Archives for May 2016

All Relationships Matter

6 May

Focus Scripture: Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Colossians 4:6

I joke a lot and sometimes it can be too much for people. I have often times been called quick-witted, meaning it’s nothing for me to go back and forth with someone all in the name of a good laugh. Everyone needs a good laugh every once and a while, right?

Absolutely, laughter is good for us. Ecclesiastes 3 teaches us there is a time for every purpose under heaven, which includes a time to laugh. However, when does joking go too far? This is a question I often times have to ask myself and unfortunately, sometimes later rather than sooner.

I woke up early one morning excited to meet God and spend time with Him. Not long after settling down to have some alone time, I soon learned His agenda for that time was different from what I expected. He instructed me to apologize to someone for something I said while joking the night before. I made a mental note to oblige and prepared to move on. But God wasn’t having it! “Apologize” was all I could hear. God wouldn’t let me move forward in our time alone and building our relationship until I was obedient. “We were all joking. I don’t see what the big deal is and actually he was lying, so me calling him a liar, wasn’t wrong. He’s not going to care anyway because we were all joking.”

“But I care…” God cares about our relationships. Our horizontal relationships with people, deeply affect our vertical relationship with the Father. Matthew 5 instructs, if we are in the act of offering a gift to God, but remember that we have wronged our brother or sister in Christ, we are to leave our gift, go and reconcile with our brother or sister and then come back and offer our gift (Matthew 5:23-24).

Has God been calling you to reconcile with a brother or sister in Christ? He doesn’t want anything you have to offer Him until you get it right with them first!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I have not always honored You with my words and the way I treat Your people, and for that I ask for Your forgiveness. Thank You for helping me to realize all relationships matter to You. Help me to be mindful of the things I say and do at all times. I want to glorify You in all of my actions, including my interactions with others. Thank You for the opportunity to get it right, so that Your name may be glorified. It is in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

God Never Forgets Part II: Good Vs God

4 May

Focus Verse: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4

As Christians, we have to be careful not to confuse what is good, with what is God. Something that may be good, God may NOT have intentioned it to be for you! When we continue to seek Him and desire only His will for our lives, that’s when we will be willing to pass up good, for God’s best.

As you are operating in wisdom and seeking God’s best for your life, it is important that you are careful with whom you share things with. Everyone can’t comprehend the dreams God has placed in you, and that’s ok. Remember, they didn’t hear what He said; they didn’t see what He showed you; and they aren’t going where He is taking you.

Additionally, we also have to be careful and operate in wisdom when we influence others to get involved with things. Sometimes we can look at a situation, leaning to our own understanding, and encourage people to do things that God never intended them to do. His ways are not our ways; and we could genuinely have a desire to see them, happy, successful, etc. However, this should never supersede our desire for GOD’S best for them!

How do we differentiate between good and God? We go straight to the source and ask Him to clearly reveal what His desire for our life is, and we wait to see what He says. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will place in your heart those things that you should desire.

It would be a pity for you, to forfeit what God has for you, for what you perceive to be good. I’m not willing to make that sacrifice for myself, nor the people I’m connected to, and I pray the same for you!

Proverbs 3:5; Isaiah 55:8; Matthew 6:33

Prayer: Father God, thank You for opening my eyes. There have been times that I have chosen what I though was good, not knowing that You had better for me. Forgive me for leaning to what I understand and think is best. I desire the things that You desire for my life. Lead me to those things that you have planned for me. Anything that I should not be involved in, reveal it to me so I can make the necessary steps to end it. Be glorified in my life. It is in your Son, Jesus name I pray, Amen

Relationships Matter

2 May

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:15-26

Focus Scripture: And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 1 Corinthians 12:21 (NKJV)

“But I don’t really vibe with her like that. I mean, I’m not going to like everyone I come in contact with, right? I don’t hate her, I’m just not too fond of her, that’s all…”

I was trying to justify to God my not so loving feelings I had towards someone in the past.

Then God spoke, in His gentle, small voice, “She’s instrumental in building My Kingdom.”

Have you ever had to interact with someone that you didn’t hate, but you just didn’t like all that much? That, “ I mean they cool, but…” person?

What the Lord was teaching me during this time was, despite the way I feel, everyone is instrumental in building His Kingdom. And because my heart’s desire is to be instrumental in doing so as well, I have to get past my feelings and focus on the purpose.

God cares about relationships. He never created us to navigate this life alone. Everything that we go through is to build His Kingdom and impact the lives of others. 1 Corinthians 15 teaches us that everyone has a role and part in building God’s Kingdom, for His purpose, verse 18. Despite the way we feel, when one person is not playing their role the whole body is out of line. When one person suffers, the entire body suffers. However, when one person is honored, the whole body is to rejoice with them (See verse 26).

Do you have someone in your life that, although you don’t hate him or her, you would prefer to not have to interact with them? Maybe God placed them in your sphere of influence because your experiences could bless them, or vise versa and ultimately God gets the glory.

Prayer: God, it is my desire to be used by You and I realize, that may mean, I have to interact with a number of different people. I confess, there have been times where I wasn’t thrilled about everyone You called me to come in contact with, and for that I ask for Your forgiveness. Thank You for giving me the grace to be able to put my feelings aside in order to focus on the purpose. Now, I ask You to show me how to operate in that grace, so that You may be glorified. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!