When God looks at you, what does he see? He sees who he created you to be. He sees your potential. He sees his beautiful creation on a journey to becoming all he imagined … and girl he’s moving heaven and earth to help you get there! Today I’m here to help you lean into what God sees in you. To help you start believing in the potential he has placed inside of you. To step into the destiny that has your name on it.

God is calling you to what you’re going to be all while you’re trying to fit in with what you used to be. Repeat after me, I’m not who I once was! Now, you can drop those old ways, old thoughts, old habits, and confidently step into the life available to you.

In yesterday’s devotional, episode 1171 titled “Into the Mystery”, we heard about two brothers who were fishermen, Peter and Andrew. When Jesus walked by them and said, follow me, they dropped their nets and followed him. We learned that it is the following of Jesus, the pursuit of Jesus that changes us. We do the following and Jesus does the changing.

Today we’re going to dig a little deeper in this story and see how it applies to our own lives and journeys. I’ve been inspired by an old journal entry from a TD Jakes sermon on Matthew chapter 4.

Peter and Andrew had to first do one thing before they followed Jesus … they had to drop their nets. Understand the value in their nets. This was their one tool for income and survival. This was all they had. They had likely spent their entire lives caring for and mending their nets. Leaving it behind to follow Jesus was a tremendous step of faith, but imagine if they would have tried to drag it with them. To step into the life Jesus was calling them to, they had to drop it.

How many times have you dropped something, experienced some success, then gone right back and picked up that old thing again? Maybe it was a habit. You broke the habit, you were doing so good, then for some reason you picked it back up again and before you knew it you were right back where you used to be. Maybe it was an attitude. You changed your attitude and perspective. You were like a new person with a new outlook, and darn it felt so good. Then something happened and it took you right back to your old way of thinking and talking, then you found yourself worse off than you were before.

Isn’t this the real life journey of every single one of us? We make progress, we taste success, then we relapse. And isn’t it harder the second time around because we now know what we can have, we’ve tasted it, we even lived it for a time and going back to who we were and how we were is painful.

Have you ever lost weight, then gained it back? How many times will you lose and gain the same darn 20 pounds? Have you ever ran a race, then stopped running? Have you ever slayed one of our challenges to simplify your life, then gone out and bought a bunch of stuff you don’t need? Or have you ever taken on the zip-it challenge with us and successfully restrained your tongue with no nagging, nit-picking or complaining for a period of time, then boom … you’re right back to running off at the mouth like a mad woman, screaming at the kids, nagging at your husband, and complaining to your girlfriends?

We sure have a way of screwing this up don’t we? We make progress with one step forward, then it’s two steps back. Picking up again those habits and choices we once put down, taking us back to who we once were instead of moving forward to who we’re being called to be.

Peter and Andrew did the right thing when Jesus walked by with an invitation to follow him. They immediately dropped their nets and followed. But let me tell you something, these two fishermen often went back and picked up their nets again. Jesus told them to drop it, but they kept picking it back up again. But Jesus didn’t give up on them. He saw something in them. He knew their potential. So he kept coming back for them.

We’ve all relapsed before. Each of us have gone back and picked up something that God told us to drop. But God isn’t giving up on you. Even when you’ve given up on yourself, God isn’t. And you know why? He sees something in you. He knows your potential. Do you know how he knows your potential? Because he put it there! He filled you with poten live a big, beautiful life and he just keeps coming back to you time and time again with more opportunities to drop whatever you’re holding on to and follow him.

God wants to lead you to something new, a new place in life or a new level of living. To get there, you will have to follow him. You can’t get there on your own. And where he’s taking you will be uncomfortable and unfamiliar. Your environment will be out of your comfort zone. And I know this, you will want to run back to what is safe and familiar time and time again, picking up those old nets that you laid down. But if you will stay the course. If you will continue to trust and follow God. If you are willing to get out of your comfort zone and dive into the deep end of the pool, God’s going to show you your potential. He’s going to show you what he’s seen in you from the beginning.

Peter only saw himself as a fisherman. He was from a family of fishermen and all he knew how to do was fish. But God saw him as a disciple of his son Jesus. Someone who would be chosen as part of the inner circle. God saw him as the rock on which he would build his church.

When I began my journey, I had no idea what God saw in me. I never went to college. I’m just a simple country girl, the daughter of a carpenter and factory worker. I took a single public speaking class as a Sophomore in high school, and I fully admit the only reason for taking that class was to sit by my boyfriend. I would have been happy staying in that little country town working in the only factory there. But God had different plans and I had nets I had to drop. I get glimpses of what God has available for me and it literally scares me. I can run or I can lean. I choose to lean.

I wonder how God sees you. Likely different than how you see yourself. How about you just start leaning into what God sees in you. Start believing in the potential he has placed inside of you. Be willing to follow him outside of the confines of your comfort zone where he is leading you to new places and new levels to discover the life he has designed for you and the destiny that has your name all over it.

God is calling you to what you’re going to be all while you’re trying to fit in with what you used to be.

Psalm 37:23 says “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him.”

Today you’re just taking another step. Another step towards the life you were created for. Another step towards the person you were always intended to be. Another step towards that potential that’s inside of you. One day you’ll do what you simply aren’t strong enough or confident enough to do today. If you keep stepping. If you keep going. God’s going to strengthen you and take you to those new places, but you have to keep stepping. Keep following. Keep trusting. And you may never know the step it was that brought you your breakthrough. You may never know this side of heaven which step it was that sealed the deal.

But today, keep stepping. And if you’ve picked back up that which God has told you to put down, just let it go again now.

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