Daily Devotional – 8/9/18 “Where is your dance?”

Dancing, in the bible, is symbolic of joy, rejoicing and thanksgiving. Dancing signifies you moving from a place of mourning. Dancing gives a sense of gladness within your heart. Dancing gives a voice to the joy within. Beloved, where is your dance? Dancing shows the working of your limbs. Dancing implies there is blood flow happening. Dancing confirms healthy brain function. Beloved, where is your dance. Dancing indicates life. Dancing denotes defeat didn’t win. Dancing declares, I’m still here. Beloved, where is your dance? I don’t know who I’m talking too but there used to be a time you’d dance with no music because the sweet sound of Jesus, in your ear, was all you needed. There used to be a time you’d let your dance carry away the weight of the world. There used to be a time you’d get lost in dance. Beloved, where’s your dance? There used to be a time you didn’t care about having no rhythm, you’d still dance. You didn’t need a drink in your hand, you’d still dance. You didn’t need a dance floor, you’d still dance. You didn’t need an audience, you’d dance. You didn’t need a reason, you’d dance. Beloved, where is your dance?

I am not going to drag this devotional out, I simply need you to find your dance again. Whoever you are, I need you to dance again because the very thing you are looking for, it’s in your dance. The answer you’re waiting on, it’s in your dance. The darkness that needs to move, it will, when you dance. The pain, it’ll get easier to handle when you begin to dance. The grief, you can control it when you begin to dance. The anger, you can manage it better after you dance again. Yes, there will be some tears but don’t stop dancing. It may take a few tries to get back in sync, that’s alright, just dance. Shake out your leotard and dance. Dust off your shoes and dance. Go buy a new dress and dance. Get to your safe place, cue up your music, turn off the lights and get in your zone. Whatever it takes, DANCE! Find your dance, beloved.

Daily Devotional – 8/8/18 “You can be set free!”

You cannot free people who don’t know they are bound. Imagine Jimmy. Your cousin. He’s an addict. Cocaine, alcohol, sex or whatever. You’re out on a date and see Jimmy and he sees you. The first thing he does, ask for money. You start to scold him over his lifestyle choices. “Jimmy, this stuff is bad for you.” “Jimmy, your family loves you.” “Jimmy, you’re too old to be making the same bad decisions.” Yada, yada. Jimmy isn’t listening, he just needs those loose dollars in your pocket. You give him what you have and you walk off, shaking your head because you can’t understand why Jimmy won’t take the help you keep offering or why he can’t just leave the stuff alone. What you don’t know is, Jimmy probably wishes he could get over his addiction too but it’s not as easy as you think it is. Someone on the outside thinks a person who smokes can throw down their cigarette and the taste will be gone, it won’t. You think an abusive person can up and walk away from their abuser, just like that, they can’t. You think a person addicted to drugs and alcohol can just give it up, they can’t. Yes, they wish they could but the reality of the situation is this … most of them don’t even know they are addicts. Their addiction is what their mind draws them too when they need to feel safe, it’s their comfort, what they have grown accustom too and until they are ready, they don’t need your belittling nor will they be receptive to your help.

But you know this because some of you have been addicts before. Maybe it wasn’t to alcohol, drugs, sex and etc. but it was drama, attention and anger. Admit it. You fed off drama and that’s why your baby daddy could never get peace for the first seven years of his son’s life. You were comfortable in your addiction to attention and this is why you could easily bust windows, slash tires and break phones then act like everything was cool. You were an addict and didn’t know it and until you recognized your need for help, none offered you would have accepted. This is why I said, in the beginning, you cannot free someone who doesn’t know they are bound. I don’t care how much oil you slang on them or how many times you pray over their pillow; they will only be free when their mind is transformed. Bible says in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Beloved, you can change your clothes, your hair, your shoes, your purse, your wallet, your car, your job, your lipstick and even your spouse but none of that will do any good if you don’t change your mind. When you change your mind, you change your thoughts and actions and then your freedom comes! You are set free by the renewing then rehab! Who needs to be free today?

Daily Devotional – 8/7/18 “Distractions!”

On my way to work this morning, the radio starting experiencing interference. At first it was minimal, you know, something I could deal with and it would clear if I moved. However, as I drove along the interference got louder. It started to overshadow what I was listening too. It was so bad that I eventually turned the radio’s volume all the way down. Why? Because the interrupted noise was drowning out the song I wanted to hear and it was becoming a distraction. Yes, I could still hear the song that was playing on 95.7 but I was becoming more interested in what the interfering station was saying. If I can be honest, I’ve been writing this devotional all morning but I keep letting small things distract me. I don’t know who this is for but somebody reading this or even somebody you’re connected too, is missing their purpose because of being distracted. Is it you? Let’s me truthful. How many times, man/woman of God, have you turned down God’s voice because of the interference of things? How many times, man/woman of God, has the interruptions of life drowned out what you know you’ve heard God say? You know you heard Him say wait but the distraction of past due notices drowned out what you heard and you got that title loan. You know you heard Him say, he or she is not the one but the distraction of seeing all of your friends getting married overshadowed the warnings. You know you heard God say, stand still but the takeover of wanting to be pastor drowned out the feeling in your spirit and you took the job. The interference inhabits your iniquities in order to intimidate you. In other words, the enemy will use the very thing that is keeping you up at night to distract you.

