Daily Devotional – January 27, 2020 “What’s the answer?”

When tragedy happens, it is during this time we tend to question things. It’s a natural reaction when we don’t understand why certain things happen. One moment you’re celebrating birth and the next, death. One moment you’re happy and the next, tears won’t stop. One moment you’re going about your day and the next, sickness shifts what you know to be normal. One minute you’re driving to work and the next, your car is being slammed by somebody who ran the light. One moment you’re making plans for tomorrow and the next, funeral arrangements. One moment you’re in a helicopter headed about your normal business and the next, you’re gone.

Why do things happen?

I wish I had the answer but here’s what I know, sometimes things happen. Sometimes, the test will be positive for cancer. Sometimes, your womb will be shut. Sometimes, the pain won’t stop. Sometimes, your heart will be broken. Sometimes, the business will fail. Sometimes, you might lose your job. Sometimes, your organs may not function well. Sometimes, family will get sick. Sometimes, the house will be foreclosed, or car repossessed. Sometimes, the accident couldn’t have been prevented. Sometimes, death will darken your door. Sometimes, it looks like evil is winning.

And although we may never understand, bible shares in James 5:13, “Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.” What’s the answer? PRAYER. Even in the hardest, darkest and toughest moments that cannot be explained; PRAY. Even in the moments when tears won’t stop, and words escape you, allow God to hear your heart. When it feels as though you won’t survive the pain, pray. When confusion is invading your thoughts, pray. When you’re angry, pray. “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere (Ephesians 6:18.)

Dear God,
We may not understand why things happen, but we won’t lose hope. God, the pain feels unbearable, the questions seem never ending and confusion is present; but we call out to you. Help us, God that we don’t perish by misunderstanding, yet we hold tightly to hope. Help us, God that we do not sin in the midst of pain. Help us, God that we do not turn from you, in the moments of anger. Help us, God to pray. Send God, people who can pray for those who can’t pray for themselves. Surround those who are fighting sickness, temptations, grief and confusion with intercessors who will cry loud. Help right now that we don’t lose our way. We need you, God and we’ll trust you. Amen.

Daily Devotional – January 22, 2020 “Prayer”

Our Father,

God, as I come petitioning your throne, I first thank you. Thank you, God, for another day, for keeping grace and sustaining mercy, for forgiveness and repentance and for protection and provision. Now Father, I need your ear to attend to the cries of our land and your hand to rest upon your children. God, I feel like Solomon when he prayed at the dedication of the temple. For he said in Second Chronicles 6:19, “Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you.” Here am I, oh God, pleading for you to hear my prayer and plea. I may not be outside or within a temple but hear me from where I am because we need you.

When innocent babies are being gunned down in our city, we need you. When homicide rates are on the rise, we need you. When uplifting each other is being replaced with bullying, we need you. When worship places are no longer following your word, we need you. When prophets, prophetess, intercessors and healers are quiet; we need you. When your people are being led astray because they won’t study and pray, we need you. When we complain more than we cry loud, we need you. When abuse, anger, bitterness, selfish actions, suicidal thoughts and sin are overshadowing our thoughts and service, we need you.

Father forgive us. Forgive us of our sins. Forgive us for taking you for granted and hear our pleas. Forgive us, oh God and don’t allow your wrath to burn against us. Forgive us and heal the land. I know things happen, evil is present, and we sometimes must endure but your word says, if I pray and ask in faith, it shall be. God, comfort the brokenhearted and the grieving families. God be a present help for those who are sick. God, rescue those who are lost. God, protect those who are in the cold without shelter. God, stop the senseless murders, protect our children and bring swift judgment to those responsible.

Father, my list of asks could go on and on, like that of Solomon but you know the cry of my heart and mouth. So, all I’ll ask is for you to read the prayer within the beats of my heart and tears that I shed. We need you, God to let the manifestation of your power be seen. Raise up a people who will lay down on their face for an entire nation. Raise up a people who will fast to see your glory touch their city. Raise up a people who aren’t ashamed to pray, even in hostile environments knowing you’ll show up. Start with me, God. Use me, in thy service for I’m willing and I believe.

By faith,
Amen.

Daily Devotional – January 15, 2020 “Dead battery!”

Last night, while watching the show #TheResident, there was a scene with a lady who had a device called a ventricular assist device (medical definition – an electromechanical device for assisting cardiac circulation, which is used either to partially or to completely replace the function of a failing heart), a device she’d had for five years. She shows up at the clinic, miles away from their home and over 3 hours away from a hospital and her battery starts to beep and she’d left the replacement ones at home. The problem, if the battery died so would she. The doctors make plans to meet someone with a battery, but it was going to take one and a half hours to get to them. One the ride over, she realizes she may not make it, so she tells her sister all the things she needs her to know, writing passwords and stuff (starring death in the face does that, why can’t we do this anyway but that’s another topic).

If you haven’t watched this episode, stop reading.

They make it to the meeting place and the battery is not there. They begin to tell her what to expect, in dying. She’s okay with it. The doctors walk away, leaving her with her sister to die peacefully and when the battery dies, SHE DOESN’T! See, the machine that had been placed within her to assist her heart, healed her heart but the only way she was able to know this, the battery had to die. The machine that she’d been carrying around for over 5 years had healed her heart and she was still depending on it because she thought it was the only way for her to live.

