Gosh, wouldn’t it be great to know for sure how God is going to show up and fight for you? Wouldn’t it be amazing to know how God is going to work all this out? Wouldn’t you just love to be assured God is opening this exact door, and you don’t have to knock on a single other door?

It would be nice … but I’ve found God really doesn’t work that way. He doesn’t magically appear with a booming voice, revealing every detail. He doesn’t make an immediate exchange of my doubt for his guarantee.

Instead, you know what happens? God gives us his presence. He lets us know he is here with us. And God’s presence always precedes the miracle.

How about instead of frantically searching for the plan, you simply seek his presence. God, are you here with me in this? If you’re by my side, that’s all I need to fight this battle. I don’t have to have a 10 step plan from you, if I can just know you’re here with me in this step.

I’m currently reading a fantastic devotional book by Phil Wickham, titled ‘On Our Knees’, 40 days to living boldly in prayer. Each day, you read a specific chapter in the bible, then the devotional goes deeper on the lesson. Day 6 is ‘Prayer Breaks Down Walls.’

Oh, I love me a good ‘ol wall breaking down, don’t you? I love me a battle plan with a guaranteed victory. I love me a way is made, impossible becomes possible, God is on the scene, kinda story. But this one isn’t about the story we all know. It’s not about the battle plan where God says march around those impossible walls once every day for 6 days, then on the 7th day, circle the walls 7 times. On the 7th time, blow horns and shout and baby, those walls will come tumbling down in Jericho. Now, that’s indeed what happened, but this isn’t about the battle plan that brought the victory, this is about what happened BEFORE the battle plan.

You’re wanting God to show up and give you clear direction and divine guidance. That’s not wrong. But before he tells you how you’re going to overcome this obstacle in your way, Sis, he’s going to ask you for something.

Let’s read the part of the story we typically skim over to get to the marching and the yelling and the walls crumbling. What happens before that?

Joshua 5: 13-15 “When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”

“Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”

At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?”

The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told.”

This little book I’m reading pointed out what I’ve always missed in this story. What happens BEFORE God brings the walls of Jericho down. Before God reveals how he’s going to make impossible things possible, before he gives marching orders and a promise of victory, he asks for one thing.

The angel tells Joshua to take off his sandals. Removing your shoes was a sign of reverence, humility and respect. It was a total forfeit of comforts and rights. With bare feet, you stand in the presence of a powerful God, in full surrender of your past, present and future.

And this is what God is asking of you here: Be aware of God’s presence before the miracle. This is holy ground.

We mistake holy ground for the place where God makes the breakthrough, but in fact, the holy ground is BEFORE that. It is God’s presence while you’re still in the unknowing. God’s presence before the direction. God’s presence before a single thing turns ar...

Wouldn’t you agree, God shows up in the strangest of places, in the craziest of ways, and does the coolest of things for us. You cannot predict what he is going to do and how he is going to do it.

It’s going to be unexpected.

It’s not going to be what you thought.

And it’s all for a purpose … the purpose of bringing you back to a God who shows up in your struggle and does the sweetest of things.

Are you currently in a struggle? Then girl, look for the sweetness.

Here in your hardship. Here in this difficulty. Here where you feel hard pressed and stressed, without a clear direction to go, look for evidence of God’s sweetness hidden here for you. It’s here.

Psalm 81:16 “But I would feed you with the finest wheat. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”

As the Israelites faced the hardship of the wilderness, they found something from God hidden away for them in the hardest of places. Deep within the crevices of the rocks in the desert, was honey. When there was no tree for the bees to build their hive, they began building in the rocks instead.

Yes, that’s nature, but who do you think directs nature? The same One who created it! Our Almighty God. By his great design, he caused the honey to be hidden in the hardest of places to bring sweetness in their struggle.

Yesterday in Church, we sang this song, “Honey in the Rock”. Not only had I never heard the song before, but I had never noticed the story in scripture before either. I never knew there could literally be honey in a rock when the land is so barren there are no trees. But with God, all things are possible.

So here, in their desert, here in the place where nothing would grow and hardship was all they faced, they were given an unspeakable sweetness by a God who not only wanted to feed them, but wanted to satisfy them.

