Daily Devotional – 2/9/15 “Where is our praise?”

Yesterday was a day for me. It was a day where my spirit just wasn’t right and no matter how I prayed, I just couldn’t get into the right spiritual frame of mind. Have you ever been there? Yea, I know you probably have it all together but baby, I’m human and I sometimes struggle with this spiritual thang because every moment is a battle against not flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness that is trying to destroy kingdom workers. Yes, I know you expect those of us who stand in the pulpit to deliver God’s word to have it all together but you do understand that we are human, right? Yes, we have a higher standard but don’t you get the fact that we have 999 different kinds of spirits to deal with, with a smile and a prayer? When was the last time you prayed for the pastor, the co-pastor or the pulpit clergy members? When was the last time you prayed for the first lady or the first husband? You do know she or he has to deal with the pastor after he or she gets home from dealing with us, Christian folk, right? And you do understand that not all Christian folk act and talk like Saints, don’t you? I’m just trying to get you to understand that the encourager sometimes need encouraging too.

See, a dead worship service to a Pastor/Minister is like a dead club to a person in the world; they don’t stay long. Yea, they’ll find someplace else to party that’s jumping. Wouldn’t you? What’s the sense of going to God’s house without the intention of getting your praise on? Didn’t you make it through the hell from the week, didn’t you survive when someone else didn’t, and didn’t you come through with your mind when you know you should have been crazy, didn’t you still have all your senses and didn’t you have activity of your limbs? Every Sunday in God’s house should be a praise party because somebody should have something to celebrate and then we should be ready to join in to help them. The bible says in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” We might not get next Sunday.

Daily Devotional – 2/6/15 “Where is your fire?”

It’s Friday and someone’s face is full of tears because you’re fearful of failing yet again or you’ve fallen into the enemy’s trap of familiar faults and you can’t figure out how to fight your way loose but don’t fret! All you need to do is rekindle the fire that is on the inside of you and it’ll burn all of that negative stuff up! Yea! See, I sometimes watch my nephew who is 5 years old who loves church. Now, while all the other children are outside playing, he’s over in an area with a makeshift pulpit, his bible and something he has made into a microphone and he’s preaching. (You don’t have to believe me, check out some videos on my Facebook page). He’s only 5 but he has a fire in his spirit already that allows him to believe and know God for himself. He can’t read the bible but he has it open in front of him because it’s what he sees. He doesn’t need an audience because usually he is in a room to himself and most time he will do it for hours. Yea, he’ll preach himself happy because he has that fire in his spirit that won’t allow him to do anything else but what he knows. He doesn’t care about anything else around him. Why can’t we as adults have that kind of fire in our spirit? That kind of fire that makes us want to fight instead of folding under the pressure of the enemy. That kind of fire that makes us want to be finishers instead of fakers. That kind of fire that makes us want to be forgivers instead of being forsaken and the kind of fire that takes us from being followers to frontrunners.

Where is your fire? Where is your fire to fight? Where is your fire to get up? Where is your fire to tighten up your boot straps and walk on? Where is your fire to shake off the dust and try again? Where is your fire to not care what folk say about you? Where is our fire to not mind the names folk call you? Where is your fire to go even when you don’t feel like it? Where is your fire to keep on even after God has said no, the door has been closed, application denied, car quit, job cut your hours, bills behind, death angel showed up at your home, spouse acting strange, children cutting up sideways and then the doctor looking at you funny? Where is your fire? Luke 3:16 says we are baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, where is it? Oh, it’s probably buried under all the mess, anger and bitterness that’s on the inside of you, right? Well, may I suggest a Spirit cleaning to rekindle the fire that will help you get out of that pit of gloom? It’s there; it just needs to be reignited! Will it before it’s too late? Where is your fire?

Daily Devotional – 2/5/15 “Live, just because!”

As Saints of Gods, we don’t have to be stuck up and dry. You do know that we are living, right? I mean, every now and then I need to remind you to just live because you can forget to do that in the hustle and bustle of life. We get so caught up in the stress of paying bills, in raising children, in working, in trying to stay healthy or get healthy that we actually forget about simply living. When was the last time you took a day off, just because? When was the last time you slept in, just because? When was the last time you stopped and let out a breath, just because? When was the last time you took yourself out to dinner, just because? When was the last time you had a glass of wine, a nice bath, listened to some music or the quietness of nothing to relax yourself; just because? When was the last time you did anything, just because? Do you not realize that you are living? I know in the repetition of our day-to-day lives we can sometimes forget about things but we also forget about ourselves. How many can say, I didn’t even eat today and by the time you remember it’s dinner time?

