Day 220: Unpacking Romans 12- Renew Your Mind

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Isaiah 55:7-9

Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

When we become Christians, everything changes about us, from the inside out. They say Christians are more attractive, but that’s not the point. When we become Christians, our lifestyle has to change and in order for that to change our mindset has to change, the way we think about about things and the way we view the world and people has to change. We cannot walk with Christ and still have the mindset of the world, it won’t work. The mind is very powerful, that’s why they used to have billboards and commercials, and posters in the classrooms when we were younger, telling us “the mind is a terrible thing to waste.” As corny as it was, it’s true, a lot of times we are ruled by our thoughts. Some of the greatest inventions and discoveries started as a thought. It also works the other way, many of the biggest crime Lords, and even serial killers started off with a thought. Our minds shape a lot of who we are, How we think says a lot about who we are. If we want to be like Christ we have to think like Christ.

One of the questions I always ask myself is,  ‘Is the glass half empty or half full?’ Just to see where my mind is. When we become a Christian we will almost always view the glass as half full. Meaning with Christ, it’s never over until He says it’s over, and as long as I have breath in my body, it’s not over. Christ has changed the way I view life, love, people, and the world. What I’m getting at here is, if our mind is not renewed our life cannot be renewed. If we are still moving and thinking the same way we did when we were in the world, how are we ever going to grow in Christ. A worldly mindset does not work in a Christian body. It just doesn’t, our thoughts have to be His thoughts. We must think like Christ in order to be like Christ. Move like Christ did and view the world as He did.  

I think when our mind is renewed by Christ we are more in tune with His voice and His will. We  become one with Christ meaning we can hear his voice more clearly, and we can differentiate between His voice and the voice of the enemy or even our voice. Also when we are in tune with Christ it’s almost as if every thought or idea of doing wrong is banished,

All this to say, when we submit our lives to Christ, we must also change our mindset. Allow our minds to be renewed by Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit. When we grow our mind grows with us. So when we grow in Christ so our mind will also grow. These things are not separate. I’ll leave you with this scripture.

Matthew 22:37

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Response/ Prayer Time

Take the time to think about what we spoke on today. Respond in whatever way you feel led. There are no questions today, just take the time to have a conversation with God. Ask Him to renew your mind. Have an honest conversation with Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening, be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 221!

Day 162: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

Psalms 139:13-14

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Something we don’t hear enough is, “you’re beautiful” or “You’re handsome”. I think as the church we tend to neglect the idea of self-esteem when it comes to beauty. We tend to beat around the bush when it comes to caring about our physical appearance. We as Christian are very focused on what’s on the inside, we don’t really focus on physical appearance. It’s more about what our heart looks like. While that is great and I do not want to discredit that in any way, I believe that it is important for people to be complimented. I feel that it is important for us as Christians to have confidence. I believe that we should be able to see ourselves as beautiful and not be accused of arrogance or cockiness.

God formed the innermost parts of us but He also formed the outermost parts of us. We were created by the greatest artist there is, was, and will be. We are the greatest work of His hands, made in His image. If that’s not beautiful I don’t know what is. I talk about this because I truly believe that we are beautiful people and we must believe that. It’s something that many people especially people in our generation suffer with. You’re beautiful, don’t let anyone tell you it’s just on the inside.

One of my favorite movies and musicals is The Color Purple. It’s a beautiful story, and a piece of the plot is a woman finding her own beauty and learning to own that. There is a point in the story where she can’t even look in the mirror for more than two seconds. She doesn’t see herself as beautiful because she has been told over and over that she was ugly. She has been beaten down all her life and eventually, she starts to believe it. I tell this story because there are too many people especially within the body of Christ, as I stated above, walking around with low self-esteem. There are too many people out there who don’t believe that they are beautiful. I’m talking about the men too, especially men, they get overlooked too often. We all need to hear it at one point or another. It’s one thing to think but ti believes it is different. I grew up being bullied really bad, I was called ugly every day for years and I heard that word so much that I eventually started to believe it. This is why hearing it is important.

