Day 293: But Wait...There's More!

Ephesians 3:20

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Malachi 3:20

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

Recently I had a realization, that no matter how big I dream, no matter how grand my plan is for myself and my life, God will always top that. It’s mindblowing to think about. Most people who know me know that I’m a dreamer, and I dream big, not only that but somehow someway all of my dreams are going to come to pass. It’s crazy when I sit and think of all the things I want out of life, and I’m reaching for the stars, I get a revelation that even in those moments God is bigger. Meaning He has a bigger vision, and a grander plan. That makes me trust Him even more. It pushes me to lean into His will a little more. God can do far beyond what we can ever think, or ask. That’s just a testament of how great God is compared to us, He expand our dreams, expands our faith, and expands our expectations. Simply because He is that good. I mean we’re talking about the guy who created the entire universe and everything in it.

When God blesses us, He really blesses us. It’s like a proud parent showering their child with gifts. God will go above and beyond for us, because He loves us that much. Sometimes we are waiting for God to move in our lives, waiting on promises, and when they do come to pass God makes the wait so worth. It’s a beautiful thing when we expect things from God. When we are waiting for Him to move miraculously in our lives, because He goes beyond our expectations. Over the summer I was really struggling with how we were going to pay tuition this year. I have struggling with this my entire time in school, and this times it seemed close to impossible. My family was going through so much financially, I couldn’t find a job, no one was willing to give me a loan and no one was willing to cosign. I found one person to co-sign and it got denied. Everything got denied. So I just kept praying and kept trusting God. I did not know how it was going to happen but I knew it was going to happen. But here’s the thing, I was expecting God to provide a loan approval, or enough money to start the payments. I called financial aid to see what they could do and they all told me there was nothing they could do. So I prayed some more and emailed the president of the school. Three days later I got an email saying, they would increase one of my grants. But wait...there’s more, they gave me a scholarship that would cover the rest of my tuition for not one but both semesters! I started screaming and broke out into tears, I was not expecting that but God went beyond my expectations and did something I did not even think of. Then I got offered not one but two jobs. I didn’t know how I was going to take care of myself financially, but I have four on-campus jobs. But wait...there’s more, I didn’t think I would get a refund check, but I went to the financial aid office and they had one there waiting for me, so now I don’t have to worry financially. God just keeps on blessing me, and it’s beyond whatever I could think or imagine.

-Dyamond

I think many times  it depends on our faithfulness, God will bless those who are faithful. He is looking at the ones who are constantly faithful to Him, and obeying Him. God sees that and He rewards the ones whose hearts stay with Him. This is not to say that we should only serve God for a blessing, but that faithfulness definitely pays off. Yes it pays off in eternity but it also pays off while we’re still on earth. We all have something that we want from God, continue to be faithful and wait what He will do. I’m a living testimony of what happens when God is faithful to us and we are faithful to Him.

All this to say, don’t underestimate God. Keep dreaming big and expecting God to move in your life and He will do more than you could ever imagine.

Reflection/Prayer Time

Just take the time to thank God that He is faithful. Take the time to pray and be grateful for who He is and what He does. Reflect on the times where you have seen Him move in your life. Reflect on the times when maybe you weren’t as faithful to God but He remained faithful to you. Take that with you as you pray today and pray however you feel led. Have a conversation with Him, if you need something tell Him, tell Him your greatest hopes and dreams and watch what He does.

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 294!

Day 198: Recap! (Testimony)

What a week it has been. This has been a very emotional week for me, both mentally and emotionally. I've had a hard time this week, but it payed off in the end. I am grateful God has given me a platform such as this to encourage me when I need. This week god used my own words to speak to me. Many of this weeks posts came out of what I was experiencing and having faith in Him. So today I'd like to share a testimony with you all.

I have been struggling with my tuition for the past two years at school and it was even more of a struggle this year. With the financial aid office telling me there was nothing they could do to help me. I've been denied for every loan there is, from private loans, to payday loans. I am still paying off last semester and I go back to school in a month. I had no idea how I was going to come up with the eight thousand dollar needed to pay for school. I have been on the phones, the school has been so rude to me, no one was willing to help me. No one. So I prayed and I got to a point where I started to freak out, I was getting tired of fighting, and tired of trying and just ready to walk away from it all. However, deep down inside I knew that everything was going to be okay. When I was done freaking out, I found an ounce of hope. During this time I decided to email the president of my school, explaining the situation to him and asking for help. I was very honest in the email and I laid it all out on the table. Not knowing if he would respond or even help I sent the email because why not.  While I was expecting something from God, I was not expecting what He did. It reminds me of Ephesians 3:20,

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,"

It amazes me how God can take good faith and make it great. He shows us what He can do when we have faith in Him. This testimony is a testament of both God's faithfulness, and what it looks like when you trust God. 

