BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women Pamela Crim | Daily Devotional for Women

What if you’re doing something wrong and you don’t even realize it? What if the next steps you’ve been taking have been foolishly on the wrong path taking you in the wrong direction, but you’re just doing all you know to do? What if you’ve been making the wrong decisions, attaching to the wrong people, thinking the wrong thoughts, and you can’t see all the wrong things this is creating in your life?







That’s the problem. We don’t know. We can’t see. Everything we do could be wrong, even when our intentions are so right.







There’s a prayer for that. Seriously, there’s a prayer for the girl who has been potentially going the wrong way, but wants to get it right now. There’s a prayer for the girl who doesn’t want to screw up again. There’s a prayer for the girl who genuinely wants to please God and walk in his will.







Isn’t that you? Aren’t you ready to walk God’s way? Aren’t you ready to trade your will for his will? Aren’t you ready to release everything you’ve been holding back so you can receive the fullness of what he holds for you?







This prayer is tucked away in your bible, and it’s just been waiting for you to be really ready to pray it.







Psalm 139: 23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.”







This is a powerful prayer that should not be taken lightly. If you ask God to search you, you better be ready to respond to what he shows you. Because here’s the thing, what if you’ve been asking for all the right things, but you’ve been asking for the wrong reasons, and that’s the sole reason why your prayers seem to be going unanswered. Did you know that’s possible? James 4:3, “You ask and don’t receive because you ask with the wrong motives.”







When you ask the Lord to search you and he reveals to you that your motives are wrong, what are you going to do with that?







If you don’t plan to go to work on the things he shows you, don’t even ask. But if you’re serious, if you’re willing to work on WHY that prayer isn’t being answered, or WHY this has really gone wrong, then ask God to search you.







Here’s what God has shown me: The motive behind my seeking of God is often off. I’m trying to persuade my seemingly reluctant God to do what I want him to do. I’m trying to flip through my Bible for God to co-sign what I want. I’m trying to earn enough good favor with God to qualify for more. \







OUCH. That’s the truth of what God shows me when I ask him to search me.







What does he show you? What are the motives behind your prayers? What are the motives behind your service? Why are you even listening today? Are you checking boxes to be that good Jesus girl? Are you trying to earn the gold star? I mean if you’re going to ask God to search you, be ready for what he shows you.







The purpose of prayer isn’t to persuade a reluctant God to do what we want. Oh, what a misuse of the power he has given us. The purpose of prayer is to align our will with His. It’s to open our eyes to what God sees so we partner with him in accomplishing what he is doing. It’s to allow his power to flow through us for his purposes, not our own. We’ve once again totally made this all about us, haven’t we?







What God continually shows me is, “Pamela, this isn’t about you.” Oh how he loving takes my face into his hands and turns my head in the ...

You’re waiting on something, and it feels like it’s taking entirely too long to happen. You’re stuck in limbo wondering when. And as we wonder when we often begin to ask why. Why is this taking so long? Why do I have to wait? Why me?







Time is a funny thing. We can wait for several years for something, but then as soon as we have it, our whole world shifts around now having it. And now that we have it, it’s easy to take it for granted. It’s easy to overlook the fact that this morning we woke up with so many things we were once waiting for.







Seriously, remember when you were counting down the days to your wedding, or prewashing all those new baby clothes with such anticipation of the day you would bring that baby home, or dreaming of moving into the new house, or interviewing for the job and praying they would choose you. Eventually the day came, and the day went, and what you had looked so forward to became reality, then reality lost its luster. How many days have gone by since you were genuinely excited about what you already have? Probably a lot.







We only seem to get excited about what we don’t have yet. What we do have is already old news. So now we just wait. Wait for the next new thing. Wait for the weekend. Wait for vacation. Wait for the next holiday. Wait for something to change. All while days are going by that we will never get back.







What are you waiting on? Can you be happy while you wait? Can you find joy in the in between? Can you count your blessings while one blessing is missing?