I feel like a lot of people are opposed to Christians being attractive, especially if they’re pastors. Like, people are really shocked when they see a pastor who is attractive. It’s interesting like it’s almost a sin in the world for a Christ follower to be hot. Our beauty isn’t just on the inside, we are human just like the next person, and there is nothing wrong with being told you’re beautiful, feeling beautiful, or wanting to be told you’re beautiful.

Back to the story of the color purple. In the musical at one point the actress playing the lead sings a song, and in the middle of that songs she looks out into the audience and says, “I’m beautiful”, not once but twice. The actress Cynthia Erivo who plays the role talks about this moment in the play. She discusses how we need to hear this statement more often and how we do not hear it enough. I believe that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and we have to believe that to be true in every part of our lives.

All this to say, have confidence, know that you are beautiful. Start to see yourself as more than just a beautiful person on the inside but know that God has made you and there you are the most beautiful thing ever. You’re beautiful on the inside but you’re also beautiful on the outside. Believe that.

Reflection

Take the time today to look in the mirror and say, I’m “beautiful” or ‘I’m handsome”, gorgeous, pretty, stunning, cute, whatever word you choose. Then compliment someone, make someone feel good about themselves today and every day following.

Prayer Time

Take the time to pray that God boosts the confidence of His people. Have a conversation with Him about what we talked about today.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 163!

Day 158: Work While You Wait

Psalms 130:5-6

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, in His word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

Acts 12:5

So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made by the church.

I recently watched a sermon by Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr. and as he began to talk about waiting on God, he said something very real and very profound. He said, “Waiting on God, for a lot of Christians is code for doing nothing.” I could not agree with this statement more. Sometimes we get to thinking that God will do things for us that we can do ourselves. We tend to get lazy because we’re ‘waiting on God to do something in our lives”, A lot of times we don’t even know what we’re waiting on God for, the pastor told us to wait so that’s what we’re going to do. example, we want money and need money but instead of going out and filling out applications for jobs we sit in the house waiting on God to provide a job. We sit around waiting for God to send someone to give us some money. If we want God to move for us, we have to be willing to take the first step. We have to be willing to do the things we can do for ourselves and then leave the rest up to Him.  

I knew a pastor that had the entire church convinced that if they sat at their mailbox all day and waited on the mailman a check would show up. People were literally waiting by their mailboxes all day. He had people convinced that waiting on God meant waiting in the house for a check. That waiting on God meant doing nothing, and  God will show up. He even had the congregation convinced that if we wanted a job all we had to do was pray and God will send it to us. That all you had to do was pray and have faith and that was it. In my experience that is not how God works. Even the Bible says “faith without works is dead.” (James 2:17) While I do believe that God is a miracle worker, I also believe that God will not do for us what we can do for ourselves. He’s not going to magically put an application in for us at a job. If we want a job we go and apply and then we wait on God. God will come through for us, but in the meantime, we have to do something. Doing nothing and waiting on God are two completely different things.

In Acts 12 Peter in thrown into prison, and while he is in there the people on the outside are not only waiting for him to come out but they are earnestly praying. They did not sit around crying and talking to each other about Peter being in prison, or wishing that he was home. They wasted no time in praying to God for Him. They were waiting on Peter but in the meantime, they were praying for him. We have to work while we wait, we have to worship, we have to pray, we have to continue life while we are waiting on God. While we’re waiting on God, we can keep serving, we can pray for others, there’s a lot we can do while we wait.

By no means am I telling you to jump the gun and move before God tells you to. What I’m saying is don’t use waiting on God as an excuse to be lazy. We have to take a few steps for ourselves, we have to do things for ourselves. We have to step out on faith, take a step and God will show us the path and lead us on this journey. God has equipped us with the tools and abilities to do things for ourselves. God completes the things that we cannot finish, He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He does the heavy lifting. Wait on God but work while you wait, don’t use it as an excuse to do nothing.

Reflection

1. How do you wait on God?
2. What is your definition of waiting on God?
3. Do you use waiting on God as an excuse to do nothing?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Talk to God about what it means to wait on Him and what to do in the meantime.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing Day or Evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 159!

