Last week I had the privilege of preaching for the first time.
Now, anyone who knows me personally or who has followed this blog for a while may be saying, “You’ve been preaching for years.” But last week was the first time I’d been invited to speak…in a church…from a pulpit…with the express purpose of bringing the Word.
I was nervous and exhilarated and humbled that God would choose me for such an awesome and important task. But the word He gave me for this young adult audience was unique and on-time…just as He is and just as our relationship is.
Gratefully, my dear friend Penny videoed the entire 13-minute sermon. Take a few minutes, check it out, and commit to #bepetty for Jesus.
And I have to give credit to the amazing Awesomely Luvvie who is the genius behind all the “petty” names at the end. Pick up her petty T-shirt here! *And no, she didn’t ask me to endorse this and I’m not being compensated. Just giving a shout out to something/someone who inspired me.
Blessings to you! I hope it inspires you and speaks to your situation.
Last night marked the fifth and final installment in my five-week, Leap of Faith Prayer Call for women. It has been an absolute honor and privilege to be able to pray for and with women as they believe God for more in their lives. I can only hope that this prayer line was a blessing and/or encouragement to those who dialed in or listened to the recordings. I know I definitely saw God move in my life in this time with you all.
I shared an excerpt from Pastor Rick Warren’s “God’s Dream For Your Life,” 19-day devotional as the devotion last night. You may read it in its entirety below, or listen to it and our prayer by using the credentials below:
Here is the transcript of the devotional I shared:
From Dream to Deliverance
If you want your faith to grow so you can claim God’s promise in Mark 9:23 — “Everything is possible for the person who has faith” (GNT) — then you must first understand that God takes you through six phases of faith.
Phase 1: Dream What is the dream God has given you? If you don’t have a dream you’re working toward, you just exist. You need to start praying, “God, give me your dream.” You’re here on Earth for a purpose. When you discover that purpose, you’ll discover the dream God wants you to go after.
“God … is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of — infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes” (Ephesians 3:20b TLB).
Phase 2: Decision Maybe you have a dream from God, but you’ve not yet made a decision to go after it. God’s word for you in phase 2 is, “Go for it!” You may need to make the decision to give your life to Christ or be baptized or join a church or get involved in ministry.
“If you are like that, unable to make up your mind and undecided in all you do, you must not think that you will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:7-8 GNT).
Phase 3: Delay When things don’t happen on our timetable, we tend to run ahead of God and create detours to make it happen. Do not detour! You may end up making the wrong decision. You’re in God’s waiting room. Wait for God to work his hand.
God says in Habakkuk 2:3, “But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled” (TLB).
Phase 4: Difficulty What difficulties have you faced waiting for your dream to be fulfilled? You’ll go through many tests in life, but God knows what you’re going through. He’s watching, and he hasn’t forgotten you.
“Even though you are temporarily harassed by all kinds of trials and temptations. This is no accident — it happens to prove your faith, which is infinitely more valuable than gold” (1 Peter 1:6-7 Phillips).
Phase 5: Dead End Some of you are at your dead end, and you’re ready to give up. But you’re right where God wants you! He is preparing you for deliverance. God’s word for you is, “Hang on! Don’t give up!”
“At that time we were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than we could bear, in fact we told ourselves that this was the end. Yet we now believe that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether that we might learn to trust, not in ourselves, but in God who can raise the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).
Phase 6: Deliverance Do you expect and trust God to deliver you? He will. But it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to go through all six stages before God brings you to deliverance.
Many thanks to everyone who joined our next to last prayer call. They’re going by so quickly! Next week is our last week already. I pray this series has been a blessing to you Ladies. It’s certainly been a blessing to me.
To hear the recording from last night’s call, use the call-in credentials below:
I didn’t prepare a traditional devotional tonight because I really just want to talk to you; to encourage you.
Sometimes, when we stop to think about the enormity of our God, how good He is and how undeserving we are, we can become frozen in our own tracks. The enemy will begin to lie to us, telling us we have nothing to offer. Or trying to convince us that we’ll never be able to get our lives together enough to be of service to such a good God.
