Something has happened to you. Something unfair. Something unfortunate. Something you weren’t prepared for. However if you focus on what has happened to you here, you will lose sight of how God can now use you for his ultimate good.

Honey, this is bigger than what went wrong for you. This is bigger than the plans that fell apart. This is bigger than the disappointment you have endured and the problem you have encountered. What is beyond this?

The very wound you have experienced here can be used for God’s goodness next. The part of you that was hurt the most is now the vessel for God’s supreme power.

In Acts 27, we read that Paul was a prisoner on a ship that encountered a 2 week long storm. God revealed to him in a dream that the ship would go down, but none of them would die. Every one would survive this disaster.

And maybe that’s what you need to know right now. This storm isn’t going away overnight. The very thing that is keeping you afloat right now is going to fall apart too. But, you will survive. You will be saved. God has already declared you’re going to make it through this.

What God showed Paul was indeed the truth, the entire ship fell apart, nothing but pieces were left, but every last sailor and prisoner on the boat made it safely to the shore of an island called Malta.

That’s great. You’re going to survive. The ship might go down, but you will not. However, that’s not the lesson only lesson God asked me to share with you today. There’s more.

Acts 28: 1-3 “Once we were safe on shore, we learned that we were on the island of Malta. The people of the island were very kind to us. It was cold and rainy, so they built a fire on the shore to welcome us. As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand.”

Well doesn’t that just suck. Now Paul isn’t only a prisoner, he’s a shipwrecked prisoner, and he is bit by a snake! Sometimes isn’t that exactly how life feels? You make it through one thing and here comes the next thing. If it weren’t for bad luck, you wouldn’t have any luck at all.

Have you ever caught yourself making a list of everything that has gone wrong in the last 2 weeks of your life? First, the dishwasher stopped working, then you broke the screen on your cellphone, then the cat got sick, now you lost your debit card, and your teenager is being a jackwagon. Why can’t anything go right for you?

While you’re having your pity party, recounting all the ways life has been unfair, I want to remind you Paul has been falsely accused, arrested, and facing judgment, he has gone through a 2 week storm at sea where they didn’t eat the entire time and then the ship sank, now he’s on some strange island, still as a prisoner, and he is bit by a poisonous snake.

Okay, his 2 weeks might suck more than yours.

Sometimes don’t you want to just ask WHY? Why did this happen? Why me? Why can’t anything go right?

Those are fair questions, and typically there’s a really simple answer.

Why did the snake bite Paul? Was it an attack of the devil? Was it an evil plot of hell to take him out?

Well, actually scripture tells us exactly why the snake bit Paul. It says the snake was driven out of the wood because of the heat of the fire. And, that is completely natural. It’s natural for a snake to come out of the fire. And it’s also natural for a snake to bite anything they view as a threat.

As believers, we are referred to as the “bride of Christ.” I’m going to be straight up honest with you, that never made sense to me. I’m marrying Jesus? Some religions have twisted and perverted that, and we’re left with a bad taste in our mouth wondering what it would mean to be the bride of Christ.

But God revealed to me the concept of being his bride in the sweetest, most tangible way over the past few days, and I just couldn’t wait to share this with you.

Here on the island, there’s a site I see most every day. There’s a man out walking, pushing a homemade stroller of sorts. The seat is fashioned to recline, and there’s a white canopy for shade. Laying within the stroller is a woman. He pushes her for hours every day.

This past Friday, I came upon them face to face while out exercising. I saw they were likely in their mid to late 70s, both incredibly tanned from the warm island sun, him smiling so big he could eat a banana sideways, and her in a vegetative state. He and I greeted one another with a brief “good morning” and passed on by.

I soon came to my turn around point and saw them ahead of me again. My pace was catching them, he saw me, and stopped to seemingly wait for me. And that’s when a conversation unfolded.

I told him I see him out often and he said, “Yes, we do 6 miles a day,” nodding his head toward the woman laying in the stroller.

