Faith Matters Devotional with Brian and Andi Hale Don't Believe the Lie! Getting Unstuck by Meredith Schafer on Youversion The enemy would love to keep you from getting unstuck because that would mean you aren't making progress on the destiny the Lord has given you. He may whisper in your ear that you'll always be here, that there is no way out. He might tell you you're not good enough; you don't have enough education, you're too old, you're too poor, you don't have what it takes. He might make you believe that being stuck is the only thing you're good for. He is a liar! Some truth: You are a child of God. You are an heir to the throne. You were created for this moment to do whatever God has called you to do. Is This All There Is? One of the most insidious ways we get stuck is to buy into the lie that this is all there is. That the place you are now is the best you can hope for, so why bother trying anymore? This goes directly against the word of God that says, Never doubt God's mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you. (Ephesians 3:20 TPT) This isn't all there is, in this world or the next. God's plan for you is bigger and more amazing than ever imagined. Being stuck is just part of the journey, but it doesn't have to be all there is for you. God's promises are for you in this time and this season, no matter how deep that rut is that you're stuck in. His plans are good, and he is always working and moving to accomplish them. It doesn't matter how long you have been stuck, how difficult it will be to get unstuck, or how discouraged or disappointed you have become. God has the way out; he has the way forward. He is the Way. Action: Ask yourself what lies you have been believing. Then remind yourself of the promises in Ephesians 3:20 and Jeremiah 29:11. Read them aloud over and over if you need to until you believe what God says. Those promises are yours! Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, Ephesians 3:20 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. Jeremiah 29:11 Prayer: God of the Way, I trust your plans are for me and my good, even if it doesn't feel like that right now. I may be stuck, but this isn't all there is, according to your words. I am clinging to your promises that you will help me get unstuck because your plans for me are good. Help me believe that you have more for me than this, and help me not to accept the lies of the enemy. Thank you for getting me unstuck! In Jesus' name, amen.

Centered, Day 4 By Jason Brown, from the book Centered: Trading Your Plans for a Life That Matters Our God is an awesome God. He can do anything. He is with us. Most Christians believe this with all their hearts. We know we worship an Almighty Ruler, the Maker of heaven and earth. We say He loves us and is involved in our lives. We say we depend on Him for everything. But do we ever put it to the test? When I was in the NFL, I worshipped God with my lips but put my real trust in my bank account. We love God if it doesn’t cost us too much. We put our trust in Him as long as we’ve got backup plans in place. But when we don’t risk, we don’t reap the rewards, either. After Jesus told me to “pour it all down the drain,” and I did, I wanted to go deeper in my rela­tionship with God. So in a period of calm and comfort, I prayed a new prayer. “God, You’re amazing,” I said. “You’ve done some amazing things in my life. You’ve just begun writing a beautiful testi­mony in my life. Make my life something that when people look at me, when people hear my story, they can’t help but see You through it all.” Then I said something I hadn’t planned on praying. Maybe I knew that for peo­ple to see God in my life, they’d need to see, to feel, how much I trusted Him to take care of me, in good times and bad. I wanted to emulate the heroes in the Bible—those people who were so close to the Almighty that they relied on Him as they would a flesh-and-blood father. With that in mind, I added, “God, I want You to take me to a place where I de­pend on You. Where I lean on You for everything. Where I cry out to You, God.” Be careful what you pray for. When you follow God—truly follow Him, body and soul—you may find, as I have, that God really is with us and that He’s an awesome God indeed. To trust Him leaves you vulnerable. The rains may come. But you know what? You feel the warmth of God’s love on your face too. And sometimes those showers you feel? They’re the showers of blessings. What do you find difficult to entrust to God? What, if anything, prevents you from praying Jason’s prayer? Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. Matthew 16:24‭-‬27 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Luke 14:33 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:1‭-‬5

