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!

Daily Devotional – 2/2/15 “Be careful what you ask for!”

For some reason, this has been echoing in my spirit all weekend. “Be careful what you ask for.” See, sometimes we can ask of God things we aren’t ready for, stuff we aren’t prepared to handle, people we aren’t mentally capable of processing and blessings our spiritual level hasn’t yet risen to partake in. Oh but we think we are ready for them so we keep asking God for them. We keep badgering God for the stuff He knows we aren’t ready for yet He keeps blocking us from getting hurt by saying no, by closing doors or by allowing people to walk off but we can’t see the good in that because all we see is what we are missing out on. But what are we lacking in the no? In Numbers 11, God bought the people of Israel out of bondage yet they complained. But get this … They complained about not having meat to eat not recognizing the fact that although they had meat to eat back in Egypt, they were in bondage but now just because they didn’t have meat, they were free. They didn’t even take the time to see the blessing in where they were. So God gave them what they asked for because He had become angry in their whining and in their complaining. Not only did God give them meat, He gave them so much they had to eat it for 30 days that they eventually gorged themselves to death (Numbers 11:33-34). “Be careful what you ask for.”

This is why as Saints of God; we have to be careful what we ask for. God isn’t limiting us when He says no; He is simply telling us it isn’t our time yet but we have to be in the right mindset to be able to accept His no. Yea, I know we think we are ready for that car, that house, that job, that husband, that wife, that boyfriend, that girlfriend, that apartment or even that credit card but there is a blessing in the no. I know you wanted to be the chairperson of that program but it wasn’t your time. I know you wanted to be head of that department but it isn’t your time. Don’t leave the church because you didn’t get the position you wanted this time. Haven’t you realized yet that God is looking out for your best interest? Stop looking at what others have as a way to gage what your blessings should look like because you don’t know what others have been through to get theirs. That’s why I won’t base my blessings off yours. I don’t know that you’ve been through three abusive relationships before your husband finally found your heart that God mended. I don’t know the sleepless nights you’ve had to work to get your house. I don’t know the nights you paced and prayed to get your children through college. I don’t know the nights you cried, toiling with pain to get to your healing. I don’t know what you’ve endured to stop living paycheck to paycheck. This is why I won’t wish for your blessings. This is why we have to be careful what we ask for!

Daily Devotional – 1/30/15 “You can’t heal if you’re angry!”

Have you ever had a child in your lap so long that your leg fell asleep? Have you ever carried something so heavy or held something so long that you couldn’t wait to put it down? Have you ever moved that piece of furniture and then regretted it later because it hurt your back (and you’re probably rubbing that place now)? Well, I asked all those questions because carrying stuff from your past is just like all these things. Yea, carrying past hurt, past anger, past wrongs, past misunderstandings, past church hurt, past exes, past whatever is like that weight that has caused your legs to go to sleep or your back to be out of whack. You’ve got to let it go! But you know this already, don’t you? You know anger allows the enemy to reside close to you, don’t you? You know the bible says in Ephesians 4:26-27, “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold,” don’t you? Yet we still do. Why is that? Why do we call ourselves God’s people yet we are so angry when we are supposed to be of God and He is our joy? Why are we called Saints of God yet we allow people to take from us the joy that they didn’t or cannot give us? I mean, we can get so angry that we get out of our character, we lose who we are and we say or do stuff that folk who are of God shouldn’t say or do and then we have the nerve to say, “They made me do it.”

Isn’t it something that folk don’t get credit for making you do right but they sure in Heaven get the credit for making you do wrong when it’s nobody’s fault but yours. Stop allowing anger to control you because the word says in James 1:20, “Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.” What can anger give you other than some hurtful words or deeds you can’t take back, high blood pressure from the stress of carrying all the things you should have released 10 years or a lonely life because no one wants to be around an angry person? What can anger do for you? What has it done for you lately that have proven productive? Listen, I understand because believe me when I say one of the biggest things I work on daily is my attitude. I don’t have a quick tongue but I will shut down when I get angry and that’s not good either yet I am trying to change. We are all in need of work. Let’s stop putting off that which we need help with. Let go of the things that keep us angry. Forgive people and then forget! Yes, you have to forgive AND forget because if you don’t you remember all the things they did and it brings up all the memories. Forgetting is part of the healing and anger can’t reside if you are to heal. It can’t! Healing isn’t for the person who hurt you, it’s for you. Aren’t you ready?