Daily Devotional – 7/29/14 “Let God finish!”

You’re crying that your spirit is broken but how can you expect God to fix you if it’s not? Don’t you know that doctors have to sometime break bones in order for them to heal properly? Yea, they may have looked good on the outside but the x-ray revealed defects which makes surgery necessary. It’s the same with us. Saints, I mean. We play dress up to cover up our mess but on the inside we are raggedy and tore up. Oh but then here comes God with His x-ray machine that shows Him the parts of us that need to be fixed. (And with God, He sees it all). Heart with holes, spirit with leaks, lungs not functioning properly, blood filled with hater toxins, spirit being clogged with mess and joints that are locked from non-movement. Now, God has to knock us out to do surgery. If you’re trying to figure out why you keep getting knocked down, that’s God trying to do surgery but you won’t let Him. Trying to figure out why you can’t stand for long, that’s God trying to do surgery but you keep interrupting Him. Trying to figure out why it feels like you’re groggy and can’t seem to make sense of what’s around you, that’s God trying to do surgery yet you won’t be still!

Beloved, hold on! Allow God to finish what He needs to finish. Stop trying to work everything out on your own when you have a master who’s capable of doing it. Yea, I know you think you need to figure out next month when God is saying, I got it covered, enjoy today. Stop acting like everything is always wonderful when you know you’d rather be weeping. If everybody had it all figured out, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in. Stop plastering a smile on your face and let folk see the real you. How am I supposed to believe that God bought you out of your circumstance if I never saw you go through it? I’m not saying I need to know and see every aspect of your life but at least show me a little of your test so that I’d know your testimony is real. In the court of law, if you lie under oath they call it perjury and you can face jail time. Well in God’s court, if you lie under His oath, He calls it lying and the bible says in Proverbs 12:22, “Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who act faithfully are his delight.” All I am trying to get you to understand is this …Stop complaining about the trouble that you have to go through because how can you know what you can handle if you don’t go through. Stop grumbling about the times you have to sometimes be down because if you’re in God; He has a reason for Psalm 37:23 says, “The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” Yes, I know you may know this already but God declares in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” You are made for this but you have to believe in yourself enough to go in, go through and then come out. Yes, you have to go through God’s surgery but baby when you come out … insert shout!

Daily Devotional – 7/28/14 “A fan or a follower!”

If you know me by now then you know that I will pull a devotional topic from anywhere. In doing so, I am so overjoyed that God allows the Holy Spirit to dwell so richly in me so that a generic topic can be anointed filled and deliverable. Yes! Earlier in the day on yesterday I noted in my phone the thought, you can’t lead because you’ve yet to follow and then sitting in our second service at another church, Pastor Hunt of Eternal Peace MB Church, said you are either a fan or a follower. Baby, you know this mind of mine starting turning because I was already envisioning the devotional. See, in using my spiritual imagination I can see Jesus walking through the city and on both sides of the streets crowds have formed and they are screaming His name. Yea, they know of His goodness and they’ve seen His work so they’ve become fans. They’ve even made signs, hats and t-shirts to show their appreciation and they wave and wear them while standing on the side lines. Just like some of us today, we have no intention of stepping into the street because then we’d have to work. Most of us serve God but we do so from the pew of the church, that makes you a fan. Yea, I know you say you have an issue with church folk and you think just because you sit at home on Sunday morning and read your bible that makes it enough but that’s simply makes you a fan. You go to worship service, bible study and prayer meeting but every time you’re asked to work, you find an excuse; you’re a fan. Yes there are some diehard fans who talk a good game but you’re just a fan. You can challenge the best of them when it comes to reciting scriptures but you won’t put them into action. You even question the pastor when you think they are wrong but you won’t go anywhere but your church and anytime someone ask you how you are, you’re always blessed and highly favored yet you have an assigned seat at the church which means you don’t move much; baby you’re just a fan.

Please understand, I am not knocking what has been working for you. All I am asking is when will you put your appreciation for God into action and become a follower? When will you step off the sideline and follow? When will you stop looking out the window, watching the parade go by and get out and follow? You do know that you can’t lead if you’ve yet to get the concept of following right? It’s like this … You’re going to a new place that you’ve never been with your family. Your dad tells you to follow him because he knows the way but along the journey you get tired of driving behind him because you’re anxious to get there and he’s moving too slow so you go around him and speed off saying you got this. See, you thought the GPS you had on your phone would get you there but then the battery died and you forget your charger. You thought you could follow the signs but then you realize when you came to the fork in the road you didn’t know which way to go and now you’re wandering lost. You’re starting to panic and breathing hard because you don’t know what to do. Oh but then here comes your daddy to the rescue, pulling in behind you blinking his lights. You breathe a sigh of relief knowing that your help has showed up so now you beckon for him to come around so that you can get back in line behind him and when you finally make it to your destiny, I mean your destination; you realize that you made it right on time. Child, there isn’t anything wrong with being a fan but be a fan while you’re following!

“Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:8

Daily Devotional – 7/25/14 “God always has something for you!”

