BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Just how important is your image to you? The more you are driven by image, the more you are enslaved to performance. Do you deeply need everyone to see you win – is there a constant need for triumph – to look good – to be praised – to come out on top? Tall pedestals create a long, hard fall, my friend. This is real life and in real life there are battles in which you won’t always look good. There are times when you will fail and times when you will hurt. Times when your image will be disheveled. Are you just going to perform your way through that? Is it going to be more important for you to portray perfection than allow God to break you and work his perfection in you? Look at a child. Aren’t they just perfect with their chubby little rolls and full face, open mouth giggles. Perfect babies, but so much growing to do. So much to learn. Still so much for them to become. My friends, that is us in our faith walk. As a child of God we are perfect in our creation, a true masterpiece of our Maker, yet we have so much growing to do. We are in process to becoming all we were created to be. And that process is sometimes messy, sometimes brutal, sometimes really imperfect. There’s a work happening within each of us from the moment we accept Jesus as the LORD of our lives. That’s a work of the Holy Spirit. God’s presence dwells within us and cleans house. We’re undergoing a continual demo work inside. A reworking and restructuring of our attitude, our perspective, our desires and our priorities. And really, that’s what our entire lifetime here on earth is – the work of the Holy Spirit within us, growing us, teaching us, molding us, perfecting us. When will that work be done? Not here. Not in this lifetime. But when we get to our eternal destination of glory, then the work in us will finally be complete. That will be our mark of perfection. But here on earth as we’re walking out our lifetime, we’re not going to be perfect. We’re going to continually be a work of progress under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Will you be willing to just show that? Really, that’s what this world needs. But not only the world as a whole, but your world, your little circle, your community, your office, your family – they need to see the work God is doing in you. In order for them to see that work, they need to know you struggle, they need to know you don’t really just wake up like that, they need to see behind the curtain, without the makeup, on the hard days where you still just show up and partner with the work the Holy Spirit is doing in you. When you’re in performance mode with your display of perfection to be praised, you may look good but let me tell you what that’s doing for the people around you – it’s making it easy for them to see you, but hard to see your God. Everyone around you is dealing with a tinge of insignificance, a hint of ‘not good enough’ and when you dare to be real with them you allow space for their struggle to meet the Holy Spirit you carry. Girl, you carry the presence of God in you. There’s zero need for you to portray yourself as perfect – there’s absolutely EVERY NEED for you to make space for the perfection of God. That means you’re going to have to admit you struggle too. You’re going to have to be make friends with that unpolished part of you that you would prefer no one else see. What would you rather see – my perfection that tells you I’m perhaps better than you …. or the parts of me that God is still working on that show you if God loves, chooses and uses me in my state, he can love, choose and use you in yours. Girls, why are we getting this so wrong? Why do we struggle with this balance? This life is not a performance to look impressive – this life is an opportunity to carry the presence of God and point to the working power of the Holy Spirit available to each one of us. Paul says in Philippians 3:12-14, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Paul, the man who was responsible for starting some of the first churches to follow Jesus – Paul, the man responsible for writing the majority of our New Testament Bible – Paul, the one who had a very personal encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus that radically changed everything for him – THAT PAUL – and he’s saying I’m not perfect, but Jesus is working perfectly in me! You are not perfect, but Jesus is working perfectly in YOU! Maybe today you need to stop trying so hard to look like you’ve already arrived. Maybe you need to take the pressure off yourself to have it all together, know all the answers, respond perfectly, never struggle, never lose your temper, never doubt, never get discouraged, never make a mistake. Maybe you need to stop curating the image and start embracing the process. God isn’t asking you to prove that He’s done a good work in you. He’s inviting you to let Him continue doing that good work in you. There is a huge difference. Performance says, “Look what I’ve accomplished.” Grace says, “Look what God is doing.” Performance needs applause. Grace is content with obedience. Performance protects the image. Grace surrenders the heart. Performance says, “I need you to think I’m doing well.” Grace says, “I need Jesus to keep doing His work in me.” Girl, you don’t have to be impressive. You have to be available. You don’t have to have the perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect