Daily Devotional – 9/15/14 “Renewed hope!”

I am standing and believing with renewed hope that there is help coming for God’s people. Yes, I believe that help is on the way. See, I witnessed a miracle on Thursday afternoon in room 3 of the emergency room of Methodist University Hospital when one doctor said it was over for my grandmother but God said I am simply showing renewed hope. See, somebody’s hope was fading and it needed to be renewed. I don’t know if it was a member of my family, if it was a member of the hospital staff or even if it was mine but God simply used my grandmother as a way to renew hope to all those who came in contact with her on that afternoon. Yea, here we were rallying around her bedside and she didn’t need us but we surely needed her. From doctors to nurses, from her children to grandchildren, from nieces to nephews, from cousins to friends; she changed lives that day. I may never know but I truly believe that some who didn’t believe in God before that day believe now. Yea, some who may have doubted before no longer doubt the power of the Man who can heal the sick and raise the dead. Those who said there is no such thing as praying power saw it for themselves first hand. God’s power manifested, that means it’s being revealed firsthand for all to see.

You don’t have to take my word for it but take God at His and trust Him. Yes, I know this world we are living in is bad but I trust and believe that God is about to send some renewed hope. I believe that He is going to send us a new covenant like He did in Jeremiah 31:31 and we, His people will have it written into our hearts and live it like we are supposed to. I am standing firm and believing that we as God’s people will get back to being what God will have us to be. With the murders, domestic violence, sickness, diseases, spiritual warfare, wars and everything else that is happening in our world today; we need renewed hope. Just imagine how it could be if each one of us would renew our own individual hope and then collectively get together. Baby, do you know the kind of worship experience we would have on Monday night at bible study, Wednesday night prayer service, Thursday night rehearsal and Sunday morning Sunday School and Worship Service if folk would come in with renewed hope? Can you imagine it? Lives wouldn’t ever be the same because people would actually leave church better than they came! Oh, if you need to know what renewed hope feels like, let me tell you … It feels like fire in your bones burning to get out. It feels like this praise on the inside that you just can’t keep to yourself even though you’ve tried. It feels like hearing your favorite song on Saturday morning and you dance and you don’t care who’s watching. It feels like joy, the kind you can’t explain and when you try it doesn’t come out right. It feels like peace, the kind that you don’t understand and don’t even care too. Renewed hope is my prayer for you! Try it! It’s a wonderful feeling! Romans 15:13, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Daily Devotional – 9/11/14 “Get tired but then …”


As a Christian, you should be tired. You should be tired of being picked on by the enemy but it should make you work harder to push him off of you. You should be tired of conforming to the world’s standards when God’s behaviors are way better anyway. You should be tired of playing church. You should be tired of playing on both sides of the fence, aren’t you too old for that anyway? You should be tired of being lied on so give them the truth to whisper about. You should be tired of being counted out so count yourself in. Aren’t you tired of waiting on someone else to encourage you, child encourage yourself sometime. Aren’t you tired of whining and crying with the woe is me attitude, the pity party and the feel sorry for me parade? When will you get up off of your do nothing and do something? You do know that you can’t get anywhere standing in the same spot, right? Yes, you’re going through something. Who isn’t? So the enemy is camped at your door, close it. He moved in? Pack his or her stuff and move him or her the hell out!

Listen beloved, don’t you know that if you weren’t being blessed, the enemy wouldn’t request your presence? If you were easy to break the enemy wouldn’t need to go before God to request the honor of testing your faith yet he has no choice because He knows you are a force to be reckoned with. Yet God smiles and nods and gives the enemy the go ahead to test you knowing He has given you EVERYTHING you need to succeed, yet you got the audacity to flinch at the first sight of trouble. Chile; get it together! For God says in Jeremiah 31:25, “I will fully satisfy the needs of those who are weary and fully refresh the souls of those who are faint.” Get tired of being down and get up! Get tired of being out and get in! Get tired of being left and get right! But don’t give up! Get tired of getting picked on and get picked out. Get tired of being a choice and be chosen. Get tired of being called and answer, before it’s too late!

Daily Devotional – 9/10/14 “Love doesn’t hurt!”

I am not about to jump on the bandwagon of bashing men over domestic violence or blaming women who stay in abusive relationships because I’ve never been in a position to ever get out of one so I don’t know how one feels. However I do know this … LOVE DOES NOT HURT! Yes, words hurts, fists hurts, beatings hurts, wounds hurts but love does not. I don’t know what it feels like to be hit by my husband but I also don’t know what it feels like to hit my husband because I’ve never done it either; respect goes both ways. Listen, it’s time out for keeping things to ourselves. I know grandma used to say you keep family business at home but baby, there are some things that needs to be talked about outside the home. You have teenagers getting their butts kicked at school by these knucklehead boys and they are too scared to come home and tell somebody out of fear of getting their butt beat at home. Teach the kids that home is their safe place and if not home, then at least give them a safe place at somebody’s church. And please stop putting your personal feelings in place when it comes to their worship experience. Just because you ran away from the church instead of dealing with your demons, don’t stop them from getting the worship experience they need; break that generational curse … TODAY! It has to be destroyed. Haven’t you seen the news? Our children are dying by the minute and most of them without a church home which means without the saving grace of God; this has to stop.

