Daily Devotional – 10/5/17 “Making you ready!”

There are times when I go through a period of feeling like I’m not doing enough, spiritually. A time when it feels like I’m stuck and not moving. A time when I have to ask myself hard questions. Am I the one holding me up? Am I fearing what’s next? Am I secretly hindering my own progression? Because it sure does feel like it. I find myself disconnecting from things or pulling back from people and not really wanting to go anywhere. I’m not acting funny but I’m dealing with some things that, at times, is hard to explain. If I can be honest with you, it’s even harder for me to understand because I cannot make sense of it. I mean, I’m being faithful and obedient but it still feels … I cannot explain it. Then God tells me, “Daughter, this is simply your period of confinement.” But God, why do I need to be confined? He replies, “Because I am making you ready for the next level.” Okay God, but why confinement? He says, “To keep folk from taking credit for getting you there.” I reply, “Work God.” Somebody today is feeling just like this and neither can you explain it. Beloved, it’s your “Making you Ready” period.

See, God sometimes has to snatch us from people who are only around because they see your purpose and if they stay close, they’ll want recognition for making you into who you’ll become. There are folk who calls themselves mentor but God will take you from their grip because He knows they will gloat over being the reason you are as good as you are. God will sever ties with those ‘spiritual mothers/fathers’ who wants the pat on the back for molding you into the person people see. When it was never them. Look, a good Godly mentor or spiritual covering will never pour into you only to then shout, “Look, I was the one who did that.” Yet, they will be there to help you succeed, for the bible says in Proverbs 20:18, “Plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without wise advice.” A good spiritual guide leads by God and never wants to be glorified. Instead they’ll take your appreciation but not credit for your anointing. This is why you cannot fight this process, reconnect what God has disconnected and chase who God removes. This has to happen.

Daily Devotional – 10/4/17 “Who, What, When, Where and How?”

What do you do when it seems like all you do is still not good enough? When will you be free, when it feels like you keep falling into pit after pit? Where do you go when it feels as if this spiritual walk has failed you? Who do you call on when no one wants to answer your calls anymore? How do you push when your arms are tired and you still aren’t going anywhere? Beloved, I wish I could tell you I had all the answers but I don’t. I’ve prayed and even I don’t have all the answers. What I can tell you is this, don’t stop trusting God. Is it hard and does it hurt? Yes and yes but you cannot give up. Well, you can but what good will that do? I watch my 87-year-young grandmother who is still cooking, cleaning, paying bills, dressing herself and taking care of her house. Did I mention she has cancer? She does yet it doesn’t define or stop her. She is resilient and hardly ever complains AND she is always praying! If you ask her how she made it, she gladly says, “With the help of God.”

God is the one she trust in, even when people let her down. God is the one she believes in, even when the doctor gives bad news. God is the one she seeks, when the world is becoming harder to understand. So let us asks these questions again.

  1. What do you do when it seems like all you do is still not good enough? You keep pressing. For, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:14

  2. When will you be free, when it feels like you keep falling into pit after pit? When you declare freedom with your mouth. “I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” – Psalm 91:2

  3. Where do you go when it feels as if this spiritual walk has failed you? On your knees praying, “That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” – Ephesians 3:16

  4. Who do you call on when no one wants to answer your calls anymore? God. “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” – John 16:24

  5. How do you push when your arms are tired and you still aren’t going anywhere? With God. “I am the LORD, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah 37:27

Daily Devotional – 10/3/17 “God’s Review!”

When you work on jobs, there is usually a review process that takes place. This review is to access where you are, within, the field you are working and if you have progressed over the course of six months to a year. The more you have evolved, the higher the reward. As I thought about this, it made me think about all the things we may have missed by not scoring high enough on God’s review. Think about it. If God showed up today, to give us our monthly, quarterly or annual review; what would we make? Would it be good enough for promotion or would we need time? If God conducted reviews, right now, would our service deem us worthy of elevation? If we had to sit across from God, at this very moment, what would the reward be? Too many of us are missing out on the blessings, with our names on them, because we are comfortable where we are. Only scoring high enough to keep our position, doing enough just to get by. You know God has called you from where you are yet you’re staying because it is all you’ve known. You use the excuse as being stuck when really, it is you being stubborn because you have seniority where you are. But do you not realize that with God, every move is promotion?

