What is it that is holding you back from living in the fullness of the life you were created for? What keeps you from stepping into all God has for you? Oh, if you could only catch a glimpse of the vision God has for your life. If you could only imagine for one moment the purposes he has your name written on.

But you’re struggling to imagine that, aren’t you? You’re lacking that vision. You’ve been questioning if there’s really more for you, or if this is all there is. Disappointment has been painful, so settling has become safe.

Today, I want to pray a bold prayer over you. This is a prayer I pray over my children every day. Now, I pray it over you my sister. Father, I ask you to set my sister free from anyone or anything holding her back in a life that is less than you created her for.

Maybe you can’t even identify what has been holding you back. But you know there’s been a struggle your whole life. Or maybe you know exactly what it is. You know it’s that habit. You know it’s that relationship. You know it’s that sin. You know it’s that issue. You know it’s that thing you’ve always done that you just keep doing. This is your Egypt.

And here’s what we know about the Egypt’s in our life … Girl, if you will cry out to God, He will set you free from that Egypt.

Egypt. It represents everything that is holding you back. It represents the thing you fear, the thing you can’t seem to control, the thing you have been enduring for so long that you now believe it can never change. This is your Egypt. And let me tell you what God does for his girls stuck in an Egypt … he does whatever it takes to set you free. He will do impossible things. He will do miraculous things. He will do crazy things. He will do secret things. He will do everything to set his girl free, when she cries out to him!

Today, we will talk about Egypt. About this place that holds us back and keeps us stuck. This place that only God can rescue you from. And that is his plan … he plans to rescue you and set you free from every single thing holding you back, so that you can begin truly living the life only God can provide.

In the Bible, we see him do it for Israel. Israel, God’s people who were slaves in Egypt. God does miraculous things to get them out of that life of bondage and on their journey to all he had promised for them. Now Egypt held on tight to their slaves. Yes, that’s what the enemy does … he holds on tight. And when the enemy holds on, God goes to any means necessary to make him let go. When Egypt held on to the Israelites, God brought plagues onto Egypt. The Israelites were there, but they were divinely protected. They were not hurt by the plagues, but Egypt was devastated. And after enough devastation, Egypt eventually lets the Israelites go and they are finally free!

You want to be free from this thing holding you back? You want to get unstuck? You want to live the life you were created for and not settle for anything less? Great! Let’s study the story in our bibles and take the steps!

Step 1: Cry out to God.

The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. That means slavery is all you know. Your grandma’s grandma’s grandma was a 3rd generation slave, so this limited way of living is the only story you’ve ever been told. It is your lot in life. It is what it is. But still something within your spirit is crying out for a different life. A life you don’t feel worthy of. A life you’ve never known before. Yet, you yearn for things to be different. So, you cry. But you don’t just cry, you cry out to God.

Wow, God has shown us some amazing things in this week’s devotionals. Today, let’s go back to one particular teaching and go deeper. You heard about the one “but God” moment where God used all intended harm for good in Joseph’s life, but what about the other 2 “but God” moments that led up to this? This wasn’t Joseph’s first encounter with the phrase, “but God”.

If you want to walk in divine healing and see God use everything that has happened to you for good, you must implement the other 2 “but God” teachings in your life.

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

It Can’t Be Perfect

No body likes the storms of life that come our way. No body likes hardship and struggle. There’s not a single soul who woke up this morning saying, “gosh, I hope everything is ridiculously hard today!”

And yet, the storms of life come, don’t they? We all face those ridiculously hard days with circumstances we would prefer to avoid. Even those of us that love God and seek him daily are not immune to these storms. Why is that? Why wouldn’t God protect his girls from the harshness of life sometimes?

Here’s why … he doesn’t want us to fall.

What if these storms aren’t here to destroy you, they’re here to grow you? What if this isn’t to knock you down, but to keep you from falling down? I know it doesn’t feel like it when you’re going through it, but sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees in our own life, so today, we’re going to look at the trees.

Yes, trees. That’s our topic today.