Not knowing if this was perhaps his sister, or his elderly friend he cared for, I asked, “and who is she to you?”

What followed was a sentence spoken with such passion it stopped me in my tracks.

He said, “Oh, she’s my wife!”

He then told me they had been married for 53 years and he cares for her completely. He dresses her up for holidays in full costume and pushes her all around town. I remember seeing them from the road on Christmas Eve and she was in a full blown Santa costume. He lovingly puts shorts on her so her legs can soak up the sunshine. This woman was clearly not a burden to him, she was his greatest blessing.

He told me how he had dressed her up for Valentine’s day last week, and he said with a tear in his eye, “she’s always been my valentine.”

I walked away thinking, “Gosh, I better start laying out my holiday outfits now, because I’m not so sure my husband would know what to dress me in.”

What a husband. What a love. What everlasting care no matter the circumstances. She has nothing left to give him, yet he continues to give his all.

And then God showed me, “THIS IS WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SAY YOU ARE THE BRIDE OF CHRIST.”

This is the way you are loved.

YOU ARE NEVER A BURDEN! No matter what, you are not a burden to Jesus!

That’s for someone today. Someone who feels so frustrated with themselves because they simply can’t seem to get their crap together and keep it together. Someone who is struggling. Someone who is questioning. Someone who feels they have nothing to offer. You feel like a burden. You feel like a failure. You feel like a disappointment. But Jesus is never burdened by you.

Honey, he will lovingly pick you up every single time.

He is honored to be the one caring for you. Here’s the thing, Jesus doesn’t HAVE to, he GETS to.

He GETS to love you.He GETS to care for you.He GETS to provide for you.He GETS to save you.He GETS to rescue you.He GETS to heal you.

Jesus came to give you a wide open spacious life. A life of freedom being exactly who you were created to be, confident in doing exactly what you were created to do.

But somewhere along the way we went about fencing ourselves in. We believed what “they” said over what God said. We allowed lies from the pits of hell to take root in our heart and become weeds in our mind. We took failure personally and adopted it as our identity. We took the offering of overwhelm, depression, anxiety and began wearing it like a badge. A badge that dismisses us from showing up for life.

Quite simply, we started playing little, and in the process, we’ve gotten stuck. Stuck in the monotony of a routine that was never intended to be our entire lives. Stuck as slaves to the rut of mindlessly watching life unfold on a little screen in our hands, as it passes us by in reality. Stuck in negative thoughts that suck the energy out of our souls. Stuck in the drowning waves of doubt, fear and indecision. Stuck in bad habits that ease the pain in the moment, then create a mountain of problems later.

And we settled where we got stuck.

Isn’t that us? Isn’t that where we find ourselves sometimes? We’re chained to a rhythm that’s exhausting and unfulfilling, and Jesus is here today to break those chains.

When Jesus said in John 10:10 “I came that you may have life and have it to the full”, I don’t think this is the full life he was talking about. Full of worry and fear. Full of bad choices followed by regret. Full of soul sucking nothingness. Full of mind-numbingly boring days. This is the opposite of full, it is empty. It is UNFULFILLING.

In fact, it looks a whole lot more like what the enemy came to do to our lives. In this same scripture, Jesus warned “The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.”

Well balls, girls, look around. Just look what he has done! This little life we’ve gotten ourselves stuck in is the work of our enemy. There’s so much more for us than this! Jesus came to give us a fulfilling life, and if you’re not living filled up to overflowing and fulfilled, then you’re not living up to your God given potential! Satan has been taking from you, and instead of settling for it, you should get mad as hell about it!

How far have we drifted from our potential? How much have we atrophied from who we were created to be, because we simply haven’t been using what we were given? You know you can sit around choosing not to use a perfectly good leg, and eventually that leg will stop working. The ability to walk will be lost. What God given abilities have we lost because we simply haven’t been using them?

Jesus did some pretty dang amazing things on this earth in front of the disciples, then he looked at them and said in John 14: 12-14 – “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!”

