The Lord Is Near

by Elisa Pulliam | | 6 comments

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Does it feel like the Lord is near to you? Do you feel like you can cry out to Him with the deepest longings, secret hopes, and unspoken sorrows buried within your heart?

Does it feel like God is watching you from afar, neglecting to hear your cry for help? Maybe you feel abandoned by God, as your circumstances rest heavily upon your shoulders.

No matter where you find yourself right now, the reality is that there are times in our lives when we question the nearness of God. We all wonder whether His promises apply to us, particularly when we are in the middle of a trial.

I certainly have had my fair share of hard days, even years,

When Your Work and Faith is Re-defined

by Elisa Pulliam | | no comments

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Are you in a season of your work and life being re-defined?

If you’re reading this in the wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic that swept our world, my guess is that your answer is “yes.”

We’ve had our “normal” rocked. As I confessed in my last devotion, I struggle to not choose work over everything else, especially relationships. Nothing like experiencing stay-at-home orders to make that tendency all the more evident. How do I balance work with family? How do I walk in faith but steward my responsibilities well?

Maybe your work right now isn’t only your paid job but staying on top of the household needs or getting creative in supporting the ministry you volunteer for that’s struggling with

Just Be

by Elisa Pulliam | | 1 comment

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Just be.

How can two little words hold so much emotion and meaning? On the one hand,

just be may feel like a deep cleansing exhale. A release of pressure. A stepping away from all responsibilities. A surrender of unrealistic expectations.

One the other hand, just be could feel like handcuffs restricting you from that thing you feel compelled to do. Maybe it’s the dream you can’t wait to get started on. Maybe it is putting your hands to something, which gives you sense of security when life spins out of control, albeit that may not be the best course of action.

Yes, just be can feel different for each of us depending upon our God-given wiring and the nature

A Fresh Encounter with God Changes Everything

by Elisa Pulliam | | 2 comments

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How well do you know God? Do you see Him as an “out there” being who is gambling with your life? Is He a cranky old judge, ready to dole out an indictment? Or is He kind and gentle, gracious and forgiving?

Who we think God is impacts everything about the way we live our lives.

Growing up in an abusive home made it nearly impossible for me to see God as a loving father. My faith upbringing didn’t help either, as I believed I had to earn God’s love and blessing. Can you see how that might play out in my life, even today? Ahem, control issues. I always saw myself as needing to defend myself and provide for myself, because I didn’t believe

Exchanging the Try-Hard Life for Creativity and Rest

by Elisa Pulliam | | 11 comments

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Do you give yourself permission to be purposeless? Unproductive? Playful? Creative? Or do you feel the pressure to make sure everything you do, spend, create, and grow has some greater meaning?

This has been one of the great struggles of my adult life. I grew up in a culture that was bent towards productivity, academic accolades, and financial success. Those values deeply shaped how I saw this world and myself.

When I came to know Jesus as my Savior in college, I let go of the try-hard life but adopted a warped mindset that “dying-to-self” also meant, “dying to everything fufu.” If it doesn’t have quantifiable impact for the kingdom, it must be a waste of time, right?

I became a workaholic for Christ on a mission

The Secret to Connecting with God

by Elisa Pulliam | | 2 comments

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Have you ever considered how the connection you crave with God may be deeply impacted by the connections you have with others?

Maybe you’ve thought what you have with God doesn’t have to do with anyone else. It’s just you and God – but than again, maybe not.

We are created in the image of our relational God. He invites us to experience a fully connected relationship with Him when we’re adopted into His family by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. We are given the gift of His presence through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

God designed us for continual connection with not only Himself but also His body.

John wrote, “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he

When We’re Not Qualified

by Elisa Pulliam | | 2 comments

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Do you struggle with not feeling qualified? You’re not alone. I think more of us feel unqualified than qualified on a daily basis. It only takes being pushed slightly out of our comfort zone at work or in ministry, at home or in a relationship to feel entirely defeated about our abilities. Maybe that’s why we like to say that “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.”

It’s a lovely chant when we desperately need overcome our feelings of inadequacies. But is it truly a biblical statement?

Context is key, my friends. This Christian platitude is likely inspired by 2 Corinthians 3:5 NLT, “It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our

Real-Time Relationship

by Elisa Pulliam | | 2 comments

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I expected my usually happy teenage daughter to bounce into my office singing VBS songs from her morning spent serving at church. Instead, her sullen face conveyed another story. She was battling feelings of betrayal, insecurity, and jealousy after receiving a message from a friend about something that was happening in a completely different place.

