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

A woman who reads his word, then applies it to her life. When you read “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.” (James 1: 19&20), a response is expected from you. That’s about YOU. It’s about how you have only been listening to speak. It’s about how you have been speaking before you process that thought. Girl, you can’t just say whatever is on your mind, because some of those thoughts need to be filtered out before they flow out. It’s about how you’ve been leading from frustration instead of love. It applies to you and action is required. God wants you to be a woman of action.







A woman who receives a prompting from his Holy Spirit, and does something about it. You know that little voice inside of you that says, “hey, you should reach out to that person”, or “this isn’t right in your life, it’s time to change it.” That’s God’s Spirit guiding your next steps. Now lift up your foot and step. Stop trying to make sense of it and trust God really does speak to you. He speaks to you because he wants you to be a woman of action.







Will you be the one God knows will go when he says go? Will you be the one who will be available when he prompts? Will you be the one who will respond in faith with actions over words? Or will you be the one who just sits there and talks about it? Will you be the one who complains about how things are today, but doesn’t do a darn thing to make it better in your own house? Will you be the one who is always too busy, always too unsure, and never quite good enough for the job? Hey, that is NOT what God sees in you!







God doesn’t see you as a girl who is stuck without a clear way of overcoming this. He sees you as a girl with the mighty power of his Spirit within her, and if you will start responding to his word in your Bible and his word in your spirit, you won’t spend another day stuck.







I know it sucks starting over. But if you hate starting over so much, how about this time you decide you’re simply not going to stop. This time you keep showing up in the strength God gives you and you push through. This time could be the last time you have to start again. A woman of action will embrace the suck, stop complaining about it, and just do it.







And again, GOD WANTS YOU TO BE A WOMAN OF ACTION.







James 1: 22, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” I’ve heard a good sermon, I’ve listened to a powerful podcast, I’ve read an amazing book, and then I’ve done absolutely NOTHING with those words. Those words inspired me, stirred me, gave me great ideas – but without action, they were wasted. Inspiration is like gas, it will pass. You are bloated with inspiration because you keep buying more books, listening to all the podcasts, researching all the ideas, but you’re never doing a darn thing with all that. You’re just bloated. You need to get up and walk that out!!!! Honey, what good is the batter you keep stirring but never put in the oven? Bake this sucker and let’s take a bite!







As this scripture says, you have been deceived. You’ve been deceived into thinking if you just get more inspired you’ll do something about this mess. No you won’t. You know when you’ll do something about this mess? When you actually DO something about this mess.







You’ve been deceived into thinking there’s a perfect diet, and when you find that diet all your problems will go away. You’ve been deceived into thinking there’s a perfect man out there, and he’s not the one you married.

Are you facing a situation right now where you don’t know what to do next? That next step is uncertain because you don’t know where this is leading. You can’t see beyond today … and you’re not supposed to. But if you can’t see tomorrow, how do you know the right next step into that which you cannot see?







There are two kinds of people. The kind of people who take wild leaps just to see what happens when they do … and the kind of people who gather all the details before budging. The kind of people who click and buy because they liked it … and the kind of people who put it in their online cart for days while they research it. I don’t know which one you are, but I sure know which one I tend to be.







Are you the kind of person who just does something, anything, when you aren’t sure what to do? Or are you the kind of person who does nothing at all when you’re unsure? God wants us to be neither of these.







Here’s what God wants us to do … He wants us TO ASK HIM FIRST AND BELIEVE HE WILL GUIDE US.







James 1: 5, “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God – who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly – and it will be given to him.” Lacking wisdom is a really nice way of putting it. The Message translation of that same verse says it like it really is: “If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father.”







Is that you? You don’t know what the heck you’re doing. You don’t know how to raise these kids. You don’t know how to fix this marriage. You don’t know how to crawl out of this hole. You don’t know how to make this right. You don’t know what to do next. You don’t know how to get from where you are to where you want to be. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING.







Sometimes I feel like a total imposter. On most days I really don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how I’m ever going to be good enough to pull off the things I’m attempting to do. I don’t know how I can finish what I’ve started. But, through all of this, I’ve figured out the most important thing … I don’t have to know, I just have to pray!







I’m not posing, I’m praying. I’m not pretending, I’m praying. I’m not an imposter, I’m a pray-er.







I don’t know what I’m doing, so I pray to the Father. I ask him about the next step. I ask him who I need to be. I ask him to show me the way. I ask him to give me the words. Then, all I need to do is BELIEVE he is guiding me. I’ve learned just because I don’t know what I’m doing while I’m showing up to do it doesn’t mean I’m an imposter, it means I’m a vessel!







