And today I want to look at peace.

Isaiah 26:3 says:

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

I love the visual that Scripture gives us there — whose mind is stayed on You. There is something about a mind that continually comes back to Jesus, fixes itself on Jesus, leans into Jesus and refuses to make everything happening around it the center of its attention.

That is a life that leads to peace.

But here is where it gets really good.

When we hear the word peace, we normally think of the absence of conflict. No arguing. No chaos. No fighting. Everything is calm, everybody is behaving, nobody is sending the text that ruins your afternoon. LOL!

But the Hebrew word used here is shalom, and it’s something much deeper than simply “nothing bad is happening.”

Strong’s says shalom means completeness, soundness, welfare and peace, with the larger sense of being safe, well, whole and secure. It comes from the Hebrew family of words connected to shalem which is defined as complete, whole, full.

So imagine the Lord drawing a circle around your life.

Not a wiggly circle. Not one with a giant gap in the back where everything can sneak through. LOL! But a complete circle.

Whole.

Full.

Nothing missing from it.

That is the picture I get when I think about shalom. It is God’s peace surrounding the entirety of who we are. Our mind. Our heart. Our well-being. Our relationship with Him. It is not simply God saying, I will make everything around you quiet.

It’s a circle that is able to keep out all the noise that is happening around us and because we’ve chosen to keep our mind on Him, it cannot enter INSIDE that circle.

That is God making you whole in the middle of what may not yet be quiet.

And THAT changes the way I read Isaiah 26:3.

Peace upon peace.

Wholeness upon wholeness.

Complete peace.

And where does God say that kind of peace is found?

“Whose mind is stayed on You.”

There it is.

Before His Circumstances Changed

When we first meet Gideon in Judges 6, this man is not sitting on his front porch drinking coffee while birds chirp peacefully in the background. Israel is being severely oppressed by the Midianites, and Gideon is literally threshing wheat inside a winepress because he’s trying to hide what he has from the enemy.

This is not exactly what I would call a peaceful season.

He’s afraid. He’s hiding. He’s questioning God. And if I’m being honest with myself, I’d probably be doing the exact same thing Gideon was doing. Hiding.

Get this, when the angel of the Lord tells him that the Lord is with him, Gideon’s response is basically, Well, if God is with us, then why in the world is all of this happening?

Can we just stop for a moment and appreciate Gideon’s raw truth for a second?

Because that sounds a whole lot more like real life than “I’ve got my whole life all together” answer.

Lord, if You’re with me, why does this look like this?

If You’re leading me, why is this so hard?

If You spoke that promise, why am I still standing here?

I know many of us have asked those same questions in different seasons of our life.

Gideon hadn’t seen the breakthrough yet. Midian was still Midian. The enemy hadn’t disappeared. The battle hadn’t even really begun.

And yet right there, before his circumstances changed, God spoke peace to him.

Come on now!! Wrapping my head around how God works and seeing life through His lens is beautiful!

What did Gideon do next?

He built an altar and called it Yahweh Shalom — The LORD is Peace.

Oh, my friends. Don’t miss that.

Gideon did not build that altar after the victory.

He built it before the battle.

There were still enemies surrounding Israel. There were still impossible odds ahead. There were still things Gideon didn’t understand and places God was about to ask him to walk that would require enormous faith and deep trust.

But Gideon discovered something we desperately need to remember:

I want to say that again - Peace isn’t the absence of your circumstances....Peace is the presence of God!!

And sometimes I think we get stuck thinking that peace will come after…..

• I’ll have peace after this gets settled.

• I’ll have peace after I know what’s happening.

• I’ll have peace after the door opens.

• I’ll have peace after God answers me.

But biblical shalom says we don’t have to wait until after the story is resolved to live surrounded by the completeness of God. Because our peace isn’t coming from what’s happening around us. Our peace is coming from who our mind is stayed upon.

And get this — shalom eventually became a greeting used both when coming and when going.

Hello — shalom.

Goodbye — shalom.

I just love that visual because that to me, is the full circle!

• When you walk in — shalom.

• When you walk out — shalom.

• When something begins — shalom.

• When something ends — shalom.

• When the answer comes — shalom.

• And while you’re still waiting — shalom.

So if your world feels a little noisy today, don’t spend all your energy trying to manufacture peace by getting everything around you under ‘your’ control.

Bring your mind back to Jesus.

