Daily Devotional – 12/4/17 “A promise after the wilderness!”

In September, I said I would not shop until after the first of the New Year, mainly for shoes (I love shoes). For the most part, I’ve done it. I didn’t say this because I couldn’t buy shoes but the reality is, I didn’t need to. My main focus is to eliminate debt in our household. I have a two-year plan to get rid of as many bills as I can. Yet, would you believe it seemed like the less I spent, the less I had? It’s crazy. I could not figure out why it seemed to get heavier instead of lighter. So I begin to fast and pray, more. I began to trust God more. I surrendered, for real because I understood that something was happening way bigger than me. This morning, while reading Deuteronomy 8, a passage titled, “A call to remember and obey,” God spoke to me and said read Deuteronomy 8:2, “Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.” This might not make your belly leap but y’all I turned 40 this year! As I read, tears begin to swell in my eyes because God reminded me of my last 40 years in the wilderness. He said, your wilderness was my test but you do remember that your clothes and shoes didn’t wear out, you may not have eaten what you wanted but you weren’t hungry and although you were in the wilderness, you were never alone.

Y’all!!! God told me, because you’ve obeyed my commands and walked in my ways, I’m about to thrust you into a place where your land will be overflowing, food will be plentiful and you’ll lack for nothing. Understand me, I haven’t been perfect and some days were hard for me to stand but I pushed through. Many mornings I didn’t feel like encouraging anybody, let alone myself, but I did. Some days I didn’t feel like being holy but I held on. Some days, I had to preach even though it felt like I was being punished. Some days I had to act like I had it together when the truth be told, the wilderness was kicking my butt. But this morning, God told me, it was necessary. (I just preached on this yesterday.) It was necessary in order for me to appreciate the overflow I am about to step into. My wilderness, for 40 years, was necessary so that I didn’t forget it when I walk into my new place, so that I don’t become proud but I stay prayerful, so that I don’t take the credit but remember I am chosen. It was necessary as to not forget whose mantel I carry, message I preach and whose purpose I must fulfill. And for somebody reading this, you too have to experience the wilderness but there is hope. For Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.” After the wilderness is God’s promise of prosperity. It’s coming beloved but I need you to hold on! It doesn’t feel good but it is necessary in order that you might receive.

Daily Devotional – 12/1/17 “There is still time!”

It’s the first day of the last month of the year and some of you are still looking at the same vision board with limited vision. You know the one you created at some event, earlier this year, when you were full of New Year Resolutions. The one filled with the magazine cutouts of all the stuff you said you were going to do this year. The one you wrote scriptures in the corner that you haven’t looked at since. The one, you know, the one you have sitting next to the wall in your living room or in the closet in the hall. Yea, that one. What have you accomplished? Understand, this is not to bash you or even to make you feel bad but it’s to get you to take a hard look at the goals you’ve set. It’s a kick in the butt to make you get up and work towards those goals. It is a hard reminder that things will not drop in your lap, you have to get up and make some stuff happen. Look, if you want to fill a pot with water, you have to first put the pot under the faucet, turn it on and then the faucet will do its part. Opening a door, you first twist the knob. Turning on a light, you flip the switch. Heating a house, you turn on the thermostat. Praying, you have to actually pray. Faith, has to be worked. See where I’m going? It takes an effort. What are you doing?

When a farmer plants their seeds, work does not stop while waiting on the harvest. They have to feed the crops, manage the weeds and grass growth, handle what’s left in storage from last year’s harvest, prepare for the next season, clean equipment, make sure storage areas are up to par; all while taking care of faith, family and finances. So you see, even after you plant the seed, there is still work you have to do. This is why the bible shares in Ecclesiastes 11:6, “Sow your seed in the morning, and do not stop working until the evening; for you do not know which activity will succeed–whether this one or that one, or whether both will prosper equally.” Work doesn’t stop simply because you’ve sown your seed and neither will your vision come to pass by cutting and pasting it on a board. If I can be honest, the real work does not begins until after the planting, sowing and the cutting and pasting. You have work to do and it is not too late. Yes, we may be in the 4th quarter of 2017 but there is still time to get the win. You’ll have to get up to get it and put in the work to ensure it succeeds. Will you? Because the bible says in Proverbs 13:4, “The lazy person craves, yet receives nothing, but the desires of the diligent are satisfied.” The planting and pasting is over, now what?

Daily Devotional – 11/30/17 “Asking for my want, getting what I need!”

A comment was left on a devotional penned back in 2015, titled “want vs. need,” about the lame man at the gate called Beautiful. You know the story, he asked for alms but instead Peter said in Acts 3:6, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” The commenter was upset because she thought I was insinuating God will only give us what we need and not what we want. Please understand, I am never offended when someone corrects me or gives their opinions and I pray she isn’t by my clarification. She said, “There is nothing wrong with wanting something, even a mansion or a Ferrari!” Although I agree with this statement, I have to wonder what good would it do for God to give me a Ferrari when I’m living in a two bedroom apartment with three children, working 4 part-time jobs and about to lose my mind simply because I want it? Yea, I may ride clean but I’m hungry, angry and tired. Instead God will give me what I need which may be a Honda until the time comes for Him to upgrade me. Yes, God will absolutely give us what we need and want, I am a living witness but sometimes we aren’t ready to handle what it is we think we want at the time of our ask.

