In the Roman Forum, there is a Main Street lined with arches. Each arch represents a triumph by the Romans over their enemies. After victory, the leaders would return to Rome for their triumphant parade and celebration. People would line the streets and praise the Caesar and the Generals for their success.

The praises was extravagant. They were dressed as Gods and honored with tremendous riches.

Walking this street myself yesterday, I imagined these parades. I looked at each arch, knowing it meant at least 5,000 of their enemies had been killed to earn the arch. On these massive stone monuments were etched the images of the leaders riding in their horse drawn carriages, lavished with treasures and praise.

On the chariot, riding with the triumphant leader through Rome, was a servant. This servant’s only job was to continually whisper into the ear of the leader.

What was he to whisper? Did he whisper, “This is all for you. Soak it in Caesar. Receive this earned praise.” Well, that’s what I would have thought, but it was actually quite the opposite.

The servant’s whispers served as a very important reminder in the face of success … “Remember you are mortal.”

With success comes pride, and as Proverbs 16:18 warns, “Pride goes before a fall.” The Roman leaders knew all this praise and all this success could be dangerous. They could easily become prideful, and that pride would destroy them.

So as the music played, as the treasures were displayed, as the crowd cheered, as the newest arch marking their triumph was celebrated, the servant continually whispered, “remember, you are mortal.”

Pride is what caused the most beautiful angel to fall. Pride is what causes us to make a real mess of our lives too.

Pride is what pushes God away and puts our own selves in his place.

Pride that says, “I can do this on my own.”

Pride that says, “I want this my way.”

Pride that says “I know what’s best.”

Pride that says “I’m entitled to this.”

And sometimes pride doesn’t say it, but it sure does act like it. We act like we’re entitled to all of this when we fail to be grateful for all of this. We act like we can do it on our own when we fail to first seek God for our next step. We act like we want our way when we refuse to accept a closed door with grace, and instead stand outside beating our heads in frustration.

Remember, you are mortal. You are not God. You do not know what he knows. You do not see all he sees. You have not yet been where God has been. STAY HUMBLE GIRL!

1 Peter 5: 5-6 “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”

When we are prideful, pushing God away and putting ourselves in his place, God will no doubt resist us. Another translation says he will oppose us.

Honey, God does not want to be against you. He wants to be FOR you even more than you want to be for you. But he can’t be for you if your pride is in the way. When you fail to be humble, failing to recognize his divine evolvement in your life that is crucial to your every breath, he cannot be for you. He simply can’t be.

Romans 8:31 “If God is for us, who can be against us.” This is where impossible things happen. This is the land of breakthroughs and everlasting victories. This is where God wants us … but where pride comes in, we will be kept out. God cannot be for you when pride is present. He will resist you. He will oppose you.

Does this mean you can’t be proud of the progress you are making as you work hard? Does this mean you can’t recognize your own growth and forward movement? Not at all. Don’t let the enemy confuse you.

Feelings of accomplishment are natural and healthy when we do well. God designed our bodies to feel good when we do good. That natural shot of dopamine when we’re living in alignment with the good plans God created us for is t...

This morning I walked the streets of the Roman Forum outside the Coliseum in Rome. I saw magnificent structures built before the birth of Jesus. But, my favorite was a church. Not the biggest church, not the oldest church, and not the most beautiful church, but a church built on top of an old prison.

A prison where Paul, the Apostle of Jesus, was held captive. A prison where several books of the New Testament were written. Here, in this prison where I stood today, I witnessed the location of God’s power unleashed in Paul to remind us of the power we too have been given.

In this Roman prison, Paul wrote one of his final letters which is now a book in our bible called 2 Timothy. Paul knew his time was short, and the words he wrote would outlive him. What did he most want to say in his final season of life, imprisoned for his faith in Jesus?

He wanted us to become aware of what’s really inside of us, and not let it settle!

Paul says in 2 Timothy 1: 6 & 7: “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you … For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-discipline.”

God, stir us up!!!!!

We have been given the gift of power and love and self-discipline by God. It’s within us.

The power to change anything you wish to change about your life is within you.

The love to conquer any obstacle is within you.

The self-discipline to follow through and do what you know you need to do is within you.

Perhaps it has just settled. Your fears have floated to the top creating a solid layer of why you can’t and how you won’t.

So the question is, is this how you want to live your life? Letting your gifts go unused? Power untapped? Love untouched? Self-discipline under utilized? Will you allow the fears which are naturally part of life to control your life and steal your God given potential from you?