But my prayer tonight is that in sharing a little bit of my testimony that you’ll be encouraged — not just to tell the devil to go to hell (literally!), but to also keep pursuing God on your walk with him.
I won’t bore you with the details of my birth story or anything quite that long ago. But what I will tell you is that in late February/early March of this year I felt like God was so far away. I felt like for all the good I thought I was doing, I wasn’t sure where God was and I wasn’t sure that He was pleased.
In January, I’d done a stint of praying everyday at the same time. And from that time with God the idea — and the guest — for my first Leap Luncheon Series™ was revealed to me. But, like I always had, I soon found myself “too tired” to stay up later or to get up earlier. And, the “habit” quickly became past-tense.
The following month, when I tried to recreate the magic of the first luncheon, I found that I was a day late and a dollar short. An advisor told me that invites to really notable folks had to go out a month in advance, if not sooner. And just like that, what was supposed to be a monthly luncheon was on its first hiatus.
I sulked for a little while over why my event seemed so short-lived and what the Holy Spirit revealed to me was that I’d stopped seeking the Source. I’d become so enamored with the gift, that I’d turned my eyes from the gift giver.
The revelation convicted me and I immediately committed to returning to my 4:45am prayer and meditation times.
Since then, I’ve had five more successful Leap events. I’ve been blessed to bless others — giving gifts of money and resources to other folks who cross my path. I’ve been invited to be a guest speaker at a few different events as well. And the future looks…exciting.
I look back now, seven months into my decision to give God the first hour of my day, and I realize that it wasn’t until I chose to physically and literally seek God first, as we’re admonished in Matthew 6:33 that things started to turn around for me.
I decided to live out the truth that God was and is my Source. That means not worrying when bank accounts run low – or overdrawn – but choosing to trust God instead. And He’s proven that He is indeed an on-time God.
I decided to live out the truth to lean not to my own understanding and to commit my ways to Him. That meant asking God simple things like, What should I put on my to-do list today?, and then prioritizing the things He gave me. And He’s proven that every detail of my life is important to Him.
What I’ve found was that at that time when I started this daily prayer time, I felt like I didn’t have anything to give God. I literally felt like, I have nothing to offer you, God. But I know you’ve been good enough to warrant me missing a few winks, so here I am.
There have been mornings when I’ve hit snooze one too many times and had to make up my prayer time at the end of the day. There have been mornings that I’ve been so tired that I’ve fallen asleep intermittently throughout. And times when I literally wrote in my prayer journal, God, I’ve got nothing to say this morning. I’ve gone to Him angry and disappointed. Sad and confused. I’ve prayed in tongues some mornings, sobbed uncontrollably others, and simply sat in silence for some others.
But in the six or so months since I’ve been really trying to commit to this thing, God’s moved in a mighty way in my life. He’s grown this luncheon idea to a multi-city brand that one day may make me a little money and give me a national platform. On May 19th He told me write down some declarations. One of them described a house in great detail that I, at the time, never thought I could have or afford. Today, I’m excited to say we’ve placed an offer on the very house He described to me and we’re just waiting for the confirmation that its ours.
I’ve often in the past few months made it a priority to give big gifts, to give when it hurts, or to give when I’m down to my very last dollars as a means to show God I trust Him and/or to sow seeds for the desires He’s placed in my heart. Just last week a couple gave my husband and I a substantial sum of money to help us get our down payment together for the house God told me was ours. Just like that. Out of the blue.
Look, I’m not perfect. And I don’t share these testimonies with you to brag or to somehow say I’m better than anyone. I’m a sinner of the worst kind perhaps.
But I share these bits of my story with you to say this:
1. God sees you. He knows how you’re sacrificing and sowing in tears and labor. He sees all that you’re doing and going through and He is faithful to reward your efforts. I’m a witness to that.
2. You are all the gift God needs. Don’t ever think that you have nothing to give God. If all you give HIm is your time and attention – and it doesn’t have to be all at once or for some long period of time, it can be throughout the day, while you’re sitting in traffic, or even in the shower. But if you give HIm you, if you choose to seek Him first literally, He’ll bless you for your efforts.
