Daily Devotional – 4/24/18 “Return on Investment!”

Today is one of those days where the enemy is trying to creep into my thoughts. See, if he gets me to second guess some stuff and worry about some more stuff; he wins. NOT TUH-DAY! What I have come to understand is this, I am not exempt. Yes, I am faithful in my walk with God. I study, pray, go to worship, preach, encourage, give when I don’t have it, go when I don’t feel like it and even pray for people I don’t know but I am NOT exempt. Yes, I am a co-pastor of a church but I also clean that same church after service but I am not exempt. What I am, I am an investor which means I may have to lose in order to win but I am not exempt from the toil. Oh but get this, everything I have had to go through was paying into my investment. Everything I have to go through, it’s paying into my investment because every now and then I get a ROI or a Return on Investment. This means, I get some stuff back for the all the stuff I have had to endure and/or pay out.

In other words …

When I suffer, I am sowing into my savings that pays off in surpluses (an amount of something left over when requirements have been met).

When I am in pain, I am planting into another project that has the potential to provide a profit.

When agony has to be my allowance, I abide because it is making my assets abundant.

When I cry, it’s simply a cost I have to compensate in order to one day get my commission.

So now, instead of wallowing in my pit, I rejoice. Instead of being upset at what I don’t have, at the moment; I rejoice knowing it’ll soon pay off. However, it’ll only pay off if I invest. If that happens to mean days of not having, so be it. If it might mean, nights of crying, so be it. If it means, losing some folk, so be it because I need a ROI and the only way I can get it, I have to first invest. What are you willing to invest in order to get a return? Understand something, it may hurt (on the front end) but it’ll be worth it when it pays off.

Daily Devotional – 4/23/18 “It has too!”

I have been sitting here looking at my screen trying to hear from God on what to share. It’s Monday and there are some folk in worse off situations than they were last Monday; can a word from God change that? There are some, who have been crying, more today than in a year; can a word from God change that? I mean, this is only a devotional, inspired by the move of the Holy Ghost but can it really reach? Then I thought, it has too. It absolutely has too because the spiritual attacks I have to endure, for people I’ve never met; it has to reach. For the sleepless nights, I have to face, because God has need of my voice; it has to reach. For the times, I’ve had to pray for people whose names I don’t know; it has to reach. See, even though this is just a devotional, lives can be changed. Understand, I don’t pen words to a blog just for followers, I don’t utilize social media for likes and neither do I write books for a millionaire status. I do what God ordains because somebody needs to get to God. And I am here, willingly being used, to ensure you get to Him, by any means necessary. Why? Because there is a cry that isn’t being heard. There is a scream in the midnight that is being missed. There is some mental illness being swept under the rug. There are some folk, who stand on large platforms but are not in right fellowship with God.

Somebody preached, real well, on yesterday and today they are being tormented by the enemy. Somebody helped someone else, last week, with their electric bill and now the one who help needs help. Somebody shouted all over the altar yesterday and still needed pills and alcohol to sleep. Somebody got up this morning, got dressed for work, all while thinking about suicide. A principal is sitting somewhere in pain but she/he is in jeopardy of losing their job so they cannot take off. A pastor is on the way to get another check advance, because the plumbing needed to be repaired at the church, but folk constantly screaming, they are getting all the tithe money. What word can stop all this hell? Here are a few. Hope. Faith. Morning. Benediction.

• Hope – “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12
• Faith – “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
• Morning – “But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.” Psalm 88:13
• Benediction – “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26

In other words. Hope in Faith that in the Morning your Suffering has no choice but to end.

New Book Alert – 2:32AM

BUY HERE

The bible tells you how to fight the enemy but what do you do when it feels like it is God you’re up against?

Charlotte’s nightmare began at 2:32AM, the morning she experienced the most unimaginable pain ever, the loss of a child.

Now, she finds herself angry at God. She trusted Him and He took her only child. She prayed to Him and it seems as if He has turned His back on her. And if things could not get worse, hell keeps showing up at her door.

What can she do, when she continually cries in the darkness but gets no answer? Where can she turn when it feels like her back is against the wall and there is no way out? Who can she depend on if God let her down?

Questions Charlotte ponder when the memories snatch her from her sleep at 2:32AM. Questions that make her angry because to her, God has forsaken them.

 

BUY HERE

New Book Alert – 2:32AM

BUY HERE

The bible tells you how to fight the enemy but what do you do when it feels like it is God you’re up against?

Charlotte’s nightmare began at 2:32AM, the morning she experienced the most unimaginable pain ever, the loss of a child.

Now, she finds herself angry at God. She trusted Him and He took her only child. She prayed to Him and it seems as if He has turned His back on her. And if things could not get worse, hell keeps showing up at her door.

What can she do, when she continually cries in the darkness but gets no answer? Where can she turn when it feels like her back is against the wall and there is no way out? Who can she depend on if God let her down?

Questions Charlotte ponder when the memories snatch her from her sleep at 2:32AM. Questions that make her angry because to her, God has forsaken them.

BUY HERE

Daily Devotional – 4/19/18 “Don’t quit now!”

God is about to take what you thought was to break you, to bless you. That sickness, yep, it was sent to save you. That grief, yep, it was sent to grab you out of your guilt. That thing that caused you to weep, yep, it is about to be the very thing that sends you back into worship. That abusive relationship, you once hid, is the thing that is going to make you accept God’s call on your life. That sickness that left you scarred, is about to be that thang that shifts you spiritually. Beloved, it wasn’t meant to take you out but it is to bring you out. The death of your baby, wasn’t to make you go crazy but it pushed you out of your comfort zone. That eviction wasn’t for embarrassment but it was to evoke the excellence within you. That divorce was for you to discover just how much time you’d spent being devoted to the wrong stuff. That pain pushed you from the pit to now praying. Those nights of weeping turned your closet into a war room. Those dark days made you turn the living room floor into an altar.

So you see, not everything we go through is because God isn’t pleased but just maybe it’s to get us to being pleased with self. You’ve been hurt in the church so God allowed your house to turn into a place of worship until He softens your heart. Then He’ll connect you to church that can assist in your healing. God knows the number of times you’ve thought about suicide. This is why He will not allow you to leave that job, you hate because there is someone there speaking life into you. Sometimes, even when God has already showed you the dreams of tomorrow, He will allow you to live through a nightmare of today. Not so you suffer but so your testimony could be like that of Joseph in Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” Sometimes, you have to give credit to the things that tried to take you out because it/they were the thing(s) need to get you to destiny. Yes, there is a rough road to destiny but don’t you dare quit now. The detour is only temporary unless you make it permanent.