Do we serve a Big God, but live a little life?

Jeremiah 32:17 says, “Ah Lord God!  Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm!  Nothing is too difficult for You..”

And then ten verses later Jeremiah 32:27 says,“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”

But in between these two great faith inspiring verses sits this sobering thought: Jeremiah 32:21-23 “You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror; and gave them this land, which You swore to their forefathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law; they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; ……”

What a sad commentary.

He blessed them abundantly; how could they not, in thankfulness to God, commit to serve and obey Him?

Yet, what about us?  God has brought us, as His children, out of our pits and out of our bondage with His great miraculous power, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, and has placed us in a land of plenty:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus..” Ephesians 2:1-6

He has taken us out of our “Egypt”.
He has given us a new heart, a new life.
We are new creatures in Christ.
We have such a great salvation and the power of the Holy Spirit within us, along with everything we need for life and godliness.
He has blessed us abundantly with spiritual gifts so that we can live abundantly and do the good works that He has planned beforehand that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10).

And we come into this new life with Christ and take possession of it and just expect to live off the milk and honey of this “land”.  We come in and take possession and then decide to walk our own way, sowing seeds to the flesh and indulgences, instead of obeying His voice and laying down our lives as a living sacrifice and living out all that He has put in.

This simply should not be.

We take possession of the home, neighborhood, community in which He has placed us and enjoy it, but do not fully obey all that He has for us to do here and, therefore, never fully possess our possession.

Let it NOT be said of us, “They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law; they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; ……”

“He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:21

What about us?
Are we living off the spoil of the land and yet walking our own way?

Or are we daily taking up our cross and choosing real life
by loving the Lord our God,
obeying His voice,
and holding fast to Him:
the God of the impossible!

(Deuteronomy 30:19,20; Matthew 19:26)

May we determine to fully possess our possessions and all our inheritance as children of God. And put it all to use.

Because He is BIG and “more than able”,

may we live big, extraordinary lives FOR HIS GLORY!

Thanks for stopping by.   I would LOVE to hear from you.
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“for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:4,5

I serve a big God, but do I live a little life? 

Lord, I want to fulfill my ministry. I want to use the gifts You have given me and fulfill my calling. I want to stand before You and hear “well done”. I want to live for eternity and not for today. But I feel confused on what to do and where to start. You are not a God of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), so show me what is happening here.
 
Is this your heart’s cry as well? 
So why all the confusion? Here is some insight into a scheme of the enemy (2 Corinthians 2:11) that has been a good reminder for me recently.

From the heart of God:

You feel confused because there is opposition to your calling that you must ignore.

You have a low “hum” of identity attack going on below the surface that you are not aware of. You are not doing this to yourself and you are not confused for no reason. Nor are you stuck there. Let Me uncover it so that you can hear. The “hum” won’t be silenced until you deal with it.

See it for the lie that it is and cast it into the sea of forgotten.

You can’t settle for it. 
You can’t accept it as something that is normal and must be lived with. 
You can’t agree with it and entertain it! 

You agree with the enemy of your soul, and your soul retreats, shuts down, becomes cancerous and unconfident.

This is the root to your bold confidence problem. You AGREE with all the enemy’s identity attacks to shut you up. And you shut up. You oblige.

Replace the constant “hum” with My truth – what I say about you – and be free (John 8:31, 32)! 
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Ask the Lord if this could be at the root of any of your confusion today.

It will take some spiritual earplugs to silence the “hum” of continual attacks of the enemy against us and a leaning into the TRUTHS of God
about 
who He is, 
His ability, 
who He says we are in Him, 
who He has called us to be, 
and what He has called us to do. 

Be dependent (John 15:5). 
Be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).
Be holy in all your behavior (1 Peter 1:15).

In these days of warfare, “holiness and radical obedience will be your covering” (a phrase the Lord spoke to my heart years ago that He brings to mind often).

The time is now!

It’s time for some radical obedience out of our comfort zones and fears.

Hear the Word of the Lord and act on it (Matthew 7:24-25, James 1:22). Let us throw off the lies and “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus…” (Hebrews 12:1, 2).

