Day 307: Live as Free People

1 Peter 2:16

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

Let’s address the elephant in the room. What a statement, amiright? This statement is such a crazy thing to say when we look at it. On one breath it’s saying we are free, but right after it says we’re servants. Now most people don’t equate freedom with being servants, some translation have translated that word to say slave. We are slaves of God, yet we are free. When we think of our definition of freedom it means that we are indebted to no one. So how are we free but we are still servants or slaves? What if we looked at it as owing the man who sacrificed His life for us our hearts or our lives. What if we realized that Jesus gave up His life so that we may be free from the bondage of sin a death. Freedom for us looks like being given the opportunity to serve God with our everything. As crazy as the scripture sounds we are only free in Christ. We are not bound in Christ in fact we are the exact opposite. Sin held us down, held us in bondage, but Jesus came to give us life. He came to free us from those chains and free us from a lifestyle was was leading us to the grave and nowhere else.

There’s a song that says, “I found my life when I laid it down...I touched the sky when my knees hit the ground.” Freedom in Christ is giving up what we think we know and acknowledging that God God is in control. It is understanding that there is a whole world God has for us, that we cannot see if we are still stuck in our sin. Freedom is being able to experience the beauty of this world that God has created for us, and living the life God has planned for us. The human mind can only go so far, and seeing how far the human mind can go is crazy, but to think that the mind of God is greater leaves me in awe.

We are not free because we get to do whatever we want, when we want to do it. Sometimes the choices we make while free are the ones that keep us in bondage, there are people in prison serving real time for real crimes that attest to that. Just because we know we can do something doesn’t mean we should do it. Free will gives us the right to choose who we want to be but we must understand that every choice has a consequence whether good or bad. Humans are capable of doing astounding things, while simultaneously capable of doing some of the most grotesque things. We are free to choose who we will be, but as for us who follow Christ and have submitted our lives to serving the Lord we know that true freedom lies within God. There is no limit to freedom in Christ.

All this to say, while we are free to choose who we want to be, when we decide to follow Christ we decide to be servants in the kingdom of God. That in itself is freedom, we will do things and go places we never thought we’d do or go. Serving Christ is less about what we can’t do and more about the kind of life we can lie in Him. Living in Christ is so peaceful, so free, there is nothing like it. Freedom looks like living like Christ. True freedom is in Christ.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Think about what we discussed today and how you view freedom. Think about what your personal definition of freedom is and what it is to be free in Christ. How to they relate or differ. Bring it all to God in prayer.

Maybe you’ve never had a chance to experience this freedom in Christ, if you haven’t I want to give you that opportunity. Make the decision to follow Christ and live a life of freedom.

If you’ve never made the decision to live for Christ, or you want to rededicate your life. If you want to be brought into this magnificent promise of eternity, now is the time to make that decision. If that’s you if you want to make that decision, pray this prayer with me,

“Jesus I declare that you are my Lord and Saviour who died for my sins and was raised three days later. I repent of my sins and I give my life to you. I believe in my heart that you are the true living God. I pray that you shine your  light on me and bring me out of the darkness and into your light. I love you Lord. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, Amen.”

If you made the choice to follow Christ, rededicate, or to submit your life to Him fully, Go to Romans 10:9-10

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! If you made the decision to follow Christ today, congratulations! Do not hesitate to reach and get plugged into  a church. Make sure you come back tomorrow for day 308!

Day 272: Chains of Freedom

We as humans have a bad habit of holding on to toxic things. We hold on to the very thing that’s killings us as if it’s going to save us. We sometimes find it very hard to choose salvation. We sometimes choose to be stuck in our chains even when we have to key to release ourselves. It’s like we’re running from what is freely given to us but we run towards the things that will cost us our life. Why is that?

Today I want to talk about this human condition. Let’s talk about it.