This is one of the greatest lessons God has been graciously teaching me over the past 5 years. He’s teaching me to trust him with the timing and choose to be happy while I wait. If I can’t be happy while I wait for this problem to be fixed, then I may be unknowingly sacrificing year after year of my life. And really, what glory does that give God if I sit here miserable in the wait? What kind of faith is it that requires all my blessings to be present before I count them?







Paul taught us about choosing happiness in the middle of a mess while waiting for it to get better. He called it contentment. Contentment is a quiet state of happiness and satisfaction. Contentment isn’t loud, it’s a calm feeling within, regardless of the storm outside. He said in Philippians 4: 11, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself.” Notice the word LEARNED.







Learned implies it wasn’t natural to be content in his circumstances. It wasn’t automatic and without effort. Paul had to choose his mindset over and over again until he had LEARNED contentment.







What is natural for human beings when we don’t get what we want when we want it is to throw a fit. Seriously, look at a baby. If a baby doesn’t get fed within 3 seconds of feeling hungry, there’s a complete meltdown. That’s what is natural to us. We have to learn how to still be happy when we don’t get what we want when we want it.







How loud are your complaints when you are waiting? How ugly is your face when things aren’t the way you want them to be? Let’s check real life situations here …







You’re at a restaurant and you’ve ordered chicken fajitas, no rice with double beans and guacamole on the side. The waitress brings steaming hot steak fajitas with rice and the guacamole is old. Check your face? How do you react? What do you say? Are you going to throw your grown woman hissy fit?







You’re waiting in a crowded parking lot for a spot. There’s a car leaving, so you turn on your blinker and wait. Just then a truck whips right in front of you and t...

How much time do you spend taking care of your body? Y’all, shaving these legs is a time suck. This hair has to be washed every other day. Eyelashes don’t just glue themselves on. It’s all an investment of time. Time to exercise. Time to cook healthy meals. Time to rest. If you don’t take the time required for care, your body will suffer. You can’t just skip washing your hair for a week. You will unintentionally grow dreads, and not the cute kind with colors and knick knacks. You don’t want to be the girl with furry armpits just because you couldn’t make time to shave while you were in the shower.







How much time do you spend taking care of your house? On my to-do list is a perpetual daily chore: Clean. It’s amazing how it’s just my husband and I in our little beach house, yet the dishes pile up so quickly. Every day there is cleaning to do, and if I skip a day it gets real messy real quick. I figured out a trigger to me becoming grouchy is a messy house. It’s physically impossible for me to be giddy if my house looks like a ghetto inside. Some of y’all are wondering why you wake up grouchy … maybe it’s because your house be looking ghetto. Clean your space and you might just find a better attitude. Cleaning requires time. They have yet to successfully build that self-cleaning house, or even family that clean up after them selves. Until then, time is required of you.







With all these time sucks of taking care of your body, taking care of your house, taking care of your work, taking care of your kids, taking care of your dog, there’s just not much time left. And there’s one unseen thing that often goes without the investment of our time. One thing that suffers greatly because it’s out of sight and out of mind, and not given the time it needs.







Your soul.







It’s easy to treat ourselves as if we are a body with a little bitty bonus of a soul. We take care of our body first and our soul last. We’ll drink shakes, take pills, and buy all sorts of contraptions to make our bodies look and feel better. We’ll join the gym, create a workout routine, hire a trainer, go to a doctor, and download 7 apps on our phone all for our body. But what does our soul get?







You are not a body with a soul. You are a soul first and foremost, and your soul gets the bonus of a body to carry you through this portion of your life.







Read the book of Psalms and you’ll get a better understanding of the value of your soul. David writes more about his soul than his body. He talks to his soul. He encourages his soul. He writes of his soul being thirsty, his soul being hungry, his soul needing rest, his soul being worried, afraid, overwhelmed, grieving, even suffering. Have you ever described a deep ache within you as your heart hurting? Yeah, that is your soul grieving. Have you ever felt a void within, like a itch you don’t know how to scratch with an unfulfilled longing inside? Yeah, that is your hungry soul. You’ve sang about those hungry eyes, but girl, what about your hungry soul?







