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

This special unscripted Bible study asks what’s the point of praying if God already knows everything and he already has a plan? Really, God doesn’t need us, so why even pray?







You can watch the behind the scenes recording of today’s episode here: https://www.facebook.com/1249986681/videos/3692772380935986/







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

God is asking you to do something. He is pointing you in the direction of your purpose and nudging you to take the next step. But you’ve been questioning how. You don’t see how you will do what he has asked you to do. You don’t think you could ever be good enough to do it. You’re not equipped. You’re not anything special. So, you’ve dismissed yourself from the calling of God on your life.







Why? Because you don’t see it. You don’t see what God sees.







But I heard something this morning on the Elevation Church podcast, and I’ve been asked to tell you about it so you’re sure to hear:







IF YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO IT, YOU WILL HAVE GOD’S SUPPORT FOR IT.







Honey, if you’re supposed to work there, God will open the door for you to walk right in. If you’re supposed to move there, God will make the way there. If it’s supposed to be you, then you will be supernaturally filled with God’s power to do what he’s asked you to do.







You don’t have to have this all figured out. You don’t have to even understand the plan. You just have to be willing to believe if you’re supposed to do it, you will have God’s support for it. God’s support will put you in the right place at the right time. God’s support will fill you with the courage to do what you’ve never done before. God’s support will make a way where there has been no way, and he will guide your feet to walk in that way.







Whew, doesn’t that just take the stress off? This isn’t about you … this is about what God will do through you if you will follow his lead.







Okay, picture this … you’ve one of Jesus’ closest friends. You’ve given up your job and your home, you’ve left everything and everyone you’ve ever known, to go with Jesus on his mission. You thought you would be doing this with Jesus for the rest of your life. But just 3 years into you and your tribe of 12 doing all these miraculous things, Jesus gets killed. Your leader is crucified. And even though it’s easy for us to rush to the rest of the story, Jesus’ friends didn’t know the rest of the story as they were sitting in it. They never saw this hardship coming. They never, in a million years, thought Jesus could be killed. Now what were they going to do? They had given up everything to go with him.







They are afraid. Afraid they too would be killed. Afraid everything they had believed in and worked for was ruined. They were confused. Then, Jesus shows up in the room where they are hiding. Now remember, Jesus has died. They saw him hanging on the cross. They knew his body was put in the tomb. They also knew the doors to the room where they were hiding were locked. And boom, here’s Jesus, standing right there among them.







And this is what Jesus says to them, Mark 16: 15, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Then Jesus is taken into heaven.







Jesus tells them to go. But HOW? Jesus, how are we supposed to go into all the world and preach to everyone? We don’t have an airplane. The internet sucks here. We are poor fishermen, how are we supposed to go do all of this? We have no education. We have no resources. We have no connections. Jesus, I heard what you said, but tell me how!







Remember, IF YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO IT, YOU WILL HAVE GOD’S SUPPORT FOR IT.







For 10 days they waited. For 10 days they must have wondered how Jesus expected them to tell everyone about God. For 10 days they must have felt so unequipped and unqualified for the calling. But on the 10th day,

God has been pestering me about a topic I don’t really want to talk about. But y’all he just won’t leave me alone about it, so today we’re not talking about birds. Yesterday we talked about birds because I was dodging the push to dive into this … sin.







Sin – it’s all the things God tells us not to do, but sometimes we sneak and do it anyway. And when we feel like we can get away with it, we will do it some more. Why would the creator of the Universe, the one who sees everything and knows everything, tell his creation there are some things we can’t do? Really, why does God say, “No, you can’t do that.”







I remember when my kids were little and I would tell them they couldn’t do something, they would immediately respond with the whinest possible, “but whyyyyyyyy?” And honestly, sometimes I said no because I was being lazy. No, we can’t go to the park and play because I’m lazy. But I couldn’t tell my own kids their request for fun was denied because I was simply lazy, so I made up some other excuse. Sometimes I said no because we didn’t have time or we didn’t have money. Sometimes I said no out of pure habit. There was no good reason for my answer of no, it was just my denial default.







