I am reminded that death nor trouble nor blessings have a specific date to show up. See, death comes at an instant; snatching the beating of the heart and the breathing of the lungs. Trouble, it also comes in a blink of an eye because one minute you’re driving home and the next you can be in the back of an ambulance fighting for your life. Blessings, they too, come in an instant because one minute you’re drowning in depression and the next you’re swimming in progression. My point is, don’t waste too much time wondering if, wandering lost and just simply wavering between to have faith or not because while you’re crying over the things that are going wrong you’re missing out on the things that are going right. This is why you have to stay prayed up, faith filled, favored down and salvation wrapped. Child, don’t even let the enemy get a foot into your home because you’ll have a hell of a time getting him out. Just to let you know; the only way the enemy gets into your home is by fleshly folk, so be careful who you invite in. Oh, this means your kids, family and friends too. Stop allowing those grown kids and other folks to continually run your house in the ground. You’re the adult, act like it! You are equipped with what you need to handle the struggles, strains, circumstances and situations of walking in the flesh but you have to believe that you can. The bible says in 1 Corinthians 1:27, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” See, God doesn’t choose folk who have already qualified themselves but He qualifies those whom He calls. You’re wondering why God chose you to be the Youth Director with all the stuff you’ve done in your past but He chose you because He knew those things made you strong enough to be a testimony to all those after you. You wonder how God could take somebody walking the streets, strung out on drugs, with a filthy mouth and attitude and turn them into a living testimony for the world to see but know that He had a purpose and a plan for them all along. Baby, God can take a whoremonger and turn them into the best husband. He can take an alcoholic and turn them into a Preacher who minsters to thousands without ever writing a sermon down. He can take a prostitute and make her one of the best Congresswomen. He can take a crack head and turn her into the best mother you’ve ever seen. And He can take a wretch like me who isn’t fitting to live and not ready to die; pick me up, dip me into his blood (baptism water), whisper to me “It’s all good now”, forgive me of my sins and erase my past and turn me into somebody who writes devotionals for you to read by simply putting my fingers to a keyboard and my eyes on Him! There isn’t anybody who can make me doubt this Man because I know for myself what he is capable of doing!
You know it too and with a strong belief in God and self; you’re ready to win this fight. See, sometimes you have to give your own self a standing ovation to admire the things you’ve overcome. Don’t be afraid to pat yourself on the back and don’t be afraid to congratulate yourself every now and then because if you don’t believe in yourself, you’ll have a hard time getting someone else too. Toot your own horn, congratulate, encourage and give yourself a round of applause but don’t allow your head to get bigger than what your body can carry because the last thing you want is to knock your own self down. Take the time to live before your chances run out. Your life has been purposely made for you so don’t spend time allowing your time to run out.
“Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (The Message Bible)”
Lakisha, the Author 