According to one account I read, there are over 7,000 promises in the Bible. If I was to list every promise in this short devotional it would be consider book. So to that point, I will only list a few:

• God knows, sees and is aware of EVERYTHING you go through.
• God CARES about EVERYTHING you go through.
• God grieves when you hurt.
• God loves you UNCONDITIONALLY.
• God will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).
• God will turn all your ashes into beauty (Isaiah 61).
• God is a way-maker, healer, miracle worker, and provider.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20 we find that Paul was eager to communicate to his readers that the message he taught about the Lord Jesus was steadfast, sure, unalterable, and reliable. He stressed that God’s promises are altogether true and His Word stands forever.

Paul wanted this gentile Church to believe God’s Word in their hearts and experience in their lives the Lord’s never-failing riches of His grace, and so he wrote: “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are YES! For ALL God’s promises are certain and sure in Jesus,… and so through Him we can say ‘Amen,’ to the glory of God.”

I’ve read, the word translated to “yes” in the original Greek means “sure“, and the word translated to “amen” means “firm“. In other words, Paul is saying that God’s promises (or words for that matter) are sure and firm. They are unchanging, unwavering, and unmovable.

Beloved of God, I can testify that God will do what He says He will do. Whether in blessing or in judgement, His word will absolutely never return void, but this does not release us from the conditions He has set out for us to benefit from His promises (Hebrews 11:6), in fact it binds us to them, but likewise, neither does it leave any room for doubt in His faithfulness. For the sake of His Name, He will fulfill His promises, for they are sure and firm because He is faithful and true!

We all need to believe and then invest this truth in our lives because we are all facing something. Now, I don’t know what plight you or someone you know is facing today. However, let me encourage you not to allow worry to form a root of fear and anxiety because God promises are greater than any problem you could ever face.

So if any of these message hits home for you, I encourage you to:

1. Call out to Jesus for His help – talk with Him about whats going on!
2. Remember the promises of God – remind God what He promised you!
3. Rely on the power of Jesus – on your own, you can accomplish nothing!

Lastly, I also want to encourage you to commit to memory as many of God’s promises as you possibly can. Then when you pray, you will be in position to remind God of His “Yes” and “amen” promises!

#BeStrong

#TGBTG

#YesAndAmenPromises

God assures us in Psalm 100:5, “For the LORD is good and his love endures forever, His faithfulness continues through all generations.” This verse not only tells us of His goodness and love, but says that it is for us today, generations later. God is faithful through all generations!

Mercifully, God shows us that though we may make many mistakes, He still loves us and gives us every chance to turn to Him. Because of His great and never-ending love for us, God wants us to benefit from and inherit all the good He has for us. Not to mention, He also promises that if we reject His love and gift of atonement through Jesus, that we face eternal hell (eternal separation).

Bottom line, God sent His Son to pay the price for us, so that we can be forgiven, delivered and saved from the punishment of hell. Jesus died in our place. This is not a reflection of an unjust and unloving God, but a reflection of our animosity and rejection of Him. Because He is a all loving God, He provided the only way of escape.

Therefore, no matter how many mistakes we’ve made, no matter how unworthy we sometimes think we are, God through Jesus Christ still loves us and He wants us to come to know Him personally and to make Him known through spreading this good news!

If you are saved, sanctified, and sealed for the day of redemption, I invite you to join me to pray for the ones that have not opened their hearts to God’s love. Now, if by any chance that’s you, I want you to know that God is extremely rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved you even when you were dead in your trespasses (sin), He made you alive together with Christ and by His relentless grace you too can be saved (Eph 2:4-5).

#BeStrong

#TGBTG

#Encourage

#Empower

#Inspire

#GodLovesYou

God has made all things beautiful in its time (Ecc 3:11). This is the reason why trusting in God’s timing always comes with the promise of hope, strength, refreshment, renewal, and understanding no matter the situation, circumstance, or consequence.

Look at this way, God created time and He is it’s Master. God’s timing is always perfect because God knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end! God exist outside of time and we should all find solace in this truth.

Lastly, God is always at work for us as He has been since before the foundations of this world. So, don’t every doubt God’s timing because trusting Him will always bring you incomprehensible peace and believing in His timeline will give you unmatchable rest!

