Faith & Grace: A lil uplift

By: Shwanda Jones

Faith & Grace

Dictionary.com defines faith as:
(noun) 1) confidence or trust 2) religious belief 3) loyalty
-in faith (idiom(n)-expression peculiar to a language) 1) in truth; indeed


Dictionary.com defines grace as:
(noun) 1) beauty of form, manner, etc. 2) goodwill 3) mercy 4) God's love or favor 5) prayer of thanks said at mealtime

(verb) (used with object) graced gracing
6) to lend grace to 7) to favor or honor
-have the grace to (idiom)(n)-to be so kind as to

Faith background scripture: Mark 10:46-52 (KJV)

Grace background scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:9-10; 1 Corinthians 1:3-4; 2 Corinthians 9:8

Hebrew Words for faith:

"Aman" - "believe, trust in, rely upon, believe in, have faith" or "be faithful...trust, have
belief, believe, to be certain."
"Batah" - "trust in, trust or rely upon" or "feel safe, trust, be full of confidence"
"Mibtah" - "trust, confidence" or "confidence...security"
"Hasah" - "seek refuge, flee for protection and thus figuratively put trust in (God), confide, hope in (God or person)"
"Galal" - "commit...trust...roll"
"Mahseh" - "refuge, shelter" or "to seek refuge. It suggests that a person is helpless and in danger and is rushing to find a secure hiding place"
"Yahal" - "wait, tarry for, wait for equaling hope for"
"Rechats" - "rely on, put one's trust in"
"Emunah" - "the basic meaning of emunah is 'certainty' and 'faithfulness'" or "faithfulness, trust"

Thought (taken from "What the Bible Says to the...Minister")
a)The grace of Christ is sufficient for you.
b)The strength of Christ is made perfect in your weakness.
c)The power of Christ will rest upon you through all your infirmities and trails
d)When you suffer some infirmity or weakness, it gives Christ the chance to infuse power into you and to overcome the weakness for you.

• "in infirmities": a general term meaning all kinds of sufferings and weaknesses, whether moral or physical.
• "in reproaches": whether ridicule, insult, slander, rumor, or whatever.
• "in necessities": hardships, needs, deprivations, hunger, thirst, lack of shelter or clothing, or any other necessity
• "in persecutions": verbal or physical attack, abuse, or injury
• "in distresses": tight situations, perplexities, disturbances, anxious moments, inescapable problems and difficulties

Here we go...
There is something powerful about the story of the blind Bartimaeus. A man with no sight, but with much faith. Often times we lose faith when we can't foretell our direction or figure out our next move, but this man, Bartimaeus, having no sight found faith and believed in Jesus Christ and trusted that if he could just make it Jesus, even without seeing Jesus, he would be healed and his sight restored.

Grace and faith, go hand in hand. Grace, often being interpreted as favor and faith, often being interpreted as trust are two pertinent assets you want to possess in your walk with God. You want to believe He is God Almighty and trust Him for who He is, even when you're not sure, even when you can't see what He's doing, even when you're unsure. You have to remain faithful and trust that He won't lead you astray. In your faith, just like Bartimaeus, you will be given grace. God showed Bartimaeus his grace by healing him of his infirmity. Often we will be plagued with something or a situation will occur where our faith is tried but how many know that if we just stand firm on what God promised, He will show us grace and mercy to bring us out for all the world to see. God is waiting to prove that He is God, the Alpha and the Omega, Jehovah Jireh our Provider, our light, our rock, our salvation. Even when people try to stop us, crush our faith or belief, as the scripture reads in regard to Bartimaeus, we have to press through. We have to press for our healing, press for our breakthrough, press for our deliverance even in the midst of mess, even in the midst of our pain, even in the midst of our wrongs, we have to hold on to God. Why? Because His grace and mercy is sufficient. He see's us at our lowest, at our high. He see's our tears. He feels our pain. He knows. But if we just press with our faith...if we just press through the crowd, trusting and believing God....His grace will renew, restore, revive and strengthen. Hallelujah.

Have you ever put on a pair of headphones?