Keep your thoughts FIXED on Him.

Lean the full weight of what you don’t understand onto the One who does.

Because Isaiah doesn’t say God keeps the person with the perfect circumstances in perfect peace.

He keeps the person whose mind is stayed on Him.

Shalom, shalom.

~Tracee

Something new is growing.

Unveiled Roots launches Wednesday, September 2nd — (Apple Podcast, Spotify, Youtube, Unfiltered Faith Substack, and more) and this is going to be about so much more than another conversation about faith.

We’re going to dig deep into Scripture and ask what a deeply rooted life in Christ really looks like. What needs to grow deeper? What needs to be uprooted? Where have we settled into familiarity instead of continuing to grow? And how do we build a faith that doesn’t just know about Jesus, but truly abides in Him and walks with Him every day?

It’s time to strengthen our roots, mobilize our faith, and put shoes on what we believe.

Join me beginning September 2nd for Unveiled Roots.

Because when your roots grow deep, freedom is unveiled.

Read It or Press Play

Some days you may want to slow down, settle in, and read every word. Other days, you may want to press play and listen while you’re driving, folding laundry, getting ready, or pretending the pile of dishes is not staring at you.

Now you can do either.

Each Unfiltered Faith article on Monday’s will still be here for you to read, but you’ll also have the option to watch or listen as I share it with you. I’ll stay close to what I wrote, but because I apparently cannot read my own words without adding a thought, a story, or a little extra commentary, you may hear a few things that never quite made it onto the page.

So grab your coffee, choose what works for your day, and let’s dig into God’s Word together. (Video is at the end of the article)

Don’t Be Impressed With Yourself

When I was three years old, I absolutely loved to sing.

I sang all the time, made up my own songs - like my #1 hit when I was 6 years old called “I’m going downtown!”, and belted them out with the confidence of someone who had already topped the charts.

One particular Sunday, my dad, who was a pastor and missionary, decided to let me sing a song in church. He handed me the microphone, and away I went, singing what I was certain was my first number-one hit.

The problem came when the song was over.

My dad reached for the microphone, and I refused to give it back. I did not hesitate. I did not misunderstand what he was asking. I simply had no intention of surrendering that microphone. Apparently, I had tasted the spotlight and decided the rest of the church service should continue with my concert.

My dad tried again, but I held on. Eventually, it took a firm little pat on the behind to convince me that my debut performance had officially ended. And just like that, my singing career started and ended in one day. He did not let me sing in church again until I was around ten years old.

Honestly, I cannot blame him. There is nothing quite like watching your three-year-old daughter turn one church special into a hostile microphone takeover.

As funny as that story is, I have been thinking about how easy it is for us to do the very same thing with God. He hands us a microphone. He gives us an opportunity, opens a door, places a gift inside of us, or allows us to lead, create, build, speak, serve, and carry influence.

At first, we are in complete awe that He would use us at all.

We are grateful, humbled, and fully aware that we could never have created the opportunity on our own. We know it was God who opened the door, God who provided the strength, and God who placed the gift inside of us.

But then people begin to notice. The work grows. The gift begins producing fruit. The open door becomes a platform, and somewhere in the middle of it all, something can quietly begin to shift. We are no longer simply grateful for what God is doing through us. We start becoming impressed with ourselves because He is doing it through us.

That is a dangerous shift.

There is a significant difference between being thankful for what God has placed inside of us and becoming fascinated with ourselves because of it.

Humility does not mean pretending we are not gifted. It does not mean shrinking, hiding, or acting as though we have nothing meaningful to offer. Humility means remembering where every gift came from and refusing to confuse being used by God with being the source of what God is doing.

• We may be the vessel, but He is the One who fills it.

• We may carry the message, but He is the One who gives it power.

• We may hold the microphone, but the breath, the song, the opportunity, and the influence all belong to Him.

Look At What ‘I’ Did

King Nebuchadnezzar learned this lesson in a far more dramatic way.

In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar stood looking over the kingdom of Babylon and said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”

There it was—the spiritual equivalent of refusing to hand the microphone back.

Nebuchadnezzar looked at everything under his leadership and became impressed with himself. He saw the kingdom, the power, the influence, and everything that had been built, but he no longer saw the God who had allowed him to hold any of it. His heart had shifted from, “Look what God has allowed,” to, “Look what I have built.” He moved from stewardship to ownership, from gratitude to grandiosity, and from bringing glory to God to admiring his own majesty.