Yes, this is a Christian devotional and someone is waiting on me to share a word from the Lord but somebody on today needs to be reminded to live. That’s all I am doing. See, we’ve gotten so accustomed to worrying about stuff that we shouldn’t even have our hands in and days that haven’t even come yet when the bible says in Matthew 6:34, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” We cry over stuff that has already happened and that’s stuff we can no longer control yet we can control what happens next but we won’t get up. Why not? We’ve been hurt before but we still live in that hurt instead of moving from that address into new property where pain no longer resides even though the rent is free. Why? And this point I’ll throw in free … Ladies, young and old; the single status you keep posting on social media is only drawing the thirsty boys not the husband God is preparing for you. He knows you’re single. Stop posting it! Live your life preparing for your husband and preparing to be found by your husband and you will be. Stop posting that you’re single and them boys will stay out of your inbox.

Live just because you are alive! Live just because God has allowed you another blessed opportunity! Don’t take it for granted because you may not get another chance.

Daily Devotional – 2/4/15 “Are you willing?”

I sometimes go back and look at some of the devotionals I’ve written over the years and it still amazes me at the things God has allowed to manifest through me. There I was minding my own business, wasn’t thinking about being a writer, a blogger, an encourager, a bible study teacher, get this … a minister yet here God comes and He says Marcy (He doesn’t have to call me by my fancy name, he simply calls me by my nick name), Marcy you are the clay, I am the potter and I’ve molded you into something worthy of being used, are you ready? I asked God but am I really worthy? He asked will you really work? I said as long as I have breath, health and strength. He said there will be some rough days, I can’t promise you won’t have some sick days ahead but I’ll pick you up when you fall, will you still go? I told Him, send me Lord, I’ll go! And I have. Has it been easy, no and I won’t even lie to you like it has been but being on the Lord’s side won’t be easy every day; yet it’s a part of the journey.

How many of us are willing to go where God sends us? How many of us are willing to work for God without questioning what He tells us to do? You do know that God will make some strange requests of us, right? Yea, God will have us doing some strange things but I’m learning that it has nothing to do with us but it’s about His people who need to be saved around us. The truth of the matter is; it’s not about us at all! It’s about saving those around us who are still being lost by the minute. It’s about the youth who are dying without knowing who God is. It’s about the mothers and fathers who are dying without being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s about the people in the church who don’t know how to truly worship because we’ve stopped truly worshipping. It’s about the people who don’t know how to pray because we don’t spend time in devotion period praying like we used too. How many of us are willing to put our hands to the kingdom plow and not look back? There is work to be done; God just needs willing workers to do it. You don’t have to be a master at it because this line of work comes with training. Are you willing? 1 Corinthians 3:9 says, “For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Daily Devotional – 2/3/15 “You need help!”

This morning as I was walking into work, there was a young man walking in behind me. Now, I didn’t notice until the both of us made it to the door that his arms were full of stuff and he was struggling so I asked him, why he didn’t ask me for help and his reply was, “I started too.” Understand this, I don’t know him because he works on the 2nd floor and I work on the 3rd floor but I see him from time to time but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have helped him carry some of the things he was struggling with to the same door we were both walking too. And get this; he wouldn’t have even had to ask because had I seen him, I would have offered. You know this got me to thinking right? Yea, I started thinking why can’t we, as Saints of God, help each other like this more often? When we see another person struggling, why can’t we offer to help instead of standing back waiting to see if they’ll fall. I’ll even go this way, why can’t we ask for help instead of allowing our pride to get in the way? So many folk in the church are suffering because they are afraid to open their mouth for help and on the flip side, so many are afraid to open their mouth for help out of fear of their business being spread. We’ve got to do better!

When will we do better? When will the church be restored back to the place it was supposed to be? Isn’t the church supposed to be the hospital for the sin sick? A place where I can go without judgment and shame? A place where I should find peace and not pain? A place where I should find joy? Aren’t we supposed to be God’s people, called by His name, humble and holy? Aren’t we supposed to help one another? I didn’t ask you to pay my bills, I just ask you to lend me your shoulder to lay my pounding head. I didn’t ask you to deliver me, I just ask you to pray for me. I didn’t ask you to perform a miracle, I simply asked you to stand close just in case I leaned. I didn’t ask you to carry all my stuff, just help me move it. I don’t want you to carry my burdens but can I talk to you about them sometimes without criticism? Please understand, when I ask when will the church be restored, I’m speaking of the people because the building isn’t the problem; the people is. We, as the people of God, have become the issue. We’ve got to do better. We are perishing in a daily hell, struggling and straining most times by ourselves because we won’t ask for help. Stop it! The enemy has an army of folk on his side; you need folk on your side too. Stop trying to fight the enemy alone. You can’t! If you need help, ask!