Daily Devotional – 11/14/12 “I just thought I’d let you know that …”

You are worthy of every blessing that you have and even those you’ve get to get! It doesn’t matter what folks say or even what they think because God saw fit for you to have everything that you’ve worked hard to get! So, stop explaining yourself to folk who really don’t matter. If they don’t pay a bill in your house, can’t heal you when you’re sick, raise you up when you’re down, comfort you in the midnight hour when you’re all by yourself and make a way when you didn’t see a way out; then they shouldn’t be worth the tears you cry over them! Stop allowing folks to walk out with your happiness and your joy when they weren’t the one who gave it to you in the first place. I’ll say this again, YOU ARE WORTHY OF EVERY BLESSING YOU HAVE! If you weren’t meant to have everything you have now, you wouldn’t have it. Stop feeling guilty because of how you dress, the car you drive or where you live, each time you go around family or friends who won’t get up off their butts to get their own. If you planted the seeds of toiling, tears, pain, being lied on, being stabbed in the back, sickness, diseases, being hurt and walked over while you were in your storm season; you deserve to reap the benefits of it now that your storm is over and this is done through utilizing your blessings! Use your blessings because they are yours and be a blessing because that’s your responsibility.

PS .. Happy 16th Birthday to my beautiful daughter, Gabrielle Jamea and Happy 11th birthday to my beautiful niece Naiya! God has blessed each of them and I pray that His blessings and covering will continually be over their lives as they journey into the rest of their life and their purpose!

Daily Devotional – 11/13/12 “So you’re depressed …”

Now what? Please don’t take this the wrong way because I am not saying that folks who are clinically depressed are simply acting but what I am saying is that you can get out of your depressed state, if you try. See, depression is defined as a condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawal; sadness greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective reason. In other words, it’s a feeling that you’ve been carrying around longer than you should allow it to be. Let me break this down in Kisha’s terms. (Now, these are just my thoughts and I am not trying to take anything away from anybody) But depress means to make sad or gloomy; lower in spirits; deject; dispirit but did you know that de and di means from or of? So, if this is the case then instead of being down and out during your depressed stated you should be getting out OF your sad state, learning FROM your gloomy situation, coming out OF your heartache, learning FROM being rejected, coming out OF your misery, rejoicing FROM your troubles, shouting out OF your storm, dancing FROM being down and praising out OF your pit! Yea, just because you may be a little depressed right now, you don’t have to stay that way. Press means to move by weight or force in a certain direction or into a certain position so press down that depression until you have moved it under your feet and then shout all over it. Press down that hurt you felt when friends walked off and left you and see your true friends that have always been there. Press down that anger you still have from daddy not being in your life and live on. Press down that jealousy you have for other folks blessings and get your own. Press down that gossiping spirit you have to talk about folk and pray for them instead. Press down the thoughts from folks who said you wouldn’t be anything and prove them wrong. Press down the weeping you still have over momma/daddy being gone and live on in their memory. Press down those things folks said you used to be and show them who you are now! Press down sickness and get your healing. Press down debt, fake friends, lying /cheating spouses, unemployment, sickness and all those things the enemy uses to knock you down and get up renewed. Yea, depression is real and it can consume your life, if you let it, for God’s word says in Psalm 34:17-18, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Yes, this world is mean and the folks in it are even meaner but God says in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” God hasn’t left you because He never leaves; however, He can only take from you what you give Him because 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Give all your worries to Him because He cares for you.”

Daily Devotional – 11/12/12 “You’re weighing yourself down!”

Have you ever stopped to think that you’re drowning because of all the stuff you’ve got weighing you down? I mean, you’re still holding on to the fact that he said he didn’t love you the same way you loved him so you’ve allowed that anger to tie itself around your neck and it’s weighing you down. You’re still trying to keep up with other folks by spending when you don’t have, going when your tail should be at home and giving when you ought to be asking; so now the debt has you tied down and you’re drowning. Yea, I know that momma or daddy may have died and left you in this mean world but baby it was their time so stop allowing your mourning period to last too long because it’s weighing you down and if momma/daddy is gone; they can’t save you no way. You’ve got to untie that weight from your neck, shoulders and back because if I shall tell you the truth, the water you’re in isn’t deep enough to drown you if you would just stand up. Yea, you’ve taken a teaspoon of water and added to it with your tears and now it’s a pool but it still won’t kill you unless you allow it too. Stop drowning in anger, hate, debt, sickness and diseases, other folk’s problems and especially in things you can’t control and let it go. Yea, the bible says in Job 14:1, “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble,” but after you read this read John 16:33 that says, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Oh, still not enough then read John 14:27 that say, “I am leaving you with a gift–peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” No, still don’t get it? You still don’t understand why you have to go through, why you seem to have more trouble than some, why your sickness won’t go away, why your tears won’t stop and why your burdens won’t get lighter; well it’s because it’s your time to go through! Yea, it’s your time to suffer but after your storm, Philippians 4:7 says, “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Simply God saying, Trust in Me and I will trust in you and then you shall have peace but not just any peace but a perfect peace that only I can create, a perfect peace that only I can give and a perfect peace that only I can take away. Stop allowing yourself to be weighed down with more problems than what you’ve already been promised. See, when the trouble comes that God has promised, He already has the means available for you to get out of it but if its trouble that you’ve found for yourself, it’ll take a little more time for your solution to come. Don’t add to your trouble but add to your praise!