So yesterday, I checked my email yesterday to see if there would be a response from him and there was. Not only did they increase one of my grants by 1,000 dollars but they also gave me another grant to cover the remainder of my tuition for the entire year. I read the email and I broke down crying because I knew that that was God. He worked it out for me once again in a way I never expected. I don't have to worry about making payments or stressing about the people in financial aid sending me passive aggressive emails. My God is awesome. I cannot thank Him enough, I am still amazed by it. When God shows up, He truly shows out. 

Day 118: Walking Through the Desert

Today we are going to continue with yesterday’s theme of, this idea of stepping into the desert out of bondage.

Deuteronomy 8:2, Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

We are all aware that the Israelites wandered through the desert for forty years. A journey that should have taken a few weeks ended up taking forty years because of the Israelites disobedience, complaining, and grumbling. They held themselves up. Today we aren’t going to go into too deep of detail about that (not yet), but we are going to talk about the journey. Yesterday we talked about stepping into the desert, today it’s about walking or journeying through the desert.

The only way to the promised land was through the desert.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned in my life is that the journey is more important, than the destination. Getting there is what is important, it’s what counts most. We cannot skip over what it takes to get to where we are or where we are going, there’s always going to be a journey and it is in these desert places that we grow the most. Which is why we often hear people talking about the journey more than the destination, there's some hills and valleys to go through first. We have to walk through those hard places, and learn some lessons in the desert. Now, one thing I must say is that our generation is the generation of immediacy. We want everything immediately, and with technology, online shopping, and social media we don’t have to travel far to get it.  We want God to do things for us, but we don’t want to go through the desert with Him. We want Him to take us places but we only want to be there for the final destination, not the journey. Life doesn’t work that way, if we want something we have to walk through the desert to get it, the same way the israelites had to walk through the desert to get to the promised land. The promised land wasn’t coming to them, they had to go to it. God has prepared a promised land for us, but we have to go to it. He opens doors for us, but we have to walk through them. We have to take the journey to get to the places we need and want to go. The journey is so important because there are some things we have to drop along the way. There are some things we have to leave in the desert.

There were some things they brought out of Egypt that couldn’t go into the promised land, they had to drop it in the desert.

A lot of times God takes us through the journey to teach us, and help us grow. In the desert we are completely stripped of all things that will lead us away from God. We cannot take the attitude of bondage into a land of freedom. I believe that, that was one of the reasons it took them forty years to get to the promised land. God had to make sure that they were not entering the promised land with the same things they left Egypt with. There is always a purpose to the journey, there is always a testimony in the desert.

Reflection/ Prayer time

Talk to God about the passages today, allow His love to serenade your heart. Thank Him for the journey you are one, even the valleys and deserts we have to go through.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Thank you for reading, share this with someone and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 119! For those of you entering finals week or the last stressful parts of the school year, or college, you are in my prayers.

Day 98: Let's Talk About It- "Why We Serve God"

As we close out the “Let’s talk about it series” I want to bring it back to the root of why we do things and why we serve Christ in the first place.  I know we all have amazing stories of what lead us to Christ and how we got to know HIm for ourselves, and the moment we decided to give our lives to Christ. We remember the feeling of how it felt to know that you were now on a journey to eternity. It is important that we know why we serve God, and why we love GOd, and why we have chosen to live this life with CHrist. I have been asked this question a couple of times and have learned that it isn’t as complex as I made it.

Genesis 2:7

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

It is the breath of God running through our bodies. If it were not for him we would be lifeless creatures. He literally blew life into our nostrils and gave us a reason to live. God is the air we breathe. We are God’s greatest work of art, He formed us in His hand. He shaped and molded us. He gave us life, literal life. It comes from Him. God is the giver of life.

1 John 4:19

We love because He first loved us

God loves us so much. We respond to His goodness with love. We live our lives knowing that we are loved by the most magnificent being in all of creation. God loves us unconditionally, we didn’t do anything to receive His love and there’s nothing we can to for it to be taken away. God never needed a reason to love us, he just does.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, He gave his only son, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

This is an example of how great God’s love is. He sent His own son, His child for us. He made His son, Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Because He loves us so much that He cannot bear to be separate for us, He is in constant pursuit of our hearts. So He made a way for us to be cleansed and forgiven and the opportunity to live an eternal life, through Christ. He wants a relationship with us, and Jesus is our direct line to Him. He made a way for us to have a constant connection to Him. God is just that great.