There was a study done in the perfect conditions of a bidome on the growth of trees. It was always sunny, yet there was always ample water. These trees shot up in record speed. Oh how they grew in such a perfect environment. But soon, there was an irreversible problem with all the trees. They began to fall over. One by one, these seemingly healthy, beautiful trees that had grown so quickly in their little sheltered paradise, just fell.

Why? Their roots were tiny. Why would their roots be so small in such perfect growing conditions? One reason … it was perfect … perfectly still. There was no wind in the biodome. No storms. And without those winds, the tree was never signaled to grow deeper roots. Trees actually NEED wind to blow against them, causing resistance, creating a struggle, because this struggle causes their root systems to grow.

And could God, in all of his infinite wisdom, know something about us that we overlook here? As we’re wishing away our problems and asking why we have to continually struggle, our good good Father allows the wind to blow on us with absolute love as he says, “because, my girl, I don’t want you to fall.”

If you’ve never gone through anything hard in your life, you only know God as a provider in theory. You don’t know him as your personal provider. You’ve only heard about that through others, or read it in the stories in your bible that don’t seem applicable to you today because they’re thousands of years old.

But I remember the time in our lives when a coupon for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich was handed to us by a cow on the road. (Yes, for real, a black and white cow at the intersection just handed us this coupon.) But this coupon, unlike any other that I’ve ever seen from a cow, was literally a free sandwich. You didn’t have to buy fries to get it. You didn’t have to even buy a small drink. It was just a free sandwich, no purchase required. That day, tere were 2 of us with that one free sandwich. No fries, we couldn’t afford that. No drink, we didn’t have the money. Just this one, small, free sandwich. My son would take a bite, then I would take a bite. His bite, my bite. Both of us hungry. One coupon, one sandwich. And that day, I personally saw God provide in the sweetest most precious way. That chicken sandwich just kept on giving. We kept on eating, and there kept on being more. We both ate absolutely as much as we could eat, and there was sandwich left.

I wouldn’t have known God can really provide like that if we wouldn’t have been going through that financial hardship. My roots grew that day.

So, you had something good working, and it stopped working. Things were coming together for you, then it all fell apart. You thought it was all going this way, then it took a drastic, seemingly undesirable turn that way. And honestly, you don’t want what you’re left with. You want what you wanted, and now you can’t have it … so what are you going to do?

Are you currently disappointed over the way something turned out? Let down over that door that slammed in your face? And if you prayed over this and it still fell apart, you’re questioning if God heard your prayers. Lord, didn’t you see me seeking you in this? Didn’t you hear my prayers over this? Why didn’t you make that door open? Why wouldn’t you turn this thing around for me?

Anyone else there right now? I say is anyone ELSE there, because I’m there. I’m standing in front of a slammed door and everything within me wants to pick the dang lock. I want to find a way in that door because that’s the door I wanted, the door I thought had been opened for me, the door I got my hopes up over, the door I put all my plans in. And now that it slammed on me, I find myself fixated on what can’t be and asking why.

Are you asking why? Why couldn’t that be yours? Why couldn’t the answer be yes? Why couldn’t they choose you? Why couldn’t it just work out?

I heard my answer loud and clear this morning. God’s spirit spoke to me and said, “Why? Because I know things you don’t know.” There was no further explanation or reasoning from there, and truly, none is needed. God knows why that way is not the best way. God knows how the thing I wanted is not the thing I needed. God knows the timing I prefer is not the timing he has aligned.

And plain and simple, I need to not be a brat about it.

If we ask God to guide us, how can we be upset when he puts up a road block? Don’t road blocks guide us?

If we ask God to protect us, isn’t the biggest act of protection we need from our own selves? It’s our own bright ideas and our own ways that cause the biggest messes in our lives. So yes, protection sometimes comes in the form of cancelling our plans and rerouting our way.

