on both sides. That is how the LORD rescued Israel from the hand of the Egyptians that day. And the Israelites saw the bodies of the Egyptians washed up on the seashore. 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

Exodus 14: 5-22 When word reached the king of Egypt that the Israelites had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds. “What have we done, letting all those Israelite slaves get away?” they asked. So Pharaoh harnessed his chariot and called up his troops. He took with him 600 of Egypt’s best chariots, along with the rest of the chariots of Egypt, each with its commander. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, so he chased after the people of Israel, who had left with fists raised in defiance. The Egyptians chased after them with all the forces in Pharaoh’s army—all his horses and chariots, his charioteers, and his troops. The Egyptians caught up with the people of Israel as they were camped beside the shore near Pi-hahiroth, across from Baal-zephon. As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’” But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving! Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers. When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord!” Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them. The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps. As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and Israelites did not approach each other all night. Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land. So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side! 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

Wouldn’t it be great to have a foolproof, absolutely ‘can’t possibly miss it’ type of sign as guidance for your journey? For real, have you ever prayed for flashing signs and illuminated arrows? God, make it clear. Don’t let me miss it. Show me your path in an unmistakable way. Can God do that? Absolutely. Does he do that? You bet! That’s precisely what he did for the Israelites. On their roundabout way through the wilderness from Egypt to their Promised Land, they depended on God for guidance day and night. They had never traveled through the desert. They didn’t have a map for this route. No one in their group had ever gone this way. It was all a complete mystery to them, but not a single step was a mystery to God. So, God showed up in miraculous ways as their guide. The Israelites’ equivalent of flashing signs and illuminated arrows was a moving pillar of cloud during the day and a glowing pillar of fire at night. For real, this is how God guided their steps for their journey of faith through the wild and unknown wilderness. Exodus 13:21-22, “The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. And the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people.” Imagine this for a moment. This massive cloud continually moves to stay right in front of them. It shifts from the left to the right, guiding them with which way to go. And at night, a column of fire appears giving them light so they can even continue walking in the surrounding darkness, knowing precisely the direction to go. They didn’t have to wonder if they were on the right path, God made that clear. They literally SAW God’s guidance in front of them. Wow, wouldn’t that give you divine confidence and strength for the journey. If I know God is guiding me, I can follow with boldness. If I know God is right there with me, I can face the impossible without flinching because with him nothing is impossible. Well I don’t know about you – but I haven’t woken up lately to a pronounced pillar of anything moving right in front of me. There have been no signs in the clouds, no arrows pointing east or west in the flames. As much as I would love that visible sign, I simply haven’t seen one. So, where does that leave us? Are we wandering on this journey alone? Are we responsible for making our own way until God gives us a sign of his way? It’s easy to read the Old Testament with God’s wonders and signs and wish he still showed up for us like that. It’s easy to question if God still moves today like he did back then. But here’s what we miss … God doesn’t have to guide us with a cloud or a flame because he’s given us something so much greater. What we have today is the indwelling of his Spirit. God’s Spirit no longer lives in a fancy box hidden behind curtains in a tent like it did in the Old Testament. God’s Spirit is no longer limited to divinely visiting just one person to speak to on a rare occasion. Because of Jesus, we now have God’s Holy Spirit literally living WITHIN US ALL THE TIME! Why is it different now than it was in the time of the Old Testament? Because of one thing – Jesus has made us righteous. The blood of Jesus has covered us and redeemed us, and now we are deemed worthy of God’s presence. The way God would divinely speak to one chosen person and give direct guidance for a journey is now available to every follower of Jesus. I don’t need Moses to tell me what God has said. I don’t need an interrupter of dreams. I don’t need a pillar of cloud or fire, nor do I need a flashing sign or illuminated arrow. I have BETTER! I have the Spirit of God right inside of me. Here’s what God’s Spirit does for us: 1. The Spirit leads us. Romans 8:14, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” And you can flip that sentence as well. All who are children of God are led by the Spirit of God. As his children, we’re not led by our circumstances or our feelings, we’re guided by the inner leadership of his Spirit. We are SPIRIT-LED, meaning we are divinely guided by Heaven, step by step. My friends, that’s better than any pillar of cloud in the sky! 2. The Spirit teaches us. John 14:26, Jesus said, “When the Father sends the Advocate as my representative – that is, the Holy Spirit – he will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you.” We have an internal teacher that brings truth and right knowing to mind exactly when we need it. The Spirit connects God’s word to real life moments for us. Have you ever felt an inner prompting of knowing what is wrong and what is right? Yeah, that’s the Holy Spirit! And That’s far better than any flame of fire showing up in the night. 3. The Spirit guides us into truth for the future. John 16:13, Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” Jesus knows the way to God’s good plans for you, so Jesus has the Holy Spirit deliver those steps to you with an inner prompting and knowing of truth for your future. I mean really, how cool is that? That’s so much better than a flashing sign. 4. The Spirit prompts and restrains. Acts 16: 6-7 tells of Paul and Silas traveling through specific areas and being prevented from going to some towns and held back by the spirit from stopping there. God’s Spirit was prompting them to continue moving forward and restraining them from wandering off from the path they were supposed to be on. That’s what God’s Spirit does for us. He opens some doors and closes some others. He makes some things happen for us in fast timing, and other things he delays out of protection or redirects from a heavenly viewpoint of what is best. How absolutely amazing to realize as a follower of Jesus, I never just stumble into things. His Spirit is constantly restraining me from what isn’t right, and prompting me toward what is. That’s better than any glowing arrow. Maybe you’ve taken for granted the unmatched gifting of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you’ve been waiting and wishing for a flashing sign saying “THIS WAY NOW: – when all this time you’ve had something so much better inside of you. Do you want to better hear from his Spirit and know his voice apart from your own voice? There’s one guaranteed way to do that – GET IN HIS WORD! The more you allow God’s word to get in you, the more you hear his voice clearly. Every moment you spend in God’s word is access you’re allowing the Holy Spirit to have within you. The more access you grant, the more guidance you receive. Sure it must have been amazing to be one of the Israelites following this pillar of cloud in the day and pillar of fire at night, watching it move in the direction they should go. But how much more amazing is it that you don’t need an external sign of an internal supernatural guidance you have today! What if we stopped praying so much for signs, and started praying more for an awareness of his voice and obedience to his promptings. Grant access to the Spirit by spending time in God’s word. Practice listening. Practice following. Jesus is continually guiding you to the Father’s best plans through the inner voice of the Holy Spirit. 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

