If you had only 1 year left to live, what would you do? You would take that vacation, right? You would spend all the time with the people you love. You would make the memories and capture the moments. What if you only had 1 month to live? You would leave for that vacation tomorrow, right? You would waste no time. You would make amends. You would say everything you need to say.

But what if you only had 1 day. One day left to live. If you knew this were your final day of life ever on this earth, what would you do? I’ll tell you this much for darn sure, I wouldn’t eat my ground chicken and green beans! I wouldn’t be worried about emails. And I wouldn’t spend any money on Amazon because even Prime couldn’t get it here in time. And for heaven’s sake, I wouldn’t be trying to sleep away the day!

What would you do if you knew, this is it? One last shot at living. Who would you most want to be with and what would you want to do? What things would no longer be of any importance at all, and what would become the single most important thing to you?

Jesus knew he had one more day. He knew the next day he would go to the cross to suffer and die. And what did he do on his final night of life? He washed feet.

Woah … doesn’t that hit you hard? Knowing this was his last night of his human existence, he chose to wash feet. Jesus says in Matthew 11: 29, “Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”

This is the ultimate unforced rhythm of grace. This is knowing time is short and choosing to slow down and do what is most important. Watch how Jesus does this. And remember, Jesus is washing the feet of 2 people who were about to do really stupid things. One would deny him, and one would betray him.

I watched a short video clip yesterday of a man explaining the difference between Peter and Judas, and it showed me something I had never thought of before. Both sinned. Both failed, but Jesus says something very different about the two of them.

On that final night of Jesus’ life, the disciples are gathered with Jesus in the Upper Room for the Last Supper together. For those of you not from the South, supper is dinner. Where I grew up, you ate 3 meals: Breakfast, Dinner and Supper. This was Supper, the evening meal. This meal was eaten together reclining at a low table. Sitting on the ground at a low table meant their feet were very close to their food. Because the shoes of those days were sandals, you know Jesus sandals like Berkenstocks, their feet would be very dirty from the dusty roads. It was customary for the lowest servant present to wash the feet of everyone at the table. And Jesus is here on his final night of his earthly life and sees dirty feet from dusty journeys.

While Jesus is humbly washing their feet, he explains the difference between Peter who denies Jesus, and Judas who betrays Jesus.

Now listen closely because this is important for you today. Get ready to have guilt and shame and burden lifted right off your shoulders!

John 13: 1-11, “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet,

High Providence In Low Places

You have decisions to make and you desperately don’t want to screw this up. The time has come to choose, but what if you choose wrong? Or what if someone else chooses wrong for you? Others hold the power to say yes or no to you, and what if they get it wrong? What will happen here if the wrong choice is made? What will your future be if this gets screwed up?

Let me tell you what your future will be … it will be held! Your future is always held in the mighty and capable hands of God. Nothing falls too far for his reach. He is forever holding your future and the good plans he has for you. And here’s the thing about God’s good plans for you … they are far beyond the temporary struggles of here and now. He’s already gone beyond where you are to align future events that bring you precisely where you will need to be.

This is God’s providence. This is God using natural circumstances to bring about his supernatural will. This is all things working together for good, even when it didn’t look like they would. This is somehow, someway, finding a way when there was no way. And today, if you can lean into God’s providence, you will find peace in the uncertainty of what will happen next for you.

What will happen next is God will be working in the details. What will happen next is God will be making a way. What will happen next is natural circumstances aligning with supernatural will.

Proverbs 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”

To better understand this scripture, lets look at a few different translations. New Living Translation: “We may throw the dice, but the LORD determines how they fall.” Contemporary English Version: “We make our own decisions, but the LORD alone determines what happens.”

You may throw the dice wrong. You may make the wrong decision here. Someone may give you the short stick. But none of that matters. Why? Because God is in ultimate charge. He can flip the dice in mid air. He can redirect your wrong turn in the right direction. He can turn your letdown into a step up. And he does it all through seemingly natural circumstances that most will never even notice.

But, God wants you to notice. He wants you to stop and see all he has done for you. Recognize how he turned what was bad then into what is good now. Be overwhelmed by his divine hand in the details of how all of this unfolded for you. You didn’t do that on your own. That was God working for you!

What has he done for you? How did he redirect your steps to bring you to a place you could have never gotten to on your own? How did he open doors that should have never been open to you? How did he put you in precisely the right place at the right time to make all this happen? Ahhhh, yes, that’s providence.