Will you?

Are you?

Here’s the problem, we’ve been fed a lie by the enemy that one day when we’re no longer afraid, things will change for us. He’s a peddler of delayed hope. And we buy this delayed hope and we waste precious days of this one life we have been given, waiting to wake up one day and no longer feel fear. We believe when we wake up without fear and a clear path to follow in front of us, we’re really going to do something great. When we’re no longer too afraid to try, it’s finally going to happen for us.

But let’s do a quick fear check … fear, are you still here? Yip, there it is … at the top. I’m still afraid of failure and judgment and criticism and the myriad of things that could go horribly wrong, so today isn’t the day for me to take the next step.

But maybe next month I’ll get started. Or next year.

We’re all waiting for something to change, and when it does we believe we will be ready. I will be more confident and determined. I’ll know exactly what to do. I’ll have more supporters and understanding. That’s when it will happen.

That all sounds nice and pretty, but that’s a pile of crap in a pie plate … that’s delayed hope peddled by your enemy. His purpose is to delay you from yours. His power is found in robbing you of yours. You see, he has nothing he doesn’t take from you. You’ve been giving him his purpose and his power in your delays and excuses. Your fear has been feeding him.

The potential of failure, the piles of excuses, and the temptation of the easy way out, will not just magically go away come next month or next year.

So, what needs to happen here?

As Paul writes from his final prison, we need to be stirred up. We’ve been sitting idle for too long and we’ve settled. That which God has gifted us with has settled to the bottom and been covered with a thick layer of f...

There are things in your life of tremendous value, but their value has not been revealed to you yet. Today, God wants to show you the value of all you have been overlooking, dismissing, and discounting in your life. Oh you’re about to see the treasure you have, and you will never look at the details of your life the same.

Saturday morning on the north-western shores of Sicily, I watched the sunrise and collected pieces of sea glass. In America, sea glass is considered valuable and collectable. In Sicily, I’m considered slightly delusional for my giddy discoveries.

Yes, it’s old trash. I’m aware. Broken glass bottles, dishes, and housewares, discarded in the ocean have been tossed and tumbled for 100 years, now washing ashore as colorful jewels. But, if you’re not looking for jewels, you only see junk. If you’re not expecting treasure, you disregard it as trash.

Oh Sis, don’t you know, how you see things changes the things you see? If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Each morning on this Sicilian beach, the tanned old men in their speedos and the happy old women with their cigarettes, gather on this beach. They are there for their morning swim. It’s a fishing village, and tourists are very uncommon there, and of course I show up looking like a misfit with a cheesy smile and Chacos.

They watch me from a distance as I squeal with delight over each piece of sea glass I find and joyfully place it in my bag. The entire beach is just covered in it! For those who understand the art of hunting sea glass, you should know, I found royal blue and turquoise pieces laying in plain sight!

I feel the eyes of the local senior citizen swim team watch me. Then, one man approaches me as the designated investigator, and I greet him with “buongiorno”. He recognizes my English accent, and says to me, “where are you from?”

I said, “America.”

He says, “What are you doing?”

I said, “Oh, I’m collecting sea glass.”

Immediately a look of pity comes over his face and he says, “Oh, no, no, no, this is just trash. This is old broken glass. It’s nothing.”

I explained, in America this glass is very hard to find and it’s a treasure for us, so we collect it. He smiles at me with that still confused look on his face and says, “well, okay then.”

The remaining swimmers await his return and I overhear him telling them all about our conversation in Italian. I pick up on the words “Americana” and “collezione”. Yip, I knew they were talking about me. I knew I looked crazy. But I was quickly distracted by another glorious piece of sea glass shinning in the sun.

I continue down the beach on my treasure hunt. Upon my return, I find several of the women standing with clasped full hands, waiting for me. They were so excited to gather pieces of sea glass and give to me. With joy in their voices they would say “collezione, collezione”, meaning this was for my collection. Then here would come another woman, squealing with delight over the treasure she had found for me as well.

I discovered most of the Sicilians on that side of the island are very humble fishing families. They have never left the island of Sicily. All their lives, they’ve walked these beaches with broken glass, but now this Americana informed them it was treasure. I have a feeling they will never see it the same again. They may even pick up a piece in the future and remember the excitement they felt the day we met and hunted together.

