It’s Monday and someone is still mumbling over mess from last Monday. You’re mad over meaningless stuff that really shouldn’t matter; you’re up in the middle of the night mourning over a relationship that wasn’t meant for you anyway, you’re allowing yourself to be a mister or a mistress to someone when you ought to be mending your marriage and your mind is on how many people can mention you on Twitter when you should be mindful of the miracles of our Messiah. Yea, you’re just a mess and then you got the nerve to be miserable! God isn’t mistreating you, you’re missing His message. God isn’t multiplying your misfortune; you’re simply mingling with the wrong men. Yea, it could be the ministry you’re mixing with but then again it could be the messengers in your midst. So what if folk are making fun of you or mocking God’s meaning of your life; you remain meek because Matthew 5:5 says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth!” Get up out of your materialistic mindset and manage the money you make. Let go of mistakes you’ve already made and enjoy the miracle of the moment. Release all of the mess that’s masking (hiding) the marvelous mission God is trying to manifest in your life. Stop following the media and meditate. It’s no secret that God can multiply miracles, move mountains, maximize what we see as minor things, minimize what we see as major things, turn mistakes into missions, mess into messages, midlife crisis into ministries and mischievous meddlers into missionaries so what’s your malfunction?
Daily Devotional – 1/17/14 “Wake up!”
It’s Friday and someone is fasting on fear instead of fellowshipping with faith, you’re fearful of forgetting yet you said you forgave; you’re following folk instead of fulfilling your fate, you’re flourishing in filth instead of being fruitful with your favor and you’re faulting your flesh when it’s you who keeps falling. Wake up! Yea, I get it; times are hard, money is getting strange, you’re doing things you wouldn’t normally do for a few pieces of change, you’re working all the hours you can and you still can’t seem to stand and you’re praying and asking God yet you won’t let Him problem solve. You’re wondering why you leave church the same way you came when your mind wasn’t even on worship, baby; you’re the one to blame. Wake up and realize that God is your foundation and when you’re empty on the inside, try His filling station. See, God is capable of doing everything you need Him to do; He’s just watching and waiting on you.
You have to understand, the devil has already been to Heaven and he has witnessed the beauty for himself, why do you think he works so hard to keep you from going there? The enemy has a mission to destroy everything you touch and this is why he has to take you through so much. Oh, but God already knows which is why He said you’d sometimes stumble for Job 14:1 says, “A person who is born of a woman is short-lived and is full of trouble.” However, don’t you give up just yet because God has a purpose for the things you go through so please don’t fret. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “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,” and He says He’ll give you strength to reach beyond the break in the rope. All you have to do is hold on because your bad circumstance can’t last, wake up and realize because time is passing fast. Wake up and read Romans 8:28 that says, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them,” trust the faith that you have, simply put trust in Him. God doesn’t lie and He won’t leave you stranded all alone but know that what you go through is only to make you strong. Yea, it’s Friday and you may be tired, broke, and sick and want to throw in your towel or wave your flag in defeat but all you have to do is lay your burdens at God’s feet. Wake up and see the promises of our God and the blessings they’ll bring and wake up and realize that our God is in everything.
Daily Devotional – 1/16/14 “Amazing Grace!”
It’s Thursday and someone is tempted to throw in the towel because things have become terrible, you’re terrified that you won’t come through this time, you’re toiling over your thinking, trembling because you’ve trespassed on someone else’s territory, transformed into someone threatening, trashed your temple, tainted your testimony and traded your treasure for troubles … oh but then there’s God’s amazing grace. In the dictionary grace is defined as the infinite love, mercy, favor, and goodwill shown to humankind by God. His grace that is sufficient for us even when we are in the belly of our sin. His grace that comes to see about us even when we aren’t well enough to see about ourselves. God’s grace, His amazing grace! In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul was being used by God as he had been gifted with visions and revelations. Now, Paul says that he was given a thorn in his flesh (the Message Bible calls it a handicap) to keep him from becoming greater than who he was supposed to be but then Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 12:8, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me (the thorn)” but then God simply replied in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.” It was then and only then did Paul realize that no matter what he faced or went through, it was for a purpose for he said in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
See, God isn’t allowing you to go through that disease, pain, unemployment, harassment on the job, being lied on by folk, hurt by family, abused by your spouse and cast out by the world as a way to break you yet wherever you are weak it is where God is stronger. Why do you think you’re still living when you read the obituaries every day of folk dying from the same thing you complain about? How do you think you’ve been able to make it when some folks, who work with you, have filed bankruptcy 3 times? How do you think you’ve been able to keep going when some have committed suicide or turned to drugs or alcohol? It’s not you but its God who is in you. For Romans 11:6 says, “If they were chosen by God’s kindness, they weren’t chosen because of anything they did. Otherwise, God’s kindness wouldn’t be kindness.” It ain’t about you baby! God’s grace isn’t because of us yet He gives it. God’s grace isn’t about us yet we have it. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, Ephesians 2:8-9.” God’s grace is absolutely amazing!