And go live a big life!

“The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high place [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!” Habakkuk 3:19

“On the day I called, You answered me;
You made me bold with strength in my soul.” Psalm 138:3

Friends, we need to hear what God has to say about us and believe it. Know who you are by KNOWING WHO HE IS! Study (2 Timothy 2:15, 3:16,17), know, believe His Word, and obey. Spend time in Scripture and in prayer, listening and believing what He says is true (write it down), and rise up in obedience.

Ask the Lord to show you where you are agreeing with the enemy’s lies and need to take those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. (This may be hard because the lies feel true.) What does He say is true in place of those lies? 

What is your “take action” step today?

(If you would like to read more in the context of that phrase “holiness and radical obedience” along with much needed repentance, click here.) 

God is always growing us. He is always speaking to our hearts and calling us deeper into His Word, His truth, His ways, and to KNOW Him. He opens our minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45), and we are taught by the Holy Spirit Himself (John 16:13).

How are we safeguarding those lessons so that we take them to heart and put them into action? The Word says that we deceive ourselves if we are hearers of the Word only (James 1:22-25).

It’s not those who hear and have a head knowledge of the truth and the ways of God who are compared to the wise man whose house is built on the rock not falling in the midst of the storms, it’s those who act on that knowledge (Matthew 7:24-27). It’s those who obey.

What He is teaching, what He wants to say, and the assignments are just too important for us to rush by and forget. Let’s have a plan in place to record what He is teaching, a journal or notebook, for this next year. Then, furthermore, let’s set aside specific times to go back and re-read what is written and ask ourselves, “Am I living accordingly, like I really believe this truth? Am I obeying what I know to be truth, what He has spoken to my heart, what He has taught me in His Word?” Or will we find that we have been lulled into thinking that we are walking in obedience to scripture just because we are familiar with it?

Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to search our heart and our motives (Psalm 139:23, 24), and make the necessary adjustments. May we not find ourselves building on sand, having only heard His Words but not doing them, not living accordingly.

He is intentionally pouring truth into your heart and life, for a purpose. Will you believe Him and act upon it? Or will you become a forgetful hearer?

“..prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” James 1:22 NASB

This is the time of year that I intentionally read back through my journal, underlining, marking, and color coding as I go. It’s a great exercise that reminds me not only of the faithfulness of the Lord, but of all the many things He has spoken and taught me in His Word, in our time together, and through the life experiences of the year.

Here is a little of what that looks like for me in case you find it helpful:

-I number the pages as I go. This not only alerts me that I’ve re-read that page, but also gives me a way to reference back to it if needed. For instance, if the same subject shows up 5 pages later, I can just jot a note of the page # to cross-reference those entries.

-I use colored brackets (or lines drawn down the length of the page) to highlight items. For example, any teaching I want to highlight I use the color blue and will write the subject of that teaching in blue at the top of the page. If it’s an area where God started speaking as I was journaling something out, I use orange to highlight that portion.

-Just as I mark key words in my bible, I mark key words in my journal. There are subjects that are repeated that I want to easily spot. That way I can see the particular instructions or insights I wrote down throughout the year on a subject (and maybe even go back and make a list of what I learned about each later).

I would love to hear how you ensure that you don’t forget the lessons He’s taught you.

I pray that you are enjoying this Christmas season!

May we not neglect or lose anything that He is teaching our hearts. And may we resolve to act upon it.

With love,

Traci

You and I need not be anxious about anything. 

Will we choose this path of peace? Are we truly able to make this choice?

As we head into a new year and set our hearts afresh to read His Word and to know His truth, may we determine to read with the purpose of TRULY believing and obeying, so that we may stand strong when the storms come. It’s those who hear and act upon the word, who will stand and not be shaken (Luke 6:46,47).

And the Word gives this clear instruction to obey: “..do not be anxious about anything,..”

How is that possible? BY PRAYER.

Making our requests known to God with thanksgiving (rather than being anxious about all the many details of life) will guard our heart and our mind in Christ Jesus with the peace of God (Philippians 4:6, 7).