Did anything really change? No. It was still just really old broken glass from someone throwing their trash in the ocean. It was still litter. But because it is deemed as valuable, trash is now treasure. Junk is now jewels. And my friends,

God doesn’t need you, but he wants you. He is completely whole, lacking nothing, eternal and all-powerful, yet he has chosen to WANT YOU.

In my twisted way of viewing this God who created me, I sometimes think he needs me and my human acts to perform his miracles. He needs my submission. He needs my obedience. He needs my attention. But the truth is, he doesn’t need it, I need it.

You and I are divinely created to need God as a result of his desire for us. If you’re stupid and miss God’s promptings, his power will not be halted. You will just miss the blessing of being used in it all. God will do what God is going to do, it’s our choice whether or not we partner with him in it and receive the benefits of a personal relationship in the process.

And oh what delight it brings God when we respond to his desire of us with our desire of him!

Remember when Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt to freedom, and he comes to the impossible Red Sea? Drowning in front of them, enemies behind them. Impossible. Exodus 14:16, God gives Moses an invitation and says, “Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. ”

When Moses does this seemingly insignificant act of faith, here’s what happens. Exodus 14: 21-22, “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”

Would God have parted the Red Sea for his people if Moses wouldn’t have raised his stick and stretched out his hand over the water? I believe so. He didn’t really need Moses. He didn’t need his stick. He didn’t need his hand. However, he invited Moses into the partnership of the impossible because he WANTED him to be part of it.

That leaves me to wonder, what crazy awesome, over-the-top, ridiculously amazing things has God been inviting you into, but you’ve been too scared to pick up your stick? Too scared to stretch out your hand? Too scared to stand on the shore with faith and declare the power of your God?

I’ve grown to know, love, and respect a woman by the name of Gail. Gail carries a big stick of faith and God uses her faith in the craziest ways. For the past few months, I’ve gotten to witness sea-parting kinda things happening as a result of God WANTING Gail, and Gail simply being available to him no matter how ridiculous it looks and sounds.

Gail and her husband currently have something like 30 kids. Yes, for real, in their home. They foster and adopt and rescue and love children that are in desperate need. God prompted her to buy an old run down nursing home in Oklahoma and turn it into apartments for girls who have aged out of the foster care system at 18. It is called 99+1.

You see, statistics show when kids age out of foster care, they are very likely to end up homeless, addicted or in prison. God wanted Gail to do something about these girls. He didn’t need her, he just wanted her. And when Gail said yes and picked up her stick like Moses, God started parting some seas and doing some crazy things right in front of her.

We partnered with the 99+1 project God is orchestrating, and our BIG Life Mission Retreat in October is to furnish and decorate these apartments for these precious young daughters of the King, who will call a former nursing home their home after foster care.

But, there’s been one problem … this run down building looks like a war zone. It’s in desperate condition and a coat of paint and pretty rugs won’t suffice. $300,000 was needed to first prepare the home for our mission of then furnishing and decorating.

This week, our travels through Italy by train bring us to Sicily. I chose this destination because it was as far South as we could possibly go, and in my mind, Sicily always sounded exotic. The deep blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea with the colorful homes built on the tall seaside cliffs. Sounds magical, let’s go!

Sicily is a large island off the tip of Italy. They legit load the entire train onto a ferry boat, float you across the Mediterranean to the island, then put the train back on it’s tracks. I didn’t even know that was possible, yet they do it every single day here.

So, here we are discovering the real world of Sicily. We don’t typically stay at high end resorts, instead we find AirBnb’s nestled in villages where the locals live with the intent of being immersed in their culture. We always walk away with a new experience and a broader view of life. Our Sicilian home for the week is a massive 3 bedroom home overlooking the sea with huge balconies, outdoor kitchen and shower, and very, very authentic. It was $97 per night. Imagine my delight booking it online!

Welp, here we are, immersed in the real culture of a summer in Sicily. Y’all I’m wearing my bikini right right now, not because I’m swimming, but because it’s flippin’ H-O-T! And guess what the locals in the colorful homes on the tall seaside cliffs don’t have … they don’t have air conditioning. Today is forecast to be 103 degrees.

We’re living as locals, and apparently locals just sweat. Non-stop. A lot.

This morning at 3 am, laying butt necked on the bed trying to catch any bit of breeze, it was 91 degrees. It literally warmed up in the middle of the night.

