The Daily Devotional Blog

When we move, God moves. Hardwork (aka Smart Work): there's no way around this ladies and gentlemen. Why? Because faith without works is dead ( James 2:14-16 ) . We have to put some elbow grease behind our words, behind scripture. Yes, speaking it is great, but there must be more that comes with it. Hebrews 11 :1 says that faith is the assurance of things we want to happen that we have not seen yet. In other words if we "see" it and believe it, then the proof will be in the actions we put behind those words. It's about writing the vision we have for ourselves -- what God placed inside of us and running with it ( Habakkuk 2 :2). Consequently, we have to put action behind what we want to happen in our lives or our words are just empty, worthless, cheap talk.  I have much respect for the people who are at least trying to move mountains and cross over valleys, of course, with God doing the heavy lifting. We have to continue to try and not just sit around wishin...

God is the ultimate protector. It gets no better than that. So just in case you may be thinking even for one minute, that they're limits on God, I'm coming to tell you there's not. He's the infinite God. He never runs out of resources and ways to help you and to cover you. He will protect you against the people, places, and things that are trying to do you harm or dirty. He sees what's happening in the darkness and He brings it to the light. He uncovers every wicked scheme planned or plotted against you. You need not worry about that. You see, when God is going to use you, which is the case for everyone who wants the be used, then He will put a hedge of protection around you, and you and your off-spring will be untouchable. It doesn't matter how strong your foes are, nothing is stronger than God and His plans for your life.  So, don't get down, don't grow weary, and don't you dare give up, God is out in front of you and on each side of you i...

"For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” ( Genesis 28 :15b). That's what the Lord told Jacob in an amazing dream. God told Jacob that he and his descendants were blessed. That means you're blessed if you are in the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which means you're in the blood line of God. Which also means God will keep the promises He made to his descendents. I don't know about you, but that's me for sure, thank you very much. I receive everything the Lord is blessing me with, because I know they will be the things that will allow great fruit to fall. That is indeed a blessing. So, receive the awesome words of God when He promises what He will do. And know that if we can become as Abraham, who obeyed God's voice and kept His charge, commandments, statutes, and  laws, then we too will see the hand of God in our lives. I believe God's promises. He will deliver, because He always does what He said He would do. Take H...

Do you know you're gifted? Yes, you have at least one special gift the Lord has blessed you with and He wants you to use it to be a blessing to people. It doesn't matter how small you think that gift is. In God's eyes it's huge, because He made it in you. He birthed it in you. Remember this: we were all made in His image ( Genesis 1 :26/27)  before the sin/fall of man. Yet and still, wouldn't it make perfect sense that we were perfectly crafted to do something amazing in this world just as Jesus did? No, of course there is only one Jesus, yet we can function with His power that lives in us. But that's only if He lives in us. It's a free choice each of us has in order to fully function in our gifting in order to help others fulfill their purpose on earth. That's one instance of being fruitful and multiplying.  What I'm trying to convey here is that we must use the gift(s) God has given us or somebody else will. Why? Well, the short answer is e...

Sometimes it's easy to get frustrated that certain things aren't happening fast enough, but we can't throw in the towel. God is aware that we want certain things manifested in our lives. Yet timing is crucial. I know that more today than ever. There were some things I tried to rush, but God doesn't rush anything simply because we want things yesterday. We can't become so desperate for things that we start going out of the will of God. We want to go forward not backwards, so things must move in God's order. He moves in His time and His timetable, which is nothing like ours. So stay encouraged and don't give up what you want. If it glorifies God, if eyeballs shift to Him, if you decrease as He increases ( John 3 :30 ) then there you go. I believe it will most assuredly happen for you.  You'll get there. Keep moving.

When it comes to your life you have to listen to yourself. I'm not saying not to listen to wisdom from the people who care about you. Apply wisdom where it fits. What this means is not doing things you're uncomfortable with when deep down inside you know better. Recently I made a mistake I think about often. This mistake could have been avoided. When I think over the entire situation, I think about what went right and what went wrong. What went right: I ran some things by a trusted individual and got their feedback. What went wrong: I didn't listen to my inner self and the outcome didn't work for me. In fact I think it set me back a little. Was the person wrong for giving me their opinion? Of course not. I trusted their judgement. But I was wrong for thinking that what would work for them would work for me even though I wasn't at peace with it. Big mistake that won't happen again. No big deal. I'm not dwelling on it. Lesson learned. Bottom line: don...