My sister, you are a vessel when you’re emptied of self and available to be filled! You’re a vessel when you show up with a determination to go wherever you’re prompted to go, and do whatever you’re prompted to do, even when it doesn’t make sense and even when you don’t feel like it. You’re a vessel!







Do you know how many mornings I know precisely what I’m going to share when I sit down to start writing? Practically none. I don’t know. I’m counting on God to guide me.







Do you know how many morning I feel like writing when I start the very first sentence? None. Absolutely none. The first sentence is always almost impossible. It’s like the first step on a journey when I don’t know where I’m going, nor do I know if I have what it will takes to go there, or if I will even like it. That’s a hard first step,

Join us in this special Friday unplugged Bible study and devotional onbringing a little Jesus to others. Psalm 23: 4







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Throughout the day you are breathing, and you likely never notice your breath. Breathing doesn’t require intentional effort, your body does the work without your consciousness even catching on. Until you can’t breathe … then you know. Your awareness is hyper focused on breathing when it is threatened.







I went over 40 years of my life, breathing without the awareness of the source of my breath. I simply never thought about it. Where does the air you breathe come from? It was a song I sang one Sunday morning in Church several years ago that changed my breathing. This part of the song slayed me and changed me: It’s your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise, pour out our praise. It’s your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise to you only.







Genesis 2:7 says “Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.”







You and I are living at this very moment because of the breath of God. It is his breath that fills our lungs. It is his breath that gives us life. You have the breath of the Almighty within you, filling you, reviving you, bringing you life. And all you have to do is receive it.







Once I became aware of the source of my breath, I realized my habit of shallow breathing. By habit I take in just enough to do the job. Long term shallow breathing affects your health. Your body functions in a state of continual stress, lowering your immunity and lowers your energy.







But even worse, shallow breathing creates shallow living.







Are we just skimming the surface of all that’s truly available to us? Are we never going deeper into the life God is offering us only taking in enough to just get through? Yes, I think so.







When I look at the beauty of creation, I can’t imagine God created all of this for us to just get by. That isn’t his heart. His creation reveals his abundance and fullness and as his most prized and precious creation, he offers this abundance and fullness to us.







Newborn babies breathe deep. Their bellies expand and their chest rises and falls as they take in all life has to offer. We did the same when breath was new. Then we became used to it. We just expect God’s breath to be available and we allow it no special regard.







Each morning before this devotional, I lead the women I mentor in a deep breathing exercise. It’s become part of our morning routine together. It used to be the part of the morning I dreaded, now it’s the part of the morning where I relax my shoulders, turn off everything else, and just allow God to fill me.







Practicing deep breathing creates a whole truckload of benefits:







Natural painkiller.Improves blood flow.Increases energy level.Improves posture.Reduces inflammation.Detoxifies the body.Improves digestion.Relaxes your mind and body.Now think about that … all of these positive results by doing one thing … breathing deeper. And what are we doing when we breathe deeper? We are intentionally receiving MORE of God. It is his breath that fills your lungs so naturally by breathing deeper, you are receiving more of him. And more of him heals us.







As I’ve been practicing deep breathing, I’ve learned a few things.







First, I have a limited capacity. Try taking the biggest, deepest breath you’ve taken all day. Your lungs quickly filled and you don’t notice a tremendous benefit, right? I don’t necessarily feel more energized, relaxed or improved in any way.







It’s like trying to add God into an already packed daily routine.

You have been chosen, but being chosen doesn’t quite feel like you imagined it would. You thought being God’s chosen girl would mean all open doors and overflowing abundance, but that’s not your current reality. When it doesn’t happen for us the way we thought it would, we begin to question if we are really chosen. Are we really the right one for the job? Are we really good enough? Are we really destined for more?







This picture we have in our head of how we think it’s supposed to be has stolen more potential than the attacks of our enemy ever has. You don’t just wake up one day and it’s all easier. You don’t just magically step into your purpose and then it all makes sense. It’s not just one thing that changes everything then you never struggle again.







I always assumed the introduction of David in scripture was the day he walked onto the battlegrounds where the giant Goliath was taunting the Israelites. I’ve read the story and thought David showed up that day as a nobody and overnight he became a somebody. So, I’ve always imagined that same story for myself. I’ll go from a nobody to a somebody, and it will all happen in that one key moment when I show up with courage and do something great. But, I’m wrong. That’s not how it happened for David, that’s not how it will happen for me, and my sister, that’s not how it will happen for you. David became a great King, but it didn’t begin with the slaying of the giant and it didn’t end there either.