By: Joshua Leavell

I know, kinda crazy. But living for the world and not for Christ is like putting on some Beats or some Sony DS Headphones (yeah I don't have Beats money) and hearing absolutely NOTHING! It's like having them plugged in and the sound is off, What and Who Are You Listening To? Although our sin doesn't fall on deaf ears with God, we often tune him out when we submit to our own will, not his, and go where we want instead of where he wants us to go. The worst part is some of us have the headphones on, can hear, but still choose self over sacrifice. James 1:19 says "let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry". Sometimes we aren't quick to hear God speak, because we can't hear him with the sound down or if he's tuned out. I'm encouraging us to "TURN UP CHRIST" in our lives, our minds, our hearts, and our headphones. Go ahead and increase his volume!

The UNTHINKABLE!

By: Fred Reid

Eh the title isn’t really as relevant as I’d like but I like attention getters lol This one is mainly about being COMPLETELY about this Christian life. Interestingly enough the scripture that I’m using is the unthinkable case. In 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 Paul describes what our life/religion would be like IF Christ had/has not risen. Already this should feel kind of uncomfortable because the whole point of power and victory of Christianity is Jesus resurrection. So importantly so that the verse I’m going to use is 19

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable”

If the only life we live is this natural life, based on the principles of Christ then we of ALL people are the MOST miserable. I’ve heard people say that if they die and find out there is no God they are not slighted because Christianity has a lot of morals that have resulted in them living a good life and being a good person. That sounds great but where this devotional becomes about being completely about this Christian life is really if Jesus isn’t currently alive you should be outraged when you find out because of the things you’ve experienced in your life!

Quick disclaimer, this is more mature than “dang Jesus aint real? I coulda been sinning all my life!” -_- Instead this is along the lines of I fasted, was ridiculed, sacrificed time, money, friends, family, advancement opportunities, was hurt, and embarrassed and now it was all for nothing? Paul went to jail repeatedly! Was flogged (funny word hehehe) repeatedly! All for the sake of Christ. Peter was crucified upside down, John the Baptist beheaded, Stephen stoned to death…all for the sake of and message of Christ. Can you now see how terrible news it would be that Jesus was still dead?

The question I pose to you then is how in this are you REALLY? Is it just a few hours once a twice a week to wear nice clothes and see others in nice clothes? Is it a great sounding story that gives you motivation when you feel down? Is it a coping mechanism to pray when things are tough? If it is be honest with yourself! Find out where you really stand and evaluate yourself accordingly. I assert that this should be your LIFE! Everything should be riding on Jesus death AND resurrection! There should be some tough times/losses you can accredit to the gospel of Jesus, time where what you believed caused you to seemingly downgrade your quality of life. Because good news is HE IS ALIVE! How do I know? (singing) “I can feel’em in my hands, feel’em in my feet, feel’em all ova me!”

Over and Out J

Gon’ Head and Ask

By: Monique Smith

So this morning, over the staff list serv, this scripture was sent:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

James 1:5

And I thought to myself, man, God is cool! Like anything we want, all we have to do is ask Him. So, I decided to do a devotional about that to remind you all. This is something that we all know and have known for a while, but I just wanted to remind you of this simple FACT.

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:5-9).

Just ASK! Just ASK! Gon’ head and ask! Don’t ask with doubt, ask with faith!

“In the Greek, the words ask, seek, and knock are present participle verbs. The more correct translation would read, ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking. God invites us to be persistent in our prayers. We can give our worries and cares to God and leave it up to Him to do the rest”- Girlfriends in God devotional

So be excited today and know that our father loves to give us things!

Prayer: God, I love you! It’s so great that you, the owner of all things, who is perfect and holy, grants me the opportunity to simply ask you what I want! Glory Glory! Keep drawing me closer to you! In Jesus name! Amen.

Don’t be mislead…

By: Shwanda Jones

So in this season, I’m reading a series of books, in regard to ministry, prayer and servanthood in the kingdom. There’s this one particular book that I’m reading titled “The Art of Prayer” by Kenneth E. Hagin and it’s a really powerful book. If you get a chance, you should pick it up and read it. This is my dad’s copy, I just swiped it from the house this past weekend J. Any who, I want to share with you a few excerpts from this particular chapter, then I want to translate to you the meaning I gathered from it…Here goes…

Chapter 13: Prayer for the Sick

“Another definition of the word translated “infirmity” in Romans 8:26 is “feebleness of body; frailty; sickness.”…We know it is the highest and the perfect will of God that every believer not be sick, but live out his full length of time here below until his body wears out and he falls asleep in Jesus…But we also know from the natural standpoint that for a number of reasons that does not happen with everybody – even all of God’s children…In dealing with the sick, I find that sometimes the Spirit of God hooks up with me and prays through me. And there are times I have tried to get Him to but He does not. You cannot make the Spirit of God do anything. Instead of using the Spirit, let the Spirit use you...How dependent we are upon the Holy Spirit in our prayer life.