Sweet girl, have you found your honey? Have you found what God wants to use to go above and beyond just helping you get through this? Have you found the sweetness he wants to provide here in your hardship? Have you found the satisfaction of God’s hidden treasures in hard places?

For the Israelites, honey was like a magical substance. Before the days of an abundance of sweeteners with a million kinds of sugary snacks on our shelves, honey was the most treasured sweetness found. Not only did it taste good, but it was used for medicinal purposes as well.

Beekeeping was a regular part of life in Egypt. As slaves there, the Israelites likely tended the bees and knew of their hives in trees. But now, their newly found freedom had them wandering through a wilderness where there was no food. No harvest. No goodness. All of that had been left behind in Egypt.

BUT GOD …

But God can provide the best of things even in the hardest of circumstances. God can show up with the sweetest of gifts where you were never expecting a gift at all. So right there, in the crevices of the rocks in the wilderness, they discovered honey.

We all know God rained down manna from heaven that would feed them during their hard journey, but did you know God also provided such a sweet surprise to satisfy them as well?

And did you know he will do the same for you?

You may be in survival mode, just trying to get through what you’re going through. You may be on the struggle bus, and maybe it feels like the struggle bus has gotten stuck in a pit of despair and you’re never getting out. Hey Sis, there just might be some honey for you here.

Have you found your honey? Have you found satisfaction from the hand of God here in this struggle? Have you tasted of his sweetness? He has something here for you, and it will never be what you expected, how you expected it, or where you expected to find it. It’s up to you to look for it.

God, where is my honey here?

How do you receive a gift? What is your response to a wrapped box before you even know what’s inside?

Today is my birthday and I am one proud woman to be 47. I’ve waited my whole life to be forty-seven! That’s 17,176 days of life, and God has given every one of them to me, and never failed to bring me through each one. I’m determined to absolutely rock this year of life like only someone with ridiculous gratitude can.

Because it’s my birthday I’m starting this day here with you sharing my absolute favorite lesson. This is the lesson of the Birthday Girls, and yes, I’ve taught it every year for the past 7 years.

Some of you already know the tag line that has changed our attitude and perspective, and it has become your response to every gift offered by God. If you don’t know it, it’s coming.

Imagine with me you have come to the birthday party of 3 little girls. It’s gift time at the party and the girls each sit down at a long table with a wrapped box in front of them. This is the gift you brought for each of the girls.

Birthday girl #1 unwraps the gift, finds the baby doll you bought in the pink dress, gives a slight smile and obligatory ‘thank you’, then quickly focuses on the next present.

Birthday girl #2 rips into her gift, sees that she too received a baby doll from you, but she’s upset it’s yellow and not pink like birthday girl #1. She doesn’t like yellow. She pouts in jealousy with her folded arms and angry eyebrows.

Maybe you’ve been to a birthday party that went down about like this. You regret even buying a gift because there was no real gratitude shown. Just a continual desire for something more or something different.

So, birthday girl … which one are you?

I know it may not be your birthday today, but girl don’t you realize the gift you have received? The ultimate gift has been set before you, wrapped in the rising sun. Here it is, the gift of a brand new day of life. How did you receive it?

Some of us were birthday girl #2, royally disappointed that today isn’t what we wanted. UNGRATEFUL. It’s a work day or it’s a school day. It’s too early and we wanted more sleep. It’s too hot or it’s too cold and we’re like freaking Goldilocks, never happy with anything.

Gosh, aren’t we guilty of always wanting what we don’t have? When it’s Summer we want Fall, then when it turns to Fall we want Summer back. We dreamed of that man to spend the rest of our lives with, now the very sound of him breathing is annoying. We prayed for these babies, now we are nothing but frustrated and overwhelmed. We hoped for that job, now we dread showing up for work. Birthday girl #2, all these gifts and we’re not happy with any of them.

But my guess is, most of us are more like birthday girl #1. We’re just UNIMPRESSED by the gift. Today is okay, but it’s nothing to get all rip roaring excited over. We’ve kinda gotten gifts like this one before. I’ve had a day like this one many times. It’s nothing new, nothing impressive, just ordinary.