attitude, the perfect body, the perfect house, the perfect faith, the perfect morning routine, the perfect prayer life or the perfect answer. You don’t have to walk into every room looking like you’ve got it all figured out. You can walk in as a woman who is still becoming. Still learning. Still healing. Still growing. Still surrendering. Still getting things wrong and letting Jesus teach you how to get them right. And honestly? That’s a much more beautiful testimony. Because nobody needs another woman standing on a pedestal telling them how to be perfect. We need women who will climb down off the pedestal, sit beside us in the mess and say, “Girl, me too. But let me tell you what Jesus is teaching me.” That’s where connection happens. That’s where shame loses its power. That’s where grace gets room to breathe. And that’s where people begin to see Jesus instead of just seeing you. People need to see what it looks like to have Jesus in the middle of a hard day. They need to see what forgiveness looks like when you’re still hurt. They need to see what humility looks like when you were wrong. They need to see what repentance looks like when you blew it. They need to see what faith looks like when you don’t know what’s next. That is discipleship. Not perfection on display, but Jesus at work in real life. So let them see the process. Let them see the unfinished places. Yesterday evening in front of the grocery store, I met a man named Jeff. Jeff pushes a shopping cart full of dirty bags and walks with his head down. As I parked my bike, he approached me and asked me for some spare change. Looking at his face, it appeared he had recently been in a fight and he was covered in shame. I told him I didn’t have any money on me, but I would most certainly buy him some food inside. He asked for a can of soup. When I returned from my short shopping trip, I handed him a can of chili mac and cheese along with a can of chunky potato soup. He was grateful. Then I invited him to lock eyes with me and engage in conversation. Standing there in my Natural Life dress with a credit card to buy anything I wanted in my pocket, a bag of fresh food to cook for my dog, and my $2000 e-bike, I didn’t exactly come across as someone who could understand his situation. He looked at me as if I were better than him. As if I had perfection while he didn’t. That’s when I asked Jeff if there was anything he needed prayer for. He said, “Well, yes – I need a house.” I said, “Okay Jeff, I understand – is it okay if I pray with you right now?” Ever so politely, he declined, explaining that he struggled with faith and he felt he was more of a toaist. That’s when I felt the Holy Spirit just take over. All my ‘perfection’ left me and I said, “I’m not familiar with that – can you tell me what that means?” Suddenly Jeff and I were in a conversation about faith, about a struggle to believe something he couldn’t see and simply couldn’t feel. He said he had tried many different religions and nothing ever worked for him. I asked him if he had tried Jesus. He stood there with no answer in deep thought. Struggling. I looked him in the eye and told him, “Jeff, God created you, he knows you and he loves you.” That’s when his bright blue eyes filled with tears and he said, “I try so hard to be a good person.” I could see that. There was so much goodness in him. Although he wasn’t ready for me to pray with him, he listened as I told him one encounter with Jesus could radically change his life. I told him I had seen people with a lifetime of addiction be set free, I had seen sickness be healed, I had seen families restored and it all happened with Jesus. You see, last night in front of the grocery store, an imperfect struggling man met a very imperfect woman who carries a perfect God. I’m not his answer, but I carry his answer. I’m not his fixer, but I carry his fixer. And that’s the whole point. Jeff didn’t need to meet a perfect woman in the parking lot of a grocery store. He needed to meet a woman willing to be real enough for Jesus to use her. He didn’t need my polished image, my answers, my accomplishments or my ability to make everything look good. He needed the presence of God I carry. And maybe tha

If you were to die today, what would happen to you after your final breath? Really – I want you to think about that. What comes after this life for you? Would you say Heaven comes next? And what is it that makes you think you would gain access? What is it that qualifies you? Have you been good enough? Does the good in you outweigh the bad? Have you asked forgiveness for absolutely every little thing? Have you made all your wrongs right? Have you done enough good deeds? Have you upheld all the laws and rules and lived a righteous enough life? If all eternity hangs on this, then it’s important to know – right? You want to be certain of your fate. If there’s one thing you really want to get right, it’s this. It’s a big deal – FOREVER. May I be honest with you? Sis, you haven’t been good enough. You haven’t upheld the laws. You have fallen short. You are not qualified for Heaven … not on your own. Your human effort has never been good enough, not even on your best day. And THAT is precisely why you need Jesus. In the Bible, there’s a man named Saul who had every reason to believe he could possibly meet the mark on his own. He had done everything he was supposed to do from birth. He was born into