Now, I get a do-over opportunity with my grandbabies. My Grandma name is Franny, because my 2 year old grandson can’t say Granny. And let me tell you, Franny says yes as much as possible. Next weekend I’m flying to Virginia to bring him home with me for 10 days. When he asks, if at all possible, the answer shall be YES. I want to spend every minute with him. I want to do all the fun things with him. I want to fill his days with awe and wonder here on the island. There will be none of this saying no because I’m being lazy, or saying no because it’s my default to just deny. Nope, this is my do-over and the answer is YES.







God doesn’t require a do-over with us. He has always been a YES for us. He has never denied us a single time because he was being lazy. He has never said no to us because he lacked time, money or resources. He’s never said no because he just couldn’t pull it off. He’s never said no out of habit. Do you know what God’s habit is? Do you know what his default really is? YES.







Really, is that the way you see God? He’s standing by with a ready YES. He wants to say yes to you. Unfortuatley most of us view God as a “No Man”. He denies. He withholds. He vetos. He limits. But we have the wrong picture.







2 Corinthians 1: 19-20 says, “In Jesus it is always YES. For every one of God’s promises is YES in him.”







Our God is a YES God. Yes, he can do it. Yes, he’s in it with you. Yes, he will make a way. Yes, he wants even more for you!







So, when God says no, we can completely trust him. We never have to question God’s no. There’s one reason God says no. So, just in case you’ve been whining with your, “but God, whyyyyyyyyy”, here’s your answer … Why did I say no? Because it’s not my best for you.







That’s why that door didn’t open. That’s why the plans didn’t work. That’s why it fell apart. That’s why the answer was no. It wasn’t God’s best for you, and God’s not settling.







You may be quick to settle for less, for now, for temporary … but God is overflowing with abundance and an eternal focus. If it’s not his best for you, then the answer will be no. Can you trust that?







1 John 1: 5, “God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.

I’ve been watching a dove meticulously build its nest for several days in the palm tree by my back deck. Did you know that dove mate for life? Did you know the male searches for the nesting site, but the female has the final say on location?







And what I’ve been watching is an orchestrated partnership in building. The male gathers twigs and branches and brings them to the female. He lands on the females back, while passing her the building supplies, then she weaves it all together to build a perfect nest, awaiting her precious eggs.







Y’all, it’s the first signs of getting old. I’m now watching birds.







But the winds here on the island have been extreme, and I found their perfectly constructed nest laying on the hard ground.







Everything they had worked for was gone. The babies would be coming soon and they had no nest for them. Imagine the panic. Poor mama must have been stressed the heck out. Poor daddy must have been desperate to fix this mess.







Have you ever felt that way? Maybe you even feel that way right now. You worked so hard, you were so close, then it was gone. You’re left wondering what you’re going to do and how this will ever be okay again. But honey, look at your track record. You have a 100% survival rate so far. You’ve made it through every single thing that has ever happened to you. And whether you acknowledge him or not, that was God getting you through. That was God’s provision. That was God’s blessing. That was God’s divine work in your life.







Let God’s proven provision bring you peace today. He has proven his faithfulness to you. He will care for you through this too.







After finding the fallen nest, I saw a bird flying through the air with a long twig. There he was, gathering materials again. And there she was, rebuilding her nest. They was working quickly to prepare for the eggs she was about to lay. What they needed was provided.







That day, I saw God’s hand at work, caring for these bird. Providing what was needed, even when things had gone wrong. Why aren’t we able to see this better in our daily lives? Why do we assume the burden and stress when God so clearly demonstrates not only his ability, but his desire to care for us?







Jesus says in Matthew 6:26-27 “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”







The birds trust what they need will be there when they need it, even when disaster hits. We can too, and even more so.







Jesus says you are valuable. He says you are priceless. He says your heavenly father will make a way for you. And your worrying will not help anything.







Watch the birds once those eggs hatch and there are hungry little mouths to feed. The mama and daddy dove take turns feeding their babies. She flies out of the nest searching for what is needed for that day. Food is needed to take back to her babies. If he sits in their nest and worries about how hard it will be to find food, are the babies fed? If she chirps away and sings a sad song to the babies about the stress of flying out once again to feed them, does she help anything? If they worry too much about leaving the babies and circle the nest like a helicopter parents, they can’t bring back dinner.







So, she trusts. Every day she trusts. She leaves the nest with confidence knowing the babies are hungry and she will come back with food for them. Daily trust for their daily provision.

