Where is the love?

Many times I have been to churches and I have experienced no love. Now, you may wonder what I mean by this. I’m not saying that God should not be the focus and I’m definitely not saying that we should go to church for people or to play the sympathy card. I’m merely asking where is the love of Christ in church? I did not experience the love of God through “church people” until I got to my current church (I got so tired of people hugging me, lol). A lot of times we see people sitting right next to us and we don’t even bother to ask them how their day is going. God can do all things, but He uses us also. You smiling or asking someone how they are doing can brighten their whole year up. The world can be so cold and unforgiving. No one should have to come to the Lord's house and experience the same treatment. If you were in a tough place in your life and a stranger told you that God loves you and asks you if you needed prayer, would you look at them crazy? Keep in mind that you’re in a tough place in your life when answering that question. This same example is how God desires to use you. We do not go to church to look pretty and fill seats; we have a job to do and God is feeding us His word so that we will be equipped to do it. Show the love of Christ to someone today. I know that this assignment may be hard, but ask God to teach you how to see with His eyes, feel with His heart and hear with His ears.

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Need Prayer?

“But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32a). For a time, I didn’t ask people for prayer . I became protective of ‘my stuff,’ and I backed away from needing people because I had me-the army of one. I felt alone, misunderstood; all the things that I wanted no one to know about because I got me . This mindset created offense and functional depression. I backed away so that no one would see it; no one knew me enough to recognize what it looked like. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:32b). What does it look like when you are being sifted? The sifting starts early in life and can be a continuous pattern if the devil feels like his tactics are working against you. I asked a friend recently, “Why am I so emotional? Did God give me these emotions?” I tend to feel deeply because I am an intercessor, but the emotions have to be stewarded properly. You have to master them by submit...

Will You Marry Me?

I’m not obsessed, but I’ve been thinking about marriage a lot more lately. As a Christian, I’ve learned where I went wrong concerning my standards of dating before I knew Jesus. I have been looking at the profile pages of exes to see if, perhaps, I was missing something. I’m happy to report that I am not. I more so found myself thanking God for what He didn’t allow. Even though I’m thankful for every failed relationship, I find myself encountering the hurt that still remains as a result of my insecurities. There is so much that I have not let go of. In a way,I’m afraid to let go of the hurt that I am carrying because that vacant spot could potentially attract more pain in its place. I want to trust people, but the fear of them knowing who I intimately am always gets in my way. I so badly desire God and everything that He has for me, but the past is a hinderance. I feel as if I should finally forgive those that misused me, ...

I Forgot About Grace

“He answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So, I will celebrate my weakness, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 TPT) Today I read a devotional, and it reminded me that I forgot about grace. I always say that God is good, but I forget to say that God is graceful. On most days I operate in an autopilot state, and I give out of an empty cup. It’s exhausting to say the least, especially when life seemingly finds a way to knock the joy out of you through hardships. God is not just good, He is graceful. He gives us the grace to stand when our emotions make us want to fall to our knees in submission to defeat. God is graceful, and He covers us when we cry ourselves to sleep in an attempt to keep the truth of our situations hidden from the world. God is graceful! I never understood the ...

Take Up Your Cross

God paved the way for my present and my future with the prayers that He placed into my heart many years ago. I didn’t know what new challenges I would have to overcome or what would be required of me as I uttered the sentiments of my heart into His ears. All I knew was that I wanted to serve Him. One my many heart’s desires was to not be a seat filler. I didn’t want to grow content with occupying a seat in the church and never getting out of it to go into all the world to do what God had ordained for me to do in the earth. At that time I didn’t know who God had called me to be and I didn’t understand that some of my prayers was an indication of it. Spoken from a transparent place, as life happened, the more God told me to get up the more I wanted to sit down. Tiredness and fear had gripped me on more occasions than I want to admit and I have had the audacity to whisper, “ get somebody else to do it”, on more than one occasion. I felt justified in what I...