the right line of people, he had studied the law and lived in strict obedience without fault. Up until his encounter with Jesus, his entire life had been nothing but self-righteous acts, checking boxes, and persecuting anyone that tried to remove his boxes. This movement of Jesus was an enemy to his continual effort of earning Heaven. Saul wanted to put an end to the up-rise of the followers of Jesus who believed this one man’s blood could save them. He couldn’t possibly believe what had happened on that cross was a satisfactory fulfillment of the laws he had spent his life following. His full intentions were to kill the followers of Jesus – put an end to this nonsense of grace. Saul had gotten a letter from the high priest requesting the arrest of every follower of Jesus he found in the town of Damascus where this Jesus movement had spread in the immediate years following Jesus’ death on the cross. He was going to shut down this blasphemy. He was going to wipe out these people who weren’t good enough for Heaven. So now Saul is on his way to Damascus, mad as he can be with plans of destroying the hope of a faith that could save you from Hell – and there he has a divine encounter with Jesus. Yes, the Jesus who had died on the cross a few years earlier. The Jesus he was speaking out against. And here on the road as he was marching into Damascus to complete his mission of destroying this spreading faith, something miraculous happens. Acts 9, 3-9, “A light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?’ ‘Who are you, lord?’ Saul asked. And the voice replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’ The men around him were speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. he remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.” Now, THAT is an encounter with Jesus. Saul could no longer deny him. He knew Jesus had been crucified. He knew he was dead. But now, he had experienced Jesus for himself and he just couldn’t deny him any longer. What happens next is my favorite part of the story. God tells a man named Ananias to go to a very specific street to find a very specific man’s house. God said a man named Saul would be in that house. Verse 15, God says, “Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message.” Yes, this is who God wants to use. He’s chosen him. Saul, the one who lived his entire life in self-righteousness, now completely humbled without sight, sitting in a house not eating or drinking, praying to God to understand how he could have possibly been so wrong all while he was trying to live so right. God had a message for him to spread. So Ananias goes to that specific street to a specific man’s house, finds Saul there and lays his hands on him. Verse 17, Ananias said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Next it says, “Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.” Do you know what he did immediately after this? He started preaching about Jesus! He began telling absolutely everyone he could about the Savior. The boxes of self-righteousness were gone, now, all that mattered was faith in the one who makes us righteous. JESUS. Saul begins going by his new name with a new identity – Paul. This new name meant ‘humble’, and that’s what had happened to him. He had been humbled. That’s what an encounter with Jesus does to us – it humbles us. It shows us that we alone could simply never be good enough – we desperately need him. Do you humbly accept what Jesus has done for you to gain Heaven? As humans we battle with one thing that gets in the way of the humility required to believe in Jesus – that’s our PRIDE. Pride says, “no, I’ll earn it.” Pride says, “I’ll be good enough on my own.” Pride puffs us up in some imaginary competition where the best one gets to be saved. After about 25 years of living with this new humble identity as Paul, the follower of Jesus covered and saved by grace, Paul writes a letter to the church he started in Philippi. He reminds them about the problem with self-righteousness and the beautiful solution of Jesus-righteousness. Philippians 3:3, “We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort.” How can he write that so confidently? Because he lived the first half of his life being totally self-righteous. Because that unmistakable encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus left him forever humbled and changed. Now he knows the truth – the truth that he was never good enough on his own and never could be. The truth that his pride was taking him straight to Hell. The truth that he’s only saved by grace through faith in Jesus. My sister, are you relying on what Jesus has done, or are you relying on what you’re doing? Is your confidence in what you can do, or is your confidence in what Jesus has already done? Paul reminds us that we were never meant to earn our way into Heaven by being good enough. We need something—and Someone—we could never provide for ourselves: the righteousness of Jesus. He says in Philippians 3:9, “I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.” So let me ask you one more time, Sis: if you were to take your final breath today, what would happen next? And more importantly, what are you counting on to get you there? Your goodness? Your church attendance? Your Bible reading? Your good deeds? Your ability to follow the rules? Your efforts to make things right? Your belief that, surely, the good in you outweighs the bad? Or