Daily Devotional – 1/3/14 “Don’t hide it!”

Here I am, again, trying to figure out a topic to write about because although God is speaking to me, my mind is too busy trying to focus on meaningless stuff, so I need to focus. Yea, I could be worried about this and that but why. Why should I worry over stuff today because if God saw me through yesterday surely He’ll see me through today? See, my sister and I traveled up and down the highway to Nashville on yesterday and we could have been another roadway statistic but God had other plans so why worry. I’ve come to know and realize that if I say I am a Christian, I have to also show it and act like it. So, how can I tell you to have faith in God if I don’t? How can I tell you not to worry if that’s all I’m doing? How can I tell you to trust God when I’m not even trusting in Him? I mean, I could be like some who say they got religion but what good is having religion if no one else can see it? Oh, let me drop this in your spirit and I won’t take long … You can’t speak life over folk when your mouth is filled with mess (gossip, backbiting, hating, etc.), you can’t help up those who have fallen if your hands are filled with sinful stuff (other folk’s spouses, stolen items, a knife to stab somebody in the back, etc.) and you can’t go where God wants to send you if your feet are planted in the wrong place (motels, coveting your neighbor’s house, etc.) Now, hold up, before you get this thang twisted I didn’t say you couldn’t enjoy life but none of the things I mentioned above can be done in a Godly way. You, as a saint (that a sinner who has been saved) can still have fun but don’t hide your religion doing it because the bible says in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

This is why, sometimes, you have to change your location because the place you’re in, now, could be the reason you haven’t been elevated. Why? Well that’s because you’ve become comfortable in your surroundings. Yea, I know it’s not all about where you stay that makes you but if you stay in the rain too long, you’ll get wet even when you wear a raincoat. So don’t hide your religion because of what you think folk will say or how they’ll treat you because if God hid His blessings every time we made a mistake, some of us would be raggedy nothings, tore up from the floor up sinners without a pot to … You get my drift! If you have to change who you are or hide the religion that has been placed on the inside of you, then you are trying to fit into a spot that won’t fit you anyway! Baby, I don’t know about you but I am not ashamed of the Holy Spirit that abides with me daily and I will share it no matter where I am because I just might be the blessing a person needs to stop the tears that were getting ready to fall. All I’m saying is, this New Year, stop losing focus on God and the purpose He’s placed over your life and don’t hide your religion because it may hinder the help you’ve been praying for!

Daily Devotional – 12/31/13 “Oh, I love this man, Jesus!”

I received an email from WordPress for my year in review and in looking at it; it states the most popular day for my blog was 2/19/13. The blog that day was entitled “Oh, how I love Jesus.” Now, I find that absolutely amazing that on that day me along with 387 other folk shared the same love for a Man who hung, bled and died for us. You know that kind of love that makes you love yourself when man says you’re unworthy. That kind of love that makes you feels like somebody even when the world says, statistically, you’ll never amount to anything. That kind of love that comfort you up when you feel lonely even though you’re surrounded by folk. That kind of love that rocks you to sleep when your mind is racing and you should be pacing the floor. You know that kind of love that strengthens you to walk over obstacles that should have knocked you down a long time ago, that kind that lets you know everything will be alright even when the doctor says it won’t be, that kind that picks you up when you’ve fallen too many times to count and that kind of love that’ll comfort you like momma after she is gone home. Oh, how I love Jesus; the man who stepped in for my sins, the man who was lied on for loving, drug from place to place for delivering, beaten because He blessed, cursed because He converted, hung because He healed and yet He still defeated death! Oh, how I love Jesus!

Even when I was a filthy nobody running from His anointing, too scared to step out on faith, too blind to see His light, too worldly to be worthy, too ungrateful for His grace, too messy for His mercy, too mean to hear His message, too selfish to tithe, too talkative and still not testifying, too lazy to listen, too angry to be used, too ashamed to acknowledge Him and even when I felt like I was too broken to believe, too hurt to heal, too fearful to fight, too scared to stand, too weak to walk and too damaged to be delivered; He loved me anyway. Oh, how I love Jesus! I better leave this thang alone because I feel something stirring in my spirit on the last day of 2013 but somebody needed to know, today, that Jesus loves you. Yes, he does! It doesn’t matter what his or her text said because God’s text says in Romans 5:8, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It doesn’t even matter that folk say they don’t love you anymore because 1 John 4:16 says, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” When it is all said and done, Jesus loves you. Now the question is how do you love Jesus?

Daily Devotional – 12/30/13 “That’s enough!”