So, we too respond to the gift with a slight smile and obligatory, ‘thank you God for today’, but truthfully, we’re more focused on the days that have already passed or the ones to come. Not this gift, the next gift. The bigger one and better one maybe to come. And so we live this day missing all the beauty it holds because we’re here, but not really here.

Unimpressed or ungrateful. Could this be us? The girls who have received the gift of a new day of life wrapped in the rising sun? No, it can’t be!!!!!

Lamentations 3: 22&23 MSG “God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning.

Something powerful happens as a result of loving God. Something unspeakable comes when you trust in Him. Life changes. Your thoughts change. The way you view circumstances changes. Your priorities change. A broader view of a bigger picture is before you, and little things are easily overcome.

Psalm 91: 14-16 “The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.”

So, let’s make this personal. Do you love God? Do you trust Him?

This doesn’t say understand God. You don’t have to understand him. You will never understand him. Your human mind cannot fathom the divine details of his eternal plans and how the very things you would choose to avoid play an intricate role in goodness we can’t afford to miss.

Just like the man in Mark 9:24 who brings his son to Jesus for healing, and he believes but he still struggles with doubt. He admits his doubt. He confesses his unbelief while he still believes. And notice, that doubt didn’t prevent Jesus from the miraculous healing.

Our love and trust doesn’t have to be perfect. It will be human. It will question. It will struggle. It will wonder and it will wander. But God never asked us to be perfect, he asked us to keep coming back to him.

Over and over again, we keep coming back to him. We come back to love him, even when we have been angry with him. Yeah, I said it. Angry with God.

I will tell you, my biggest breakthrough in the midst of struggle came when I finally admitted I was mad at God. I was mad my plans couldn’t work out and his plans didn’t feel good. I was mad it didn’t seem fair. And the moment I released that anger and admitted the shameful feelings I had been trying to bury deep within, God wrapped me up in his loving arms and brought me peace I couldn’t understand. All that anger was just gone, and I could come back to loving him. Back to trusting him.

Are you ready to come back to him now?

Not that you understand what has happened. Not that you agree with it or co-sign the crapfest that has unfolded. God never asked us to be on his level. He never asked us to see it all through his eyes. He simply asked us to trust that His eyes see it all, his hand holds it all, and his plans are ultimately for good.

When we love him and when we trust him, there is an exchange. An exchange of our surrender for God’s providence. Yes, providence. This is God’s supreme guidance and care over every single detail of our existence. This is the territory of the impossible being made possible. Not only being made possible, but even appearing as normal.

God’s power is so divine that he can make every impossible thing you need to happen just look completely ordinary in the unfolding. In fact, you might even overlook it. That’s the way his providence often shows up in our lives. So obscure we miss it. So natural we don’t even notice. Yet it is miraculous. And it’s happening right now, all around you.

You don’t see it, but the exchange has been made. Because of your love for God and your trust in him, he is unleashing his power in your life. I know it’s hard to really understand, but again we’re not here to understand it, we’re here to walk in it. Walk in his power today. Dwell in his divine work today. Be completely covered by his mighty hand as he guides you to what is next.

You won’t always see it. You won’t always feel it. But it’s guaranteed to be happening every time you love and trust him.

So here I am again, God, with my doubts and questions, my fears and thoughts that often get sidetracked in darkness, and I declare once again that I love you and I trust you.

How you look at your own life matters. How you see yourself is either propelling you forward, or it’s holding you back. I assure you, there is tremendous power in your own view of yourself.

You may be missing some of life’s greatest opportunities all because you don’t see yourself as worthy. You may be sidelined, not because of all you can’t really do, but because of all you believe you can’t do. This situation you’ve been stuck in may be nothing more than a self-created circumstance dreamed up inside the walls of your own mind. It’s the story you tell yourself.

What story do you tell yourself about your potential? About your abilities? About your past? About your future?

I assure you, if you tell yourself there’s something wrong with you, pretty soon you will have manifested proof that indeed, there is something wrong with you.