are you counting on Jesus? Because there are only two ways to approach God: you can stand on what you have done, or you can stand on what Jesus has done. You can keep trying to be self-righteous, or you can receive the righteousness Jesus offers you. Your goodness will never be enough. Mine won’t either. That’s not bad news—that’s actually the best news! Because Jesus never asked you to be good enough to save yourself. He came because you couldn’t. You don’t have to earn what Jesus already paid for. You don’t have to prove yourself worthy. You don’t have to clean yourself up enough to deserve His grace. You simply have to surrender your pride, place your faith in Jesus, and receive what you could never accomplish on your own. Paul spent the first part of his life desperately trying to be righteous enough. Then he met Jesus and discovered the freedom of knowing that Jesus would be righteous for him. Sis, don’t spend another day trying to earn what Jesus is offering you as a gift. Drop your pride. Put down your boxes. Put down your self-righteousness. And put your confidence in Jesus. Because when your final breath comes, the question won’t be, “Were you good enough?” The answer to that is no. The question is, “What did you do with Jesus?” And if your answer is, “I put my faith in Him,” then you don’t have to face eternity hoping you were good enough. You can face it knowing He was. Not self-righteous. Jesus-righteous. That’s the only righteousness that will ever be enough. 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

Girl, let me tell you something – God is working in you! You live with you every day, so you’re likely too close to the situation to see it, but I’m telling you, God has been doing a work in you. Deep within you, there’s been a shift. And this shift has been changing you from the inside. Deep within, in your heart and your mind, your innermost being has been under the influence of the Holy Spirit. He’s been cleaning house in there! Some old things have been thrown out. Some new things have been brought in. And here’s the really wild thing – you didn’t even have to do that yourself. GOD HAS BEEN DOING THAT WORK IN YOU. We often dismiss ourselves from believing we could ever become someone new and different because we think it would all be up to us – under the power of our own will and strength. But honey, it’s just NOT. That’s a God work! You don’t change you. God changes you. You partner with him in the process. He leads, you follow. He throws things out of your life, you let go. He brings new things into your life, you lean in. And through this process of letting go and leaning in, you find God is literally changing you. He’s making you this new person with a totally new inner being that looks nothing like the old you. My friend Catherine is one of my favorite examples of this. She is absolutely unashamed of what God brought her out of and saved her from. She will drop her testimony into a normal conversation with zero concern of what anyone else may think. She lives so unapologetically FREE! Free from her past. Free from addiction. Free from performance. Free from fear of rejection or judgment. She’s let go of so much and she’s leaned in day after day. Her life today looks nothing like it used to. And let me tell you something – If God can change her life, he can change yours. If He can take a life devastated by addiction, a family deeply wounded, a woman who hit rock bottom in rehab, a soul desperately searching for answers in every other place—and turn it into a woman who walks in healing, restoration, wholeness, and joy—there is no telling what He can do in your life! Today, Catherine’s family is so healed it’s ridiculous. She’s so filled with the power of God that you can’t help but see Him through her. The addictions of her past were left at the cross, along with the desire to ever return to them. Catherine is now my traveling retreat assistant. You know why? She makes me better! The Spirit in her stirs up the Spirit in me. She makes me more bold and courageous. Her continual prayer today is, “God, break my heart for what breaks yours.” AND HE IS. She simply will never be the same. And because I’m close to her, I won’t be the same either. Let me tell you exactly what happened for her, because it’s in the process of happening for you too! Philippians 2:13, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” Don’t make it any fussier than it needs to be. It really is that simple. GOD IS WORKING IN YOU. God is changing your desires. God is filling you with the power to do the things that please him. This is how your life changes. This is how your goals shift. This is how what used to make you happy simply doesn’t make you happy anymore. This is how you suddenly don’t want what you used to want. This is how you begin to crave things you never used to crave. This is how you find yourself saying no to things you once couldn’t imagine saying no to—and yes to things you once would have been afraid to do. This is how you become different. Not because you finally figured out how to change yourself. Because God is working in you. Your role in this is letting go and leaning in. Whatever you’ve been too afraid to let go of is the very thing God is asking you to trust him with. Let him have it, then lean in to see what he has for you instead. Lean in by spending time with him. Lean in by seeking him. Lean in by daring to walk in