What you see today is only the beginning of what God is going to do. Where you are today is only the beginning of where God will take you. There’s so much more than what you see and know today. It’s like the tip of the iceberg above the water, versus the massive formation below […]

Today is the fourth Monday of this new year. For most, it already feels old. You started this year with a plan to make progress, but have you? Really, are you making progress? Or are you held back? What holds you back, my sister? If there’s a world of potential within you, what is keeping […]

This unscripted devotional time combines two of this week’s teachings to reveal the offer of our calling on the table. Jesus hopes you will say yes! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

So, you’ve messed this thing up. You’ve failed. You’ve fallen short. You’ve disappointed yourself. What’s a girl to do with a mess like that? Are we to live in regret and shame? Are we to dismiss ourselves from all future goodness because of our past mistakes? Are we to assume God’s cancellation of the good […]

My prayer for you this morning is that God would fill you up. Maybe you’re running on empty and your tank so desperately needs to be filled. Where are you empty? Is it your love tank? Is it your energy tank? Is it your hope tank? Is it your courage tank?

Where do you need God to fill you up today? I’m calling out to the God of Romans 15:13, the God of HOPE. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Oh yes, fill you up to overflowing.

The processes of being filled by God is often overlooked, because it looks a whole lot more like being emptied. It’s a process of emptying of self. Yes, God has to empty me of ME so I can be filled with HIM. What a humbling process. To be emptied of my grand ideas and big picture plans, to be humbled with my own reality, all so that I can be FILLED with God. Don’t miss that in the hard times, GOD IS FILLING YOU. The emptying is in preparation for the filling.

You thought everything was falling apart – honey, it’s all been preparation for something great God wants to do in your life.

We come to God with our empty spaces searching for answers and solutions, but he fills our emptiness with himself. HE IS YOUR ANSWER. HE IS YOUR SOLUTION. God himself will fill your empty spaces. God will complete you. God will make you whole.

Have you been looking to someone else to complete you and fill your brokenness? They’ve fallen short haven’t they? You’re disappointed in the relationship because that relationship was never meant to fill you. That’s God’s place. Oh how we set every relationship in our lives up for failure when we expect them to fill us and make us happy.

Have you been looking to your career to fill you up and make you feel worthy? Ahhhhh, that’s going to be a huge disappointment. You can search and search, and it may seem to be that missing puzzle piece in your life, but soon it will grow old and the “God sent job that you hoped would fill you up” will just be a means to a paycheck. And here’s why … your career was never meant to fill you up. That’s God’s place. The identity you get from your career will lead to exhaustion and burn out because you’ll always need more. More success, more growth, more recognition and when you’ve reached your capacity, you’re left wanting.

Oh the feeling of void that empty space creates. I know that feeling. I know that disappointment. I know that exhaustion. And looking back I realize it was a result of trying to be filled by people, a career, money and things, all of which were short lived and maxed out. So, God allowed the emptying to begin, and I’ll be honest with you, it was not a fun process. Everything fell apart piece by piece. What I didn’t know then is God wasn’t behind the failure, he was behind the filling. But the emptiness of failure had to happen first. I was so full of self. So full of my career. So full of my pretty stuff and an obsession to get more of it, there was simply no room for God. I had crowded him out.

Thank God for the emptying, because it brought me to a place of wholeness I never knew existed. A place where everything else was stripped away so God could fill me. Where every empty space and broken place could be filled and healed.

Maybe that’s where you are today. A space that seems empty … a place that appears broken … a primed life for God to show up!

May the God of hope FILL YOU. May he fill you with all joy and all peace so that you may OVERFLOW.

God wants to fill you up. All the way up. More than all the way up.

We’ve all heard the saying “misery loves company”. It’s true isn’t it? Well, let me tell you something else… Misery might love company, but so does joy. And joy throws much better parties.

You get to choose the party you throw and the party you attend. There are pity parties and there are joy parties … and these two are not equal.

You may think when you’re feeling miserable you want someone to come along and feel miserable with you, but what you really need is someone to invite you to a joy party. Joy is contagious. And you know what else joy is? Joy is STRENGTH!

Nehemiah 8:10 “This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”

And that applies to today. That applies to every day. Every day God gives you is a sacred day. It’s special. It’s set apart. And in this day, joy will be your strength.