By the time we are 35 years old, 90% of our thoughts are the same on a daily basis. Yip, you looked in the mirror yesterday and thought the same thing you thought today. You’ve thought to yourself every day this week how you really don’t feel like working out. Every day you’ve thought about those piles of laundry, and every day you’ve kinda hated them. Every day you’ve thought about how messy your family is. It’s all the same. Same ol’ thoughts on repeat.

Your mind is operating on a continuous loop. Same ol’ story, over and over again. And you wonder why your life feels boring. You wonder why, even if you have it all, you’re less than thrilled with it. You wonder why nothing really ever seems to change and that ache within for something more just never goes away.

90% of your thoughts are the same dang thoughts you’ve been thinking for years!

Girl, what have you been thinking?

Those thoughts manifested feelings. (I’m not being weird – it’s science.)

Did you know, your body feels the effects of a thought as if the event had actually happened? Case in point, I have a slight cause of claustrophobia. It’s totally a mental condition. It typically only rears it’s ugly little head on airplanes, or like that one time I got stuck deep in a cave in Arkansas and couldn’t find my way out. The pitch dark tunnel I was in, thinking it would lead me out, kept getting smaller and smaller as I slithered my way through … until I couldn’t. I couldn’t fit through the next tiny opening. It was the end. I was going the wrong way. Deeper into the cave. I couldn’t breathe. My chest became tight. My mind felt like it was exploding under the pressure of a million thoughts that lead no where other than I AM STUCK.

If you too have a touch of claustrophobia, you just felt it. You felt panic and all I did was describe it. It didn’t even happen to you, but you felt it. Why is that?

Because your thoughts produce emotions that make your body release chemicals as a stress response. If you think negative thoughts long enough, this natural internal stress response will affect every cell in your body. The production of vital proteins will shut down, weakening your immune system. And you know what will happen? You will literally think yourself into sickness.

Your thoughts can create disease.

And girl, you think your enemy in this life doesn’t know this? That’s why your mind is the battleground. The devil knows the power of your thoughts and he attacks you there.

Have your thoughts made you sick? Have your thoughts made you feel weak, helpless, useless, and utterly destined for a life void of meaning, purpose, joy and happiness?

It seems like you would just change your thoughts and stop this negative cycle in your life. But here’s why that’s so hard: Your thoughts and emotions (this cycle of thinking and feeling, feeling and thinking) becomes addictive.

Have you ever seen a child try to walk in their parents shoes? This weekend, my friend Sharon sent me the cutest video. It was her grandson in a diaper, walking in his Daddy’s big tennis shoes. Oh how he was proud of himself, wanting to ensure everyone could see him in his Daddy’s shoes.

Honey, do you have on your Daddy’s shoes? His shoes are shoes of peace. Peace that makes sense of things that don’t make sense. Peace that protects you, guides you, and fills you with confidence. Peace that empowers you to take the next step on the journey set before you.

Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the full armor of God, and verse 15 tells us about those shoes, “For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.”

Putting on God’s shoes may be awkward at first, but girl, keep practicing and you will get the hang of this. In the beginning, walking in peace feels foolish. It feels unrealistic. But these shoes of peace are exactly what God has for you.

At first, walking in his shoes will bring sudden moments of peace, and this is how you will know you’re moving in the right direction. When that peace shows up as a feeling you can’t explain, confirming things you didn’t even know how to ask for, this is God saying “Yes, this is my way. Follow this peace.”

Have you ever felt that peace? You just know deep within your soul that this is right. And when you move in that direction, you feel absolutely guided. Your feet are steady. Your path is laid out before you and all you have to do is take the next step as it comes. As you go, you are filled with strength to do all you need to do. You feel supernaturally guided, and somehow in ways you cannot fully understand or explain, things just start working.

This is God teaching you to walk in his shoes of peace.

As you practice seeking this inexplicable sense of Godly confidence and assurance, you get better at walking in those shoes. You’re not as clumsy. You don’t stumble as often.

And eventually, walking in peace becomes your normal. It’s no longer a sudden shocking calm that overcomes your soul, it’s a continual presence every day. You wake up in peace. Regardless of circumstances, your feet move forward in peace. You dwell in peace. Things that used to rock you, no longer rock you. You’re not upset. You’re not worried. You’re not overwhelmed. You’re at peace.