Now, I say all of this not to complain. In all situations there’s something to be grateful for, and it’s always up to us to look for it and dwell on it. Afterall, these are the things we remember most. You never remember the trip where everything went according to plan, you remember the one where you were stranded, with no luggage, eaten by misquotes. Am I right?

Our most memorable Christmas ever was the one we spent in Germany sharing nothing more than an apple and a few crackers because absolutely nothing was open on Christmas day. Our most memorable roadtrip was the one where the car broke down on the side of the road and our opportunity for a little make-out sesh in the backseat was presented.

You remember the week the whole world shut down in 2020, right? You likely don’t remember the week before it, or most of the weeks since then, but you remember the shut-down, the lock-in, the rocking of your world where everything changed and nothing was normal.

So I know we are in the midst of one of those incredibly memorable times right now. And I refuse to spend this time complaining or being miserable.

Listen to me, if you find yourself in the midst of a struggle where things aren’t the way you would have chosen them to be, you’re going to remember this. You are living in times when memories are forged their very deepest. Don’t allow yourself to choose misery. Don’t give yourself the option of dwelling in negativity. Woman, straighten up and count your blessings. You have so many of them, you will surely be counting all day!

A friend told me in these hot climates where air conditioning is a luxury not often afforded, locals will sometimes sleep on their roofs. Inside it can become so unbearably hot, the roof is a more comfortable option. Wow. Sounds like we may be taking pillows to the roof for tonight’s scorcher.

I was immediately reminded of a scripture I memorized many years ago. Proverbs 21:9 “Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.”

It may not be hot in your house right now, but it may be miserable. And guess what sis,

Your God is being awesome today. He has straight up awesome plans and works in mind for this day! You need to know that. God was up all night getting this day ready for you. He has aligned every detail in divine ways and perfectly positioned you in the middle of it all to see his glory.

You also should know the Devil is being a butthole today.

Uhhhuhh, that nasty old devil woke up in a bad mood on this Wednesday and he’s trying his darnedest to wreck havoc in your life. You’ll likely see his buttholey works around you. You’ll see his attempts to twist and manipulate. You’ll see his offering of a bad mood, a bad attitude and a bad day. But if anyone is going to have a bad day, let it be him!

He may have ruined perfectly good days for you in the past, but it doesn’t have to go down that way today. Not this time. You’ve been properly warned and you can be on alert of his buttholey ways. I’ve warned you of his crappy plans for you. Oh please tell me you haven’t been falling into his plans. Please tell me you haven’t been believing his lies this week.

The devil knows your name, but calls you by your sin. God knows your sin, but calls you by your name. You don’t have to be defined by your screwups and failures. If you are, that’s the work of your enemy. And remember, he’s just being a butthole so don’t let him ruin your day.

Here’s the thing you need to know about this enemy you battle … he’s a wanna be … but he ain’t gonna be.

He wants to rule your day. He wants to wreck your plans. He wants to stir up trouble. He wants steal your joy. He wants your focus to be on him.

You’ve heard the saying “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”. If they’re talking about you, it’s good, even when they’re talking bad. That’s the plan of the devil. He doesn’t mind if you hate him. He loves it when you talk about how hard your life is and how bad things are. Because here’s the thing, if you’re thinking about him, you’re not thinking about God. If you’re talking about him, you’re not talking about God. You’re focused on his works and he receives the publicity.

The truth is, we give him way too much credit! The enemy is just a butthole. End of story. He’s already been defeated by Jesus Christ on the cross. He is the loser. Don’t focus on the loser. Focus on the winner. The battle is real but spoiler alert, JESUS IS THE WINNER EVERY TIME.

So I will speak of the enemy and his butthole ways no more. You’ve heard the truth about him. You’ve been warned of his crappy plans. Now let’s focus on the winner.

As believers and followers of Christ, you and I are on the winning team. We get to celebrate the victory that has been won on our behalf. We are covered, we are claimed, and we are celebrated. Hold your head high today knowing GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD. (1 John 4:4)

Romans 8:31 says “If God is for you, who can be against you?” Deuteronomy 31:8 says “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Hang on to that today. God is FOR you, he is WITH you, he has already gone before you and made a way. What was impossible is now possible because God is in the middle of it.

Today, God is being awesome.

Yip, plain ol’ awesome is what God is up to today. He is being powerful. He is being mighty. He is being all-knowing. He is working plans of eternity in this day here and now.

