My friend, Debbie W. Wilson, graciously is stepping in today to share not just a powerful word, but a giveaway of her new book, How Big is Your God? Isn’t that amazing?
In today’s guest blog post, Debbie shares how little women, in the hands of a great big God, can change the world. ~ Suzie
How Big Is Your God?
If you were God, what type of people would you choose to belong to your family tree? Whose stories would you highlight in scripture?
- Would you choose—
• a woman who seduced her father-in-law?
• a professional prostitute?
• someone banned because of their treachery against God’s people?
God did.
While we work hard to look like we have it together, Jesus highlights the infamy in His family tree.
I’m convinced He showcased these women for us. Their stories remind us that it doesn’t matter how often we’ve failed, how much we’ve lost, or how small we feel.
Little faith in a big God is enough to change destinies
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My dad, sister, and I buried my mother on Mother’s Day weekend of my senior year in high school. Nothing could have prepared me for the seismic shift my world would take following our loss.
The following year, Daddy married a woman who didn’t want any reminder of my mother around—including my sister and me. I returned from out of town to find my childhood home emptied. She’d even disposed of the monogrammed sheets and satin comforter I’d received from my late grandmother and mother. Soon, even Pepper, my white poodle, was gone.
In a brief year, the foundation of a stable home was swept away. I was powerless to stop the mounting losses.
Maybe that is why I was drawn to the women in Jesus’ family tree.
These women faced crushing problems with no power or resources to overcome them.
But, they had a big God.
Their stories show that security is not determined by the size of our problems or the size of our strength, but by the size of our God.
Working as a counselor, I have learned it’s not uncommon for Christians to become confused when pain touches us. We wonder how our losses could have happened when we’ve tried to honor God with good lives.
Is there something wrong with us—or with God?
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible shows God’s chosen followers suffered slavery, abuse, imprisonment, and even martyrdom while those who spit at God luxuriated in palaces.
The women in Jesus’ genealogy weren’t spared great difficulties and unfairness either.
Yet God was with each one accomplishing His good and perfect will.
Debbie Wilson
Have you ever wondered how to practically apply your faith to such challenges as these?
Rejection- Temptation
- Selecting a mate
- Forgiving yourself
- Forgiving your enemy
- Grief and loss
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary faced failure, loss, betrayal, and a murderous hunt. Their stories spotlight God’s care for ordinary women and show how He uses our weaknesses to reveal His strength and our failures as avenues for His grace. They provide the perfect backdrop for addressing our current issues.
What challenge or suffering has dwarfed your courage or faith? Trials teach us we need a big God. The women in Jesus’ family tree show us we have one in Jesus!
Debbie wants to celebrate the release of Little Women, Big God: It’s not the size of your problem, but the size of your God.
Leave a comment to enter to win a free copy!
Debbie Wilson is an ordinary woman who has experienced an extraordinary God. Drawing from her personal walk with Christ, twenty-four years as a Christian counselor, and decades as a Bible teacher, Debbie speaks and writes to help women discover relevant faith.
She and her husband, Larry, founded Lighthouse Ministries in 1991. They, along with their two grown children and two standard poodles, enjoy calling North Carolina home. Share her journey to refreshing faith at her blog and on Facebook.
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When my GOD became big to me, I stopped putting so many expectations on other people.
Amen Karen! And doesn’t that make relationships better!
I have seen God move in ways I could never have imagined…even in ways for my good (and the good of my family) that I never even prayed for. He heard my heart as I drew close to Him always moving me toward His best for me/us. Right now my heart aches as I continue to trust in His faithfulness. I can’t see the end but I know He can. Where else would I go but to Him? On whom can I rely but God? Psalm 59:17
Janice, I’m with you. Your rock won’t disappoint you. He will carry you through this storm. This week the Lord has had me in Ps. 91 and 23. God bless you!
Oh, Debbie. I cannot imagine the heartbreak you suffered. But I’ve found it is in life’s challenges that we find out just how BIG our God is! Losing my Dad last month has give me so many opportunities to see God at work around me and in me! Blessings on your book!