obedience, even for just today. Recently, there have been a few things God asked me to trust him enough to let go of. I hate to admit how long I reasoned with God and justified my excuses to keep holding on. And you know how God handled that – he was patient with me. He let me continue walking my own way while he went to work on me from the inside. He didn’t strike me with lightening, he just shifted my heart. Eventually, I decided to lean in. And do you know what I found as I leaned in to him with open hands? He had shifted my desires. He had given me the power to turn away and not go back. I didn’t do that – GOD DID. That was God’s work. I just finally partnered with him in the process. Now, my desire has changed and the very thing I fought so hard to hold on to is no longer even wanted in my life. That’s healing! My friends, God not only heals bodies of disease – He heals addiction – He heals hurts – He heals broken hearts. He heals relationships. He heals the places in us that have been wounded by rejection, betrayal, disappointment, failure, and fear. And sometimes His healing looks different than we expected. Sometimes healing isn’t God changing the situation. Sometimes it’s God changing you in the middle of the situation. He changes what you want. He changes what you tolerate. He changes what you’re willing to chase. He changes what you think you need in order to be happy. He changes what has power over you. And sometimes you don’t even realize how much He’s changed you until you find yourself standing in a situation that used to have a grip on you—and suddenly, it doesn’t. You don’t want it anymore. You don’t need it anymore. You don’t have to fight yourself to walk away anymore. That’s God working in you. Maybe you’ve been praying for God to change something around you, while God has been quietly changing something within you. Maybe you’ve been asking Him to remove the temptation, while He’s been changing your appetite. Maybe you’ve been asking Him to fix the relationship, while He’s been healing your heart. Maybe you’ve been asking Him to give you a different life, while He’s been making you into a different woman. Don’t miss the miracle because it doesn’t look like the miracle you expected. God is working in you. So let go. Lean in. Open your hands and trust Him with whatever you’ve been white-knuckling. You don’t have to know exactly what He’ll do with it. You don’t have to understand the whole process. You don’t even have to feel ready. Just trust Him enough to release it. Because when you let go of what God is asking you to surrender, you make room for Him to put something new in your hands. And girl, if God can change your desires, He can change your whole life. You don’t have to manufacture the change. You don’t have to force the healing. You don’t have to become a brand-new woman by sheer determination. God is working in you. Let Him work. Let Him lead. Let Him change you. If you look at your life today and think, I’m still so far from who I want to be, I want you to stop and look again. Look a little deeper. Maybe the evidence isn’t in what you can see yet. Maybe it’s in what you no longer desire. Maybe it’s in the peace you didn’t used to have. Maybe it’s in the things that don’t have a hold on you anymore. Maybe it’s in the fact that you’re still here, still seeking God, still saying yes, still leaning in. Girl, God is working in you. And the beautiful thing is—you don’t have to finish the work. He will. And then one day, you’re going to look back and realize the thing you thought you could never live without is the very thing you’re now thanking God you had the courage to let go of. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

You and I are called to have the same attitude as Jesus. That sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? And then you get out of bed. Someone has already left a mess in the kitchen. You have too much to do and not enough time to do it. Someone says something that rubs you the wrong way. Your plans get interrupted. You feel overlooked. Somebody isn’t pulling their weight. And suddenly, before you’ve even finished your coffee, your attitude is showing you exactly what is happening inside your heart. So let’s get personal. What is your attitude? Not the attitude you wish you had. Not the attitude people think you have. Not the attitude you have when everything is going your way. What is your attitude when you’re tired? When you’re inconvenienced? When you don’t get your way? When someone doesn’t appreciate you? When you feel misunderstood? Those moments reveal something. Viktor Frankl said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Your attitude is your choice. It’s the way you think about what is happening, the way you interpret it, and ultimately the way you respond. And your attitude doesn’t just affect you. It walks into the room before you do. It sits at the dinner table with your family. It gets in the car with you. It shows up in your texts. It comes to work with you. It affects the way you listen, the way you speak, the way you love, and the way you treat people. Your attitude is shaping your everyday life. And sometimes… our attitude is the thing making an ordinary day harder than it needs to be. Have you ever shared a house with someone who had a bad attitude? You know what I’m talking about. The sighs. The short answers. The eye rolls. The silence. The irritated tone. You