Sometimes it feels like everything in life is against us, but that’s only because we can’t see the power of everything that is FOR us. Sometimes it feels like there’s no possible way this is all going to work out, but that’s only because we can’t see all that is working in the unseen. Sometimes it feels like we’ve lost the very thing that makes life worth living, but that’s only because we haven’t even begun to experience the fullness of life God has planned for us. There’s so much more than you can see.







You simply can’t see all the power that is working for you. You simply can’t see all that is working in the unseen. You simply cannot see, or even begin to imagine, the unspeakable beauty in an eternal paradise beyond this life.







But what if you could see? What if you could see there’s so much more than what your limited vision has ever been able to see before? What if you caught a glimpse of the power of God at work right here and now for you? What if you gained a heavenly perspective on your earthly time? What if you saw the battle you’re in as a victory already secured by heaven’s armies?







What if God opened your eyes to let you see there is so much more to this. More to this life. More to this battle. More to this … whatever your “this” is today. There’s more.







There’s a story in our Bible of a man who was overwhelmed by the problems that surrounded him, and God did something miraculous that turned his overwhelm into a calm confidence and powerful peace. The story is found in 2 Kings 6.







Elisha is a prophet of God. Through faith in the power of God, he spoke of things no one else knew and performed miraculous acts. Elisha had the ability to know what an enemy King was doing before he did it. He would warn the King of Israel so the Israelites could always be one step ahead of their enemy. When the enemy King was told of this prophet Elisha who was ruining his battle plan, he sent a massive army at night to surround the city where Elisha was.







Early the next morning, Elisha’s servant got up and went outside and he saw the enemy’s massive army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. He comes back inside and he says, “Oh, my master, what are we to do?”







They were surrounded. Imagine the panic. Maybe you don’t have to imagine it too much … maybe it’s precisely how you feel right now. You’re surrounded. You’re overwhelmed. There’s nothing but battles and hardships all around you. You’re drowning in grief. You’re overcome by worry. The fear, the hurt, the regret, it’s all more than you can bare. What in the world are you going to do? How are you going to get through this? How is this ever going to be okay again?







As his servant is in a state of panic over the enemy he saw, Elisha knew there was more. More in the unseen than in the seen. More that was FOR them than against them. This was God’s great gift to Elisha. He had an inside connection to see what others could not see. To know what others could not know.







Elisha says to his servant in 2 Kings 6: 16, “Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us outnumber those who are with them.”







This massive enemy army was there for THEM. They were surrounding the entire city, there to capture Elisha. Far outnumber, way overpowered, completely surrounded. This was their reality. But it was only the reality of what was seen. There was a reality of the unseen too.







Verse 17, Then Elisha prayed “Lord, please open his eyes and let him see.” So the Lord opened the servant’s eyes,...

How do you hear from God? How do you receive the divine guidance you are seeking?







READ HIS WORD!







Asking God to speak to you and not reading the bible is like saying you’re hungry and refusing to feed yourself.







But here’s the problem – what you’re reading reading doesn’t make sense or doesn’t seem to apply, so you’re frustrated because you feel like you still don’t have answers to your questions.







But understand, God’s word is ALIVE! Hebrews 4: 12, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double edged sword.”







God meets us in his word and the Holy Spirit works through his word. Opening your Bible is literally you taking a step towards God. And here’s the great thing about God, James 4:8 , “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” This means if you take just one step toward God, he will take a thousand steps toward you. If you need God to be with you in this, take your step toward him, open your Bible. Just read his word. This will draw God in to you. You will receive his guidance. He will show you the way.







I think of reading by Bible kind of like sit ups. I know there’s one way to getting abs … sit ups. But I can lay down on the floor right now and do 100 situps and not look one bit better. You could open up your bible today and read 5 chapters, and not feel any better. You could read and read and find absolutely no answers or clear direction. BUT IT STARTED SOMETHING YOU CANNOT SEE.







Doing situps starts building muscles you can’t see, but you have to keep building. Reading your Bible starts a divine flow of wisdom and guidance you can’t see, but you have to keep reading.







For more of this unscripted Bible Study together, watch the live broadcast on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/1249986681/videos/7568941406517453/







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