Open the Door Already!

Right now I am attending school online to obtain my Masters Degree in Christian Leadership. I am enjoying the classes, but I have been praying and believing God for the finances to pay for it all. I don’t want to drain my savings, and I would appreciate not adding on to my student loans.

This morning in my regular internet reading, I came across an opportunity to win a scholarship. All I have to do is upload a picture of myself and write a short essay. Easy as pie, right?

I sat and looked through some of the entries already posted and started downgrading myself right on the spot. I went from “Oh, this is an easy $20 grand to win!” to “Well, the runners up get $2,500…” There are some really beautiful women in the running.

I looked at the situation with my natural eyes and automatically told myself I couldn’t win. I almost talked myself out of even entering. Ain’t that something?

Yet, as I looked at the contest rules I remembered my prayers for funding. Who’s to say that God can’t move on my behalf even when it’s partly based on a beauty contest? I may not consider myself a model, but God did create me!

Often we pass up opportunities for God to bless us or our prayers to be answered simply because we don’t see how it could work. Some of us even sit down with, talk to, and get to know our answer, yet we still let it slip by out of our own disbelief that it’s for us!

God is holding the answer to many of our prayers and knocking on our doors... Let’s let Him in already!

There’s a reason why you got that bright idea. God allowed you to meet that particular person. It’s no coincidence you ran across that information. That dream keeps coming in the night on purpose.

God’s knocking. Open up the door, and position yourself for the blessing of answered prayer!

Now, I’m not saying that this contest is the answer to my prayers, but I’m certainly not going to let it pass by without putting my name in the running. That action of faith could be all God needs to bring about my answer.

Verse of the Day: Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)

Make it A Priority

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve resolved to get in shape out only to let my plans fall to the wayside. Those times I do start rolling, I only slack back off again after a short amount of time.

I’ll go a couple of days exercising in the evenings after work. Then one day I’ll forget, the next day I’ll be tired, and the day after that I’ll have a meeting… Soon, I’m back where I started never fulfilling my desire to get back in shape.

The same theory rings true in my times with the Lord. I’ll decide to spend more quality time with Him, only to wind up being swept away by my day.

I plan to wake up earlier in the morning only to shut off the alarm, roll over and doze off without even sitting up. Plans to read the Word while on my lunch break get pushed to the next day since a co-worker wants to go out to eat. Conversations in prayer scheduled for the commute home get paused to hear an interesting news story on the radio, and before I know it, I’m getting off the expressway and two minutes from home!

Right now I’m bringing in the new year with fasting and prayer. This time of separation and dedication is only underscoring how my days are so filled with ‘other things’ that take up my time with God.

I find myself actively shutting down plans and little pop up distractions in order to fit time with the Lord into my day. The effort I’m putting into prioritizing my time of fellowship with God is alerting me to the fact that I need to put some guards in place now to keep up these times when my fast is over.

Hopefully you too have guards in place that keep your daily devotional time with the Lord sacred. If you’re like me and are easily overrun with other things, put your foot down and make your time with God non-negotiable. You know yourself better than anyone else. Do what you need to do in order to make that time a first priority.

We can’t let the cares of this world keep us from the One who cares about us most of all.

Verse of the Day: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us... Hebrews 12:1a

Praise in the Pain

It’s easy to praise God when things are going well. If the sun is shining and the birds are singing, we can easily enter into God’s presence giving Him glory, honor and praise.


However, it is in the moments of pain, hurt and discouragement where we often shut down our adoration to our Father. Our Amen turns into Why and we begin to question, doubt, and pull away from the One who we were trying to get so close to before.

We begin to wonder why the God who loves us so much would allow such devastation in our lives. We feel our discomfort and can’t comprehend why our Father would allow us to be placed in such a precarious position.

Instead of pushing in and talking to our Father, we pull away into ourselves and begin to disconnect from Him.

Can I let you know that it is in those moments of pain that you have the potential to get the closest to God? It is in your times of struggle that you can be nearest to Him?

Just like a mother wraps her arms around her child when they are in tears, our Heavenly Father is waiting to wrap His arms around us and show us His love when we are hurting.

We just have to take the initiative to get into His presence to receive His love. We may never get the answer as to why we went through certain trials. But we can get the answers of how to endure, overcome, and grow from them. We can get the comfort of His loving embrace.

I’ll never forget the revelation I got from the story of Job. At his lowest moment, after losing everything, one of the first things he did was get into God’s presence. (Job 1:20) I believe that those moments of worship saved Job from cursing God and failing his test of faith.

Just as much as we trust and believe God when we are experiencing His blessings, we should trust and believe in Him when we experience trials. Despite the heartache we may feel, God is still the same loving and magnificent God, and He deserves our utmost praise at all times.

