The Lord God is with you

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post.

Today I want to encourage you again, to keep moving forward and to keep going forward. The Lord God is with you and although we all have probably had that feeling when we wanted to give up, let me tell you that God has much in store for those who run their race. Oh yes, as long as we know that the race isn't for the swift, it's for the diligent, we will make it. Believe it.

Considering those things, today's podcast episode and blog post are inspired by one of my favorite podcasts and that is the Underdog Mentality Podcast on Anchor. It's host is a young man named Akeem Haynes. Akeem has sooooo many platinum nuggets of inspiration that he brings to his podcast and I find myself doing Underdog Mentality marathons, in that I will listen to countless episodes one after the other in one sitting. It's easy to do that, because his podcast episodes are so short and so sweet. Another special thing about his podcast is his opening greeting which is, "there is no time like the present, so let's make it happen." Love that. And Akeem is an articulate young man who gives encouragement for anybody who wants to go to the next level in how God wants to move in their lives. I get much from his podcast, because we all need encouragement sometimes, right? His latest episode is titled "Don't Quit." A fitting title for a podcast that gives us hope for better days. Anyway, check out the Underdog Mentality Podcast on Anchor. It is definitely another one of my favorites. 

So today in the name of encouragement I've come to tell you to be encouraged in the Lord, because God is with you and He's telling us the same thing He told Joshua in Joshua 1:6/7, which says, "Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go" and in Joshua 1:9 God said, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Powerful verses of encouragement.

We have to be strong and we have to be encouraged. We can get that encouragement from anywhere, because God is everywhere. I was listening to TD Jakes and he talked about a time when he wanted to give up and how a little woman who didn't know, encouraged him to keep going. She told him that what he was doing wasn't for the naysayers, he was doing it for the people God wanted him to encourage and to help. TD Jakes said that unknown woman was the reason he didn't give up that day. Sometimes we have no idea who we are impacting. That's one of the main reasons we have to keep going and to continue doing what we do. Listen, God hasn't left us ok? He's still with us and He has given us the gift of positive influence. God made each of us on purpose for a purpose, so we have to stay with our craft -- we have stay with our gifts. In other words our testimony is for certain people who will benefit from the lives we've led and the life we lead today. We have to keep moving and not be idle. Idle is when we are standing or sitting in a place of no movement and no momentum. We can't do that. We have get moving and continue moving even if we have to take baby steps. Do you know God is in baby steps? Yes, He orders our steps and as long as we're going towards Him, those steps will continuously be ordered. 

So you see, you cannot give up. Things didn't come easy for Joshua, no, and they won't always be easy for us, but we will make it through if we do not grow weary and give up. Joshua, yes, had a great task ahead of him, but the Lord God was with him as long as he stayed with the Lord. And the same is the case for us too.