Daily Devotional – 1/16/18 “Start with goodbye!”

Here it is, the third week of the New Year and you’ve been doing, almost, everything right. You’ve been to church every Sunday, bible study once and you’ve even been faithful to the church’s fast. You created the vision board. You’ve prayed, shouted ‘I surrender,’ and told God you’re letting go yet it still feels like life is in a downward spiral. You’re emotionally drained because you cannot sleep and instead of vitamins, doctor says you may be depressed. You’re trying to budget but then the flu happened and it put you behind, again. The kids and spouse are acting half way right but that job, it is an entirely different story. You said you’d pray more and you have but nothing has manifested. You’ve been to the altar, got prophesied over and still nothing. Well beloved, maybe it’s because you haven’t really surrendered. Maybe you haven’t, for real, let go. Sure, on the surface, it looks like it but dig deep. Go on and take a for real look and tell me what you see. Do you still see the old text messages you occasionally go through? Do you still see the inboxes? Do you still see their social media pages? Do you still see the stuff they left at your place? Do you still see the programs, you won’t throw away, from the church you left? In other words, do you see the attachment you still have to your past?

You do know the heart never lies, right? You do know that staying connected to emotional stuff can drain you spiritually, right? Why do you think your new relationship doesn’t work? It can’t when you’re comparing it to the old. Why do you think you’re still stagnant at the new church? You can’t move when you keep saying, we didn’t do it this way at my old church. Trying to do something new with an old mentality is like putting a new garbage bag in a funky garbage can, remove the bag and you will still smell the stench. Yes, the New Year can be new for you when you’re ready. That’s when you for real surrender and for real let go. Stop stalking their pages, answering the “Hey,” texts, showing up to support them and being pulled back to the place you left. Stop pulling off the scab and let the wound close AND heal. Sever the ties that bind. Forgive and/or apologize and move on. Write the eulogy, have the funeral, perform the burial and grieve it. But it starts with goodbye.

Daily Devotional – 1/15/18 “Quality of my strength!”

Pastor preached from 2 Kings 20, on yesterday, “When the verdict doesn’t match the outcome.” In this particular passage, Hezekiah is sick and the bible says he is “mortally ill.” God sends a message by Isaiah to tell Hezekiah, “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” As I read this, I wondered why God would allow this to happen to Hezekiah. From previous chapters, it looks as if he’d done what was right but God still allowed him to get deathly ill at the age of 39. Why? Well, I’ve come to the conclusion, God doesn’t need a reason for what He does. Yes, Hezekiah was good and faithful yet God still allowed sickness to come. Sure, we can say, “maybe it was for somebody around him,” but could it not have been God doing what God does? Because sometimes things will happen, we don’t think we deserve. When they do, how will you handle it? Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, praying privately to God in which he speaks his peace before weeping from a place of desperation. He didn’t question God but he said in 2 Kings 20:3, “Now, O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” Hezekiah wasn’t grandstanding but he was grieving.

For me, I believe God allowed Hezekiah’s sickness as a way to gauge the very thing on the inside of him, his strength. How do I know? Hezekiah himself told me because his name means, God is strength and strength means the quality of being strong. Beloved, God may need to test what is in us and that may mean throwing us into a place of sickness where it looks like there is no hope. You say God is my healer, don’t you? How would you know if sickness didn’t show up? You proclaim, God is my refuge, didn’t you? How could you testify if you’ve needed had need of refuge? You said, God is my way maker, right? How would you know if you never found yourself in need of a way out? After Hezekiah’s prayer, God sent Isaiah back to let him know, not only is God going to heal you but he’s adding an additional 15 years to your life. Isaiah, the messenger whose name means God is salvation and salvation meaning preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss. God needed to know if Hezekiah’s quality of strength could handle his deliverance from harm. Not because of what Hezekiah had been through but what he was about to face. Beloved, your place of despair isn’t for what has been, it’s for what’s to come. In order words, the very thing you’re suffering through, right now, is testing the quality of your strength.

Daily Devotional – 1/11/18 “From struggle to sacrifice”

On my ride to work this morning, the song “Different” by Tasha Page-Lockhart was playing and she said, “You can see it, I’m different in my walk. Others see it, in how I talk. I can see it in how I pray, I start to shed some tears each word I say. See I’m different. They tell me, I’m different.” Listening to those words, the Holy Spirit said to me, the difference is moving from struggle to sacrifice. And as I thought about that, it begin to resonate within me. See, one definition says struggle is to have difficulty handling or coping with and sacrifice is an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. Let me break this down in order for you to shout.

In my struggle, I found it difficult to make ends me. In my sacrifice, my ends have met with the same money I had in my struggle.
In my struggle, my prayers were empty promises I kept making to God knowing full well I probably wouldn’t keep them. In my sacrifice, my prayers changed to use me Lord and I’ll go and I meant it.
In my struggle, I was going to church. In my sacrifice, the church is in me.
In my struggle, I cussed folk out. In my sacrifice, I pray for and still love them.
In my struggle, I did some stuff I’m not proud of. In my sacrifice, I forgave myself for those same things.
In my struggle, I answered to my past. In my sacrifice, my name changed to favor.
In my struggle, I used God. In my sacrifice God uses me.

