Remember The Promise

“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.”

Galatians 4:28

A couple months ago, one of my best friends called me up with some exciting news. She told me that, after years of fasting, praying and reading her Word, God had finally revealed her calling, the ministry He wanted her to be apart of. This conversation got me thinking about my own calling. Almost a year ago, God told me that I would speak to a lost generation. I’ve always been compelled to write, especially for God’s glory, but I still couldn’t see it as a ministry. Not when all of my other friends had been called to things like preaching, singing, and ushering. How could I speak to a lost generation when the world was slowly doing away with paperback books and the art of blogging was being run over by sites like Tumblr. This caused me to feel lost in my writing, like I was too entangled in it to see what God really wanted me to do with my life, so I took a step back from it. I stopped working on ideas for my next book and quit updating my blog.

For a couple weeks, I fasted, prayed and read my Word, hoping to hear something from the Lord. As the weeks went on, I didn’t hear anything but stayed faithfully involved in the ministries at the church, just in case I received some type of revelation one day. I continued to sing in the choir, I helped out in the media room, and I even thought about rejoining the ushering committee. However, as good as it felt to be apart of those things, they weren’t fulfilling, and I kept thinking that there was more I could do. Weeks turned in to months, and last weekend, on the way up to my church’s teen and youth retreat, I had finally become completely discouraged. My friends were going around the bus and guessing what ministry everyone would be involved in when they got older. Some, they thought would be preachers or head ushers, while others, they thought would be psalmist or choir directors. When they got around to me, they had nothing. They were stumped and couldn’t think of anything. I was really upset about the situation. I was involved in so many things at church and yet, it looked like I showed no promise in either.

When we arrived at the teen and youth retreat location, I pushed away my hurt and anxiety, telling myself that I wouldn’t worry about it. This weekend was going to be about breaking chains and saving souls so I vowed not to let my own problems in the way of what God wanted to do for others on that mountain. While talking with some of the other counselors we came to the conclusion that as long we gave God the glory, His promise “All Saved, None Lost”, the theme for the retreat would come to pass indefinitely. Whole-heartedly I can say, this retreat was unlike any of the others I had ever attended. When I say that God showed up and showed out, I truly mean it. I hope and pray that everyone experiences God’s works the way my peers and I experienced them at that retreat. While standing in the front of the campground sanctuary, I was praying for those tarrying around me. I remember meditating on the phrase “All Saved, None Lost” and, even though I told myself not to, I kept asking myself how I was going to bring the lost to God if I didn’t have a way to so.  Through the dimness of light in the room and the tears that blurred my vision, I saw a familiar figure and heard an identifiable voice in my ear. God used one of my good friends, spoke through them and answered my silent prayer.  He said:  “You’re going to lead a lost generation to Me!” Never having experienced this before, I was stunned and unable to say anything but in my head I thought “how?”, remembering the conversation that had taken place on the bus. I began weighing my options: ushering, singing, preaching, etc. He said, “the reason you can’t figure it out is because I’ve given you a talent no one else has!” and before I could even think “what?” He said, “I’ve called you to write! Why are you procrastinating? I called you to make My Word plain!”

After that, I backed away, trying to figure out what had just happened. I couldn’t believe and didn’t want to believe that God had a) used someone to prophesy to me and b) had answered my prayer so clearly. Frankly, I was scared, but before fear could consume me. God used another person to speak to me. Laying their hand on my shoulder He said, “I know, I know this is the first time you’re hearing My voice like this. I know you’re scared, but I’m not trying to scare you. I love you…Remember the promise!” When I heard that, I would do nothing but fall to my knees in worship and thank God for everything that had just taken place.

Now, this brings me to the scripture above. It speaks about God’s promise to us. Isaac was promised a great nation, and so were we. To begin, God knew us before our parents even conceived us. He spoke us in to existence, knowing that one day we would answer His call to salvation and have a desire to serve Him. God has a promise on our lives and our promise affects others. As a child of God, our first calling is to help find the lost, and to do that we must use the talents God gave us. He has blessed us all with talents that He wants us to use in order to bring the unsaved to Him. However, in order to do that we can no longer hide our talents away, now is the time we must hone them and multiply them in order to do a great work for the Lord (Reference to Matthew 25: 14-30).

If God has called you to sing, don’t sell out. If He called you to preach, preach The Word. If He called you to usher, welcome in the lost souls. If He called you to write, make it plain. Whatever God called you to do, do it right and do it now. If you don’t know what God has called you to do yet, you need to be seeking after Him. He’s called you to do something and when you show you’re desire to do it, He will reveal it to you. God’s promise to our generation is “All Saved, None Lost”. I know that God can do everything but fail so I know His Word is true. We have to do what He is calling us to do, stand strong in our talents, use them and remember the promise He has put on our lives in so that we can affect another’s.

#nuffsaid

Faithfully Seeking

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

One semester down, and one to go until I complete my freshman year of college. I expected second semester to be an easier transition than the first one. My luggage was still in my dorm room, which meant no heavy lifting, I would be running on a new class schedule so I wasn’t obligated to refresh my memory on any material, and I felt like a master at painful goodbyes. However, adjustment turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.