Day 150: Family Matters

Proverbs 6:20

My son, keep your father’s command

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

1 John 4:20

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

Psalms 133:31

How good and pleasant it is

when God’s people live together in unity!

Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

I cannot stress how important family is, and how important it should be to us. God values family and he has given us the family we have for a reason. Trust me, I know that many of our families are far from perfect. My family is very far from perfect, but no matter how much we argue or how much they get on my nerves, and sometimes I’d rather not be around some of them, I love them. We are called to love, and the first people we should experience love from is our family. We learn love from our family, and we are brought into the world of chaos and placed into the loving and protecting arms of the parents that God chose for us, that is when we experience love for the first time.

The Scripture tells us over and over to honor our father and mother. It tells us to hold on to the teachings of our mothers and fathers and not to forsake them. The scripture tells our parents to raise us right, to chastise us and teach us how to live. It tells our parents to lead us by example and raise of to basically be good God-fearing people.

I remember going through a time where I abandoned my family to latch on to my “church family”. I neglected my family because I thought I had found something better with my church family. When they all hurt me and abandoned me I turned back to the family that God gave me. I turned to the mother that raised me. I realized that God has given me the family that I have for a reason. He has given me people that will love me unconditionally and wouldn’t walk out on me even when I walked out on them. He gave me a family that will still be there even when I disrespect them. I had to apologize to my family and realize that what I had was enough. I was trying to create this idea of a perfect family and being embarrassed by who I was and who I came from. I learned to love them and realize that God gave me them on purpose.

Today is Memorial day and as many families come together to celebrate or honor a fallen soldier. I want to stress the importance of family and how we must love them beyond all faults. It is a beautiful thing when family comes together as one. God instructs us to love our neighbor, our neighbor is our blood brother and sister, our first and second cousins. We are called to love our family as ourselves as well. As Christians, we often look outside of our family and home base for people to love, but they are right in the next room. They are the families we were born into.

I know that many of us are born into situations that we cannot control and some of us do not have the best life at home. Some of us don’t have the parents to lead and guide us. However, I truly believe that even in that, God is sovereign. God loves you beyond what a parent can and beyond what your family can, and wherever there is a void He will fill it.

One thing I ask of you is, Dare to Love. Dare to love the family members that have abandoned you or hurt you. Dare to love the parent that has walked out on you. Dare to look past their faults and love them. I know I’m asking for a lot but trust me when you choose to love rather than hate you will feel so much better about this life, and the life you are living.

Let me tell you a little story:

There is one side of my family that never really treated my sister and I well. We never understood why all we know is that this is the way we have been treated our entire lives. As we got older we started to lack the ability to care, and slowly we got to a point where if they did not want to have anything to do with us we didn’t want to have anything to do with them. So that’s what we did, we treated them the way they treated us. Recently I have come to the conclusion that no matter how they treated me, I would love them. I decided to let go of everything they have done to me over the years and chose to love them. They ended up reaching out to my sister and I. We came to a conclusion that no matter what, we would love them. That doesn’t mean that we have a great relationship with them, but we are no longer holding anything against them.

What I realized is that, I cannot profess to love God and have a grudge against the people I’m supposed to love. All this to say, over the years God has taught me how important family is and how we neglect to cherish the very people God used to bring us into this world.

So today there will be no questions or prompts, just take the time to love on your family and pray for them. If you are estranged from them, take the srides to make it right. I know it takes time. If you’ve been hurt, ask God to help you with forgiveness. Just remember that God gave you the family He gave you for a reason.

I love you! Have an amazing day or evening and come back tomorrow for Day 151!

Day 59: Put Up A Fight!

Most times when you are doing something good, there will be opposition, Some people just don’t want to see you do good, especially when they aren’t doing well themselves. When opposition comes we have to put up a fight and push against it. We have to fight for the things we want, we have to fight for what we believe in and what we love. This brings me to the story of a man by the name of Nehemiah, who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem despite all the opposition he received.

Nehemiah 4

When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of] the builders. So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.  They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.” Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.” Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.” Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows.14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work. From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me. Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!” So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. At that time I also said to the people, “Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and as workers by day.”  Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.