My GPS continually takes me on the roundabout way. It’s laughable at this point. I’m not sure what hidden setting I have that makes my Apple Maps think I always want to go through the ghetto to my ultimate destination. I call it my Adventure Setting. I’ll eventually get to where I’m supposed to be, but the route there is scenic to say the least. And honestly, sometimes I feel God and I are on that Adventure Setting too. Rarely have we ever had a straight path, it’s a roundabout way through the trenches to get to where he’s ultimately taking me. But I have two choices on this adventure with God, and so do you: Choice #1. Hate it, rush it, and be miserable in it. Choice #2. Trust and embrace it. Choosing the second choice doesn’t feel natural, but it’s God desire for us. We don’t get to control this journey. We don’t get to make our own way. You’re not the way maker – HE IS! God says in Isaiah 43:19, “I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Who will do it? God will. Who does that mean isn’t reponsible for making the way? You. You’re not the way maker. God is. It’s his way. And here’s what we absolutely must learn to lean into – whatever way God is taking you, it’s for a greater purpose than you’re aware of. Trust him. In our study of Exodus, we’re now to the point of the Israelites being set free from captivity in Egypt after 430 years. They didn’t set themselves free – God did that. And now that they’ve marched right out of Egypt, they’re on the journey with God and to their surprise, it’s totally not anything like they expected it to be. You see, the Israelites knew there was a direct route from where they were in Egypt to where they were going in Canaan. They must have been so excited to finally go to the land God had been promising them. They must have wanted to get there absolutely as fast as possible. BUT THAT’S NOT THE WAY GOD TOOK THEM. The second half of Exodus 13 is titled “Israel’s Wilderness Detour” in my Bible. My guess would be the last thing they wanted was a detour, but a detour through the wilderness was God’s plan for them. Sometimes God’s plan doesn’t feel good – that’s just the truth. Sometimes God’s plan doesn’t make sense – that’s another truth. But every single time, without fail, God’s plan is best. If there’s a detour, there’s a purpose behind the detour. What could that purpose be? Verse 17-18, “When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. God said, ‘If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.” Yes, this was the longer route. Yes, this was the harder route. And no, this isn’t what the Israelites would have chosen. Instead of the coastal route which was the shortest way with easy roads, food and water, God lead them in a totally roundabout way right through the wilderness, dead-ending into the Red Sea. A route with no food. A route with no water. A route with harsh conditions. And quite honestly, this must have felt like punishment. But this harder route wasn’t punishment, it was God’s protection. God knew that on the easiest route were enemy forces that would quickly discourage his people. Out of protection, God leads his people on the longer route to avoid what they were not yet ready to face. If you’re on the roundabout way, detouring through areas you would have never chosen, can you see that maybe God is protecting you from things you aren’t ready for? And even if you can’t quite see it, can you trust it? Can you dare to believe God sees what you do not see and he has been protecting you? Can you tap into your faith over your fear that this isn’t punishment, no matter how it may feel? There was a battle on the easier, more direct way you would have chosen, and God lovingly protected you from that battle – Now how about you try not to be a brat about it. God’s mercy doesn’t always feel like mercy. Sometimes God’s mercy feels like delay. Sometimes it feels like the most disheartening detour. Sometimes it feels like sheer disappointment. But I’m learning to be grateful for God’s mercy dressed in those delays and detours and disappointments. There are several journeys I’ve been on that I wouldn’t have chosen – but looking back I would have missed some of my sweetest blessings. The same will be true of your journey and if you can’t see it yet, you will one day. I would always choose the coastal route, but sometimes God chooses the wilderness route. Sometimes he takes you right through the ghetto. And some of his most merciful and powerful work is done along the roundabout way. How sad that we tend to act like brats about it. Let’s decide now we’re just going to do better about trusting God’s plan, God’s path, and God’s timing. Lord, I won’t be a brat about this. I’ll see this as an adventure with you and I’ll just stay close to your side. 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

God is working something out in your life. And while it seems to be taking entirely too long for you, you can be assured his plan of deliverance and completion will happen in his pre-appointed divine timing. His plan for you will not fail. It will not be too late. Our God holds all time and power in his mighty hands. He has always seen the end from the very beginning. Nothing is impossible for him. And when he speaks a promise over you, that promise will come to complete fulfillment. Guaranteed. You can rest your weary soul in his guaranteed promises while you wait. The Israelites waited for 430 years for deliverance from their slavery in Egypt. I don’t know how long you’ve been waiting for whatever you’ve been waiting on, but my guess is it’s probably not quite been 430 years for you. So here’s what you need to know, my sister – your wait isn’t too long for God’s timeline. He hasn’t given up on his promise for you. It’s not too late. He still holds the precise MOMENT of completion in his hand. God is making a way to that moment and you will arrive in his perfect timing. 