#BeStrong

#TGBTG

#Encourage

#Empower

#Inspire

#GodsTimingIsPerfect

In order to fully understand God’s plan simply means to fully embrace that God is in control no matter the situation or outcome! Contrary to what James Brown so passionately sung; THIS IS GOD’S WORLD! He created it, He owns it, and He alone controls it. Even though there are many things we may fear or dislike during the course of God’s plan in our life, we must have faith that in the end His plan leaves us perfect, complete, and lacking in nothing.

Two powerful OT passages to consider when God changes gears is Jeremiah 10:23, “LORD, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps” and Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”

In all honesty, the beauty of having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is knowing that God is in control of our lives and that He causes ALL thing to work together for our good in spite of our lack of faith, sin, and rebellion! (Roman 8:28). When we struggle with life’s many disappointments just knowing that God has a a bigger plan should fuel our hope and bring focus/clarity into our everyday lives. God will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews13:5 ) so just because things don’t go our way doesn’t mean God isn’t moving positively and strategically in our lives! In times of ambiguity or uncertainty, it’s our duty to cleave and cling to the cross of Calvary and when this happens our relationship with God grows deeper and our anxieties and fear becomes less and less gripping!

#BeStrong

#TGBTG

#Encourage

#Empower

#Inspire

#GodsPlan

Jesus was crystal clear in John 15:5 when He said, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus knew that no matter how hard we tried and how many good things we did, we wouldn’t measure up to God’s standard of perfect righteousness.

Additionally, Jesus understood that becoming more like Him is a lifelong process that’s only perfected on the other side of death. However, while we are alive, it’s God doing the work, not us alone. The moment we try to go it alone and fix things in our lives apart from Jesus, is the moment we discover we can’t do it without Him and trust me, I know this from personal experience.

Self-help tactics can be useful and not all of these concepts are totally bad, but none of them are 100% effective! I totally get the process of accountability and I firmly believe that faith without works is dead, however faith without Jesus is equally terminal!

SIMPLY PUT: WE NEED TO PUT THE DUCK TAPE DOWN! JESUS DONT BELIVE IN WORK AROUNDS OR TEMPORARY FIXES!

At the setting of the day and dawn of the morning, our life is a journey we must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get us out of that dead-end, empty-headed life we grew up in. He ungrudgingly paid our debt with Christ’s sacred blood! He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God knew exactly what He was going to do for us! It was because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that we trust God, that we know we have a future in God because ‘He that has begun the good work in us will bring it to perfect completion’ (Phil 1:6) in Christ and Christ alone.

Jesus is the only One that could ever measure up to God’s standard of perfect righteous and without the Vine (Jesus) we (the branches) would be forever flawed and imperfect.

#BeStrong

#TGBTG

#Encourage

#Empower

#Inspire

#GodCanFixIt

I love the NLT literal and dynamic translation of Mathew 6:5-18. While teaching the disciples how to pray and fast, Jesus also admonition His disciples to forgive others. In vv 14-15 Jesus said, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Hands down, everyone of us has been wronged, offended, and sinned against at some point in our lives. However, the real question is how did we respond to the offender? Come on, let’s be honest…we probably failed to exhibit Jesus’ love, peace and compassion—right?!

According to additional scriptures, we are commanded to forgive others. Ephesians 4:32 declares, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Similarly, Colossians 3:13 proclaims, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” The key in both Passages of text is that we are to forgive fellow believers as God has forgiven us.

In lieu of refusing to forgive, it’s incumbent upon every believer to refuse not to forgive. Extended forgiveness should never an option because as mentioned above, we too have been forgiven. On the other hand, forgiveness doesn’t necessarily excuse the offense, but it does release the offender from pending or further prosecution! As it stands, the same Jesus that died for our past, present, and future sins also died for the people that offend us. Go figure…..

Point blank, quit harboring unforgiveness. It’s physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually unhealthy and it compromises your peace with God! Life is too short! Let it go! I know some of you are thinking, the pain is too much to bear. Well, nothing outweighs the excruciating pain Jesus experienced when He was falsely accused, condemned, beaten, spat on, whipped, and crucified on the cross for all our sins.

At the end of the day, everyone of us has tasted God’s grace, felt God’s mercy, and benefited from God’s forgiveness. Therefore, let your grace, mercy, and forgiveness for others reflect God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness for you!

#BeStrong

#TGBTG

#Encourage

#Empower

#Inspire

#ForgivenessIsNotAnOption

Perspective is how you view something, someone or a situation. You can have a change in perspective by moving and looking from another direction. This takes work and is not simple adding more information. But physically or mentally shifting your position on many things to impact your perspective on one thing.