My favorite story of God’s providence is the story of Ruth. A woman who had lost her husband and now struggling to find scraps of food for her and her mother-in-law, Naomi. This chapter of her life was called, “Hard Times.”

Maybe you’ve had a chapter like that yourself. Heck, maybe you’re in it right now. This isn’t how you imagined your life working out. This hardship doesn’t align with your 10 year plan. That must have been how Ruth felt too. She was grieving the loss of her husband, while caring for her mother-in-law who had not only lost her son, but her husband as well. All the men had died in their life. And back then a woman without a man to care for her was completely helpless and likely to starve.

What is it God has prompted you to do, but now you want to quit? What is it you were once passionate about, now you’re just over it? This is too hard … It’s taking too long … You don’t feel good enough to continue …

But, God’s not letting you go, is he? He hasn’t released you from this prompting. He hasn’t dismissed you from his calling.

You know how Facebook memories show you things you may have forgotten? Do you ever see some of the stuff you posted and kinda hate the former you? Girl, look how far you’ve come! Look at the stupid years God pulled you through. Yesterday, my Facebook memories showed me that 8 years ago I made the official announcement we had cancelled future BIG Life Retreats. We had been doing it for 5 years, and those were some hard 5 years. There were always more expenses than there was money. There was drama. And I was done. So, I quietly quit over time and resigned myself to ending this whole dream God had planted in my heart.

Cancelled. Dreams, cancelled. Desires of the heart, cancelled. I quit.

Then, let me tell you what happened … It multiplied. The fire grew within me and I just couldn’t quit. The dream was revived and passion was reignited. We went from 2 retreats a year to 6 retreats a year, then 8, then 10, and more and more.

Just when I had dismissed myself from his calling, he increased it. Just when I thought I was released from this prompting, he doubled down. He didn’t let me go. He didn’t let me quit. But he sure let me feel hopeless for a bit.

Is it fair to say God lets us feel hopeless sometimes? Is it fair to say he lets things get worse before they get better? Can God handle our despair? Can he handle our frustration? Can he handle our cries of “I’m done. I’m quitting.” Oh absolutely! Let me show you what God does.

Jeremiah was a chosen prophet of the Lord. From the very beginning, Jeremiah questioned being good enough for what God had called him to do. Jeremiah 1:4-9 is a conversation he has with God.

“The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth.”

God created Jeremiah for this mission. He was set apart before he was even born. So was I. So are you. You were born for this. Created for this purpose. Appointed by God Almighty for his good works. God himself will put everything within you that you need. It won’t be your words, your strength, or your ideas. It will be God working within you. You are to go everywhere he sends you and do whatever he prompts you to do.

Easy enough, right? Wrong. It won’t be easy. It won’t always feel good. It won’t always work.

Jeremiah was absolutely hated. He delivered messages of God’s warnings to the people who had gone off the rails in their crazy living. They were worshiping another God and burning their children as sacrifices to that God. So God put very specific harsh warnings into the mouth of Jeremiah to speak. Every time he spoke, he was hated more. He was beat, thrown in prison, and threatened.

This wasn’t easy. It didn’t feel good. And it sure didn’t seem to be working.

Whatever it is you’re afraid of, is afraid of you. If what you’re afraid of is a scheme from the pits of hell sent to discourage you, distract you, or defeat you, just know the truth is, the pits of hell are afraid of you. If what you’re afraid of is a plot of the enemy, the enemy is afraid of you. Did you know that? Hell is afraid of you! Satan and his demons are scared of you!

And they should be.

Today, I will show you a little verse in your bible you may have read before but totally missed the importance of. I know I’ve skimmed over it countless times, missing it’s truth. This single verse comes in the story of the Battle of Jericho. You know, the story of Joshua leading the Israelites to Jericho, the first city of their Promised Land. Their battle plan was strange to say the least, as they faced impenetrable walls that couldn’t be scaled. God had given them instructions to march around these massive walls protecting Jericho. Just march. In circles. For days. Marching. Then finally, blow horns and shout, then the walls would crumble and they would charge in and take possession of their land. And we know this battle plan actually worked.

We often focus on the circling in faith. The marching in trust. Then the impossible victory given. Great story. Great lesson. But what if there’s more God wants to show us here, and we’ve been overlooking it? I know I’ve been overlooking it. Yesterday, my friend Gina shared a lesson her pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma taught on the very first verse of this story. And well, I can’t stop thinking about this!

The story is found in Joshua chapter 6. The very first verse says, “Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites.”