Thirty years ago I went to a man’s bedside to pray for his healing. And I couldn’t even say the word “heal.” I’d say, “Oh, God,” and then instead of saying the word “heal,” I’d say, “bless this man.” I tried to make my tongue say “heal” and it would not. I couldn’t control my tongue. I said, “Lord, why can’t I pray for this man’s healing? He’s not old enough to die. You promised us a minimum of 70 or 80 years.”…But the Lord said to me, “Yes, but he was born again 36 years ago. I’ve been waiting on him to put away sin for 36 years. [Think about the patience of God!] He’s never lived right over two weeks at a time in 36 years. So I judged him and turned him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” …Then the Spirit said to me, “You can’t pray for his healing, but you can do this. Tell him you are going to lay your hands on him to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and his last days will be better than his first.””

This is my take…

Often times, we try to flip scripture to our own liking or make Holy Spirit say what we want to hear. The enemy has a way of intercepting and butting in at any time, which is why we have to be sensitive. The Holy Spirit can tell us one thing and we hear something totally different because we didn’t wanna hear what He originally said. This is often the case when we have been in prayer for something or if the Holy Spirit is not in agreement with the flesh. Waaa? Noo, not me? Die flesh die. Yes, we are inclined to let our flesh override our spirit and in psychology, if it’s something we don’t wanna hear, we can lie to ourselves and make it totally different.

Also, with sin. As Christians, servants, children of God, we should work towards a level of excellence in Christ. Don’t be mislead in thinking you’re getting away with your slip ups. Now, I’m not trying to be critical or pretend I’m perfect, because I’m not but even I know…the slip up, I will pay for…because I’m sensitive to the Holy Spirit and He notifies me. IF we’re not sensitive to the Holy Spirit, our slip ups will become more frequent and we’ll begin to lie to ourselves, thinking “it’s okay, it’s okay, we all fall short.” When in fact, we have the opportunity to live in abundance and in full but too many slip ups take away our life lines, literally and spiritually. God is a loving God and He does forgive and yes He knows we’re not perfect but that doesn’t mean He does not have expectations and the law is written that the wages of sin is death. Laws don’t tend to be reneged on. They’re set so we have to follow that standard. Unless of course! We come in tune with the Holy Spirit, repent and hearken to the Spirit and not our own minds. Sin of the flesh, reap of the flesh and so on and so forth. But don’t think for one second just because you’re sorry and you’re convinced in your mind that that was just a slip up and it’s ok that you won’t give in account for that.

In all these devotionals, I’m writing for myself too. We have to make up in our minds that we’re in or out. We’re not gonna be perfect but at some point we have to be accountable and set a standard for ourselves and follow the expectations of God. We as a people always tend to be sorry “after the fact.” We cry, we groan, we feel bad but the damage is done. Many of us are perfectionists in our crafts, our school work and our jobs…when are we gonna try to be perfectionists in living for God? Don’t be mislead.

Eddie Long: He who is without sin…

By: Juan Tuset

This isn’t really a devotional per se, but it’s something that’s been on my mind for a while, and I think other Christians should be aware of…

Ever since this fiasco with Bishop Eddie Long started last year, I’ve seen a ton of people who claim to be Christian and walk in love and forgiveness GOING IN on him. Recently, I saw a picture on a friend’s wall with Eddie Long with some guy. The photo had hearts everywhere and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day. From Eddie Long.” Seriously? The picture I mentioned wasn’t half as bad as some of the others I’ve seen, but for whatever reason it was the one that made me want to write this. Below, I copied the message I sent to my friend after I saw the post:

mike, you mah dude, so i gotta tell you. that post you put up of eddie long ain't right man. yea, what he did was wrong on SO many levels. but he is still a man of God, and is still anointed for all either of us know. you not supposed to touch or speak wrongly of God's servants. just like when Saul was trying to kill David, and almost did more than once. David had TWO chances to kill him, but he wouldn't because he understood that it wasn't his place to punish him and he would not touch God's anointed one. and eventually God punished him in His own way. eddie long sinned against God, not you. so it's not yours or anyone's place to put him on blast like that.