Through Christ Jesus, we are to be doing the same works he did here on earth, and even greater! He healed the sick, he showed people the way, he restored hope, he loved the unlovable, he did impossible things, he radically changed lives … are we doing those things?

Well that feels uncomfortable doesn’t it? Who are we to do the great things Jesus did? Let me tell you who we are … we are his Spirit bearers, his light carriers, his power vessels, his impossible made possible,

When it’s hard to love yourself, you’ve believed a lie. When you don’t want to look at yourself in the mirror, you’ve believed a lie. When you dismiss yourself from goodness, you’ve believed a lie. When you play little, you’ve believed a lie. When you feel hopeless, you’ve believed a lie.

Your heart has believed a series of lies, and from that confused and twisted heart has come a broken confidence, a troubled mind, a fearful future, and a little life.

The source of these lies is not your just negative tendencies. It’s not just toxic people in your life. The source of the lies you’ve let your heart believe is the father of lies himself. It is the enemy of your soul. The one hellbent on destroying every ounce of goodness in your life, and stealing your faith in the One who created you.

Jesus says in John 8:44 (MSG): “He (Satan) was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies.”

He has filled the world with his lies. Lies that God doesn’t care. Lies that God isn’t able. Lies that there’s nothing beyond this life. Lies that none of this even matters. Lies that people are bad and they’re only getting worse.

STOP BELIEVING THE LIES HE’S FILLED THIS WORLD WITH.

Now, has he filled YOUR world with his lies? Lies personally directed towards you, adopted by your heart as a truth. Lies that say you don’t matter. Lies that say God doesn’t care about you. Lies that say you can never change. Lies that say you’re too late for God’s good plans, you’ve already screwed that up. Lies that say it will be too hard for you. Lies that say you’re not good enough, you’re not worthy, and you’re broken. Lies that say this is all there is for you, and nothing more.

Oh, what has he done to our hearts, and what nonsense have our hearts convinced our minds of?

This week I have a challenge for the 542 women I currently mentor. It’s a challenge that literally requires less than 30 seconds per day, yet it’s a tremendous battle for many. It requires no physical effort, no change of habit, not even a denial of a craving. Yet, I would guess less than 25% of my girls have been able to talk themselves into this specific challenge.

The challenge is to stand in front of the mirror daily, look themselves in the eye and read these words:

God, you made me, and you do wonderful work.Your wonderful work in me is not done yet.I will just keep getting better.

Could you do it?Would you do it?Will you do it?

Why is this so hard for us to accept that God’s work in us is wonderful? Why can we look at a slimy octopus with purple skin and 8 legs covered in suction cups and declare it is magnificently wonderful, and we can’t look at ourselves and declare the same? Why do we see the miracle in someone else’s uniqueness, yet hate our own? What gives us the right to be so critical of a creation that isn’t even our own?

YOU DIDN’T DESIGN YOU.YOU DIDN’T CREATE YOU.YOU’VE NEVER SEEN THE INNER PARTS OF YOUR BEING.

YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE SO FREAKING MEAN TO YOU!

Psalm 139: 13-14 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Has life become all work and no play? All dread and no joy? All waiting and no now?

What are you waiting on? What are you dreading so badly? Honey, what are you working for? This one life you have been given is going quickly, and the day will come when you look back on all of this, nearing the end, and you regret all the “nows” you wasted. All the joy you forfeited. All the playing you saved for later.

Maybe you’re going through something in life right now that makes it hard to be joyful. There’s a real threat to your family. A real hardship covering your days. A real trial and you’re right in the middle of it. And here, where you are now, it seems impossible to play. It seems ridiculous to assume anything could possibly make you enjoy the day.

That’s fair. I don’t think anyone could blame you for being miserable in this. And what if God isn’t blaming you either, but he’s extending an invitation for something memorable instead of miserable?

Would you choose memorable over miserable? Regardless of circumstances, memorable is available today.