Within that verse is our lesson. Within that verse is everything you need to know about the battle you face today. Within that verse is where we learn our enemy is afraid of us, and they should be!

The city of Jericho was circled by a massive wall they had built to protect their land. They had sealed all the gates tight and stayed inside their walls … why … because they were afraid of the Israelites. But who are these Israelites? This is a group of people who have been wandering in the desert for 40 years. A group of people who have one by one been dying off, starving, struggling and suffering. They must have been a rag tag band of misfits. They didn’t have any great weapons or great skills. They were children of the desert, relying solely on the daily provision of manna God would bring them.

So, why were the people of Jericho so afraid of the Israelites? Why were they hiding behind the locked gates of their city walls? The Israelites didn’t look like anything to be afraid of at all.

They were kind of like the little country football team, wearing gear that doesn’t fit them, and shoes falling apart on their feet because they can’t afford to buy the team anything new. Scrawny boys that might not have had lunch. Like the team who could barely even make it to the game, let alone win the game. The team everyone treats as the sure and easy win. That’s what they must have looked like.

Yet, Jericho was afraid of the team of underfed misfits lacking proper weapons and training. They were afraid for one reason. The same reason the last 2 armies were afraid of them. Go back one chapter and we find our answer. Joshua 5:1, “Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

Wednesday. It’s the middle of the week. The 13th of September, the middle of the month. We’re just in the middle. In the middle of what we started but has not yet ended. Nobody likes the middle. Let’s get to the end already!

The hardest years of marriage are said to be years 7 and 8. This is the time frame of more divorces than any other. These years are labeled “high risk” for marriage. You’ve heard of the 7 year itch, yeah, you’re itching to get divorced! You’re not the “new couple” anymore, but you’re not the “old couple” that have been together so long you start to look like each other. You’re in the middle. You’re high risk and you’re itchy.

Just like life. In the middle of what we started but has not yet ended. That whole mid-life crisis thing can be real.

We get a little lost in the middle. Purpose becomes blurry. Energy dips. We begin to question what’s the point in what we’re doing. Is it worth it? The week has been rough, why keep trying so hard? The month hasn’t been perfect, what’s the point in all this effort if it’s not making a drastic difference? He’s not giving you the warm fuzzies any more and you don’t want to spend the rest of your life feeling cold. And to top it all off, you look in the mirror and you see everything just getting worse. Hairs grow overnight in places they shouldn’t be. How is it fair that you’re still getting pimples like a teenager, while your skin is wrinkling like an old woman? That’s not fair.

Hey, life isn’t fair. You’re here one day and you’re gone the next. But you’re here today, so what are you going to do with this? Yes, this middle. That’s where you are, in the middle. The part where it’s easy to lose hope, lose focus, and settle for less than what life could be.

You don’t have to be miserable here. The world wants to enslave you in miserable routines that suck the life out of you and keep you stuck in doing the same pointless things out of habit. The world will make your eyes glaze over with boring repetitiveness that says “Yay, it’s Friday. Boo, the weekend was too short. Oh no, Monday is coming. Blehhhh, it’s just Wednesday.” We’re just showing up each day as little slaves knowing we don’t get excited over Wednesdays. We don’t get our hopes up for change in the middle of the month. We just try not to kill the person we vowed to love for the rest of our days in those high risk years. And we’re not getting any younger here so things are only getting worse.

Isn’t life more than this? Isn’t this day, yes, this Wednesday, of greater value than the unimpressive middle position we give it as if it holds nothing worth waking up for? This is the day the Lord has made, have we forgotten to rejoice and be glad in it?

Today, you will experience once-in-a-lifetime moments. Things that will never, ever happen again will unfold right in front of you. But will you be so busy dragging around the chains of the “middle” that you never even look up?

Chains. Yes, chains. Routines. Habits. To do lists. Have to go there, have to do that. Punch the clock. Check the box. Wish it all away so you can plop yourself on the couch at the end of the day and zone out.

Slaves. Girls, we have somehow taken this miraculous thing called life, and we’ve become slaves in it. We’re here, but we’re not really here. We’re alive, but we’re not really living.

1 Corinthians 7:23, “God paid a high price for you,

Have you ever been looking for something specific so intently, that you totally miss it? You miss the forest for all the trees.