The instance where David spared Saul occurs once in 1 Samuel 26:2-9, and in Numbers 12:1-12, we see the consequences that come from bashing God’s anointed ones when Miriam, Moses’ sister began to grumble about God only speaking to and through Moses (God struck her with leprosy). Clearly, we see that it is NOT ok to come against the Lord’s servants in anyway, even if you think they’ve done something wrong…

And just in case you think that Bishop Long’s actions prove that he was never anointed by God in the first place, guess what? That STILL doesn’t give you permission to bash and slander him, or anyone else for that matter. In Matthew 24:39, Jesus says that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, and I’m quite sure that you wouldn’t want all your business on everyone’s facebook wall. Your reputation would probably be completely shattered if all your friends knew about all the mess you’d done. Among all the characteristics of love outlined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, the two that you need to take into account right now are the facts that love is kind and that love keeps no record of wrongs…

And if you STILL don’t agree with me, in John 8:7, Jesus spared a woman from being stoned for adultery after telling her accusers that “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Take a moment to realize that there was One there Who was without sin, Jesus. He has the authority to judge all creation (2 Timothy 4), and even He didn’t throw a stone. Because Jesus came so that we might be saved, not to judge and ridicule us. As Christians, we’re supposed to live like Jesus, Who walked in perpetual love, forgiveness and grace. If you know that your life doesn’t completely line up with these scriptures, you should pray and ask God to help you to love like He does.

God I want to be like you….and I’m SO glad you’re not like me!

By: Monique Smith

“God is not like people. He tells no lies. He is not like humans. He doesn't change his mind. When he says something, he does it. When he makes a promise, he keeps it.” Numbers 23:19

Hello peeps! So this scripture has been on my heart for the past few days. This scripture is so simple but says VOLUMES. This scripture eases doubt, reaffirms our faith, helps build our trust, shows God’s faithfulness, and show us another fantastic characteristic of our Father!
I say this often in my prayers, that I am so thankful that God is NOT like me. Why? Because I am very finicky in my attitude and unconditional love towards people sometimes. Of course, I’m a work in progress, but let’s not use that excuse this time. The reason I am like that is because I am human. But I’m SO SO glad that God doesn’t treat people the way I would if I was God. There would be quite a lot of people dead and in hell by now if it were up to me! “Oh so you wanna talk about me?! –Zap! Vanished off the face of the earth….and this would continue indefinitely lol. So yes, glad God isn’t like me.

I’m also super thankful for the promise of sticking to His word that God has given me! God reminds us over and over and over and over again throughout His word that He will fulfill what he says. Quote Him on that, make a bet, whatever, He’s going to stand to His word! How great is that to have that assurance over your life! And at times it’s SO easy to doubt promises that God made to you, so we really have to build our faith up with verses such as this. He will ALWAYS keep His promises to us! So to share a promise God made to me before, He told me that He would place me in positions where I didn’t really have the qualifications to be, but He would put me there. Two examples that have been manifest are:

1. My coaching Junior Varsity basketball at Reidsville High School, which is known for having great and sports teams. I had no previous coaching ability and no college level playing experience, but God allowed me to be the coach because that was one of my heart’s desire.

2. In February, I was named “Reidsville High School’s Educator of the Month”. This is monumental because there has been NO one in my entire student services office that has been nominated for this award at least within the last known five years. But God saw fit to elevate me and be recognized!

Again, “God is not like people. He tells no lies. He is not like humans. He doesn't change his mind. When he says something, he does it. When he makes a promise, he keeps it.” Numbers 23:19.

Think back to your old relationships or friendships, were you once in love or did you really love and respect someone….and now you don’t? I know I’ve had several boyfriends and several friends in the past were our relationship now does not compare and the love I have for them is nowhere near where it used to be. BUT GOD is NOTHING like that! His love never changes for us! It always stays the same! I don’t know about you but I’m extremely hype to be a part of this chosen generation! God is amazing and always surpasses my expectations! God is great!!!


Prayer: God, I promise, you are the best! My heart is swelling with joy and overflowing with praise for your loving-kindness toward me! I just can’t even type the joy I am feeling now and the amount of thanks I have for your Word and the promises you have made toward me! Keep revealing your Word to me and helping me with my faith, especially the times when more doubt is flowing from my brain than trust! I love you so much! In Jesus name! Amen!