can feel it before they even say anything. Now here’s the uncomfortable question: Have you ever been that person? Have you ever walked into a room carrying an attitude and expected everybody else to adjust to you? I have. And if we’re honest, we all have. So how do we snap out of it? How do we stop letting our circumstances dictate our attitude? Well, let’s put it simply … we stop being so self-centered. When we make life all about us, our attitude suffers. Paul tells us like it is. Philippians 2:3–5 says: “Don’t be selfish: don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” We have a unique way of continually making everything about ourselves. It’s what we want, how we feel, what we think. We end up spending our days in these self-absorbed worlds where our primary objective is to make everything easier for us, all while making everyone like us. Funny, because we never see Jesus doing either of those things. It’s hard to admit how selfish we really are. But when we’re being honest, even the kind, generous, giving things we do are most often about making ourselves look or feel good. And if you think living with humility is hard today, consider how hard it was in the time when Jesus walked this earth. During Biblical times, humility was often seen as an absolute weakness. Social status was honored. It was all about what you were wearing, who you had to your house for dinner, and who you were seen with. You were either in, or you were out – everyone wanted to be in. Then comes Jesus and he flips everything upside down. He holds more power than anyone and everyone in all the world, yet he is without a palace. He had no value for money or riches or status. He let people talk about him. He performed miracles without explanation or a need to be understood. He let them make their assumptions. He let them join him, or just walk away. He took 12 men, and he changed the world forever. And he did it all with humility. Wearing sandals, walking from town to town, staying where a place was offered, with no agenda other than fulfilling his Father’s will. Was Jesus selfish? No. He literally gave up Heaven to come save us. Was Jesus trying to impress anyone? No. He had all the power in the world to shut down every negative opinion and prove them all wrong in an instant. He could have called down a thousand angels to fight for him – that would have been impressive. But he didn’t. Instead, he let them nail him to the cross and crucify him. And there, hanging on that cross, he shows us how to think about others more than we think about ourselves. I assure you he was not comfortable. Without a doubt he was suffering. This was NOT the easy way. Yet, he chose it – for you and for me. Then, he let us make up our own minds about him. Still today, we can live our lives for him, or deny him. He will let us make our own decision. And Paul writes, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” Girls, how do we do that today? We start by asking a different question. Instead of, “How can I get this day to go the way I want it to go?” we begin asking, “Jesus, how can I love the people in front of me today?” That’s a completely different way to live. The goal isn’t to wake up every morning and force yourself to have a better attitude. The goal is to become so aware of Jesus that you begin responding to life the way He would. When your husband says something that irritates you, you have a choice. You can make the moment about being right, or you can make it about loving him. When your kids interrupt you for the hundredth time, you can see them as an interruption to your plans, or you can recognize that they are your opportunity to love someone God has placed right in front of you. When a friend doesn’t text you back, you can create an entire story in your head about what she must be thinking, or you can choose not to make someone else’s silence about you. Why do we always make it about us? Really you know what the truth is – It’s usually not about you at all! When somebody is rude to you, you don’t have to return the rudeness. When your plans fall apart, you don’t have to let your entire day fall apart with them. When you’re tired, you don’t have to make everyone around you pay for it. And when you don’t get your way? Oh, girl. That’s where the Jesus attitude gets real. Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking about yourself less. Jesus didn’t spend His days asking, “How can I make my life more comfortable? How can I make everyone understand me? How can I make sure people appreciate me? How can I prove them wrong?” He was free from all of that. He knew who He was. He knew Whose He was. And because He knew that, He didn’t have to spend His life defending Himself, impressing people, controlling outcomes, or demanding that everyone see things His way. He was secure enough to serve. That’s what we want. We don’t want to simply have a nicer attitude. We want the attitude of Jesus. Imagine your life with the attitude of Jesus. How would Jesus see this? How would Jesus respond? What would Jesus do? You want to be the woman who can walk into a difficult situation and bring peace instead of adding to the chaos. You want to be the woman who doesn’t have to win every argument. You want to be the woman who can apologize without adding a giant “but you…” to the end of it. You want to be the woman who can celebrate someone else’s blessing without secretly comparing it