daily devotional

You were created to be more than a conqueror, a champion. A total winner in life. But sometimes we feel like a loser don’t we? Sometimes we wake up feeling defeated, overwhelmed, outmatched, incapable, and anything but champion-like. But God isn’t concerned about your feelings, he’s concerned about your training. You’re in training my friend. Training to become all you were created to be. And you were NOT created to be a loser. Life wasn’t given to you to waste.

God has a plan for your life, and whether you believe it or not, it’s a good plan. In fact, it’s better than your plan. But I wonder how often we’re delaying God’s good plan for our lives because we get in the way? It is our procrastination, not God’s that causes delay. It is our hesitation, not God’s that hinders our potential. How many times will you sit and rethink the scenario in your head, over and over again, planning every detail, without consulting God?

I’m a big believer in the power of written goals. Every single person I mentor is encouraged to write goals on the first of every month throughout the year. They’re taught to read their goals several times every day until they are memorized. I know the statics, you are 300 times more likely to achieve your goals if you not only write them, but read them daily. 300 times! I like those odds, that why I personally do it.

And, I’ve seen women who are slaying their goals and doing every single thing they set out to do … and they’re still miserable. I’ve seen women get totally lost in the process, slaves to their own goals, no longer enjoying life but checking the boxes and continually striving for more, more, more, never satisfied with any level of success.

This isn’t what God wants for us. His desire for you is to live a balanced life. A life that glorifies him with your success and yet still has time for him in your schedule. A life that has faith to move mountains and a shovel to make it happen. A life that prays as if its up to God and works as if its up to you.

This is balance, and this is where 97% of us are struggling.

Will you work your butt off and trust God with the results? Will you show up and do all you can while fully trusting God will do all you can’t? Will you show up and get on the ride, then remember to enjoy the ride instead of white knuckling your way through life? Will you get in the game, give it your all, and resist the urge to stare at the scoreboard to see if you’re winning?

Let’s take a holy pause here. Take a step back and look.

God didn’t create you with a loser in mind. His will is not for you to lose … permanently. But he will let you lose right now so you grow. He will let you struggle right now so you are strengthened. He will let you taste defeat so when victory comes you appreciate it with every ounce of you. He wants you to be a winner with a humble spirit. Humility comes in the struggle to get there. He will let your story be full of twists and turns and ups and downs so that one day you will be able to personally help someone else. Your unmatched overnight success is no good to someone who is in the middle of their struggle. However your real life hardship and experience with setbacks and obstacles makes you the perfect person to help them.

You are God’s hands and feet here on this Earth. That’s why you’ve gone through it all. You’ve been set up to help someone else step up. God will not allow one moment of your hardship to be wasted if you will hand it over to him. If you will refuse the invitation to get bitter, God will help you get better, then he will use you to help someone else get better.

Proverbs 3: 5-6 is our guide here: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

What if you took these goals you have for this month and this year and you submitted them to God? What if you said God, not my will, but yours. Not my way, but yours. What would happen in your life with a full surrender of the details and yet a full commitment to do the work?

God wants to do something in your life. But what God does is not cheap. It will cost and I know this too, it will never go on sale. Look at the high price Jesus paid for us. The ultimate sacrifice. The highest possible price was paid for you. You’re not cheap. Girl, you had one heck of a price tag on your life. But God was willing to pay the price in the form of his own son’s life for yours, now he’s asking you to pay the price to fully live the life he created you for.

Think about that … THE LIFE HE CREATED YOU FOR. This is the goal. Living the way you were designed to live. Living up to your fullest potential. Achieving your greatest purpose. Becoming exactly who he imagined when he created every detail of you. Now that’s a goal. It’s not going to be easy, nor is it going to happen overnight. But you’re not doing this on your own. The results aren’t up to you, the work is. Every morning you wake up with the energy to do exactly what you need to do. But are you using that energy to live well, or are you wasting that energy on useless efforts?

Are your plans in alignment with God’s plans? Really think about that … are your plans in alignment with God’s plans? If they’re not, you’re wearing yourself out. You’re trudging through mud, fighting and clawing your way where every inch feels like a mile, all while you’re going in the wrong direction. Are you willing to stop right now and admit that maybe you don’t have it all figured out. Maybe you’re a little wrong here. Or maybe you’re totally wrong here. Maybe you’ve been writing goals and leaving God out of them. Maybe you’ve been struggling far more than you have to as a result.

In all your ways, submit to him. Submit to him. That means bring it to him for review and approval. If I were to submit an offer to you, that means I would write it out in full detail, then slide it across a desk for your consideration. I would be asking for your approval and partnership. Get it? This is what God wants from us. Submit everything to him.

You have these big ideas and grand plans … great, submit them to God. You know what that requires … that requires a holy pause. That requires restraint. It requires faith that if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen with God’s help. He’s the one who makes our paths straight, otherwise we’re running around in circles, frustrated and stuck.

You may think you have this all figured out … ahhhhh but wait girlfriend. Check your alignment. Slow your roll. Remember the holy pause. Submit your plans and your goals to God for his review. Let him balance you and straighten you out, then your path to where you’re going will be straight. You were created with a winner in mind, a champion of life … so don’t be a loser. Don’t carry around a defeated mindset. Don’t play little. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Don’t count yourself out. Step up and claim what is yours …. this one and only BIG beautiful life that only you can live. Live it. That’s your goal!