It's not just writing, it's ministry
Tomorrow is the day! Saturday, April 26, 2014 from 10:30am – 3:30pm – BookStock 2014 at the Memphis Public Library! You will have a chance to meet Author Eric Jerome Dickey and other local authors. Please stop by and see me as I will be there selling copies of A Secret Worth Keeping and Doses of Devotion.
You don’t want to miss it! There will be a lot of activities for adults and children. Please see the flyer for more details!
My Father in Heaven, you whose name is Holy and Sweet, you whose will shall be done on earth and in Heaven. God, as I come petitioning your throne, I want to thank you. Thank you God for touching me this morning with a fresh anointing to see this new day with the activities of all my limbs, warm blood flowing through my veins and for a regulated mind that allowed me to know where I was and whose I was. God, I thank you because when I could have been dead, you allowed me to live. When I should have been buried in my mess, you simply brushed it off and told me to stand. When I thought my knees would buckle from the burdens on my shoulders, you gave me extra strength and told me to walk on. When I thought I wasn’t worthy of your calling, you intensified my gift. When I shouldn’t have been surviving, you provided. When all I saw was a dead end, you made a path that took me right. When I wanted to give up, I realized that it wasn’t one of the options to choose from. When I should have been drowning in my tears, you simply used them to wash away the dirt that had been thrown on me by folks. When I could have been strung out on drugs, you gave me grandma who drug me to church. When I could have been a hard core alcoholic, you gave me momma who was hard core and didn’t mind using the rod of correction. When I could have been a street walker, you gave me a granddaddy that walked in front of me paving the way for me, making sure I was walking right. When I could have been a high school dropout, you gave me uncles who would show up at the school just to check on me. When I could have been a single parent raising children in this mean world, you sent me a husband who is the head of his household. When I could have been diagnosed with cancer, you gave me a clean bill of health. When I could have been at the unemployment office, you gave me a job instead. When I could be standing at the bus stop in the cold, you gave me a car instead. When I could be working on Sundays, you gave me a job that will work around my schedule.
Oh, when I think about all the things that could have happened to me, the things that should of happened to me, the things that could have taken me out, the things that should of taken me out, the sickness that could have killed me, folks that could have hurt me, burdens that could have depressed me, struggles that could have overtaken me, grief that should have consumed me and pain that could of weakened me; my soul rejoices knowing that it all has a purpose. When I think about the places that my gift will take me, the doors that my calling will open, the territory that you, God will enlarge and the increase of joy and peace that I already have; my soul rejoices. When I think about the family and friends that you, God have surrounded me with, my soul rejoices. Yes, my soul rejoices for the good and the bad, for the happiness and the sad. My soul rejoices today, it did on yesterday and it will on tomorrow. I won’t be defeated by anything or anyone because I declare on today that my soul shall rejoice in your goodness Father and that everything that I shall want and everything that I shall be; will come to pass. I claim it! For my soul rejoices for Romans 5:1-5 tells me, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
It’s amazing that you can read the bible for yourself, recite a few scriptures from your remembrance and call off a few of God’s commandments but you’ve yet to catch on fire for God. Yea, you’ve heard about the woman with the issue of blood who was healed, Job who lost everything but got it all back, the 3 Hebrew boys who were placed in the fire but didn’t get burned, Jonah who was in the belly of the whale but survived, the blind mind who received his sight, the child who was vexed with a devil but Jesus cast him out, etc., yet you’ve yet to get excited about the possibilities of the things God can do. Oh, that’s not enough? Well, let me bring it closer to home; God woke your ungrateful self up one more morning when you could have died in your sleep and gave you a reasonable portion of health and strength. If you look around, you’ll see that He gave you everything back you had on yesterday and you probably didn’t even thank Him for it. God bought you out of one more night of sin and has given you the ability to repent for them and you still won’t get excited. Yea, you might have sickness in your body, mind wandering, worrying about stuff, relationships won’t last and friends and family act funny yet you’re alive. You might not like the job you have but you got one. You might be tired of the house you live in or the car you drive but you got one. Oh, I just wish you’d get excited about the fact that God can and will do everything He promised. Yea, you got the facts about what He can do but you’ve yet to get on fire.