And 3. You are not alone. I struggle all the time with figuring out how to get it all done in a day. Whether you’re juggling a business, a husband, and kids like me, or you’re just trying to figure out where to live, what to do, or who to date, you aren’t alone. God loves you and He cares about every detail of your life. If you’d ask His opinion, tell Him, Lord, I’ll do whatever you want me to today, He’s faithful to direct your path. I’m a witness.
I don’t always get up in the morning. And I jack up on my walk many times every hour of the day. But I can say that since I’ve decided to prioritize time with God, my faith has grown, my expectation has grown, and the room that I leave in my life for God to do miracles has grown, too.
The sellers of our new house haven’t accepted our offer yet, but they will. I don’t yet have all of the money I need for a down payment either. I don’t know how we’re going to afford the renovations and I’m not sure when we’ll move in.
But of this one thing I am certain: Philippians 4:19 NIV. God will meet all of my needs.
And He will meet yours too. Just have faith, have expectation, and trust Him enough to take the LEAP He’s planted in your heart.
Below is an excerpt of the devotional I shared during the call.
For our topic tonight, I’d like to reference a hymn that actually predates me. It came about in 1979 and was — and remains — quite popular. The hymn is, “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough,” sang by that anointed psalmist, Michael Jackson.
Ok, ok. I’ll admit that “Don’t stop til you get enough” and Michael Jackson aren’t where most folks would find Christ-inspiration, but his song – specifically the hook of “don’t stop til you get enough” – is in fact reminiscent for me of a basic principle in the kingdom: don’t settle.
So tonight, for a few minutes, I want to encourage you to don’t stop til you get enough. Or in other words, to not settle for less than God’s best in your life.
The word of God says that we are to be in this world but not of it, transformed by a renewing our minds (Romans 12:2). Likewise, it says in Jeremiah 29 that God has a plan for us to give us hope and a future, to prosper us not harm us. And then, in Psa 37:4, we’re told that God will give us the desires of our hearts. He’ll literally tell us what we should want so that His plan for our lives can be achieved.
So, for me, adding all of that up, nothing in that says to simply accept what’s offered to you. To go along to get along. Nothing in those promises says we should have low or no expectations in life.
So why then do we, especially women, continue to accept cookie-cutter lives when we serve a radical God who delights in blessing us and Whom the word declares gives us every good and perfect gift?
Why accept the world’s leftovers when God has prepared a table for you? Why accept anything less than God’s best when, as the daughter of the King, His best is in fact your birthright and inheritance?
Why accept following someone else’s career path when you deserve – and were created to accomplish – so much more? Why accept simply living, when you’re called to live life more abundantly? Why accept simply having your “ends meet” from month to month when your God wants you to live in abundance?
Why? Because sometimes we tell ourselves we aren’t good enough or we don’t deserve it. We allow the enemy to tell us that we have to earn our stripes, pay our dues, like everyone else. But I’m here to tell you that Jesus paid it all with HIS stripes so you and I could inherit the Kingdom and all that God has for us. You’ve just got to be committed to not stopping until you get enough. And you’ve gotta be patient until your breakthrough is delivered.
See, when we’re patient, the word tells us in James 1:12, that God will bless us. So if the key to getting God’s best is to be steadfast, patient, in waiting for what God wills, why not wait with expectation for His best instead of settling for what’s quickest or easiest?
See, we’re already told in 2 Cor 1:20 that all of God’s promises are yes in Christ. That means they’re already a done deal, ours to take hold of. If only we’d be patient and not settle. If only we’d make up in our minds to not stop til we get enough.
Don’t stop believing. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop hoping. Don’t stop expecting. Don’t stop planning. Don’t stop working like it depends on you. Don’t stop praying like it depends on God. Don’t stop dreaming. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.
You know, there’s an Internet image going around of two cartoon men, both seemingly digging in the same diamond mine. It appears they’ve been swinging their pickaxes for some time; they appear disheveled, sweaty, and tired. And they also both appear right at the edge of breaking though to an innumerable amount of diamonds right on the other side of a dirt wall ahead of them. Literally, we see them both only a few swings away.
