BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

This could be one of the most confusing and easily twisted stories Jesus told. Maybe you’re like me and you’ve read it before, said “well that doesn’t make sense”, and quickly moved on. On the surface this one doesn’t make sense. However, if you really seek, you will find a deep message that truly does make sense. So, let’s read this story together and this time we’re committed to not digging deep for the message instead of skimming on through. Luke 16: 1-9 Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’ The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’ So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons.’ ‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.’ The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.” First glance – is Jesus telling us to cheat? Is he praising twisting the truth or dishonest business? Absolutely not. This manager was no doubt doing wrong – he cheated and he was caught cheating by his boss. He knew his boss was going to fire him, so before he could, he made friends with everyone who owed his boss money. He lowered their bills in order to earn their good graces. Now, when he was fired, he would have friends who would help him. And the boss had to “admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd.” The confusion comes in this word ‘shrewd’. I liken that word to mean slimy, sneaky, crooked – but that’s actually not the definition of the word. Shrewd actually means wise and strategic. The boss admired this man for seeing what was coming (getting fired), and making strategic decisions now (using what he have to prepare for the future.) Now, understanding this word ‘shrewd’, we understand what Jesus is saying – “Children of this world are more wise and strategic in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light.” As followers of Jesus, personally chosen by God and redeemed to be considered righteous, we are living in this world, but we are not children of this world. We are children of the light. We live by different standards. We have a different calling and a different compass. Children of this world are those without Jesus – those who aren’t covered in the grace of his blood. And Jesus is saying as children of the light, we can use a lesson in being more shrewd – that is more wise and strategic. And here’s why … Every single one of us will be called to give an account of our stewardship. We are all just managers here of things that don’t really belong to us. Everything you think you own doesn’t really belong to you – you can’t take it with you. That’s all on loan. The people you love and care for, they don’t belong to you. You may get to raise them, you may get to share life with them, but they’re not yours. You’re a manager of all that really belongs to God. And just like the manager in Jesus’ story, you will be held responsible for how you’re managing your bosses affairs. I will literally stand before God one day and give an account for everything I did and didn’t do. Every word I spoke, and every word I didn’t speak. Every time I helped, and every time I walked on by. Every time I made the right choice, and every time I made the wrong choice. How I spent every dollar and every day. How I treated others. I’ll be held responsible for how I managed my entire life … and so will you. Romans 14:12, “Each of us will give a personal account to God.” Imagine God reviewing your life and asking why you walked by when you saw someone in need. What will you say? Imagine God asking why you wasted your time (which was really his time being given to you to manage) on things that didn’t matter. What will you say? Imagine God asking why you spent so much energy trying to impress people instead of minister to people. What will you say? Imagine God asking why you were so consumed with accumulating things that you couldn’t take with you, while neglecting the things that would last forever. What will you say? Imagine God asking why you had opportunities to love, serve, encourage, forgive, give, speak up, invite, pray, or share Jesus – and you didn’t. What will you say? Imagine God asking, “I gave you that money. I gave you that time. I gave you those relationships. I gave you those gifts. I gave you that influence. I gave you that platform. I gave you that opportunity. What did you do with what I gave you?” What will you say? Because that’s the point Jesus is making. Be shrewd. Look ahead. Think beyond today. Recognize that this life is temporary and eternity is coming. Then use what you have TODAY to prepare for what is coming TOMORROW. The manager in this story understood something that many of us forget: What I have right now is an opportunity. He knew his time was limited, so he acted. If we know we will be called to stand before God and give an account for how we managed all that was his, why aren’t we living different? And if we know every single person we come in contact with is one day soon going to stand before God as well, why aren’t we aggressively pointing them towards Jesus? SOULS ARE ON THE LINE! Isn’t that what really matters? All of this is going away, but eternity is waiting. What are people willing to do to grow a business, to make more money, to get another client, to make a deal … practically anything, right? Billboards, advertisements, slipping up in your text messages, spamming your email, paying influencers to use their products. People will beat the streets, pull overtime, get another degree, invest, and sacrifice – just to make more money. BUT WHAT ARE WE WILLING TO DO TO REACH ANOTHER SOUL FOR JESUS? If we pursued the Kingdom of God with the same zeal as the children of this world pursue profits and pleasure, everything would be different! If we used our present resources to plan for eternity the same way we use our resources to plan for our next vacation or promotion, imagine how many more people would be saved, rescued, redeemed, healed and changed! THAT’S WHAT JESUS IS TALKING ABOUT! WHY AREN’T WE USING EVERYTHING WE HAVE TO PLAN FOR THE ETERNITY WE KNOW IS COMING? Jesus is telling us that we should have the same urgency as this manager who knows his time to prepare for the future is limited – not to cheat, not to manipulate, not to be dishonest – but to be wise and strategic with what God has given us to manage. To use this time to prepare for what is coming and what truly matters. If you have money, use it strategically for God’s purposes. If you have time, don’t waste all of it on things that won’t matter in eternity. If you have influence, use it to influence people toward Jesus. If you have a home, use it to welcome people. If you have a gift, open it and share it. If you have a story, tell it. If you have resources, share them. If you have relationships, invest in them. If you have a voice, speak life. If you have an opportunity to do good, don’t keep waiting for a better one. Be shrewd. Wise and strategic for eternal good. Because one day, the opportunity will be gone. The money will be gone. The house will be gone. The career will be gone. The possessions will be gone. The calendar will be empty. And all that will remain is what you did with what God entrusted to you. That’s why Jesus isn’t telling us to become more like the dishonest manager in character. He’s telling us to become more like him in urgency. The manager looked at his future and allowed it to change the way he handled his present. The manager knew he had to give an account to his boss for how he managed things and he started preparing immediately. We should do the same. We know where our story ends. We know eternity is real. We know Jesus is coming. We know our time here is limited. We know we will give an account. So let’s stop living like we have forever. Let’s be shrewd. Let’s live today with eternity in mind. Let’s manage what God has placed in our hands in a way that makes sense in light of where we’re going. Maybe Jesus wants us to wrestle with a few questions today through this story he told. What are you doing with your time? What are you doing with your money? What are you doing with your influence? What are you doing with your relationships? What are you doing with your gifts? What are you doing with your story? What are you doing with the opportunities God keeps putting in front of you? You don’t have to have more. You just need to become more faithful with what you already have. You are the manager. God is the owner. And one day, the Owner will ask for the report. So make today’s report count. See what’s coming. Understand what matters. Act accordingly. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

This is the final of the trilogy of stories Jesus tells to explain the worth of a single soul to God. We had the Parable of the Lost Sheep where the shepherd leaves the 99 to find the 1 who has been lost. We had the Parable of the Lost Coin of the woman who has 10 coins, but when she loses 1 she looks relentlessly until it’s found. Notice the numbers – 1 out of 99 – 1 out of 10 – and now Jesus takes it down to even a more personal and direct number – 1 out of 2 with the Parable of the Lost Son. This is the story we often refer to as the Prodigal son, depending on the translation you’re reading. This story told by Jesus has so many layers and so many life changing truths, we will divide this one into 2 devotionals. Today will be part 1, only covering the first half of the story. Let’s read it together in Luke 15: 11-24: “A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.’ So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible, and really for many reasons. I’ve been rather open about the 7 year journey with our own prodigal daughter. She walked out of our house at 17 and just never came back. Many times we had no idea where she was or if she was even alive. She made horrible, dangerous choices, and just kept running further and further. The Lord showed me how to wait in hope and faith. He showed me how not to chase her and make things worse. He showed me his faithfulness in the wait. I learned my job was to pray relentlessly for her and always be ready with the welcome home party when she returned. And when our girl finally did return to her family this year, he showed me how he had been allowing my daughter to step into her own testimony of his faithfulness. And yes, we had a party – a wedding party! My prodigal had come home and our relationship continues to grow and flourish every day. It’s truly one of my greatest joys. But this story is also one of my favorites because I realize it’s my own story as well. I am the prodigal. No, I never ran away from my family. No, I’ve never had a wild lifestyle or racked up a bunch of regrets. But gosh have I ever missed out on God’s best by chasing after something else. I am the prodigal. I am the lost one. The Father waited for me to come home and return to his best. Can you see how that’s you too? That’s all of us. The youngest son in Jesus’ story had made a mistake. His mistake was in LOCATION. The provision of his father was in location. He left his father’s house and he struggled fiercely. He ends up living with the pigs, just wishing he could eat the pigs food. But you know what that hunger did – that hunger brought him back home. God lovingly allows us to struggle and suffer when we have chosen to be away from him. He allows hunger because hunger brings us back. Desperation makes us hit our knees. Rock bottom becomes a solid foundation for a turn around. But wow, have you ever noticed that some of us have basements to our rock bottoms? We can go further and further down – further and further away – run harder and harder – make even worse choices with harder consequences … but let me tell you something, THE FATHER IS STILL WAITING FOR OUR RETURN. He’s still waiting for our surrender. He’s still waiting for us to stop running, stop resisting, stop making this worse. The timing of this particular parable is so perfect because just last night I went to a really special service at our church here in Carlsbad, California. Surfers and beach babes basically went to a rodeo at our church. It was the strangest mix of beach people trying to be country. In our church parking lot was a corral surrounded by hay bails and bleachers. In the middle of the corral was a wild horse. Then a legit cowboy enters the corral. Have you heard of this guy? His name is Todd Pierce with Riding High Ministries. In front of a live audience, he trains and rides a wild horse for the first time, all while giving us the most powerful visual of God’s loving patience with us. If you ever get a chance to go see Todd in action, I highly recommend it. I cried through the entire experience. It was one of the most spiritual things I’ve ever witnessed. This horse was 2 years old and up until that week, he had never been touched by a human hand. He had been roped and trailered into California from a ranch in Idaho … and he was NOT happy about it. Todd enters the corral and this horse runs. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with this cowboy. Todd every so slowly works his way closer and closer to the horse as it’s running in circles. He introduces the touch of his rope, then the touch of his hand. Little by little, the horse comes to trust him. But then, the horse would get scared and it would run wild again. Todd explained that this is so often us with God. God begins His work in our lives. He gets closer. He reaches for us. We begin to trust Him. And then something scares us. So we run. But God doesn’t give up. He waits. He tries again. He gets a little closer. And when the horse would refuse his touch, Todd would do something that absolutely broke my heart. He would get down on his knees. He would lower himself beneath the horse and show him tenderness and care. He wasn’t chasing him. He wasn’t forcing him. He was allowing the horse to see that he wasn’t there to hurt him. The horse still had the power to run. And Todd was willing to let him. But as that horse watched this cowboy kneel before him, something began to change. Little by little, he came closer. And closer. And closer. I’m sitting there crying and crying because suddenly I recognized myself. I’m the wild horse. I’m the one resisting. I’m the one who gets scared. I’m the one who doesn’t want to surrender. I’m the one who sometimes runs when God gets too close. And yet…. God waits. God doesn’t stop loving me because I run. He doesn’t abandon me because I resist. He doesn’t force me into surrender. He patiently pursues me. He keeps reaching. He keeps waiting. He keeps inviting me closer. But there was another part of this demonstration that really got me. Todd explained that every horse is different. Some surrender quickly. Some take much longer. Some fight hard. Some even try to hurt him. But ultimately, if a horse refuses to be trained, it loses. Not because the cowboy doesn’t love it. But because the horse cannot become what it was created to be while it remains wild. Think about that. A horse can spend its entire life running wherever it wants, doing whatever it wants, refusing every bit of restraint. That may look like freedom. But it isn’t freedom if it keeps the horse from becoming what it was created to be. A trained horse can do incredible things. It can carry someone into battle. It can help a rancher. It can serve a purpose far greater than simply running wild. But a horse that refuses to surrender to its trainer will never experience that purpose. And I couldn’t stop thinking about how often I do the same thing with God. I want His blessing, but I resist His training. I want His purpose, but I don’t want His process. I want Him to lead me, but I still want to choose the direction. I want the life He has for me, but I don’t always want to surrender the life I have chosen for myself. And maybe that’s the question this parable is asking us: Am I willing to be trained? Because surrender to God isn’t losing my freedom. It’s finally becoming free to be who He created me to be. The wild horse thinks the cowboy is taking something away. But the cowboy knows what the horse doesn’t yet understand: Surrender isn’t the end of the horse’s life. It’s the beginning of its purpose. And maybe that’s what God is saying to you today. You don’t have to run anymore. You don’t have to fight Him. You don’t have to be afraid of what happens when you finally let Him get close. The One asking you to surrender isn’t trying to diminish you. He’s trying to develop you. He’s not trying to take away your purpose. He’s trying to lead you into it. So maybe today isn’t about trying harder. Maybe it’s about stopping. Turning around. And letting the Cowboy come close. Stop running. Stop resisting. Stop fighting the hands that are trying to heal you. Let Him train you. Let Him lead you. Let Him transform you. Because the greatest version of your life isn’t found in running wild. It’s found in surrender. Whether you’re the prodigal running from the Father or the wild horse running from the Cowboy, the invitation is the same—come home. Stop running. Stop resisting. Stop believing that your freedom is found somewhere outside of God’s will. The Father isn’t standing at the end of the road waiting to punish you. He’s watching for you. He’s running toward you. He’s ready to throw His arms around you, put a robe on your shoulders, and celebrate your return. And the Cowboy isn’t trying to break you to ruin you; He’s trying to teach you how to live. He knows what you were created for, even when you don’t. So today, maybe it’s time to stop running and let yourself be found. Stop fighting and let yourself be trained. Stop trying to build your own life and let the One who created you lead you into His. Because surrender isn’t losing the life you wanted. Surrender is finally coming home to the life God created you for. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Luke 12: 16-21 Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’ Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” What if the things God has blessed you with slowly become the things you live for? Have you ever seen a hearse pulling a Uhaul? No – you truly can’t take it with you. Everything you’ve ever bought – everything you’ve ever built – everything you’ve ever worked for – it will all be gone in an instant when you take your final breath. And my friend, I assure you of this – your final breath is coming. One day you will wake up, and it will be your last. You may not know it, but that day will come – and when it does only heavenly things will matter. Every earthly thing will be over. But while we’re here having our earthly experience, it’s so easy to get wrapped up in our earthly things. It’s so easy to allow this entire life to become about work – about earning, about building, about buying, about having. All while we forget the entire point of our existence – this is our opportunity to have a rich relationship with God. The one who created you wants you to know him. The one who imagined you, designed you, and knit you together cell by cell in your mother’s womb – the one who watches over you, the one who aligns good plans for you, the one who is always working all things together for good concerning you – he has given you this time to grow to know him, trust him and love him. Everything else is temporary. Everything else is either a bonus – or it’s a distraction. In this story, there’s nothing wrong with the man being rich. He had a fertile farm. Guess where that fertile farm came from? That was God’s creation. God made that land. God allowed that land to be fertile. And that land produced fine crops. That’s a blessing. But here’s what those blessings did – they created wealth for this man and that wealth became a problem for him. He was so successful that he didn’t even have room to store all his crops. So of course, he plans to builds bigger barns. But, in all his success he failed to realize how extremely numbered his days were and his time was up that very night. Is it sinful to be successful? Is is wrong to have money? No. That’s not the point of Jesus’ story. The point here was this man had spent his life building success but hadn’t built a relationship with God. The man didn’t do anything obviously evil. He worked. He was productive. His land produced. He succeeded. He planned for the future. He built bigger barns. None of those things, by themselves, are bad. The problem is that God was completely absent from his plans. Notice how many times he says “I” and “my.” My crops. My barns. My wheat. His entire world had become about himself and what he could accumulate. Everything is “mine”. And yet, the truth is, everything he had was ultimately something he had received. The land wasn’t his creation. The rain wasn’t his creation. The fertility wasn’t his creation. His ability to work wasn’t his creation. His life itself wasn’t even his creation. BUT HAD HE FORGOTTEN ALL THAT IN HIS SUCCESS? This is really a story of building a life that looks successful on the outside but is becoming spiritually empty on the inside. This is a story of allowing the things God has blessed you with to become the things you live for. And really, isn’t this a huge threat to all of us? Have your blessings become the reason you live? If you lost those blessings, what would you have? You would still have your relationship with God – but if you haven’t been building that relationship with God, then you would be completely without a reason to live. And in the end, in that last breath, all you have is God. That moment is coming for every one of us. We all fear failure, but you know what’s more dangerous than failure … success. When life is hard, we tend to reach for God. When life is going swimmingly well, we get all wrapped up in our blessings and God gets crowded out. That’s dangerous. We pray when we’re desperate – but do we pray when we’re successful? We seek God when we’re broken – but do we seek him as much when everything is working? We beg God for provision when we don’t have enough – but do acknowledge him with that same fervency when we have more than enough? The danger isn’t having a lot. This is all God’s and he’s happy to share everything he has with his children. The danger is in having a lot and forgetting who gave it to you. I’ve done that. Haven’t you? The man in Jesus’ story didn’t make a mistake by building a bigger barn. His mistake was building a bigger and bigger life without building a bigger relationship with God. What’s the title of this podcast? BIG Life. We’re here seeking the BIG Life God created us for. We believe each of us were created for a big, beautiful life. What’s the key part of that BIG Life – our relationship with God. Otherwise, we’re just building barns that we can’t take with us! Here’s what God wants to ask his girls today: All while you’re working on building a bigger life with your business, and your house, your family, and your health – how’s your relationship with ME? With all this building, HOW IS YOUR SOUL? My girl, are you becoming more like Jesus? Are you learning to trust me? Are you growing to be more generous? Are you living more peacefully? Are you loving my people better? Are you spending time with me? Are you really enjoying this life I gave you to live? If all you’re doing is building bigger barns, your soul may be getting smaller. And Jesus says that’s dangerous! The man in Jesus’ story is planning for YEARS, but in reality his timeline is brutally short. We plan as those we have forever, but God asks us to live faithfully today with an eternal focus. We don’t know how many more summers we get. How many Christmases. How many mornings with the people we love. How many conversations. How many sunsets. God doesn’t remind of this to make us fearful – he reminds us of this to help us WAKE UP. When you remember how temporary this life is, you can actually learn to live more fully. In my moment of believing this life was truly over there were only 2 thoughts in my mind – I was going to see Jesus THAT day -and- did I tell my people that I love them. That’s it. Nothing else mattered. When I received the miraculous gift of more time, I was forever changed in how I woke up to each new day. I know what’s important, so I know how to live. All this other stuff is temporary. If you knew you only had one year left, what would suddenly become important? Would you still work the same amount? Would you still care about having the same things? Would you still spend hours scrolling? Would you still keep putting off that conversation? Would you still be waiting for someday to do what God has been asking you to do? Would you still be obsessed with how you look? Would you still be trying so hard to impress people who won’t even be at your funeral? Would you spend your time differently? Would you love differently? Would you give differently? Would you slow down? Why are you waiting for a terminal diagnosis to start living like your life matters? You don’t have to know when your last day is to start living differently. Jesus isn’t saying: Don’t have anything. He’s saying: Don’t let what you have become who you are. You can enjoy beautiful things without worshiping beautiful things. You can dream BIG without making your dreams bigger than God. The issue isn’t what is in your hands. The issue is what has captured your heart. Before we build absolutely anything – let us make sure we are building the one thing that that matters – our relationship with God. The rich fool spent his life accumulating things he couldn’t keep. But Jesus invites us to spend our lives building something we can take into eternity—our relationship with Him. If I keep living exactly the way I’m living today, what will my life look like five years from now? Will I simply have more stuff? More money? More accomplishments? More things checked off the list? Or will I know Jesus more deeply? Will I love people better? More faithful? More courageous? More alive? Because that’s the measurement Jesus gives us. Not how much we accumulated. Not how impressive our barns became. Not how successful we appeared. But whether we became rich toward God. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