We have to fight and push, like these men who didn’t let threats scare them. They didn’t let opposition get them down, and when they did, it wasn’t for long. They continued to build that wall and was prepared for anyone who was trying to stop them. They were going to get that wall built and nothing was going to stop them.

Nehemiah 6:9

They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

No one can stop what God is doing, they can try but they won’t succeed, We must know this because sometimes things come to a pause in our life but a pause is a temporary interruption. To stop something means to bring it to an end. When it comes to the work God is doing in us, for, us, with, the only one who can stop it is God. people will try everything they can to bring you down, society will try, they will come every way they can but don’t fall for it, Put up a fight, if you love something fight for it, if God has called you to a specific position or place, fight for. If God has given you a vision or laid something on your heart, fight for it. The opposition will come but when God has sent you, no one can stop you, you keep fighting like nehemiah until the task is complete. If anything, allow that opposition to strengthen you. In the midst of ask God to give you the strength to fight harder. We often let ourselves be stopped because the opposition is too great, we pause ourselves indefinitely, but God’s work in us, on us, and through us is meant to be completed. There will be lies, gossip, threats but fight. No one can stop you unless you let them.

Nehemiah 6:11

But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!”

Stay focused on the mission not the opposition. We can’t get scared and run away, we can’t let people try to deceive us into running away. When God has placed us somewhere, nothing should be able to move us. God will finish what He has started. We must protect the calling God has placed on our lives, and know that no matter the opposition we will complete whatever God has set us out to do. This means the dreams we have, the visions God has given us. When it’s set up by God, the only person able to tear it down is God.

We have to stand firm on His word and promise. Put up a fight, don’t let the opposition stop you.

Revelation 3:8

“‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

One last thing, fight for your dreams, believe in them. Don’t let anyone tell you they’re impossible or unreachable. If God gave you the gift you have, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be using it. Do what you know, some dreams are harder to reach, but if you love it, fight for it.

Proverbs 18:6

A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before the great.

Reflection

1. What are you fighting for?
2. Have you come up against opposition?
3. How has that opposition fueled or strengthened you to keep pushing and fighting?
   
   

Prayer Time

Allow you answers to the questions above guide your prayer. Ask God to strengthen you in the midst of opposition. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide and protect you.

Know that God’s word never returns to Him void. If you know that God has called you to do something. Do it unapologetically and fearless, He has your back.

I love you! I hope you have an amazing day or evening, make sure you come back for Day 60
 tomorrow!

Day 57: The Front Lines

Mark 16:15

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Most Christians are not going to be pastors, or worship leaders, we go to church, we volunteer at church, and we serve but our platform is not the church. I hear a lot of Christians implying that we are to live in the church. They tell us that we are to separate ourselves from the secular, and the worldly things. Being secular does not always mean that you are in sin, When we think about the world secular we automatically think of music, and the lifelong debate on whether christians should listen to secular music or not. We automatically think of the artist who thank God in their acceptance speeches, but there music is so far from the message of Christ. We feel the need to respond to celebrities who open up about their faith, as if they need our approval to give their lives to Christ. We think of anything that does not have to do with the church, or religion, which many times it isn’t. However, that does not mean that Christians cannot be in a secular atmosphere, as many of us are everyday. We must use the platform we have been given to spread the gospel, to glorify God and lead others to Him

Matthew 5: 13-15

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Christ tells us that we are the salt and the light of the world, but many Christians have taken that to mean that we are the salt and the light of the church. I think of young people specifically when I think of this subject, we are the generation that has seen the growth of the contemporary church. We have broken traditions, and made the choice that Jesus is more important than religion and rules. Church has become less about what we wear, denominations, or positions and more about experiencing God and having a genuine, intimate relationship with Him. We are the generation that doesn’t worry about the looks of someone but we are concerned with their heart. Beyond that we have learned to glorify God in our field, knowing that we have been called to different places and paths. We know that not all of us will be pastors, or work in a church, but we will occupy the space God has given us.