Nebuchadnezzar had been warned in a dream about what would happen if he continued walking in pride. Daniel even pleaded with him to turn from his ways, but Nebuchadnezzar did not listen. Twelve months later, while he was walking on the roof of the royal palace, he looked over Babylon and began congratulating himself for its greatness.

The words had barely left his mouth before judgment came.

God humbled Nebuchadnezzar. He lost his position, his understanding, and the life he had known. The man who had stood proudly overlooking his kingdom was driven away from people and lived like a wild animal until he finally lifted his eyes toward heaven.

That detail matters because his restoration began when he looked up.

His understanding returned when his eyes moved away from everything he had built and returned to the One who had given him the ability to build it. At the end of his story, Nebuchadnezzar praised God and declared that “those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”

Give the Microphone Back

Hopefully, most of us can learn this lesson without spending seven years living like a wild animal. Sometimes all we need is the Holy Spirit lovingly whispering, “You are becoming a little too impressed with yourself. Hand the microphone back.”

God is not asking us to hand it back because He wants to silence us or because He no longer wants to use the gifts He placed inside of us. Confidence is not wrong, and neither is recognizing that God has called us, equipped us, or entrusted us with something meaningful. The danger comes when we begin treating borrowed influence as personal greatness.

The healthiest people are not those who pretend they carry nothing significant. They are the ones who can carry significant things without allowing those things to make them feel significant apart from God. They can receive honor without becoming entitled to it. They can be celebrated without becoming dependent upon the applause. They can carry influence without allowing influence to carry them away.

They can sing the song and still know when it is time to release the microphone.

God does not ask us to think poorly of ourselves. He asks us to think rightly of ourselves. Romans 12:3 tells us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, but to think of ourselves with sober judgment. In other words, humility is not saying, “I am nothing, I have nothing, and I can do nothing.” Humility is being able to acknowledge what God has placed inside of us without forgetting that without Him, we are not the source of any of it.

We can celebrate growth, acknowledge the gift, receive encouragement, and be grateful when God uses us. We can enjoy the moment, walk confidently through the door He opened, and sing the song He gave us with everything inside of us. But we must never become more impressed with the vessel than we are with the One who filled it.

So as we reflect on what God has placed within us, the prayer of our heart speaks:

No holy pat on the behind necessary.

Hopefully.

The goal to remember is God is the gift-giver and to live continually aware of that truth. It is to carry what He gives us with open hands, remaining grateful when He uses us and willing to release it when the moment is finished.

So use the gift. Walk through the door. Steward the influence. Sing the song with everything inside of you. But never forget Who handed you the microphone.

And let every beautiful thing God does through your life become one more reason to be impressed with Him.

~Tracee

Watch today’s article here:

Read It or Press Play

Some days you may want to slow down, settle in, and read every word. Other days, you may want to press play and listen while you’re driving, folding laundry, getting ready, or pretending the pile of dishes is not staring at you.

Now you can do either.

Each Unfiltered Faith article on Monday’s will still be here for you to read, but you’ll also have the option to watch or listen as I share it with you. I’ll stay close to what I wrote, but because I apparently cannot read my own words without adding a thought, a story, or a little extra commentary, you may hear a few things that never quite made it onto the page.

So grab your coffee, choose what works for your day, and let’s dig into God’s Word together. (Video is at the end of the article)

The Boomerang Life

One particular morning while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, I heard a phrase that got my head spinning: the boomerang life.

I’m paraphrasing what was shared, but the thought was this:

When we live a life in Christ, it is much like living a boomerang life. The deeper we pour into our walk with God and pursue all He has for us through the power of His Word, the effects of that pursuit begin circling right back into our lives.

That is exactly what happens when we throw a boomerang.

What happens every single time? It comes back to you.

That is the beauty and power of the Word of God. It is alive. It is active. And it is always accomplishing far more than we can see in the moment.

So let’s go to the Word and watch the boomerang life displayed right before our eyes.

Isaiah 55:11 says:

“It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”

That is a jaw-dropping truth.

God sends out His Word, and it always produces fruit.

This doesn’t mean occasionally, here and there. Or when conditions in our life are perfect and all put together.

It means His word WILL accomplish everything He desires, and it will prosper everywhere He sends it. No matter what our seasons look like.

Let that revelation get deep into your spirit!

