Monthly Archive

Psalm 91:14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”

When we set our love towards God, we have the following promises to look forward to:

Deliverance, Promotion, Answers, Companionship, Honor, Long Life, Satisfaction, and Salvation.

Setting our love towards God is more than saying, “God, I love you.” Setting our love means we honor God by doing His will, we make the adjustments to align our lives with His Word, and we put our faith, trust, and hope in Him.

All God wants is a devoted loving relationship with us. Let’s give God our love and keep it there and expect His promises to follow.

James 1:14 But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.

The temptations Satan presents are enticing and they appeal to our flesh. They are tailor-made temptations based on our sin tendencies, our upbringing, and what we’re exposing ourselves to.

It may seem fun to relieve the stresses of work by getting tipsy at happy hour. If cheating on our spouses was glorified in our upbringing, we may be tempted to do the same.

Certain temptations may not lead directly to sin. They just may lead us away from something more beneficial. For instance, Satan may tempt us to binge watch Netflix shows instead of spending time with God. There’s nothing wrong with watching Netflix, but the temptation to binge watch shows leads us away from quality time with God or being more productive with our time like studying for a test.

We must recognize and not succumb to temptation. God has blessed us with the wisdom to know when we’re being tempted and has given us the strength to resist. Use these tools to honor Him and have a better quality of life.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Have you ever heard the statement “You changed,” as if it’s a bad thing? In life, we’re supposed to change. There are two ways we can change. We can either change by renewing our minds with the Word of God or change by renewing our minds with something else.

When we renew our minds with the Word of God, we make our thoughts align with His Word. Any change in our thinking compels us to change our behavior. Consistently hearing the Word of God on love, service, and giving will change us into more of a loving, serving, and giving person.

This type of change is good. People often highlight the change in us because it makes them aware of areas where they need to grow. It puts pressure on them to change. It isolates them because now there’s one less person who thinks like them.

Don’t be resistant to change. It’s beneficial to our lives.

Psalm 139:17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.

God thinks about us often. He’s not just some giant in the sky demanding our praise. We’re always on His mind. He’s the lover of humanity.

God wants the best for us, He wants to see us prosper, and He wants us to tell others about Him. Even if we hadn’t done right by Him, we’re still on His mind. He hasn’t forgotten about us, He hasn’t disowned us, and He still loves us.

Just know, God loves you and He’s always thinking of you.

John 6:9 “Here is a boy with five barley loaves and two small fish. But what difference will these make among so many?”

The miracle of Jesus feeding the 5000 wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the little boy voluntarily giving up his lunch. Although it wasn’t stated, we know his lunch was given voluntarily, and not forced, because God never makes anyone do anything. That would violate our free-will, which would violate His Word.

Because the boy voluntarily gave his lunch for the Kingdom of God, his lunch was multiplied. The boy’s gift positively impacted his life and the lives of 5000 other people.

God is not going to owe anyone. When we cheerfully give, we can expect a harvest in return. If we give an additional $2.00, we can expect a harvest on that $2.00. If we give $200.00, we can expect a harvest on that $200.00. That’s God’s promise to us.

Even if it feels like your last, don’t be afraid of giving. God promises that He will multiply any seed we sow.

2 Samuel 6:14 And David danced before the Lord with all his might, clad in a linen ephod [a priest’s upper garment].

David danced in his undergarments. Is this how a king is supposed to act? Absolutely not. But, when it came to praising God, all protocol went out the door.

God has been so good to us. He’s saved us and delivered us from the bondage of sin. He blessed and continues to bless us. He’s healed our bodies. He’s kept our sanity, and so much more. With all that He’s done, breaking protocol for praise shouldn’t be an issue.

The problem is we think about other people. We don’t want to “embarrass ourselves” or look foolish, and we want to appear dignified. If lifting our hands, crying tears of joy, yelling, jumping, and running are foolish in the eyes of other people, then so be it. God is worthy of our praise.

In praise, break protocol by doing things you don’t normally do. God is worthy of all of our praise.

Inspired by Pastor Bill Winston

Luke 7:9 When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”

Mark 6:6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.

The things that make Jesus marvel….

In one instance, Jesus marveled at a man’s belief. In another instance, Jesus marveled at a group’s unbelief.

Be a person that makes Jesus positively marvel with your belief. Choose to believe God’s Word no matter how you feel or what your senses tell you. It will advance the Kingdom of God, benefit your life, and benefit the lives of others.

Mark 9:24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!

Isn’t this like some of us today. We want to believe, but unbelief keeps showing up.

Most Christians want to undoubtingly believe the Word of God. We want to believe all things are possible with God. We want to believe we are healed and whole. We want to believe we are protected from all danger. We want to believe, but our five senses and the circumstances surrounding us cause doubt to enter our minds. Doubt is the seed of unbelief.