God always has something for you! He has a key for that locked door and rest that keeps you from pacing the floor. He has the solution for your problem and He’ll give you the wisdom to understand how to solve them. He has light for that dark place and He’ll wipe every tear that falls on your face. God is joy for your sorrow and He’s has a plan for your tomorrow. He has the answer to your test and He won’t allow you to fail, if you do your best. He has healing for your pain and strength which won’t let you strain. He has the comfort for what ails you, directions to your destiny, strength to carry every burden and a calling with your name on it. He has new anointing for your ministry that’ll allow it to be revived. He has new mercies for you today that are greater than yesterday’s so that your work will be greater. God always has something for you, if you believe. He has a purpose with your name tied to it, if you trust Him. He has a reason for what you have to go through, just trust Him enough to go through it. He has an intentional reason for sending you there, be obedient and go. He even has a seat waiting for you at the table but you have to get there to get it. God always has something for you! He has something to turn you from a convict to convicted, a liar to a hand layer, a problem to a prayer and a cheater to chosen! Yea! God has something that can turn your mistake into your ministry, your circumstance into your calling, your breakdown into your breakthrough, your tantrum into your testimony and that hell you endured into your healing. The question now is; when will you realize it to actually get it?

Daily Devotional – 7/24/14 “You’re built to bounce back!”

After the change, after you’ve been knocked down, after you’ve failed, after you’ve fallen, after you thought about getting up, after the woe is me party and after the why me Lord crying fit; get up! Yes, it’s simple – GET UP! See, we are designed with something on the inside of us to bounce back. Do you remember the game at the fair, the one you throw the ball at the doll or the bowling pins to knock them down yet every time you hit it, it just falls over and bounce back up? Well, that’s the same thing we have built into us. Yes, this thing, this God made mechanism allows us to be pushed back but not broken. It allows us to fall but we do so without fault so we can get back up and try again. Baby, this mechanism is so good that every time the enemy hits us with the hell they throw it only makes us leans but then we pop back up! Yea, we have to go through the battle yet we come out without a bruise. We have to go through the fire yet we don’t get burned. We have to sometimes go through losing folk yet we don’t lose our mind. We even have to sometimes go without but that’s only to strengthen your witness.

Don’t you know that we can’t be defeated by the hands of our enemy when God has already bought the fight? All you have to do is simply go the rounds. You don’t have to throw the fight because God has already paid for the outcome. So what if it seems like the enemy is winning, it ain’t over yet. I know you might be breathing hard, you might be holding on to the rope hoping someone throws in the towel but can’t you see your trainer over in your corner telling you to keep going? Can’t you see your trainer over in your corner telling you He’s got your back? So what if you’re tired, don’t you see your trainer over in your corner beckoning for you to come and get the water He has for you and not just any water but living water! For my bible tells me in Psalm 144:1-2, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.” So tell me again the concerns you have? Look over in your corner and see your trainer who has never lost a fight. Look over in your corner and see your trainer who has never given up. His resume says in Psalm 18:2, “The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.” So, you’re worried why?

Child of God, it doesn’t matter about the naysayers in the crowd, listen to your trainer. It doesn’t matter about your opponent, listen to your trainer. It doesn’t even matter about those so called friends who are yelling for you to quit, listen to your trainer. Stop worrying about the blows your body and heart might take because although it stings, it’ll only last the amount of time you allow it too. Stop worrying about the scars, they’ll heal. Stop worrying about the hurt, it’ll heal. And stop worrying about the tears, they are just liquid prayers. Yes, you may wobble; yes you may lean, yes you may even fall yet trust your trainer to lead you to victory after the fight because you’ve been built to bounce back!

Daily Devotional – 7/23/14 “Change comes!”


It only takes a moment for your life to change. For some, change comes by force and for some by choice. For some, change comes with the birth of new life and for some, the death of someone you’ve loved. For some, change comes with a promise that is broken and for some promises kept. For some, change comes with the word approved and for some it comes with the word denied. For some, change comes with time and for others change comes because of time given. No matter what the reason, change comes. Sometimes change can be mind-boggling and hard to understand yet it happens anyway. You can go from working 25 years on your job to being unemployed by the time a 15 minute meeting is over. You can go from well to sick after leaving the doctor’s office for your annual physical. You can go from sick to well after a two hour surgery. You can go from walking and depending on folks to riding with the approval of your loan. Your home can go from happy to hell with one mistake you can’t take back. Isn’t that something? This is why you have to stay prayed up. It doesn’t matter that you have your plans made, schedule laid out and goals set because it can all change in an instant. No one ever plans to be in a wreck, get sick or have a flat tire but it happens. No one ever plans to be late paying bills but it can happen just ask the person whose car quit unexpectedly.

Yes, sometimes change is good even when we don’t see the good then. You don’t see the good, now, in momma no longer suffering on this side when her death date was declared but you will. You don’t see the good, now, when that door is shut in your face but you will. You don’t see the good, now, in the suffering you have to go through but you will. How do I know? Well, it’s because everything you go through in your Christian life is ordained by God. Don’t take my word for it but God tells us in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope,” so we have to press on. Then the bible tells us in Proverbs 16:4, “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble,” so we have to walk on. 1 Peter 2:9 tell us, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,” so we have to get up and go on! Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose,” so we cannot stop now! And then Psalm 138:7 tells us, “Though I am surrounded by troubles, you will protect me from the anger of my enemies. You reach out your hand, and the power of your right hand saves me,” so we have no choice but to fight on! Yes change happens, it shows up unexpectedly sometimes, it may have tears with it, sometimes even hurt but then sometimes it shows up with the smile we’ve needed and the happiness we’ve missed yet however it comes, it comes!

With change comes a charge that God has sent forth and it’s not to chain us to our circumstance but it’s simply to convert us from our current condition, clothe us in our commitment, to comprehend God’s commandments and to consecrate our calling. Change isn’t always good but it comes whether we want it to or not.