Now think about that, if joy is your strength, and the enemy of your soul wants to make you weak and ineffective, doesn’t it make sense that your joy is under full attack? And doesn’t it make sense that opportunities for misery and invitations to pity parties are in abundance? Of course! Without joy you are weak. If you are weak, you’re not living up to your fullest potential and showing up as the girl you’re created to be.

If the devil can’t defeat you, he will settle for discouraging you. If he can’t take you out, he will settle for taking you down. If he can’t turn you to evil, he will settle for exhausting you.

The devil resides in the pits of hell in misery. Misery loves company. He is continually trying to lure you into misery with him.

I once had a less than brilliant idea. Okay, I admit, it was more than just once. I’ve had multiple less than brilliant ideas. But one particular idea was to have a Colonoscopy Retreat. Why? Because colonoscopies really aren’t awesome and it seems easier to go through crappy things with others who are going through crappy things. (See what I did there). So, we all book a colonoscopy at the same hospital for the same day. I rent a retreat house near the hospital, we all stay together, we all go through the prep together, then we all recover together. Seems like a great idea to share the misery with others who are miserable. But there’s not a house out there with enough restrooms for that crappy retreat.

You know what you need when you’re going through that? Someone who has gone through it, understands it, but is on the other side of it! Not someone sitting in it with you! You’re useless to one another both miserable. It’s a pitiful party.

Joy is your strength. Get yourself around JOY! Draw from their strength.

But, what do we typically do instead when we’re struggling? We withdraw. We hide. We avoid anyone or anything that could be positive, and we gravitate to the negative. We throw our pity party and we invite other miserable souls to be miserable with us. Ohhhhh how the enemy of your soul loves to show up at that party with party favors. Here’s hopelessness for you. Here’s overwhelm for you. Here’s jealousy for you. Here’s bitterness for you. Check the party favors you’re receiving at your gatherings. Are you walking away worse?

Cancel that party and get yourself in the presence of joy. If you don’t have any joy of your own to bring, sit close to those who do. Again, it’s the opposite of our instinct, and you may have to force yourself to attend a joy party when you’re feeling anything and everything but joyful,

Hear God loud and clear today as he says, “I won’t force you.”

God will not force you into the good plans he has for your life. He won’t force you to step into the overflowing abundance he has aligned for you. He won’t force you to accept divine opportunities for a greater purpose than you could possibly imagine. Honey, he won’t force you. You don’t have to … but God sure hopes you will trust him enough to say yes.

Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I feel like I’ve read it so many times it’s become unimpressive. When did we stop being blown away by the fact that the creator of the universe has plans to prosper us and give us a good future? When did that stop being enough to calm your worried mind and troubled soul? When did that stop being the spark to your confidence? When did that stop applying to you personally?

GOD HAS GOOD PLANS FOR YOU. HE IS PERSONALLY INVOLVED IN THE DETAILS OF YOUR LIFE. ONCE AGAIN, HE IS GIVING YOU AN INVITATION TO STEP INTO THE FULLNESS OF HIS GOOD PLANS AND RECEIVE A FUTURE YOU COULD NEVER IMAGINE ON YOUR OWN.

First, will you believe it?

Will you somehow choose to believe that even a girl with your past, even a girl with your failures, even your bad choices, even a girl with your track record of strong starts and disappointing finishes, God hasn’t cancelled a single one of his good plans for your life. Oh, he’s had to get creative and rework the path there because you’ve been expert level at taking your detours and delaying your progress, but God still says, “with me, it’s possible.”

But he not only says it’s still possible, he also says, “I still want it for you, my girl. I still want you to live in the fullness of your life’s potential. I still want you to dream with me and watch me equip you to make it happen. I still want you to discover all the things I’ve put within you. I still want to completely blow you away with more than you’ve dared to dream before.”

Do you believe that? Can you believe that?

Oh, not because you deserve it. Trust me, you don’t. I don’t.

Thank God, we don’t get what we deserve. We’re not girls who get what we deserve. We could never deserve Jesus’ sacrifice on that cross. We could never deserve a mansion in paradise. I don’t care how hard you’ve worked, or how good you’ve been, you don’t deserve it. Yet, that’s what you’ve been offered.

You don’t deserve the offerings of God, but you darn sure can be the grateful recipient of them!

Stop dismissing yourself. No, you don’t deserve it, but it’s being offered any way. Will you receive it? Will you dare to believe God has deemed you worthy of good things? You can never be truly grateful if you don’t accept the fact that God declares you worthy.