Your soul needs time just like your body and your house require time. But it’s so easy to ignore the needs of your soul and turn to tik tok for the next magic diet or exercise or cleaning hack. Girl, what about your soul care?







Peter puts it into perspective when he refers to his body as a tent. 2 Peter 1: 14, “I know that I will soon lay aside my tent.”







His body was not his end all be all. This earthly time walking around in this bodily tent is just a small portion of his lifetime. It’s all temporary. Temporary things cannot become our primary focus. Temporary things cannot get priority over eter...

Have you ever thought about what Heaven will really be like? I have a friend who was in a coma, and when she woke up, she shared her glimpses into heaven. She specifically remembers colors like her eyes had never seen before. Flowers and butterflies that were so beautiful they were indescribable. In my Daddy’s final day of life, the veil between Heaven and Earth had grown very thin, and he told me what he saw. He would burst out in a deep belly laugh and say, “Jesus is so funny.” Then Daddy said, “Everyone is so happy here.” One of the final things he said was, “Run to the light.”







I want to see those colors, don’t you? I want to be one of those happy people in the presence of Jesus. I want to run to the light of Jesus!







I grew up afraid of Hell. I knew absolutely nothing of Jesus, but I knew there was this fiery place of misery somewhere down below where sin was punished. And every time I did something bad, I was afraid of that punishment. My very first introduction to the thought of what Heaven would be like was through the song “I Can Only Imagine” in the early 2000’s. Did anyone else belt out these words in their car?







Surrounded by Your gloryWhat will my heart feel?Will I dance for You JesusOr in awe of You be still?Will I stand in Your presenceOr to my knees, will I fall?Will I sing hallelujah?Will I be able to speak at all?I can only imagine







My friends, what will Heaven be like? Well, I can only imagine! But here’s what I know for sure … I WANT TO GO THERE! And I really want to go there with YOU! Let’s experience this together!







I have a strong case of FOMO. You know, the Fear of Missing Out. It eats me up thinking I might miss something great. I will sacrifice sleep. I will save up my money. I will go to crazy lengths to ensure I don’t miss out on good things. And my God is not only the giver of all good and perfect things (James 1:17), but he takes all the other things and he works them together to make them good (Romans 8:28). So, whatever God is offering and whatever God is doing is good, and I’ve decided I don’t want to miss it! I want to be in alignment with what God is doing and I want to be available for what he is offering.







Now, here’s the thing, I can’t see what God is doing and I have no way of knowing the fullness of what God is offering, I can only imagine it. But, it’s even more than I can imagine. More than I can dream of. More than I’ve ever dared to think. Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”







Yes, I can only imagine, but it’s immeasurably MORE than what I imagine! And how does God do more? It’s right here in this scripture. It’s through his power that is at work within us! How crazy awesome of God to decide to do his work THROUGH US. How incredible that he has invited us to be part of his work and carry his power. That just blows my mind.







So, my sister, you and I have a job here. As the girls who carry this power to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine, we’re here to share hope with others. Hope of the future mind blowing beauty and goodness that awaits those who have accepted Jesus. We’re supposed to help them imagine how good Heaven will be so they too decide they just can’t afford to miss it!







1 Peter 1: 3-4 MSG, “Because of Jesus we’ve been given a brand new life and have everything to live for including a future in heaven – and that future starts NOW.”







Jesus gives us a brand new life and this new life he’s o...

Power of Prayer







This Friday unscripted Bible study and devotional digs deeper on the follow scriptures:







James 5: 13-201 Kings 17 & 18Matthew 6:6







This episode also includes the 4 Sentence Prayer that helped bring me back to God.







Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Don’t wait for others to celebrate your life when it’s over, celebrate what God has done in your life TODAY!







This special unscripted episode was hosted live on Facebook (watch here: https://www.facebook.com/1249986681/videos/987406949413043/) as I share my testimony and celebrate all God has done.







Jeremiah 17:14, “O LORD, if you heal me, I will be truly healed; if you save me, I will be truly saved. My praises are for you alone!”







I have been truly healed. I have been truly saved. Now God gets all the praise! HE DID THIS!







Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com