Verse of the Day: I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34:1

Reflection

Today happens to be MLK Day, and I'm off work. I thought about taking off from the blog as well, but I figured we all still need a "cup of tea" today. So, let's utilize this holiday for what it was intended.

If there ever was a person who inspired, it was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His role in our nation's history caused all people, classes, races and creeds across this world to scrutinize their treatment and perspective of other human beings. Through him we were asked to be better citizens, show a greater degree of respect, and stimulate ourselves to live our lives with purpose and dignity.

All of these attributes underscore our Christian faith. As believers, we should be aiming to hit the goals Dr. King preached about anyway. Jesus became and revealed the Truth, and Dr. King challenged us to actually walk the path and live it.

So, today as we reflect on one of our nation's greatest leaders, let us challenge ourselves to live up to the dream that Dr. King worked so hard to have realized.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.  - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Verse of the Day: Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13 (NLT)

Thanksgiving Friday

Praise the Lord! I hope you are letting the glory of the Lord shine all around you today!


God is great and He is greatly to be praised! There is no one who compares to our God! There is no one who can match His marvelous ways!

I will sing of the greatness of the Lord forever. All my days shall be filled with praise.

No matter the situation. No matter the circumstance. No matter how I feel… God still deserves my praise!

Last Sunday I was teaching my teens out of Romans 12:1. We were discussing presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord. What leapt out at me was the end of the verse: which is your reasonable service.

Giving God our all is the least we can do to show gratitude for His Ultimate Sacrifice in sending His Son Jesus to save us! Thinking of how much He gave should make it easy for us to bring Him our praises no matter how much we think things are going wrong, need fixing, and are lacking in our lives.

We have eternal life because of Him. So, let’s give Him praise! Hallelujah!

I am excited today, and I pray that you catch the fire! God is so good. When you meditate on His goodness, you can’t help but feel your spirits lift. And I’ve been meditating on His goodness this morning.

So, Lord, I thank you for allowing me the privilege of offering my life back to you! I know that I’m an unworthy vessel, but you have counted me worthy since I have accepted your Son.

I thank you that I can approach Your throne and fellowship with you on a personal level. Thank You for granting me unlimited access to Your presence.

Lord, let Your glory continue to flood my heart, mind, spirit, and body as I go about my day.

Verse of the Day: Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1

The Art of Patience

I am still working on developing the art of patience. Yes, the art of patience. This fruit of the spirit is definitely a skill. If you were born with it, consider yourself gifted.

Being a visionary, I have so many dreams, ideas, and plans that I know God has placed in my spirit. I know that God’s purpose for me is greater than the spot where I am right now.

I just want to wake up tomorrow and be there. I want to get up from my knees in prayer and walk into the manifested promise in the next moment.

However, this is not reality. Purpose takes patience to be fully developed. A process has to be implemented to ensure that things are not done prematurely.

No one wants a premature blessing. That’s just inviting a struggle. That’s just opening the door for the dream to die.

So, I’m working on patience. I’m working on slowing myself down, pausing to get my bearings, and taking the steps I need to take in order to go forward.

As much as I want to run into the future, I have to learn to be content to take solid steps. I have to put my full trust in the Lord’s timing to bring me to where I want to be at His proper moment. It’s only then that I will be able to appreciate the fullness of all the vision that I see right now.

It takes a lot to put yourself in check and slow down. Yet I believe that getting the promise will cause all of it to be well worth the wait.

Verse of the Day: But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently. Romans 8:25

Shhhhhhh!

We are a plugged-in, noisy society.

We drive around in our cars with the radios on blast. We walk through the grocery store talking on our wireless headsets. We enter our homes and flick on the tv after dropping our coats. We work with our Pandora stations pumping through our computer speakers.

If we actually sit down for a moment in silence, our minds race a mile a minute or we drift off to sleep.

Yet, it is in the stillness and the quiet that we can hear God’s voice. It is those moments where we shut off all the noise of the world and focus in on Him that we can hear God’s words of life for us.

Often, I’ve even had to turn off my worship and meditation music just so I could quiet my mind down even further to hear what God was saying.

God’s speaking all the time. We just have to take the initiative to tune our ears to His station and listen to what’s being broadcasted over the spiritual airwaves.

When is the last time you sat in stillness before the Lord, and heard God speak? Can you remember the last time you were silent or still?

We cannot let all of the gadgets, media, and other distractions surreptitiously steal away all of our time.

Make a choice to turn off the radio on your ride home from work and instead listen to heaven. Cook dinner tonight conversing with God instead of your girlfriend. When you roll over to sleep, cut the tv off and fall asleep to the still small voice of the Spirit.

There is so much that God has to reveal to His people. We just have to silence the noise so we can zero in on His revelations.

Verse of the Day: This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it. Isaiah 30:15 (NLT)