Can you say this with me: “I don’t deserve it, but I’ve been deemed worthy.”

I want you to close your eyes for a moment and envision this with me. Envision you’re sitting across from Jesus at a table. Imagine Jesus lovingly telling you of the dreams God has for you. Imagine him telling you about the overflowing abundance God has aligned for your future. Imagine him telling you about the opportunities, the blessings, and the breakthroughs God has written your name on.

There’s so much. No, more than that. Even more. Bigger.

Let’s go back to what God showed us in episode #1546 “That’s a Problem”, and dig deeper.

The majority of us have a real problem accepting and loving ourselves. Let’s make this real clear … this is a problem. And it’s a problem for Jesus!

You will be known by your love and your love is to make him known, but you refuse to fully love the one person you can simply never get away from … YOU!

I promise you this, you hating you is not an honorable representation of your Creator. You may cover it up as humility, but at its core, it’s hateful. You’re hateful to you. And you being hateful to you doesn’t make a single soul say, “Wow, I just gotta know her Creator. I want to connect with the one who has given her this total lack of confidence.”

Have you been poorly representing the one who created you, the one who saved you, the one who guides you? This problem isn’t just going to fix itself. You think when you are in a happy marriage you will like you, but you’ll be way to busy trying to like someone else then. You think when you lose the weight you’ll like you, but then you’ll have saggy skin and wrinkles. You think when you finally graduate you’ll like you, but then you’ll have that expensive degree and feel the pressures of performing. You think when you have a better job you’ll like you, but it will all become work too.

Everyone tells me how badly they want my job. I get to travel around the world and take beautiful people on beautiful adventures. But do you know what I did yesterday? I washed windows and dishes at the retreat house. We spent most of the past 2 days grocery shopping, spending thousands of dollars on food that my husband will then cook for the next 18 women arriving today for their retreat. I wake up every morning, whether I’ve been traveling or working, to sit and write the next devotional that people around the world are counting on to be there to begin their day. Whether I feel like it or not, it’s what I do.

You think you would like yourself if you had my job … but would you? I promise you this, if you can’t like yourself in your current job, you wouldn’t like yourself in any other job.

The problem isn’t your husband, your job, your house, your family, your finances, or your body. You are the common denominator in everything in your life. If you don’t like you, everything falls short of making you happy. It’s never enough. Why? Because you have this gaping hole in you that causes you to never be fulfilled. The hole … knowing and loving who God created you to be. It’s truly believing who you are is fully enough through Christ. It’s seeing, appreciating, and boldly representing the fingerprints of God that are all over you.

Do you see God’s fingerprints on you? He carefully considered your design. Everything was with great intention and purpose. Do you see it?

Now, will you appreciate it? Instead of hating you, can you appreciate your uniqueness? Yes, girl, you’re quirky, but God loves quirky. Look at that quirky butt pink flamingo standing on one leg. God loves that bird! Look at the female anglerfish. Seriously, google that thing! Talk about a quirky fish. It has a fishing pole like extension on it’s forehead with a glowing light on the end. It dangles, attracting its prey just inches from it’s mouth with razor sharp teeth. And the God who wanted that fish so he made it, wanted you, so he made you. Your creator is asking you to appreciate what he made in you.

Once you see your uniqueness and appreciate it, boldly represent!

Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to try again. You’re tired of trying, aren’t you? Believing this could change and things could be different is exhausting. So, you’ve settled here, made peace with the unhappiness, and accepted the fact that this is where you are and where you’re going to stay.

This marriage isn’t getting better. He’s not changing.

Your happiest of days have already passed. It’s all just “getting through” from here.

Your dreams never happened and it sure seems silly to be dreaming about it still. Move on already.

The change you desired in yourself always stopped way short of anything that would last. It seems it’s just not meant to be for you.

Is any of this speaking to you? Oh I know it is, because I just spent a whole lot of time with women just like you and this is precisely what I heard. It’s a new year, but you know it’s still just you showing up in higher digits and the odds of things really changing are not in your favor. So, you hesitate. You hold back. You tip toe in. You dream with the lid on.

What would happen if you took the lid off? I mean really just dared to believe that trying again could bring different results. What if you got your hopes up and went all in for things to change this time? Sounds risky doesn’t it? You don’t want your heart to be hurt again. You don’t want to be let down again. You don’t want to look like a complete fool when it doesn’t work.