Why am I sharing this? For somebody who has been carrying around people and things you think you can’t live without. Baby, the only reason you think this is because the battery hasn’t died yet. Yeah, it’s beeped a few times, but you never let it die. Therefore, some of y’all are hanging on to dead relationships, sent to assist you and not keep you but because it’s comfortable, you don’t know if you’ll survive without it. You don’t want to get that divorce because you’re still on your spouse’s insurance and you don’t think you’ll be able to make it without it. That place of ministry, God sent you there for them to assist you, not keep you but you’re afraid of stepping into your calling. That job, it wasn’t meant to be long term but you’re fearful, so God is allowing things to happen because It’s the only way for you to get serious about your purpose.

In the literary world, right now, some authors have lost catalogues of work. I don’t know the full story and I won’t speculate but I’m throwing this in for them. Just maybe God allowed your battery to die (the publishing stuff) to thrust you into the place already prepared that you couldn’t see due to the comfortability. God says, that place was only meant to assist you, not keep you. The battery died, YOU DIDN’T!

Your battery, that thing you’re comfortable with that’s keeping you out of your place, your destiny, your purpose and doing God’s business is dying BUT YOU WON’T. Yes, it’s scary. Yes, it hurts. Yes, you don’t know what’s on the other side but trust God. Stop making plans for the funeral, it’s not your time. Stop preparing to die when God says this is your time to live. That thing, it prepared you, but it must die for you to know you can make it without it. Thank it for the assistance and then let it go.

“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” Psalm 50:14-15

Daily Devotional – 1/13/20 “I pray, again, this year…”

I shared this on last year and I think I’m going to share it every year. Why? Because my prayer for you, doesn’t change. See, this year, just like last year; I’m praying this will be the acceptable year of the Lord, concerning you. This year, I pray you give God a full yes, become more faithful to Him and His call on your life, find and connect with a church home, take the limits off God, love yourself more, make your time valuable, end fruitless relationships, speak against fear, take off the glasses of hurt, be healed and made whole, overcome, be set free, find comfort in your grief, refuse to let depression have the last say, deal with the buried anger, apologize for your wrong and make amends, gain the strength to say no, forgive yourself, forgive those who hurt you, stop counting those who don’t support you and appreciate those who do, tap into your courage and strength to love yourself enough to get out of a bad/abusive relationship and learn your worth; secure the bag (bag i.e. money), learn how to manage said bag, become debt free, charge your worth and be okay when ‘they’ decline to pay it, publish the book, get your business license and step out on faith, get that check-up (physically and spiritually), take your medicine, talk to a therapist, go to rehab, take your medicines and own your truth!

Yeah, this is one long run on sentence but for this year to be “THE YEAR,” you’ve got to repent, go and sin no more. For this year to work for you, you’ve got some work to do and it doesn’t start by making resolutions you know you will not keep. For things to be different, it starts with you. Let go of what you’ve gotten comfortable in, if it doesn’t fit with your purpose. Walk away from what doesn’t have the ability to push you to be better. Stop giving yourself away to what used to make you feel good, temporarily. FIND YOU! I pray this year; you change your way of thinking and how you react. Change your expectations and trust the power of God and what He created within you. Be more specific in your prayers to God. Spend more time studying the bible and in communion with God. Take time away from social media. Fast and consecrate yourself. Learn the value of tithing and sowing seeds. Find your purpose, learn it, study it, craft it, pray about it and faith it.

18, biblically means bondage; 19, biblically means faith but 20, biblically means, the cycles of completeness connected to a perfect period of waiting, labor or suffering that is compared to a trial and rewarded. I pray this year … your cycles of struggle, lack, unforgiveness, unbelief, self-sabotage etc. ends and with everything you’ve endured; you get a double portion of inheritance and your joy never ends (Isaiah 61).

Dear God | TOP Shelf 1st Place Christian Fiction Book of 2019

Dear Lakisha Johnson,

Dear God: Hear My Prayer has won 1ST PLACE in the category of Christian (Fiction) in the 2019 TopShelf Book Awards!

This is the email I just opened. My first full Christian Fiction novel has been awarded 1ST PLACE in the category of Christian (Fiction) in the 2019 TopShelf Book Awards! Y’all… to say I’m ecstatic, blown away and honored would be an understatement.

Who am I kidding, I am beside myself.

This book, Dear God, was released a year after I purchased the cover. See, I had every intention to release it in 2017 but God said NOPE! I didn’t understand it and I questioned God. “God, haven’t I been faithful? God, what else? God, why me?” All the questions I asked the many months I toiled, the many nights I cried and the days of wanting to just throw in the towel.

But I pressed!

Bible says in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.”

God shut me down but it was the best thing for me, even when I couldn’t see it because in 2018, I released 7 books with Dear God being my very first full Christian book. I was nervous because it was different from any I’d written previously. This book didn’t have sex and minimal to no cursing. Yet, it has been one of my best sellers. This book deals with sexual abuse at the hands of a pastor who should have been praying instead he preyed. And while Jayme’s story is one of fiction, this same abuse is happening in houses all across the world but there’s hope. Hope to overcome, hope to press and hope to be restored.

I just want to encourage somebody. Press on, even when you don’t know what the end will be. Press on, even when it hurts and you don’t understand. Press on, especially when it takes you out of your comfort zone. It’ll pay off. I’m a witness. A bold, declaring and decreeing witness.

Get your copy today HERE