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" ( Isaiah 9 :6). I often write about how God is awesome in power and how His spirit still looms over the universe. That's because every day we have to be resolute in knowing this. Every day we need reminders of His glory. Every day we need reminders of His love. Otherwise life will get us distracted and we can easily forget. This blog is committed to respecting God as our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. It's a blessing for those who call Him those things and acknowledge His greatness. Maximize the fact that the child, Jesus, was born for us. Give Him thanks every day.

Yes, that's right. According to Psalm 9 :4 , the Lord still sits on the throne. He is the one true God and He gives righteous judgement to all who go against Him. He looks after His own and He will proceed according to His word. The former is enough to strike healthy fear in me, I don't know about you. I'm so glad I am a child of God. I hope and pray you are, as well. His spirit still hovers over the earth. He is still alive. He has risen.  To live with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is a honor that I believe every single person should experience. God is real, ok? Please know that. Whatever you are in need of, He's here. If you want a solid life, His throne is accessible. Anyone can walk to it and He will receive them in love. He accepts prayer. He forgives with no questions asked. And He receives our petitions when we utter that we want to live with Him and for Him.  Yes, He's that majestic. The one and only truly living God. It's a blessing to ...

Many of us know the great story of David and Goliath, don't we? It was the story in 1 Samuel 17 when David confronted his giant, Goliath. It was the story in which David didn't back down to a problem he saw that was bigger than him -- bigger than the people around him. David fought back against what ailed and pained him. He went forward, because he knew to where his strength came and he called upon it. These were some of David's powerful words against his giant problem:  “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied" (1 Samuel 17:45). David pulled from the power of God and God moved miraculously through him. Amazing. There's a clear lesson here as we can see. It's simply that we too, must be willing to stand against anything in our lives we see as giants. That can be a person, place, or a tangible (touchable) or intangible thing. We to...

God will give us the key to fit any door in which He tells us to walk through. When we are faithful to His word and we are doing our part to fulfill what He has for our lives, He gives us tools to go forth and multiply. As we continue to pray and do the hard work of staying committed to Him, doors will eventually open. We can never give up what He wants to do through us. People can benefit from what we have to offer. Our life means something. Let God use you to help others through what you've been through. I'm telling you, it was part of the great plan over your life. You are going to make a big impact. I hope you believe that. What key has God given to you to be influential in the world? Whatever it is, do you know you can bust right through that door with that key? It doesn't matter what anyone has told you about the key fitting. Look, if God ordained you to go through any door, no one can stop what He has for your life. Use the key He gave you, walk through, and tru...

Keep seeking and serving the Lord whether people get you or not -- whether people understand you or they don't. Even if you have to yell, " I will bless the Lord at all times and his praise shall continually be in my mouth!" (Psalm 34:1) , do it over and over again. And whatever you do, don't move from your post and position of God. Let Him shut the mouths of the lions, while we play our positions. I know for a fact that there are some people who think I'm straight up weird simply because I don't do the things they do. They think I should have certain people in my life and they don't understand why I don't. They think I should be involved in this and that and they don't understand why I don't indulge. I won't ever indulge. It doesn't matter how long they wallow in their confusion about me.  Let them wallow. What I'm starting to realize more and more, is that some people just don't understand who I am. They don't g...

When God is for you, who can be against you? ( Romans 8 :31).  When you're with God, who can be against you? God is our protection and our great father. He will be there always and forever. He is our present help ( Psalm 46 :1). " He says, “Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). Seek Him often and He will faithfully guide, heal, speak, give you peace, and anything else you are in need of. He can be counted in at all times. He's always present, because He is the  Lord Almighty who is with us; the God of Jacob who is our fortress (Psalm 46:11). I pray those words were a comfort for you today that God is with you. 

Do you have a vision for your life or do you just go with whatever the flavor of the day is? Do you just flow with whatever comes your way? I ask you this, because we all have a vision. We all have a purpose. For this blog post I'm using vision and purpose interchangeably. We must know why we're here or we are just walking the earth with no real direction. We think we're going somewhere and we're not. I went to an event yesterday with up and coming female entrepreneurs. The event organizer was a female empowering the women who supported her vision. The women were vendors selling their product, establishing relationships, and many female customers came to support the vision of the event organizer. They showed up. I loved it. I bet each person there had a vision of their own too. Proverbs 2 9:18 says that without a vision, the people perish. Live your vision and support another's.