But is that faith? No, that’s fear. God is calling his girls out of fear and in over their head in faith.

There’s a story in your Bible that is precisely about this place you find yourself in with wanting change, but not seeing change. With hoping for something more, but knowing it’s ridiculous to get your hopes up again. Of facing what hasn’t been working and obediently trying one more time. Now, the lesson is disguised in fishing so we’ve often dismissed it as inapplicable to us, but lets look at it again.

Simon was a fisherman. He caught the fish to sell the fish and provide for his family. Fishing was his career. Simon knew what he was doing. He knew where the fish were and he knew how to catch them. But on this particular day, he had fished all night and caught nothing. Now he stood on the shore, washing his nets to put them away and try again later that evening when the fish would be caught in the dark of night. He must have been tired. He must have been disappointed.

This man Jesus walks up and hops in his boat, and asks Simon to row the boat out a bit from shore so he could teach the people who had followed him. Now, why would Jesus do this? It’s actually quite practical. Sound carries on the water. I know this because I used to live on a lake. There was a house all the way across the lake where a couple had their nightly conversations on their deck. Their voices carried hundreds of yards across the water perfectly. I could hear every word of their conversations, and it didn’t sound like things were going so well for them. I on the other hand, often taught lessons and recorded videos from my deck. No doubt, they heard me loud and clear as well. On land, we could have yelled from that distance and not heard one another. But over the water, our voices carried perfectly.

So, Jesus sits on Simon’s boat in the water and he teaches the people on shore. We don’t even know what Jesus teaches. There’s no account to the teaching, but after he finishes teaching, Jesus says something to Simon that is for every single one of us today.

There’s a reason you feel alone sometimes. There’s a reason you have a tendency to run and hide when you’re struggling. There’s a reason you place yourself on the sidelines and watch from a distance. There’s a reason why you check out.

Here’s the reason … the enemy is at work!

1 Peter 5:8, “The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

You’ve seen the nature shows following a herd of animals. They’re wandering about, eating a little grass, laying in the shade, watching the babies play, all while they have no idea there’s a lion hiding behind the bush, planning his attack. Suddenly, the lion jumps from his hiding place and chases after them. The herd runs. They run for their lives. And then, there’s one … one that strays from the herd. One that wanders off away from the others. One that tries to hide alone. And this is the one the lion attacks.

The lion knew there would be one who would freeze in fear and hide. He knew there would be one who felt they just couldn’t keep up and opted to be alone. That was always the lion’s intent. Run after the herd, and wait for the one who tries to hide. When they’re alone, they’re vulnerable.

And your enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Who is most vulnerable to his attack? The one who is alone. The one who is hiding. The one who has dismissed themselves from their family, their friends, their church, their circle, their tribe, their people.

Is there someone in your family who has fallen away and no longer in the circle? I assure you, they’re under attack. The enemy is pouncing on their vulnerability.

Is there someone in your friend group who has grown distant, avoiding contact, and gotten quiet? They’re hiding. Maybe they’re hiding because they’re struggling. Maybe they’re hiding because they don’t feel good enough. Maybe they’re hiding because they don’t want to burden anyone with what’s really going on in their lives. Our enemy capitalizes on those feelings, isolates us from our people, and he attacks.

Who has grown quiet? Who has disconnected? Who has been hiding? THEY ARE VULNERABLE!

Ecclesiastes 4:12, “By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.”

Yes, round up someone to go with you, and bring that wandering one back. Together, find the one who is hiding and protect them from the one who is on the prowl. They’re not safe hiding out in their shame and isolated in their regret.

And you … you, yes you. Have you been hiding? Have you been just lurking on the edges and not truly engaged? Have you been dismissing yourself because the voices in your head tell you you’re not good enough? Have you been escaping behind your walls and isolating in your darkness? Oh the enemy will try to tell you that it’s best for everyone if you just stay quiet and alone. The enemy will try to convince you it’s best for everyone if you just stay back. Those voices will tell you that you were never really wanted, never really part of them, and you’re better off alone. But check those voices … they smell like hell to me!

Yes, I smell the smokey residue from the pits of hell here. This was hell’s plan to position you for attack.

Girl, stop hiding. Get back with your pack! Lock arms with your people again.

Maybe you’ve been so good at disconnecting and hiding that no one even ...