Here are some of what God’s Word does in our life:

• It enters barren places and begins sprouting new life.

• It reaches challenging places and brings clarity.

• It moves into fearful places and establishes peace.

• It confronts lies, uproots strongholds, renews our minds, redirects our steps, and transforms the landscape of our lives.

And then comes the boomerang effect.

The Word that God sends out begins returning through the fruit it produces in us.

• We begin thinking differently.

• Speaking differently.

• Responding differently.

• Living differently.

God’s Word takes root within us, and then begins showing up through us. That is what it is all about!

And before we go on I have to stop and say this:

The boomerang life is not just reserved for the mountaintop seasons of our lives.

In fact, I think its effects often becomes even more evident in the testing seasons of our life—the places where worry creeps in, circumstances feel uncertain, trusting isn’t easy, and we need more than a quick inspirational scripture to hold us steady.

This is why staying continually (as it says in Colossians 2:6-7) rooted in the Word of God matters so deeply.

The Word we have been reading, praying, declaring, and hiding within our hearts is what starts circling back into our life like daily bread that brings the reminders we need to keep us moving one step forward. Even when it feels impossible.

David lived this again and again.

His life was not one long mountaintop experience. He knew rejection, betrayal, loss, warfare, waiting, and the loneliness of hiding in caves. Yet David continually brought himself back to what he knew about God. He reminded his own soul of God’s goodness. He spoke of God as his refuge, his strength, his deliverer, and his faithful help.

The truth David had poured into his heart in the quiet places came circling back in the hardest ones.

That is the boomerang life.

So, let’s keep digging in and head to Isaiah verse 12 to see the wonders of God displayed even greater.

It says:

“You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!”

Do you see it?

God’s Word goes out, and what comes back? Joy and peace comes back!

The whole landscape changes. Our drought season becomes our flourishing season! What was once silent begins singing. What appeared lifeless begins responding. Even the mountains, hills, and trees become part of the celebration.

That is what the Word of God does. It does not just give us something inspiring to read in the morning or when we go to bed at night. It enters our lives with the power to change the atmosphere around us and the condition within us.

And I have to keep reading because verse 13 gives us an even clearer picture:

“Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow; where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up. These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”

Where there were once thorns, something new begins to grow.

Where pain, resistance, disappointment, grief, and barrenness once occupied the ground, evidence of God’s transforming power begins to appear.

The thorn does not get the final word.

The barren place does not get to remain barren.

The painful season does not get to define the entire landscape of our lives.

God sends His Word into those places, and His Word begins doing what only His Word can do. And eventually, what God planted begins rising from the very ground that once looked hopeless.

That is the boomerang life in Christ.

We receive His Word, press into His presence, obey what He speaks, and allow His truth to take root within us. Then the fruit of that pursuit begins circling back into every part of our lives.

• His Word produces joy.

• His Word produces peace.

• His Word produces freedom.

• His Word produces endurance.

• His Word produces transformation.

• His Word produces evidence that the thorny places did not have the power to stop what God intended to grow.

But here is what I love most about the ending of this passage: the fruit is not ultimately meant to point back to us.

“These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name.”

The beauty of the boomerang life is not simply that we receive something wonderful from God. The beauty is that everything His Word produces within us becomes an everlasting sign of His power and His love.

Our peace points to Him → Our joy points to Him → Our freedom points to Him.

The transformed places in our lives become living evidence that God is faithful, His Word is powerful, and His love is still rewriting landscapes.

And that is just one small section of Scripture.

Honestly, I could write for days about the boomerang life.

Because once you begin looking for it, you will the goodness of God coming back to you in every way. Over and over again.

So, go and live out this life in Christ knowing that He is faithful to complete what He started in your life.

One boomerang at a time.

~Tracee

Watch today’s article here.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what happens When Surrender Becomes the Weapon.

I shared from my heart about a very recent season when fear had quietly convinced me that carrying more weight was the responsible thing to do. I had picked up work God never asked me to carry because the numbers were tight, the pressure was real, and surrender felt a whole lot scarier than having a backup plan.

But eventually, I laid it down.

I released my need to control how God would provide, when He would provide, and what that provision would look like.

That was surrender. Even if it felt scary or uncertain.

But this week, while listening to one of my favorite new podcasts with a Christian neurosurgeon Dr. Lee Warren, I heard something that took the revelation of surrender one step further and I had to share it here.