The Greek word for “guard” in this scripture is actually “a military term picturing soldiers standing on guard duty and refers to the guarding of the city gate from within as a control on all who went out… The heart is the center of each person, from which thoughts and affection flow.“¹

We may think of this peace of God as guarding what enters our heart and mind or what goes on there, but the idea here is actually a guard on what goes out, what erupts from our heart and mind. Ponder that. Can’t we all readily recognize how we have been influenced (and have possibly influenced those around us) by eruptions of unbelief that, because of our lack of prayer, we’ve not controlled?

The solution to our anxiety is “everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” This is in stark contrast to the default of everything by worry, which is so easy to fall into.  Worry strangely gives us a false sense of control, making us feel like we are DOING something about the situation. But living in a habitual constant state of worry and being anxious is not only being disobedient to the Word, but is also forfeiting the peace that we are promised.

How often do we indulge ourselves in anxiety and worry and the what if’s, when the Word instructs us to not be anxious and to take our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5)? May we choose to obey the Word, to be “an effectual doer” and not “a forgetful hearer” (James 1:25).

Let’s resolve (decide firmly on a course of action):
I will not be anxious, I will trust, I will believe, and I will obey:
I will PRAY about everything, and give thanks, “…that which ought never to be absent from any of our devotions- namely, the grateful acknowledgment of past mercies, as distinguished from the earnest seeking of future.”¹

One closing thought from Oswald Chambers:
“We imagine that a little anxiety and worry are an indication of how really wise we are; it is much more an indication of how really wicked we are. Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way. Our Lord never worried and He was never anxious, because He was not “out” to realize His own ideas; He was “out” to realize God’s ideas. Fretting is wicked if you are a child of God. Have you been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for God? Put all “supposing” on one side and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about that thing. All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.” My Utmost for His Highest, 1935, Devotion for July 4.

Spend some time with the Lord, ask, hear His answers, allow Him to speak to your heart, and write it down:
-Lord, where I have given into the default of anxiety and worry? Remind me to pray in my moments of anxiety. I confess that I too often fall into this sin, and I name it for what it is, as it stands in opposition to the instruction of Your Word. And I repent.

-Remind me, even in this moment, of all that I need to practice thankfulness for. You are such a good Father working miracles all around me all the time. Open my eyes to see.

-I resolve that when I begin to feel worried or anxious, I WILL PRAY. I will talk to You about it, the One Who has solutions, and I will do so with thanksgiving, reminding myself of all Your faithfulness and Your great ability to do anything and everything.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” Colossians 4:2

“…but in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6,7).

Lord, raise up an army of praying BELIEVERS!

¹Rogers, Cleon L. The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament. 1998 Zodervan

Friends,

Just imagine with me how this world would be affected if we continually, habitually, immediately prayed about all the rising concerns. We would ALL pray more! And MORE would be accomplished in the Name of Jesus as a result!

Let’s rise up and start a prayer movement, how bout it!

Blessings to you all,

Traci Shinnick

Hi Friends,

This is not going to be a typical post today. In fact, I don’t expect that it will be a devotional in any way. This is just a little bit of my heart and where I am and a reintroduction of sorts.

I have ‘accidentally’ stopped writing to you for two months now, and I will give you all my excuses below. But the bottom line is that this is what happens to my life without hard deadlines. And these results are why I don’t dare take a break. It is so hard for me to know where to begin again. It’s like starting all over. So I procrastinate and let the weeks continue to go by.

But here are a few reasons I have not been here with you:

-It’s football season.

For those of you who do not know (because you do not know me personally, and I have still not written my about page), I am the wife of a brilliant college head football coach, who was Division II Coach of the Year last year. (Yes, I am a bit proud of him.) He started the football program here at the University of West Florida (his second start-up program), and we made it all the way to the Division II National Championship Game last year in our second season as a program- unheard of, and only explained by the favor of God, a lot of prayer, and a lot hard work by all our coaches and players. The Bible says that we have not because we ask not, so just as we prayed last year, we pray for another chance to go and win this time (I’ll keep you updated on that). All of that to say that this is a little busier time of year with games and family and visitors and traveling. So it’s easy not to write.