Centered, Day 1 By Jason Brown, from the book Centered: Trading Your Plans for a Life That Matters When you look at the Bible, you may find that not many of its stories focus on rich people. If God’s own plans were governed by spreadsheets, you’d think Jesus would’ve surrounded Himself with rich dis­ciples who could fund His travels, not poor fishermen who couldn’t pay their taxes. Joseph’s family was rela­tively wealthy back in the day, but it was only when they were poor—when Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt begging for food—that they had a chance to see Joseph’s own amazing, miraculous story. Don’t misunderstand: God uses rich people too. But the poor have a chance to see God operate more power­fully and intimately. They lean on Him because they don’t have their own resources to use as a crutch. After retiring from the NFL, I thought I’d never be hurting for money again. I was wrong. I lost almost everything through circumstances beyond my control. I know what it’s like to have a big bank account. I know what it’s like to live a comfortable life. Those who follow a prosperity-gospel form of Christianity believe that God wants us to be comfortable and that He’ll provide us the means to find us that comfort. They think, Oh, I’m going to follow Jesus all the way to a comfortable life. But that’s not what Jesus says at all. He tells us, “Look, if you’re going to be My disciple, you’re going to have to measure the cost.” Even Jesus—the very Son of God—wasn’t comfortable in His time on earth. He wasn’t looking for comfort. He had a job to do. In the last several years, I’ve learned that having favor from God is worth more than gold and silver. Having that favor—having a real relationship with Him—is priceless, be­cause God is always batting a thousand. I’d never want to go back. I would much rather be in the position I’m in right now: praying to God every single day for my manna, praying for my daily bread. Because when my worldly blessings were gone, the floodgates of heaven were opened for miracles. Through it all, I learned I don’t need an abundance; just give me what I need. How does having less money than you think you need give you opportunities to trust God instead, for what you truly need? For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. Genesis 45:6‭-‬7 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. Exodus 16:3‭-‬4 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Luke 9:58 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Luke 14:27‭-‬33

Just as refreshing a fire requires the feeding of kindling to the flames, we too must feed ourselves in order to refresh and revitalize our minds, bodies, and spirits. This requires fresh manna—fresh provision, new thoughts, new ideas, new business, and this can be found only within the Word of God. Manna is daily. God provided manna for the children of Israel during the forty years that they wandered in the wilderness. It appeared each morning alongside the morning dew, where the Israelites would gather it, and the manna nourished them for the day. Those who tried to hoard the manna for the next day woke up to a putrid, worm-infested mess, with exceptions to the sixth day, in which the Israelites gathered enough manna to last through the Sabbath. God provided manna to meet their physical needs but also to remind them that they needed more than bread for life. They needed God. Psalm 23 promises that because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. Just as Israel counted on the daily manna in order to survive and push on during their journey, God wants me to depend on Him daily. His provisions show up when I need them and not before. When I try to secure today what I think I’ll need tomorrow, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because God wants me to trust Him each day for that day’s need. I was created to rely on Him. Manna can be unusual. The word itself loosely translates to “what is it?”I’m not sure what the Hebrews expected when Moses told them that they would see God’s glory in the morning, but they didn’t expect what they found. Sometimes we don’t recognize God’s provisions either. It doesn’t look like what we expected. But it is always there, if we’re willing to look for it. And it is always enough.

A Ripple Effect I’ll never forget the day in 2013 when my dad called me from overseas and told me he had just rescued four young girls from traffickers. He was preaching at an underground pastor’s conference in a remote country where Christians are persecuted. When the conference was over, he heard there were four girls about to be sold. He took out all the money he had in his wallet, and with that cash, he purchased the freedom of those girls. I knew that day my life would change because I entered a new fight. I said, “Dad, I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do, but we’re going to do something.” Our foundation built a safe home as fast as we could to take care of those four girls. And then the next four. And the next four. And we’re still going. The day my dad purchased the freedom of those four girls was pivotal. It opened my eyes. I believe once your eyes are open to something like that, you can never unsee what you’ve seen. Dad made a split-second decision to step into the fight, and immediately our foundation stepped in with him. We weren’t totally sure of what we were doing and didn’t have all the answers to our questions, but that mission-driven moment, when Dad chose to advocate for girls he had never even met, was the beginning of a ripple effect still in motion today. This is what happens when we live mission-possible lives: we create a cycle of good, of service, of compassion, and of action that inspires others to continue. As the writer of Hebrews says, we “motivate one another to acts of love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24) Mission living means being motivated by something other than yourself. It’s scary. It’s also pretty exciting. It can be unpredictable (but in a good way). It will also require submitting your preferences to God, and sometimes that doesn’t feel very good or doesn’t make you look as favorable as you’d like. That is when trusting God becomes crucial. If you’ve made the decision to trust Him, He gives you the mission and makes it possible. Trust that He’s got better plans for your life than you do. When have you seen one person’s choice to follow God’s calling cause others to lean into their calling more?