If there’s one of these stories that Jesus told that has most impacted my life, it is this one. It’s a guide for daily living and it will meet you exactly where you are every day of your life. The moral of the story – JUST BE FAITHFUL. What happens when you are faithful with little? God sees you can be trusted with more. What happens when you aren’t faithful with little? God knows he simply can’t give you more. Whatever you’re doing with what you’ve already been given determines what you’re given next. The story Jesus tells is about money, but I assure you this is a lesson on more than just finances. This is about your time. This is about your talent. This is about your treasures. Today, God is asking each of his girls to take an inventory and measure what we’ve been doing with what we’ve been given. Maybe you’ll find what I’ve found … it’s time to step up and do more with what I already have before I ask for one more thing. Okay, so it’s story time and it’s a long story. Grab your Bible and read along. I’ll insert a few details along the way to help you understand the story Jesus is telling us. Matthew 25: 14-30 Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip. Some translations will read ‘talents’ and that means money. My translation reads silver, again meaning money. How much money are we talking about? Answer: A ridiculous amount of money. All 3 of them received MUCH. One talent or bag was around 75 pounds of silver. To put that into perspective, the smallest measure of money given here was about 16 to 20 years of daily wages. The story Jesus is telling isn’t about the dollar amount – everyone received a lot from their master, even the one who received the least. The story is about faithfulness with what is given. The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money. What do you think digging a hole in the ground and hiding away what you’ve been given would look like? Wouldn’t it look like wasting it? Wouldn’t it look like doing nothing with it? Wouldn’t it look like playing it safe? Yes. And wouldn’t it sometimes look like waiting until you’re more qualified, more confident, more ready? Wouldn’t it look like comparing what you have to what someone else has and deciding yours isn’t enough? Wouldn’t it look like being so afraid of losing what you’ve been given that you never actually use it? A buried gift is simply an unused gift. It’s the thing you’ve been entrusted with, but you’ve done absolutely nothing with it. It’s the talent to sing, but you’re too afraid to raise your voice for the One who gave it to you. It’s the money to give, but you’re too concerned about what they might do with it. It’s the story you’ve lived, but you’re too ashamed to tell it because you don’t want anyone to know where you’ve been. It’s the opportunity in front of you, but you’re too afraid to fail. It’s the idea God put in your heart, but you’ve talked yourself out of it before you’ve ever taken the first step. It’s the time you have, but you’ve spent it scrolling and staying busy instead of investing it in what matters. It’s the people God has placed around you, but you’re so distracted by your own life that you never stop long enough to pour into theirs. It’s the calling you’ve sensed, but you’ve buried it under a thousand excuses: “I’m too old. I’m too young. I’m not qualified. I’m not ready. Someone else could do it better.” Are you the one who has buried what you’ve been given? You haven’t invested it. You haven’t put it to work. You haven’t used it to build or grow or impact. You’ve simply buried it. Waiting. Sometimes that’s exactly how we waste what God has given us. Not by doing something terrible with it—just by doing nothing with it. Girl, do you have a hole in the ground where your calling is buried? You’ve been given so much, but you’re not doing anything with it. Not really. And you know it. What has God placed in your hands that you’ve stopped using. Look at your time, your talents and your treasures – what’s sitting stagnant in your life? What opportunity, gift, resource, idea, story, or calling have you buried because fear convinced you it was safer underground? Well, what happens when God has given us something but we have refused to use it? What happens when we’re not faithful with what we’ve already been given? Here comes the rest of the story … After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’ The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’ The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’ The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’ Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’ But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’ Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ The master is God, and when the master returns he calls for each of us to give an account of how we used everything he has given us. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been given or how much you’ve been given – what matters is what you’ve done with it. The master wants to know. It matters! If you’ve been given 40 years of life – what have you done with those 40 years? If you’ve been given 2 children – what have you done with those 2 children? If you’ve been given a weekly paycheck of $1000 – what have you done with that pay? If you’ve been given a 2,000 square foot house – what have you done with that house? If you’ve been given mercy and grace from past mistakes – what have you done with that mercy and grace? If you’ve been given health – what have you done with that body that can move and go? You never see the master asking a servant to produce the same as what another servant produced. He’s not comparing. The master is asking each one to produce with precisely what they’ve been given. He expected each one to do something with what they had. It’s so easy for us to look at someone with extreme wealth and assume we would be so ridiculously generous if we were in their position. Oh, the good we would do with their money! But God isn’t fooled! Who you are with a $40,000 salary is who you would be with a $40 million dollar salary. More money just makes you more of who you already are. Without children it’s easy to paint a fantasy world of how we would sing sweet songs as we cooked breakfast for our little angels. Girl, if you’re not singing songs while you feed the dog, you certainly wouldn’t sing cooking for ungrateful creatures who refuse to eat. Isn’t it fun to fantasize about what you would do with a big new house with all that storage space? Oh to have a butler’s pantry! Oh mercy, walk in closets in every room! Built in storage in the garage. But do you know what you would do with it – the same exact thing you’re doing with a smaller house. If you’re complaining about this one, you would complain about that one. If you’re messy with this one, you would be messy with the next one. If you’ve overfilled this one with junk, you would overfill the next one with bigger junk. Have you ever thought – well if I could sing like her I would use it for God in big ways? Uh huh – well girl, you can cook – are you cooking for God? You can talk to a rock – are you talking to others for God? You can clean – are you cleaning that church building for God? Really, let’s check ourselves. So, let’s get to the point of the story Jesus is telling. The point isn’t to make you feel guilty about what you haven’t done. The point is to wake you up to what you still CAN do. Because here’s the beautiful thing about this story: You are not standing at the end of your story. You’re standing in the middle of it. And if you’ve buried something, you can dig it up now! If you’ve been sitting on something, you can put it to work today. If you’ve been waiting, you can start right here. The master hasn’t returned YET – but he may soon. And he’ll want to know what you’ve done with what he’s given you. You don’t have to have five bags. You don’t have to be the most talented, the most educated, the wealthiest, the prettiest, the healthiest, or the most qualified. You just have to be faithful with what is already in your hands. Stop looking at what she has. Stop wishing you had her life, her resources, her opportunities, her gifts, her energy, her story or her butt. That’s not your assignment. Your assignment is your life. Your people. Your resources. Your opportunities. Your gifts. Your story. Your time. And maybe you’ve been waiting for God to give you more when He’s been waiting for you to do something with what He’s already given you. Today, let’s stop asking for more and instead ask this – “God, what have you already given me that I’m not using?” Then let’s dig it up. Use it. Invest it. Give it. Share it. Build with it. Love with it. Serve with it. Do something with it. Because one day, the Master is coming back. And when He does, I don’t want to stand before Him with a list of reasons why I was afraid. I want to stand there with open hands and say, “You gave me this—and I gave it everything I had. I did everything I could with it God. It hasn’t been perfect, but I sure tried.” And I want to hear those words every one of us longs to hear: “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” Notice what the Master celebrates. He doesn’t say, “Well done, my successful servant.” He doesn’t say, “Well done, my impressive servant.” He says, “Well done, my GOOD and FAITHFUL servant.” That’s the goal. Not bigger. Not better. Not more impressive. Faithful. JUST BE FAITHFUL. Faithful with the little. Faithful with the much. Faithful when nobody is watching. Faithful when it feels insignificant. Faithful when you’re tired. Faithful when you’re afraid. Faithful with the time, the talent, the treasure, the opportunity, and the life God has placed in your hands. Girl, you have been given so much. Don’t bury it. Take what you’ve been given and put it to work. And let’s live the rest of our lives with one simple prayer: “God, everything I have is Yours. Show me what You’ve put in my hands – and give me the courage to be faithful with it.” That’s it. That’s the assignment. JUST. BE. FAITHFUL. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Jesus also told them other parables. He said, “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come! So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them. The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” Jesus is using the example of a royal wedding. The prince is getting married and the king is sending invitations to the celebration. It would have been considered an absolute honor to receive this invitation. There would be no reason NOT to go to the wedding. Everyone hearing this story knew you simply would not miss this opportunity. How foolish to not go when the king has invited you to be part of the royal celebration. And Jesus is saying, the true King of all kings, the maker of Heaven and Earth, our Heavenly Father, has invited us to his celebration. How unbelievably foolish would it be for us to refuse his goodness. For real, why do we resist? God says in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for YOU. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” Why in the world would we refuse his good plans? But we do, don’t we? A few months ago I was trying to make a decision. It was a pretty big decision and I didn’t know what to do. I knew what I wanted to do because I was just tired. But I didn’t have any peace about it. So, I sat down and journaled my prayer asking God for his direction. Afterwards, I sat and waited for the Holy Spirit to show me God’s answer. His answer to me was I had free will to make any choice I wanted, but God had an invitation for me to trust him. An invitation to continue on with him on the journey even when I was really tired. I had received an invitation to God’s goodness – why in the world would I refuse that? With this new perspective of God’s invitation, I accepted, I trusted him, I continued, and he renewed me. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made this year. I bet right now God is inviting you into his goodness. The problem is, it might require you to step out of your comfort zone. It might require you to put a bra on, along with some real pants and show up early. It might make you meet new people, go where you’ve never gone before, forfeit control and forfeit comfort. Trade your known for the unknown. And here’s the thing, if your world has slowly shrank in and become smaller, that invitation is becoming harder and harder for you to accept. That’s the way a little life works. Our life just keeps shrinking and shrinking, while the confines of our comfort zone tell us to just stay here where it’s known and where it’s safe. All while God created you for a great big, beautiful life! Girl, you’ve been missing out! There’s so much more for you. God’s goodness is out here, available for the taking – but you’ve been choosing comfort over Kingdom. You’ve been choosing what is easy over what is eternal. You’ve been choosing what you know over what God is inviting you to discover. If God is inviting you, why are you not going? If your life has gotten too busy to accept an invitation to God’s good plans, then quite simply, YOUR LIFE HAS BECOME TOO BUSY. If your life has become so comfortable that you don’t want to be inconvenienced, YOUR LIFE HAS BECOME TOO COMFORTABLE. If your life has become so predictable that you don’t have room for the unexpected things God wants to do, YOUR LIFE HAS BECOME TOO SMALL. If you have so carefully built your life that there is no room left for God to interrupt it, you aren’t actually living surrendered – You’re living scheduled. And maybe that’s the invitation today. Not an invitation to do more. An invitation to make room. Make room for God to surprise you. Make room for people you didn’t plan to meet. Make room for places you didn’t plan to go. Make room for opportunities you didn’t see coming. Make room for obedience that doesn’t make sense yet. Make room for a life that is bigger than the one you could have planned for yourself. Because here’s what I’ve learned: God’s invitations rarely come wrapped in comfort. Sometimes His invitation looks like an uncomfortable conversation. Sometimes it looks like showing up when you’d rather stay home. Sometimes it looks like saying yes before you know how. Sometimes it looks like releasing something you’ve been holding onto. Sometimes it looks like walking into the room where you don’t know anybody. Sometimes it looks like putting on a bra, real pants, and