So you see, your struggle isn’t meant to harm you but it’s preparing you. The things I thought I needed in my struggle proved to be an obstacle in my sacrifice. The things I thought I couldn’t live without in my struggle were the very things I willing gave up in my sacrifice. This is why you cannot discount your struggle, no matter how hard it is or how much it hurts. Come here Abraham. Your struggle, beloved, is the very thing strengthening your trust in God to be able to take the thing you love (Isaac) to a mountain with wood, rope and a knife as your sacrifice when He tells you too believing He will show up with a ram in the bush!

Daily Devotional – 1/10/18 “End the silence!”

I know this is the New Year and while many spend time regrouping, making goals to make themselves and their family better, creating vision boards and such but the reality is, there are some people who are silently fighting mental illness and the date change hasn’t bought them relief. For them, they woke up on January 1, still battling a something that attempts to suffocate them while they sleep and crush them while they’re awake. It’s a sad fact but many of those, with mental illness, are people you see every day. They are the ones who are smiling and being helpful around the office. They are the ones showing up for the PTA meetings. They are the ones who are faithful in church. They are the ones who will give you their last. They are the ones who are the most encouraging. You want to know why? It’s because they want to help somebody else, seeing they cannot help themselves. See, for them this fight isn’t new, it’s a thing they’ve been trying to get loose from. And beloved, while praying and fasting is good, those who are struggling with mental illness, depression, psychotic episodes, suicidal thoughts/urges, bouts of crying, panic attacks and etc.; need physicians and treatment. Yes, slaying them on the altar is alright but they also need to seek medicinal help. Everything cannot be chalked up to being demon possessed that can be removed by a prophetic being who has the ability to blow and you fall down.

Understand me clearly, I am all for the prophetic, the laying of hands, the casting out, the crying loud and sparing not but baby I am also for utilizing God’s gift of doctors. And it is okay for us to need both, the prophetic and the physician. (Even Luke was a physician) Look, there are too many people suffering silently because they are afraid of how society will view them, too many dying at the hands of mentally ill people because no one recognized the signs and too many, especially in the church, who are suffering because they’ve been labeled as “acting out,” when they are crying out. This is why, if you aren’t qualified to handle what they are fighting, move so somebody who is, can. Pastoral counseling won’t help a person drowning in depression if the pastor isn’t qualified too. Marriage counseling won’t do it for the spouse who’s mentally ill if the counselor isn’t equipped to manage it. These fancy single meetings is good but what about the single whose words were asking for help but nobody realized it until it was too late? Please, do not be afraid or ashamed to get help. Talk to your doctor, connect with someone who understands, learn about mental illness and/or visit www.nami.org.

“I hurt with the hurt of my people. I mourn and am overcome with grief. Is there no medicine in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people?” – Jeremiah 8:21-22

Daily Devotional – 1/9/18 “Game time!”

I am not a fan of football, well any sport really but last night I watched the end of the Alabama vs Georgia game. Actually, my husband was supposed to be watching it but of course he was resting his eyes. Anyway, I began watching it in the 3rd quarter when the score was 10 to 0 with Alabama losing. Georgia fans were already celebrating because they knew for sure, Alabama was going to hand them the championship. Let us be honest, Alabama was not playing good the first half and logically, they should be losing. But then, Alabama’s coach did something. He took out the starting quarterback and put in the Rookie. A young man whose first time being in the game would be the championship game. A young man nobody really knew was being sent into the game. THE CHAMPIONSHIP game. Is that coach crazy? He has got to be, right? Then, this rookie throws a touchdown, first time out. Even when they missed the field goal, this same quarterback got the opportunity to throw the final touchdown. Ah, you know how this ended, Alabama won. Why am I sharing this? For somebody who is looking at the scoreboard and the people have already counted you out. For somebody who has seen the odds and they are stacked against you. For somebody who is in the hardest struggle of your life, at this very moment and you cannot see how you’ll make it. I am sharing this for that man or woman who has been standing on the sidelines the entire season waiting to be sent in. I’m sharing this for the man or woman whose name, nobody knows. For the man or woman who has been dressed in the uniform, name on the roster yet nobody knows you. Suit up beloved, you’re about to get in the game.

Oh, it’s not just any game, this is your career making game. This game is about to catapult you into the place you’ve been practicing for. This game is about to shift you into the position you’ve been patiently waiting on. Folk are about to call you, appointments are about to line up, your calendar is about to fill up and your finances are about to flare up. All because you waited. All because you continually dressed out. All because you practiced like you’d get in the game, even though you didn’t know when. All because you were faithful and didn’t fight the process. This is why you cannot discount the times you will be sidelined. While you’re waiting, you have to practice as if you’re the starter of the team. While you wait, you have to dress like, walk like, talk like and carry yourself like you’re in the starting lineup. See, when you do this, you will not mess up when the time comes. You will not fold under the heaviness of the mantle. You will not stutter when it’s your time to speak in front of cameras. And most importantly, you will not be swayed by the lights, cameras and accolades because you’ll know, without a shadow of a doubt that it was all God.

“All Glory goes to God. I can’t describe what He’s done for me and my family.” -Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama’s rookie quarterback)