“Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” John 13:7 NLT I was overwhelmed with joy this morning as I drove to work mediating over my life and how far God has brought me. I'm reminded of times I would cry and even pitch fits over not having certain things I desired. When will this happen? When will that happen? Subconsciously my mind was bombarded by an imaginary timetable. I would always tell myself, "God will do it in His perfect timing," not fully grasping what I was saying. It is only now that I can confidently say His timing is perfect. There have been times when I have gone through certain things and didn't understand why. There have been times when I prayed for a certain thing and didn't understand why I didn't receive it but now I can look back on those times and rejoice. I can rejoice because I finally get it! I finally really understand that God has a plan for our lives th...
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The Israelites are a funny group of people. They had this pattern that they seemed to follow all the time. They would cry out to God for help, God would rescued them, they would turn their attention to other things and then worship idols. I'm reading this saying to myself. The Israelites are so dumb. They don't love God like they say they do. They love what they know God can do for them. But then it dawned on me. I do the same thing. How many of you can relate to going all in for Jesus when there's a need for something such as the new job, the promotion, the husband, the healed friendships and so forth and then when God does it you forget about Him. You're no longer waking up in the morning praying, you're not reading your Bible as much, and if you do you're not really taking anything in. You're kind of just going with the motion just so you can at least say you read something. What you and I have done is made other things idols. You've probably ma...
Lately, God has been dealing with me on a few different issues in my life. So much that I could sense myself wanting to give up. I could sense myself wanting to rebel against everything I knew to be true in my heart because I was still wondering when certain things would come to pass in my life. Why am I still single? Why does it seem like areas in my life are always progressing so slow? Why do I have to do the most to get what I desire but Sally Mae over there doesn't love you as half as much as I do but things always look up for her? Why? Why? Why? It got to a point where I didn't even feel like praying anymore. After asking all of those questions I decided to just take things into my own hands. I thought to myself "I got this" but how many know I didn't have anything? Eventually, I became so consumed with getting that I couldn't hear God as clearly. I wasn't able to get revelation on things I was reading in the Bible, therefore I wasn't able to ...
Lately, I've been reading about Moses and the Israelites and I'm amazed at how through the most difficult situations God always shows himself to be true. In many scriptures in this story it's says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Why would God allow his people to go through years of oppression and abuse at the hands of the Egyptians? Well, its the same reason God allows certain things to happen in our lives. Whether we put ourselves in certain predicaments or not, God allows certain things to happen for a reason. If you're not familiar with Moses and the Israelites, I suggest you go back and read this amazing story in Exodus. However for the sake of getting to the meat of things, in Exodus 9 verse 13 we're at a point in the story where God has been sending all of these different plagues to Egypt but yet and still Pharaoh will not let the Israelites go. The Lord tells Moses to tell Pharaoh, "By now I could have lifted my hand and struck you and your people ...
By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents (Hebrews 11:8-10) I've been dealing a lot lately with maintaining my faith in God's promises even when I don't see evidence of them manifesting. This morning, God woke me up a hour earlier than usual. I rolled about in my bed still feeling a little discouraged about God's timing and faith in the things He has promised me. Just like any other morning before I get out of bed I pulled out my phone and scrolled down my Bible app. God then took me to the story of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. What's amazing to me about the story of Abram who's name is later changed to Abraham is how God instructed him to, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and ...
So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him. Genesis 6:22 How amazing is it when you do exactly what God instructs you to do even before you see the fruit of His promises. God may have told you to put down a certain relationship or friendship. He may have told you to start a ministry or to just be kind to a specific co-worker at your job before you even see why He's instructing you to do these things. In Genesis 6, Noah was obedient before he even saw a flood in sight. What I love about Noah is that he didn't ask any questions, he just obeyed! I believe that we ask God too many questions! "Well God if I do that how will you do this or if I do this how will you do that?" What I want us to do is to stop asking God how He will do something! Stop asking God how He will accomplish what He's already promised you. Your job is to obey Him and have faith that if He told you to do something rest assure that He...
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him." Genesis 2:18 "You're so pretty, smart, and career oriented but why are you single? What's wrong with you? You must be picky!" As a 24 year old who will be 25 in a couple of weeks, I've been hearing this a lot lately. So much that when I go to my quiet place I ask myself, "is the reason that I'm single because I'm picky?" I was taken to Genesis 2 in my reading time one morning and I read, "Then the LORD God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him (Genesis 2:18 NLT)." I kept reading this verse because I realized that even in the beginning God desired so much for us! Even down to us not being alone. God is not blind to the fact that man doesn't want to be alone. He even said that it wasn't good. In the second portion of that same scr...