Over 2 decades ago, I was mopping the floors of a beautiful home we had worked so hard to buy. It was a home we couldn’t really afford, but we wanted it any way. This home became a constant stress to not only pay for, but to maintain. I rarely ever enjoyed the space, I was always cleaning the space. We didn’t enjoy the pool, we were cleaning the pool. We didn’t enjoy the backyard, we were mowing the backyard. Everything we had worked so hard to give our family had become nothing but stress, pressure, and more work.

Anyone? Anyone feel like this right now?

As I was mopping the floors of our beautiful home, I overheard Oprah on TV. It was the story of a young mom who had grown sick. She knew her time with her family was limited, so they started doing all the things. All the things, including the big trip to Disney. After this young mother’s death, Oprah interviewed her little boy and asked him, “what is the greatest memory you have with your mom?”

The little boy said, “I remember when my mom and I ate cheerios out of one bowl with two spoons. That was my favorite.”

Standing there with the mop in my hand, and children of my own about the same age, I realized I had been working so hard to give our family the equivalent of Disney, and I had been missing all the opportunities to share a darn bowl of cheerios.

What in the world was I doing, and why was I doing it?

Within a year, we walked away from that big beautiful house with the floors that took hours to mop, the pool that never seemed clean enough, and the lawn that stole every weekend from our grasp, and we moved our kids to the most humble little beach cottage where we sat in lawn chairs in our family room, we ate every meal together around our garage sale table, we taught the kids to surf, and we watched the sunset every night over the ocean holding hands.

We were making memories.

Memories that would actually mean something. We’re talking “one bowl, two spoons” kinda memories.

And this morning, I felt a prompting in my spirit to ask you, my sister, are you so busy making “more” that you’ve failed to make memories? Making more money, buying more, doing more of the busy things, but sacrificing all the memories along the way? It won’t be the big trip to Disney, it will be those little intentional moments you were there for fully.

There’s a lesson in the Bible on this. Can you think of it?

Today is a day of love. It’s the one day of the year, here the the US, set aside for intentionally giving and receiving love. It’s Valentine’s Day. The day where most every man in America woke up feeling already not enough for the woman he loves. The day women across the country wake up with high expectations, and go to bed with deep, unspoken disappointments.

So, ladies, let’s have a little talk. Let’s talk about those expectations. Let’s talk about the strings you tie to love today. Strings that say flowers show appreciation, dinner shows love, and gifts show every other unspoken thing he ought to be feeling. Bring on the massages, the hand written letters, the candles, the romance, bubble bath with rose pedals, and a customized playlist. He needs to show he’s been thinking about this big day for WEEKS! Ladies, you are doing one huge thing here … you are setting your man up for failure. He doesn’t speak “woman”, so quit getting so darn upset when you claim you don’t want flowers, but secretly feel butthurt that office delivery wasn’t for you today. He’s not making you a playlist, or truly enthused to watch a chick flick with you. Get over it!

Here’s the problem … you’re showing up to this relationship with a totally flawed human being, with a hole within you he’s expected to fill. He’s supposed to be your “person”, your “everything”, the one who “completes” you. BUT NO HE’S NOT!

That hole in you is a God sized hole which only God can fill. You were designed with it so all the days of your life you would need your Creator. Trying to fill God’s hole with anyone or anything else leads to a huge disappointment. Expecting anyone else to complete you, heal you, restore you … well, that’s a role no one was designed for other than Jesus.

Jesus isn’t showing up with flowers today. Jesus isn’t taking you to dinner tonight. Jesus didn’t write “Happy Valentine’s Day, my Love” on your mirror. Yet, he is the purest example of loving you WILDLY!

A wild love.

Have you ever thought about why I say that? Every day, at the end of each episode, I end with “I love you wildly.” What exactly does that mean?