getting your butt out the door. And sometimes the invitation is simply: “Trust Me.” That’s what mine was. And when I said yes, I discovered something I don’t want you to miss: God’s invitation wasn’t taking something good away from me. It was leading me into something better. I thought I was sacrificing my comfort. God was expanding my life. I thought I was choosing obedience over what I wanted. But what I discovered was that obedience was actually the doorway to what I wanted most. That’s the deception of a little life. We think we’re protecting ourselves when we’re actually restricting ourselves. We think we’re choosing peace when we’re actually avoiding growth. We think we’re choosing comfort when we’re actually missing the whole point. We think we’re keeping our lives manageable when God is standing outside the door saying, “Girl, I have so much more for you.” Where is God inviting you? What have you been saying no to because it’s inconvenient? What have you been avoiding because it’s uncomfortable? Where have you allowed fear to make the decision for you? The King has prepared the feast. The table is set. The invitation is in your hand. Don’t miss the feast because you’re too comfortable sitting at home. Don’t miss God’s goodness because you’re afraid of what saying yes might cost you. Don’t keep choosing a little life when you’ve been invited into a BIG one. And here’s the really crazy thing about this parable: The invitation is not the end of the story. The king invited everyone. The good. The bad. The people who had their act together. The people who absolutely did not. The people who looked like they belonged at a royal wedding and the people who probably showed up wondering if they had accidentally walked into the wrong party. Some accepted, most did not. Everyone was invited, deserving or not. And you know what that is – That’s grace. You didn’t earn the invitation. You didn’t clean yourself up enough to deserve it. You didn’t become good enough to get through the door. You were invited because the King wanted you there. The King will not have an empty banquet. Girl, if you don’t accept his invitation to goodness, he will find someone to fill your spot at the table. But then Jesus tells us something strange. The king walks into the banquet and notices a man who isn’t wearing wedding clothes and has him thrown out. Wait what? At first this seems harsh. The guy was invited off the street – How was he supposed to have wedding clothes? But Jesus isn’t talking about a literal dress code. Dig deeper. Jesus is talking about someone refusing to CHANGE. (Let that set in). The man refused to change, so he was thrown out. When you accept God’s invitation, grace gets you in the door. But grace doesn’t leave you the same once you’re inside. Grace changes you and makes you new. The invitation says, “Come.” The wedding clothes say, “Now become.” God doesn’t invite you into his Kingdom just so you can keep living exactly the way you were living before you met Him. He invites you into something new. A new way of thinking. A new way of loving. A new way of living. A new way of responding. A new way of trusting. A new way of seeing yourself. A new way of seeing other people. A new way of doing life. You don’t have to earn God’s invitation. But if you accept the invitation, you have to be willing to let the King change you. You weren’t invited to a better version of your old life. You were invited to a completely different life. A BIG life. A Kingdom life. A life where you don’t have to be driven by fear, because you trust God. A life where you don’t have to control everything, because you know who is in control. A life where you don’t have to protect yourself from every possible disappointment, because you know God is faithful. A life where you don’t jump through hoops trying to be accepted, because you already know you’re loved. What is God inviting you into? And maybe even more importantly: What are you allowing to keep you from accepting the invitation? Is it comfort? Fear? Control? Busyness? Your need to know exactly how it’s going to turn out? Your fear of what other people will think? Your exhaustion? Your excuses? The King has prepared the feast. The table is set. The invitation has been sent. And you can keep standing outside wondering if you’re ready. Or you can walk through the door. You can say yes. You can trust Him. You can put on the wedding clothes and start changing. Girl, the King has invited you to the feast. Don’t miss the party because you’re too comfortable in the parking lot. Don’t miss the Kingdom because you’re afraid to leave your little life. Don’t miss what God has for you because you’re waiting until you feel ready. The table has been set and there’s a seat for you here – Oh how I pray you accept the invitation, let your life be changed, and meet me at the party! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Matthew 21: 28-32 But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway. Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But he didn’t go. Which of the two obeyed his father? They replied, “The first.” Then Jesus explained his meaning: I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do. For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins. ———- So, Jesus tells this story and he asks us a question – “What do YOU think about this?” Really, what do you think about this? Are others who are doing far worse things than you ultimately better than you from a Heavenly perspective? In this culture, the fastest and surest way to refer to someone you would look down on is to associate them with two categories of people: Tax collectors or prositutes. Tax collectors were notoriously crooked and corrupt. They would steal from anyone for their own benefit. And prostitutes were considered the lowest of women, who made their living off other’s sins. So for Jesus to say both of these looked down on categories of people would get into the Kingdom of Heaven before them, it brought everyone who heard it down off their holy pedestal. Those listening thought they were righteous. Those listening thought they were better than others because they knew what to say and said it well. But Jesus essentially says, “It’s not what you say with your mouth – it’s what you refuse to do because of your twisted heart.” You say you will, but you don’t – Jesus is not impressed and he’s not pleased. Jesus is not saying sin doesn’t matter. He’s saying repentance matters more than reputation. The tax collectors and prostitutes Jesus is referring to had heard the Good News, they had believed it and they had changed. The religions people Jesus is talking to now had heard the same thing, watched it all happen, and refused to repent for themselves. The danger is when we don’t think we need a Savior. WE DESPERATELY NEED A SAVIOR. And when we know we need a savior, we surrender our lives and change our direction. The greatest barrier between you and Jesus may not be your sin. It may be your belief that you don’t have any. What you say you will do has no impact on God’s eternal work. Your words do absolutely nothing for you, for him, or for anyone else. It’s your changed heart that He is looking for. It’s your surrendered will that moves your feet even when your first response was to not go. Here’s the great news – God is more interested in your direction than your first reaction. The first son said no. He didn’t give the right answer. He didn’t sound spiritual. He didn’t politely say, “Absolutely, Dad!” He actually said, “No.” But then something happened. He changed his mind. (Girl, maybe you got it wrong at first, but God has given you time to change your mind!) Your first response doesn’t have to be your final response. You can say, “I’m scared. I don’t want to. I’m not ready. God, I don’t think I can.” AND GOD CAN STILL WORK WITH YOU!!!!! You don’t have to get the first response right. You just have to be willing to change your response. You know what that is? That’s grace. God isn’t looking for a perfect first response. He’s looking for a surrendered final response. I don’t know, maybe you’ve said no for 10 years. Maybe you’ve been running for a long time. Maybe you’ve resisted far more than you’ve surrendered. Maybe you’ve made some epically wrong choices. The Father is still standing in the vineyard saying, “Come work with me.” Jesus doesn’t praise the first son because he said no. He praises him because he eventually went. That’s repentance. Repentance isn’t simply: “I’m sorry I did that.” Repentance is: “I’m going somewhere different now.” You can cry and never change. You can apologize and never change. You can feel convicted and never change. You can know Scripture and never change. Repentance puts feet on conviction. Repentance is when your feet finally agree with what your heart has realized. Repentance is moving forward in obedience with what you’ve been delaying for so long. Did you know you can say “yes” to God with your mouth while saying “no” with your life. We can get all religious, and be radically wrong. The second son sounds perfect. “Yes, sir. I’ll go.” Beautiful answer. But then he doesn’t go. And Jesus is essentially saying: Don’t confuse agreement with obedience. We can become very good at Christian language. “I trust God. I surrender. God is good. I’m praying about it. I’m waiting on His timing.” But eventually, the vineyard requires you to go to work. There is a point where faith has to leave your mouth and enter your calendar. Enter your relationships. Enter your finances. Enter your habits. Enter your decisions. Enter your obedience. God isn’t impressed by the “yes” you say if your life keeps living “no.” Now, notice this about the story Jesus tells – These were both SONS of the Father. They weren’t hired workers. They were sons. They were close. And they were asked to work in the family business. The Father doesn’t say: “Go build your own vineyard.” He says: “Go work in MY vineyard.” That’s different. God has a work already happening. People need Jesus. Families need healing. The lonely need friendship. The hurting need someone to sit beside them. The lost need someone to point them home. The discouraged need encouragement. The next generation needs somebody willing to mentor them. And God says: “Come work with Me.” You aren’t trying to build God’s kingdom from scratch. You’re being invited into something God is already doing. Have you ever met someone who stepped into a successful family business? My son moved from Hawaii to Southern California last week. During his first morning on the beach, he ran into someone he knew from middle school. Our family lived in Carlsbad, California for exactly 1 year when the kids were growing up. For 1 year my son went surfing every day, my girls rode their bikes along the coast, and we thoroughly enjoyed the SoCal life. We couldn’t afford to stay, so we quickly moved away – but everyone remembers that one year with delight. So here my son is, back where he always wanted to be, now beginning a new life with his wife – and he runs into this old friend of his from middle school. He’s driving a $200,000 porche, still living on the beach, and working in the family business. His Dad started a technology institute and it grew wildly successful. So here’s this 27 year old young man who stepped right into riches. And then there’s my son. We have a pretty successful podcast that operates completely for FREE, refuses to sell advertisements, and intentionally dropped off all social media platforms. Here’s our family business which does NOT include a porche. Not all family businesses are the same. But have you ever stopped to realize that YOU have been invited into a family business that changed the entire world? A family business that saves lives. A family business that holds unseen treasure. A family business guaranteed to last forever, through the end of time?!!! There are family businesses where the inheritance looks like money. But our family business with the Father has an inheritance that can’t be measured in dollars. We get to participate in something eternal. How wild is that?!!!!!! And remember this – you’re not trying to earn your way into the family through your performance. YOU ALREADY BELONG TO THE FAMILY! The sons were already sons before the father sent them to work. We don’t work for God to become His children. We work with God because we are His children. We don’t work in the vineyard to earn the family name. We work in the vineyard because we carry the family name. You and I have been invited into a family business that cannot fail. Our Father is in the business of rescuing people. Healing people. Restoring people. Redeeming people. Bringing people home. And He doesn’t need us. He invites us. That’s the miracle. The God of the universe looks at you and says, ‘Come work with Me.’” Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Jesus is serious about forgiveness. He gave his very life to forgive you. And … he asks you to forgive every other soul who has hurt or offended you. Yes, everyone for everything. Now I don’t know, but maybe that’s a nearly impossible task. Forgiving them – what? They aren’t even sorry. Why should you offer them forgiveness? If for absolutely no other reason, because of this – JESUS SAYS TO. And if Jesus says to forgive, then it’s for a good purpose and you can trust him. Jesus teaches this lesson in another parable and this story makes it very clear the torment we subject ourselves to when we withhold the very forgiveness we have received. Matthew 18: 21-35: Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!” Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart. To begin, understand the bar Jesus is setting on how many times you should forgive someone for their sins against you. By Jewish law, you should forgive 3 times. So, when Peter suggest forgiving 7 times, he’s being generous. Then Jesus comes back with a number that doesn’t even make sense – “No, not 7 times, but 70 times 7.” Here’s what that means – that means every limit you’ve had on forgiveness is blown out of the water and there’s zero use in keeping score here. You forgive over and over and over again. This is supernatural forgiveness. This is a level of peace making within your heart that is beyond you. For this, you will need Jesus! Remember, you are a girl who has been forgiven of much. You have no right to turn around and withhold forgiveness from someone else. The first servant owed the King millions of dollars. This man had no possible way to repay his debt. No matter how much time the king granted, there was still no way for him to pay it back. Knowing this, the King had compassion and showed his servant mercy, forgiving his debt completely. This man’s weight had been lifted. He walked in full forgiveness for his very large debt. But, he refused to offer that forgiveness to one of his own servants who owed him far less. When his servant begged him for more time to pay, the forgiven man refused to offer forgiveness and ordered his servant to be thrown into prison. When the King hears of this, he says to the man, “I forgave you of your tremendous debt. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you?” Here’s the problem – so many of us forget the mercy God has shown us. In our own little world, we’ve somehow convinced ourselves we’re good enough for our perfect and holy God on our own. Girl, you and I have fallen so miserably short! We have zero right to the forgiveness we walk in. One of our sins disqualifies us from Heaven, let alone the piling of our sins. Isaiah 53: 5-6, “He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.” Yes, girl, your sin was absolutely unbearable. You were not good enough. You were disqualified. That’s precisely the reason Jesus gave his life for you. Now, Jesus requires that forgiveness to flow through you. What happens if you hold on to bitterness, anger, and resentment because of what someone else did to you? Well, Jesus is actually quite clear here – You will be tortured. This is serious. You need to understand what unforgiveness does to your heart and your mind – it brings torment. But you already know that, don’t you? If you just can’t forgive them for what they did, you have felt that torment. It’s been eating away at you. You can’t find peace. You’re continually upset and wrestling with thoughts, reminders and feelings that torment you. And here’s what is truly heartbreaking – you’ve allowed that. Your refusal to forgive has permitted the torment. Of course it’s easy to pull the “unfair” card. What they did to you was unfair. So it’s unfair to ask you to forgive them. Well, here’s what I know – we really don’t want to play the “fair” game. If God judges us from a “fair” standard, we lose. If God does to me what’s fair, then I don’t get his grace and mercy. If I get justice, then I get eternal punishment. No Lord, please don’t give me justice – give me mercy. As the recipient of his unfair mercy, I’m out of playing the “fair” game. It doesn’t have to be fair. Is unforgiveness a sin? Yes – it is. Jesus says in Matthew 6: 14-15, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” That’s clear. If you hold on to unforgiveness, you will be walking around with the weight of your own sin. Here’s the warning in scripture that should scare the bejesus out of you if you dare hold on to unforgiveness, therefore bearing your own sin. Psalm 38: 3-8, “My health is broken because of my SIN. (Unforgiveness is a sin – it will break your health.). My guilt overwhelms me – It is a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins. I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief. A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken. I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart.” Where is this exhaustion, sickness and crushing feeling coming from? SIN. What is a sin we often hold on to out of hurt because something wasn’t fair – UNFORGIVENESS. And it’s tormenting us!!!!!! Unoforgiveness is sin and allows torment in our body and mind. Read Jesus’ warning in the parable again – “Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you? Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be TORTURED until he had paid his entire debt. That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you REFUSE TO FORGIVE your brothers and sisters from your heart.” The king turned him over to the torturers. Do you realize there are demons from Hell with the assignment of torturing the hearts and minds of those who hold on to unforgiveness? Peace and healing from that torment can only be found one way – FORGIVING THE ONE WHO IS SO HARD FOR YOU TO FORGIVE. My friend, I pray you don’t allow this torment to continue in your life. You don’t have to carry this anymore. You don’t have to keep replaying what they did, rehearsing what you wish you had said, or carrying anger into every new day. Jesus is inviting you to lay it down. And maybe you’re thinking, “But I can’t forgive them.” You’re right. You can’t—not in your own strength. This kind of forgiveness is supernatural. So don’t start by asking yourself, “How can I possibly forgive them?” Start by asking Jesus, “Will You help me forgive them?” Bring Him the betrayal. Bring Him the injustice. Bring Him the anger. Bring Him the memories that still hurt. Bring Him the part of you that doesn’t want to let go. And then surrender it to the One who has already surrendered everything for you. You may never get an apology. You may never get an explanation. They may never understand what they did to you. Forgiveness doesn’t make what happened okay. It doesn’t erase the consequences. It doesn’t require you to trust someone who has proven untrustworthy. Forgiveness simply releases your right to keep carrying the debt. You are handing their debt over to the King. And remember this: you were carrying a debt you could never pay, and Jesus paid it for you. You have been forgiven. You have been shown mercy. You have been set free. So now, let that same mercy flow through you. Today, you can say, “Jesus, I forgive them. Not because what they did was okay. Not because they deserve it. Not because I feel like it. I forgive because You have forgiven me. I release them to You. I release the debt. I release the anger. I release the right to make them pay. And I ask You to heal what they broke in me.” And when you do that, something changes. The prison door doesn’t just open for them. It opens for you. Because forgiveness isn’t saying, “What you did didn’t hurt me.” Forgiveness is saying, “What you did will not own me anymore.” That’s the freedom Jesus died to give you. So, girl, let it go. Not because it was little. But because Jesus is bigger. Not because they deserve your forgiveness. But because you have received His. And not because forgiveness is easy—but because freedom is worth it. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Matthew 13:52, “Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old.” Well what on earth is Jesus trying to show us here? Being a teacher of religious law means you know your Bible. You know facts. You know history. You know verses. You know order. But there’s more than just knowledge of the Bible for us – we are invited to become DISCIPLES. As a disciple of Jesus, we are his STUDENTS. Do you see the interesting dynamic Jesus is introducing here – for those who call themselves teachers, those who know all there is to know about the Bible, we can then go even deeper by being a student of Jesus. We can learn from him. Jesus wants to take us beyond the written word, he wants to reveal to us the things of Heaven. Have you ever studied scripture and simply gotten nothing out of it? My friend, you could have the entire Bible memorized from cover to cover, which many ‘teachers of religious law’ did in these days, but fail to be a discipled as a student of Jesus. You could know everything there is to know about God’s word, but only have knowledge without meaning. God hasn’t called you to gather up more and more knowledge so you’re the most intelligent person with massive amounts of information. He’s called you to be a student of Jesus, learning spiritual ways beyond the words. Jesus calls us into relationship with him. In close relationship we can see how Jesus works. He says in Matthew 11: 29-30 MSG, “Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” You can’t learn that from reading. You could study for the rest of your life and never learn the unforced rhythms of grace. These are the things you will only learn in close relationship with Jesus as his disciple. Are you ready to really be a student of Jesus? Okay, then KEEP COMPANY with him. What would that really look like? Keeping company with Jesus means you invite Jesus to be with you in your everyday life. It’s beginning to live in a continual awareness that he is there. Wow, to think that Jesus is personally interested in YOU and every detail of your life. There’ a line in a song I love that says, “Never thought to stop and wonder – You made a million colors – And now you’re thinking about me.” Let that settle in for a moment. God had the capacity and creativity to make a million different colors in every different tone and shade, and now that same God is thinking about YOU!!!!! What???!!!!!! That must mean you’re special. That must mean he sees you as worthy. That must mean your life is for a purpose. And when you live with that awareness, life begins to take on a different color. Nothing is an accident. All things are truly working together for good in the hands of the God who is wild about you! And now, this great big, huge, all-knowing, all-powerful God has invited you to personally be his student and keep company with him?!!!!!!!!!!!!! As you’re walking through your every day, ordinary life, recognizing Jesus is actually with you – you will begin to open yourself up to what he is trying to teach you. THAT IS DISCIPLESHIP. This is how you will learn the unforced rhythms of grace. This is how you will learn to live freely and lightly. And this will change your life completely! These are the things you don’t get from just reading. This isn’t a class you can go to. This is one-on-one life training with the one who created life. Jesus teaching you. When Jesus says, “Walk with me, work with me – Watch how I do it”, he’s not asking you to take a class. He’s inviting you to be his apprentice. This is an apprenticeship. You watch the expert! Watch how Jesus handled hardship. Watch how he handled criticism. Watch how he responded when he was tired. Watch how he spent time with the Father praying. What how he dealt with interruptions. Watch how he LOVED. Watch how he forgave. Watch how he handled power. Watch how he trusted God. YOU LEARN BY WATCHING JESUS. Then, you start doing what you see him do. Today, this day of your real life, it is a classroom. Jesus is teaching you something here. Something beyond the typed words in your Bible. Something beyond the same stories you will read. Something personally designed for you to see Jesus working so you can learn to do the same. Today, you will learn patience. Today you will learn trust. Today you will learn surrender. Today you will learn peace. Today, your life is filled with opportunities to be disciplined by Jesus. YOU DON’T ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING! Jesus has so much more he wants to teach you. Now, back to this parable. In the story, Jesus says the disciple (the student who is constantly learning) is like a homeowner who brings things out of his storeroom. Okay – you can’t bring out what you haven’t put in. Every time you spend time with Jesus, you’re putting something in the storeroom. This is how scripture comes alive. This is how lessons grow deep. This is when you see God’s answer to prayers. This is personally experiencing the faithfulness of God. THIS IS THE STOREHOUSE. You’ve been storing up all this goodness so you can bring it back out at any time. Old things and new things. Old promises and brand new revelations of how Jesus is working personally in your life. Old stories of how they’re unfolding in awesome new ways in this season. Isn’t it incredible how you can read the same verses and same stories in your Bible in a different season of life and find a whole new meaning? Yip – that’s what happens in the storehouse. As a student of Jesus you’re adding more and more and it just keeps growing and becoming more. Maybe the goal of your Christian life isn’t to become someone who knows the most about God. Maybe it’s to become someone who knows God so well that His ways become your ways. That’s why Jesus doesn’t simply invite you to read about Him. He says: “Come. Follow Me.” Walk with Me. Work with Me. Watch Me. Learn from Me. Keep company with Me. And eventually, without even realizing it, you’ll start responding like Him. You’ll start loving like Him. You’ll start forgiving like Him. You’ll start seeing people like Him. You’ll start trusting like Him. You’ll start living like Him. And that’s when the storeroom starts filling up. Not just with facts about Jesus. But with experiences of Jesus. Not just verses you’ve memorized. But truth you’ve lived. Not just knowledge in your head. But Jesus shaping your heart. And then, when life gets hard—or when someone else needs what you’ve learned—you can walk into your storeroom and say: “Oh, I’ve got something for this.” Because you’ve been keeping company with Jesus. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Yesterday we studied the Parable of the Treasure. Now, Jesus continues his teaching with another similar story tied to it. They go together, so let’s read them together. Matthew 13: 44-45, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it.” Remember yesterday was all about a man who discovered hidden treasure in a field. He just found it there – stumbled upon it. But now in this story of the pearl, we have a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. A merchant is on a mission to find something specific. He is trained, he is experienced, and he knows exactly what he is looking for. One wasn’t looking and found hidden treasure. One was searching intentionally and discovered a pearl of great value. And isn’t it the same with finding Jesus. Some of us just stumbled right into Jesus when we weren’t even looking for him – while others of us found him after searching through every other religion, every other way of life and then we finally found Jesus. Which one is right? BOTH because they both result in the same life changing encounter. I didn’t go searching for Jesus. I had a beautiful childhood and lived in a sweet little bubble. At 15 my family started going to church and I was happy to go because in my tiny country town there wasn’t much else to do. I wasn’t expecting to meet a Savior, I didn’t even know I needed one – but there he was, so sweetly awaiting our encounter. It wasn’t dramatic. I didn’t have a bunch of bad decisions and regrets to lay on the altar. I just knew there was a prompting from within calling my surrender to his divine guidance. I was the one who stumbled on hidden treasure in a field when I wasn’t even looking for it. That’s the kingdom of heaven. Then there’s my friend Cat. In her 30’s she had walked down a path of addiction that had led her to a crashing end. While in rehab trying to get sober and regain her life, she was introduced to a variety of “higher powers” for the choosing. She began studying and trying them. Buddhism was surely it, so she tried it – but felt nothing. So on to the next one. How about Hinduism. No, that wasn’t it. She left rehab now sober, but still searching. On the way out, her counselor handed her her own personal copy of ‘Jesus Calling’ and said, “At some point you’re going to need this.” Cat tucked that little devotional book away in a closet and returned to life. It was a better life sober, but not a whole life. When the next big family catastrophe hit, she knew she needed something to carry her through and not return to the familiarity of her addiction, and she remembered the words of the counselor at rehab who had said, “At some point, you’re going to need this.” And Cat knew – if there was ever a time I need something, it’s now. So, she found that book, ‘Jesus Calling’ in the closet, she opened the page to that day’s date, and there she found every single word she most needed. But more than words, she found the loving, forgiving, life-changing Savior she had been searching for all along. AND SHE KNEW IT. She knew this was THE ONE. Jesus was the pearl of greatest value and nothing would ever be the same for her. Cat was the one who had been searching for years and finally found her pearl. That’s the kingdom of heaven. Isn’t it amazing that we have BOTH? Both a Savior who will pursue us when we aren’t even pursuing him – AND a Savior who will patiently wait as we pursue everything that isn’t him and perfectly align an encounter with him when everything else has failed? Jesus doesn’t fit in our little box. It doesn’t have to be one way. He is THE WAY, and he will make the way to you in whatever way that needs to be. He’s the hidden treasure you stumble upon without even looking – and he’s the pearl of great value you’ve studied and searched for your entire life. But remember this – either way, he’s worth giving up EVERYTHING for. In both parables, when found, everything else was sold. Remember that. Jesus requires everything. He’s worth everything. He’s greater than everything. For my sisters who are more like me without the dramatic story of searching for Jesus, and more just stumbling upon him when you weren’t even looking, remember you’ve found the greatest treasure of all! And for my sisters who have searched their entire lives, here’s Jesus and he’s everything you’ve been looking for! He is your pearl! And really think about Jesus being our pearl. How wild that he would use that as the example in his teaching. Do you know how a pearl is formed? A pearl begins with an irritation. If an oyster never has an irritation, they simply never have a pearl. But if their little world inside their shell is penetrated by the irritation of a grain of sand, then that irritation creates something that becomes valuable. The irritation of sand inside the shell causes the oyster to respond. Their response covers the sand with layers of naturally produced protection from within. Layer after layer, something beautiful is formed around something that originally caused great pain. Think about that – the very thing that irritated the oyster becomes part of what makes the pearl so valuable. Of course that’s why Jesus uses the pearl as an example – he knows this is how God works sometimes! Something you never asked for gets into your life. A disappointment, a betrayal, a loss, a failure, a terrible season, an series of bad decisions that turned into an addiction. Irritation grows. It gets worse. You’re so uncomfortable. But God is growing something within you. Something of great value. This is where Jesus shows up!!!!!!! Don’t you see how God can use what was so painful to produce something so beautiful in your life? He wastes nothing. The oyster doesn’t wake up one morning and say, “I think I’ll make a pearl today.” It simply responds to what has entered its life. And slowly, layer by layer, something extraordinary develops. Maybe that’s what God has been doing in you. You thought you were just surviving. God was forming you. You thought you were just getting through another hard season. God was adding another layer. You thought you were being delayed. God was developing depth. You thought the pain was ruining your story. God was making something beautiful from it. And then you find your pearl. You find your Jesus, that is what you’ve been searching for all along. And what do you do when you find that pearl – You don’t just keep looking for something else. You don’t keep trying other things. NO. You know this is what you’ve been looking for all your life. This is your answer. Here he is. And you give up everything else because you know there’s absolutely NOTHING better! What if some of the things you’ve spent your life chasing were never the pearl? But Jesus says, “You found it.” The Kingdom is the pearl. Jesus is the pearl. And when you finally understand His worth, you realize, I don’t have to spend the rest of my life searching. I’ve found what my heart was looking for. Jesus is worth everything. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Have you ever made homemade bread with yeast? How much yeast do you put in with the flour and water? Just a tiny amount. How much of a difference does the yeast make? ALL THE DIFFERENCE. As Jesus was teaching, he knew everyone listening understood this because bread wasn’t something they picked up at the grocery store. It was made every day in their homes. The women especially knew exactly what He meant. They had watched a tiny handful of yeast disappear into a massive bowl of flour, only to come back hours later and find every bit of dough changed. So Jesus said… Matthew 13:33, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.” How much of the dough was affected by only a little yeast? EVERY PART OF IT. And how many of you have personally experienced the impact of little things over your entire life? Really, that’s all of us. Looking back, we see how little things changed the entire trajectory of our lives. Sometimes that can feel overwhelming because what if you mess up that one little thing that would make all the difference? Before you get all anxious about the enormity of this – please remember your life is under the divine direction of an all-knowing God, IF you surrender to his ability to guide you exactly where you need to be. Surrender is the key. Without surrender – you’re a bowl of flour sitting flat wondering why your life isn’t rising up. I wonder if you can see how in your own life some of your biggest blessings didn’t come from one big decision you made, but a combination of tiny turns left and right with split second perfect timing. Did you do that on your own? Oh no you didn’t girl. God was leaning over the rails of heaven, watching your life with great delight, aligning things you didn’t even know to ask for, and sprinkling in a little yeast to make his good plans for you grow. And as you grew, the angels cheered! Here’s our problem – when we don’t surrender. When we think we don’t need God because we can make our own plans, force our own way, and direct the timing of it all to fit our liking. We try to make our own yeast, but guess what – YOU CAN’T. Yeast has to come from a start. And you are not that start. GOD IS! Here’s what surrender really is. It’s opening your clenched fists and saying, “God, you have permission to work anywhere you want.” IT STARTS THERE!!!!! Most of us try to first hand God one part of our lives. “God, here’s my marriage, fix this. But, don’t touch my priorities. Don’t touch my habits. God, I just want you over here.” But Jesus says the yeast doesn’t stop at one corner of the dough. It permeates every part. God loves you too much to leave any part of your life untouched. If you invite him into your marriage, he will be there – but he will also go right for YOUR HEART. All while you just want him to work on your husband’s heart, he first starts with yours. You’ve been praying for your kids, and before he works on them, he works in YOU! Sometimes I wonder if my family’s 7 year journey to healing took so long because I was delaying the work in my heart first. Which part of your life have you been asking for God to take over? You know that one very well, don’t you? Now, let me ask – which part of your life have you been holding back from God? Yeah – that one. That one that you’ve been trying to hide or excuse or separate – God says, “I WANT TO GET ALL UP IN THAT TOO!!!!!” If you surrender your life to Him, He will begin working in places you didn’t even invite Him. But my sister, you can trust him. Remember, he is for you, not against you. His plans for you are to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11) In this parable, notice what Jesus doesn’t say – He doesn’t say, “The Kingdom of God is like bread.” No, he said it’s “like yeast”. There’s a difference. Yeast gets INSIDE something before it changes anything on the outside. My mama taught me how to make homemade yeast rolls as a young girl. You get the water and milk temperature just right, then you sprinkle in the tiniest amount of yeast. And then you lean in real close and you watch. Guess what – Nothing happens. You ever so gently stir in the yeast. Still nothing happens. Then you let it sit for a bit. Still nothing. Next you add in the flour and create this messy sticky dough. Nothing looks radically different. But you come back an hour later and your little ball of dough has risen ten times in size to overflow the edges of your bowl. How did it happen? Gradually from the INSIDE. That is exactly opposite of how most of us try to change. We start with the outside. • I need to lose weight. • I need to stop yelling. • I need to stop cussing. • I need to be read my Bible more. • I need to get organized. • I need to stop shopping so much. So we try harder. Jesus says, “That’s not how My Kingdom works. I don’t start by changing your behavior. I start by changing your heart.” Everything else grows from there. He isn’t trying to improve your circumstances first. He’s trying to transform you. I really don’t think God cares about the size of your butt or the jiggle of your belly. He’s not impressed by that tiny little ab you’ve been working on. Your bank account isn’t his primary concern. HE IS GOING STRAIGHT FOR YOUR HEART. Why? Because the heart is the yeast. If he changes your heart, it will affect EVERYTHING!!!! But here’s the warning – YOUR ENEMY KNOWS THIS TOO! Your enemy knows if he can make you insecure, it will affect everything. If he can twist the way you feel about yourself, he can keep you in the corner. He knows if he infects the way you think about everyone else, he can render you bitter, cynical and ineffective. Bad yeast makes bad bread sis. Check what is growing in your life! Finally, notice there’s something specific Jesus mentions in this story. He says the woman mixed the yeast into 3 measures of flour. Anytime you see something this specific, take notice – it’s a deeper lesson. Here, 3 measures of flour means about 40 to 50 pounds of flour. This large amount of flour when mixed with a little bit of east would be enough to feed a hundred people. Why would Jesus mention that detail? Because the amount is intentionally extravagant. A tiny handful of yeast transforms an enormous amount of dough. That’s the Kingdom. One life surrendered to Jesus can influence far more people than you ever imagined. One praying Mama. One teacher. One girl in the office who shares a devotional. One friend who points a hurting soul to Jesus. That’s just one little bit of Kingdom yeast. AND IT GROWS and grows and grows. Bigger and bigger and bigger. Generations are changed as a result of one surrendered life. That’s yeast! And let me tell you something, I think God wants YOU to be that surrendered life. He wants to start with YOU. His Spirit at work within you, changing you from the inside out, starting with your heart then flowing onto every area of your life, every single relationship, in every way. Imagine one day arriving to Heaven and meeting a whole line of people waiting to tell you how YOU helped them get there too. How the Jesus in you was the light showing them the way. How what God grew in you flowed over onto them and grew in them. And because of your surrender, they learned surrender, their children learned surrender, their grandchildren surrendered – and now there’s an entire corner of Heaven crowded – and it started with ONE. And that my friends, is how the Kingdom of God is – It’s like yeast. Tiny, working in unseen ways from the inside, affecting EVERYTHING! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

