Daily Devotional – 12/5/14 “It ain’t about us!”

Every day I pray for God to use me. Every day I pray that when folk look at me, they see the light of God shining through me. Yes, I have flaws in this fleshly body, I’m human but every day I pray that more and more of it dies so that I can walk into the destiny that God has set for me. If I lose friends along the way, ok. If I lose family along the way, ok. My goal is to save somebody who has yet to find God. See, this morning I was minding my own business when I walked into the break room to make some tea but standing in there was a coworker talking on the phone. Now, we work on the same floor but different groups. She can never get my name right but that’s alright, it’s not about what you call me, it’s what I answer too. But anyway, when she got off the phone she started talking to me about a man she met recently and when she met him he wasn’t stable but he got his own place now and she has helped him with some things for it but folk was telling her to leave him alone because he was using her (folk always talking) so she told him that she was thinking about calling it quits. Get this … When she told him this, he told her that if she did, he would possibly commit suicide. Quite possibly this upset her. See, she has been through some things. A lot of things that could have easily taken her out but the way her faith is set up, God won’t let her quit. But I had to stop her and tell her that sometimes God put us in folk lives in order to build them up. It ain’t even about us.

Yea, I didn’t care that folk was coming in the break room because God was using me. See, I had to remind her that what he said, at that moment, wasn’t about her; his spirit was broken then and it needed mending. This is why you have to be careful who you surround yourself with. When she called him this morning, she simply called to tell him she loved him and he told her he didn’t mean what he said the other day. This journey is hard y’all and if we don’t stay prayed up, praised down and knee bent we will get caught up! The enemy is ALWAYS seeking to destroy us. Don’t you get it? Even the strongest person gets weak sometimes. Even the encourager needs encouragement sometimes. Even the one praying need prayer sometimes and even the preacher need to get preached too sometimes. This is why you have to surround yourself with folk who know the Lord, whose spirit is right and who can get a prayer through when you can’t. This is why you have to know that the work you’re doing, this kingdom business; it’s not about you and me. It’s about the God in us manifesting through us to save those who are yet lost through us. It ain’t about us, it’s about the work we are sent to do!

Daily Devotional – 12/4/14 “A Thursday prayer”

Our Father which art in Heaven; holy is thy name as your will is done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Father, as I come petitioning your throne, I’ve got to first thank you. Thank you for the protection you provided for me, my family and my home from the dangers lurking outside. Father, even when I was too tired to kneel to say my prayers you gave me peaceful rest. With a new day’s dawn, you gave me breath in my body, sight in my eyes, movement in my arms and legs, thoughts in my mind and strength to get up. You allowed my family to rise and I didn’t have any bad news waiting to be delivered. Oh God! I looked up and still had a roof over my head, I had lights, warm water, a few morsels of food in the refrigerator and a few dollars for my son’s lunch. Oh God, thank you! I thank you because I had blessings too numerous to count when it could have been me.

Now Lord, I ask you to bless the person reading this. I don’t know the prayer they’ve been praying but you do. I don’t know the blessing they’ve been asking for but you do. I don’t even know the request they’ve been asking you to fill but you do. Father, I’ll simply ask for you to have your way in their life right now. Father, there is a pastor on the verge of giving up because of the stubbornness of the folk you’ve sent him to oversee, strengthen him to hold on to you so that he can hold out until you move. Some mother is at the end of her cliff and she is tired of crying but she still needs help; give her the courage to let go so that she falls into your grace where her help lies. God, I pray that you hide her in your mercy so that her devotion to you becomes devoted and she finds her way back to you and she never wants for anything again. For that father who is struggling to be the head of his home, give him the endurance to not give up but to press his way through. You made him the head for a reason, show him his purpose. God, we need you! We need you to lift up the bowed down head of those who feel like defeat has won, comfort those whose grief has settled into their spirit, heal those who sickness has taken over their bodies, make a way for those who can’t see their way right now, provide for those who can’t provide for themselves and protect those who can’t protect themselves. I know that you’re able to do it Lord, because I trust in your word that say you’ll never leave nor forsake us. Protect our children. Destroy the spirit of drugs, alcoholism, depression and suicide. Destroy the spirit of senseless killings. Restore minds, increase finances, open up doors and turn that no into yes for your people today. Oh God! This prayer I humbly submit to you on today. Amen

Daily Devotional – 12/3/14 “Start at home!”

You know, I find it perplexing; mind boggling actually how folk are so quick to jump on the bandwagon to help others build their house when their own is falling down. I mean, no offense to the tragedy in Ferguson, but we had over 15 killings over the Thanksgiving weekend here in Memphis alone and yet there hasn’t been one protestor out on the street calling for an end to that violence. We have folk who are over the youth ministry in their church and will do anything for those children and their own children are suffering AT HOME. We have an educational system that is failing our children yet all we are concerned about is who is posting what on social media. Why not start a petition to hold the educators accountable for the crap they are feeding our children, knowledge wise. Oh but we have something to say about the lunch menu. Why not protest the mere fact our children are being passed and cannot read. Do you not understand that we perish when there is a lack of knowledge? It isn’t a race thing, it’s a human thing! How can I teach my children if I don’t know and then how can they teach their children and their children’s children? It’ll be a never ending chain. It has to be broken.