There are so many reasons as to why we serve God, and why we choose to life this lifestyle and continue to make that choice everyday.

God is love

God is Faithful

God is merciful

God is gracious

God is unfailing

God is patient

God is the giver of life and everything in it.,,

The list goes on.

For me I have learned that I am nothing without God. I don’t exist without Him and I cannot live apart from Him. I have seen God’s faithfulness first hand, and I have learned to trust him more and more with my life. God is the only person who has never let me down. God is the only person who is constantly there for me even when I didn’t acknowledge His presence in my life. I need God every second of everyday. But I also want Him near me every second of everyday, I’m clingy when it comes to my relationship with God, I have to be under Him always. I have to or I won’t make it. There's nothing I can do without God and there is nothing I can’t do with God. Most importantly, I love Him. I love God with every piece of my being, I love Him so much and I know that it will never add up to how much He loves me. I fell in love with God, and I fall deeper for Him everyday. He is my everything.

Reflection

1. Why do you serve God?

Prayer Time

Take the time to thank God for who He is. Take this time to honor and give reverence to God. Just thank Him, talk to Him about what He means to you. Praise God, just honor and glorify Him. He is worthy.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Make sure you share this with someone, share your story with someone today, and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 99! Have an awesome Day!.

Day 54: An Endless Hope

Hope- To trust in, wait for, look for, or desire something or someone; or to expect something beneficial in the future. (biblical definition)

In Scripture, according to the Hebrew and Greek words translated by the word “hope” and according to the biblical usage, hope is an indication of certainty (the quality of being reliably true). “Hope” in Scripture means “a strong and confident expectation.” Though archaic today in modern terms, hope is akin to trust and a confident expectation.

Hebrews 11:1

For faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1 NLT)

Psalms 147:11

The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.

Psalms 3:4

I call out to the Lord and He answers me from His holy mountain.

Many times we say that we have hope in Lord without understanding the true meaning of it. When we put our hope in God it is automatically paired with faith, we are relying on the faithfulness of God. We hope in God because we have confidence in who He is and we wholeheartedly believe in His word. We know that God will always be there; we are certain of His presence. Putting our hope and faith in the Lord is encouraging because  we look to our heavenly father for answers. We turn to Him because we know of His faithfulness. . We desire Him, and His magnificent love. We hope in a Lord that provides us with unfailing love, and everlasting life. We want to live in His presence because we know that there is no greater place to be than in the hands of God. Putting our hope in God is better than wishing upon a star, and even though it seems as if we are taking a shot in the dark, it is quote the opposite. We know that God will be there for us, even when we can’t see or feel Him and we stand firm on HIs word and wait for Him. Because His timing is perfect.

Faith means that we believe, hope means we are in expectation of what we are believing for. We have so much faith in God that we don’t just ask but we expect Him to come through, we expect Him to answer our prayers.  We know that He will always answer, and I don’t foresee that changing in the future. Faith is the body of our hope. We put our hope in someone and something that is unfailing. God’s love never fails, His words never returns to Him void. If we are going to rely on anyone or anything, it should be God and His precious word.

We are going to go through times in our life when the only hope we have left is in God. Where God is the only person in our life who hasn’t let us down. At some point in our life we will realize that the only thing we can do is put our hope in the Lord. These are the moments God delights in. Out of everything we’re going through we will not be shaken because we know of God’s unfailing love, and faithfulness we’ve experienced it. We have confidence in our faithful Father. We know that all we have to do is call out to the Lord in faith and expect Him to move. He might not move right then and there but God hears us calling we can find comfort in that. We will find comfort in knowing that God will somehow someway work this out. Sometimes we don’t even know how He’s going to do it, we just stand waiting with expectation and confidence that He will.

God’s word is unfailing, and His love is endless. Due to this truth, I will forever put my hope in Him. Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. (Psalms 62:5)

Reflection

1. Write down the things that you are expecting from God.
2. Is all of your hope in God, or is it in man?
3. Do you find comfort in knowing that you serve an unfailing God, whose love is eternal and endless?
   
   

Prayer Time

Take the time to talk to God about what it means to put all of our hope in Him. Allow your ansers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Rest in His love knowing that you can hope in His unfailing love. Just talk to Him, remember that prayer is just a conversation with God.

I love you, and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. I love you so much. Make sure you come back tomorrow for day 55!