430 years of waiting for freedom, all while God worked every detail together to bring the Israelites moment to reality. Freedom was always on its way to them. Their path out was always in the making. Their long wait was always one day closer to being over, until finally the day came. We read about their day in Exodus 12: 40-42, “The people of Israel had lived in Egypt for 430 years. In fact, it was on the last day of the 430th year that all the Lord’s forces left the land. On this night the Lord kept his promise to bring his people out of the land of Egypt.” Oh my gosh, do you see that? It was on the exact LAST DAY of the 430th year of their captivity that the Lord led every last one of them out of Egypt to freedom. God had himself declared they would not be there for a single day into the 431st year and he made sure of it. Time matters to God. He has set divine boundaries on trials and struggles and without us even knowing, we’re divinely protected from our hardships continuing for a single moment beyond his will. Where God says it will end, it will end. And my friend, he knows exactly when this struggle will end for you. He already knows when this hardship will come to a close for you. He already holds the future day when you wake up for the last time to this problem. He has already aligned the moment when you will walk out of this free, whole, healed, and renewed. That moment is coming! God’s decisive moment of deliverance for you. But for now, you may be waiting. You may be waking up to another day with the problem still looming over you. But do not lose hope that your loving heavenly Father has already set the boundary for you and he’s leading you right to the day when you walk out of this free. Free from this hurt. Free from this hardship. Free from this unfair struggle. You will be free. In a display of God’s attention to detail, he ensured every last one of his people marched out of Egypt on that last day of the 430th year. No one would be left as a captive in Egypt on day 1 of the 431st year. No matter how stubborn Pharaoh was. No matter what the weather did. No matter who had been procrastinating. God would make sure his promise was kept fully and perfectly in his timing. And his promises of fulfillment and perfect timing stand for you too today. He has already held the future day you’re waiting on. He’s already designed it’s details, aligned the sun to rise on that specific day, and all moving parts to be in their assigned place, and you may wake up that day totally unaware that is the last day you’ll be waiting. On that day, the wait will end and it will happen through the power of God’s mighty hand just as he always planned to do. For my friend waiting for the legal battle to end, that day is coming. God has already held that day. He’s already assigned that moment. You can trust his timing. For my friend waiting on the pain to end, that day is coming. God has already held that day. He’s already assigned that moment. You can trust his timing. For my friend waiting on the blessing they’ve been praying for, that day is coming. God has already held that day. He’s already assigned that moment. You can trust his timing. Oh to just know the one who created you with such loving care and designed good plans for your life already holds the day you’re waiting on, and he’s perfectly aligning it’s moment to dawn for you. If you could only see how God has the timing already put together for you and it won’t be a single day late. It’s coming. Notice verse 42 reading in NIV, “Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt …”. The Lord kept vigil, meaning the Lord was watching. While his people were waiting, God was watching. God was wide awake that night watching over the very moment of deliverance to come. All while Israel had been waiting, God had been watching. He was watching over the very night deliverance would come, and he had known it was coming for 430 years. That’s how God is watching you while you wait too. God has his eye fixed on the night freedom will arrive for you. It’s coming. He’s faithfully keeping vigil. And notice this, God’s people went into Egypt as slaves, but they walked out as his army. A transformation happened in their wait. Something incredible is happening within you in this wait. While you wish God would just remove this struggle, he choosing to allow you to walk through it so you can be transformed and come out radically different. God’s not just freeing you, he’s redefining you. Imagine for a moment how Moses must have felt. He had heard God’s plan. He had felt his own immense inadequacy to be part of God’s plan. He had questioned how God would ever fulfill his seemingly impossible promises for his people. And now, the day has come and he’s seeing it all happen. God was right – they would march right out of Egypt. God was right – he would be their leader. God was right – they would never be alone. God was right – the impossible would happen. And it happened right on time. The way Moses must have felt in this moment realizing the Lord kept his promise to perfect fulfillment is happening right here in Exodus 12: 40-42. It really happened. And Moses woke up for the last day in Egypt, never again to be there. Freedom was here. And your moment is coming too, my sister. The Lord will keep his promises over you in perfect fulfillment. You will wake up one day and it will be your last day in this struggle. Freedom will be here for you. God will faithfully do for you what he did for his people on that day. He will fulfill his every promise. He will set you free. His deliverance will come in its appointed time for you, and it will be the perfect time! The sun is already scheduled to rise on that day for you, my sister. It’s promised. It will come for you. One day you will wake up and it will feel like just another day in the struggle you’ve been carrying. But Heaven will know something you do not yet know. It will be the last day you wake up to that pain, that waiting, that battle. Because the same God who watched over the final night of Israels’ captivity is watching over the final moment of yours. He has already set the boundary, already marked the day, already prepared the path out. And when that moment comes, you will look back and see that through every day of waiting, God was working, God was watching, and God was faithful to bring you out – right on time. 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

All things are under God’s control and he has the divine authority to allocate or reallocate absolutely anything he wishes. Where does he send his blessings? To the hands where he will get the glory. Where does he open heaven’s storehouses? Where his kingdom work is being accomplished. The question is, will he get the glory if his blessings go to your hands? Will his kingdom work be accomplished if the storehouses of heaven are opened to you? It’s easy to assume the opportunity to have MORE would allow you to honor God more, but sadly, humans have proven for generations that we simply do not fare well with easy, comfortable, abundant lives. It’s like giving a brand new sports car to a 16 year old … that typically makes that teenager one thing – DANGEROUS! We are often dangerous when we are given more. We make life about the pursuit of more, showing off more, caring for our more, and then getting newer and better of our more. We forget it’s all under God’s control and divine authority, and anything God has given, he can quickly take away. He can reallocate your blessings to a different set of hands so fast that your head spins. It might be yours today, but can you be trusted with it tomorrow? It might NOT be yours today, but God is always looking for where his blessings can go and bring him glory. In our study of the book of Exodus, we see the Egyptians had become very wealthy. Pharaoh lived in absolutely luxury. Anything he wanted, he could have. But Pharaoh continually refused the Lord. He denied the power of God’s hand over and over again. And God allowed it – for a season. He allowed Egypt to accumulate wealth. He allowed an overflowing abundance in Pharaoh’s palace. And all while God allowed it, never forget God was still in complete control of it all. God had a plan for his resources. He had a plan for his blessings. He had a plan for his power. No matter what the circumstances might look like, God’s plan stood and it would unfold perfectly. Let’s look at the plan. First, God promises Moses in Exodus 3 that he would transfer the wealth of Egypt to the Israelite slaves. Now that makes absolutely no sense at all. The Israelites had nothing of their own. They lived in poverty. They had no army to fight for the possession of anything. Eygypt not only had all the wealth, they had all the man-power to protect it. And yet God makes it very clear that his plan is to reallocate these blessings Egypt temporarily and ungratefully held, to the desperate, god-fearing