Spiritual Gifts: Don’t Trip we need you!

By: Fred Reid

Wattup folk?! This is a quick but hopefully meaningful approach to spiritual gifts. I feel like often times they are stressed but not defined or explained and thus become something that is kind of feared or approached nervously instead of boldly and correctly. What I want to point out in this devotional is that your gift is nothing to be scared of or nervous about, its actually QUITE beneficial to you and others!

Of course there’s the famous scripture about your gift making room for you and bringing you before great men and women, but I don’t even wanna get that big on gifts today cuz that still feeds into the grand-scheme that makes them somewhat unapproachable for some people. Instead I wanna point out that your gift is something that you’ve had from jump street! Romans 11:29 says the gifts AND calling of God come without repentance. So whether you get saved or not the Lord has imparted something in your life that you can use! Without Christ, gifts are often used to make money (singers, psychics, motivational speakers) but once you DO get saved your gift is supposed to be used to build up the kingdom of God.

Another scripture about gifts I wanna point out is Ephesians 4:11-16. I'm not going to type it all here but I really hope you take a moment to read those verses, basically they point out some of the gifts that Christ left to the church and the purpose that they serve. Your gift is to help the church, verse 16 points out how every joint supplieth. So whatever your gift is WE NEED YOU TO SUPPLY! If you aren't are contributing you are making somebody else work harder than they have too! Also I want to point out that there is no hegemony of gifts pointed out in this scripture. Somehow in the church we have lifted those who are preacher, prophets, evangelists and other pulpit offices above the other gifts of the church. However, I think its important to realize that these offices CAN NOT carry the church! If everybody was preaching there would be no one listening, or welcoming new members, or teaching and breaking down the word into applicable scenarios, or singing songs to help get the atmosphere ready for a move of God.

In closing, don’t be afraid of whatever your gift is because 1) it’ll be something that you enjoy doing and probably have been indirectly doing your whole life and 2.) we need you! Think of it as basketball team, we all on the team but we need somebody to be the PG and somebody else to run center. Not because anybody is any better or more important than anyone else…but simply because we need all positions filled to be effective.

Over and Out : )

This could all be very simple…but you’d rather make it hard…

By: Fred Reid

Are those Lauryn Hill lyrics? Yes but what the devil meant for bad God can use for good! Oh shata! Lol oh seriously though it seemed like an appropriate title. I hope to point out some simple principles from the bible that have somehow become complicated over the years smh

Mark 11:24

“Therefore I say unto, What things soever YE DESIRE when ye pray, BELIEVE THAT YE RECEIVE THEM and ye SHALL have them”

Maybe it’s just me but I missed the part where Jesus said you have to pray really loud, really long, or over and over. The only thing close to complicated about this scripture is that underneath it He says to have to forgive others because you will be forgiven based on your ability/willingness to forgive others.

But hey maybe it was hot that day and son allowed the sun to beat that out of Him (hehehe I crack myself up lol)

John 15:7

“If ye abide in me and MY WORDS abide in you, ye SHALL ask what YE WILL and it SHALL be done unto you”

Welp once again we see a pretty simply formula. Only complicated part here is abiding in Jesus and allowing His words (not a lot of those four letter jawns tis tis tis) abide in us. If that’s still to simple for you, he made it a little more specific that we must continue in His love and up hold His commandments that the Father may be glorified. No where does it say be saved “x” amount of time, have “x” amount of days without sin. Secret to that is once you get saved and ask for repentance and CHANGE Jesus blood washes ALL that off of you AND God FORGETS! What a deal!! :D

People have been getting God’s words twisted from the beginning of time! Like literally! Genesis 2:16-17. God tells Adam that he can eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because the day they eat of that tree they shall surely die. However when Eve re-tells the commandment to the serpent (Gen 3:3) she adds in that they can’t even touch it or they shall die. A subtle mistake, but I just want to point out that when you start adding in stuff to God’s will and commandments you are setting yourself up for failure. The enemy will trick you and use this against you. Maybe Adam didn’t properly tell her the way God had told her, maybe there are preachers who aren’t properly telling you the word now; but fortunately you have your own bible and the Lord on your side to help you understand it. Now don’t be lazy!

Over and Out : )

“Where he leads me….

