daily devotional

What would happen if you could catch the vision of what God wants to do in your life? If you could only see how God is using everything to make you into so much more, to bring your life more purpose, to use your days for greater impact.

The vision.

God, give us vision today.

This is what we’ve lost. In the middle of it all, we’ve failed to see circumstances for what they truly are. We’ve become overwhelmed by the very things that are here to set us free. God is saying, “my dear daughter I have something better for you, lets not get lost along the way.” To guide you, he begins closing other doors. Doors you would wander through and waste precious days of your life. So he shuts them. Honestly, sometimes slams them. And it hurts us. The sting of rejection, the pain of failure. But with proper perspective we see it’s just divine redirection from a heavenly father who has a greater vision for our lives.

Lord, let us catch that vision.

How many of your days have you spent wandering through doors you had no business going in? Looking back you even see it … there were ‘DO NOT ENTER’ signs on the doors, but you went in anyway. Relationships you knew weren’t right. Conversations you knew weren’t good. Decisions you knew weren’t healthy. But in that moment, it felt better to go in a door … any door … than be stuck in the hallway.

Oh what messes we create when we run from the pause. Pause … God, is this where I’m supposed to go? Pause … God, is this what is best for me? Pause … God, is this who you want me to be with? A holy pause versus a desperate rush. We rush our way right into some fine messes, don’t we?

I’ve wandered my way into some dandies my self. I’ve dead-ended into closed doors, then beat the door down and wondered where God was. Gosh, do you ever wonder if God is just wanting to scream … “girl, I never lead you here!”

I’ve woke up and found myself working in an office I should have never even walked in, lowering my standards to fit in, then wondering why God wasn’t blessing my business. Uhmmmm hello … those were my finest works, not his. But I was desperate in my rush and missed the holy pause.

Do you too find “waiting on the Lord” is harder than obeying the Lord? Psalm 27: 14 says “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” It was so important the psalmist said it twice in one sentence. What’s hard about waiting is not knowing. If you know exactly what you’re waiting on is indeed coming and once it gets here it will be good, then the wait is tolerable. But life is kindof like sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s with no guarantee you will ever be seen. They may call you back, or they may not. It my be today, or it may not be at all. He may give you answers, or you may leave with more questions. You just don’t know. Will you wait … or will you give up?

God, don’t let us give up on what you’re doing. Don’t let us lose hope on what you have waiting for us. Don’t let us walk away from what is best for us chasing what we can have right now. Don’t stop chasing us.

Lord, I can praise you in the waiting room while I hope you’ll call me out. I can praise you in the hallway as I wait for doors to open. I can praise you when the timeline I had set has way since passed. I can praise you when my way hasn’t happened and your way is still unknown. I can praise you and I can trust you. I can trust you’re a good, good father with a greater vision than my own. I can trust that you see what I don’t see, and your eye is ever on me and ever guiding me.

I can do it. I will do it. I will practice the holy pause over my desperate rush.

Isaiah 30:18 says “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!” God, the creator of the universe, the master of everything you see and do not see, the one who holds the world in the palm of his hand, yet has his eye on YOU, LONGS TO BE GRACIOUS TO YOU. His hearts desire is to give you divine grace. Understand HE FAVORS YOU. You are his favorite, oh beautiful daughter of his. Masterpiece of his hands, it is you he wants to be gracious to.

Today there are likely a million reasons God could be royally disappointed in me. He knows my potential and he is easily able to compare it to my results and see I haven’t measured up. I’ve missed the mark perhaps more than I’ve hit it. And for this, he is rising up. Rising up not to condemn me, not to strike me down with punishment. Rising up not to discipline me, but rising up to show me compassion.

Today, God is rising up to show you compassion. In the very hallway where you’ve been wandering around lost, beating on doors that won’t open, frustrated wondering where God is, desperately rushing … right here is where he is rising up to show you compassion. Wait for him here, you will be blessed.

God, give us vision today. Vision to see you at work. Vision to see who you created us to be. Vision to see others as you see them. Vision to capture opportunities for all their value and worth. Vision to wait in the hallways and knock again. Vision to see what we have been rushing by in desperation. Slow our roll today God. Catch us, capture us, hold us tight and don’t let us go. If we keep rushing we’ll wish away our days and miss what is most precious … don’t let us rush. God, we don’t want to miss this.

As we breathe in life today, intentionally and purposefully receiving God’s breath in our lungs, we gain perspective with a holy pause. We see God rising up to show us compassion, and we receive our blessing as we wait.