Many years ago, God revealed to me his WILD love for me. A relentless love that would walk through fire for me. An unending love that would wait out my stupid wandering years for me. A natural love that wasn’t forced, but flowed freely without boundaries. I had an image of a wild horse. A horse that had been untamed. A horse not held by any fence or rope. A horse free to be his wild horse-self, running freely, unbroken, unrestricted, unbridled. And in this image of a wild horse, God showed me this is how he loves me, and this is how he wants us to love.

To love with no strings of expectation. No limits. No walls or fences. Freely. Openly. Naturally. WILDLY.

And this became my quest, to love wildly.

I love you without the restriction of you loving me in return. I love you without the string of you believing exactly what I believe. I love you with our differences. I love you with your flaws because I certainly show up with my own. And this love cannot, will not, be tamed. It will not be withheld. It will remain WILD.

Why is it so easy for me to extend that wild love to a complete stranger, yet hold back my love when my own family has disappointed me? Hmmmm, sit with that one for a moment.

God is asking for your WILD LOVE today, because this is his example to you. It’s what he gave you first,

If you watched the Super Bowl last night, you likely saw the great commercial about erasing the mistakes out of your photos. The words on the screen said, “For years, our phones have captured our memories.” Images of candid, in the moment photos begin to roll, then you begin to notice the flaws in each photo. The mom and her baby sitting in the snow, with the dog pooping in the background. The perfect family photo on the beach, with the chubby guy in an orange speedo playing frisbee in the background. With each photo, the problem in the background becomes more apparent. Then the words, “Now, it’s time to fix them.”

And they reveal the magic of the new phone they’re advertising. Built in photo editing to remove little mistakes and big mistakes caught in the background of your memories. With a simple circling of your finger, the pooping dog is gone. The orange speedo man disappears from the beach. The ex-boyfriend, boom he just disappears.

And I can’t stop thinking about this commercial.

Isn’t this what we want? We want to be able to edit everything to make it look different than reality. We want to magically erase mistakes and display proof that it was never even there. We want our memories, but we want our edited memories, minus the mistakes.

It speaks to all of us, doesn’t it?

What would you erase? Who would you eliminate right out of the scene? What would you go back and change if you could? What part would you skip?

As I asked God why he keeps bringing this commercial to my mind, he revealed to me the teaching for today. In our pursuit of the perfect edit, we eliminate the reality of God’s divine presence in our lives. If you erase that mistake, you also erase God’s mercy that covered you in every step of that mistake. If you erase that problem, you also erase God’s provision through that problem, and the greater purpose of it today. If you erase that ginormous goof-up, you also erase God’s grace that never gave up on you once. If you erase the hurt, you also erase the healing.

Where’s the phone that can not only capture your memories, but reveal the truth in them? Where’s the edit that can show the unseen in every single moment of your life?

The hand of God that was holding you.The mighty angels that were protecting you.The blood of Jesus that was covering you.The good plans of your creator that were guiding you like an unseen roadmap.

Imagine for a moment all those memories you would like to edit. Oh, the changes you would want to make. The steps you would want to redirect. The decisions you would want to reverse. The people you would want to eliminate.

And now imagine God there for each and every one of them. Imagine his eye on you like a beam of sunlight, watching over you through it all. Imagine his hand holding you at your weakest, most regrettable moments. It’s right there in your memory, you just missed it before. Imagine his hand shielding you from the fiery darts of the enemy, as you walked through that hardship. Imagine his shadow covering you. It’s always been covering you.

This is what we can’t see. This is what God wants to show us!

Not the elimination of the dog pooping the in snow or the chubby man in the orange speedo … No, he wants to show you what you’ve been missing as you focus on all you wish wasn’t captured in your memories. You’re wishing away the mistakes, and you’re missing the miracle. The miracle that you made it through. The miracle that somehow the way was made. The miracle that you didn’t lose your mind.

Look around today. God created all this out of nothing. He started with absolutely NOTHING. The first sentence in our Bible says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Guess what was in the beginning … nothing. Nothing was there to work with. Nothing was there to grow. Just nothing.