You are looking for that future husband. Everywhere, you’re looking. Desperately looking. But where is that man hiding? Clearly he’s lost somewhere because he’s not willing to ask for directions, so you’re out here on a search and rescue mission for your man. Could this be him? How about this one? Let me try that one. Nope. All wrong. Gosh, will you ever find him? Yes … and today I will tell you exactly how!

It’s the same way you will find the new job you so desperately want, the community you most want, and the friendships you’re missing. It’s all out there. Somewhere. But how in the world do you find it, because you’ve been looking and not finding.

It’s a puzzle. Literally. A puzzle. Let me explain …

My husband and I decided this month we wanted to spend intentional time together doing different things. One of those things is a puzzle. I bought a 1,000 piece puzzle on the Amazon, we spread out all the pieces, and over the weekend we sat down at the table together to work on it. And inevitably one thing always happens when working a puzzle … you’re absolutely convinced there’s a piece missing. You’re looking for something so specific, it seems it would be impossible to miss. You go through every piece once, then twice, and a third time. And. It’s. Not. There. There’s no way it’s on the table. You crawl around on the floor. You curse the maker of the puzzle, convinced they left a valuable piece on the factory floor because it’s straight up not here!

That was us. One piece had an old style white and red life preserver on it. That’s really distinctive and specific amongst all the other pieces, but we had looked everywhere and it wasn’t there. We had the broken puzzle! Clearly this piece was missing.

But really, was it? That’s rarely ever the case, yet every time, don’t we resort to believing it’s missing … until we find it. And when do we find it? Rarely ever when we’re relentlessly searching for it, and usually always when we’ve moved on looking for something else. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the piece you were previously searching for just appears. How could it have possibly been there all along? Isn’t that crazy?

Could this same crazy thing be happening for my single ladies searching everywhere for the right man? Could this same crazy thing be happening for the girl desperately searching for the perfect new opportunity amongst all these closed doors? You’re at the point of giving up, believing you’re broken and what you’re looking for was left on the factory floor of Heaven somewhere, and God forgot to include it in your box. Now you’re frustrated and totally ready to give up because you can’t find what you truly want. What you need. What you think would most make you happy.

But, Sis, it’s there. And Jesus tells us exactly how to find it. Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

All these things you’re looking for, they’re there, and you will find them, but only when you start seeking God first. As long as you put your need for a relationship before your need for God, you will be frustrated in your search. As long as your career comes first, you will get burned out. As long as money, security and stability are on the top of the list, the top of your list will suck. You’ll have it all and be totally unfulfilled and unhappy still.

Today, you’re taking steps. Steps that are leading you somewhere. If you look down the path you’re currently on, is it taking you where you want to be in your life? Are you on a trajectory that even slightly resembles the good plans God has for you? And what do you do if, in your moment of honesty, you realize the steps you’re taking are leading to destruction? You’re building more and more debt, more and more weight, more and more dysfunction, more and more distance, more and more regret. How do you change that?

I assure you, God has more for you. More purpose. More fulfillment. More joy. More impact. More connection. And when you realize the more you’re heading to isn’t aligning with the list of more God has for you, this is when you make a U-Turn. Change your steps! Literally, change your daily actions and intentionally turn in a different direction. Before it’s too late, Sis, change this.

Have you ever heard the story of Samson in the Bible? Samson was known for his supernatural strength. He was like a Biblical Hercules. Samson was set apart from birth because he was the miracle baby of a couple that couldn’t have children. Miracle babies like this were called Nazarites. Nazarite means to be consecrated to God and separated from others. As a Nazarite, you are held to specific vows to never drink alcohol, never touch anything unclean, and never cut your hair. All of this because from birth, you are considered very special.

And Samson was indeed special. He was freakishly strong. He alone could do what an army of hundreds could not. And God had good plans for Samson. The problem was, Samson was rebellious and often running out of alignment with those good plans. And there’s one sentence about the life of Samson that encapsulates the beginning of his downward trajectory. Judges 16:1, “One day Samson went to the Philistine town of Gaza and spent the night with a prostitute.” This was the beginning of the end for Samson. He was heading towards disaster.

So, how do you know when you’re making choices leading to your own destruction? How do you change the downward trajectory of just going wherever you’re going and doing what you’ve been doing? Are you walking straight into a disaster right now?

I’m currently reading a book called The Power To Change. It says, “Disasters are rarely the result of an isolated decision. They are almost always the end of a slippery slope.” Samson was walking to a town called Gaza where he would spend the night with a prostitute. This was his slippery slope. And guess how far it was from where he lived? 25 miles. He walked his slippery slope for 25 miles to the beginning of his disaster. There are approximately 56,250 steps in 25 miles. Each one of those steps was a choice. 56,250 opportunities to turn around. 56,250 steps in the wrong direction toward total destruction.