The bible says in Psalm 113:5-9, “Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!” It does not matter what your title is ma’am, it’s your tenacity to persevere. Sir, it doesn’t matter how long you have been sitting in that place, are you learning all you can? Yes, sometimes your position can feel like punishment but God has a plan, are you listening. Yes, sometimes it can feel like you’ve been where you are too long, but God has His reasons; are you taking notes? Will you pass your review when the time comes for promotion? Because God will not promote you by your looks nor the accolades man gives, He does so based on your faithfulness and readiness to handle it. God has you where you are, as part of your purpose but you will miss it trying to get promoted without gaining the right credentials for the place you are seeking to get too. How well will you score on your service review?

Daily Devotional – 10/2/17 “What about today?”

We all know that God has a plan and purpose for our life and when we think of this, we often times think of the future. But did you know God has purpose for our lives today? I know you’re busy working on your business plans for next year but what are you doing about today? Yes, your vision board, for tomorrow, looks good but what is your vision for today? I know you are busy picking out colors for the wedding, for when you meet your spouse, but what are you doing today to prepare? Yeah, you are making preparations for destiny but what are you doing today to get there? We all have dreams of what we hope our lives will look like next year or even five to ten years from now but what are you doing in the meantime? Please understand, I am in no way saying you shouldn’t be preparing for the next phase of life but what about today? Sometimes, I just believe, we can get so caught up in planning for tomorrow that we miss the blessing of today’s purpose. It could be to help that neighbor that’s in need, to pray for a church member, to go and feed the homeless and it could be to speak to the mess that’s in your home. It can possibly be, just take a moment and breathe. However, if you are too focused on tomorrow, you may just miss it. This is why the bible says in Matthew 6:34, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Oh but if we commit our work to God and trust Him, our plans will already be established. Meaning the favor over our lives, today, will balance out the labor of our plans for tomorrow. This doesn’t mean you will not have work to do but it’s simply stating, it will not be as hard as you think. When we commit our work to God, He has the ability to place our names in the mouths of folk we haven’t even met. And those folk will be the ones who will have just what you need tomorrow, for the plan you will write today. Don’t miss it focusing on the future when today is staring you in the face. James 4:13-15 says, “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” All I’m saying is, don’t miss the purpose of today focusing on the promotion of tomorrow.

Daily Devotional – 9/29/17 “I may be in the valley …”

I may be in the valley but I shall not fear. Sometimes on this journey, you will find yourself in the valley feeling like David when he describes walking through the valley of the shadow of death in Psalm 23:4. In other words, a dark place that has you hedged in, looking as if there is no way out. No matter what you try, the darkness, within you, seems to get darker and you feel more and more defeated. You try to pull yourself out, only to slide back down to the bottom without the strength to try again. However, here’s what I learned walking through this valley of the shadow of death … there has got to be some light somewhere. Which means, even though it looks dark and although it looks like I may be defeated; there’s some light somewhere. For I’m not walking through the valley of death but the valley of the shadow of death. Signifying to me, the shadow can’t do me any harm. Think about it. When has a shadow hurt you? This is why the bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:54, “Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” When this dying body have been transformed by the renewing of your mind, death is swallowed up in victory. Allowing you to walk through this valley of the shadow of death without being harmed, losing your mind nor your rightful place in destiny.

Yes, you may be in the valley of the shadow of death. You may be facing some stuff and it feels like you will not survive. The hedges surrounding you feels as if they are starting to close in. You’re suffering in the valley. You are hurting, in the valley. And you are by yourself but hold on beloved because David goes on to say in b part of Psalm 23:4, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Even when I am face to face with evil, I will not fear because my Shepherd, Jesus, is near. And when the shepherd in near, the sheep do not perish. Jesus tells us in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” All you have to do is wait until Jesus, the Shepherd, calls your name to come out and you will because the bible says in John 10:1-4, “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” I may be in the valley but I’ll listen for the voice of my Shepherd to rescue me.