I most love a big open night sky. I love to stand in the mountains and stare up into the vast magnificence of our galaxy. God did all of that out of nothing. Yes, but even much, much, more.

Scientists estimate there are hundreds of billions more galaxies in the universe that we can’t see. Each one of these galaxies has billions of stars which bring the grand total number of stars in the universe to about 10 billion trillion. That is a 10 followed by 21 zeros. That’s more stars than the number of grains of sand on the Earth.

And the size of all of this? Well this blows my mind. The only size I can understand is the size of the Earth. The Earth in comparison to each one of these stars is a tiny dot. We live on this itty bitty dot surrounded by 10 billion trillion ginormous stars.

And it all began with NOTHING.

God required absolutely nothing to make the entire universe! Nothing.

If God made this amazing, beautiful universe out of nothing, don’t you think He can take all that you don’t have, all you can’t do, all that isn’t enough, all that is broken, all that is hopeless, and all you’re totally uncertain of, and turn it into a BIG Life?

Remember, out of NOTHING, he created 10 billion trillion stars that are so huge they make our Earth look like a tiny dot.

God is BIG, really BIG, and he does BIG things!

Oh, girl, why have you been limiting him? Why have you assumed just because you don’t have it right now, you will never have it? Why have you believed no one in your family could ever do it, so you wouldn’t be able to either. Why have you believed what little you can do will never be enough? God doesn’t require it to ever have been done in your family before. He doesn’t limit your potential because of your past. He doesn’t dismiss opportunities because you don’t currently measure up.

You think God needs your life all neat and tidy before he can make something of it. Honey, your works here are not required. He needs absolutely nothing to begin his amazing work. Nothing, other than the space.

God began with empty space, and he created the heavens and the earth. Now, lets talk about the empty space in your life and what he can create in it.

Let me speak into the empty places in your life. Where is there void? Where is there an ache of loneliness or want? Where is something missing? God wants to fill that void for you.

Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 says “now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” I believe the Spirit of God is hovering over you at this moment, ready to create in your life. Ready to fill your empty places. Ready to give form to that which you don’t see.

God is ready to move in your life. Do you believe that today?

Are you ready for God to fill you up? Are you ready for him to create opportunities? Are you willing to fully surrender your life to the creator?

It is in our moment of surrender that God says, NOW I CAN DO SOMETHING WITH THIS. Why? Because now he has space!

On the first day, God created light and he separated the light from darkness. And the same God who created the very light which still lights the ...

There are some things in your life you can do something about, and you should. There are other things, no matter what you try and how long you keep trying, it’s simply not happening. You’re going to wear yourself out trying.

So, how do you know the difference? How do you know when the ball is totally in your court and the next move is yours to make, versus the only move left here is God’s move and you’re counting on it.

Dang, that’s a tough question. One I don’t feel quite qualified to answer. But God started speaking to me this week about a few things that have opened my eyes to my past, and therefore changed how I see my life now and my future ahead.

Here’s what God started showing me … There are some things I can take credit for. I showed up. I pushed through. I tried again. I made myself do freaking hard things, and I made myself keep doing them. I forced myself to make friends with being bad at things long enough to get good at them. I made some good choices. I remained faithful.

Then God revealed to me some things I can take zero credit for. Some of the key, most pivotal moments in my life were not of my own doing. It wasn’t my hard work. It wasn’t my great plan. It wasn’t my faithful step. It was absolutely nothing more, and nothing less, than God’s undeniable GRACE.

It was his grace that gave me parents who taught me how to make ordinary things so fun. I still use that to help others every day. That was grace.

It was his grace that brought me a young man at 15 who would love me for the rest of my life, and protect me from how completely innocent, naive and mold-able I was to anyone who would have paid attention to me. Oh, the regret he saved me from. That was grace.

It was his grace that put me in the office of a retired Army medic at the very moment a blood clot would lodge in my brain stem, creating a massive stroke. My life was truly saved that day, as I should have been home alone instead of at my office before it even opened. That was grace.