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see. T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come; ‘Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far and Grace will lead me home.”
Daily Devotional – 1/15/14 “Mustard Seed Size Faith!”
It’s Wednesday and somebody is probably weeping from the woes of this world because it seems like every time you peek above the water that seems to have you drowning, you get tangled in some more mess that pulls you down; every time you take a few steps out of debt another bill comes along that knocks you 5 back; every time it feels like you can finally breath again because some weight has been lifted, death shows up and snatches the air from your lungs; every time you think you’ve cried out, the doctor delivers devastating news and now the tears start again and every time you think you’ve done all you could do, been all you could be and gone everywhere you thought you were needed, that enemy shows up with more hell than you bargained for … so what now? Do you wallow in the worry, wander like you’re alone in the wilderness, waste your time weeping, willingly allow your life to wither or do you withdraw from working because you’ve been wounded and wronged? Don’t you know that in order to grow you have to sometimes be pushed down? Well, in order for a seed to grow it has to first be buried under dirt. Do you honestly think an oak tree came to stand as tall as it does without first starting out as a seed?
Then where is the faith, the mustard seed size faith, that God can see you through whatever it is you’re facing? Where is that mustard seed size faith that lets you know that no matter what you’re looking at now, it won’t always last? Where is that mustard seed size faith that allows you to stand in your storm and think about all the things that God has already done which lets you know that no matter how hard the rain falls, it won’t cause you to drown? Where is that mustard seed size faith that allows you to walk into a room of your enemies knowing they can’t do you any harm? Where is that mustard seed size faith that allows you to answer the phone call from the bill collector knowing that it’ll work out in your favor? Where is that mustard seed size faith that allows you to apply for a job that, on paper, you aren’t qualified for but through God, it’s already yours? Where is your faith when Jesus says in Matthew 17:20, “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move? Nothing would be impossible.” All you need is a mustard seed size faith because “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” (Hebrews 11:1). All you have to do is try it before you give up!
Daily Devotional – 1/14/13 “No title needed!”
It’s Tuesday and someone is contemplating suicide, grieving over the death of a loved one, heartbroken, being abused, was lied on yesterday, being talked about today, in pain, unemployed, sick, tired, sick and tired, addicted to something, chasing after someone whose running away, using the one good person who actually love you, homeless, wrestling with demons while trying to hide the skeletons in your closet, all in other folk’s business when your porch needs to be cleaned, straddling the fence after you’ve fallen a few times already, sitting at the edge of the cliff because you hear a voice telling you to jump, crying because doors keep being closed, applications keep being denied, no one is calling you back for the job, can’t get promoted, medicine cost rising along with your light bill, car acting up, children are too, checking account closed, check is gone before you even get paid and your credit just won’t get it … And now you have the audacity to question God. Yea, you got the nerve and you’re even bold enough to point your face towards Heaven to ask why me. Well, I have to ask you, why not you? What makes you different from anyone else? Don’t you realize and understand that a little stress is sometimes necessary for you to appreciate the sacrifice you’ve made to succeed? Haven’t you comprehended yet that sometimes you have to go through some ugly stuff to uncover that which is unmovable? Do you not see that sometimes you have to be buried under dirt in order to be developed into your destiny? Yea, sometimes you have to cry but that’s simply cultivating (developing) your calling. Yea, you have to pace but that’s just perfecting your purpose. Yea, you have to stumble, sometimes, but that’s salting (flavoring) your sanctification (blessing).
Oh, I’m going to leave this thang alone but I had to let you know that “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” (Romans 5:3-5) and if this isn’t enough then know, “the one who endures to the end will be saved, Matthew 24:13.”
Lakisha, the Author 