This domestic violence demon is running rampant in our community and it is taking the lives of mothers and fathers which mean it is ultimately taking the lives of the children that are being left behind. Y’all we’ve got to destroy it and send it back to the pits of hell from where it came. How? Pray it off of the backs of the men and women who it so easily attaches itself too. How? Women; pray over, under, beside and in front of your man! Men; pray over, under, beside and in front of your woman! Stop letting any and everything into your relationship! Stop letting any and every one into your home! Stop being a hellmate and start being a helpmate! Stop listening to everybody who says they have something to say. Stop hearing every rumor that is spoken about your spouse. And please stop lying down with just anybody! If he or she is a little possessive in the beginning, it’ll only get worse; take heed to the warning signs and if he or she has threatened before, listen. It doesn’t matter if you have a position or not because abuse is abuse and if you’re dead, your casket will look the same as everybody else just a different color. Don’t be embarrassed, be alive. Love doesn’t hurt. Get out, get help!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Daily Devotional – 9/8/14 “You’re being tested!”

Don’t you know the enemy sets a test for you to fail every day? Yea, it’s his primary job to make sure you don’t succeed at nothing you set out to do. Yet, here you are! Another morning you’ve gotten up, guess what? YOU PASSED! So let me ask you a question … What are you complaining about? Aren’t you breathing? Isn’t your heart beating which means most, if not all, of your organs are functioning? Didn’t you look up to see a ceiling instead of the sky which meant you aren’t sleeping outside? Aren’t you reading this which means you’re electronically inclined with some sort of device or machine? Didn’t you get out of a bed rather than off of a cardboard box that was laid on a sidewalk? Didn’t you have a refrigerator to open with your choice of food to choose from instead of standing in a line to get the meal of the day? Didn’t you have a closet to open to pick from an array of clothes rather than the same pants and shirt attire that was given to you from the clothes closet? So tell me again what you have to complain about. Yea, I understand; you have some pain but somebody somewhere is burying a loved one who was killed and they didn’t deserve to die. Yea, I understand you got bills to pay but somebody somewhere is homeless and this time last month they were in your shoes. Yea, I know you feel like no one understands but how can they when you won’t tell nobody. Yea, I know I am just somebody telling you again about how good God is but have you tried Him, lately? Have you stop complaining long enough to see just how good you got it? It’s not as bad as you think it is. Stop blaming the world for your problems because the world didn’t create them, you did. Stop blaming momma and daddy, you can break the generational curse. Stop blaming the church, it’s not supposed to change, it’s just a building; the people are.

This is why God’s people have to get back to being God’s people. His word says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” This scripture begins with the word IF which means a possible situation because it’s possible; if we’re willing to getting back to kingdom business, if we’re willing to get back to bible study, if we’re willing to get back to worshipping the right way, if we’re willing to get back to having the right devotion, if we’re willing to call on the name of Jesus, if we’re willing to fall on the altar the way we should, if we praise the right way, if we sing right, if we love each other right, if God’s people would encourage more, if God’s people would teach more, if God’s would reach more, if God’s people … stop complaining, stop beating each other up, stop using each other and tearing each other down. The enemy has enough people doing that already, we don’t need Christians doing it too. Every day the enemy is testing us and he isn’t doing it because he likes us, he does it because we are blessed and he hates it. I say it like this; the enemy is testing this pimp! Yea, he is testing this person in my position because I am blessed like that! Plain and simple! The enemy is trying to keep you out of your position but stay in place. The enemy is only doing his job, so do yours by staying in your place but you can only do this by knowing your role. Stay prayed up! You passed yesterday’s test and you’ll get through today’s test and then worry about tomorrow’s test tomorrow. You got this!

Daily Devotional – 9/5/14 “Called not cursed!”

I’ve been called not cursed! That’s what the Holy Spirit dropped in my spirit this morning. I know it was meant for me but maybe just maybe it was meant for someone else who is also new on this journey of ministering in whatever field of ministry you’ve been called in. You’ve been called not cursed. See, this being called thing isn’t an easy charge to take hold of and if anybody tells you differently, they’d be lying. No, being called doesn’t automatically mean you’ve been called to preach and that’s where people get ministry twisted because everyone is not capable of preaching for Ephesians 4:11 clearly states, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.” These are all the true callings of God and there is a difference in each of them; learn your bible.

I don’t know who this is for but I am being obedient in my sharing. God has plans for all of us and although we don’t know how His plan is going to end, let Him finish it. Yes, I know you want things to happen now, you want things to go this way, you want stuff to happen like this or like that but “they” don’t but that doesn’t mean you throw in the towel. Chile, take that same towel, wipe the sweat from your brow and keep pushing. What are you giving up for? Who gives a crap about the folk standing around cheering you on to give up? The bible says in Psalm 23:5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Now, this said that God is preparing a table for you but not just any table but a feast for you in the presence of your enemies. So, turn around and smile at your haters and let them know they are your motivators. Baby, use them to inspire you. Every time they say you can’t, use that as gas for your CAN automobile. Every time somebody says you won’t be nothing, use that as windshield wiper fluid to clean the glass to see where you’re going on your journey. Every time somebody says you’ll be another statistic, prove them right by being the first at accomplishing something they said you never would. Yea, I started this off telling somebody that you are called and not cursed but this doesn’t necessarily limit it to ministry because God has a way of calling us to other things too but you have to be willing to listen and just because God calls you it doesn’t mean He has cursed you. Being called doesn’t mean you stop being who you are; it simply means you are blessed at what you’re doing.