In our study of the parables of Jesus, we find the next story he tells. Remember, that’s what a parable is – it’s a story along with a teaching. It’s earthly stories with heavenly meaning told for a purpose by Jesus. Matthew 13: 24-30 Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’ Okay – now what does that mean exactly? Once again a planting story to tell us more about the Kingdom of Heaven. The disciples were unsure what this meant, so they asked him. WOW – what a concept. When you don’t understand, ASK JESUS. Really, have you done that? What uncertainty are you facing right now? What confusing situation are you in? Where are you right now that just doesn’t make sense and you don’t know what the next right step is? You honestly don’t know the solution. You don’t know the right thing to do? You don’t know what to think or what to say. Well, there’s one place to turn for that – YOU GO TO JESUS! Jesus, I don’t understand this – please help me to understand. Jesus, I don’t know what to do, but you tell me that YOU ARE THE WAY and I’m trusting you. Show me the next step in your way. When the disciples ask Jesus what this parable meant, guess what happened? HE EXPLAINED IT TO THEM! Wow, just like that. They didn’t have to sit around arguing about it. They didn’t have to wander around confused and perhaps getting it wrong. They just asked Jesus! Girl, just ask Jesus! Have you done that yet? So, here we go – Still in Matthew 13:36-44: Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.” Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels. “Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Thank you Jesus for making that clear. Thank you for helping us understand these heavenly things with this earthly story. Now, because we may be slightly removed from the experience of growing wheat today, let’s dig deeper so we really get it. The farmer is Jesus. The field he is working in is the world. The good seeds he plants are his people. The enemy is the devil. The weeds he plants are those who reject God’s kingdom and oppose Jesus’ work. The harvest is the end of the world. The harvesters are the angels. There are 2 eternal destinies: • The fiery furnace • The Father’s radiant Kingdom My friends, there is evil among us. There are counterfeits all around us, sent by the enemy do to evil. There is a real spiritual battle taking place all around us. Wherever God plants truth, the enemy plants deception. Wherever God brings life, the enemy tries to sow destruction. Wherever God grows wheat, Satan tries to plant counterfeits. They were sent to destroy us, but God won’t let that happen. The work of the enemy is to destroy all God’s good work. God plants good seed, then the enemy sneaks in and sows weeds in the field. But God is wise and he will NOT allow the enemy to succeed. So here’s what God does – he waits. Oh how patient our Lord is. He waits for the good seeds to grow. And he waits for the weeds to grow. He allows it. It’s easy for us to question why. Why would God allow evil? Why would he permit for the enemy to be trompsing around in this field doing his nasty work? Well first, remember this, the world we live in has been given over to Satan. This is a fallen world and the prince of this world is the devil. How can he do his nasty work here – well girl, this is where he reigns. BUT ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS – his reign is temporary and he’s already been defeated!!!! He knows his destiny and it cannot be undone. Jesus promises victory! 1 John 5: 18-19, “We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.” You and I are just passing through this world. This isn’t our home. We’re on our way to a radically different destination – the Father’s radiant Kingdom is our destiny. We are set apart, untouched by the evil one, promised at eternal paradise on the other side of this brief life in a fallen world. Will there be evil here? Yes. Will the enemy plant weeds here and cause trouble? Yes. Do we have to worry about it? Nope. We just stay close to Jesus and remain in his truth! The farmer delays judgment because pulling up the weeds too soon would damage the wheat. His patience protects His people. Here’s what we often overlook today – There was a weed called darnel that looked EXACTLY like wheat. This weed was poisonous but you couldn’t tell the difference as it was growing. But when the wheat started producing and the darnel started producing, you could tell the difference. Until then, they looked exactly the same. It was an imitation plant bearing poison. And yes, that’s what we have around us. Imitations. They look like what God is doing, but they’re NOT. They are planted by the enemy to bring destruction. With time, they are revealed. What sets the wheat and the weed apart? What they produce! When the wheat grows to maturity and begins producing, then you can tell it apart from the weeds planted by the enemy. Before then, it all looks the same. Jesus said in Matthew 7:20, “Just as you can identify a tree by it’s fruit, you can identify people by their actions.” You know that saying, “When people show you who they are, BELIEVE THEM!” Actually, yes. We will be known by our fruit, and our lives look completely different based on if we are God’s wheat or the enemy’s weeds. Remember our study on the fruits of the Spirit? The fruit we produce when God’s Spirit lives within us: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Over time, fruit tells the story. We all have bad days, but over a lifetime, what grows out of us reveals if we are wheat or a weed. But here’s what the wheat is not called to do. The wheat is not called to identify weeds. We are not called to police the field. We are called to do one thing – become faithful wheat! That’s it – grow, bear fruit and trust the Lord of the harvest. In the end, God will sort this all out. That’s not our job. Our job is grow in this field and know when we’re done growing we will be gathered into the farmer’s barn. That barn is the radiant Kingdom of Heaven where we will get to shine forever. God will take care of these weeds. We don’t have to worry about them. So today, stop looking around the field. Stop counting the weeds. Stop obsessing over who’s fake and who’s real. Stop letting evil steal your attention. The enemy would love nothing more than for God’s people to spend their lives staring at weeds instead of becoming healthy wheat. Jesus never said, “Go inspect the field.” He said, “Follow me.” Your assignment isn’t to expose everyone else’s fruit. Your assignment is to produce your own. Become a woman whose life is overflowing with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Let your roots grow deep in Christ. Stay planted. Stay surrendered. Stay faithful. Have you ever noticed that healthy wheat doesn’t spend its energy competing with weeds? It simply keeps reaching for the sun. That’s our calling too. Keep reaching toward the Son. The healthier your relationship with Jesus becomes, the more fruit your life naturally produces. There will always be weeds in this world. There will always be deception, evil, heartbreak, betrayal, and counterfeit versions of what God intended. Don’t be surprised by that. Jesus told us it would be this way. But don’t let the weeds make you question the Farmer. The Farmer hasn’t lost control. Not for one second. He sees every seed. He knows every counterfeit. He misses nothing. He never loses one stalk of wheat. And He has already determined how the story ends. One day the harvest will come. One day Jesus will make every wrong right. Every counterfeit will be exposed. Every injustice will be answered. Every tear will be wiped away. And on that day, those who belong to Him “will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom.” Can you imagine that? No more weeds. No more temptation. No more evil. No more fear. No more tears. Only the radiant Kingdom of our Father. So until that day… Keep growing. Keep trusting. Keep producing good fruit. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Because the field is temporary… but the harvest is forever. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

It’s back-to-school time. Today, I have friends walking their baby into kindergarten for the very first time. And I have other friends helping their baby move into a college dorm. Those two days feel worlds apart… until you’ve lived them. Those of us a little farther down the road know the truth. One day you’re zipping a backpack that’s almost bigger than they are. The next day you’re hugging them goodbye in a parking lot, trying not to cry until they can’t see you anymore. The days are long. The years are unbelievably short. And that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be. We aren’t raising children to keep them. We’re raising them to release them. But before that day comes, God gives us something incredibly sacred. Influence. During the school year, our children will spend nearly half of their waking hours at school. Nearly half. Half of their conversations. Half of their friendships. Half of their victories. Half of their disappointments. Half of the voices speaking into their lives. As moms, that realization can make us want to tighten our grip. We want to protect them from every hurt, every bad influence, every disappointment, every temptation. But we can’t. We can’t walk beside them every minute. God can. He’ll be in the classroom before they arrive. He’ll be standing in the hallway when they feel alone. He’ll be at the lunch table when they’re wondering where they belong. He’ll be on the bus ride, at practice, during the test, in the hard conversation, in the moment they need courage, and in the split second when they have to choose right over wrong. There isn’t one place your child will go where God cannot meet them. But here’s the beautiful and really really important thing… We get to invite Him there. We’ll buy the new shoes. We’ll pack the lunches. We’ll label the notebooks. But before we send them out the door… Let’s send them covered in prayer. Our my greatest assignment as a mother was never to control my children. It is to continually talk to God about them. Not lecture them more. Not yell louder. Not worry harder. Prayer is the most powerful thing you will ever do for my children. James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” Do we actually believe that? If we do, then let’s pray like it. One of my favorite pictures of bold prayer comes from Joshua and the walls of Jericho. Jericho looked impossible. The walls were too high. Too thick. Too strong. Humanly speaking, there was no way through. But God didn’t hand Joshua a cannon to blast through the walls – He gave him marching orders. “Walk around it.” Once a day for six days. Seven times on the seventh day. After the 7th circle on the 7th day, have the priest blow their horns, let the people shout, and those walls will just fall down. Read the story in Joshua chapter 6. The battle plan from God sounded foolish. Marching doesn’t knock down walls. Trumpets don’t break stone. But obedience invited the power of God. And when God’s people obeyed, the walls that looked impossible suddenly came crashing down. Ever since reading The Circle Maker, I’ve loved the picture of praying circles. Sometimes I literally walk around the thing I’m praying for. Sometimes I simply picture it in my mind. Not because there’s something magical about circles. There’s not. The power isn’t in the walking. The power is in the God we’re walking with. The circle simply reminds me that I’m surrounding something with persistent, believing prayer. Mama… This school year, your Jericho may be the very building your child walks into every morning. So go make a circle. Walk around that school. Pray over every classroom. Pray over every teacher. Pray over every coach. Pray over every bus. Pray over every lunch table. Pray over every child who walks through those doors—including the ones who have no one praying for them. Pray that truth would be louder than lies. Pray that kindness would overcome cruelty. Pray that lonely kids would find friends. Pray that teachers would have wisdom and patience. Pray that they would have JESUS! Pray that your child would have courage to stand