And what you notice as unnatural at this point is an absence of peace. When suddenly things don’t feel right. When an indescribable feeling down in your soul alerts you with unease. This absence of peace is now your guide telling you this isn’t right.

As you grow in your journey of walking in your Daddy’s big shoes of peace, you move from feeling the occasional sense of peace, to a continual sense of peace. In the beginning you were looking for that supernatural sudden feeling that says ‘this is right, go here’. Once you’ve followed that long enough, it’s no longer a sudden feeling, it’s your natural feeling. Then you’re guided by the opposite feeling that says ‘this isn’t right, turn around.’

I remember when I first started walking in these great big shoes of peace God offered me. I was continually worried. Constantly upset. Easily offended. Always looking and searching for that hidden thing I was supposed to do next. And suddenly I would be filled with that unspeakable peace. A feeling of calm and assurance would overcome me. And that’s when I would know, this is it.

That’s good. But honey, it’s just the beginning. God wants to show you so much more!

I’ve been walking in those shoes for a long time now. I don’t stumble quite as often as I used to, but you know what,

Do you ever feel like most everyone else has their crap together, and for the life of you, your crap refuses to be anything but scattered? Are you pretty sure that deep down you’re not good enough, you don’t have what it takes, and you will never be qualified for anything better in life?

Gosh, sometimes our insecurities run deep, don’t they? We have wounds and just when we think those wounds are healing, the enemy comes along and picks at them with reminders of our shortcomings.

Can I just say, hey me too. It happens to all of us. None of us are immune to thoughts of not being good enough. None of us are exempt from taunting reminders of the past that threaten to halt our steps today.

I didn’t grow up in Church. We had a Bible in our house, but it was the kind that laid on the coffee table as decoration. One Sunday when I was in about 5th grade, our family put on our best clothes and we went to the local Baptist Church in town. I was beyond excited to go! I was so thankful to find a few of my friends from school sitting on the second row, so I left my family and sat with them. They were dressed better than me. They clearly knew when to stand up and sit down, close their eyes or clap. I was trying my best to follow along and fit in.

A woman stood in front of a table with all these bells on it. Big bells and little bells. Brass bells and silver bells. All different making a different sound. She played an entire song ringing these bells. The moment she sat the last bell down, I erupted in applause, assuming that’s what we were supposed to do, only to find no one else was clapping. It was a time of reverence.

My friends laughed at me. I sank down in my seat and right then and there, I began to feel I wasn’t good enough for God.

Next, the youth group was called to the front of the church with their bibles. I looked around and noticed all my friends in their fancy dresses also had fancy bibles with their names engraved on the front in gold foil. I didn’t have one of those. They each grabbed their fancy bibles and went to the stage, and I sat there alone with no one and nothing.

It was their Bible Competition, and everyone sitting in the pews was supposed to participate with them. So I grabbed a bible from the pew in front of me, and I sat ready. If I opened it real quick, no one would know it didn’t have my name on it. Just then a woman called out some big word followed by specific numbers and shouted “GO”, then my friends on stage frantically flipped through their bibles and yelled “got it”.

Wait what? What just happened?

Then it happened again. The woman was using big words like Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians and clearly this meant something to everyone else because within seconds my friends were competitively opening their huge bible to specific pages and declaring they had it.

But I didn’t have it. Not at all. I sat there holding this strange book in my hand, unsure of what just happened, but quite certain I wasn’t good enough for whatever it was. I don’t remember a single thing that happened the rest of the service. I just knew I didn’t belong.

The next week when my family considered going back to Church, I voted no. I didn’t want to show up wearing the same dress because it was my only dress. I didn’t want to clap at the wrong time. I didn’t want to be shamed again because I didn’t know where to find 2 Corinthians. So, we didn’t go. We never went back.

This was the beginning of a wound. A wound you will never see, but I assure you it’s on the inside of me. A wound that tells me I’m not good enough for God. A feeling of inadequacy. An insecurity that’s simply never gone away. But you wouldn’t know that about me, now would you? You wouldn’t know I would want to quickly excuse myself from any ...

