Living the Christian life is a journey of suffering and joy. It’s a road on the way to Damascus. These stories include what it means to live as a fisher of men in modern day times.
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist. – Oscar Wilde
Take a deep breath. Feel the air fill your lungs, and hold on. Today is your day to live out what you’ve been thinking about. There is freedom moving forward. No one can stop you from starting over. Don’t think too fast for your feet that you become anxious for tomorrow. Just begin walking out today, and live it well, my friend.
There is peace here.
The birds haven’t spread their wings yet, and the squirrels are still tucked into tiny tree beds. My shoes do an early morning shuffle through the leaves, soaking up this damp air that lays heavy on my face. I swing a notebook in my hand, as I wait on the Lord for something, anything that will stir my spirit.
I snap this picture.
There’s a scattering of yellow and orange still holding onto life, staring at the fate of friends who have since let go. Perhaps those still breathing actually turn away, to face the sky in praise toward the Maker of the heavens and the universe.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! (Psalm 150:6)
Though these leaves, these lives undoubtedly see death happening all around, they don’t let go. I bet the view is spectacular up there.
And then one slips.
The heaviness in the air was too much to bear, I suppose. I watch the crinkled maple sway left, and see-saw right. I smile. Even a leaf can enjoy the ride on the way down. And now this leaf lays to rest in a bed where all the others have gone.
And soon the turn of the season will freeze this foliage that fertilizes new life in the Spring.
Look up. Whatever is raining on your parade, clouding your focus or heaven forbid, biting at your cheeks with the bitterness of a very long winter, turn away from the view of death in your situation.
Praise the heavens. This too shall pass. And there will be purpose here. One season is fertilizer for the next.
There’s something about the name of Jesus… it is the sweetest name I know.
I love the name Jesus.
Some people say I’m crazy but I can’t explain the power that I feel when I call Your name. It’s just like fire shut up in my bones, the Holy Ghost is moving and it just won’t leave me alone.
It’s sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. At the name Jesus, every need has got to bow. You don’t have to wait until the fire comes. Go on. Praise Him now.
– Kirk Franklin & The Rance Group
The most important meal of the day; prayer.
‘Come, Child. I’ve prepared something for you today.’
It’s a royal breakfast with your father, where are never more anxious to receive from God than He is willing to provide. We do not know what will be on the table today but we can be sure it is exactly what we need. It will nourish and refresh the soul, this we can be sure of.
He’s spread out a banquet table before you today. It is His pure pleasure to prepare it and gives great joy to His heart when we sit down to feast.
Did you remember to take in the most important meal of the day? It’s not too late to receive it.
Don’t let the condemning voices convince you that you’ve blown it. The brokenness in your marriage isn’t too far for recovery. Those bills can get paid and your credit restored. Your heart can discover hope after a devastating divorce, a death or unplanned pregnancy.
When we make mistakes or get off course, it’s easy to get down on ourselves and live guilty or condemned. Setbacks can push our dreams down and make us feel like a failure, weak and lame.
Sometimes it wasn’t even your fault. Maybe because of someone else, you were left here a mess with addictions, bad habits and scars. Even well-meaning people can put you at a disadvantage and it’s tempting to blame their problems for holding you back.
But it really is a waste to spend your time making excuses and going through life nursing the wounds, because God has His hand out wanting to put you back in the game.
It’s time to get off the sidelines. God is in the restoration business. Take the hand you were dealt and work with it.
The place where you are in life doesn’t change the identity of whose you are. Life may have thrown you some curves but you are still a child of the King.
God knows it all. He wants to give you back your joy, abundant peace, and help you get some victory over this stuff. He still loves you and wants to be good to you and He’s never waiting to write you off when you stray.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground. Psalm 147:3-6
You don’t have enough power to screw up God’s calling for your life. It is irrevocable. He doesn’t change His mind based on what you do.
We are the ones who decide that our weaknesses don’t deserve the royal crown. So we give up. Don’t let someone else’s judgment of your behaviors convince you to stay there. God wants to restore you back. But you have to get into agreement with Him on this.
Bring your humility with the desire to get back on track.
Mercy doesn’t make sense. We don’t deserve it but God gives it. So how long are you going to stay where you are? A fresh start is waiting for you. Let’s be done blaming others and move forward into a newfound freedom, the favor of God.
The Most High God breathed life into you and crowned your head in favor. He made His children kings and priests unto Him. Nothing that has happened to you will ever change your identity. No one can take it away.