I believe that one of the largest hurdles for people is to simply trusting God in all things. In most cases this creates a perspective problem. Trusting God involves much more than just simply remembering a Bible verse (s). It’s allowing God, through His Word and the circumstances of life, to shift your perspective. Not just your perspective on one small event, moment or problem in your life, but on your whole life. Once you see something one way it becomes very difficult to unsee.

A change in perspective requires nothing more than a simple shift. When we shift our perspective from holding life tighter we enable ourselves to live life with open hands and this leads to trust in God and worship.

Additionally, we must also consider shifting our perspective from that of a microwave to a crockpot. Contrary to this instantaneous driven world we live in, growth takes time and you can’t rush it!

I know some of you maybe shock to hear this but, we should also consider shifting from trying to understand God’s perspective with fully understanding our perspective. There is a human perspective and a God perspective. It is not our Job to have God’s perspective. It is our job to trust and worship God.

Still struggling with this disposition? I invite you to read or re-read the 33 chapters in the book of Job. The reason God asked Job all of those questions was to show him, that he cannot understand why God does what He does. But He does it because He is God. Job never got to know why. All he got to know was in the end, God knew exactly what He was doing.

As we go through life, as we live life with others. We can look at Bible verses and we can try and live them. We can raddel them off for others going through a time where things don’t make sense. But let’s be honest, sometimes information alone is not enough. We may need a perspective shift. Going from God change my circumstances to God change me. At the end of the day, the shift in your perspective does not change what is happening, it simply changes how you see it.

#BeStrong

#TGBTG

#Encourage

#Empower

#Inspire

#ShiftInPerspective

Christopher Robin said, “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think!” We can certainly learn a lot from a cartoon bear!

I know that certain situations and circumstances can knock the wind out of our sails however in times when that happens we must continue fighting the good fight of faith. I know it’s hard, but it’s doable. Victor Hugo once said, “People do not lack strength; they lack will.”

I’ve learned that God’s will is best defined as the actions taken or words spoken based on love, selflessness, honesty and purity. Whereas, self-will is the action taken or words spoken with the ego and the determination to have one’s way, to get what is most desired and at times no matter what the cost.

Praying to God and then listening to God are the two windshield wipers that removes the obscurity in discerning the differences between the two wills. Most of us have no problem talking to God, but with the barrage of competing thoughts clamoring for our attention clearly listening to God for his direction can be a bit of a challenge.

Furthermore, though we may talk with God often, we may not be opening our ears to hear His answers and guidance. When you are finished praying, don’t quickly turn on the loud movie you were watching or immediately climb into bed for the night. Take time to stop, look, and listen for God’s answers to your prayers. Make sure you listen as much as you speak with Him because as you know communication goes both ways.

If I were to re-word Hugo’s quote it would read, “People do not lack strength; they lack faith and clarity.” My brothers and sisters, we find our true strength whenever our self-will aligns or subordinate with God’s will, plan and purpose for our lives. It behooves to live out the words spoken by John, the Baptist in John 3:30, “He must increase; I must decrease.” Make no mistake, the depth of our strength is grounded in our faith and spiritual discernment!

#BeStrong

#TGBTG

#Encourage

#Empower

#Inspire

#StrongerThanYouThink

Father God, in a time when so much has been taken away from so many people, You never once abandoned any of us! You may not have delivered us from the entire impact of adversity, but one thing is certain; it was You that mitigated it’s sting and for that we are extremely grateful!

Father God, we stand before Your throne room of grace beaten, tattered, and worn just to say thank You because of Your unending provisions we are still standing!! Despite the various world wide shortages You continue to provide food in abundance and protection under the shelter of Your wings. You always grant us rest and renew our strength to continue fighting! You effortlessly guide us along the right paths so that You can restore our souls. Even though we are constantly confronted with potential danger, Your presence is always close beside, in front, and behind us like an impenetrable shield.

Father God, when we truly reflect back over all You brought us through, one thing is certain; we lacked nothing. Your goodness and unfailing love relentlessly chased after us and kept us from catastrophic hurt, harm, and danger and for that O’God we say Thank You in the matchless and all providing name of Jesus, Amen and amen!!

#BeStrong

#TGBTG

#Encourage

#Empower

#Inspire

#PrayerIsOurWeaponToWin