Do you ever feel like you got your chance, and you blew it? You had something good, then you lost it. You had progress and momentum, then one little bump in the road threw you so far off the wagon you have been freaking lost in the wilderness since?

What happens to those of us who screw up? Those of us who fail? Those who sit it out and miss the boat? Are we counted out forever? Are we left to pay the price of our pifall, sulk in our sadness, and never forget our failure?

I’ve been there before. I’ve taken a great opportunity and royally messed it up. I’ve shown up as less than my best self, then beat myself up over it for months afterwards. And after I beat myself up for so long, I dismissed myself from future opportunities because I believed I could never be good enough. (sound familiar?) I’ve been running along hard and fast until my Spirit gave me a gut check and caused me to look up and realize I was totally on the wrong path heading in the wrong direction.

You too? Have you been wrong before? Have you failed? Have you shown up as a second rate version of yourself, then shamed yourself silly afterwards? Mabye it’s something really small and insignificant that you’ve blown out of proportion, or maybe it’s something so big you can’t seem to ever get over it.

Well, let me tell you Sis, our God is the God of 2nd chances. Then 3rd, and 4th, and 5th, and whatever it takes to redeem us time and time again and set us back in alignment with his good plans that he still hasn’t given up on.

Did you know those good plans for your life that God talks about in 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.” Yeah, those plans, girl they haven’t been cancelled! God never drew a line through his good plans for you and said “scratch that, she’s gone and screwed it all up.” Honey, don’t you know God knew every mistake you would ever make before your first breath and he STILL CHOSE YOU!

We live in a cancel culture today where you say the wrong thing and boom, you’re cancelled. You’re shut down. You’re out with no way to get back in. But that’s not our God. God has not and will not cancel you. The call he has on your life is still in effect!

Let me prove it. There are countless stories in scripture of God’s great second chances.

Rahab. Do you remember her? What was her profession? Yeah, she was the prostitute. Her entire life was filled with shame, but God never once took his eye off his good plans for her life and her legacy. She couldn’t cancel her call, even with her lifestyle of sin. Read her story in Joshua chapter 2, then pick up again in chapter 6.

God used her to hide his people to prepare for the falling of the walls of Jericho, then he saved Rahab and her entire family when the rest of Jericho perished. She was given a second chance. Why was this so important? Matthew 1 gives us the genealogy of Jesus and there with all the men’s name listed as it says this one, the father of this son, and then his son to become the father of the next son, it says in verse 5 “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse.”

It was so important to include Rahab’s name because this proved the power of God’s second chances. This woman, shunned by society, and likely with very little self worth and dignity in tact, was not only saved, but she was chosen to be in the lineage of families that would bring us Jesus! This was all part of her legacy.

And it’s here in print for you and I today to see … GOD WILL NOT CANCEL YOU BECAUSE OF YOUR MISTAKES. Even if you’ve been missing the boat for 40 years, girl,

God has given you something, and it’s exactly what you need for what you are facing. You have what it takes.

Did you hear that? You have what is required to make it through this. You already have the beginning of everything you desire. The start to your outcome is already in your hands.

But here’s the problem, it won’t look like it. It won’t feel like it. And you won’t see it until you start using what you already have.

Honey, you have no idea what God has already given you as a start. You just don’t realize what can be made of what you have at this very moment. You don’t see the potential in this. You have dismissed the power in your current provisions. But today, God is going to open your eyes to what he can do when you stop overlooking what you have and start honoring him with it.

There’s a little story tucked away in 2 Kings chapter 4 that I especially love. Everyone loves a rags to riches story, and this one feels a little like that to me.

Verse 1-7: “One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”

“What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.

And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”

So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. Soon every container was full to the brim!

“Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.

“There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.

When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”

This woman went from complete desperation of losing everything, including her sons because she couldn’t pay her debt, to saving her family, paying her debt and living without worry. What happened here was a miracle. And this is a miracle every single one of us have been invited into every day of our lives.

What was the miracle? The miracle was in what she already had. And Sis, that is your miracle too!