We eliminate unbelief by renewing our minds with the Word of God (Romans 12:2). If we read and say something long enough, we’ll eventually believe it. When thoughts of doubt enter our minds, we should read/confess something in God’s Word that counters those thoughts. We do this until there’s manifestation. It may take days, months, or years, but we maintain our belief through the confession and meditation on the Word of God.

You want help with unbelief? Meditate and confess God’s Word.

Luke 12:48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

There are many of us who desire things such as marriage, a house, and children. Some of us have them now. For those who are still waiting, know these desires require great responsibility. If we have these things, know these things can improve by fulfilling our responsibilities.

A good marriage requires compromise, effective communication (even when we’re upset), and a daily dying to self. A beautiful house requires consistent cleaning, maintenance, and more money. Good children require sacrifice of sleep, pushing our desires aside, and effort without laziness.

If we don’t fulfill our requirements, we’ll have these desires in name only. The quality will be poor. If we’re not willing to fulfill our required responsibilities, we might want to hold off on obtaining these types of desires.

Fulfill the required responsibilities for every desire received.

Psalm 3:8 From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.

There’s help for just about any problem we face. If we feel sick, we go to a doctor. If we feel depressed, we go to a therapist. If we have money trouble, we go to a financial advisor. With all the avenues of help out there, some of us forget about God’s deliverance.

There’s nothing wrong with going to a doctor, seeing a therapist, or going to a financial advisor, but when that’s our first thought when we get into a situation, we exclude God. For some of us, we don’t go to God unless those other avenues don’t work.

God is THE Deliverer. He’s not just another option. The same delivering power we see in the Bible, is the same power He has today. The only difference is our reliance on that power. Help is one thing, but deliverance is another thing. Those other options may temporarily help, but with God’s deliverance, it’s effective, permanent, and we can be totally set free.

Let’s go back to the basics and rely on God to deliver us out of all our fears, problems, and situations.

Titus 2:2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; 3 the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— 4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. 6 Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, 7 in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, 8 sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

The older we get, the more knowledge we should have. This knowledge is not for hoarding, but for teaching. We all have young children, nieces or nephews, cousins, or our friend’s children we can teach.

By giving them knowledge, we can potentially prevent people from going through tough times, we can minimize their mistakes, and we can limit their foolish years.

Let’s be a blessing by sowing the seed of knowledge whenever an opportunity presents itself.

Daniel 4:34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.

The consequence of King Nebuchadnezzar’s sin of boasting and non-acknowledgement of God was an unstable mind. For 7 years, Nebuchadnezzar’s unstable mind forced him out of his kingdom; he lived in the wild, ate grass, and behaved like an animal. After 7 years, we can see God restoring Nebuchadnezzar’s mind back to its right state.

What can we learn from this? If God can restore the mind of a Babylonian king not under the covenant of God, He can surely restore the mind of every born-again believer.

If our spouse has been acting mean or cruel lately, we can call on God to restore their mind back to a kind state. If our children have been moody, we can rely on God to restore their minds to maintain a positive attitude. If our parents have been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s, God is strong enough to destroy the disease and restore their memories. Depressions, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses can all be restored by God if we believe.

Release your faith and praise God in advance for His mental restoring power.

Psalm 27:14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.

When things seem too slow, we often want to take the wheel and do things ourselves. Avoid giving in to this temptation. When taking things into our own hands, the outcome gets contaminated. The outcome will either be not as good as we’d hoped it would be, won’t last as long as we thought, or have factors we did not consider.

For instance, we may want to buy a house. God told us to wait. Although God told us to wait, thoughts of losing the house to another buyer causes us to impulsively buy the house. That house may have foundation issues that will cost us more money in the future. We may not have considered the property taxes we would have to pay on the house. Five years later, the neighborhood may not be as nice as it was. We could have avoided these issues if we waited on the Lord. This is true with a job, car, or relationship.

God’s timing is the best. Wait on Him and He will bless whatever He approves.

When it comes to God, everything is not going to be revelatory or deep, but stay the course. There are going to be times where it feels like nothing is happening, nothing is working, and God is far away, but stay the course. The time between when you prayed for the desire and the manifestation of that desire may be great, but stay the course.

We stay the course because we know our consistency in faith mixed with our patience will produce whatever we desire. Satan knows this and that’s when he’s the loudest. He’ll let us know this faith stuff is not working, God’s not listening to us, or we don’t deserve that desire. Here’s a tip. The more Satan talks, the more we should know it’s working.

Don’t get discouraged. Stay the course and watch desires from wisdom to materialistic things manifest in your life.

Hebrews 10:26 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

2 Samuel 23:3 The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: ‘He who rules over men must be just, Ruling in the fear of God.

God will place everyone of us in a position of leadership. It may be leadership at our jobs, leadership at church, or leadership over our children. Regardless of the leadership role, it’s important to be just and God fearing.

To be just simply means to be fair. What you do for one, you should do for another. How you treat one, you should treat another. No favoritism in being just.