to your own. You want to be the woman who can listen without immediately turning the conversation back to you. You want to be the woman who notices when somebody is hurting instead of being so consumed with your own stuff that you miss it. You want to be the woman who doesn’t need everyone to like you because you know you are already deeply loved by God. And you want to be the woman who can have a really, really bad day without becoming a really, really difficult person. Because let’s be honest: You don’t get to choose everything that happens to you today. But you do get to choose what happens inside of you because of it. That doesn’t mean pretending you’re not frustrated. It doesn’t mean stuffing your feelings. It doesn’t mean allowing people to mistreat you. And it certainly doesn’t mean becoming a doormat. Jesus had boundaries. Jesus walked away. Jesus spoke hard truth. Jesus confronted hypocrisy. Jesus said no. Jesus wasn’t controlled by people’s opinions. But He was never controlled by His ego. That’s the difference. So maybe today, before you react, pause. Just pause. Take a breath and ask: What would the attitude of Jesus look like right here? Not in some grand spiritual moment. Just right here. In the kitchen. In the car. In the text. In the meeting. At the grocery store. When you’re tired. When you’re disappointed. When you’re misunderstood. When somebody pushes your buttons. When you don’t get your way. When nobody notices what you’ve done. Right here. Because this is where we become like Jesus. Not just during our quiet time. Not just when we’re worshiping with our hands in the air. We become like Jesus in the tiny, ordinary, frustrating moments of everyday life. Every time you choose patience instead of irritation… Every time you choose forgiveness instead of keeping score… Every time you choose encouragement instead of comparison… Every time you choose humility instead of needing to be right… Every time you choose to serve when you’d rather be served… Every time you choose love when your feelings are screaming for something else… You are practicing the attitude of Jesus. Jesus, change my attitude. Not just my circumstances. Not just the people around me. Not just the things that are frustrating me. Change me. Teach me to see people the way You see them. Teach me to hold my plans loosely. Teach me to stop making everything about me. Teach me to be secure enough that I don’t need to prove myself. Teach me to love when it’s inconvenient. Teach me to serve when nobody notices. Teach me to surrender my right

The enemy has been trying desperately to intimidate you. Intimidation through means of fear, through means of overwhelm, through means of anxiety, even through thoughts of not wanting the very things God has been revealing to you. Check yourself – how successful have his ploys of intimidation been? Have you been quietly giving up? Have you been gradually pulling away? Have you been shrinking, fading, losing ground? Sis, what you have to understand is the enemy has only fear tactics and intimidation against you. His threats against you are powerless when you’re covered in the blood of Jesus. 1 John 5:18 tells us that we are held securely by God’s Son and “the evil one cannot touch us”. Do you hear that – HE CAN’T TOUCH YOU. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus you are not only saved by Jesus, but you’re also protected by Him. My dog Tank is a big boy with a fierce bark. In his prime, he was 130 pounds, one of the biggest yellow labs you will ever see. He decides to bark on the very rare occasion when the UPS man seems threatening. And when he does, you notice. His bark sounds furious. But there’s no bite behind his bark. He’s nothing but slobbers and tail wags. He’s anything but a guard dog. A little yappy chihuahua will put him in the corner every time. Sometimes it’s as if we’re walking through this life terrified of a bark that simply can’t bite us. Girl, listen to me – THE EVIL ONE CANNOT TOUCH YOU. We’re so quickly to give the devil credit for the attacks in life, but most often he’s not even the source. Is there a spiritual battle happening all around us? Absolutely! Are we protected? NO DOUBT! As a sold-out follower of Jesus, you are a girl with Heaven on her side. Angels are in charge all around you. God has good plans for your life that cannot be cancelled. Every moment of your life is held in the mighty hands of your Creator. Why in the world would you be intimidated by an already defeated enemy? Why would you play little with your life? Why would you dismiss your God-breathed dreams and desires because the enemy is barking? LET HIM BARK. Let him hate that you are no longer paralyzed in fear. Let him shake when your knees hit the floor each morning and you’re infused with the power of the Holy Spirit. Let him know that Hell lost another one. Show him you’re on a mission to rob Hell and make Heaven crowded! Paul writes in Philippians 1:28, “Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself.” DON’T BE INTIMIDATED. And Scripture tells us exactly what to do when the enemy comes at us with intimidation. James 4:7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Notice the order: Submit to God, resist the devil. We don’t defeat the enemy by becoming obsessed with the enemy. We don’t spend all day looking for demons behind every difficult circumstance. We don’t have to live on high alert, wondering where