Daily Devotional – 4/21/17 “Thought I’d share again!”

One day, on my way to work (after a doctor appointment) I stop at Popeye’s. I order the $5 big box, chicken strips, only to get to work and have a chicken breast and thigh. Now, I could have been upset about it and simply thrown it away but I would still be hungry. The chicken is still good so I’ll eat it. What does this have to do with a devotional? I’ll tell you … Sometimes you have to eat what you get even though it’s not what you ordered. Sometimes you have to receive what God gives even if it’s not what you prayed for. Sometimes you have to accept the hand you’ve been dealt even though you were hoping for better cards. Sometimes you have to accept the fact that the odds aren’t going to always be in your favor, this time! Yes, I know I paid for chicken strips but they’re both the same price so I didn’t lose anything. I still received something to put inside to stop my growling stomach. Oh, I know that isn’t the car you wanted but the car note is what you needed. I know you’re ready to get married but be thankful for the time God is giving you to prepare yourself to be a husband or a wife. See, I’ve come to realize that God gives us what we need and not what we want. Oh, it’s quite possible that this can be the same thing but think about the times it isn’t. 
You should be glad about that. God could have given you that man, you wanted but instead He gave you the one you needed and you find out later the one you wanted is an abuser. God should have given you that woman you begged Him for but instead He gave you the one He knew would help you in your ministry and you later found out the one you wanted, wasn’t first lady material anyway. Oh, yes; God could have given you that house you kept driving by but the next time you went, you found out it was built wrong and needed a lot of work so be grateful He gave you the one you needed. God could have given you that job you kept crying for but instead He blessed you with a career and you later found out why the turnover rate was so high on the one you wanted. Beloved, God gives us what we need and He’ll supply our every need, at His time. What do you do in the process? Wait with patience, praise and faith! So stop acting like God owes you everything you ask for especially when you know some of the things you’re asking for don’t belong to you anyhow. Trust God because He knows. And be glad He doesn’t give us everything we ask of Him because then most of us would be tore up, raggedy, divorced 13 times, in bankruptcy every 7-10 years, jobless, homeless and sick. 
— “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

Daily Devotional – 4/20/17 “Don’t quiet your suffering!”

God, sometimes, allows us to go through the mess of life in order to certify our testimony. What do I mean? Well, God allowed you to hop from bed to bed because He needed your voice to save those, in this season, who are headed down the same path. God needed you to sell the drugs and run the streets because now you can relate to those brothers who are walking through the doors of your church. God allowed you to suffer in the ministry because now, after thirty years of preaching, you can help that young preacher who is about to give up. God needs your voice of circumstance in order to help that one who is running from the call on their life. God needs your voice of how you overcame abuse in order to tell your coworker how to make it out. God needs your voice of surviving prison in order to stop somebody from making the same mistakes. God needs your voice of how your marriage made it through adultery. God needs your voice of how you survive alcoholism/drug abuse. God needs your voice of how you got your GED at 30. God has need of you and the mess you’ve been through.

Beloved, your suffering isn’t just for you but it is for somebody who probably isn’t even born yet. Ma’am, your suffering isn’t about you but it is for that young lady in your church. Sir, your suffering isn’t about you but it is for those young men who are watching you and you don’t even see them. Your suffering isn’t for you but it is to show your daughter how to make it through when it shows up at her house. Your suffering is for your son to see how hard work pays off. Your suffering is for the child, down the street, who specifically speaks to you because there is something, inwardly, drawing him/her to you. Your suffering is setting the stage to snatch somebody else out of theirs. Your suffering is the manifestation of God working through you for that somebody who says God has forsaken them. Your suffering is the billboard, broadcasting, God can do it for you just like He did it for me. Stop shushing your suffering, share it!

Daily Devotional – 4/19/17 “Rough road to destiny!”

God can take the very thing that once interrupted your worship and turn it into the thing that now solidifies your shout! The cancer, MS, lupus, kidney failure and heart disease that used to make you weep, became the very thing that now makes you witness. That abusive relationship that once made you cringe, is the one that compelled you to accept God’s calling. Where you were once being used, you’ve now become useful. Those times you used to be the prey, forced you to now become prayerful. The times ‘they’ said you wouldn’t be nothing, shifted your thinking to know you can be anything! So, today, stop counting out your hurtful moments, God is using them to heal you. Don’t discount those painful places, they were/are needed to position you in purpose. Don’t dismiss the times you’ve fallen, God needed to see if you would fight to get up.

I don’t have to draw this devotional out because the point has already been made, so I’ll repeat myself. God can take that thing that once interrupted your worship and turn it into the thing that now solidifies your shout! Beloved, God can show up and flip your entire life upside down, making it right. All He needs you to do is trust His process. Joseph, in the bible, was being shown his future in dreams at an early age. Yet he had to go through being despised and sold by his brothers, falsely accused of rape and spending time in jail in order to get to God’s predestine purpose for his life. And for that Joseph tells his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” Sometimes, you need to thank those things that tried to take you out for being the very thing to push you into destiny.

Daily Devotional – 4/18/17 “No competition!”

God will never put you in an assignment that will cause you to be in competition with somebody. Why not? Because what is yours, is yours and what is mine is mine. What makes you think God will give you a spouse you will have to snatch from someone else bed? Why, in the heck, do you think God will give you the responsibility to pastor a church that you had to sneak and apply for? Why would God give you the promotion you had to lie to get? God won’t ever have you competing over what is yours. This is why the bible tells us in Galatians 6:4-5, “Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.” Yes, friendly competition is good, when it comes to games but not blessings. This is why you will not ever see me trying to preach, pray, serve, write or do anything like someone else. It does not matter if they get four thousand views and I get twelve, I can only be me. And some of you are having a hard time, at this very moment, because you are competing with somebody for something or someone you thought was yours. Stop it!

That will be like me competing with somebody over a dude who is supposed to be mine or competing with another pastor for my position or even fighting on the job for a position ‘they’ said was mine. It does not make sense because what is mine will be mine and what is yours will be yours. Beloved, the only person you should ever compete with is self. You don’t have to believe me. Talk to God about it and He will tell you. Then, go and visit some successful businesses and they will even tell you. Why would they need to compete when their work speaks for itself? Stop competing for what is yours. Stop fighting folk over what belongs to you. On today, my prayer for you is this … That your eyes will be open to see and understand that you will never have to compete with someone else over what God has for you.