I know you would rather an unexpected knock come on your door delivering news of a long lost relative leaving you millions, but I don’t personally know of anyone that’s ever really happened to. (Although my long lost relatives email me often about my inheritance.) I know you would rather have success plopped into your lap immediately. I know you would love to wake up to a fairy-tale life and sing sweet songs with cute forest animals as you twirl around in bliss for the rest of your days. Girl, you are not a Disney Princess!

You are however a daughter of the Almighty King, and his girls are wildly rich and ridiculously blessed. We are … we might just need a little help to see it.

Just like the widow in need with only a little oil in her house, you have a need and only a small supply that seems insignificant. But you have SOMETHING, don’t you? Sis, what do you already have?

While the enemy can’t take away a single thing God has given you, he sure can make you overlook it.

In Numbers 23: 19-20, Balaam was paid by Balak to curse the people of God, but he said, “Behold, I have received a command to bless; God has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.”

It doesn’t matter who is coming up against you, they cannot reverse what God has given you. All the powers of hell cannot undo what God has declared over your life.

Someone is doubting you right now. Someone is counting you out. Dismissing you. Thinking you will never have what it takes to do what you’re trying to do.

They would never think you’re capable of moving forward on this path before you, so they assume you won’t take the next step. They would never believe you have a greater power within you that would cause you to rise above every obstacle and do impossible things.

You see, they just think you’re normal.

You’re ordinary.

There’s nothing special about you.

Nothing remarkable.

Indeed, someone has taken your name off the list of possibilities. You’ve been overlooked. Someone has assumed you will never be more than you already are. Someone has already written your story, and that story says you’ll never do anything different than you’ve already done.

WELL, SOMEONE IS WRONG!

Someone doesn’t who is standing right by your side.

Someone doesn’t know whose power is dwelling inside of you.

Someone doesn’t know how mighty and capable you can become.

Someone doesn’t know you have been called to do impossible things.

AND WHAT IF THAT SOMEONE IS YOU?

There will always be a crowd of naysayers. Doubters will always gather and whisper. The ‘Uh-Oh Squad’ will forever be pointing out your shortcomings. (You know the squad that just waits for you to screw up then says ‘uh-oh, she shouldn’t have said that. Uh-oh she messed that up, didn’t she. Yeah, that’s the ‘Uh-Oh Squad’ always looking for the uh-oh to point out.)

But check yourself here this morning … Have you been Queen Bee Naysayer of your own life? Have you been Head Master Doubter? Have you been President of your own the ‘Uh-Oh Squad’?

The someone doubting you right now is likely YOU.

The someone counting you out, yip, she’s staring back at you in the mirror.

The someone dismissing you, thinking you will never have what it takes to do what you’re trying to do, it’s YOU.

You think you’re not capable.

You think you can’t take the next step.

You believe you’re just normal.

You believe you’re ordinary.

You believe there’s nothing special or remarkable about you.

BUT GIRL, LOOK WHO IS STANDING NEXT TO YOU!

Have you forgotten the God of all creation, the one who can make all things possible is standing right by you and he will never leave you or forsake you?

Have you forgotten the power of the Almighty dwells within you, prompting you in supernatural ways? Don’t you know he guides your steps, he makes your paths straight, he gives your feet solid ground?

Have you forgotten his power is made perfect in your weakness, so you actually stand here perfect right now. Perfectly filled with power to do every single thing you need to do today!

David was a little shepherd boy who walks on the scene with nothing more than lunch for his older brothers. He’s arrived that day as a delivery boy, but he would be delivering a whole lot more than just lunch. He would be delivering a display of God’s miraculous power that you and I would still be talking about over 3,000 years later.

David arrives to his brothers to find the Giant Goliath taunting the Israelites. For 40 days this giant of a man had been threatening them, leaving them terrified to move forward in battle. At the time, David is just a young teenager. He had never been in war like his brothers, and he was only there to deliver lunch. When David pipes up and says, “I’ll fight Goliath”, he is of course dismissed.

No one, not his brothers, not the other soldiers, and certainly not the King thought for one second David would stand a chance against this giant. They counted him out. They doubted him.