With this lame man; everyday somebody had to bring him to the gate, lay him there where he’d spend all day begging, come and pick him up, take him home; where he probably lived with somebody else because he couldn’t care for himself. He’d have to wait until they cleaned him, dressed/undressed him and fed him. Sure, Peter and John could have given him with what he wanted but he would have been back the next day, begging again. Instead, they blessed him with what he needed and it changed his life. Acts 3:8 shares, “And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.” And get this, because Peter and John granted his need, it allowed those around, who didn’t believe, to witness the very thing Jesus had been preaching about before His crucifixion. This is why Peter says in Acts 3:15-16, “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact! Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed–and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.” I said it in 2015 and I will say it again, sometimes you might not get what you want but you’ll get what you need. Not saying God isn’t capable of supplying both but it means God loves us enough to say, not now or even, here’s something better.

Daily Devotional – 11/29/17 “Process of preparation!”

Somebody woke up this morning contemplating doing some things you wouldn’t normally do. Times have gotten so hard, you don’t know if you are coming or going. You’ve tried to make sense of it but you cannot. And it seems the more you try, the more broken you feel. Marriage isn’t going right, child acting out, sickness will not let you go, death angel showed up, bills behind, coworkers trying you and you are one word away from snapping. It feels like you’re losing your mind. Well beloved, I showed up on your timeline, your phone, computer or email to tell you; breaking is part of the process and it sometimes come after everything seemed to finally settle in place. Why? It’s part of the process of preparation. See, in the bible, whenever Jesus prepared to bless a hungry multitude, bible says, “When he had given thanks, he broke it.” You don’t have to believe me but it’s in 1 Corinthians 11:24, Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19 (the last supper), Matthew 14:19 (when He fed the 5000+) and Matthew 15:36 (when He fed the 4000). Do you see what is happening? God is preparing you. First, He blesses you, then He breaks you and finally He uses you. Breaking is part of the process of preparation.

I don’t know what you are being prepared for but I can surmise that it’s about to bless a multitude of folk but you’ll have to make it pass the breaking. Yeah, God is preparing you for the masses but you have to endure the breaking. God is about to utilize the gift He placed in your belly but you have to tolerate the breaking. Okay, you’ve lost some stuff, some relationships have ended, you’ve received some declines, invitations have stopped and your phone is no longer ringing but it is part of the process of preparation. And God only puts you through the process of preparation in order for you to then profit off the pieces left over. Because there is a profit coming but you have to suffer the breaking. How do I know? The bible tells me so in Matthew 14:20, “And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.” Twelve (12), God’s power and authority, perfect number and completeness. So you see, you cannot give up because withstanding the breaking gets you a prosperous return on the process.

Daily Devotional – 11/28/17 “Work your faith!”

How dare you say, out of your mouth, that God isn’t answering your prayers when you’ve yet to work your faith. God told you to trust Him to make your ends meet but then the enemy showed up and you got that check advance anyway. Now, you’re crying because you forgot about it and it hit your account and it’s overdrawn. You got the audacity to part your lips and move your tongue to form a sound of doubt, to the power of God, when you’re still sitting in the place He told you to depart from months ago? You laugh at anybody who testifies on the goodness of a God who uses us in spite of our flaws because “you” say He didn’t come to your rescue when you were lost. But have you stopped to think, maybe you missed it because you weren’t in tune to hear His voice? Beloved, God does what God does but what are you doing? Some years ago, I was in a place of frustration and anger because I could not figure out why things kept happening to us. Why can I not get my head above water? I’m going to church every Sunday with my bible and notepad and it’s filled with what pastor said but I’m still suffering. I’m working with the youth and showing up when needed but I’m still in a desolate place.

Then it donned on me, my faithfulness was good but there was no work being done. Yeah, I looked busy to the person on the outside looking in, but my work was dead. Yes, I was showing up for service but I didn’t have a sacrifice. I was devoted to the church but there was no devotion to God. I was a faithful worker but not a fruitful worshipper. My faith was without works. Oh but now, when God tells me to trust Him, I do while working my faith. Even when I cannot see how this little is going to last until payday, I work my faith. When it seems like I will not get well, I work my faith. When it feels like everybody is against me, I work my faith. When the enemy is knocking on my door, I work my faith. When trouble shows up, I work my faith. How? By standing still (that’s not trying to fix it) and trusting God. By getting up, getting dressed and walking with my head held high when all I want to do is crawl into the nearest dark hole. By wearing my $5 dress and $7 shoes, acting as if I got millions in the bank. By acting like royalty while still shopping at the Dollar Tree and Goodwill. Why? Because I am working my faith. What are you doing? “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:26