Because after we lay something down, there is always a question we eventually have to answer:

What happens next?

Do we simply sit still?

Do we wait for God to open every door, remove every obstacle, answer every question, and place the whole path directly in front of us before we move?

Sometimes God does ask us to be still. There are absolutely seasons when the most obedient thing we can do is stop, listen, heal, receive, and wait for His direction.

But the reality is also this: waiting on God does not actually mean doing nothing at all.

Dr. Warren said:

“The balance that we are intended to live is not choosing between surrender and action, but choosing to surrender the outcome to God while still taking the next obedient step He’s already placed in front of us.”

Phew.

Surrender the outcome while still taking the next obedient step.

He calls it surrendered action.

And I cannot think of a more powerful picture of surrendered action than what happened at the Jordan River in Joshua 3.

They Had Waited Long Enough

The quick backstory is the Israelites had spent MANY years waiting to enter the land God had promised them. And now, finally, the promise was directly in front of them.

There was just one problem.

The Jordan River stood between where they were and where God had told them to go—and to make matters even worse, the river was at flood stage.

This was not a little stream they could easily step across without getting the bottoms of their sandals wet. No, this was a raging river overflowing its banks. And the conditions certainly were not ideal or even safe for crossing.

Yet God instructed Joshua to have the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant toward the water. That is so how God works, right?

Now, I think we can sometimes picture this moment differently than it actually happened.

We imagine the priests standing safely on the riverbank while God stopped the water. Then, once the ground was dry and the way ahead was very obvious, they confidently began walking forward.

But that is not what happened.

The river did not stop first. Joshua 3 tells us that the water stopped flowing only after the priests’ feet touched it.

Picture this:

They had to walk toward a river that was still raging. They had to place their feet into water that had not yet moved.

And if you’re like me, you’re saying to yourself, “This doesn’t make any sense at all.” But this is how GOD does HIS greatest work!

The step came before the parting of the water.

And friend, that will preach all by itself all day long!

Before.

How many times are we waiting for God to part the water before we will take the next step?

We want the door to swing completely open before we walk toward it. We want the provision deposited in our bank account before we begin preparing. We want the whole plan explained before we give God our yes. We want to know that we cannot fail, fall, struggle, or get our feet wet before we move from the safety of the riverbank.

But what if the raging water right in front of you is waiting on your obedience before God moves?

Sometimes we are waiting for confirmation when God is waiting for our feet to touch the water and simply trust Him.

Faith Has Feet

James 2:17 tells us:

“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Faith always moves. It has feet.

Again, our movement is not what makes God faithful because we do not earn His promises by working hard enough, taking big enough risks, or proving that we believe.

But when we truly trust God, that trust will eventually show up in the way we live.

Peter had to step out of the boat.

Nehemiah prayed—and then he rebuilt the wall.

The priests carried the Ark toward an overflowing river—and then placed their feet into it not knowing what the outcome would be.

The common denominator between these three examples is that not one of them controlled what happened next.

Peter could not hold himself above the waves. Nehemiah could not remove every threat or distraction surrounding the rebuilding, and the priests could not stop the Jordan from flowing.

But the key was this: they were responsible for obeying before they saw the results and God was responsible for the outcome.

That is what surrendered action looks like.

Rest Is Not the Absence of Movement

Dr. Warren also said something that challenged the way we can sometimes think about resting in the waiting seasons.

Rest does not mean lying on the couch and refusing to move until everything becomes clear. Yes, sometimes we absolutely need the couch. Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is take the nap, put down the phone, clear the calendar, and let our bodies recover.

But biblical rest is more than physical stillness. Rest means we stop relying on our own strength to control the outcome.

It means our soul is settled in God’s plan even while our feet are moving forward into unknown territory.

Here’s what I love:

• You can write the email and still be at rest.

• You can begin the work and still be at rest.

• You can make the phone call and still be at rest.

• You can enter unfamiliar territory and still be at rest.

• You can step into the water and still be resting in God because you are no longer carrying the responsibility of making the river part.

Here’s what I love: strength flows from surrender and that strength is meant to be used. Mic drop!

Hope Does Something

Eugene Peterson said:

“Hope commits us to actions that connect us to God’s promises.”

Biblical hope is not passive. It’s not staring out the window and wishing something would change. And it is not continually talking about what God might do while refusing to take the scary step He has already placed in front of us.