Secondly, we must be God fearing. God fearing is our utmost respect and reverence to God. When we respect God, we respect His decisions. He may tell us to put a particular person in charge of a certain project. He may tell us to let that person lead worship. He may have you tell your children to help with a task. Even though it may not make sense, we submit our leadership to Him.

Those two things are the foundation of great leadership. Use them today.

Ecclesiastes 2:10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Some of us spend a lot of our time trying to obtain the ultimate goal of becoming wealthy to enjoy our lives to the fullest. Celebrities who reached the financial status of where we want to be tell us to grind, hustle, and get money, so we do. We want to enjoy every aspect of life and not think about the cost.

Is there something wrong with wanting to enjoy life to the fullest? No. It is unprofitable when wealth and riches just to spend on ourselves becomes our ultimate goal. Solomon, the richest man ever, did whatever he desired to do for years. At the end of the day, he calls it vanity or pointless.

Our ultimate goal is to honor God by fulfilling the purpose(s) He has for our lives. If we try to please ourselves, it’s vanity. If we try to please someone else, it’s vanity. Fulfilling God’s purpose is the only thing that will bring fulfillment to our lives now and benefit us in the next life.

Seek God on the purpose(s) He has for you.

A lot of us want to know the secret to having a long, fulfilling life on earth. Well, look no further. Psalm 34 gives us specific instructions on positioning ourselves to having that long life.

Psalm 34:12 Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, 13 keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. 14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

1. Keep our tongue from evil and deceit.
   Talking about people’s appearance, gossiping, lying, and speaking negatively in general are all forms of evil speech. Doing the opposite such as, uplifting one another, remaining silent when there’s a temptation to gossip, telling the truth in love, and being positive will position us to long life.
2. Depart from evil.
   Evil is doing anything contrary to the Word of God. Temptations to do evil will come. Resisting those temptations will fulfill our role to having a long life.
3. Do good.
   There’s a sense of good that God placed in all of us. Helping the poor, being a blessing, and simply being nice to each other are forms of good. Knowing what’s good is not enough. We must act on it.
4. Pursue peace.
   Maintaining peace is our responsibility. Avoiding arguments with our spouse, putting our pride aside, resisting the temptation to be offended, and removing ourselves from situations are all forms of pursuing peace. Avoid the drama and maintain peace.

A long fulfilling life is not a secret. When we do our part, a long fulfilling life is bound to happen.

Genesis 26:6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”

**For those of us who know their Bible history, Isaac’s father, Abraham, did the same thing.

Genesis 12:11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will allow you to live. 13 Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.”

As we can see, Isaac’s lie to preserve his life didn’t come out of nowhere. It had to be taught by his father Abraham. This is not a good example of something we should teach our children but, it does show how much of an impact we have on them.

We are our children’s first and most impressionable teachers. What they see and hear from us will last a lifetime. It’s going to be beneficial to teach our children spiritual things as well as practical things. How we want our children should be taught by us. They’ll learn other things from other people but, their foundational teaching should be from us.

Let’s be a good teacher to our children because they’re learning from us.

God told Saul to destroy everything associated with the Amalekites. Saul disobeyed God and kept the best of the Amalekites’ animals. Saul claimed he was going to use the animals to sacrifice to the Lord.

1 Samuel 15:22 But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

Some of us sacrifice out of our flesh instead of obeying God. For instance, a lot of us understand the principle of giving. The more we give, the more we’ll receive. God instructs us to give a $25 offering at church. We want a bigger harvest therefore, we give $100. We feel like our sacrifice of giving an additional $75 will impress God or compel God to bless us, but God desires our obedience above sacrifice. God may have had other intentions for that $75.

We’ll sacrifice our time by serving in multiple areas at the church, but we know God instructed us to spend more time with our families.

Our sacrifices may seem honorable and noble, but our obedience will go further than sacrificing from our flesh.

1 Samuel 15:20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king.

Twice, Samuel, the mouth of God, gave Saul specific instructions to destroy the Amalekites and everything associated with them (animals included). As we see, Saul convinced himself that he obeyed God even though Samuel told him he disobeyed God. The Amalekites’ king is standing right there and the Amalekites’ animals are in the field. Saul is deceived into thinking that his partial obedience is complete obedience. Saul is lying to himself.

Saul is not the only one lying to himself. Some of us have done the same thing.
We know God told us to quit our jobs and fully focus on our ministry or business full-time. We deceived ourselves into thinking we completely obeyed God because we started our ministry or business, but we’re working somewhere else part-time for “security.” We know God told us to stop watching TV altogether to be delivered from pornography. We’re lying to ourselves thinking we’re obeying God by not watching TV except, Christian broadcasting. Did God say we can watch Christian broadcasting or no TV altogether?

Whatever God told you to do, do it completely. You may be scared and it may seem illogical, but do it and expect for God to positively impact your life.