Yea, it’s one of those mornings where I don’t really have a topic to write about and if the truth shall be revealed, I don’t feel like writing but who am I? Since leaving church on yesterday I’ve been in this funk because it blows my mind that folk will get up on a Sunday morning, get dressed, drive to church only to get there and not have church. I mean, how can you honestly sit on your praises when God has kept all His promises? How can you be ashamed to shout when it was God that you sought? How can you not give Him thanks even in the midst of your storm when He’s been the one keeping you safe from harm? Yea, I know that your enemies seem to have you surrounded but they haven’t stopped you yet. Your checking account is in the negative but it’s not closed. Your bills are behind and you still have a month before tax time but don’t you still have a roof over your head, lights and running water? Didn’t you wake up, in your right mind, with a reasonable portion of strength, with a little food to eat or the means to get it and the ability to check Facebook or email which means either your phone bill or your internet is still on? Then why are you mad at God? Why are you questioning Him? He wasn’t the one that told you to get out there and accumulate all those bills, you did that on your own yet God is keeping you. You’re mad because folk keep talking about, lying on, throwing rocks and hiding their hands and wishing bad over your life yet everything they’ve tried hasn’t worked because God says, although their weapons are formed against you, they won’t prosper.

Ok, so you’re wondering why you have to be the one who’s sick but baby can’t just anybody rock a bald head from chemo or that scar from surgery. Everybody can’t handle the pain, medicine or dialysis. Everybody can’t overcome drug or alcohol addiction. Can’t the average person testify on how God raised from your sick bed when you should have been buried in that dusty grave, how that bullet should have blown your brains out but it grazed you instead, how that car should have claimed your life but it left you with only bruises from the seatbelt, how that abusive husband should have snatched your life but instead he made you strong for the husband that God was waiting on you to see or how that job thought they had defeated you when they said no but they were simply moving out the way for your career. Maybe, no scratch that, you’re going through whatever it is you’re facing simply because it’s meant for you. You need to know at this very moment that you’re greater than whatever is against you because you shall live and not die, prosper instead of perish, overcome instead of being overthrown and be victorious and not a victim and you will win and not lose! How do I know? I’ve been promised by a King and that’s enough.

Daily Devotional – 12/27/13 “But God!”

Have you ever had a “but God” moment? A moment when you realized that no one could have brought you out the situation that you were in or fixed a problem that you were having but God? See, but is a word that is used in the middle or the beginning of a sentence to introduce something that is true even though it is different to what was just said. You know when your teenager asks if they can borrow your car and you say “Yes, but not now.” Or when you ask God if He can give you this and He answers, “Yes, but not now.” See, when God places but at the end of the sentence it has more of a profound effect and He’s simply saying yes BUT in my time. Yes, I’ll heal you but in my time. Yes, I’ll deliver you but in my time. Yes, I’ll fix what you’ve messed up but in my time. Yea, you’ll get that promotion but in my time. Yea, I make your enemies your footstool but in my time. I’ll even move your mountain but in my time.

Oh, you know that when you were in the world doing any and everything that you were bad enough to do; it was God that kept you. When you were drinking out of other folks bottles and passing cigarettes around from person to person, it was God that kept you from diseases. When you were sleeping with any and everybody, God kept you from STDs and HIV. When you sit back and think about some of the things you use to do and realize that you shouldn’t be alive that’s your but God moment. When that heart attack or stroke should have claimed your life, God is saying I’m only laying you on your back but I’ll soon raise you. When man said no, God is saying, you thought that was for you but I have something greater. When folks scandalize your name, God is saying they can talk but I have the last say. Folk said you wouldn’t amount to nothing but God is saying they may think that now but watch me work. When the doctor said cancer, chemo, dialysis, radiation or surgery; God is saying, this is what you have to go through but I’m simply cleaning you up. Yea, when you keep trying to figure out how you manage to make the ends meet with the amount of money you’re bringing home; God is saying, you may not have much but such as I have I’ll give unto you. When your gas light is on and payday is tomorrow, God is saying, don’t focus on that light but focus on me. When your husband or wife left and you didn’t think the hurt would heal, God is saying, it may hurt now but your heart I’ll mend. Oh, I’m going to leave this alone but somebody needed to know that no matter what you’re facing at this very moment, you’re not alone because when all the friends are gone, phone isn’t vibrating anymore, the house is quiet; God is saying, you may not see me but I’m here, you may not hear me but I’m talking and you may not feel me but my arms are holding you tight. When it’s all said and done, it’s but God!

“The wicked band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death But the LORD has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.” Psalm 94:21-22<