Daily Devotional – 11/7/12 “You voted but have you prayed?”

I mean, if we all can band together to vote, why can’t we band together to encourage each other, pray for one another, help each other, pull those up who have fallen, feed those who are hungry, clothe those who are without and stop judging those who may be going through? See, I think that if we all had the same determination we’ve had the past few weeks on getting folks to vote as with getting folks to pray, we may just be better today than yesterday. (But these are simply my thoughts). My bible tells me in James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Yea, you voted but have you prayed? I don’t mean just on last night as the election results came in but I mean have you been praying? It’s crazy that on last night God heard voices of folk he hadn’t heard in a while simply over this election when the bible says in Ephesians 6:18 says, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” Yea, you voted but have you prayed? Don’t you know that God has a plan and a purpose for everything that happens? The devil has to ask permission before he can even step to you but you’d rather put your trust in human flesh who will let you down rather than a Man who has never wavered in His promise to you. 1 Timothy 2:8 says, “I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;” oh and 1 Timothy 2:9 continues by saying, “And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes.” See, God isn’t concerned about your Obama or your Romney sticker but He is concern about your heart, your mind, your body and your soul. Yea, you voted but have you prayed?

So, yea, you may have voted and you may have even gotten others to vote but have you been praying for your neighbor who has been unemployed for 6 months and still looking for work? Have you prayed for the student who has been bullied every day since school started or the young man who was jumped into a gang because he doesn’t feel loved by anybody at home or the young girl who is pregnant and doesn’t even know who the father is because she has been taught that you give love with what’s between her legs. Have you stopped to pray for the mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer or the father with colon cancer? Have you stopped to pray for the child who has been at St. Jude the majority of his or her young life? Have you prayed for the police officer who inflicts pain on folks by hiding behind his badge, the teacher who is addicted to cocaine, the principal who is a closed door alcoholic, the gym teacher who takes advantage of the students they are supposed to protect or the guidance counselor who finds joy in stepping on the dreams of kids? Have you prayed for your friend who is going through and is contemplating suicide or have you even taken the time to hear the pain in their voice in between you asking them if they’ve voted? Have you even prayed for yourself in the midst of all this? Yea, you were quick to offer a ride to the voting polls but you don’t even respond to the text when someone ask you to take them to the grocery store (unless you get something out of it). Yea, you were in line when the polls opened but then you drag your tail to worship service an hour late and then expect God to fill you with the Holy Spirit as soon as you walk in the door. Please don’t get me wrong, I am glad that you voted because it is a right that many fought for us to have but God gave His ONLY Son so that we could sin and then be forgiven for it, die so that we can live again, get hurt by folks and have our hearts mended, be sick and get healing, be considered last but be made first and even be knocked down but can get up better than you were before. So, don’t get it twisted thinking that I am trying to make light of the situation but what I am saying is, put the same determination into your faith in God and into the gift that has been designed especially for you. Yea, you voted but have you prayed?

Daily Devotional – 11/6/12 “Go through your battle to get your blessing!”

Yea, I know that you are tired of being told that everything will be alright because you are trying to figure out why you are always going through but have you ever stopped to think that maybe you aren’t getting what God is trying to give to you? I mean, obviously, you’re going through but have you stopped long enough to see why? Really, have you? Don’t you know that in order to get a testimony you have to first go through the test? In order to get your healing you have to go through hurt and sickness. In order to get your break through you have to be broken. In order to get up, you’d have to be first down and in order to get out; you had to first be in. Baby, don’t you know that if you had everything you wanted you surely wouldn’t work for what you needed. So, go on through your battle because then you’ll appreciate your blessing.

Still don’t get it? Let me break this thang down for you. God took you through cancer in order for you to appreciate the skin that you’re in. Yea, you went through chemo and you lost your hair, a few pounds and maybe even your breast but after it was all over with you probably got a better grade of NEW hair, a NEW body and some NEW breast, so you got your blessing. Yea, you used to be a drug addict and you’d sell anything to feed your addiction but you’re clean and sober now and in the mist of your deliverance you got a NEW appreciation for your body, a NEW life and maybe even a NEW spouse; so you got your blessing. Yea, you got fired/laid off from the job you gave 15 years too but when all the dust settled you realized that you have the right knowledge and connections and even the right finances to start your own NEW business or to get the NEW career path God had already laid out for you; so you got your blessing. Ok, so your boy/girlfriend left you and you thought your heart would never mend but then one day you met your NEW wife or your NEW husband who treats you like royalty and who made you forget all about the past; so you got your blessing. Yea, your car got repossessed but now you truly appreciate the NEW one you got even if it was used. Yea, you’ve been through this and maybe even that but aren’t you still living to see this NEW day? Then, stop complaining about your battle but go through it in order to get your blessing.

Will it always be hard, no but it won’t always be easy either; this is why God says in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” 1 Peter 1:7 says, “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold–though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” So, you aren’t being tested because you’re worse than anyone else but you’re being tested because of who you are and whose you are. Stop acting like you’re the only one going through, you’re the only one who has lost somebody or something, that you’re the only one sick or even the only one sick and tired because you’re not. God places us in the fire but we won’t get burned. And if the truth shall be told, we come out better than we were before we went in, so go on through it. Go on through your battle and then get the blessing that God has for you!