Israelites. After the plagues hit the Egyptians, God reveals to Moses in Exodus 11 how his previous promise would take place. He says, “Tell the Israelite men and women to ask their Egyptian neighbors for articles of silver and gold. (Now the Lord had caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the people of Israel.)” Then, the time comes for the Israelites to believe God’s plan and actually DO IT. Now that’s important – they had an active role to play. God had the plan, but they had a part. (My sister, God always has a plan, but you always have a part too! Don’t miss that.). Exodus 12, the Israelite slaves ask their Egyptian owners for their treasures of wealth, and everything they asked for was given to them. They completely stripped the Egyptians of their wealth! There was no war. There was no battle. There was a divine reallocation of what always belonged to God. God said it would be given to the Israelites when they asked – so they asked, and it was all given! Amazing. Right about now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Gosh, it’s about time I ask for a raise!” Or, “Hey, I need to ask for even more in this situation.” It’s funny how human minds work. But God is not fooled. God knows who can be trusted and who can’t be. He knows what more blessings would do to you. My mentor once shared a valuable piece of wisdom with me. He said, “Pamela, more money only makes you more of who you already are.” If you’re already stressed, more money will make you more stressed. (I know if you’re currently struggling to pay rent you’re thinking that can’t possibly be true, but it’s human nature and it’s never wrong.) If you’re already greedy, more money will make you more greedy. If you’re already self-conscious, more money will make you more self-conscious. If you’re already wasteful, more money will make you more wasteful. But, if you’re already generous when you have so little, more money will make you more generous. If you’re already at peace with little, you’ll have even more peace when you have more. Money reveals the true hidden nature within us. It doesn’t cure anything, it only magnifies everything. What if we worked harder on becoming a better person within instead of all the effort we put into chasing money, chasing beauty, chasing comforts and chasing applause. God has a plan for all that is his, and remember, it’s ALL HIS! His plan stands and will never fail. If God can reallocate the wealth of Egypt to their Israelite slaves, then you better believe he can pour out a few blessings on you when you get your heart right and your hands open. And I don’t mean open hands as in “gimme-gimme-gimme”, I mean open hands as in, “God, it’s all yours, I hold nothing back – I trust you fully.” Why would God’s plan be to give the 2 million slaves the fortunes of the people who had held them captive for 400 years? Justice? Repayment? Yes, perhaps – but it was bigger than that. Let me show you God’s bigger picture in the promise – flip forward several chapters in Exodus to 25 and you’ll see why God reallocated his fortunes and blessings from the Egyptians to the Israelites. The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to bring me their sacred offerings. Accept the contributions from all whose hearts are moved to offer them. Accept gold, silver, bronze, stone and jewels … Then have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.” Now where exactly would these former slaves now living in the wilderness possibly get all this gold, all this silver, and all these jewels? Oh yes – they had taken it with them when they left Egypt! They had followed God’s instructions and asked for the wealth of Egypt and now with open hands they would offer it back to build a holy sanctuary for the Lord! The entire point of it all was so that God could be in close relationship with his people. He moved the wealth from the people who wouldn’t honor him, to the people who would. He moved his blessings from a greedy ruler to a people who would give God the glory. This was the big picture of God’s plan! He made the promise to Moses in chapter 3, he gave the instructions for action in chapter 11, the people did what God said in chapter 12, and now in chapter 25, we see what God was doing all along. God’s abundant resources, his treasures, his blessings were for the purpose of bringing his people closer to him. Now, the transferred wealth of Egypt was being used to build a sanctuary where the Spirit of God would live and his people could seek him. This is what God is still up to today. He moves his blessings and reallocates his treasures to those who will give him the glory. He opens the storehouses of heaven to where his kingdom work will be prioritized. He opens the doors that will bringing his people into a closer relationship with him. He knows who he can trust – and he knows who will be consumed by the blessings and make it all about them. I once had a successful business with a whole lot of money. Funny thing was, I spent more money than I made. The more I made, the more I spent. I totally lost myself in the process and God was crowded right out of my busy schedule. My entire life became about the show. My well-dressed little family was part of the show. The big house looked great in the show. Then God let it all come crashing down. Someone else now lives in the big house we built. Someone else now has the business I traded an entire season of my life for. THANK GOD HE DIDN’T LET ME STAY IN MY SELF-ABSORBED SUCCESS!!!! Eventually it all came crashing down and we were wildly humbled. That’s when God went to work on me. He realigned my priorities and taught me what was truly important. He allowed me to be broke, allowed my formerly perfected body to go through menopause, allowed me to be talked about, allowed my heart to be broken and disappointed. And it left me with a will that desires his will above everything else and open hands that can be trusted. None of it is mine – it’s all God’s. And he holds the divine power and authority to allocate or reallocate what is his at absolutely any time. He has a plan. His plan is to send what is his to the hands where he will get the glory. His plan is to send his power to the places where his kingdom work will be done. He did it in Exodus – and he’s still doing it today. Check your hands, Sis – because God certainly is. 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

When God sees you, he sees something you don’t see. He doesn’t see your past. He doesn’t see your future. He sees one thing – He sees the blood of his son, Jesus. That is, if you have accepted his sacrificial, redemptive blood over your life. That’s the single most important question of your lifetime – have you accepted what Jesus has done for you? Is your life covered in his blood, redeeming you and making you holy and righteous? It’s a simple surrendered decision of faith that changes every thing about your future for eternity. The decision to accept what Jesus has done personally for you forever changes the way God sees you. With the blood, you are forever good enough. Forever holy. Forever redeemed. Forever destined for paradise. Forever set apart. But I wonder if you really live your ordinary days knowing you’re set apart by God. Do you know what you’ve been saved from? You’ve been promised a special protection from the destruction coming. Oh it’s coming, but it will pass right over you. Why? Because of the blood. The first Passover happens at this point in our study of the book of Exodus. Moses is sent by God to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. However, the Egyptian King, Pharaoh, leads with a stubborn heart and refuses to release God’s people. So, there are 9 plagues sent by the hand of God onto the Egyptians. Each plague worse than the one before as a display of God’s power over every false god Pharaoh