There, Samson would sleep with this prostitute and then fall in love with another woman. A woman who’s name is forever linked to Samson. Delilah. The woman who would trick Samson, cut his hair, breaking his Nazarite vow, and cause him to lose his strength.

Samson, this man with tremendous potential, set apart by God from the very beginning, loses everything. And it took 56,250 steps on a slippery slope to get him there.

Are you on a slippery slope right now? Thousands of little thoughts and little decisions deteriorating your relationship with God, breaking down your own integrity and commitment. Realize where this leads. All these little thoughts and little decisions are steps that lead to a weakened place where you will be willing to do something outside of God’s will.

Are your thoughts ruining your day? Negative, overwhelming, fearful, anxious thoughts can wreck havoc on a perfectly good day of life. These thoughts make you feel anxious, and that feeling becomes a literal limitation on our abilities to even function.

Here’s the problem. We’ve made peace with feeling anxious. We’ve claimed it. It’s now yours. We say, “my anxiety” like we say “my cat”. My cat is yellow. My cat is fat. My cat is lazy. My cat is laying on the couch. All of these statements are claiming the cat as your own. Why? Because the cat belongs to you. And we say the same of anxiety. My anxiety is high today. My anxiety keeps me from going. My anxiety makes me feel this way. Again, claiming it as your own like it belongs to you. Like you chose it, picked it up, and brought it home with you. Like you feed it and care for it.

Crap, are we feeding and caring for anxiety?

Where did you get it from? I assure you, you weren’t born with it. You weren’t designed by God with the attribute of being anxious. He didn’t say, “Now this one, I’m going to make incredibly anxious so she’s continually limited in her life.” No, it didn’t come from God. Here’s how we know, 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

It is not God who makes you afraid and anxious. God gives you power, love and self-discipline. So, this anxiety that we so often play nice with, bow down to, and easily claim as our own, where does it come from? It comes from your thoughts. Thoughts running wild with worry. Thoughts consumed with what ifs. Thoughts that impact your feelings. Yes, it is your thoughts that make you feel anxious. It is your thoughts that make you feel overwhelmed. Your feelings are coming from your thoughts.

But honey, your feelings are not God. Your feelings may not be telling you the truth. Your feelings are simply echos of the thoughts filling your mind. And if your thoughts are not focused on God’s truth, the feelings they are creating are not to be trusted.

How about instead of bowing down to feeling anxious and instead of creating a safe, friendly space for these invasive anxious thoughts, we strip search them! Yes, strip search! Strip off the layers and get to the core of the thoughts you’re thinking. Thought, where did you come from? Who sent you? What are your intentions?

2 Corinthians 10:5, “Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

But have we been taking captive those anxious thoughts, stripping them down to find their source, then making them be obedient to Jesus? No, no, we haven’t. You know what we’ve been doing? We’ve been wearing it like a label and excusing ourselves from the hard things. We’ve been dismissing ourselves from showing up because it’s hard. And instead of taking these vigilante thoughts captive, we bow to them and make them our king. We have become obedient to our thoughts and feelings instead of demanding they be obedient to Jesus.

We’ve been living in a spirit of fear and anxiety and God says that is NOT the spirit he has given you. He has given you power. He has given you authority over every scheme of the enemy. The enemy is under your feet. His attacks are beneath you. But the enemy has tricked us into believing his lies that tell us we don’t have enough, we aren’t good enough, and we will never be enough. He has tricked us into believing that our feelings are uncontrollable and we are innocent victims of thoughts that don’t make sense and hostage to totally ungrounded fears.

How is it that some people claim to hear from God all the time, and you feel like you never hear from him? How is it some people just seem to have this big, bold, blind faith that leads them into miraculous unfoldings, and you’re struggling to know what to cook for dinner? How do we become that person with that faith? How do we tune in to the frequency where God is always prompting and guiding?

I’m so glad you asked. You’re not the only one asking. This is something I hear all the time. Pamela, how do you know where God is leading you? How do you know when the time is right? How do you hear God’s voice? How do you get divine guidance?

The answer is so simple, most overlook it. It’s kind of funny how that’s typically the case. We make things so much more difficult than they have to be. We create 10 step plans when there’s really only 1 step. Could big questions really have small, simple answers? Yes!