Please get this beloved … I have no issue in helping you with your fight but are you willing to help me with mine? It’s alright to go to your neighbor’s home to help them every now and then but you have to make sure your house is straight too. It’s the same with the place you call your church home. You can’t support someone else church more than you support your own and expect God to be happy because of your effort. It’s about your devotion. Stop church hopping and find a church home (that’s in the church covenant). Look around, times have changed and we all need the Lord! There isn’t anything wrong with helping each other out, that’s the Christian thing to do but charity begins at home which means start with you first, then with your home, then your community and then reach out. That’s all I’m saying. You can’t clothe the needy if you’re naked and you can’t feed the hungry with your stomach growling.

Daily Devotional – 12/2/14 “Indecisive Saints!”

I wonder why we, as folk, find it so easy to sign a 2 year phone commitment with a cell phone company but we won’t commit to God. Yet we renew this contract with them year after year, when we upgrade our phone but we’ve yet to upgrade our worship. Isn’t it something how we are quick to sign that loan for a new car committing to paying once a month for the next 3 to 5 years on a loan yet we can’t even dedicate 4 Sunday mornings, 1 to 2 possible Sunday evenings and 4 Mondays (or whenever your bible study is) out of a month to serving God. We commit to the job but not to the one who gave us the talent. We commit to the man but not to the one who made the man. When will we stop being indecisive Saints? You know those whose faith wave like a flag in the morning wind. God doesn’t need those He has to wait until you get up in the morning to see whose side you’re on because He needs workers who are willing and able at all times. Aren’t you looking at the news? God needs folk who don’t mind going out into the streets to pray because our world is in trouble y’all.

Oh, you don’t know if you’re decisive or not? Well, let me tell you. If your faith is dependent on your mood, you are an indecisive Saint. If you attend worship by the weather, you are an indecisive Saint. If you’re devoted when it’s convenient, you are an indecisive Saint. If you praise based on who is looking, you are an indecisive Saint. If you go to worship for the mess, you are an indecisive Saint. And if you are the one keeping up the mess, you are an indecisive Saint. Baby you need to decide today whose side you’re on. What if you died at this very moment? Would you die in sin? Then what sense would it make to live in hell and then die and go to hell? Please understand, you do have a choice for the bible says in Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” You have a choice but you need to choose. Stop being indecisive! If you choose God, choose Him with your whole heart and be committed!

Daily Devotional – 12/1/14 “Spiritual cleansing!”

A new month and you’re still singing the same sad song. You’re still blaming God for the mess and the stress when baby, the hell you’re going through might just be because of whom you’ve surrounded yourself with. Yea, God sends test but it’s only to test our faith because He will never send anything that will cause us to be suicidal and depressed. Yes, God test us in all areas of our life but it’s only to see if we’ve been studying the lesson He’s been teaching. That sickness you’ve been toiling with, it has nothing to do with you but it’s about the work of God that is being manifested through you. Don’t you get it? Every time you get sick and then bounce back, someone is touched by your testimony. Every time you go in the hospital and come out, someone is helped by your healing. Every time you go down but get up, someone is moved by the miracle. It ain’t about you! The only reason you’re at a point of giving up now is because you’re listening to the enemy who has attached himself to you. He is a spirit you know? Or maybe it’s the person you’re confiding in that’s keeping your spirit down. This is why the bible says in 1 John 4:1 that you cannot believe every spirit that you have to test them by the spirit. Oh but get this, if your spirit ain’t right you’ll get what your spirit summons for. If you have a spirit of confusion, you’ll draw someone with a spirit of confusion. We need to get it together Saints! We need a spiritual cleansing. I’ve said it before, God isn’t pleased with the current conditions in which we live and worship in.

This is why you have to stop attaching to any and everybody because their spirit can sink its claws into you. You have to be mindful of the folk you’re around constantly! But you can’t do it if you aren’t right. This goes for home, work and worship. It’s time for us to tell the enemy to pack his bags and get the hell out. Get yourself together and then walk around your home and bless it with your mouth. (You have the power to cast him out.) Speak life over whatever seems dead in your life and see if God won’t restore it (if it’s for you). Anoint the doors because God says He will bless you coming and going. Pray over everyone in your household and see if God won’t move. Baby, I pray every day for God to use me mightily and every day the enemy amps up his attack to quiet me down but that’s alright because I have faith that God won’t ever leave me alone. And with the way my faith is set up, no matter how many times I draw from it; I’ll never go into the negative. Try your account and you’ll see that you have the same overdraft protection.