and his people worshiped. Each plague a warning and an opportunity to come to faith. With each plague, Pharaoh is miserable and seeks relief from God. The moment relief comes, he returns to his hardened heart and resists any God-prompted change. God-prompted change. Hmmmm … how bad do you resist that? Disaster comes when we have a death grip on the things we think we can’t live without. Disaster comes when we put anything, absolutely anything, before the will of God. Let that sit for a moment. If God has been stirring your heart with a change that terrifies you, resist the urge to ignore it, resist the impulsive rush and coverup, and allow your softened heart to be bare before God. You really can trust him to get this right. If he takes something away from you it’s because he has something better for you. But you’ll have to release what he’s asked you for before you see what better thing he has aligned next. Check your hands right now – are they feeling clingy and clenched in fear? Dare to open them and say, “God, you can have it.” Maybe he really wanted it – or maybe he really wanted to know if he COULD have it, then you can keep it. God really wanted his people free from slavery in Egypt. He knew Pharaoh’s hardened heart would not allow his hands to open and release them – even with all 9 plagues. So finally comes a sweep of God’s power that would break Pharaoh’s hardened heart wide-open. Exodus chapter 11 is titled “Death for Egypt’s Firstborn.” God knew this is what it would take. Verse 1, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will strike Pharaoh and the land of Egypt with one more blow. After that, Pharaoh will let you leave this country.’” Verses 4-8, “This is what the Lord says: At midnight tonight I will pass through the heart of Egypt. All the firstborn sons will die in every family in Egypt, from the oldest son of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, to the oldest son of his lowliest servant girl who grinds the flour. Even the firstborn of all livestock will die. Then a loud wail will rise through the land of Egypt, a wail like no one has ever heard before or will ever hear again. But among the Israelites it will be so peaceful that not even a dog will bark. Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites. All the officials of Egypt will run to me and fall to the ground before me, ‘Please leave!’ They will beg. ‘Hurry! And take all your followers with you.’ Only then will I go!” The final plague was coming at midnight, the plague of death. But the Israelites, God’s people, were set apart. There would be nothing but peace among them in the middle of sheer terror and destruction. The plague of death would pass right over their homes. They would survive, untouched, unbothered, unshaken, and finally be set free! Moses was given special instructions by God to mark his people as set apart and passed over in this plague of death. What was the mark? Blood. Exodus 12:21-23, Moses tells his people, “Go, pick out a lamb or young goat for each of your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. Drain the blood into a basin. Then take a bundle of hyssop branches and dip it into the blood. Brush the hyssop across the top and sides of the doorframes of your houses. And no one may go out through the door until morning. For the Lord will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptains. But when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the Lord will pass over your home. He will not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down.” The pure blood of the sacrificed lamb would set God’s people apart. The coming punishment would pass right over them as they were kept in perfect peace. And my friends, this is exactly what Jesus did for us, PERMANENTLY. John the Baptist introduces Jesus in John 1:29 as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Punishment and judgment are coming on this world. The book of Revelation tells us about the destruction, the horror and the terror – much like the plague of death sent to Egypt. But for those marked by the blood of the Lamb of God, we are passed right over and perfectly protected with peace. My friends, Jesus radically sets us apart. He marks us as his own, bought with his blood. Not because we’re worthy, but because we’re his chosen ones. He chose us first, now we get to choose him back. If you’ve accepted what Jesus has done for you, then God sees one thing when he sees you – he sees the blood of his son. And because of that blood, you are seen as holy, righteous, redeemed, worthy, and destined for an eternity by his side in a perpetual everlasting paradise! Oh Lord, may you see the blood of Jesus ALL OVER ME!!!!!!!!!!!! Less of me, more of Jesus. May every bit of my character, all of my choices, all my desires, all my tendencies, and every thing I ever do be fully covered in the blood of Jesus so that when God looks at me and sees how I live, what I do, what I say, where I go, how I lead, and how I follow – may he see only ONE thing – the blood. The blood that sets me apart. The blood that makes me forever good enough. Is that what God see when he sees you? If you’ve accepted the offering of Jesus, then that’s absolutely what he sees! And oh how he loves the soul covered in the blood of Jesus. Oh how he has good plans for that soul. Oh how he desires an eternity with you by his side. And maybe, just maybe, we can start seeing ourselves a little more like this too. Instead of seeing our faults and everything we hate about our reflection, maybe we can see a girl that was so totally and completely loved by her Creator that he gave his only son to save her and cover her forever. That’s a girl who is really forever good enough. A girl set apart. A girl marked by the blood. That girl is YOU. 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

Do you realize just how patient God has been with you. During your wandering, he has been steady. Through your silence, he has stood ready to speak. When you have been unfaithful, he has remained faithful. He has always held the power to come through for you, but sometimes you’ve failed to come to him. Time and time again, he has been patient offering grace and mercy even when it was undeserved. While God isn’t giving up on you, what are you giving up in your delayed surrender and obedience? Really – what are you missing out on as you fight for your own way? My great-grandpa was a tiny little man with the brightest blue eyes. Cecil was a brilliant business man, owning the country store in a small farming community every local family came to for supplies in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. He was much like Mr. Oleson on the show ‘Little House on the Prairie’. And interestingly enough, his wife Beulah (my great-grandmother) was much like Mrs. Oleson on the show, a sharp tongued, harsh woman. But Cecil was kind. He was hard-working. But, his heart was hard towards God. He refused to surrender to the Lord. He spent his whole life refusing God’s way over his own. He built his wealth and his success and kept God at arms length. Every Sunday he would go to the church to build the fire, but refuse to stay and hear God’s word. He didn’t have time for God or a need for God. At 90 years old, coming to the end of his life, he called the family into his bedroom and wept. He regretted an entire lifetime spent without God. And that night, he finally gave his life to Jesus. God had never given up on him. He was patient for 90 years awaiting the full heart of my great-grandpa, Cecil, and now he finally had it. As a fragile little old man, he was baptized by the local pastor with the help of my Daddy. He spent the final weeks of his life leading our family in prayer. It was beautiful. But it could have been beautiful for decades instead of just weeks. He had forfeited a lifetime of God’s