daily devotional

Today, we have been given a new day of life. A day of life all the other days of our life have brought us to. Everything has led up to this, to today. 16,220 days have brought me to this day, where God has gone before me and made a way. Maybe you’ve been around a few more days than me, or maybe a few less, but regardless, God has made a way before you all this time to bring you to exactly where you are today.

You stand on the edge of all that is available now. You are here, today, on the brink of experiencing all God has ever created you for. Oh, if you only understood where your feet are now and where the next steps could lead. Oh, if you only knew the good plans God has for you (Jeremiah 29:11), if you only understood his divine delight over all he has waiting for you, you too would be delighted.

You wouldn’t be overwhelmed with the details. You wouldn’t be caught in the rush and hurry. You wouldn’t be consumed with what isn’t and can’t and won’t. (Isaiah 41:10) Oh, if your eyes could see all that IS and CAN and WILL.

But instead all the days of our lives have brought us to this day in the middle of a week, in the middle of a month which isn’t quite winter but also not quite spring yet either. A day just in between it all. In between the ordinary. In between yesterday and tomorrow, where not a whole lot of anything impressive seems to be happening.

But never forget, you are in between what God did yesterday to save you, and what God will do tomorrow to promote you. What a perfect place to be! Fully surrounded by God. Fully covered by God. Here in this place where God is working and guiding divinely on your behalf.

Yes, that’s what today is sweet child of God, daughter of the King of all Kings, real life freaking Princess girl … this is a day where God is working and guiding YOU.

What does this mean? This means you can trust he is in everything. Yes, everything. He is in every delay. He is in every dilemma. He is in every disappointment. He is in every delight. He is in every direction, all around you.

And in everything, HE IS FOR YOU. (Romans 8:31)

Today you may not see it and it may not feel like it with your real life circumstances and situations, but God is in it all because he is for you. He’s not plotting against you. He’s not locking doors to keep you in a perpetual state of disappointment. He’s locking doors to guide you to the correct door. The best door. The door that leads to more than your mind can even imagine.

This is why you’ve faced a series of nos. This is why it hasn’t worked out. This is why you’ve been delayed. This is why you’ve been a little too short a little too late.

Not because you weren’t good enough. Not because you weren’t chosen … actually quite the opposite. Because YOU ARE CHOSEN. You are chosen for something even better than what was behind that closed door you wanted to enter.

Who am I talking to? Who has something specific in their life that hasn’t worked out? Something you thought would be a great opportunity, but it didn’t happen. Something you thought would have happened by now, but it didn’t. GOD IS ALL UP IN THIS MY SISTER!

Scripture tells me God knows every hair on my head. That’s crazy! Check this out, he not only knows how many hairs are on your head, each one is numbered. In Luke 12:7 Jesus says “the very hairs on your head are all numbered.”

Not just counted, like here’s the grand total, but numbered. Inventoried. Specified. We each have around 100,000 hair follicles on our head. Each hair follicle can grow about 20 hairs in our lifetime. We lose on average 100 hairs per day. And your God, the creator of the Universe, cares enough about you to know about every single hair you have and the 100 you will lose today.

Now, if God cares enough to know about which hair you will lose today, don’t you think he cares about the job you lost too? The contract you lost? The relationship you lost? The keys you lost? The money you’re losing?

Oh yes he does!

While my daughter was still in training in the Army, she lost her wallet. After searching everywhere, she called me in a panic. She had no money and no way of accessing more. The wallet was no where to be found. There was only one thing I knew to do, pray.

But I knew this was God working in the details. God working in the disappointment. God working in the desperate situation. I knew exactly what he was doing here … he was teaching my girl to trust him. We learn trust in one way. We must first fall and then find he does actually catch us.

Until that moment of actually falling and being caught, trust is just a warm fuzzy feeling without a power punch effect. God was working through a lost wallet to prove his power and his care for her specifically.

I knew I could pray, and I did. But more importantly, I reminded HER TO PRAY. Girl, you pray for your ownself! If you’re drowning you can’t count on me to stand on shore and direct help your way, don’t you want to yell out for help too?

Someone listening has been asking others to pray, and that’s important. But have you prayed your own self? God wants to hear from you! And he wants to hear from you so bad, he may have just allowed this specific situation in your life to bring you to this point of reconnecting with him.

So, she prayed. Yes, over something as temporary as a wallet. But it was likely the first time she had prayed in desperation for a long time. After she prayed, no one came to her with a found wallet. Others were looking, but they did not find it.

So I told her, baby go look again. Go back to where you last saw it and look again. Yes, I know you already looked there and I know others have too, but go back again. And would you believe, after she prayed (not just her mama, but her too), and she went back to look one more time, there laid the wallet. Days later, on a seat in a public place where hundreds of other people had come and gone, there was the wallet. Untouched. Once lost and now found.

God cared about her lost wallet. And he cared enough about it to teach her to pray and teach her to trust.

I bet most of us have a similar story. Have you forgotten what God has done for you in the ordinary to prove his care over the details of your life? Have you moved on to the next dilemma without fully appreciating what he did in your last dilemma?

That same girl who had lost her wallet and prayed, now sits in limbo wondering what her future holds. She was supposed to leave this week for Italy. She was supposed to begin her 2 year adventure in distant beautiful lands. Now, the threat of the Coronavirus has changed everything. There will be no ship out to Italy. She lost that promised adventure and thrilling opportunity. She sits and waits for a totally new duty assignment that will change the trajectory of her life and she has no control over any of it.

And while it all seems random. It seems unfortunate. It seems frustrating. We know this is an invitation for a girl who has once again lost something to pray and experience the power of an almighty and loving God who will help her find something even greater.

So here’s what we’ve learned, you are loved by a God who knows every detail in your life, down to the number of hairs on your head. And this God of yours not only knows it all, but he cares about it all enough to number those hairs on your head so each one that is lost is specifically known and accounted for.

And this God who knows it all and cares about it all, is absolutely FOR YOU. He is on your team. He is a fan of you. He is rooting for you. He’s leaning over the edge of seat, which happens to be a mighty throne, and he’s cheering your name.

And let me assure you of this, when God is cheering for you there’s not a dang thing that can stand in your way. Wallets will be found. Orders will be changed. Doors will slam shut so better ones can open. Delays will bring divine deliveries that are right on time.

And regardless of what happens, if God is for you, nothing can stop you. If God is for you, who can stand against you. If God is for you, what is lost will be found or it will be replaced with something better.

And girl, GOD IS SO FOR YOU!