Inspirational Thoughts for Today

Use What He Gave You

 

With every bone in my body I will praise him: "LORD, who can compare with you? Who else rescues the helpless from the strong? Who else protects the helpless and poor from those who rob them?"  Psalm 35:10 NLT

 

I am not the best singer, but I can sing and thoroughly enjoy doing it.  I am not the best dancer, but I love to dance.  I am not the greatest writer, but it brings my heart great joy to write devotions, even though I do not write them as often as I should.  I am not an orator, but I will tell practically anyone about the goodness of God and the miracles I have experienced in my life.  I have realized that with every gift and talent God has blessed me with that I can use that talent to bring Him glory and honor.  I can sing on the choir and strengthen my voice, I can dance for the Lord, and I can write my blog postings, and I can share my testimony with anyone in need of encouragement.

 

Often times we let tradition and religion overshadow the gifts we have, and that they are to be used for God, returning to Him the honor in the gift of giving them to us.  You do not have to be Aretha Franklin if you have a song in your heart for God.  You don't have to be Michael Jackson or James Brown to dance for God.  You don't have be a best-selling author to write a few words of encouragement to a friend or family member.  You don't have to a political candidate (although very seldom do you see any of them using their voice for God...just my thoughts, lol) to speak on behalf of God to others.  You can use whatever gifts and talents you have for the good of the Lord. 

I think of the J. Moss song 'We Must Praise' when I think about this.  God does not call us to be perfect...nor should we feel constrained by some unfounded principle.  Use whatever it is He gave you, and bring Him glory with it!  You never know whose life you are supposed to touch.  Just act in faith, step out on the promises of the Word and trust that God will equip you with whatever tools you may need to be successful at what it is He is leading you to do.

 

Psalm 149

Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King. Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp. For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation. Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the Lord.

Inspirational Thoughts for Today

Zombies to Our Sin

 

"When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right."  Romans 6:20 NLT

 

Afternoon!!  I pray all is well with you today...and with that I'll jump right into it.

 

Today I had a revelation from God about myself...and the battle with sin in general.  In life, we have become so desensitized to our sin.  We lie without regard for others (even the little 'white' lies), we steal, we cheat...and the list goes on.  But the worst part is that sometimes we are not even conscious of it.  Yep, we have become the movie version of a zombie.  We are mindlessly controlled and directed by our own carnal desires and we continue on without regard.  We become the epitome of a depraved individual and most times have no knowledge of even doing what we are doing.

 

I decided 4 days prior to the beginning of the New Year to make a sacrifice for God and give Him the last 3 days and the first 3 days of my new year.  That extended swiftly after I began reading a book entitled 'Fasting' by Jentezen Franklin.  I must say it has truly changed my life.  But in my desire to serve God and allow Him to move in leaps and bounds in my life, I decided to go without fried foods and sweets for the next month or so.  And if you really know me, I am a often woman of convenience...so Chick-Fil-A is a regular place I stop at for food.  I regularly order the 6-count Kids Meal with a ice cream in place of the toy and many times I get a brownie.  Over the holidays I had so many sweets, between the sweet potato pie I made for Thanksgiving to the Red Velvet Cake I baked for my lil sis before she headed back north...I over did it.  I realized in my life, I seldom force myself to go without anything.

 

With that, I have been doing well.  From resisting the abundance of cakes and pies here at work, to resisting birthday cake this past weekend at my friend's daughter's 1st birthday, I have fought the good fight.  I even resisted fried shrimp last night!  But today, I was caught off guard.  I had just left a meeting, just refilled my water bottle, and sat down at my friend's desk to gather my composure.  She had a pack of Fruit Snacks on her desk, and when I first looked at them, I thought about how much I wanted some, lol.  Don't judge me okay!  Then sure enough, she offered them to me...and I unconsciously opened the pack, only getting a few and ate them.  About 10 minutes later as I was in my car headed back to my own desk, it hit me what I had done.  And I asked God to forgive me, renewed my vow, and just kept thinking about it.  Unconscious.  That's what zombies are.  They are unconscious in their quest for the blood of the living and press onward towards their goal of blood, blindly walking forward.  I know you have seen the zombie movies...and I realized I allowed my own sin to turn me into a zombie.  How many times have I sinned without God in mind and just did whatever I wanted to do, satisfying my wants and desires?  Each time, I was pushing myself further and further away from God.  Fortunately, God has always been gracious enough to call me back to Him.  But what about our brothers and sisters that are not so fortunate to respond to God's call?  They are left depraved...and desensitized.  God is not forceful, so He won't force you to change.

 

I realized today that I do not want to be this way.  I do not want to be a zombie to my own sin and ignorant to the sins I commit.  Our freedom is in repentance and accepting Jesus' already shed blood as our atonement.  Jesus died to free us all.  We are no longer dead to righteousness.  We are dead to sin, we that believe in Christ.  Plug back into Him and come alive today.

 

"But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life."  Romans 6:22 NASB

Inspirational Thoughts for Today

A No Carry-On Policy

 

"Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken."  Psalm 55:22

 

I had every intention of writing this on New Year's Eve, but I feel like this is still relevant, especially at the helm of the new year.  Many of you know that I traveled frequently for my work in the past.  I got to the point that I never checked my luggage, carrying all I needed in my carry-on luggage.  I'll tell you that I got stronger from all that heavy lifting, because if you know me, I always overpack...slightly lol!  Even now when I travel personally, I try to limit my bags to a carry-on to avoid paying that ridiculous fee.  Besides its much more convenient to travel light anyway.

 

But as I reflected on the things I desired for this new year of life, I decided that I would instead do the opposite.  I wrote a post on Facebook and let everyone know that I'm grateful to God that we do not have to carry things over into the new year.  In fact, you do not have to carry things over to the next week, next day, next hour, or the next moment.  God desires to carry our burdens and anxieties for us.  Life would have us think that we must carry the burdens of life all by ourselves and try to right the wrongs of life in our own power.  But if you do not know it already, it is IMPOSSIBLE.  We were not equipped to carry all that pressure.

 

Worrying and doubting are the products that cause us to believe the lie that we can fix things in our own power.  The world would have you to believe that all you need is a self-help book, a massage or spa day, and viola! life as you know it is fixed.  But those things, regardless of the temporary pleasure, cannot hold a candle to truly submitting your prayers, issues, and will to the leading of God.  God is the only one that has the power to alleviate that pressure by carrying you through the difficulty.  So for 2012, I suggest you adopt a no carry-on policy: no more carrying hurt, bitterness, defeat, unforgiveness, hatred, self-pity, doubt, worry, anxiety...anything that you have been holding on to, leave it at the gate as God prepares to take you to the next phase of blessings and favor in your life.

 

"Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established."  Proverbs 16:3