Jesus told the disciples to go out into all the world and proclaim the gospel, not just to the Christians or the nice people. He told them to go out into all the world. That means they probably had to go into some places that the pharisees and scribes refused to go. They had to get their hands dirty in order to deliver the message of Christ to the people. They had to go outside of their comfort zones, and outside of the circle of religion and christians, they had to go to the non-believers, the pagan nations. If we are here to spread the word of God throughout the world, we cannot do it by staying inside the walls of the church. Church is our place of fellowship, where we can worship with our fellow believers; but there are some people who will never walk into a church, we have to go to them. When Jesus came He did not stay in Nazareth waiting for the people to come to Him, He went out to the people.  Jesus ate at the houses and sat in the presence of many sinners, washing the feet of sinners, and sitting at the table and having dinner with sinners. We make the mistake of thinking that being a good Christian means that we cut ourselves off from the reach of anyone who sins more openly than we do. We think that we have to sit at the table with the Christians and fellowship amongst ourselves like an exclusive club. The problem with that is, no one is coming out saved, because everyone at the table has already given their life to Christ, If you place ten Christians in a room with one hundred nonbelievers, most, if not everyone in that room will have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many will have given their life over to Christ. That’s what it’s about, this is why it is imperative that we have Christians impacting the world outside of Church. We talk about people being famous, and the media, and things that run the world as we know it.

As an actress who is also a Christian I am often asked if I want to stick with doing only Christian movies, and sometimes people are shocked that my answer is no. Besides for the obvious reason that most Christian movies are corny and terrible, there is another reason. I want to be a successful film actress, I am not completely opposed to doing Christian films, but when I think of it, these films are often only for Christians, only for people who know and understand the bible. It is usually separate from the world we are supposed to be bringing the gospel to.  Which brings me to my point that if anyone should be on the front lines of any industry it should be Christians. From doctors, to lawyers, teachers, artists, scientists, the media, military, politics, journalism, math, management, pastoral, music, logistics, etc whatever it may be. We must use whatever platform we have been given to reach God’s people. Showing people that it is about the lifestyle we lead as we dedicate everyday of our lives to Christ.

-Dyamond  

The scripture says that we are the salt of the earth. In that time salt was used to preserve food (most likely a lot of fish) so that it would not go bad, seeing that they had no refrigerators. If that salt lost it’s saltiness, then all the food would go bad. It would start to smell, and everything would be a trainwreck. That is what we are to the world, we are the salt that preserves this world, we as Christians are here to keep the world fresh, and preserved. We are here to share the good news of Christ so that the world does not spoil with sin. We are here to shed a light in the dark places. We have the light of Christ in us, let’s not hide it. We should bring it to all the world, not just the Christians.

Reflection/ Prayer Time

Take the time to think and reflect on the position or place God has you, and what He has called you to. How can you use the gifts you have been given to occupy the space that you are in? Talk to God about what being the salt and the light of the world means. Ask God to help you reach outside of your comfort to send the message of the Gospel to His people. Open your heart and gifts to God and allow Him to use you as a vessel to bring His truth to the nations.

I love you, and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Enjoy your Saturday. Share this with someone and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 58!

Day 25: Living in the Future

Many of us are planners, especially those who tend to be more busy. We plan every second of everyday, we know when we are going somewhere, what time we should be there, who will be there and even what time we are leaving. As a performer I keep a schedule, I have to plan everything around rehearsals, and performances, and so on. But I always have to be open to plans changing because we never know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day, or next week.

I’m a person who sets goals, and have a pretty good idea of what I want my future to look like, I have dreams, and visions that I believe will come to past, I have no doubt. But sometime I am so focused on where I am going, i pay no attention to where I am. We talked about living in the past yesterday and how it can blur the present. Today we’re talking about how living in the future can also blur the present. There is no problem in having hope in the future and pressing towards our goals, but we cannot overlook where we are in favor of where we want to be. We must be content with our life as is.

Matthew 6:34

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

We can plan and plan and plan, but we never know exactly what is going to happen, we cannot plan every moment of our lives. We all want a bright future, but in order to get there we have to be present in the now, or before we know it a decade has passed by and we’ve missed it because we are so focused on tomorrow. We have to realize that at one point the past was the present and the present was the future. Time is very tricky and it stops for no one. Like the scripture says, don’t worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will handle itself, we have to worry about today, because right now it’s all we have. We have to take life a day at a time, and before we know it, we’ll reach those goals.

