Developing the strength, faith, and character to walk in the fullness of who God called you to be.
By Paula Bartley · Releases November 17, 2026
What if the season you have been trying to escape is the very place God is using to prepare you for what you have been praying for?
There is a process between being called and being prepared to carry the weight of that calling. God is not only concerned with getting you to the promise. He is concerned with who you become along the way.
Formed to Carry is a 40-day deep dive devotional that reveals the intentional work God does in you through seasons of preparation, testing, refinement, and waiting. Through biblical teaching, word studies, reflective questions, and prayer, you will be challenged to examine your identity, strengthen your faith, develop godly character, and walk in the fullness of who God called you to be.
The season of obscurity was not for nothing. The pressure was not pointless. The wait was not in vain. There is purpose in the process.
You are being formed to carry!
From the cover to the Introduction.
Cover · 1 of 12
Each part builds on the one before it, from identity, through the place of obscurity, to the commissioning. If you are walking through a season of transition, this journey was written with you in mind.
Before God can develop what He has placed in you, He has to establish your identity. Know who and whose you are in Christ!
The wilderness is where God builds stamina, teaches dependence, and forms spiritual maturity. As you journey through this section, you will begin to see the purpose behind the process.
God is always speaking. Over the next few days, get ready to hear Him more clearly than ever before.
With greater responsibility comes greater refinement and character building. God strengthens what is in you through seasons of pressure, pruning, and consecration.
God brings deeper revelation, changing the way you see your life, your circumstances and your calling, so that you begin to perceive them from His perspective.
Everything God developed in you during the obscure seasons was preparing you for this. Step into what God has promised with the maturity and capacity He has equipped you with.
Receiving the promise is only the beginning. You must now steward what God has placed in your hands with humility, wisdom, and faithfulness.
God’s promises come to pass according to His appointed seasons. Understand His timing, recognize His movements, and resist the temptation to move ahead of Him.
Step into your assignment with boldness, courage, power, and authority as part of the remnant God has set apart and as the sent one He has commissioned.
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I’m Paula Bartley, the author of Formed to Carry. I wrote this devotional out of my intimate times with the Lord, revelation from my personal study of His Word, and what I’ve lived through. I know what it’s like to go through seasons of testing and refinement where God purifies your heart and motives and develops your character.
Jesus said, “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). There’s a process between hearing the call and walking in the fullness of God’s will for your life. Part of that process is becoming rooted in your identity in Christ so you know who you are before you step into what He’s called you to do. When your expectation is in the promise, the wait can leave you battle-weary, especially when you find yourself facing a lesson you thought you’d already learned. Those circumstances are meant to bring you to a place of complete dependence on God, where you learn to sit at His feet, hear His voice, and receive the grace and strength to endure.
What God has in store for you is bigger than you. It’s about legacy and advancing His Kingdom. My assignment is to equip you emotionally and spiritually for the days ahead, so that you can see from God’s perspective. Over these 40 days, through Scripture, prayer, and reflection, I want to help you see refinement as God’s training ground for reigning. The final day is a sending, where we look at what it means to be commissioned by God to step into your assignment. The very things you’ve been asking God to pull you out of may be what He’s using to form you to carry the weight of what He’s called you to do in the earth.