Ephesians 2:8-9

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Salvation is a gift from God, freely given to us. We just have to choose to accept it. We have to choose to accept Christ into our lives. This is often the hardest decision to make for us as human beings. It’s a huge life changing decision, but our lives will change for the better. However we sometimes find that committing to Christ is extremely hard. It requires us to live for someone and something other than ourselves. The thing about salvation and gifts is that we choose whether or not we want to accept it. Even though it’s free, we still think there’s a catch or there’s some sort of cost. No, salvation is free, Christ paid it all on the cross. Somehow, even with that knowledge we still seem to be on the fence about accepting God’s love and salvation. A lot of that skepticism has to do with Ephesians 4:22-24,

...throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.  Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Wait a minute! Hold the front door! You’re telling me that once I give my life to Christ or accept His gift of salvation, I have to change? That’s exactly what I’m saying. Surely we did not think that we could still go on living in sin, when Christ died so we wouldn’t have to...  Here’s the thing, change is scary. Stepping out our comfort zone, no matter how toxic it is, is scary. We seem to have gotten too comfortable in our life of sin. So when we finally come to Christ, letting go of it is hard. Because sin brings pleasure, and a false sense of freedom. However when we come to the understanding of who God is we see how toxic that lifestyle is for us. The sad part is, sometimes we just decide to live with the fumes because letting go is too hard. Why do we stay in the same situation we are in even though it’s killing us?   

Romans 7:15-17

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.  But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

I have heard so many people say, “when you know better, you do better.”. While I agree with that 100%, I also agree with the fact that knowledge doesn’t change who we are. It changes what we know. We can know everything there is to know about God but if we decide that we aren’t going to change, that knowledge can only go so far. We can talk about much faith we have but if at the end of the day we have not laid our sins at the cross and let them go, does it really matter how much we know? Knowledge isn’t going to get us through those pearly white gates. Salvations will, a life lived in Christ will. It’s hard to let things go, sometimes sin is living in us and we don’t even know it, or we choose to ignore it. We don’t see it until we do the very thing we promised we weren't going to do. The problem with that is, we are trying to rid ourselves of our sin. That’s a paradox in itself, the sinner cannot free themself from sin. Which is why we need Jesus a perfect man, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says,

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The more we try to do it ourselves the more we will fall deeper into it. When sin lives in us, we act based on what it is our hearts, no matter how much we try to suppress it. Suppressing sin and actually being freed and delivered from sin are two completely different things.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

All this to say, is we are sometimes constantly running from that which is free in order to run towards something that will cost us everything, even our life. Why walk in chains when we are free. We have to stop running back to the chains of bondage when life gets to hard for us. What I’m saying is, our chains are comfortable, and sometimes we find ourselves sadly running back to them. For some odd reason we view sin as freedom. We don’t commit ourselves to Christ because we want to be free and do what we want. Salvation is freedom, there is more freedom in salvation than anything. Sin gives us a false idea of freedom, it seems free until we have to give up our soul. Living in sin can only take us so far. It will give us fun and pleasure but at the end of the day it will have consumed our life, Leaving us empty and constantly wanting more. Sin will never fulfill us in the way that christ can. Salvation and eternity is free, don’t be so afraid of change that you die never knowing the freedom you could have had in Christ.

Reflection

1. Are you afraid of change?
2. Have you found yourself running back to your old like when things got too hard?
3. What’s stopping you from submitting your life fully to Christ?

Prayer Time

Allow your answer to the above questions guide your prayer today, and continue to respond in whatever way you feel led. Talk to God about what we discussed today, whatever is on your heart. Whatever is tugging on your spirit respond to it with prayer. Be honest 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 273!

Day 270: Why Worry?

Philippians 4:6-7

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Let’s talk about worrying.  This is all too familiar to many of us. Why do we worry so much? There’s so much stuff for us to be anxious about, so much to be worried about. So many things to get us in a frenzy. Especially in our twenties, we’re graduating from college and figuring out what we’re going to do with the rest of our lives. We’re still figuring out who we are, and we’re constantly changing. Or maybe we’re making life changing decisions, coming into life changing responsibilities. Things are constantly changing around us. We’re just trying to stay afloat (life is so much more than just staying afloat, but that’s another topic for another day). We’re trying to live a normal life, working, going to school, paying bills, keeping in contact with family and friends, marriages, kids, and for those of us who are single, trying to have some type of love life. Maybe we’re trying to find the one (they’re always at church or coffee shops lol). On a serious note, there is so much for us to be worried about, so much for us to be anxious about, and losing our minds about. Many of us find ourselves in these places. But the passage of above tells us not to worry about anything but pray about everything. Really? All of my problems can be solved with prayer? Yes they can! It’s that simple, I’m not sure why we as humans like to complicate things (But that’s also another subject for another day). The next line goes on to say, ‘tell God what you need’. Remember when Jesus came and said, come to Him so He can give us rest?