-But also if you are on my email list and have been following along this summer, our family had a great loss as my beautiful sister-in-law had complications with her pregnancy and they lost sweet Lysander after 11 days of miraculous living. Please continue to pray for Becky and Chris and their 3 other kids as they continue the long healing process. Here is the link to 2 amazing messages: ‘The Road to “Well Done”’ and ‘Hope in The Dark’ https://westflorida.manna.church/sermons. The first is by our former pastor, Michael Fletcher, as he filled in for Chris, and it will challenge you in whatever you are walking through. And the second is my brother-in-law telling of their whole journey and teaching through the hope in Psalm 42 and 43. They are SO, SO good and powerful!

So I just stopped posting here somewhere in the midst of all of that plus:

-my spectacular mother-in-law (pictured with us above) coming to help Chris and Becky and then staying with us quite a bit to give their family time to be alone as well,
-and my grandma passing away at 100 years of age,
-and then two other writing assignment that I was busy with,
-and the start of small groups,
-and my son-in-law getting his wings (he is a Naval Aviator) with top awards: (Golden Stick for top grades in his class, Top Gun, and Top Hook),

(Us with all of our kids.)

-and finding out that they will be stationed in Virginia Beach to fly the F-18 Super Hornet. They are in the process of moving there now.

-AND finding out that they are pregnant! Due in April.

–with TWINS!!!!

Wow!

We are so excited!

…. and in the midst of all of that, you stopped hearing from me.

Are those enough excuses for not posting in two months? I’m sure I could tag on a few more…. And I imagine that I will share a little more of my heart about this little hiatus next time.

But I just needed to reconnect with you before I try to/before I get back at it with some deadlines for myself.

Thank you all for being here and for giving me this outlet to share.

And just because it feels weird to connect with you and not leave you any devotional thought:

As I shared the testimony of my husband’s success (and my son-in-law’s), let me share with you one of my favorite verses to pray for my husband. You may want to use it for those you love as well.

“Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And confirm for us the work of our hands;
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.” Psalm 90:17 NASB

A great prayer for all that we put our hands to.

Blessing to you all. May He confirm the work of your hands today and may His favor be upon you.

With love,

Traci Shinnick

Do you long to go deeper with God?

Do you long to truly know the power and freedom and authority and the abundance that He has promised to you as His child?

Do you long to not just go through the motions or live in maintenance mode?

What are you willing to ‘spend’?

What are you willing to sacrifice for the fulfillment of those desires?

Or does that question uncover the fact that you really don’t want it as much as you thought.

This, most important thing, we want easy and free, don’t we?

We will pay money for other programs, put in some effort and maybe even sweat a little, but this, we want to just happen without setting aside any time or putting in any effort (1 Corinthians 9:24, 25).

Or, on the other hand, do you lack any desire at all for this most important thing in life and for all eternity? Do you find yourself too busy running after this ‘world’ or the next thing or the next place you want to be in life or the next assignment deadline on your calendar, that you have little time for the things of God? If so, pray for Him to change your longings and desires.

Not that we attain a deeper relationship with the Creator of the universe by our striving, but His word does say, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8).  We have an ongoing invitation to initiate with God, and yet we tend to continually neglect it day in and day out.

Contemplate how you may be ‘running away’ from His calling, His assignments, His invitation to draw near.

What is keeping you away?

What distractions or lies of the enemy are stealing from this great privilege and power encounter with the Living God?

How are you perhaps even avoiding it?

May we choose not to run anymore.

He is always near. Slow down, lay aside all the distractions, and take the TIME to draw near and find Him there, so close, and let Him love you well.

Be built up in His love.

“Therefore, brethren, since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the [Holy of] Holies [by the power and virtue] in the blood of Jesus,

By this fresh (new) and living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us through the separating curtain (veil of the Holy of Holies), that is, through His flesh,

And since we have [such] a great and wonderful and noble Priest [Who rules] over the house of God,

Let us all come forward and draw near with true (honest and sincere) hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith (by that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness), having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty (evil) conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water.”  Hebrews 10:19, 20, 21, 22 Amplified Bible

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