But one of the men has given up; tired from all the digging and plugging away, he’s turned away from the inches of dirt that stand between him and a financial windfall. He walks away disappointed with his pickaxe over his shoulder, defeated. Above him the other man, who’s been digging just as long and as hard, continues to swing his axe. And that’s the motivation for you tonight. Because there’s no way he can be sure of WHEN he’ll break through, but he knows he will eventually and he’s committed to swinging until that breakthrough comes.
If you’re feeling like that first man tonight – beat down, defeated, tired, second-guessing whether what you’re chasing will ever really come to pass – I want to say to you tonight you’re one more swing away from your breakthrough. You’re one more swing away from landing that new client or earning that promotion. You’re one swing away from getting that ring or opening the doors on your new business. Your breakthrough is an arm’s length away. And your pickaxe is your faith in God. Your prayers and your confessions. You are one more prayer away, one more swing away, from God’s breakthrough for you.
Don’t let this world and the people who are of it talk you out of your blessing because their faith is too small or their fear is too big. You must not settle for anything less than the God’s best that you’re pursuing.
You must not give up or give in. Even if you journey on alone. Even if they can’t understand your passion or why it’s so important to you. Even if you are starting to wonder if you’ll ever get it, if it worth it anyway, I say to you tonight…
If you missed last night’s Leap of Faith Prayer Call for Women, the second in our five-week series, you can listen to the recording by using the credentials below:
And many thanks to all who stuck with us even after the technical difficulties. On the recording, you’ll hear a long silent period where I was evidently praying alone. Stick with it; I unmute myself and pray aloud after that, lol. To God be the glory forever!
Here’s an excerpt of the devotional I shared:
I know in my heart and soul that each of you is pregnant with purpose, with new ideas, businesses, and genius. It’s why you’re on this call: to agree with other likeminded women that your “next” is coming soon, now even.
But just like in our natural lives, there’s no delivery without pushing. You can’t get all that God’s placed in you out until you push it out.
Now pushing in labor is both external and internal. It’s you doing your best on the inside and external forces ensuring everything is in the right position on the outside.
In labor, sometimes the doctor has to put his or her hands on you to turn some things around and line some things up. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but you endure, you grin and bear it because the potential and the promise of what’s just on the other side of your pain gives your pain a purpose. It makes it palatable.
But even after the Doctor has you in position and is ready for the delivery plan to move forward, you’ve still got to do your part. You’ve got to push that thing out to truly give it life.
In church, I believe many of us are familiar with this acronym for “push”: pray until something happens. But tonight, I’m going to encourage you to change that up a bit and do four things to get to your breakthrough.
1. PRAYuntil something happens.
2. PLANuntil something happens.
3. PRAISEuntil something happens.
4. And then PREVISIONuntil something happens.
Pray. Pray until something happens. You won’t now how to get where God has predestined for you to get unless and until you ask Him. Prayer is your direct line to God. Call Him up. The Bible actually says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that we should pray without ceasing. That simply means we should be talking to God all the time about every thing. The shortest and fastest route between you and your breakthrough is through Him.
Plan. Plan until something happens. When we’re waiting for God to bring forth our breakthrough, we need to be actively waiting; not just twiddling our thumbs. When we pray believing that we’ll receive, we can also begin to ask God what His plan is for how we should responsibly steward that blessing. What good is a blessing if we don’t know how He wants us to be blessed by it? It’s integral that we ask Him for and then begin to write out His plan for our next season.
Praise. Praise until something happens. Another way that we wait actively and in faith is by praising God. Praising Him for what He’s already done, for who He is, and what He’s promised us. Praise chases away rain clouds and doubt. Praise is the soundtrack to your push. Praise demonstrates your perception of just how powerful your God is. In fact 2 Chronicles 2:22 tells us that praise confuses our enemy. So get to shouting!
And finally Prevision. Prevision until something happens. Prevision means to see before. You’ve gotta see yourself already there: already in the new job; already running your own business; already doing your thing. This is fundamental to our walk with Christ; akin to the definition of faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for; evidence of things unseen. If you can’t see it, then your faith is not yet aligned with God’s will, and you may not be ready.
Look, we’ve already established last week that you are strong — much stronger than anything the enemy can throw at you and any circumstance you might find yourself in.