the next attack is coming from. We fix our eyes on Jesus, submit ourselves to God, and when the enemy comes with lies, fear, temptation, accusation, or intimidation, we resist. How do you resist? You refuse to agree with the lie. When he says, “You can’t do this,” you remember, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” When he says, “You’re alone,” you remember, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” When he says, “You should be afraid,” you remember that God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. You fight the lie with the truth. That’s why knowing God’s Word matters so much. Jesus Himself responded to the enemy’s temptation with Scripture. He didn’t negotiate with Satan. He didn’t entertain the lie. He answered with the truth of God’s Word: “It is written.” Girl, you need some “It is written” in your life! When fear comes, you need to know what God has already said. When anxiety starts shouting, you need truth louder than the thoughts in your head. When intimidation tells you to back down, you need the Word of God reminding you who you are, whose you are, and who is with you. Ephesians 6:10–11 says, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Did you catch that? TAKE YOUR STAND. The goal isn’t that you never experience fear. The goal is that fear doesn’t get to move you. You may feel intimidated and still stand. You may feel anxious and still obey. You may feel overwhelmed and still take the next step. You may hear the bark and still keep walking. That’s courage—not the absence of fear, but refusing to let fear become your master. Your job isn’t to defeat Satan. Jesus has already defeated him. Your job is to remain surrendered to Jesus, stand firm in truth, resist the lies, and keep moving forward in obedience. That’s what intimidation cannot stand against: a woman who knows who she is, knows whose she is, knows what God has said, and refuses to back down. When you fear the enemy you give him hope and confidence in his schemes against you. If he sees his fear tactics against you are successful, he’ll double down to drag you into his darkness and keep you there. He’ll send his demons to attack your mind and discourage your heart. Is that what he’s been doing to you? Girl, are you going to let him have access to your heart and mind like that? But let me tell you what happens when you’re NOT INTIMIDATED by him – he withdraws in defeat. Unlike God, Satan is limited. He does not hold all power. He cannot be everywhere at once. He cannot move heaven and earth. He is not unlimited. Therefore, he continually seeks the weak spot and attacks where his efforts are most effective. He zeros in on what is working. And honey, if his attacks haven’t been intimidating you, then he won’t waste his time continuing. Today, you let the enemy of your soul know you will not live in fear of him. Shut down his fear tactics. Refuse his invitation to overwhelm. Stiff arm his offer of anxious thoughts. Deny his suggestions of no longer wanting everything God has for you. Don’t give him the satisfaction of intimidation. Enemy, you’re wasting your time trying to keep me awake in worry. When my alarm rings, I’m still hitting my knees in prayer. I’m still showing up. I’m still giving God my best. That’s how you defeat him! Satan, the anxious thoughts you try to offer me are straight up denied. You’re wasting your time with the attack on my mind. I know the truth, I stand in the truth, I speak the truth. You are powerless against God and I’m under His divine protection. When spiritual enemies cannot intimidate you, they’ve lost all weapons because all they had was fear and intimidation. Now, you know how to disarm the enemy. Stop listening to him. Stop being influenced by him. Stop believing him. You don’t have to argue with him. You don’t have to fight him in your own strength. You simply have to stand. Stand in truth. Stand in faith. Stand in the authority Jesus has given you. Stand your ground and keep moving forward. Because here’s what intimidation is trying to do: it’s trying to make you smaller than your calling. It’s trying to convince you that the dream God whispered to you is too big, the assignment is too hard, the risk is too great, the people won’t understand, and you’re not capable of doing what God is asking you to do. But God didn’t call you to live a small, safe, fear-controlled life. So get back up, girl. Take back the ground you’ve surrendered. Start praying again. Start dreaming with God again. Start showing up again. Start saying YES to the things God has been putting on your heart. You don’t have to know exactly how it’s all going to work. You just have to be willing to take the next step. The enemy can bark, but he cannot cancel what God has ordained. He can make noise, but he cannot have the final word. He can threaten, but he cannot separate you from the God who holds you. So let him bark. You keep walking. Let him make noise. You keep obeying. Let him try to intimidate you. You keep becoming everything God created you to be. Because, Sis, you are not walking into your future alone. You are walking with Jesus. And when Jesus is with you, fear doesn’t get to decide where you go. The enemy’s bark is not your stop sign. It’s your reminder to keep moving forward. DON’T BE INTIMIDATED. Don’t shrink. Don’t retreat. Don’t quit. Stand up. Stand firm. And LIVE BIG. 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