"For you bless the righteous, oh Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield ( Psalm 5 :12). Notice that scripture says "the righteous." That means the ones who are in Christ. Who know Him as their personal Lord and Savior. Who know He's the reason for all seasons. Who have a relationship with Him. Yes, they are the ones with favor over their lives as shields. Now, whether they yield it or not, is another issue.  Some saints simply do not know to whom we  really belong. Although we are saved, some of us don't know the real power we possess by way of that salvation. As a result we hardly exercise it. When challenging circumstances come, we don't believe Psalm 5:12 . We believe man -- people. We call upon the name of family and friends with zero supernatural power and nothing happens. That shouldn't be a surprise.  Psalm 5:12 is written in the bible to remind us that we have God covering our lives. We can and must walk in that power and us...

There are many people who achieve great things in life, yet little do people know, the pain they live with from day to day, is intense. Pain of loss, pain of regret (yes some people still admit that there are things they regret), pain of experiences they've suffered in their lives. You may be asking how it is that they are able to function to such great heights if such intense pain lives inside them. Well, for starters, they are driven by their pain. They live with it to help others know that they too, can and will get through it. Their entire mission in life is to get others to see the greatness of God that can dwell inside them in spite of the pain. Their entire mission is to get through to people that God will comfort them always. They tuck their pain inside themselves in order to reach others and another person's joy brings them joy. They realize that if it were not for their pain, others wouldn't gain as much. They realize that somebody had to live it and somebody h...

Social media -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are some things on social media that are true, real, genuine, authentic. And there are some things that aren't. Most of the time we show the good, but not the bad and not the ugly. There's not anything necessarily wrong with that, because some things are not encouraging or anybody's business. So here's the deal then: we can't continue comparing ourselves to people, places, and things when we have no idea what's  real or fake. Actually it really doesn't matter whether any of it is even real or fake, comparison is a cousin of the green-eyed monster, jealousy, with envy in equal place. So, don't even waste your time trying to keep up with any of it. It will eat at your soul. Just stay in your lane and realize that what we see is mostly the good, but the bad and the ugly lurks within. Consequently, don't let social media get the best of you. People don't show their true colors and I get ...

You can't let mistakes or bad decisions stop you from moving forward. We're all going to make them from time to time. It doesn't matter how old we are, how seasoned we are, how experienced we are, how wealthy we are, how popular we are, how attractive we are, or how spiritual we are. We are going to make mistakes and make choices that we should have thought more wisely about. At some point, we are going to fall short, we are going to have setbacks, we are going to have challenges, and we are going to have struggles. We are not God. Yes we were made in His image, thank God, but we are fleshly humans who are going to drop the ball at any given time. It's inevitable. You best believe that . Yet here's the thing: you can't let it stop you from going to the next level. You have to regroup, recalculate, learn from the mistake and continue the climb.  I made a mistake recently and it cost me someone I wanted to connect with. I thought I was doing what God wanted...

Being unmovable means standing your ground no matter the circumstances that surround you. No matter what I am confronted with, I will not let anything defeat me. I've come too far and the Lord has promised me too much for that. What are you facing today? You can get through it. There is no doubt about it. When I was faced with mountains, the first thing I did was to seek God -- talk to God -- pray to God, then I was able to get the strategies I needed to get over them. You see, God wants us to trust Him when we are dealing with the difficult things in life.  Just recently I made the mistake of trying to make things happen in my business. God had told me through a prophet what I needed to do and I was obedient. I did everything I was supposed to do even though I felt a bit uncomfortable. I even felt embarrassed especially since I never got the outcome/response I wanted. So, where did that leave me? Down at first, but never out. I am so over it. Look, I did my part. Now God ...

Keep going and going and going...  Translation: God has much for you, so continue to roll. You know why I write so much about continuing to grind and never giving up on what the Lord has for you? One major reason is, some years ago someone tried to block me from leaving a position. It wasn't because I was doing anything wrong. Just the opposite, I was doing things right. This has happened numerous times in my life. My philosophy has always been to work smart/hard, mind my business, and display professionalism. Simple. Well, guess what? After all those attempts to block progress and growth, God had other plans. He opened other awesome doors and I walked through. So yes I'm serious when I say that what God has for you, is for you. I know that first hand in many areas of my life, I'm telling you. So you must continue to go go go for what it is God has for you. His vision for your life should be clear. If not, seek Him out to find it. Matthew 6 :33 says to seek first His...