goodness in his stubbornness and resistance. Oh how he wished he could go back and do it all again. He would do it right. He would surrender to God sooner. Life would have been so much better for him and for our entire family. I wonder where you might be holding back on God and one day you’ll wish you would have surrendered sooner. One day you’ll see how much better life could have been if you would have given it all to him. Well you can’t go back and change what has already passed, but starting today, you can do this different. Today can be your day. This is your opportunity to change every future day with your decision to seek and obey God fully. But here’s what we often do – We wait for things to get so bad that we can’t fix them on our own, so we cry out to God. God comes through and saves us, carries us through those hard times, but then as soon as life gets better we forget God. We hit our knees when God is our only option, but on the other side of the problem our knees aren’t on the floor. We pray to God when times are hard, but when it’s easy we withhold our heart. And what are we forfeiting in our stubbornness? What good plans of God are we sacrificing as our temporary surrender is replaced with self-will and forced timing? In our study of Exodus, we see what happens when we are stubborn to the will of God. We see what temporary surrender leads to – it leads to temporary relief followed by destruction. In God’s great mercy he gives us chance after chance to turn to him fully, but when we refuse, he allows things to get worse – wayyyyy worse! Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, has seen the mighty hand of God. He has heard the words of God through Moses. He’s experienced destruction because of his disobedience and hardened heart. And through the process of 9 plagues by the hand of God against Egypt, we see a pattern. The pattern of seeking God’s relief in the hardest of times, but as soon as relief comes, a hardened heart leads right back to disobedience. The plague of frogs is brought to Egypt by God as a sign of his power. The Egyptians are miserable and desperate because of these frogs everywhere. So here’s what Pharaoh does – Exodus 8:8, “Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and begged, ‘Plead with the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people. I will let your people go, so they can offer sacrifices to the Lord.’” Great. Pharaoh is miserable and desperate so he surrenders to God’s will. And with that, it could all be over. The Israelites could have walked out of Egypt into their freedom and peace could have filled the land. It could be that easy. But it was never easy because the moment Pharaoh felt a bit of relief from the plague of frogs, he went right back to his old ways. Verse 15, “But when Pharaoh saw that relief had come, he became stubborn. He refused to listen to Moses and Aaron.” So guess what, things get worse. More plagues. More destruction. More problems. Now the Egyptians are facing a plague of flies. Have you ever been bothered by a fly? A single annoying fly that won’t leave you alone can drive you crazy. If that’s a biting fly it can turn paradise into torment. Now imagine your home being filled by flies. Imagine swarms of flies covering the ground. When Pharaoh once again becomes miserable and desperate, he surrenders to God’s will. Verse 25, “Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. ‘All right! Go ahead and offer sacrifices to your God.” Moses prays to the Lord for the flies to disappear and the next day, the flies are gone. Not a single fly remained. Then guess what – in the absence of misery and desperation, “Pharaoh again became stubborn and refused to let the people go.” And this continues as a pattern of plagues followed by seeking God’s relief, and the moment relief would come, that hardened heart would take over and disobedience would follow. Every disobedience directed by that hardened heart would bring the next plague of worse conditions and the hand of God would once again be sought. The moment relief would come, that hardened heart would once again take over. It’s easy to read the story of Pharaoh and shake our head in disbelief, but my friends, we do it too. We pray to God when times are hard, but when it’s easy we withhold our heart. And what peace, what blessings, what good plans of the Lord are we forfeiting in the process? When will we stop this? When will we no longer require desperate circumstances to realize we are always desperate for God? You have the biopsy and await the results and you’re on your face begging for God’s touch. The biopsy returns and it’s benign, no cancer. You’re overcome with gratitude because God came through for you. But how quickly does life just return to normal? How quickly do you get busy and no longer have time for your knees to be on the floor in search of God? Without threat, you’re no longer desperate for God. It’s not just a biopsy – it’s the missed paycheck, it’s the threatened relationship, it’s the car problems, it’s the forecasted storm. We seek God desperately when there’s a threat, but the moment the threat passes, we’re no longer desperate for God. What we don’t realize is every moment of our lives is totally dependent on God. Without his breath, we don’t take our next breath. Without his hand of provision, we don’t eat. Without his light, we cease to exist. We’re desperate for God, but we’re living as if we’re not. What would life look like if you lived every moment in awareness of your desperation for God? There’s a great song by Jamie McDonald called ’Desperate’. It says: Oh God, Im desperate Down on my knees Send help from heaven ‘Cause that’s what I need I’m not asking, I’m begging Lord, come through for me I need heaven and I’m desperate How bad would things have to get before you call out to God in desperation? You’re desperate for God whether you realize it or not. And God is his infinite wisdom and divine mercy will allow things to get as bad as they need to get for you to realize your desperation for him. He’s more concerned about your character than your comfort. With each relief offered by God, Pharaoh would quickly return to his hardened heart and disobedience. The plague of hail comes in chapter 9. Everything is destroyed. People, animals and crops are destroyed by the hail. Verses 27-28, “Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron. ‘This time I have sinned,’ he confessed. ‘The Lord is the righteous one, and my people and I are wrong. Please beg the Lord to end this terrifying thunder and hail. We’ve had enough. I will let you go; you don’t need to stay any longer.’” Guess what happens next. You’re right – God comes through with relief and Pharaoh goes right back to his old ways. Verses 34-35, “But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail and thunder had stopped, he and his officials sinned again, and Pharaoh again became stubborn. Because his heart was hard, Pharaoh refused to let the people leave, just as the Lord had predicted through Moses.” So, things continue to get worse. Don’t let that be you, my sister. Don’t waste more time. Don’t go back to old ways when God brings relief. Stay desperate. Psalm 63:1, “O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you.” This is desperation. God desires our hearts to remain desperate for him even when the problem is resolved, even when the threat is removed, even when the misery is lifted. Don’t go back to your old ways. Don’t return to your busy distracted ways of living. Don’t start living like you don’t desperately need God just because life is easier again – No, girl, you desperately need him for every breath in every day. Let’s stay desperate. Let’s realize our dependence on God and live in full surrender to him, his way, his timing, and his word. Then, we can come to the end of our days without the regret of wasted days and missed opportunities. Desperation leads to surrender. Surrender leads to obedience. Obediences leads to blessings. Now, don’t let your