If we ask God to be in the details of our lives, then we must recognize sometimes that means we probably won’t like the details because we simply won’t understand the details. I don’t like some of the ingredients in cake, but y’all, I like cake. I would choke on a tablespoon of baking powder, but I’ll enjoy a big ol’ slice of cake. Details. I don’t like them all, but all are necessary for the overall good God is doing in my life.

One of my life verses is 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.” But right now, as I stare down a slammed door I really want to beat my way through, what I’m noticing most in this sweet promise from God is two words. “I KNOW.”

God knows.

He knows better. He knows more. He knows all. He knows now and he knows later. He knows big picture and he knows details.

And me? Well, I just know what I think I wanted, and I know I’m not getting what I wanted. But really, I am … because don’t I want God’s guidance more than I want my way? Don’t I want God’s protection more than I want my plans? And don’t I trust him enough to surrender this closed door and stop beating on it?

To my disappointed sister,

Whatever it is you’ve gone through, whatever has wounded you, caused you pain, or caused you to question, you have to know God has a plan of total and complete redemption for you.

However, you’ve got to walk through it. You can’t choose to stay stuck in what happened. You can’t dwell in what they did to you. You can’t continue to replay what they said about you. God will redeem it if you walk through it with him.

Look at the story of Joseph. When he was just 17 years old, his brothers hated him so much that they sold him into slavery, then told their father that he had been killed and eaten by wild beasts. So here Joseph is, a slave, betrayed by his own family. That sucks! That’s a rough life. Imagine the stories he told himself. Imagine the replay of that betrayal. His brothers had caused him tremendous pain and wrecked his whole life.

BUT GOD.

Let me tell you, it doesn’t matter what someone else has done to you, God can redeem it. God’s plan for every ounce of hurt and disappointment in your life has always been redemption, however you must choose to walk through this with God and not stay stuck in it.

Joseph ends up a slave in Egypt. For 11 years he is away from his family, treated as a slave, then thrown into prison for a crime he didn’t commit. But Joseph WALKED THROUGH IT WITH GOD. He didn’t lose his faith. He sought God for divine guidance and he saw him working in the details, yes, even in prison. He had not become bitter, in fact, scripture says God blessed him. Every master he worked for received blessings because of the overflow of Joseph’s blessings from God. Every prison he was held in was filled with God’s presence because of the overflow of God’s presence in Joseph.

Eventually, Joseph gets out of prison and ends up in Pharaoh’s house to interpret his dreams. Because Pharaoh saw the spirit of God within Joseph, he puts him in charge of everything and everyone in Egypt.

After all Joseph had gone through for all these years, after the evil that was intentionally done to him by his own family, after all the people who had used him and left him, Joseph had not grown bitter. He had not grown pitiful. He was not a victim. He walked in the power of God. Others saw the Spirit of God within him … that’s a healed person!

This is precisely what God wants to do with your wounds, your pain, your questions. He wants to heal you so completely that your redemption absolutely reeks of the Spirit of God. Why? Because only God could get you through that and bring you out on the other side whole. Only God could heal that brokenness someone else caused. Only God could redeem that pain into a greater purpose.

Now, with Joseph in charge of all of Egypt, he was divinely directed in the revelation of what was to come. God had shown him there would be 7 years of tremendous abundance followed by 7 years of extreme famine.

By this time, Joseph is 30 years old and he is managing an entire country to save them from starving. For 7 years he stored the extra food in their time of abundance to prepare for the famine that would follow. Then, just as God’s spirit had prompted him, the famine hit. The land was ravished. There was no food anywhere except for what had been stored.

Why is all of this important? Because a full circle moment is about to happen.

You see, Joseph’s brothers were back home and they were starving. They had no food in the famine. So their father sent them to Egypt to beg for food from the supply that had been stored. Who was in charge of the store house? Their long lost brother, Joseph.

You don’t see it now, but God is supernaturally guiding you through the most seemingly natural circumstances to bring you to greater purposes. Right now, it just looks like work. Right now it just looks like problems. Right now it just looks like a mess. But you’re looking at the back side of a work in progress.

It’s the back side.