The classes that I chose turned out to be a lot harder than last semester’s, I had finally gotten a job on campus that called for nine hours of my week, I’d been selected to help coordinate an up and coming program for DC youth, I continued to commit to my extra-curricular activities, and I was terribly home-sick all the time. I was emotionally drained and overworked, and I began to feel the weight of stress on my shoulders. Time seemed to fly by at light speed, because suddenly it was time for my midterms, time to turn in my lesson plans, and time for my competitions. It was a complete slap in my face. I felt like the semester had just begun when in reality it was halfway over. 

I had been studying, preparing and practicing nonstop, and even though I should have felt comfortable in the upcoming valuations, I, instead, became mentally overwhelmed. There was so much going on in my brain that I couldn’t even begin to classify everything. Thus, in an attempt to calm my nerves, I did what I always do when I’m under pressure like this; I prayed, fasted and read The Word, laying my burdens down. However, something was different. As time went on, my stress increased, even through my seeking God, and I didn’t understand why. As I tried to figure it out I kept a smile on to fool those around me, but in reality my mental state began to spiral out of control.

One afternoon, while taking a walk with my dad, I started to tell him about everything I had going on but he interrupted me with news of his own. He started to talk about faith. He began to talk about a testimony that had given him a renewed trust in the Lord and that he was going to give everything to Him from then on. I went home that weekend and He told me of a problem that has arisen on his computer that kept him from accessing important documents he needed for work. I looked at how calm he was as he nonchalantly explained the situation to me, and asked “why aren’t you freaking out?” He simply shrugged and said “everything going to be ok. I’m claiming it now, in Jesus name.” Then he took the computer out to try to fix it and in no time it was up and running like it was supposed to.  After that display, I immediately knew that if I just gave my negative anticipations over to God He would work everything out in my favor, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to do it. At that point, it was easier said than done so I kept the burdens and struggled to carry them until I eventually broke down, lost in my emotions and buried beneath the rubble of everything I have been trying to build up.

Thinking that a break was what I needed, I took another trip back home, hoping to rejuvenate myself and prepare for the exams, competitions, lesson plans and papers due the following week. That night I attended young people service and received a mind-blowing wake up call. The evangelist’s spoke about believing in God, saying that He has things He wants to do in our lives and yet we continually say to Him “thanks but no thanks”. The message was so powerful and I realized that I had been doing just that. I had been praying, fasting and reading in hopes that God would help me through everything I was going through, He heard my request and had been trying to get me to understand that all I had to do it trust Him, but when it came time to give Him my problems I refused. I was pretty much telling God, “I know you can work this out for me but its ok, I’ve got this, just have my back.”

This really hit home and helped me begin to re-evaluate everything. Suddenly, the scripture above popped in to my head: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) I had to trust that God would work it out even though I couldn’t see the outcome of the situation. I wanted nothing more than to have faith that God would see me through this but, because of everything I had been struggling with, I felt like I had forgotten how to trust, but then I remembered something else the evangelist had said that night: “if you don’t know how to pray, He’ll teach you how to pray.”

When I got home that night, I fell to my knees and with a sincere heart said “Lord, teach me how to trust you.” After that, I vowed to myself and to God to exercise faith.  God truly answered my prayer, but let me clarify that God is not a genie. I didn’t ask “to learn how to trust Him” and then *poof*, I did. He worked and is still working with me in increasing my faith. With all of the stressful things I had coming up, I took it as my first opportunity to put my faith before my fears. I kept in mind the scripture that says “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26) and did everything I was supposed to do. I studied hard for my mid-terms, sent in the lesson plans for the DC program, clocked in to work on time everyday, and stayed dedicated to my extra-curricular activities, all while trusting that God would see me through it all and work It out in my favor. Slowly, my stress level went down and I found myself getting excited in expectation for good grades, approval for my lesson plans, a nice pay, and a win in my competitions.

God wants us to trust Him. He desires for us to go to Him with our problems. He took on our biggest burden; sin, and if He could die for us to set us free from something as binding as that, then I know that no issue is too big or even too small for Him to handle. We must continue to go to God instead on trying to handle them ourselves. Every trial and tribulation is a testament to God’s perfect plan for our lives and to be in His will we have to let Him lead us and guide us but we can’t do that unless we submit to Him, and trust that He’s got our back but it all starts with faith. 

#'nuffsaid

God is #1

“Thou shall have no other gods before me.”

Exodus 20: 3

With essays, exams, presentations, and mandatory events piled on top of each other, it’s a challenge finding time to eat and sleep, so how am I supposed to find time to read the Bible and pray? When school first started I kept the perfect schedule. I knew when to eat, sleep, do homework, read the word, and converse with God. However, as the weeks went on, college life got more stressful, more difficult and more time consuming. I found myself forgetting to eat, pulling all nighters, getting easily distracted in class, dusting off my Bible and questioning God’s voice.

