Julie is from Billings and began attending Emmanuel with her family during her ninth grade year. Julie met Steve, our Executive Pastor, in youth group and after their marriage, they moved to Phoenix where he was attending college. After moving with Steve during his time with the United States Marine Corps, they returned to Billings and Emmanuel in 1995.

For several years, Julie worked as a Business Operations Analyst with a telecommunications company, followed by a couple years with a parachurch ministry. She began working part-time as Financial Assistant to Tami Jones in 2008. She joined our full-time staff in 2011 and has served in many roles, currently as our Finance & Social Media Manager.

Outside of Emmanuel, Julie owns a business which provides financial services to small churches and church plants. She is passionate about missions and has been on mission trips to Canada, Wyoming, Nepal, Bangladesh and Ecuador. Her outlet for serving is with the technical team and women’s ministry. In her free time, Julie enjoys shooting, writing, movies, boating, swimming, hiking, travel and her two German Shepherds.

In 2012, Julie published her book, Cries from the Barren Womb, in hopes of encouraging and helping others who walk the same path of infertility and childlessness as she does.

Read this introduction to the next 21 days and come back tomorrow for day one! If you prefer to receive a daily text containing a link to the devotions, click here for instructions.

If you prefer, you can download the entire 21-day devotion booklet here.

Introduction

Does God see you? I mean, really see you? Has there been a time when you questioned or doubted whether he even noticed you? Or cared about you?

I think most believers grapple with that question in some form. Perhaps you feel invisible to God. Maybe you’ve noticed how he seems to see others but somehow, he’s missed you. Maybe you feel forgotten, neglected or abandoned by the God of the universe who created you.

I have certainly felt that way.

I wrestled with it the first time when I was 15 and struggling to accept a diagnosis of Muscular Dystrophy. I wrestled again at 22 when I learned I would never have a child. There were a few other times, less intense, when I battled that same perception. But in 2017, I was hit with an excruciatingly painful season which caused my entire world to tumble, shaking everything around me and leaving me with nothing to be certain of and everything to question. God could have stopped the speeding train but he did not. He allowed it to hit me head on and the aftermath was gruesome. Was it because he didn’t see me? Or because he needed me to know that he saw me in spite of my circumstances? I was forced to fight the battle—again—until I won.

Today I can say, without wavering, God does see me.

So how did I win? With a lot of effort, pouring over the scriptures, tears staining the pages of my Bible as I cried out in prayer while looking into the lives of person after person who had encountered God. Some were in dramatic ways while some were more subdued or quiet. Yet in the end, they all knew God saw them.

Over the next 21 days we will look into the lives of some of these people. We will walk through the pages of scripture together as observers into the lives of saints past. We’ll note victories as well as defeat. Each one of us will relate to some so personally it will feel real—as if we know them. But even those who have stories far different from ours can speak nuggets of treasure we can hold onto.

Strap on your sandals and join me as we trod the dusty roads, one mile at a time, one person at a time. My prayer is that at the end of our time together, you can rest with confidence knowing God sees you.

More than that, He loves you.