I’m currently trying to step into my role as Granny P. I have a 1 year old grandson who has rocked my whole world, showing me a new level of living. I’m trying to do the things grandmas do. Example: I’m currently making Maverick his Christmas stocking. But, it’s not just any old stocking. No, it has to live up to the standard of our family stockings. My husband’s grandmother, Nannaw, made the most intricate, elaborate, detailed stockings for each member of our family. These stockings have 3 dimensional reindeer popping out of them covered in sequins and beads. She passed away 2 months ago, so I now know it’s up to me to make the Christmas stockings.

Y’all, this stocking is a hot mess. There are threads in every color going from here to there. Knots and loose ends. It looks like one big mistake … on the back side. But you flip that baby over and it’s a total work of art coming together! It’s nearly Nannaw level. Hundreds of messy stitches on the back are creating perfectly placed sequins on the front.

Right now, you may be overwhelmed with life because you’re looking at the back side. You’re working. You’re stitching away trying to make things come together. You’re tying loose ends in knots. You’re changing colors and directions. And maybe sometimes you wonder how in the world this is all going to come together. You’re struggling with wanting to quit because you don’t see progress. You’re frustrated with your pace because you feel stuck.

You’re on the back side.

God is doing miraculous work on the other side.

But here’s the thing God asked me to show you today … you can’t expect him to do miraculous work on the other side if you’re not doing the daily work on the back side. You want the sequins … girl, you make the stitches.

I bet there are certain areas of your life that have already come together. Things have already worked out in ways you couldn’t have possibly imagined. You’re literally waking up in answered prayers today … but it’s so easy to miss that.

You know why it’s so easy to miss? Because it didn’t all just happen in a big, profound moment. God didn’t snap his fingers and plop full grown miracles in your lap. No, instead he supernaturally guided your steps on the back side, creating something beautiful on the other side in the process. He was always working. You just didn’t always see it.

Take a moment today to look back and see his work in your life. How did he do that?

Yesterday, I found my first ever written goals. A little planner the size of a checkbook that held the handwritting of a new mama in her 20’s. Flipping through the pages of my old life goals, I was absolutely blown away. It was like flipping your entire life over for the first time and seeing what God had been doing on the other side with all your uncertain stitches and messy knots.

All of these goals from over 20 years ago reflecting the things that were important to me. All the things I was working so hard for.

Goals to grow our business. Back then, we had a mortgage company, and yes, that business grew. We stepped into tremendous success.

Today’s devotional is a special unplugged look back at what God has shown us this week in 3 powerful messages on help, regret and power.

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

Special Behind the Scenes episode of the BIG Life Devotional Podcast with Pamela and Lonnie.

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

Are you in a situation that you feel completely helpless to do anything about? It’s someone else’s mood making work so difficult. It’s someone else’s choices creating chaos in your home. Whew, don’t you just hate it. Don’t you just wish you could make them act right? Don’t you wish you could change them? Wouldn’t your home be happier if they would just change? Wouldn’t going in to work be so much easier if every one would just change to the way you are?

You can’t make anyone change, but you can bring Jesus into the room!

Jesus is the one who changes moods, attitudes, hearts and minds. Jesus is the one who turns lives around … not you. Your job is to simply bring Jesus into the room. That’s your superpower … have you forgotten to use it?

Yesterday I received a text from a beautiful woman I get to mentor. She shared with me how her work place had become toxic. Every day, the room carried a darkness with co-workers who were complaining, negative, or trying to avoid actually working for the paycheck. But there were two other co-workers who loved Jesus. Knowing they couldn’t fix the people they worked with, but seriously over the life suck of sharing space with such intently negative people, these three Jesus loving women simply decided to bring Jesus into the room.

How? They began praying over their team. They began praying for their company. They started listening to the devotional together. They stopped trying to fix everyone and everything, and simply invited Jesus in. And y’all, when Jesus shows up, things start changing!

Just in the past few weeks, these 3 praying women have seen a change in the room. The complaining is down. The environment is getting better. And one co-worker is seeking God now and said she can feel her life changing! And God is doing that! How? Well, he was simply invited into the room.