But tonight I want you to know that not only are you strong, you are powerful. Through the blood of Christ you’ve been given the authority to make things happen in your life and the lives of those around you.
Are you tired of waiting for your turn? Tired of wondering when it’ll be your time? I’m here to tell you definitively that it IS your time and your turn. And if you’re ready and you want to birth the great, God-given desires and ideas planted in you, then all you’ve gotta do is PUSH. Pray, plan, praise, and Prevision until something happens in your life.
Tell that mountain to move and you continue move forward with the Lord!
For the past day or so, I’ve been listening to The Walls Group album “Fast Forward” almost non-stop. (if you haven’t heard it, you should! It’s awesome!) And one song has been on repeat in my Spirit — I woke up singing it: “God on My Mind (feat. Brandy).”
Now, I’ll admit, a minuscule part of the reason why the song resonates for me is because it samples Brandy’s “Always on My Mind,” and hers was the first CD I ever owned back in middle school.
But this morning, when I woke up singing the song’s chorus, God gave me a revelation about its lyrics. They go:
From the mountains to the seas, from the day that we believed to the beginning of time. I can’t get you off my mind. From the stars in space, to that empty grave, no matter how hard I try I can’t get God off my mind. Always on my mind, your always on my mind. Thoughts of you all the time, your always on my mind.
I’ve listened to the song so many times and found myself inspired by the aspirational quality of these words. I aspire to have God on my mind ALL the time. In fact, the Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV to “16 Rejoice always,17 pray without ceasing,18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” And what more is prayer than thinking of and talking to God?
But this morning, the Holy Spirit gave me this epiphany: “You’re always on God’s mind. He never stops thinking of you. He’s obsessed.”
And suddenly, the lyrics had even greater meaning.
“From the mountains to the seas…”– No matter where we are or end up physically, nothing can separate us from the love of God. He loves us so big and so wide and so deeply, that even when we stray from Him – physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, whatever – He’s still thinking of us.
“…from the day that we believed to the beginning of time..” — The Bible tells us in Jeremiah that before we were even in our mothers’ wombs, God knew us. Even then, He was thinking of us. And as we grew up, even before we chose Him, He was thinking about us enough to send his Son to die in our place. From before our lives started and every moment since, we’ve been on God’s mind.
“I can’t get you off my mind.” — The Psalmist tells us in chapter 139 that God’s thoughts on us are so numerous that they outnumber the grains of sand.
“Always on my mind, your always on my mind. Thoughts of you all the time, your always on my mind.” — And His obsession with us is consistent. It’s constant. He is always thinking about us. It, like Him, is unchanging.
Isn’t that overwhelming? To consider that God is always thinking about me. About you. Your situation. Your hardships and trials. Your joys and successes. What’s important to you. What you’re worried about. What you fear. What you need.
Every moment of your life, God is thinking of you. Nothing surprises Him. No circumstance sneaks up on Him. He knew. He knows. He’s thinking of you.
I don’t know what you’re facing today, but I hope you’ll know this: God is absolutely obsessed with you. You’re the apple of His eye and, because you’re so important to Him, He’s made you more than a conqueror; He’s defeated your every foe; and He is always working things out to benefit you. He’s thought about all you’ll ever need and want, and has created a plan to give you hope and a future. To bless you.
God can’t get you off His mind.
So walk through today in godly confidence that the Creator of the world, the King of all nations, the Alpha and Omega is thinking about you. Right. Now.
I had an experience last week that I’ve shared pretty widely on my personal social media channels, but whose impact was/is so profound on me that I wanted to share with you all.
I have three children, two daughters (5- and almost-4-years-old) and a son who is 2. Last week, my younger daughter ended up getting glasses quite unexpectedly. As a result, my husband and I thought it best if we have her older sister checked out, too. Just to be safe, y’know?
Neither girl had ever complained of eye or head issues. Teachers never perceived challenges seeing the board or things across the room. And the girls themselves never mentioned not being able to see or having issues seeing.
So imagine my surprise when my oldest daughter tested with a vision of 130/20 in one of her eyes. (For comparison’s sake, healthy, non-impaired vision for young children is about 30/20. ) The other eye saw nearly perfectly and has been compensating for this weaker eye for her entire life.