Liz, I’m so sorry for your loss. But you are right; it is in challenges that we see how big our God is. May He continue to comfort your heart.
I loved Debbie’s book! What a privilege to share this message of a big God who dwarfs even our most daunting and thunderous life issues!
Thank you, Michele. I love how you summed up our God, “A big God who dwarfs even our most daunting and thunderous life issues!” What a Savior!
wow-wow-wow
Thank you Debbie for sharing such a vulnerable part of your life. What a brave, brave story! Look forward to reading her book!
Thank you, Shannon!
Thank you for sharing your testimony Debbie. I can’t imagine. I’m so grateful for a God that uses it all. Looking forward to reading your book!
Thank you, Cindy! And we know God does not waste one tear. Bless you.
We all need to be reminded on a daily basis of how great our God is, which is why your devotion this morning helps to focus all of us. Thank you.
Thank you, Cheryl. I certainly need the daily reminders of our God’s great love and power.
Reading stories about these women and their past and then seeing how God still used them gives so many of us hope! We don’t have to be perfect, we can have a broken past, one we’re not proud of yet God still chooses us. Such a beautiful reminder.
YES!
Crystal, as the children’s song says, “we are weak, but He is strong.” How wonderful to know that God grades us on the basis of Jesus’ performance not ours and that He sent His Spirit to live through us! What a Savior!
I get great hope from these stories. That if God can use them then He can use me if I allow Him to. I think that is the reason we are not getting used by the Lord is that we are not letting Him. We need to follow His every direction even if they seem crazy or insignificant.
Miranda, He’s grafted you into His family tree and written you into His story. I’m sure we have no clue to how God is using any of us as we walk with Him. I doubt the people in the Bible did while they were going about their lives. Blessings.
Wow, what a powerful testimony you have, Debbie! I cannot imagine the pain you have suffered. Your strength and faith in God is beautiful and inspiring. This line spoke to me, “While we work hard to look like we have it together, Jesus highlights the infamy in His family tree.” YES!!!
I absolutely adore this book title and look forward to reading it! Thank you for your transparency and encouragement today, Debbie! #livefreeThursday
Thank you, Crystal! Blessings to you.
I have gone through some tough times since I was a young girl, losing my faith along the way seemed like the right choice at the time. I felt alone and in the dark not knowing that I could change it by releasing my hate and anger to God. I have gone back and forth with God about what happened, now knowing he knew about it all, and yet he stayed with me till I was ready to let go and let him fill my life. I’m a work in progress but with him it isn’t a job it’s a blessing.
Bless you, Lorrie. We are all a work in progress. But we are in progress!
Oh Debbie, what a story! In many ways it mirrors one a close friend of mine experienced, albeit a bit earlier in our high school years. I am so sorry. But, I’m thankful you turned it to Jesus and have written words of encouragement for others. There’s big healing in His strength…for even the “littles”. Prayers & best wishes for your book.
Thank you, Kristi!
This touched my heart deeply. My husband and I are trying hard to get our family’s life restructured around God, church, and one another again. I feel overwhelmed and so very inadequate, but I am fighting the daily whispers from the enemy that says “You can’t do this. You’re not capable enough. You won’t follow through. It’s too late.” Thank you for this ray of hope.
With love,
Jessica
Jessica, it sounds like you, like me, need a Big God. We have one in Jesus! One day we’ll look back in amazement at how He heard your heart cry and answered! Blessings.
Yes. Grab that Ray of hope and hold on! This Bible study delivers it — what a BIG God we have — when or crushed and little lives don’t amount to much: He redeems!
It’s true, God is a BIG God! And, he wants to take unordinary messed up people to further His kingdom. We pray alot based on what we can perceive or imagine … but what if we prayed for something so impossibly impossible? BIG God!
It’s God who drew me to this post/linky today as I am also writing a post about our BIG God!
Tammy, I know God can do the impossible! He answered, what looked to be, an impossible prayer for me.
His promises are true! He is The One & Only Mighty God!