Every supernatural occurrence is not by the hand of God. When we chase the supernatural, we are subject to confusion. Sometimes we’re dabbling in a dangerous darkness while thinking we’re tapping into godly powers. My friend, you have to know, not every power is godly. There are dark powers in this world. These are not my own ideas – these are God’s warnings directly from his word. God is capable of mysterious miracles that cannot be explained. No doubt we’re surrounded by his power at work every day of our lives and it’s truly remarkable. We are also surrounded by a fallen angel who constantly tries to undermine our mighty God with imitation miracles and wonders. What we need to decide with absolute conviction right now is, IF IT’S NOT FROM THE HAND OF GOD, I DON’T WANT IT. There’s not a single magical, mysterious, seemingly awesome thing I want if it doesn’t come from God. Honey, if it’s not from the light, then it’s from the dark. If a power isn’t from God, it’s from our adversary the devil. And he is capable of absolutely NOTHING good. It might look good for a moment, but it simply is NOT good. It’s dangerous. The powers offered from the pits of hell do one thing – they pull us away from our Creator with a divided and confused heart. And in that space of distance from God, created by confusion and division, the enemy attacks. If your heart has gotten divided with dabbling in powers not offered by God, it’s time to rid your life of those things with supreme urgency. If your heart has gotten confused by mysteries lacking the fingerprints of God, it’s time to recognize the author of those mysteries as the enemy of your soul who’s objective is to kill, steal and destroy. James 4: 7-8 MSG, “Yell a loud no to the devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field.” How easy it is to say, “Well there’s nothing wrong with dabbling in this.” But the better question is, “Is there anything truly good with it?” There’s nothing wrong with the day and month you’re born, but thinking your birth sign determines a single moment of your God-given, miraculous life has absolutely NOTHING good in it. And when there’s nothing good in it, God’s not in it. If God’s not in it, there’s a whole lot of room for alternate forces to reside. You don’t want that. We’re supposed to be yelling, “Devil, get behind me”, not “Hey Devil, this is kinda fun.” Eve made a terrible mistake – She entertained the offerings of Satan. She gave him permission to speak into her life, and when the devil speaks, he lies. He twists truths. He confuses thoughts. He hardens hearts. And he brings chaos to God’s intended paradise. That apple smelled like Hell, but Eve never paused long enough to smell it before she ate it. Eve quite simply shouldn’t have entertained a conversation with that slimy snake in the garden. He had nothing good to say, and never does. “Hey Eve, why can’t you eat this apple? Don’t you want to taste it and see?” Have you been entertaining seemingly innocent conversations with the enemy of your soul? It’s straight up never innocent on his part – He knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s bringing confusion into your life. He’s hardening your heart to God’s true power and tricking you into a perversion of power. Sadly, just like Eve, we fall for it. Yes, the devil has power. To think he doesn’t is foolish on our part. But he never has power to do good. Only God holds the power for good. In Exodus, Moses is sent by God to Pharaoh, the leader of the Egyptians to rescue the Israelites after 400 years of slavery. Pharaoh is stubborn and doesn’t want to let go of his free labor, so he refuses. God directs and empowers Moses in very specific ways to display his miraculous acts as a warning to Pharaoh. Exodus 7: 10-12, “Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent! Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerer, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents.” And there it is my friends – we’re not making up alternate powers at work in this world. It’s real and it’s deceptive. The magicians were operating under a different power, and the display of their power confused the already hardened Pharaoh even further. Moses was under God’s power and turned the staff into a snake. Pharaoh’s magicians were under another power not of God and did the same thing to seemingly undermine the word of the Lord. Next, God sends the first plague on Egypt as a warning. He turns the water of the Nile River into blood. But here come the Egyptian magicians and they too turned water into blood. Further convinced the powers he trusted in were just as powerful as the powers of Moses’ God, Pharaoh ignored the warnings and continued to do wrong. The next plague from God brought frogs everywhere. Again, a warning of how bad things could get for the Egyptians if Pharaoh didn’t obey God and let the Israelites go. But again, the magicians were able to do the same thing with their magic. They too caused frogs to come up on the land of Egypt. Why would God allow Satan to have powers? That’s a great question, and not one I can answer. But here’s what we know – we know Satan has power here on Earth. But we also know his power is limited. Here’s the part we so easily miss. Yes, the magicians could tap into a power other than God to do harm, but they could never tap into that power to stop the harm or to do good. God could stop the frogs, the magicians could not. God could bring peace, any power outside of God cannot. God brings healing – Satan cannot. Satan kills, Satan steals, Satan destroys. His power is second rate and only for harm. You don’t want that in your life! Trust me, that smells like Hell! This is how we know every supernatural occurrence is not by the hand of God, it’s in God’s word. Just because it’s mysterious and magical does NOT mean it’s of God. Let us not be fooled. Take a whiff – does it smell like Hell? Satan wants to work through awes and wonders and mysterious works to confuse us. And he will – IF WE ENTERTAIN IT. Girl, if you open that door, he will waltz right into your life and bring a parade of chaos with him. He will steal your peace. He will fill your mind with anxiety. He will disturb your dreams. He will darken your thoughts with fear. But here’s what God will do when you only entertain his truths, his promises, his plans, his ways and his words – He will fill you with unspeakable peace that doesn’t even make sense. He will calm your mind and send those anxious thoughts back to hell where they belong. He will bring you rest and allow you to wake up refreshed with his new mercies each morning. He will give you every reason to believe, to trust and to hope so abundantly that there’s simply no room for fear in your heart or mind. Here comes Satan with a tarot card – are you going to entertain that? Here comes the devil with a crystal, a fortune, a palm reading, a healing ceremony, a saence, a voice from beyond, a mystical connection – are you going to entertain that? There’s nothing good in this and there could be a whole lot of bad in it. Shut it down. Yell a loud NO! Throw it out. Evict it now. Exit yourself from those circles. Slam the doors on the confusion of darkness. Stop dabbling. Would you be so bold as to ask God to reveal to you any door you have opened to the power of darkness in your life? It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person – it simply means you’ve been tricked somewhere and Satan has slipped in through the backdoor of permission and he’s been attacking from within without you even knowing it. Lord, please forgive us and help us. We have unintentionally subjected our hearts and minds to a power that is not from you. Here’s