Daily Devotional – 10/31/18 “Life!”

Today, someone is celebrating a birth and someone is grieving a death. Someone is celebrating the remission of cancer and someone is just being diagnosed. Someone is dying while someone will live from the donation of their organs. Someone is contemplating suicide while someone else is celebrating this being the best time of their life. Someone is closing the doors of their worship center and a new one is opening. Someone is being fired while someone else is being hired. Someone is looking at the darkness of despair while someone is enjoying the light of happiness. Life and man, life is hard. And while you want to figure it out, truth is, you cannot. While you try to research it for understanding, truth is, it’ll only leave you with more questions. Questions like, why do children die, why does God allow the innocent to perish, why does bad things happen, why can’t cancer be cured and etc.. I wish I had the answer or even the direction to point you in but … life! Beloved, this didn’t just start happening. Sickness, violence, death, hardships and disappointments have been since the beginning of time and you cannot lose hope, now. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it leaves us confused. Yes, it leaves us angry. But life!

We may never understand what makes a husband/boyfriend murder his wife/girlfriend. We may never understand why cancer keeps causing death. We may never understand why our organs stop working. We may never understand why some wombs are shut. We may never quite understand life but life is life and sometimes it can get hard. Sometimes, life can be hard. Sometimes, life is hard. Yet we have to hope that one day it will not be. We have to hold out hope that one day life will not be this hard. We have to hold out hope that one day we won’t have to shed tears, visit doctors, get stuck with needs, go through chemo, dialysis or radiation. We have to hold out hope that one day we will never have to say goodnight to loved ones. We have to hold out hope that one day our battle will be over. Until then we have to scuffle with this thing called life but “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13”

Dear God, give us strength to hope. Give us strength to hope in expectancy of the day when all of our troubles will be over. Give us strength to hope even when it doesn’t seem like it’ll work out. Give us strength to hope even when it doesn’t work out the way we thought. For we know if we place our hope in you, there has to be joy that overflows. Hold and comfort us, letting us know we are not alone. We can stand, sit, sleep and wait in hope. Amen.

Daily Devotional – 10/29/18 “Pray specifically!”

On yesterday, while talking to my daughter and niece about prayer, I said to them they need to start praying, specifically. Specifically is defined as a way that is exact and clear or precise. See, when you pray, specifically, you tell God what it is you need, exactly. When you ask, specifically, you are being detailed in what you are expecting to get in return. In the middle of us talking, my husband calls and my daughter ask him to get her some hot fries and a dr. pepper from the store. I hang up from him and go back to our conversation. I tell them that a lot of times we send out a blanket prayer, “God bless me,” when God is already blessing us when He wakes us up, when He keeps us under His arm of protection, when He allows us to sleep in peace and etc. And sometimes, we find ourselves getting angry at God because we feel as though He isn’t giving us what we ask for. Well, what did you ask? In walks my husband. He hands my daughter a bag of hot fries and a dr. pepper. Her face forms into a frown. Why, well the hot fries he got wasn’t the hot fries she wanted. But get this, he got what she asked for because she wasn’t specific in her ask. Yes, she got what she asked for even if they weren’t what she wanted but had she asked, specifically, she would have gotten what she desired. What are you asking for?

Please understand something though, God will work with our prayers, however He will never give us something we aren’t ready for or capable of handling and He will not give us what doesn’t match with the purpose on our life. Nonetheless, you need to pray, specifically. In Mark 10:46, Bartimaeus is sitting on the side of the road yelling, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Jesus heard him and called Bartimaeus to Him asking in Mark 10:51, What do you want Me to do for you?” In which he replies, ““Rabboni,” said the blind man, “I want to see again.”” Jesus needed to know what exactly Bartimaeus was in need of in order to meet His request. What are you asking of God and are you being specific? “God, I need you to come and see about me.” God does, every moment of our life, what specifically do you need Him to come and see about? “Oh Lord, have mercy on me?” God already has mercy on you, what else do you need? “God, bless our worship center.” God does, what else? “God, bless my finances.” God does when He doesn’t allow you to be without. Oh, you wanted Him to increase your finances? Oh, you wanted Him to heal the cancer and the migraines. Oh, you wanted that car or house? Oh, you wanted that kind of spouse? Oh, you wanted that type of blessing? Then baby, you need to pray, specifically.

Daily Devotional – 10/24/18 “But what do YOU say?”

People will sometimes use you against you. What do I mean? Abusive people, whether it be men or women, will use your fear of them against you. People who know you are in a desperate place will use that against you. You don’t have to believe me but need a place to stay and the person who can give you one needs a baby sitter. They will use you against you. When the folk on your job know you really need your job, they’ll use it against you. And when people know you’ve yet to rightly divide God’s word, they’ll use it against you too. There was a post someone made yesterday asking if women can be pastors. First off, I am sick of this conversation and it’s not because I am a woman assistant pastor but because we (Christians) like to pick and choose what we believe in when it fits us. Most of the folk who believe women can’t be preachers or pastors do so because somebody else instilled it in them. But to each its own. You not believing in me doesn’t stop God from using me. However, here’s something I want to point out. A lot of people who were commenting ‘no’ on the post yesterday referenced 1 Timothy 2:11-15 which says, “Women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result. But women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.”

Before you go any further, go back to 1 Timothy 2:1 and see what the first word is. Don’t have your bible? I’ll tell you. It says I as in Paul. Nowhere in this passage does Paul say God says. It’s Paul talking to Timothy and for those who will say he’s talking on the authority of God, well maybe you should know the word silence, as in women should learn in silence is translated as peaceable. In other words, women should learn in peace. As for the word submissively, Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:3, “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” Get this though, this headship doesn’t change because a woman is your pastor. She is your pastor, your spiritual guide and your shepherd whose responsibility is to save and protect the sheep. A woman isn’t trying to assert her authority simple because she is pastor neither should a man. A pastor is God’s appointed shepherd for God says in Jeremiah 3:15, “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” This scripture didn’t refer to a certain manner of person. Nevertheless, believe what you want but stop allowing people to use you against you. Stand up for yourself, fight for yourself, study for yourself and please do away with fear. Try and trust God for you.