You still have royal blood flowing through you.
You are extremely valuable to God and the King is looking for you today. You can run but He’s going to keep pursuing you. In the club. On the streets. While you’re at work. God will leave the rest of the flock to come find you. He wants to bless you. Are you ready to receive it?
Let it rain, Lord. Open the flood gates of heaven and pour out your favor upon us today.
What’s holding you hostage? Addiction? Your emotions? Decisions that have drained relationships and dried up your checking account? If you’re desperate to break free from the bondage, try giving God a chance. A heart-to-heart chance. He didn’t come to make bad people good. Jesus came to make dead people alive. Message me if you’re struggling with where to start.
I was once captive until He set me free. I’m here to tell you it’s a conscious choice to live in freedom daily. I’ve tasted the darkness and it left me hopeless but this life with Jesus has given me peace, abounding hope, an overflow of joy and unrelenting love.
I love you too much to not share the key that will unlock your life from these chains holding you down. Isn’t it about time to get free from a dead life and start living?
God didn’t ask for the able, He asked for you to become available.
The breeze coming through my window in the morning catches the fragrance of my first cup of coffee brewing by 5 a.m.
Suddenly, I have energy just by the scent and I’m tossing back the covers to reach for that cup of greatness.
I begin with an offering of my heart and then I release control over my pen. I’m too scared to try on my own, so I read through the Word and wrestle to my knees. My soul is intoxicated by the aroma of the Spirit. It fills my being and I consume slowly and deeply, as I do with my coffee.
There are many refills of both before I ever pick up that pen. The last bit is brimming when I feel ready to let it pour out on the pages and speak to someone else who may need what I just digested.
My past was buried under pages of perfection and I became too short on time to sort it out. Truthfully, there were struggles like fear and defeat that paralyzed my pen and made it easier to walk away from the words written down.
My control was carrying baggage with more than a thousand words from this journey through the valleys and mountain peaks that wasn’t worth much waiting on the fictitious day I could piece it together perfectly.
God is writing stories every day. We need only to be available. And willing to release control over the way He wants to write it.
When I write in cadence with the story of life, that’s what letting go of perfection looks like. These are drafts rough around the edges and it takes a lot of trust to let you see it. It takes a whole lot more faith to believe my Father in Heaven is going to work with it. And yet, that’s the life we were called to live, a life of faith.
Living in our creative expressions takes faith. God is painting a new picture now, of a girl running wild and free with the gift He gave her at birth.
The enemy has a plan for you, and it includes anything that will prevent a preview of this portrait the Artist has been painting.
So put it out there. Let go of control. Fear cripples creativity. Every professional started scribbling somewhere as an amateur. Practice by putting these gifts on display and watch what the Lord does with them.
Refine and rework the ridges tomorrow if you must, but for today splash the world in shades and strokes with whatever tools you have because time is running out. Perfection may have held you hostage but here’s permission to persevere.
Overthinking ruins you. Ruins the situation, twists it around, makes you worry and just makes everything much worse than it actually is.
Set your focus on the love of Jesus. Live in it. Breathe it. Constantly remind yourself of it.
We’ll know His love has invaded our hearts if, even in the pain, we want to see each other as brothers and sisters dearly loved, and held tightly by the Lord.
Anything that takes you away from loving other people is not worth your energy to think on.
It’s important to love where you are in life today. If you can’t find joy and peace where you are, you won’t find it where you’re going. It’s a heart issue, between you and God. Make peace with your situation. Happiness is based on your happenings, but joy roots itself deep in the soul and doesn’t waver with your circumstance.
If you won’t give three people 100% of your efforts today, you won’t give 3,000 that commitment either. It’s an attitude. Don’t settle on just winging it through life… work for it! You have the potential for more. Don’t wait for an opportunity, make it the right opportunity now.
“Consistency will give you a compounding that no other trait will.” – John Maxwell. When you deliver every day and consistently add value to people there comes a time of return to it. It’s not in a moment, it is progressive. So practice being consistent where you’re at, with the people right in front of you.
Ideas for consistency could be showing your appreciation for loved ones, greeting your job with enthusiasm and giving your best effort, making it to the gym because that’s how you love your body, choosing wise people to surround yourself with, or choosing even wiser places to hang out in.
Take my hand, let’s love this place where we are and give it our best. Today, could be our day of deliverance. I’m ready for it, are you?
Are the goals you’ve set about performance and validation or your personal progress to be a better version of yourself?