It was his grace that positioned me in front of the desk of a very successful, influential older man who would look me in my eye and tell me I had more potential than I was living up to. It was him who pushed me to my limits and insisted I speak in words what I really wanted to be, and out of my mouth flew “I want to be a motivational speaker.” In that moment, I was so embarrassed I even said such a ridiculous thing, and this successful man never batted an eye and said “Yes, that’s it. Now, why aren’t you doing it?” That was grace.

It was his grace that brought me my first 20 people to “motivate” when I had no clue what I was doing and how to do it. They should have never trusted me, but they did. That was grace.

I didn’t do anything to deserve these things. I didn’t work for these things. I didn’t even choose these things. These things, and these people, seemingly chose me. It was divine timing I couldn’t plan. It was ridiculous blessings I didn’t even recognize at the time. And now, looking back, I see it was God’s GRACE overflowing in my life.

Can you see where God’s GRACE could be the only explanation for some things in your life? You didn’t earn that. You didn’t align that. You didn’t make that happen. Think about that now and make your compelling list of examples and proof of God’s grace covering your life.

GRACE: The spontaneous, unmerited gift of the the divine favor of God. The divine influence of God for our revival and anointing.

Do you ever feel like God is taking entirely too long to show up? Like he’s delaying, and as he is delaying, things are only getting worse? Have you ever watched life completely fall apart and felt like God was absent in the process?

Knowing he has the complete power to turn every detail around in this very moment, to radically change every circumstance in your life, and set stagnant things in motion … and yet he hasn’t … that leaves us to question. Does he not hear? Does he not see? Does he not care?

Faith requires us to trust what we cannot see. We cannot see how he is working. We cannot see what he is doing in the middle of our mess. We cannot see the eternal impact of the very things we’re trying to pray away. But we must believe he is here. He is in action. He does care. And nothing, not one detail has been overlooked by our mighty and powerful God.

Where’s God in this problem? Where’s God in your loss? Where’s God in this confusion and frustration?Answer … HE’S ALL OVER IT.

God is at work using every single detail for good. He wastes nothing. Someone’s life is being positively impacted through our hardship. Eternal repercussions are in our midst, and this side of Heaven, you simply cannot fathom what your hurt has healed for someone else. You can’t imagine it, but you can trust it. And for me personally, I know I can go through Hell if I know it’s for something good.

If there’s a purpose in the pain and a destiny beyond the delay, I can stay in the game.

Right here where you are facing another painful delay, God is reminding you he has a purpose and your destiny is ahead. Your job is to stay in the game. Don’t give up. Don’t check out. Don’t stop here.

The enemy works hard to cloud our minds with overwhelm. He tries to frustrate us in the continual waiting game. But all he’s doing is trying to distract you from the mighty and eternal work of our God through your circumstances.

Listen to me … God isn’t out to punish you. He’s not withholding his power or his healing out of punishment. He’s not trying to be mysterious or difficult. God is simply being MERCIFUL.

In everything God does, he is being merciful.

The delay is because he is giving time. And in that time he is working. Work you cannot see is happening as you walk in circles over this delay. God can make things happen in an instant, however he’s dealing with free willed spirits that are defiant and rebellious, and he responds with such mercy to give us time. Time to get it wrong so then he can help us get it right. Time to experience all we don’t want in life so we will then turn the other way and fight for what we do want. All while God is being merciful. Not forcing his children, but lovingly guiding his children.

He is here today with his mercy for you, for your spouse, for your children, for your loved ones.

While I’m frustrated saying “God, fix this – change this – this needs to happen now!” God is saying, “My mercy is at work here.” It is his mercy that creates true change. It is his mercy that we need, not a quick fix.

I’m here today saying I DON’T WANT A QUICK FIX – GOD I WILL WAIT. Will you say the same? Will you trust God’s timing in this? I’m over quick fixes. I’m not looking for a bandaid. God, I will wait for the real deal!

Lamentations 3: 22-23 says “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your fa...