“Where he leads me….I’ll sometimes, when I feel like it, when I’m completely lostfollow.”

By: Monique Smith

The title of this devotional came from a Jessica Reedy song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP8K4Ij2x6c . I absolutely LOVE this song but found myself singing this song which proved to be contradictory to my love lifestyle with the Father pertaining to my acknowledging His word on a consistent basis. Basically during the month of January, I was not in my Bible reading my word hardly at all. But this song as well as other great worship songs were constantly playing in my car and on my phone....but unfortunately, without reading the Word, which is the map and path to the Father and the footprints of Jesus, I can’t follow anything!

And this my friends, leads to the revelation which will be typed below:

One Sunday night I stayed in Whitsett, NC with my Godsister and decided to wait until Monday morning at 5:45 a.m. to leave her house and head home and then go straight to work. Before I left her house, I googled the directions from there back to Reidsville. I wrote them down and read over them a few times before I actually left. I felt ready and prepared. The trip was going to take me about 38 minutes. So for the first part of the directions, I successfully was on track and following the directions. After a while, however, I started to get really comfortable with things and then decided to use my own “sense” as to judge where my next turns should be based on street names, signs, and any other thing that made sense (might I add that I had NEVER been in that area before in life….so idk where that idea came from!) My “common sense” got me lost. I ended up in Burlington somehow. As I’m riding through Burlington, I notice that the area looks familiar. I’ve seen the street names before and saw some familiar building. And I came across this one road that I KNEW I had traveled before, so I took that road! **Mapquest directions? I completely tossed them, I was just going off of my head knowledge**

As I continued driving down the road, I got a feeling that I wasn’t heading in the right direction. So I pulled over and mapped directions to Reidsville on my phone. ((Sooo now you may be wondering why I didn’t use my phone in the first place. Well I had 5% battery life left and no phone charger. I was tryna conserve)). After mapping the area, I see that I am headed towards CHAPEL HILL!....which is NOT in the direction to Reidsville! So I turn around and get back on track following my phone. During my efforts to get back on track, my phone dies. NOW I’m really lost. But, me being the confident one, I still try to fend for myself and pretend that I know where I’m going. So I keep driving straight. Ummm….I then ended up in some residential area with no street lights and it was just a hot mess. SO I attempt to find my way back to the main road where there were lights and stores. So since I was completely lost and still had to get to work, I backtracked and ran inside a Walgreens I saw to get a phone charger (Yes I could’ve done that the first time….but I just didn’t wanna stop for some reason).

….Umm okay Mo, what do you mean by all of this?

This relates to how we take direction and learn from the Word of God. A lot of us may read over some scriptures in the Bible before we leave the house in the morning or before bed at night and we feel confident and “set” on the knowledge that God shared there. But throughout the day, we many times dissert following that path we just learned of from the Word, but instead use our own “sense” or head knowledge to handle situations. We say things like “Oh, this has happened before” or “I know people who dealt with this before…so imma do this or do that”….It may feel that you’re making the right decision and going down the right path but you may be completely LOST. Completely out of touch. On the wrong path. It is not until you turn back to the map, which is the Word, that we can get back on track. In my case, it wasn’t until I went and got a car charger to look at the map, that I was able to get back on track. So how can we, as Christians, who are following the path of Christ, feel like we can figure out life on our own. NOT possible! Reading the Word once a week is NOT enough. Your brain can’t hold all the directions to heaven at the forefront when the enemy throws countless distractions in your mind. We don’t have time on this earth to continually go down the wrong path. YOU NEVER KNOW when your life will end! You may not even finish this devotional!! WE NEED the Word!

Now if you look back to the direction where my head was leading me….it was towards Chapel Hill. I LOVE the Triangle area for many reasons and its always great to go there, but is that the destination that I wanted to go? No. Just like if we don’t read our word, we’ll end up somewhere that’s comfortable and cool, other people will be there, but that’s not the path that God wanted us to be on!

Prayer: God, I love you! Thank you for providing me with direction throughout my entire daily life with your Holy Word and with your Holy Spirit. Please give me more desire and wisdom to read your Word! I’m tired of getting lost and caught up in the things of this world! I understand that every sin begins with a thought and every spiritual battle is won or lost at the threshold of my mind and I know without your Word, there is no way my mind can be renewed! Guide me in your ways dear God. You are my strength. You have redeemed me. I love you. In Jesus name, Amen.