Allow God to Make You Great: Perfecting Imperfections

Sometimes the grace that covers your life is the call that God has placed on it. He has invested too much into you to allow you to die in your sin. We are like a treasure chest to God. Some people may look at us and think that we are worthless, but the value of who God says we are is locked up on the inside of us awaiting the season to be revealed. None of us know who we are until God speaks. We don’t know our purpose or even why we look the way that we do. God is strategic and protective. He can’t reveal the totality of the plan that he has for your life because you may try to either abort your mission or go on a voyage that He has not called you to go on. The grace of God is that he can turn our mistakes into blessings and He can use our season of disobedience as teachable points to warn others about what not to do. God specializes in fools, the forgotten, and outcasts. He gives His wisdom to those who people deem unworthy to have it and He transforms lives through brokenness. ...

I have Chosen You: Distractions and Distress are not Your Portion

“You did not choose me, but I choose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you.” (John 15:16 ESV). At the church that I attend, the stage/ alter has steps that one can ascend on to reach the top. As I looked at the steps, I envisioned what God is doing in this season. I saw a representative on the floor before the steps began , and I saw them moving up one step at a time. We are in a season of elevation and with elevation comes great responsibility. As I consider the prayers that I have prayed and the questions that I have asked God , I see the answers all around me, but inwardly I have rejected the responsibility that comes ...

War For Your Destiny!

Not only is there a war for your destiny, but YOU have to war for your destiny. Disadvantages and hardships came against Moses when he was a baby because of the size of his purpose. The level that the devil fights you gives an indication of the multitude that God wants to use you. God has placed such awesomeness on the inside of you that you don’t even know about. You are a threat to the devil’s kingdom. He wants you to not know who you really are. He wants you to believe that you are not special. Your destiny is why you go through so much. I met a young girl today that blowed me away with her talent. She could not only sing, but she could also play the piano. What impressed me most about this young girl is that she talked about grace. This let me know that she knew something about God. Where I work, I hear about God, but not his grace. In the midst of every emotion, set back, and battle that we encounter, we have to know that God is graceful. The enemy attempts to come agains...

Worship until I pass out!

Stop questing God about what is taking him so long to bless you and stop comparing you’re “come up” to how the people of the world are operating. God reigns on the just as well as the unjust (Matthew 5:45). Your” hard time” is meant to glorify your father in heaven! Let them look down on you, let them talk about you because guess what, God has some C4 (dunamis power, dynamite) ready that he is about to release on your behalf. You will walk in your destiny, but it will be in God’s timing. God is going to use you in the position that he will himself create for you, but first he has to train you to perform well on the Job. You have to be led by the ultimate Shepard so that he can teach you to have the gentleness, kindness, love and patience that you will need to have for the place that he is sending you. The money and the things will come, but right now you need to know how to sit at your father’s feet and worship. You are not mature enough for all the blessings that God has lined...

Keep Your Lamp Filled

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:1–5). Everyone had the same mindset to go to the same place for the same reason. Everyone was on their way, but partial action was taken by five of the virgins. The bridegroom had the capacity to care for all ten. Everyone had a lamp, but everyone did not have oil to see Who they were waiting for. The oil was available, but five virgins did not take the initiative to get more oil. What they had was not enough for the journey they were on. Five of the virgins were wise; they did what was needed to obtain more oil. The other five virgins were foolish, thinking that what they had was enough and that getting...

So You Think Your All That?

Every day I am learning that I am not my own. In spiritual warfare you cannot do the things that you used to do, say the things that you used to say, watch the things that you used to watch, or even hang around the people that you used to hang around. In many ways I am stubborn in all theses things and I have to be honest and say that I pay the price mentally for it. As a person who was a day dreamer and fantasizer before I gave my life to Christ, this has been a true battle area for me. I am a thinker, I have always been a thinker, but now God is using my mind for his purposes. He inspires me and gives me things to write down. Lately I have been a very negative thinker. I have been depressed, resenting my place in my life, and finding every horrible fault in the way that I feel I am being treated. In the words of Joyce Myer, I have to think about what I am thinking about. Ya’ll, pride can be a hard demon to slay. Many times we feel entitled and God wants us to drop the attitude an...

JaNina B.

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