the truth – I had done that in my own life. I had given the enemy access and I wondered why I was feeling a lack of peace and constantly battling chaos. I can admit that to you. But here’s what’s really hard to admit – I didn’t want to shut it down. It had become my normal. I liked my little daily practice. And I struggled with God for over a year as he told me to stop. It looked not only innocent, but it actually looked good to the most of the world. But within, I knew God was saying it wasn’t good for me. Sadly, I tried to reason for entirely too long and continued in disobedience for a season. But the immediate peace that came once I surrendered to God’s promptings and eliminated that gray area from my life was so sweet, I’ll simply NEVER go back. I know God’s power. It’s unmatched. It’s always for my good. And I also know the power of darkness. It’s real. It’s always lurking. It will try to creep in to create a distance between me and God. It will try to confuse me, distract me and sidetrack me. And it will never be good for me. And I’ve decided I want absolutely NOTHING to do with it. No matter how normal the world makes it look. No matter how innocent it may seem. No matter how dressed up it might be, it still smells like Hell to me because that’s where it came from. How about you? Will you take a whiff of what you’ve been dabbling with, allowing, or entertaining and see if it smells like Hell? And if it does, what are you going to do about it? Once again, James 4: 7-8 MSG, “Yell a loud no to the devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field.” If it smells like Hell, yell NO! 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

Luke 8: 22-25, “One day Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.’ So they got into a boat and started out. As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap. But soon a fierce storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’ When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm. Then he asked them, ‘Where is your faith’. The disciples were terrified and amazed. ‘Who is this man?’ they asked each other. ‘When he gives a command, even the wind and waves obey him!'” Jesus was certain of one thing – they were going to the other side of that lake. He didn’t say, ‘maybe’, he didn’t say ‘if we can’. He said, “let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” With Jesus, it was going to happen. Without him, maybe not. I don’t know what you’re going through, but if Jesus says you’re going through to the other side of this with him, then honey, you’re going to get through this. He is certain. Regardless of how bad the circumstances may get. No matter the struggle. No matter what forces of hell may come up against you – you’re going to get through this with Jesus. He’s never had a doubt because he’s never not been in total control. Jesus said in John 16:33, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Every problem you will ever face has already been overcome by Jesus. He’s already made a way through it. He’s already seen the end of it. And Sis, you’re going to make it to the other side with Jesus. No matter how big this storm may get, if Jesus is in your boat, the storm will be overcome. But the storm is real and the disciples are in it. This section of the lake was 5 miles wide to cross which means all they can see is water. They can’t see land. The boat the disciples were on with Jesus was likely about 26 feet long, 8 feet wide, with oars and a small sail. This was not a ship, this was not a yacht, this was a fishing boat. In this boat were experienced fishermen who had spent the majority of their lives on this exact lake. They knew this water. They knew this boat. But they did not know this storm. Scripture says these professional fishermen were terrified of this storm, which has to mean it was a radically bad storm. The boat was filling with water. The danger was real. They weren’t having a freak-out moment for nothing. They were going down. And Jesus is asleep on the boat. How in the world can Jesus be sleeping? It’s not like there was a private space for him on this small boat. He was fully aware of the waves. He felt the water rising within. He was getting soaking wet. And yet he was so at peace in the storm, he was sleeping. There was absolutely no freak-out in Jesus. There was no stress, no worry – he already knew no matter how bad it looked, they were making it to the other side. Wow – what would you give for that level of peace in your storms? Let me tell you something, my sister – it’s here for you! Jesus said in John 14:27, “I’m leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” That’s peace that can face the wildest of storms in a boat that’s taking on water and receive rest. Jesus is offering that level of peace, HIS PEACE, to you as a gift. But it will cost you something. Yes, it’s a gift, but it comes at a cost. The cost for this level of peace is you releasing control. You releasing the habit of stress and the addiction to worry. Jesus’ peace can rest well in a wild storm with a sinking boat – Jesus’ peace can wait for the diagnosis without fear. Jesus’ peace can reside in the turmoil of these relationships without sacrificing your happiness. Jesus’ peace can faithfully steward what is far too little while God makes it enough. Jesus’ peace can be surrounded by the drama without allowing the drama to get inside. Jesus’ peace can look the reality square in the eyes and still see the other side of the lake where you’re promised to go. This peace is the peace Jesus gives you. Faith can be in a storm with a sinking boat and not freak out. Your freak out is optional, and Jesus is not impressed when you choose it over his peace. Here’s the truth about this particular storm in scripture – it was likely a work of Satan himself. What other opportunity would Satan have to take out not only the Savior of the world but every person who was going to tell his stories and change the entire world. They were all in one boat. These waves were an assignment from Hell. These winds were under the direction of Satan. And still they were silenced immediately with one word from Jesus. Let’s talk about your storm. Some storms are self-created in our own disobedience. That’s how Jonah ended up in the belly of a whale. God told him to go to one place, but in fear he went in the other direction. On his boat going in the willfully wrong direction, a great storm came and Jonah was thrown overboard. He was given 3 days in the belly of a whale to get things right. That was a storm of disobedience. But this storm the disciples were in this night was not a storm of disobedience. They were with Jesus, literally! They were following his every step. They were listening to his every word. It was Jesus’ idea to get in the boat. This was a storm of obedience. Understand both happen. If life is turned upside down for you right now, ask – have you been disobedient? Is there something God wants you to change and this is getting your attention? Fantastic – when you know better you can do better and storms help us know better FAST. But maybe this storm is happening while you’re living in obedience. Maybe Hell is coming against your obedience to try and detour you. Will you let Hell win here? Maybe it’s just life happening to you right now – or maybe it really is a full on attack with the schemes of Hell behind it – no matter what Jesus is in control here! Jesus can calm this storm – but remember this – no matter what, Jesus has already given you the gift of his peace for this storm. You can rest in this. You can still find joy in this. You can know with absolutely certainty Jesus’ plans will not be cancelled and you will get to the other side where he is leading you. You will get there, and you can have peace while you go! 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