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm 23:1 I think we're all familiar with psalm 23 in some form of fashion. However, recently I've gained a new understand of this chapter. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1)." In order to fully understand what this verse means I had to first understand the job description and duties of a shepherd. Webster defines shepherd as a person whose job is to take care of sheep; they guide or guard (someone or something). Because the Lord is your shepherd, the one whose job is to take care of you, protect you and even direct your path do you not realize that you have all you need? Because of this one scripture you can rest assure that you are exactly where you're suppose to be in your life because of the one who leads you. In John 10, I love how the scriptures explain the shepherd. The shepherd is recognized because he enters through the gate in verse 2. As soon as the gate keeper ...
And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over." Mark 5:34 We all deal with certain issues in our lives. So we've all been at a point where we said, "If I can just do this or that then all my issues will be solved." I believe this is what the woman with the issue of blood must have thought. In Mark 5 verse 25, we begin to read about a woman who suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. Here you have a woman who has gone and seen many doctors about this disease but no one could cure her. In fact overtime the disease has gotten worse (Mark 5:26). In times such as these if the doctors could not cure someone of a disease that person would become an outcast. You know the saying "you can't sit with us?" Well this was especially true for the people that had incurable diseases that no one could heal. People with incurable diseases could not dwell in the same places as others due t...
Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else? Romans 8:32 Typically on my drive in to work at three o'clock in the morning, I dedicate that time to spend with God (best way to start your day). Each and every morning I drive slow in a specific area around my neighborhood hoping to see the pack of deer grazing in this particular field. For some particular reason I am most fascinated each and every morning by the way they roam around in this field without a care in the world. This morning as I prayed, God placed something on my heart. God said, "look at the deer you see each and every morning. Look around them! You see big buildings and homes all around them. These buildings and homes have pretty much taken over the land that they graze upon, yet they still stroll around this field so peacefully eating on the land. If those deer can graze u...
Last night I had the pleasure of tuning into an awesome empowerment conference call by a dynamic new ministry called Saved in the City. It was an awesome message from God given by speaker Lauren Ward. The message was centered around love. As Lauren spoke, the Holy Spirit begin to show me things in my heart that kept me from loving the way God intended for us all to love and living the way that pleases Him. I realized that different things such as unforgiveness, jealousy and more begin to surface and even though unseen, they still lingered in my heart from past relationships and situations. The message given by Lauren prompted me to want to continue to identify what was in my heart so that I could let God correct it. I begin studying the story of David. Even through all the mistakes David made the Bible still says that he was a man after God's own heart. II Samuel 6 talks about how David brings the Ark of God to the city of David. As th...
But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. James 1:6 I'm sure we are or have all been employed at a place of business at some point in our lives. What ever your job duties are you carry them out on a day to day basics in hopes of receiving an award. A paycheck that is! Every other week or however you get paid you expect that pay check to hit your account on payday. What astonishes me is that we don't think twice as we work whether or not we will receive our wages for all the work we've done. No, we work hard and expect the money to be in our accounts on the days the company has established payday. We expect our checks not to be a day late because in our minds we've carried our end of the deal right? Well this all dawned on me one night as I sat up and thought about ...
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” I Samuel 16:7 I'm so glad that God doesn't see us the way others do? He examines our heart while people judge our outer appearance, the things we do or have done. When you're chosen by God, your blessing and the purpose that God has for you can never bypass you. People can't begin to look over you because what God has for you is for you. I Samuel chapter 16 tells us the story of David being anointed as the future King of Israel. The Lord gave Samuel specific instructions when it came to anointing the next king of Israel. When Samuel comes to Bethlehem he finds Jesse and his sons then does what God has instructed him to do. The Bible says, "When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is...
and in due time she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, "I asked the Lord for him." I Samuel 1:20 Lately I've been feeling a little discouraged about timing. You know, when will this happen or when will that happen? I think we all have times such as these. Times like this remind me of Hannah in the Bible. In I Samuel chapter 1, it talks about a man named Elkanah, who had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. The Bible says, Peninnah had children but Hannah did not (I Samuel 1:2). Each year Elkanah would travel to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord at the Tabernacle. On the days Elkanah would present his sacrifice he would give portions of the meat to Peninnah and each of her children. The Bible says, although Elkanah loved Hannah he would give her only one choice portion because the Lord had not given her any children (I Samuel 1:5). Because of this Elkanah's other wife would taunt Hannah, and ea...