Daily Devotional – 2/1/18 “New month, try again!”

The first day of a new month, how has the year been for you? For some, it has been good because you’ve stayed on track and did what you said. For others not so much because how can you complete the vision board when the vision is still blurry. You don’t know what it even feels like to set goals and achieve them because you’re still in a stagnant place surrounded by the chatter of fear. You’re fearful of the “what if.” What if it doesn’t work? What if I fail? What if folk don’t support it? What if this or that? Well beloved, start over. Yep! Try again because you have another chance. As a matter of fact, we won’t even count January, set it aside as the trial month of 2018 so there is no need to worry about the goals you didn’t meet, the vision board that is still incomplete and the thing you said you’d start or stop that you haven’t yet. Today is the first day to do it again. What’s it? It is whatever thing you’ve been putting off. It is the purpose that God woke you up with. It is the thing that will not leave you alone.

For the bible shares in Psalm 128:2, “You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.” What’s the sense of having to labor all day and night with your hands and not be able to enjoy what your labor produces? Would that not defeat the purpose of laboring in the first place? Understand something though. Before you get to verse 2, you’ll first need to read and then do verse 1 which says, “Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways!” No, this is not the kind of fear to make you afraid to walk out of your house but it is the kind that should challenge you to think about your actions before they happen. You know like asking, “What would Jesus do.” See, when you fear the Lord and walk in His ways; He says you’ll eat, you’ll be blessed and it shall be well with you. Is that not worth it to get up and try again, even if it hurts? Is that not enough to make you want to get up and try again even if it didn’t work the first seven times? Get up and try again even if they didn’t call you for the interview last time. Get up and try again even if they have denied you three times already. Just because you didn’t do it by January 31st, you got the blessing of February 1st to try again. Make it count this time because your destiny depends on it.

R.A.R.E. Book club’s 8th Annual Tea and Social

Aye!! Great news.

I, Lakisha, the Author, has been invited to be a part of RARE Bookclub’s 8th Annual Tea and Social.

Y’all, I am so excited.

The event will take place, Saturday, February 24, 2018 at 1:00PM at Brown Baptist – South Campus (LaBelle Hall).

Will you come? The event is FREE but there will be an opportunity for you to purchase books from other authors as well as raffle tickets to win a Tablet.

Click HERE to RSVP.

R.A.R.E. Bookclub Website

Facebook R.A.R.E. Bookclub Group Page

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Daily Devotional – 1/31/18 “Why harbor unforgiveness when we’ve prevailed?”

I read a book on last night called “For You I will,” a new release from a new author, Chelsea Moore and although I will not give the book away, there is one line in the book that gripped me. Andrea, one of the lead female characters, said to her brother who couldn’t forgive the mom who abandoned them, “Why harbor unforgiveness when we’ve prevailed?” Beloved, this question caused a twinge in my spirit because living as spiritual beings in natural bodies, forgiveness is one of the hardest things for us to give. However, let me ask you, why haven’t you forgave the person who hurt you when you’ve survived and claim to be happy? Why are you still angry with the person who walked out on you, when your social media says you’re happily married now? Why are you still crying over spilled milk when you have been blessed with the means to purchase multiple new gallons? You are still mad at cancer when you’ve been in remission 7 years. You are still upset at momma and she’s been dead since 1990. You will not set foot in the church, where you were hurt 17 years ago but you’ve started your own ministry. Why are you still harboring the weight of not being able to offer forgiveness when you are succeeding?

Okay, they said you’d be nothing but you prevailed. Sure, they said you’d never make it out the hood but you prevailed. They called you names but you prevailed. They denied you but you prevailed. They hurt you but you prevailed. They abused and misused you but you prevailed. So tell me again why you are still having a tug of war with yourself trying to figure out if and when you should forgive? Baby, the time has long passed. Yes, what they did hurt you in places you didn’t even know existed but it’s time to forgive because you survived with more strength and sense. You made it out with your mind and mercy. You persevered through the pain and the persecution and you prevailed with possession of your purpose. This is why it is imperative to no longer fast at the fountain of un-forgiveness; it will leave you famished. Now is the time to move to the buffet of blessings and if you want to know where it is, you’ll find it through the door of forgiveness.

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14-15

New book :: Pre-order Link

**Releasing February 20, 2018** Dear God by Lakisha Johnson
PRE-ORDER HERE

Dear God Banner
This book, although it did not take me out of my comfort zone, it is different from any book you may have read of mine. This book, it does have some curse words but NO sex. This book, instead, seeks to help someone who may find themselves feeling like Jayme. Feeling like she’ll never get out the hell that seems to have her surrounded.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as you have any other book I’ve written.

Lakisha

Synopsis:

Since the age of 14, Jayme’s life has been hell and she has one person to thank for it, Pastor James Madison.

He stood in the pulpit on Sundays waving the same hands that abused her at night. He glorified God with the same mouth he used to chip away her self-esteem, daily. He was a man of God who had turned her away from the same God he told people they needed to serve.

He was the man who was supposed to pray for, take care of and eventually love her. Instead he preyed on, took advantage of and shattered her heart before it had a chance to truly love someone else.

Now, 14 years and a son later, she finds herself needing God yet she doesn’t know how to get Him. She longs for God but isn’t sure He can hear a sinner’s prayer until she starts to say, Dear God…

PRE-ORDER HERE

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Daily Devotional – 1/30/18 “That’s what I get …”

That’s what I get … for fooling with folk who didn’t mean me any good, for staying in a place I knew didn’t welcome me, for holding on to a relationship I knew was breaking me, for putting my all into someone who didn’t value my worth, for being too impatient to wait on the morning which held my joy, for being in a hurry to get something I knew wasn’t mine, for giving more of myself than I should have, for always saying yes even when it hurt, for supporting even when they disliked me, for showing up even when they didn’t return the favor, for getting up with the pain in my body, for pushing long after my arms were tired, for climbing after my legs felt numb, for believing in them when they didn’t believe in themselves and for partnering with somebody I knew was too damaged to handle what I could bring. That’s what I get!

This is what we say, right? When things don’t go as planned, we say; that’s what I get for trusting, believing, going and/or giving my last. I know it’s what I used to say until I realized I had to change my “That’s what I get,” into positivity because what I really got was strength to separate myself from folk who could easily stab me in the back. What I got was perseverance when the pain almost shut me down. What I got was, how to be a diligent disciple instead of being a damsel in distress. What I got was, a divorce from my doubts and depression instead of being defiled and defamed. What I got was courage when they criticized my calling. That’s what I get … yes, you too can get it. You can get exalted if you endure instead of acting as if life has emptied you. You can get married if you forgive those who mishandled you. You can get free if you fight your fears. You can get victory if you stop claiming victim benefits. You can get prosperity if you put off the persecutions of your past.