Hope is what connects itself to God’s promises through faithful surrendered action.

It’s putting one foot in the water even when the river is raging because when we take the first step, God shows us the next one, and then the next one….

Surrender Calms the System

Dr. Warren explained why this rhythm of surrender and action matters to our minds.

You see, when we are constantly trying to control or predict the outcome like I did earlier this year trying to hold onto some clients work that I was never meant to do, our minds can remain locked in anxiety. And without fail, stress always makes its way to the scene.

We run every possible scenario over and over, anticipating every problem seen and unseen. And then we rehearse what might go wrong or could go wrong which leads us to create what we think is a perfect plan for circumstances we cannot possibly predict. What happens is our thoughts go in circles because we are trying to solve tomorrow using only the information we have today. But true surrender allows us to release our grip on everything we cannot know yet.

What I love about this reality is this type of surrender is what actually calms the internal alarm system going off in our mind and allows us to think more clearly about the step actually in front of us. When we’re in the middle of trying to predict the outcome, you’ll notice you can’t quite see what that step is until you let it go. But the beauty is when we take that step, we begin strengthening a new response. That’s a renewed mind way of living!

Instead of repeatedly telling ourselves, “I cannot move until I know how this ends,” we begin learning:

• I can trust God without knowing the outcome.

• I can obey without seeing the entire path.

• I can move forward without carrying tomorrow.

Surrender calms the system. Action rewires the system.

Or perhaps we could say it this way:

Surrender loosens our grip. Obedience moves our feet. God handles the raging river.

The Surrendered Step

As I wrap this up, I want to give you the five-step practice that Dr. Warren shared for moving out of anxious waiting and into surrendered action. And I love how practical it is because this is not about solving your entire life today. It is about one surrendered step at a time.

1. Write down the specific place where you feel stuck.

Put it on paper.

• Where are you waiting?

• What outcome are you trying to predict?

• Where have you become so afraid of making the wrong move that you have stopped moving altogether?

Name the specific situation. I have learned that more times than not, writing it down helps move it out of the constant spinning in our minds and places it somewhere we can look at the ‘whole picture’ with the Lord.

2. Surrender the outcome out loud.

There’s something so important about speaking these things out audibly. An example of what that looks like:

“God, I release my need to control or perfectly predict the outcome here. I surrender this to You. I cannot nor will I keep carrying this weight.”

Release the timing, the response, and the way you think it should happen. More importantly, release your demand to understand how every detail will work.

You are not surrendering because the outcome does not matter. You are surrendering because God can carry it better than you can. So good!

3. Discern the next right step.

Pray and ask the Lord:

“What is the next obedient step You have already placed in front of me that I cannot see?”

Do not ask for the entire road because that rarely ever happens. And don’t demand or except to receive a ten-step plan. Release the expectation to try and see the entire final destination from where you are standing. Just like the children of Israel, standing on the beginning of the raging Jordan River - they didn’t get to see the final outcome. It was taking the next step that was going to get them to that final destination.

More times than not, we actually already know what that next step is. We’re just afraid or uncertain to step into the unknown water.

So ask yourself:

• What has God already been placing on your heart?

• What conversation keeps returning to your mind?

• What simple act of obedience have you delayed because you are waiting to feel completely certain?

4. Take the step this week.

Don’t leave the next step sitting in your journal for the next six months.

Go ahead and take it. However that looks:

Write the email. Make the call. Schedule the appointment. Have the conversation. Take the vacation. Begin the project. Put your feet in the water.

Then release what happens after your obedience and trust God to reveal what happens next.

5. Review and repeat.

Pay attention to what happens when you surrender the outcome and take the step.

• What changed internally?

• What did God show you?

• Did the next step become clearer?

• Did the river part differently than you expected?

Then repeat the process.

So it’ll look like this:

Surrender → Listen → Take the Next Step → Review → And Repeat.

With each step you take, it’s one step closer to what you’ve been believing and praying for!

Put Your Feet in the Water

God never asked Joshua to control the river, He just asked him to carry His presence and obey His instruction. And perhaps that is where you are today.

You don’t know how everything is going to turn out. You can’t predict the outcome as much as you want to. And if you’re like me, you can’t see a way out of this season. But I love the reminder that we weren’t asked to make the water stop, we’re just asked to take the next step - step into the water.

And friend, that is when God moves.

~ Tracee