for what’s right. Pray that God would place divine appointments in their path. Pray that lives would be changed. Pray that walls would come down. But this isn’t just a call for mom’s with kids in school – this is a call for every single one of us listening. Listen to me – at a school near you, there are children inside those walls who desperately need someone talking to God on their behalf. THEY HAVE NO ONE PRAYING FOR THEM! Someone is carrying burdens no one else knows. Someone is terrified. Someone is lonely. Someone is one encounter away from discovering Jesus. Someone needs heaven to move. And prayer still has the power to move heaven. WHY NOT BE THE ONE WHO PRAYS FOR THEM? So let’s get to marching. Let’s get to praying. Let’s circle our schools until the God who brought down the walls of Jericho does what only He can do. Because while our children may spend nearly half of their waking hours at school, they never have to spend one moment there without the presence of God going before them. Could your prayer really make a difference? Absolutely. Read James 5:16 again: “The prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” Do you know who that righteous person is? You. Not because you’ve done everything right, but because Jesus made you right with God. Through Him, you have been given the incredible privilege of approaching the throne of God with confidence. You don’t have to wonder if you’re worthy enough to pray. Jesus settled that once and for all. Now pray. Pray boldly. Pray specifically. Pray expectantly. Your prayers aren’t empty words floating into the air. They are powerful conversations with the God who moves mountains, breaks chains, opens doors, and brings down walls. So start praying your circles. Circle your children. Circle their school. Circle their teachers. Circle the principal. Circle the coaches. Circle the staff. Circle the lonely kids. Circle the hurting families. Invite the presence of God into every classroom, every hallway, every bus ride, every friendship, and every decision. Because your prayers have great power and God still produces wonderful results. If you don’t know what to pray, you pray scripture! Yes, pray God’s own word, declare his promises over the school. I have a easy guide in the transcript of this devotional at biglifedevotional.com. (Thank you, Darlene!) Prayer Circle: 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.'” Proverbs 3:5-6 – “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.” 2 Timothy 1:7 – “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” School Entrance & Main Gates: Welcome and Protection Psalm 121:8 – “The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” Deuteronomy 28:6 – “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.” Prayer Focus: Pray for a hedge of protection around the building, safety from violence, and that everyone entering feels welcome Classrooms: Wisdom, Truth, and Learning James 1:5 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” Colossians 3:23 – “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Prayer Focus: Pray for academic integrity, clarity of mind for students struggling to learn, and that truth and wisdom prevail in the curriculum. Teachers: Strength and Patience Galatians 6:9 – “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Proverbs 16:24 – “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” Prayer Focus: Pray against teacher burnout. Ask God to give educators an extra measure of grace, renewed energy, and the tools to reach every unique child. Hallways, Lockers, & Common Areas: Peer Influence and Identity • Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Proverbs 13:20 – “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.” 1 Timothy 4:12 – “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” Prayer Focus: Pray against bullying, isolation, and peer pressure. Ask that Christian students find a godly community and have the courage to stand strong in their faith. Cafeteria & Playgrounds: Kindness and Light John 13:35 – “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Matthew 5:14 – “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.” Prayer Focus: Pray for students who feel lonely or sit by themselves at lunch. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Maybe you’re living out a story that doesn’t look like you imagined. You had dreams, you had desires, you had plans … and your life seems to have fallen flat. You’ve been left wanting – left waiting – left wondering. When will things change for you? How much longer do you have to wait? What if what you want will never happen? Then what? Will you just be miserable? Or what if it does change? What if your waiting is over. What if the very thing you’ve always wanted is on it’s way to you now, it’s literally happening. Then what? Will you finally be happy? One thing I know for sure – we’re in a continual pursuit of what we think will make us happy, and that mark constantly moves. Most of us literally woke up surrounded by answers to the very prayers we once prayed. Yet we didn’t wake up feeling like we have it all. The mark moved. The distant land of happiness is still just out of your reach. But you tell yourself when you finally get there life will be so good. It’s almost like the end of the rainbow. It looks like it’s just right over there. Like you can walk right to it. But when you get there, the end of the rainbow has moved on you, so you never quite arrive. Within our Bible is the story of a woman who waited well. A woman who was brutally honest with God instead of faking her way through it. And a woman who finally got what she wanted and shows us precisely what to do then. That woman is Hannah. Her story is found in 1 Samuel chapters 1 and 2. Hannah was married to a man with one of those really hard to pronounce names, so we will just call him E. E had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Hannah was the one E really loved, but Peninnah was the one who had given him children. Verse 5 says, “The Lord had closed her womb.” Why wasn’t she able to have children? It’s actually very clear. The Lord had closed her womb. Now of course to us that doesn’t seem fair. Why? That’s what Hannah was asking as well. And guess what? God didn’t fault her for asking. He doesn’t find fault in our asking either. You can ask God why. Why are you left waiting? Why has your life turned in a direction you would have never asked for? What do you have to do to get this to change for you? Here’s what I notice in these stories in our Bible – if our questioning is directed to God, it is always handled with care and powerful resolve. God always makes a way, or He reveals how His way is for a greater purpose. It’s never left unresolved. He answers. But the issue becomes when we’re turning to anyone or anything other than God for solutions to our problems. In your wait – in your struggle – in your trial – who are you bringing your questioning to? Where are you going when you are seeking? Those self-help books are not your answer. That relationship isn’t your answer. That promotion isn’t your answer. That number on the scale isn’t your answer. That next accomplishment isn’t your answer. Your answer is God. Hannah could have become bitter. She could have become resentful. She could have given up on God altogether. Instead, she ran to Him. At this time in history, once a year you could go up where the priest was and offer a sacrifice and worship the Lord. Yes, just once a year. Every year when Hannah would go to worship the Lord, there E’s other wife would be as well. And there, Peninnah, the wife with children, would poke at her. Verses 6-7, “Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.” Every time Hannah went to worship God, she was only reminded of what she didn’t have. Reminded of what she wanted but still lacked. Reminded of her struggle, her short-coming, and her future that looked nothing like she had imagined. Year after year. Prayer after prayer. Disappointment after disappointment. But you know what she didn’t stop doing – she didn’t stop going to worship God. She didn’t sit in her hurt, wallow in her disappointment, and give up on God. She kept going to worship. Even when this awful woman would be there. Even when she was reminded of what she didn’t have. SHE KEPT GOING TO GOD. Girl, whatever you’re waiting on, you keep going to God. Don’t let anyone discourage you. Don’t let anyone or anything get in your way of going to God. Now, this part of the story shows us our most important move. Verse 10, “In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.” She didn’t hold it in. She didn’t pretend like she was okay. She let it all out. She was desperate before the Lord. Jamie Macdonald has a song called Desperate. Girl, cry out those words to God if you’re waiting for him. Don’t hold it in. Don’t pretend like you’re okay when you’re not. I’m at the end of myself and I’m Tired, I’ve tried all that I know to do Right now it’s just by a thread but I’m I’m hanging on to you I’m running out of hope I need a miracle And if I ever needed you, it’s right now Oh God, I’m desperate Down on my knees Send help from heaven ‘Cause that’s what I need Redeem this wreckage Restore my peace I’m not asking, I’m begging Lord, come through for me I need heaven and I’m Desperate Get desperate before God. Hannah was so desperate before God, praying, begging, crying, the priest thought she was drunk. No, Hannah wasn’t drunk, she was desperate. Girl, let yourself be desperate for God. Stop trying to hold it all together. Stop pretending you’re okay. Stop with the facade. Get real before the Lord. If you’re not fine, stop saying you are. Somewhere along the way we’ve gotten the idea that faith means pretending we’re fine. Hannah would disagree. Faith isn’t pretending you’re okay. Faith is bringing your honest heart before a faithful God. God can handle your questions. He can handle your tears. He can handle your disappointment. He’s not intimidated by any of it. And perhaps this is what you need to hear today—you don’t have to fake contentment while you’re waiting. God isn’t asking you to pretend you don’t care. He’s asking you to bring what you care about to Him. Notice what happened after Hannah prayed. She didn’t immediately become pregnant. Her circumstances hadn’t changed. God hadn’t yet answered her prayer. But here’s what she did after she cried out to the Lord – verse 18, “She went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.” Something shifted in Hannah. She no longer carried this burden. She had left this in the hands of God. Let me tell you something—whatever you’re waiting on, whatever you’re hoping for, whatever you’re desperate for—it is perfectly held in the hands of God. PUT IT THERE. And when you do, your circumstances may not change immediately, but you can feel different. You can feel lighter. You can live better. At that point, nothing had changed, but Hannah had. She walked into God’s presence carrying her burden, and she walked out having left it there. I wonder if that’s what God is inviting some of us to do today—not to stop wanting what we want, but to stop carrying what He has invited us to surrender. You don’t have to know what God is going to do next. You simply have to know where to go while you’re waiting. Go to Him. So how does the story end? Well, it’s easy to say the story ends with God giving Hannah what she had begged Him for. Verse 20 says, “So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I asked the Lord for him.'” The end of the rainbow? No. This isn’t the end. Let me tell you what Hannah did after she got what she had waited for so long. Let me tell you what she did when the Lord answered and her story changed. Verse 27, Hannah goes to worship the Lord and she once again prays, “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I GIVE HIM TO THE LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” In chapter 2, her prayer continues, “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. I delight in your deliverance.” Who is Hannah worshiping? The Lord. And here’s where we often mess up—God gives us what we asked for, our prayers are answered, we’re living in His blessing, and that thing becomes our god. Our focus shifts to what God gave us instead of the God who gave it to us. Whatever God does for you, make sure you give it back to Him. Don’t let your blessing take the place of the Blessor. And maybe that’s been God’s invitation all along. When you don’t have it—trust Him. When you’re waiting—trust Him. When He says no—trust Him. When He says not yet—trust Him. And when He says yes—trust Him still. Hannah teaches us that contentment isn’t found in finally getting what you’ve always wanted. If it were, she would have ended her story in chapter 1 holding Samuel in her arms. Instead, she begins chapter 2 with her hands lifted in worship. Her greatest joy wasn’t that she had a son. Her greatest joy was that she had her God. Perhaps that’s the secret of contentment. It’s not found in getting the life you imagined. It’s found in knowing the God who is writing your story. Whether you’re in chapter 1 weeping bitterly or chapter 2 singing joyfully, He is still worthy. He is still good. And He is still enough. So bring Him your waiting. Bring Him your questions. Bring Him your disappointments. Bring Him your answered prayers. Put it all in His hands and leave it there. Because the greatest gift God will ever give you isn’t what comes from His hand—it’s His hand itself. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com