If we actually back up one chapter and a few years, we find the introduction of David. He was believed to be somewhere between 8 and 13 years old when the Lord sends Samuel to a man named Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint one of his sons as the next King of Israel. Jesse presented 7 of his sons to Samuel for selection. One by one, the tallest, the strongest, the oldest, the seemingly best would go before Samuel, and each one, the Lord would say, “not this one.”







1 Samuel 16: 10-11, “After Jesse presented seven of his sons to him, Samuel told Jesse, ‘The Lord hasn’t chosen any of these.’ Samuel asked him, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’ ‘There is still the youngest,’ he answered, ‘but right now he’s tending the sheep.’ Samuel told Jesse, ‘Send for him. We won’t sit down to eat until he gets here.’







David wasn’t even invited into the room. He wasn’t chosen to be at the table. His father considered him the least of all his sons, the one unworthy of an invitation. The one who was left out to work in the fields.







(Okay, I have to say it – does this remind anyone else of the story of Cinderella? She wasn’t even invited to try on the glass slipper to see if it fit. She was left out. Forgotten. Considered unimportant. But it was her! She was to be the princess!)







Honey, when God chooses you, no one else has to see what God sees. You don’t have to receive an invitation to the room or be given a seat at the table, or be asked to try on the glass slipper … God will hand deliver you where he wants you to be. You won’t be left out.







Listen to me right now … YOU ARE NOT LEFT OUT. God sees you. He knows you. The one thing he cares about is your heart. If your heart is devoted to him, there’s not another circumstance or detail that matters. He will get you where he wants you to be, solely because of your heart. If your heart is devoted to him, YOU ARE WHO HE WANTS.







Is that you? Is that your heart? Are you devoted to God? Do you want what he wants? Have you decided to go where he says?







Jesse,

For the past week I’ve been studying the book of Jeremiah. If you’re ever looking for some inspirational, soul lifting, positive word from the Lord, don’t go to Jeremiah. This is 52 chapters of God’s people sinning, God’s warnings, his people ignoring, then God destroying. Over and over again, God fills Jeremiah with his divine words to give to the people to redirect and save them, but they continue living in all the wrong ways, doing what God has told them not to do, going where God has told them not to go. So there is panic followed by pits and punishment. Destruction and desperation. Judgment and condemnation. God is angry and his anger is not withheld.







I’m a light hearted kinda gal, this kind of stuff just hurts my heart. I’ve literally struggled studying this, trying to understand why. Why all this loss? Why all this wrath? I mean let’s be real, at one point these people were literally burning their children as burnt offerings to one of their new gods, Baal. So God sends his prophet Jeremiah to tell them to stop, but they won’t stop. So God brings absolute annihilation to their people. That makes sense. Still, I struggle understanding it all.







There were innocent people caught in the annihilation. Good people fell to this destruction. Honestly, you and I could have just as easily been born then instead of now, to these people who were doing horrible things. It wasn’t our good choices that plopped us into safer times and better conditions. We didn’t choose when and where to be born. So what about the unfortunate souls born then and there?







I’m trying to understand this.







God’s covenant was broken. A covenant is like a contract. It was an agreement between God and his people. If they kept his laws, he kept them. If they obeyed him fully, he blessed them. The problem came when his people failed to keep the laws. They went left when the were told to go right. They lost their way. They were tricked by false prophets teaching false gods. Following those false gods led them away from the covenant of the one true God, and that’s why there are 52 chapters of God’s warnings and wrath.







We struggle with always getting this thing right. It’s a human condition. We don’t always listen, we don’t always understand, and we don’t always uphold our end of this deal. And sometimes we willingly dive head first into what we know we shouldn’t do. So, does that mean God is angry at us? Does that mean he is sitting on his big white throne with angry eyebrows and a big stick ready to strike us? Does that mean he is conspiring 37 different ways to punish us?







If you only skim through the chapters of Jeremiah, that’s exactly how it will leave you feeling. But, tucked between the prophesies of destruction and God’s judgment of his people, is a paragraph titled “The New Covenant”.







Jeremiah 31: 31-34: “Look, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt – my covenant that they broke even though I am their master. Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days. I will put my teaching with them and write it on their hearts. (Y’all, that’s the gift of the Holy Spirit within us.) I will be their God, and they will be my people. They will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.”







You do know this scripture is talking about you, right?