The answer to these questions is little. No for real, that’s the answer. Little. Start little.

When you think God might possibly be prompting you to do a little something, do it. You see, here’s the problem … We dismiss all these little promptings and little opportunities, waiting for something big, but God always begins small. If you never learn to respond in the little things, you never get the opportunity to step into the big things.

Jesus said in Luke 16:10, “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.”

So God starts by prompting your Spirit with little things like, “Shut your mouth now. Don’t say what you’re thinking. Just be quiet.” Once you show yourself to be faithful with God speaking to you in that little matter, he will start talking to you about bigger things. Then you move on to, “Go here and do this. Say this now. Take this next step.” But, honey, if you haven’t first learned to be faithful with shutting your mouth at the right time, you never get to experience being filled with divine words you couldn’t possibly come up with on your own. If you haven’t mastered being faithful with being still, you never get to experience God supernaturally guiding your next big, bold steps of faith.

We all want those big, bold steps of faith that just can’t fail. We all want the miraculous come back story only God could have written. And God wants to write that for you even more than you want it. But, God can’t write your come back story until you’ve proven yourself faithful in the low down part of your story. Until you’ve proven yourself faithful with the $20 you do have. Until you’ve proven yourself faithful with the people you do have. Until you’ve proven yourself faithful with the business you do have. Until you’ve proven yourself faithful with the little house you have, the energy you have, the strength you have. God gives more to those who have been faithful with little first.

Jesus taught a story about a boss who had several employees. The boss gave responsibilities to each of them while he was away. When he returned, he wanted an account of how they had handled what had been given to them. Some were found to have done nothing with the little they were to be doing. The master was upset. But to the one who had actively worked with all he had been given, Jesus taught in Matthew 25:23, ““The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!”

There’s only so much you can do here, right? You’re limited on what falls within your power, and honestly you feel like you’ve done about all you can do. So now you’re frustrated because even with doing all you can do, nothing is happening. Nothing is changing. And you’re beginning to lose hope.

Is that you? Losing hope? Frustrated that you can’t change this? Feeling stuck because you don’t know what else there is to do? Ahhhhhh girl, you are on a divine appointment hearing this today! I just know God has a personal word for you here. Write this down.

God says: You can’t do this, but I can.

So, you’re off the hook then, right? You can wash your hands and walk away? You’re relieved of any further obligation? No. You have a role to play in this. You have a responsibility here. Don’t you walk away. There’s one very important thing you must continue to do here where your power is limited and you can do nothing else … YOU MUST AGREE WITH GOD.

Now write this down: God can, and I agree with him!

Stand in agreement with God. If God says he can do it, then stand there unshaken and agree that he can. You don’t know how, and you don’t know when, but you know God can!

Girl, get your head and your heart in agreement with God. This is faith. And scripture says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.”

Did you know your focus on your own limitations can stop God from working? Did you know your frustrated focus on all you can’t do will block God in doing all he can do? Let me prove it.

Peter walked on water. He was sitting in a boat in a storm, and he sees Jesus walking to him on top of the waves. And Peter says, “Jesus, I want to do that with you!” So Jesus says, “Yes, come.” Peter miraculously steps out of the boat and walks on the water to Jesus! How cool is that? But then, Matthew 14: 30, “But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink.”

What happened when Peter focused on the wind and the waves? He started thinking how he shouldn’t be able to do what he was doing. He told himself he shouldn’t be out here on the water, he belonged in the boat. And because of that, he began to sink. Jesus had given him the power to walk on the water, but the moment he began to focus on his own limitations, God’s power stopped working.

When was Peter able to walk on the water? When he was in agreement with Jesus. Jesus, if you’re telling me to come on the water to you, then I believe I can do it through your power. When did Peter sink? When he got out of agreement and focused on his own limitations. I can’t possibly be walking on water … okay, then you sink.

So, yes, Sister, your faith is playing a major role in the unfolding of your life. If you’re in agreement with all God can do, God’s power is unleashed to do miraculous things and you get to be part of it! However, if you’re focused on your own limitations, you’ve limited the power of God from working in your life.

God wants to do more for you. He wants to move mountains. He wants to tear down walls. He wants to break chains. He wants to seal the mouths of lions. He wants to bring miraculous healing. He wants to create an overflow that just won’t stop. But a lack of faith limits all God wants to do in your life.

Here’s another example. Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth, but because everyone knew he was the son of Mary and Joseph, they didn’t believe in his divine position as the son of God.