We have to learn to cross the bridge when we get to it, not before. God has a plan for us and we don’t always know what that looks like. But we have to know that each step we take is ordered by Him, and we can’t plan His moves we just follow, He know where our foot will land. We have to trust God today as He leads us into tomorrow. We’re great with putting our future in His hands but can we trust Him in the now. God is working right now, don’t be so focused on what He is going to do that you miss what He is doing now.

Reflection

1. Write down your goals, dreams, and ambitions.
2. Trust God with them, trust His plan.

Prayer Time

Today we are going to keep it simple and sweet, talk to God about your dreams and ambitions, talk to Him about your future. If you're someone who lives in the future talk to God about what it means to be present to live in the now.

Day 24: Living In (and Regretting) the Past

We as human beings tend to live in the past a lot, with our regrets, and wishing we could have done something different to change an outcome, or wishing we could rewind time and take a different route than the one we chose.. We look back so much that we start to stumble on what is in front of us, Whether we regret the decisions we made or are looking back at “the best times of  our lives” for some reason we can’t stay out of the past.

Often times we hear the statements “If I could rewind the hands of time” or “If i had a time machine I would…” I’m very guilty of it, at one point in my life I spent so much time regretting a decision I made when I was eighteen I was twenty two and still regretting it. Then I realized that there is nothing I can do but move on, and know that even in my stupidity God works. I was so focused on the past that I could not see what God was doing right in front of me. Sometimes our desires to change the past can blur our present.

-Dyamond

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When we become Christians many time automatically are burdened with guilt and shame because of the life we lived before we came to Christ. We apologize a million times for our sins, to make sure God forgives us. Once we give our lives to Christ, once we submit ourselves to Him and repent we become a new creation. Everything we did is no more, we can let it go because God did the moment He forgave us. God doesn’t dwell on our past, He loves us in the now. Micah 7:19 says Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!

Philippians 3:13-14

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

There is something greater that lies ahead, we just have to keep moving forward. We can glance back sometimes to see the progress and where we have come from, but we can’t stay there. Sometimes we have to move forward without looking back. Where we’re going is far greater than where we’ve been. And where we’ve been has put us on the path to where we are going. So appreciate the past, don’t live in it but appreciate it and move on. Press toward Christ, to eternity, press toward His love and His final destination. We can’t keep tripping on the present because we’re too busy in the past, it won’t work.

Isaiah 43:18 (read scriptures 14-28)

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

In this chapter Isaiah is speaking to the israelites who have been exiled in Babylon for the last five decades. God is about to deliver them out of the hands of Babylon. As He reminds the people of the Exodus He tells them to forget the former things. Forget about that because He is about to do something new, possibly better. Sometimes we look at how good things used to be and can’t imagine how they can be as good or even better. When we think like this  we make the past so much bigger than the present. Having faith in what happened long ago instead of what is happening now.  Something we have to realize about God is, He never changes, the same miracles He did a thousand years ago He can do today.   I think God wants them to leave the past in the past and focus on what He is doing now. We must take our focus off of what happened years ago and focus on what is happening now, the past can’t do anything for us right now.

Reflection

“If I knew then what I know now…”

1. Complete the above sentence, without thinking about it just write.
2. Now think about who you would be, how different your life would be if you “knew then what you knew now”
3. Realize that everything happens for a reason and everything moment is an opportunity for growth. You had to go through what you went through in order to get to where you, and know what you know. Appreciate every moment, even the not-so-smart ones, and look forward to growth.

Prayer time

Lay your heart down before God, ask Him to search your heart, and remove any regrets. If you are holding on to the past, surrender it to Christ and let it God. Be willing to let go of whatever it is you are holding on to. Speak to God, Cry out, do whatever you need to do. Go into a prayer closet or find a secluded place where you can be alone, and just open your heart to Him. Spend this time with God and be completely honest with Him.