I sat stunned as my daughter’s exam continued. Even the doctor, assistant, and later the eyeglass provider remarked at how remarkably vast the difference was in her two eyes, and how unbelievable it was that she’d never complained.
My daughter would end the night sporting brand new purple specs. I would still be thinking about the experience days later.
That stuck with me was this idea that what the world would deem as inoperable, no good, legally blind, or some other trite categorization God had blessed to be perfect.
With the vision my daughter has in her weaker eye, it is truly a miracle that she doesn’t have many more scrapes, bumps, bruises and injuries. But because of the power of God, to touch an imperfect thing, she’s seeing as close to 20/20 as a child can.
We all have broken places in our lives. Relationships that left us wounded and scarred. Bad experiences and past mistakes that have broken our faith, our expectation and motivation.
But God wants to give us peace for our pieces. He wants to put back together that which the world would say is beyond saving, beyond repairing, beyond earthly good.
God specializes in taking all of our nothingness and making it something. He is a master at perfecting the imperfect and blessing the unbelievable.
You may think that your situation is too far gone. The debt is too high. Your income is too low. You’ve been hurt too many times; abused too many times. You’ve made too many bad choices, too many wrong decisions. You might even believe that now, because of all you’ve been through, you’re no good to anyone. You’ll never be loved. You’ll never get promoted. You’ll never see increase. You’ll never know peace. That child will never come home. That spouse will never act right.
Whatever your never is, I urge you to give it all to God. The Bible urges us to cast our cares on Him once and for all because He cares for us passionately.
Give all of your broken places and pieces to the one Potter who can put them all together again.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been walking through life feeling victimized and handicapped. Perhaps you, like my daughter, have only known one way, one view on life. You’ve only every known setbacks, let-downs and disappointments.
If you’ll keep walking the path He has for you with joy and gratitude, letting Him have all that you have, He’ll give you perfection. He’ll give you clarity. He’ll give you vision. He’ll give you all the tools you need to walk into a new season with Him and for Him.
You are enough just the way you; broken pieces and all. And it matter not whether the world sees it or says it. Heck, it doesn’t even matter whether you see it. All that matters is that you believe that God sees perfection in you His imperfect being. And it’s His heart’s desire that you experience abundance – divine perfection and clarity – in every area of your life.
***
My daughter loves her glasses . She loves the color and how she looks in them. She doesn’t quite understand why she needed them – she’d always been OK with how she was seeing. But isn’t just like God to show us better when we can show him that we’re grateful for all we already have?
Seek God for the blessing in your brokenness. There’s one there, if you’d just give the pieces over to Him.
These are the Scriptures that are on my heart this morning:
Deuteronomy 28:8
“The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
Deuteronomy 28:12a
The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do.
1 Timothy 4:14
Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
Proverbs 18:16
Giving a gift can open doors; it gives access to important people!
Although I’ve been blessed to be employed for many Labor Day holidays, this one today feels different.
It’s different because today I celebrate Labor Day as someone who went to God with an explicit, detailed and bold prayer request for a new job more than six months ago and today I am in that job. A job that God, quite literally, created for me to fit the criteria of my bold prayer and bold faith.
So where, quite often in the past, Labor Day was an all too brief but welcomed respite from the drudgery of a 9-to-5, today I have a different perspective because I feel like I’m using my God-given talents in a job that glorifies Him; in a way that glorifies Him; and through a vehicle He ordained to bless me.
You know, there’s nothing logical about my professional progression. I majored in journalism in college. Worked in Higher Ed administration and admissions for a couple of years after college (probably because I just wasn’t ready to let my college years go). I earned my Masters in writing and in that time did all kinds of writing for all kinds of outlets. I followed a passion for people and telling stories and desiring justice for everyone to a communications stint at the Salvation Army and then into (my first) public relations as the spokesperson for DC Public Schools. From there, I continued to wonder what I wanted to do when I grew up…right into the office of Congressman Elijah Cummings as his spokeswoman.