"So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt” ( Genesis 41 :41).   Wherever it is you want God to take you, He will. If it's a palace or your equivalent to it, then so be it. But let me tell you this: it won't come easy. Oh no. You're going to have to go through some things to get there. God doesn't just reward, going through the motions, or doing things here and there, or not proving perseverance, determination, stamina, and intense training with Him. If that were the case He would reward the ones who don't trust or believe in Him to fulfill His promises. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry would be getting blessed to big places for no reason and the first thing they would do is give themselves the glory. You think God works like that? Please. Take Joseph for instance, left for dead by his jealous evil brothers. Yet God had something better for Joseph and Joseph proved himself worthy of getting it. He went through hell a...

"I run to you, God; I run for dear life" ( Psalm 31 :1).  Those were David's words. Sometimes I feel like he did. For, I do run to God. I run to my Lord when I need Him. I run to Him when I think I got this. I run to Him any and every time I need to. He is my comfort, my safety net, my landing place, my everything. Yes I run to Him. I need Him. What would my life be without Him? I hate to imagine. Where would I go? Who would I commune with? How would I function? Nobody else can take His place. He is my rock. My strong tower. My breath. I run to God. And I pray you do the same. "Love God, all you saints [and others who want to draw near to Him] ; God takes care of all who stay close to him" ( Psalm 31:23).

Stay encouraged even if you have to encourage yourself. Flakey people come and go. Wish-washy people are here today and gone tomorrow. On-the-fence type people don't know which side they want to jump off and if they'll even jump at all. You can't always depend on people, because people fall short. If you say or do anything wrong, it's possible they're gone forever. That's people, right? Yet we can't let that get us down. We have to stay encouraged and continue on. We have to love one another despite our flaws and imperfections. We can't stop loving and supporting each other. But, God. Thank God He is stable and we know what we're getting with Him everyday. He never changes. He's the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow ( Hebrews 13 :8). He won't flake on us. He's consistent and He loves us the same.  Be encouraged in knowing that. 

Where are all the grinders? Will all the grinders please stand up! Unfortunately they're not many since the laborers are few, but the harvest is plentiful  ( Matthew 9:35-38 ). That's what Jesus told the disciples when He was moved by the people -- the lost souls, who were treated harshly and were helpless. That means that they were probably homeless, having a difficult time, mistreated, and underestimated by many people who came in contact with them. That was unacceptable to Jesus and it should be to us too. Where are all the grinders? The laborers? Are you with Jesus? He's wondering. Jesus wants grinders, but not only as it pertains to handling our business -- the entrepreneurs. He wants us to ensure that on our way to our destination we continuously think about the people we will encounter. For starters, grinding ain't easy. Working in those fields is not a joke. I'm going to tell you that right now. And thinking about others and doing for others eve...

Shout out to all the people who aren't afraid to be different! Don't go back to that place where you were accepted for doing the wrong things. You're going to go far with the new people you're around and the new places you're going. You're not missing nothing. Trust and believe that. You've changed for the better. You know you've changed when you can walk away from the nonsense you used to engage in, when you're ok with not being around the garbage you used to be around, and when you're just fine with not fitting in with the people who haven't grown one inch or moved on from crazy thinking and crazy actions. I commend everybody who is where God wants them to be even if it means being looked at as different. Don't feel bad, because you are different. And you're much better for it. You are a new creation in Christ. Embrace that and be reminded that,  "if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, t...

If God is in it, you're going to have faith to get there, that's for sure. It won't come easy, but that's ok, because we don't want it to be easy. Anybody can do easy. Easy come, easy go. We want it to be worth our while, because there's so much more in the appreciation of it when we had to use sweat and muscle to get there. We may not know exactly how God will do what He said He would do, but let me tell you, He's going to do it. There's no doubt about that. So don't give up, don't give in. It doesn't matter how many people think you won't succeed, you must continue going. The question is, what did God say about the matter? That's what's most important. In the mealtime, continue to knock on the doors you think He's set before you and if they close, it wasn't God. Keep faith in action, because faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see ( Hebrews 11 :1).  Keep faith alive. ...