He knows your name and he is calling you. He is drawing you in to his great plans and your mighty purpose. He is directing your every step and he is aligning every detail. Let this be your focus today.

James 1:17 “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens.:

1 Peter 4:10 “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”

Romans 11:29 “For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.”

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Luke 13:10-13: “On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.”

Ya’ll this woman had been crippled for 18 years and with the touch of Jesus, she was immediately healed. WooooHoooo, that’s my Jesus right there. Boom! I will do the impossible for you! I will change in an instant what you could not change for 18 years! Now where is our focus on this story? The miracle right? We focus on the miracle.

But I want you to focus on something else. I’ll read the scripture again, let’s not focus on the miracle, let’s focus on what led to the miracle. If you need a miracle in your life, learn from this woman’s miracle and see exactly what brought her to it. Here it is, what will bring you to your miracle:

“On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.”

What led to the miracle? We all say her infirmity. Her problem. She was crippled for 18 years. But if that’s where our focus is, we’re missing the application for our life today. This isn’t about what’s wrong with you. This isn’t about what happened to you. This isn’t about your need. This isn’t about what you can’t do … this is about what you CAN do.

Here’s what we’ve been missing in this miraculous story of healing. This poor, crippled, bent over woman, GOT UP AND WENT that day. She showed up. In order for her to be at the synagogue where Jesus was teaching, she first had to get up and go there.

I bet she didn’t feel like getting up that day. I bet she was aching and hurting. I bet she was even embarrassed by her condition. BUT SHE GOT UP ANY WAY.

That’s exactly what we need to do. We can’t sit around waiting for Jesus to come knocking on our door with our miracle. You have a responsibility in your story. Your responsibility is to get up and position yourself. Do what you can with what you have right now. Stop focusing on what you can’t do, and girl, do what you can do.

This woman got up and went even when she didn’t feel like it. Even when it was HARD FOR HER. Even when it had been hard for her for 18 years! Ahhhhh, sister will you bring your 18 year hardship, your 18 year struggle to an encounter with Jesus? Or will you give up thinking your miracle will never come? Have you bought into the lie that it will always be this way? Hey, nothing ever stays the same, all things are forever changing, so why can’t you believe your hardship could change too? Oh it could! One encounter with Jesus could radically change your life but you must position yourself for the encounter.

But may I take you even deeper? Can I take you deeper this morning?

There’s one more thing we may be missing in this story. How did this crippled woman make herself get up and go even when she didn’t feel like it? How do you make yourself do what you know you need to do when you plain ol’ don’t feel like it?

Well, my friend TD Jakes pointed this out to me and I share it with you this morning. What you don’t see in this story is what made this woman get up and show up for her encounter with Jesus was she had been THINKING. Yes, she had been thinking. And it was her THOUGHTS that brought her to the synagogue that day where she met Jesus and she received her miracle.

When God created you he placed within you unlimited potential to live a ridiculously good life. He placed within you talents and gifts, making you a totally unique individual in this world. And he left a hole in you.

At first glance this hole would seem to be an imperfection. A mistake. A flaw in you that you’ve tried to fix for years. But this hole is no accident. This is a perfect God sized hole that only he can fill. This is why you continually struggle on your own. This is why you measure and come up short. This is why you always seem to be missing one piece of the puzzle. It’s not because you’re lacking. It’s not because you’re unworthy or broken. It’s because you were created to need. To need God. Your creator tied himself perfectly to you, creating a need within you that would continually bring you back to him.

Yes, this could be why you’ve struggled. Not because there’s something wrong with you … but because you were created with an inherent draw back to your creator.

Psalm 23: 1-2 “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.”

This psalm was written by David. You know, David and Goliath … the little shepherd boy who slayed the giant? Yes, that David. He was a shepherd. He understood the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep. The closeness. The care.

While David was a shepherd, he knew he too had a shepherd. The Lord is MY shepherd. David says he is mine. He didn’t say God is the shepherd, he said God is MY shepherd and there’s a difference there. What’s the difference? A personal relationship.

Don’t you know God wants a personal relationship with you? He wants to personally care for you. What is it you’re worried or burdened with today? What is it that’s laying heavy on your heart or mind? What big decision do you need to make or step you need to take? Did you know God wants to guide you in that? That’s how much he cares. Maybe you think God doesn’t have time to be concerned about your ability to pay the mortgage payment this month, or that job interview, that test, that next step, or your back, knee or tooth that’s been hurting you, but the truth is he cares deeply about EVERYTHING in your life. He wants to be close to you. He wants you to come to him for everything.