Didn’t God let you rest last night, allow your family to rise this morning and didn’t He give you the ability to drive to your destination? He healed your body of the pain that had you tossing and turning yet you won’t praise Him. He allowed your marriage to go from failing to favorable yet you won’t fellowship with Him. He blessed you with a car with that credit you got when you should have been walking yet you won’t worship with Him. Baby, if you’re wondering why God hasn’t shown up in your life; you may want to look at your praise. See, God inhabits the praise of His people which means if you aren’t praising Him, He has no place to reside. No, praise doesn’t mean you have to jump, dance, shout and scream but praise can simply be you thanking Him in the midst of your day, praying to Him while you’re driving in the car, singing about Him when you’re in the shower or calling out to Him while you’re lying in your bed. Yea, I know you have the facts about the Father but when will you light the fire? That kind of fire that makes you cry when everything is going right, dance without caring whose watching, laugh when folks say you should be sad or feel like running when no one is chasing you. Why won’t you ignite it every now and then? Yes, you have it because the bible says in Luke 3:16, “I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” The fire is there, you just need to add some fuel to it!
I’ve had my notepad up all morning waiting on God to move in my spirit with what He would have me to say to you today and yet nothing came. Then it donned on me, maybe there isn’t anything to say. Maybe today is the day you need to wait on God to move. Just maybe today is the day for you to wait on God to answer you before you make a mistake you can’t get yourself out of, create debt that you can’t erase or even say some stuff you can’t take back. Just wait. Yes, I get it, waiting is hard but so is writing a check your … well, you know. Don’t get to in a hurry and end up falling off into something that you might just drown in. Stop rushing to make a relationship with that person who has showed you over and over that they aren’t worthy of being called girlfriend or boyfriend, let alone husband or wife. Don’t rush to become a parent when you can barely take care of yourself. Just wait! You’ll wait on a bus or a ride yet you’ll rush God. You’ll wait on that dude that’ll come 2 hours late yet you can’t wait on God to move. Chile, relax yourself and wait. Haven’t you heard that all good things come to those who wait? Then what’s the problem? Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.” Psalm 31:24, “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!” And Lamentations 3:25-26 sums it all up, “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”
Grow up! Stop whining! Stop with the woe is me pity party! Stop blaming God and stop blaming folk! If you would take a moment and really look at your situation, you might just see that it isn’t really what it seems to be. While you see a problem, God is trying to get you to see that it’s really just a moment to praise Him that you’ve been able to make it through it. While you’re simmering in your sickness, God is giving you a second to shout about the fact that you’re living and not dead. You’re looking at friends that have left but God is trying to get you see that they were really enemies dressed like friends. You’re looking at the bills that are past due yet God is giving you another opportunity to see and trust Him as your provider. You’re looking at that closed door yet God is showing you that the path you were about to take would do you more harm than good. Everything is not what it appears to be but it’s all about how you look at it. Stop thinking that everything that happens in your life is an attack by the devil or your enemy because sometimes God has to send a storm your way in order to remove some things that are hindering your walk and work for him yet you don’t see that because you’re so busy focused on the storm. See, God has to sometimes shake you in order to put things back into perspective but all you see is the hell that’s breaking loose. Be still and get what God is trying to give you and what He’s trying to get you to see. Your new boo, who said they’ll go to church with you, is now stopping you from going yet you’re still questioning why your relationship won’t work. Your girls, who aren’t really your girls, keep talking you out of going to bible study and you’re still questioning why you can’t understand God’s word. You get caught up in the gossip of everybody else yet you still can’t figure out why you can’t hear God speaking for yourself. When did God stop being top priority?
Yea, your life is hard right now but God hasn’t left you. Everything you go through with God has a purpose from God. All you have to do is look through your spiritual eyes and you’ll see. Pray and have faith that God will do what He said He would do (He keeps His promises) and wait because the bible says in Isaiah 40:31, “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary?” In your spiritual waiting room, your spirit is strengthened and your weary soul is restored. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 tells us that although, “We are pressed on every side by troubles but we are not crushed. We are perplexed but not driven to despair. We are hunted down but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down but we are not destroyed.” Your temporary troubles aren’t always what they seem but you have to stop rushing and whining through them in order to see this. God has a purpose for everything He allows us to go through!
Lakisha, the Author