This morning I got myself out of bed by just after 5am and went out on a 6km walk. I even managed to add in some tiny bursts of jogging, or probably more correctly termed a shuffle. Now if I had written this statement down 2 years ago as something that I would be able to do, I would not have believed that it was at all possible. Two years ago I was really unwell and any form of exercise or movement just resulted in too much pain that I didn’t feel I could push through. I could manage a walk to the letterbox and back and sometimes down my short street, but it was a struggle.

So what has changed you might be thinking? It was a series of tiny tiny steps that led and will continue to lead to bigger and bigger steps. Unexpectedly in early 2017, my 50th birthday year, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. It hit me hard and I know my prayer times became more like buckets of tears than much dialogue. In some respects I was glad that finally something had been identified as I had felt so unwell for a period of time. But on the other hand I was scared about what was ahead. I had a pretty rough time with specialists who took one look at my size and put me in the too hard basket before we even started. I had an operation which went well, but subsequent to this the large wound got infected and it took some time to heal.

I remember a few days after the operation waking one morning with a deep sense of knowing, that despite the fear, the pain, the difficulty I was going through right at that moment that I had been gifted another opportunity at life. I needed to STEP UP to the NEW. It was hard, soooooooooooo hard and my faith was battered but our God never fails us, nor does He forsake us. He will be faithful to perform His word.

#mightyDeborahs in our darkest hour we must hold on to Him who is able to keep us from falling and sustain us with His grace. Our head may feel foggy, our heart burdened, and all we may feel like doing is just crawling back in to our bed, but dear #mightyDeborah please do keep STEPPING IT OUT: millimetre by millimetre if you need to and then that can grow to kilometre by kilometre – figuratively and literally.

Some weeks after the operation and then after further surgery to restitch some of the wound, I was at the point where I could take some steps again without pain. I put on my sports shoes and headed out the door. I made it just past the letterbox. In the following weeks I could manage to go down the road and back. Some days I pushed myself too hard and too soon so then I would need a few days to recover. But as best as I was able, which at times seemed so ‘small and insignificant’, I kept stepping it out. It is just over 8 months now since I started a regular walking habit – building up to 4 or 5 times a week and gradually increasing my distance and speed.

#mightyDeborah whatever it is that you are going through my encouragement to you today is KEEP STEPPING IT OUT!

Keep stepping it out with your physical health, keep stepping it out with your business journey, keep stepping it out in your walk of faith, keep stepping it out in your difficult and challenging circumstances.

KNOW THIS: that God has your back 1000%. He is a good God and His plans for your life are far beyond what you can see right now. #mightyDeborah you are amazing!

Love Maree x

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Hi beautiful #mightyDeborahs!

A song that I am playing on repeat of late is Take Courage by Kristene DiMarco (Bethel Music). I love the words of the chorus which are:

Take courage my heart
Stay steadfast my soul
He’s in the waiting
He’s in the waiting
Hold onto your hope
As your triumph unfolds
He’s never failing
He’s never failing

#mightyDeborahs how are you waiting? I imagine you are probably far better at waiting than I am LOL! Patience has never been my strong suit. I have certainly had to breath deep in my being until it resonates that I am to be still and to know He is God. Waiting for me often brings up feelings of anxiety and the ‘I am not good enough’ scenarios – that maybe I am waiting because I haven’t done x, y and z well enough, or maybe I am waiting because I am not hearing God well, or maybe I am waiting as an excuse instead of doing something, or maybe I am waiting because …………etc etc.

I think you get the picture. In the current season of my life I am learning that none of those scenarios are so! All I need to know and focus my mind, heart, soul and hope on, is HE IS IN THE WAITING. If He is with me it means I do not have to be afraid or try and work out what the next steps of the journey are. I just have to stand in knowing, without doubting HE IS IN THE WAITING.

As I woke this morning the words of this song were going over and over in my head and the scripture from isaiah 40:21 As I WAIT upon the Lord I will mount up with wings as an eagle. I will run and not be weary and I will walk and not faint. I repeated this scripture over to myself as I headed out on my morning walk. It has felt a very long time since I have woken up with a scripture burning on my heart. When you are WAITING everything around you – all you have been, all you are now and all you dream may be ahead is silent. I felt a peace wash over me afresh as I continued to think over this scripture. When I got back home and picked up my devotion booklet the tears started flowing – what scripture was right there in the reading? You guessed it: Isaiah 40:21.

“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles [that’s elevation]; they shall run, and not be weary [that’s acceleration]; and they shall walk, and not faint [that’s duration].’ (Isaiah 40:31 KJV) And when you don’t have the strength to do any of these things, Paul says, ‘Having done all…stand.’ (Ephesians 6:13 KJV) There’s a season in your life for all these experiences and you must embrace it.”  

ELEVATION, ACCELERATION, DURATION. 

I WILL STAND.

#mightyDeborahs He is in the waiting.

Love and hugs to you xx

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#mightyDeborahs have many battle scars. They are women who have been through the tough seasons of life not just once, but in some cases over and over. Just when they thought it was over, another wave of circumstances and situations have come flooding in at them. Does this sound familiar to you? Is this how you would describe how the last 5, 10, 20 years have been for you?

We are being honest, open and raw with each other here, because that is who #mightyDeborahs are. We are wise with whom we share and in what ways we share, but we are transparent and real about the storms of life we have travelled through. God did not call us to a life of pleasure and leisure. He has called us to a life grounded in His unfailing love and mercy, to go pour out of ourselves that which He has gifted to us, to show a world full of confusion and chaos that there is a river that runs deep in Him of healing, of true freedom, of peace and of grace.

As I look back over the journey of my life it has taken many turns and twists that at those times I would not have expected. Life has had its tremendously hard seasons. Depression over the years, has wracked my mind and body for far too many days that I would rather not count. I am not after a pity party here and I know #mightyDeborah you are not either. Why? Because what I have come to know through the good and through the bad, is that He alone will make a way.

“Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls, YET I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!” Habakkuk 3:17

YET I WILL RISE: I will mount up with wings as eagles and I will soar in my God. YET I WILL REJOICE and I will declare He is well able, He has borne my sickness, my pain, my sin. YET I WILL DECLARE though I cannot fully understand all the strands of my life that He is weaving together, that I will not loose hope and I will not stop believing that my GOD WAS, IS and WILL BE.

#mightyDeborah I want you to know that NOTHING, that is absolutely nothing is WASTED in your God. He does work all things together for good to those that love Him and walk according to His purposes in this hour. NOT one moment, not one hour, not one day is wasted; it might feel like it is but in HIM it is not! #mightyDeborah I encourage you let your battle cry be YET I WILL: I will rise, I will declare, I will rejoice, I will press on, I will……………what will be your YET I WILL?

Much love and the biggest of hugs you to you mighty woman of God.

Maree xx

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