My sister, have you spent more time worrying over your situation, complaining about the circumstances, blaming someone else, and assuming your position of misery, rather than doing the one thing that can change everything? Your role here is to invite Jesus into this room. Not to fix anyone. Not to have all the answers. Not to have a plan. Not to be right. Just bring Jesus in.

A member of my team taught me to pray this prayer, “Jesus, we want your voice to be the loudest voice in this room.” When we prayed that at our Addiction Healing Retreat, I saw miraculous conversations unfold that we could have in no way orchestrated ourselves. That’s what happens when Jesus is invited in.

There’s a story in the bible that shows the 3 things that happen when Jesus comes into the room. This is on a really famous Sunday that we now celebrate as Easter, but on this first Easter, there were more questions than answers and a lot of threats. Jesus had been rumored to have risen from the tomb. The Jewish leaders were on a manhunt for the disciples and anyone else claiming the crucified Jesus was the son of God. So, the disciples were hiding in a room behind locked doors. And then, Jesus walks into the room!

John 20: 19-21, “That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

Jesus walked in the room, and three things happen. First, Jesus brings peace into the room.

A recent study shows that 90% of adults have deep regrets. It’s something we did or something we didn’t do that just eats away at us. That study also shows the more we focus on that regret, the worse our quality of life seems to get. If we get stuck in regret, our life spirals. Guess who loves that downward spiral? Guess who sets that trap, then torments you once you’re in it?

Oh yes, could it be … SATAN? The enemy of your soul. The one whose single mission is to kill, steal and destroy everything God is doing in your life.

Regret. It’s common and it’s dangerous. It’s a threat to the good plans God has for your days. It’s a gnawing at your soul that continually tells you you’re a failure, you don’t deserve goodness, you’re unworthy and you should be ashamed. And this regret … it has no place in the life of a girl who is wildly loved by Jesus!

So, let’s put it on the table so we get it out of your thoughts and out of your heart. What is it you regret? Maybe it’s one big thing that burdens your soul. Or maybe it’s years of choices that all piled up to create a real crapfest you can’t seem to overcome. Okay, it’s on the table now. Here, spread out before your creator who knew every mistake you would make before you ever made them. Here, before the one who you could never hide all of this from, yet the enemy told you this made you unworthy to be God’s girl, so you hid. You pulled away. And all that regret, you can stir it up and serve it on request. You can replay the stories, watch it all unfold, and get stuck in the regret over and over again.

You wondered if you had gone too far, done too much, and it had been too long. The answer … no. Impossible. Sweet girl, you’re simply not that powerful. You can’t run that far. You can’t screw this up to that level.

No, you haven’t gone too far. No, you haven’t done too much. No, it hasn’t been too long. No, God hasn’t given up on you. No, God hasn’t turned away from you. But this regret you carry is now being requested by the Almighty. Satan has been working in the dark corners of your regrets, whispering his lies, sidelining you from stepping into the fullness of all God has for you. Offer it up now.

The regret you could bring up on request and replay in your mind is now being requested by God. He wants your regret. He wants the stories you replay. He wants the shame and guilt that makes you feel unworthy. Your regret is being requested.

God, here is my regret. I so wish I wouldn’t have done this. I can’t go back and change it. I was wrong. I messed this up. I’ve been carrying it around with me all this time wishing I could make it different, but now I see it was never mine to carry. I give you my regret. Take this from me.

Proverbs 28:13,”You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.”

This is where God’s mercy swoops in and covers you. Mercy is God’s way of withholding punishment when punishment is deserved, and blessing you instead. Blessing you with more than you could ever ask, think, or imagine. Blessing you with total undeserved goodness. This is mercy. And mercy is found when we put all our regrets on the table and leave them in the hands of God.

But right now, you are dismissing yourself from this mercy. You’re reasoning why you aren’t good enough for this kind of mercy. You’re making a case for how others are deserving of God’s mercy, but not you. You don’t deserve mercy. You deserve to carry this regret.