Now in all of that time, I made a ton of mistakes. I learned a lot. Made invaluable connections. But more than anything, I prayed non-stop that God would use me and that He’d close any doors I was not meant to go through. Let’s be clear, I did not and do not deserve anything that I have. And I didn’t always “get it right,” but the one thing I never waivered in was my desire for God’s will for me and my belief that He woudn’t take me anywhere that I wasn’t supposed to be.
I’ve quit jobs because I trusted Him that much. I took jobs that I thought were beyond my ability in positions I thought were too good for me because I trusted Him. And now, today, I sit in a job that He made for me to glorify His name and kingdom because it’s where He lead me and because He knows far better than I what I’m capable of and what gifts He’s put in me.
Don’t be fooled: I’m still scared about a some of the requirements of this new job. There are things I must learn and improve upon — and fast — but the thing about trusting and waiting on God is that He won’t promote you before you’re ready because He wants to see you succeed.
See it blesses God to see you succeed using the gifts He’s given you. It’s a testimony to His greatness when we allow him to bless the work of our hands. He has no desire to see, gets no pleasure out of seeing, us drag ourselves into jobs day in and day out just for the check. Why? Because, first, He’s our Source and provider, and second, because He came to give us life and life more abundantly.
…I guess I say all of this morning to say this: take time today to seek God’s face about where you are in your career or profession. Be honest with Him about how you’re feeling about where He has you placed right now, and then get serious about living and working on purpose!
The Scriptures above are all promises of what God will do with our work when we give it to Him for His glory and are obedient in using our gifts. They are promises available to all His children. They are work realities that can be yours!
Use today to reflect on how God’s gifted you and how you can glorify HIm with it.
I’m a living testimony that it won’t always look right or feel right, but if you trust God to lead you and believe in Him, He will use the seeds He’s planted in you for His glory AND your good.
I’m a believer that this Labor Day is about taking a moment to check the work of our hands to ensure that it’s fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives.
God wants more for you than just a J-O-B. And if you want that, too, take some time today to talk to God about it! Ask Him to give you a plan for getting back in His will OR preparing for His promotion and then get ready, get ready, get ready!
God has a plan JUST FOR YOU and a purpose that ONLY YOU CAN FULFILL.
Your living ain’t in vain. Live on purpose and He’ll promote you. No matter what you do, where you’re gifted, or what you’ve got, give it all to God. He’ll bless it and multiply it just like HIs word says!
I woke up this morning with the Walter Hawkins classic, “God Will Open Doors”, on repeat in my Spirit.
Check it out (YouTube courtesy of minjcj1961):
Man, my home church, the New Canaan Worship Center in Richmond, used to ROCK this! I remember Mrs. Comer used to sing this and when they got to the end, they’d kick up the tempo a little bit on the chorus and sing it over and over again. The director, Min. James Paige, would get to kickin’ the back of that piano, pounding the keys, and the Spirit would just be so high.
This song has staying power simply because, just like the Bible, its emphasis, its power, and its TRUTH are unchanging. Yeah, I think it was recorded in the 80s, but I bet you there’s not a church mother at a Baptist, Pentecostal, Apostolic, Charismatic, or WHATEVER church in the south who doesn’t remember swaying and GOING IN to this! Somebody call the Deacons and get the Deaconnesses to prepare those prayer cloths because folks WILL be slain on this joint!
But you know another reason why this song has staying power? Because it’s built on, based on and all about a God who also has staying power. A God that no matter how bad it looks, how hard it gets, how long you’ve been waiting…a God that no matter what your mother says, your father did, the doctor diagnosed…a God that no matter how high the bill, how tough the challenge, how seemingly invincible the foe, that God – who after more than two thousand years – is not only still here, but STILL has an undefeated record and is STILL in the life changing, way making, miracle creating, heart fixing, mind regulating, path straightening, bill paying, tear drying, devil defeating business!
And what may even be more shout-worthy than that is this truth: that the same power to stand and prevail in the face of ANY and EVERYTHING the devil may throw at you (or that you may get yourself into — let’s be honest) is within us.
No matter what we’re up against, just like the song says, through your darkest days, and even though you can’t see the way, God will open doors for you.