Felt nothing but fear, shame and disgust. How could anyone love me? God did and chased me to let me know. When I had the courage to trust Him, my life changed forever. My life is not perfect, I am still far from perfect, but I live with a great, good God Who is so good to me and mine. No one else loves me like He does AND He knows the real me!
Yes, Sheryl! He sees all and loves us completely. He has given us the righteousness of His Son! Rejoicing with you that you are experiencing your new life in Him!
Debbie, your words touched many tender places in my heart. Rejection, guilt, shame, unworthiness are all so paralyzing. After losing my virginity at 18, pregnant at 19, & making the horrible decision to abort my child because of fear, humiliation, and losing the one I loved, God took my sin and changed it into something that glorified Himself. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28 NKJV
You see He gave me a vision to start a Sav-a-Life crisis pregnancy center in my area because there was no one to go to for help and counseling. I didn’t want anyone to commit the same sin as I and be tormented like I was. I shared my testimony with my pastor in 2001 and immediately he brought the founder of Sav-a-Life to our revival, brought together twenty pastors and churches, and helped us catapult our Sav-a-Life center. The way God’s miracles tied everything together is amazing! We will celebrate 14 years of service in June. I now, after retiring from teaching after 31 years, get to fulfill the other part of God’s gift to me. I was privileged& blessed to start the Post Abortion Recovery Bible study at our center. GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!
Denise, what an awesome testimony of God working all things together for good. He is bigger than our failures. He is strong when we are weak. Bless you, my sister. Your story has blessed me.
Congratulations, Denise! You’ve won a copy of Little Women, Big God! Please message me at Facebook or contact me through my website with your address. Both listed in my bio above.
Love this,so encouraging to be reminded that he is always with us.Our abuse reminds us that we need him.
The first thing that comes to mind is “God is bigger than the boogieman!!” from Veggie Tales LOL
Thanks for sharing your heart, Debbie, and thank you, Suzie for allowing Debbie to share! You girls touch my heart!
Debbie, what a beautiful story you have to tell. Many times when I look back at my childhood and the “rough patches” I wonder how those experiences could possibly be used by God to bring glory to His name. He saw me through to the other side, and has blessed me beyond measure. I love that you’ve found strength in the word of the Lord by looking to the strong women of the Bible. May God bless you and your family. Thank you for lifting my spirits today 🙂
The title of this book really speaks to my life right now. Going to have to get this book. My problems seem so enormous right now, but I have to remember that God is bigger than any of them!
That’s right Beth. It doesn’t matter what name the giant we face goes by. What matters is that we face it in the Name of the Lord! He is bigger than any challenge!
Debbie that is a beautiful and powerful post. I know your book is as well. Too often we look at the size of the problem or the size of our strength when neither can come close to the size of our God. What a great reminder. Thank you.
Love and needed this reminder today! I would love to win this book and share it with my Bible study group which is filled with women that want to know just how big their God is!! Thank you, and God bless!
Meredith, I have a free leader’s guide if you decide to use it. Blessings.
I am so glad I found this site. I am always looking for books that can be utilized to help bring me closer to God and truly trust Him and live for Him. Thank you for your ministry
Congratulations on your new book Debbie! I know that so many will be blessed what God has laid on your heart to share in this book. i am thankful that God chose to use me in spite of my flaws and imperfections. I wish you nothing but success as you seek to serve our Savior! Blessings to you and yours my friend!
THANK YOU….period
I have always had a hard time forgiving myself. I know God can and will and has forgiven me but forgiving myself seems almost impossible at times.
Dear Beth, can you think of a greater wrong than sending God’s Son to a horrible death? We’re all guilty of that. Yet in that death He paid for all of our sins. Think about it; when we don’t forgive ourselves we’re saying that what He did was not enough. May the Lord grant you the grace to receive what is yours through Jesus! I spend a lot of time addressing this in one of the chapters on Bathsheba.
Hi Thank you for writing this book. We all struggle with something. God is with us all the time. He supports us and is with us every step of the way. He is the foot print in the sand.
Amen, Elise! Bless you!