Oh and he’ll make it believable too. Don’t believe me. Stress out about that cut off notice for your electric bill and see if the lights won’t flicker, leaving you to think they are being cut off. Get worked up over your car and see if you don’t start noticing ad after ad for these tote the note car lots. Keep on complaining about your job and see if the perfect one don’t drop in your lap. See, when you’re desperate, you may rush to make a decision you’ll soon regret. Why? Because the enemy will use interference to interfere with the plans God has for your life. This is why you shouldn’t make rush decisions when you’re in your feelings, grieving, mad and/or desperate. Interference will overshadow what you know is right because it’ll be distracting you from what you know to be right. Don’t fall for it. Turn down the volume and sit in what God has told you. If that’s to wait, wait. If that’s to move, move. If that’s to hush, hush. Whatever it is, do not allow the interference to overshadow what you know to be right. Don’t get distracted because it sounds good. Don’t get distracted because it feels good. Don’t get distracted because it looks good. Don’t get distracted because it taste good. Don’t get bamboozled by the interference that’s dressed up like possibility when it’s really iniquity clothed in your imagination.

Daily Devotional – 8/6/18 “I called your name!”

Look… I don’t know everything but I know God.

This morning, leaving the neurologist AGAIN with another medicine to “try” and alleviate these migraines and vertigo, I began to talk to God. As my head pounded, I started, what I thought was, a simple conversation with God but then the Holy Ghost took over and my talk went from being about me to calling out the names of others.

Some are people I’ve never met but connected through ministry or books. Others were my family and friends. I called names because some of you have been portraying to be strong, in public and for social media but in the darkness you’re weak and crying. I called your name because you’ve been calling everybody else name. I called your name because you need God immediately. I called your name, beloved because you’re at your breaking point.

I called your name, for over 30 minutes because I need God to do for you what you’ve been praying for. I called your name because I need your tears to stop and your fears to subside. I called your name because I need you to trust your destiny plan. I called your name because you’re in an unfamiliar place and you’re scared. I called your name because you didn’t know what else to do.

Don’t worry about me because while I was calling your name, somebody is calling mine. Thank you.

Rest now, servant, God is working.

Daily Devotional – 8/3/18 “Struggling Vine!”

A migraine had me down for two days but on yesterday, while home, there was a movie on the Hallmark Channel about a wine vineyard. I forget the name but there was something said that stood out to me. It was, “The harder the struggle of the vine makes better the wine.” If you know me then you know, I jotted this down because I knew this statement is exactly what one or two of you needs to hear today. See, somebody laid down last night dreading a day that hadn’t even showed up yet. Some of you laid down and tears covered your pillow and somebody else laid down with so much on your mind that you fought with the sheets and they aren’t the ones you’re mad at. Why? Because you expected your August to erase the toil of your July and it hasn’t. Well beloved, the harder the struggle of the vine makes better the wine. What do I mean? According to what I have read on wine vines, if you make their habitat easy, the bitter the grapes because then the vines would focus more on growing leaves and shoots, not grapes. In other words, the vine is comfortable with just growing and not producing. However, if you make them struggle for the resources they need like water and nutrients and if they are pruned while being crowded with other vines; they work harder which kicks in their reproductive mechanisms. Sounds crazy, right? But it works.


Think about it. How good are you at producing when you’re comfortable? How much beneficial work do you get done when you’re comfortable? If you’re like me, if you get too comfortable with a lot of time on your hands, you just might do everything but what you need to do. Oh but when you are crunched for time, when the baby is sick and you have a project to finish, when you have a hungry family and money is scarce or when you’re in the struggle of your life; your surviving mechanisms kick in, making you work to produce what you need to survive. When this happens, you produce quality work. Crazy? This is why sometimes, beloved, you have to struggle as the vine. The harder the struggle of the vine makes better the wine. In vineyards, some growers have adapted a technique called partial root drying because normal watering of the vines was making them lazy. In restricting water, the vine pushes deeper into the subsoil to search for what they need to survive and produce. And get this, although a struggling vine produces smaller bunches of grapes; the smaller bunches is of high quality. My brother/my sister, your struggle isn’t to kill you because God knows how much you can handle, but it is to make you push deeper into the subsoil, God, in order for what you produce to be of high quality. Your struggle isn’t for suffering’s sake but it’s to get you to sink deeper into God in order to bear high quality fruit. Stop worrying about how big the harvest is, when it’s not the quantity but the quality that will reap the biggest reward. “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it (Matthew 21:43).”