Let’s just say this mama llama wanted to spew more than a few unpleasantries about social media and towards the adult involved behind the scenes. Yet I could feel God urging me to not be so easily offended. I’d been down this road enough times before to recognize what was happening.

Satan was busy writing the story in my head according to his own

Real-Time Relationship Restoration

by Elisa Pulliam | | 8 comments

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I expected my usually happy teenage daughter to bounce into my office singing VBS songs from her morning spent serving at church. Instead, her sullen face conveyed another story. She was battling feelings of betrayal, insecurity, and jealousy after receiving a message from a friend about something that was happening in a completely different place.

Let’s just say this mama llama wanted to spew more than a few unpleasantries about social media and towards the adult involved behind the scenes. Yet I could feel God urging me to not be so easily offended. I’d been down this road enough times before to recognize what was happening.

Satan was busy writing the story in my head according to his own

The Blessing of Surrendered Expectations

by Elisa Pulliam | | 6 comments

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Do you think it is possible to truly surrender all your expectations, dreams, and desires to God?

For too many years I proclaimed that God was my Lord while resisting surrendering everything to Him. It’s no surprise I felt the need to be in control, especially in the aftermath of my childhood marred by abuse. It was my survival strategy to determine every next move and make sure it came to fruition. From the outside it looked like drive and perseverance, but when you pull back the layers, it was really an unhealthy habit rooted in lies. I believed I had to be my own protector. I was convinced it was up to me to make anything good

Finding Your True Purpose

by Elisa Pulliam | | 1 comment

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I love it when I read a portion of Scripture and it feels like it’s the first time I’ve ever come across a particular concept. Have you had that experience?

God’s Word is so rich and complex, and His grace is so far and wide that He allows us to soak up what we need for the moment through our Bible reading, knowing that there will be a time when He’ll take us deeper.

The Spirit reveals to us a timeless principle for a timely application.

The Holy Spirit, at work in us by faith in Jesus Christ, awakens us to the very truth we need in that particular situation. But there is one catch. We have to be in the

The New You is Still Possible

by Elisa Pulliam | | 12 comments

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Have you ever noticed how often we make such great plans, but then life gets in the way?

We start off determined to lose weight, get fit, overcome our character flaws, take new career risks, invest deeper in relationships, and get organized. But before we make enough strides for our vision to become our normal, we’re hit with reality.

We get sick.

Something breaks.

We run out of steam.

Hello, normal. Goodbye, vision.

So what should we do when our great big plans fizzle into little failures?

Well, it might sound cliché, but it’s at that very moment we need to not give up! Instead, we need to wipe our brow from the feeling of defeat and get our mind back into gear.

The change

Showing Up Ready

by Elisa Pulliam | | 5 comments

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Did you know that when you make a commitment to work at a boarding school, you’re inherently saying yes to wearing many hats? You might be hired to teach science, but before the ink is dried on the contract, you’ll discover you’re also doing things like coaching the hurdlers on girl’s varsity track. Yes, it was quite a feat my husband took it on without a complaint, even though he never ran track a day in his life.

I’m pretty sure Stephen didn’t let on to his athletes that they knew more than he did. Instead, he focused on putting in time behind the scenes, studying the sport of hurdling using the stack books and videos he checked

This is Real Love

by Elisa Pulliam | | 6 comments

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Would you say you truly understand the real love of God?

When I gave my life to the Lord in that London dorm room 25 years ago, I wasn’t actually interested in being loved by God nor even loving Him in return. I was simply desperate for the promise of eternity. It was my escape route from a life of hurt filled with relationships marked by dysfunction, abuse, and betrayal.

The promise of heaven gave me hope that one day all would be well, so I chose to believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. It never dawned on me that love could be part of the equation – at least not the kind of love I could

Learning to Roll with It

by Elisa Pulliam | | 2 comments

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When was the last time you had the perfect plan in place – the kind of plan that requires preparation and devotion of time – but regardless of your investment, the plan simply wouldn’t behave? Maybe there was an obstacle at every turn, a conflict with those you were counting on attending, an issue with the space, or a challenge in meeting the deadline.

Well, I understand! As one who likes to plan, I’ve experienced my fair share of divine re-routings. Like the time I was scheduled to speak at an event in the middle of February. All the pieces were in place. The invitations were sent out. I steeped myself in the study of Biblical mentoring once