It started off as a simple mistake. One morning, after staying up the night before much later than I should have, I woke up with only 15 minutes to get to my first class of the day. With no time to read even one scripture and neglecting a quick “Thank you Jesus for waking me up this morning” I bolted out the door, jotting down a quick mental note to read and pray before I went to bed. However, when bedtime came I was preoccupied with an essay, so I pushed my devotion back to the next morning, promising to wake up an hour early. Of course, already sleep deprived, that never happened…eventually there was a void that began to develop in my spirit. My Holy Ghost was crying out for the Lord and I’d try to shut it up with a verse from Psalms and saying grace before so I could go back to studying, but it never worked…not that I really expected it to.

I was sitting in my room trying to write an essay on ‘Science vs. Religion’ when I decided to use the scripture above, Exodus 20: 3, to defend one of my arguments. (Let me just tell you that God knows how to reach you.) I contemplated on how people could worship things, and realized that’s just what I was doing. Worship means to “give reverent honor, homage and adoration to a personage or object regarded as sacred.” I’ve always put my education first in my life. Without it I can’t get a career, I can’t earn any money, and I can’t make a living. However, without God I can’t even get out of bed, I can’t breath the air I need to survive, and I can’t make it to heaven.

 Education is indeed important but in the end a PHD is going pass away and only what you’ve done for God will stand. We need to keep Him first. Our relationship with Him should be the most important thing. I will no longer let the workload and stresses of college let me lose sight of my bond with God. I have totally reworked my daily schedule, not to fit God around everything else, but to fit everything else around Him. I now have time to read my Bible and get on my knees before eating, doing any type of school work, and manage to go to sleep at a decent hour. I feel myself getting closer to God and my relationship with Him is getting better day-by-day. 

#'nuffsaid

Trust in Him

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way, saith the Lord.”

Isaiah 55:8

Growing up in church, I was always told that once I got to college my relationship with God would go through the ultimate test. I used to take the saints warnings lightly, brushing It off, assuming I would be fine if I just kept praying, fasting and reading my word. However, now that I’m in college and have gotten a feel for it, I can say that it’s best to listen to the wisdom from the elders of the church.

Last week, I was dealing with an issue that I stressed over for days. I was presented with a great opportunity and really wanted to take it. I know that the Bible says “…no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalms 84:11) but it also says “…faith without works is dead…” (James 2:26) so not only did I have faith that the Lord was going to present me with this chance to further my academics, I also prepared, prayed, fasted and stayed in my word. However, in the end I was denied the prospect. I was torn up inside for days. I felt as if God hadn’t heard and it made me question if He ever had. I felt like I could never trust Him to be there for me again.  I knew that I should have gone back to Him in prayer in order to get clarification but instead I found excuse after excuse not get on my knees, even after hearing Him call out to me. I was like a child ignoring their parent who refused to give them a lollipop.

I am a member of the gospel choir at my school and one night during dismissal prayer the leader quoted the scripture above, explaining that though we don’t always understand why things happen the way they do and all we can do is trust Him. This hit me hard. I had put all of my trust in Him and felt like it had been broken but in reality it hadn’t been. As soon as I got back to my dorm room I fell to my knees in prayer. I apologized for turning my back on Him and thanked Him for not forgetting me. We have to remember that God works in mysterious ways and even though we may not always understand them, we have to trust that He is doing what He knows is best for us. Its like Deitrick Haddon says in his song, “…don’t give up on God, because He won’t give up on you…” I still don’t know why the opportunity had been denied to me and I’m not even going to try to figure it out. I know that it just wasn’t a good thing for me and that I have an even better blessing on the way. 

#nuffsaid

Fearless

       

         For the past twelve years I’ve worked my hardest in order to further my education at a university and fulfill the plans God has for me. When I finally made it, nothing could over shadow the excitement that I could barely contain. I had a very sheltered view of college. I expected to go to class, study in my dorm, eat meals in the cafeteria and hang out with friends when time permitted. However, when I arrived I began to see that college truly isn’t that black and white.

Teachers give you a syllabus and expect it to be complete by the end of the semester, your dorm mates beside you, above you and even below you keep you up all night with music continuously thumping through the walls, there’s so much to do you forget to eat, and even when you hang out with friends you’re thinking about the millions of things you have to do in order to graduate.  The first week of school revealed the world in burst of colors I thought I was ready to experience but instead of adapting, I spent the first couple of days numb to any distinct feeling until finally I broke down.

I can’t remember a time in high school where I felt this type of stress or cried so many tears. I could feel myself becoming fearful of everything but the one that was clear was failure in my future. After one week my peace of mind was completely shattered. I decided to go home for the weekend as a way to escape, but secretly hoping I wouldn’t have to go back. In the car, the song above popped in to my head and I realized that I was letting the devil get the best of me, but letting him scare me away from the blessing God has for me. It was then I decided that fear was no longer something I was going to allow to consume me.

As stated in one of my previous posts “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11) but even when children of God are in His will there are going to be times when we are afraid of where He is going to take us and how we’re going to get there, but the Bible says “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).  We were not meant to be fearful of anything but God himself so whenever we are, we have to immediately cast that negative emotion out and replace it with the joy He gave us.  This song inspired me to confront the fear that’s been tormenting me this past week and say goodbye to it for good.  I am now ready to return to school from the long weekend and claim what God has in store for me over the next four years.  Enjoy! 

#'nuffsaid