God is your shepherd. He is caring for you – Always. Because of him, you will lack nothing. Everything you need will be supplied.

And we are sheep. Stubborn, foolish sheep. Did you know that sheep cannot live on their own – they require a constant caretaker. They are wanderers and they instinctively wander off into trouble … just like us. Do you seem to wander right into trouble quite often? Do you ever stop and look around and think “how did I get myself in this mess?” We wander around through life, we dabble here and we dabble there, never staying still long enough to create a foundation and so God MAKES us slow down. Understand that’s what it means by “he makes me lie down’ in green pastures” … he makes me slow down. When I won’t stop on my own, he creates the stop.

Shepherds used what’s called a “leg brake”. Not break as in a broken leg, but brake as in the brakes on a car. A leg brake is a weight attached to the leg of a sheep which caused a burden, preventing the sheep from wandering too far. It slowed the sheep down with a burden. It wasn’t a punishment to the sheep. It wasn’t to break it’s leg, but instead to cause it to be close to the shepherd. This closeness caused the sheep to learn to trust it’s shepherd. Once there was trust, the leg brake was removed.

Maybe you feel broken right now. And maybe that’s not by accident. Understand, God hasn’t broken you, he has allowed a heavy burden to draw you in closer.

Would you define the way you wake up as glorious? What if you could? What if I could tell you how?

By definition glorious means having a striking beauty that evokes feelings of delighted admiration. Ahhhhh yeah, wouldn’t you like to wake up like that? Wake up to striking beauty and feel absolutely delighted? But maybe you didn’t wake up that way at all today. Instead of delight you felt dread. Instead of beauty you noticed burdens. But Sis, it doesn’t have to be this way. It not only doesn’t have to be this way, God doesn’t intend for it to be this way.

Your body follows your thoughts wherever they go. If you tell yourself you’re exhausted, then you no doubt feel exhausted. If you tell yourself you can’t, then typically you’re absolutely right, you can’t. Remember the power your creator placed in your own thoughts (Proverbs 23:7 “As a man thinketh, so is he”).

If you think you’re stuck, if you think you’re miserable, if you think you’re doomed, all of these thoughts will create feelings that confirm your thoughts to be true. Then you have yourself a potentially glorious day that feels more like a grind.

For many years my morning alarm ringtone was a song called “Glorious” by Maclamore. Nope it’s not Christian music and yet here I am as a lover of Jesus who know every word and I can rap it with the best of them. The words to the song helped channel my thoughts, and those thoughts created feelings, which then empowered my actions. It’s a domino affect.

Here are the words:

I feel glorious, glorious

Got a chance to start again

I was born for this, born for this

It’s who I am, how could I forget?

I made it through the darkest part of the night

And now I see the sunrise

Now I feel glorious, glorious

I feel glorious, glorious

Oh yes, to feel glorious and be delighted by the striking beauty offered in this day of life. Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.” You want a scripture for your nightstand? You want a note for your bathroom mirror? USE THAT ONE.

Here’s the MSG translation of Isaiah 60:1 to drop your name into “Get out of bed, (insert name)! Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight. God’s bright glory has risen for you.”

My favorite verse of the song says “Another morning, a morning, don’t let self get in my way.”

Another morning is exactly what you and I have been given here. A morning where the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Now that is glorious!!!!! Another morning to not let self get in the way. Oh please tell me I’m not the only one who totally gets in the way of my own self on most days. I talk myself out of doing the things I know I should do. I convince myself someway or another I’m unworthy of the good stuff in life and incapable of doing the hard stuff in life. And then I let the enemy twists God’s truths and seduce me into making stupid, impulsive decisions. Yip, in my own dang way.

Are you in your own way?

God has this great big beautiful life available for each of us and he specifically made us and equipped us with everything we would need to step into our full purpose, and we just get in our own way. How are you in your own way? Is it your negative thoughts about yourself? Ahhhh, yes for most of us it’s all in our head. We convince ourselves for some reason we can’t. We tear ourselves down then tear ourselves into pieces with our self hate and loathing, all while the creator must be tortured watching his masterpiece be torn apart.

Don’t you know YOU are his greatest masterpiece. You are his beloved creation. You’ve got to stop tearing yourself down. You’ve got to get out of your own way.