When you’re walking down a path that you’ve been walking down with seemingly no results for so long that you begin to question whether it was God’s leading in the first way and you have no idea now where you’re headed. Know that, just like the song says, when you can’t see your way, and you feel that you have gone astray, doing all you know to do. God has not forgotten you. Hold your head up and be true, for God will open doors for you.
In some ways I feel like I’m coming out of a season just like that. I began praying God-given requests in the beginning of 2013. Dreams and goals so specific, yet so foreign to me that only God could have given them to me. Now, as we are more than halfway through the year, God is manifesting in my life those very things I circled in prayer repeatedly over the past several months. The job I wanted. The salary I asked for. The schedule I needed. The blessings for my children and husband. They’re all coming to pass now.
I say this not to brag – because surely I deserve NOTHING that God has blessed me with — but to encourage you. Someone reading this has been circling the same prayer(s), praying for the same thing(s) for days, weeks, months, maybe even years. When you started your petition for that thing you had no doubt that God orchestrated and ordered it. But now, after so long, and seemingly so little progress, you wonder from time to time, Should I even keep praying this? Is it worth it? Was it ever God’s will? Does God hear me? Has He forgotten about me? Does He see what I’m going through? Does He care? Maybe I should just give up.
I may have shared this with you guys before, but if you find yourself wondering those things, I implore you to read, memorize, meditate on, and recite to yourself and that lying devil the Amplified version of Philippians 4:6:
Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.
There are two things I need you to get from that scripture. The first is the definition of “petition”, which is “definite requests”. We don’t serve an ambiguous, passive, laissez-faire God. In fact, my pastor, Mark Batterson, wrote in his book “Draw The Circle” that it doesn’t honor God when we come to him with vague prayer requests. What are you saying to the God of EVERYTHING when you come forth with timid, half-hearted, vague prayers? You’re saying, I don’t know if you can do it, I don’t know if you’ll do it for me, and I probably shouldn’t even ask anyway, but here goes.
The second thing I need you to get — and this goes back to the foundation of this post about staying power — is that the end of that verse says “CONTINUE TO MAKE YOUR WANTS KNOWN TO GOD.” We give up on God and ourselves and the dreams He’s given us too, the prayers we’ve prayed, we give up too easily and too soon. When God’s ordained it – when He’s led you to pray for something, to do something, to ask for something, to believe in something, to trust Him for something – IT. WILL. HAPPEN. Period. So CONTINUE going back to Him saying, “You told me X, Lord, and I believe you will do it/give it to me/make it happen.” Tap into your Holy Ghost-fueled staying power. This glorifies God, grows your faith, and helps you remain focused on what God needs you to see.
NOW, in due diligence, I need to reiterate that you must pursue, passionately desire, thirst for, hunger for, seek after, and cling to what God wants for you in order for this to be a guarantee. But don’t fret, if you can’t shake that dream, that goal, that feeling that you should be doing x, or helping y, or preparing for z. And if, after every time you pray for it you come out of your prayer closet reassured and feeling at peace, then 9 times out of 10 it’s God prompting you and it will happen. And in the 10th case, where maybe you misread the signals, the Word says that as long as we believe that what we’re doing is what God wants, He’ll make that work in our favor, too.
When you can’t see your way, feeling that you’ve gone astray…Hold your head up and be true. God has not forgotten you. I know my God will open doors for you…
I apologize to you all for my long absence. As God began manifesting things in my life — blessings all over that indeed I do not have room to receive! – it was necessary that I focus on Him and me and where He was leading me. But I’m excited to be back. Grateful for your time. And humbled that God loves me enough to use my life to bless someone else.
Remember, you’ve got staying power. God WILL open doors for you! And He specializes in those doors no one can see but Him!
ingly digging in the same diamond mine. It appears they’ve been swinging their pickaxes for some time; they appear disheveled, sweaty, and tired. And they also both appear right at the edge of breaking though to an innumerable amount of diamonds right on the other side of a dirt wall ahead of them. Literally, we see them both only a few swings away.
I have three children, two daughters (5- and almost-4-years-old) and a son who is 2. Last week, my younger daughter ended up getting glasses quite unexpectedly. As a result, my husband and I thought it best if we have her older sister checked out, too. Just to be safe, y’know?
Radical NewU™ 