Matthew 11:28

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

He doesn’t want us carrying those worries around. It’s a heavy burden, He says let me give you rest, put that burden down and take mine, it’s light. When Jesus was nailed to the cross He took all of our burden with Him. We don’t have to carry them.  Pray about it and leave it with Him, trust me He can handle it better than we can. We worry so much and that often takes the place of prayer in our lives. But God is like, ‘no, tell me what you need. I got you. Don’t worry about it, talk to me about it and let me handle it.’ Instead of worrying, I’ve learned to thank God in advance, thanking Him for the things that He has done and the things He is going to. Putting all my faith in Him, because He sees far beyond what my eyes could ever see or imagine.

Sometimes we’re focused on what’s right in front of us that we kind of forget who God is.  We have to sometimes look at the grand scheme of things, the bigger picture.  We begin to worry because we cannot see past our situation, that thing staring us right in the face. But the thing about faith is that is gives us the opportunity to see through the situation and see God.  We get so caught up in what’s in front of us that we cannot see beyond that to see that God has it all under control.  I think of it this way, why worry when God already has it figured out. I can worry about what I’m going to do with my life, but I know that God already has a wonderful plan for me, and even though I don’t know what that plan is, I’m going to trust Him to lead me. I may not know exactly where I’m going but I know that where I am isn’t the end. I know He has gotten me thus far, so I’m going to continue to put my faith in Him. We worry when things don’t go as planned. Even in those moments we must realize that God is moving. This is why we must keep a loose grip on our plans, because even in our greatest dreams, God is always doing something greater and bigger. If we truly believe that God’s plan is far greater than ours, why are we worrying about the little things that we think we have control over? Why worry when God does far beyond what we can ever think, ask, or imagine? I have come to the conclusion that with this understanding I have nothing to worry about, God has already gotten it figured out and it took me a while to finally get it.

There’s something about being worry free that makes life so much easier. We enjoy life more when we’re not in a constant state of anxiety and worry. It’s a beautiful feeling. We see the beauty of life when we begin to understand that God is completely in control. He has it all figured out and He’s guided us through it all. There’s comfort and peace in that.  We may not know or understand what God is doing in that moment, but there is beauty in it all, even in the unknown. The mystery of it all keeps us following Him. Just as the scripture says, “...Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.”

Well how do i just pray and not worry? Faith. Take a chance on God, leap and the net will appear. All it takes is a little faith to step out. Just take a chance and I promise He won’t let you down. Our faith cannot grow if it’s not tested, Our faith is tested most when we are going through hell on earth. It’s the moments when we feel like there’s no reason to pray or trust God. In those moment just trust Him, give Him a chance, jump, He will catch you. Trust me, He won’t let you fall.  

All this to say, have faith in God. Don’t worry about anything, instead, pray about everything.

Reflection

1. Are you a worrier?
2. Do you sometimes focus on the situation at hand as opposed to God’s plan?
3. Are you willing to take a chance on Him?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about what we discussed today. Have a honest conversation with Him. Lay down all your worries at His feet and leave them there. Take a chance on God today.

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 271!

Day 269: All Loss for One Gain

Philippians 3:7-8

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Paul was on to something in these scriptures, he saying something along the lines of, ‘nothing compares to having Christ in my life’. Everything I had, everything I have gained, I would count it all lost just to have Christ in my life. I would lose it all, if it meant I would gain you. I would rather lose everything before I lose you. This almost seems like our response to God leaving the ninety-nine to find the one that wandered away. Christ gave up everything, His throne, His life, so that we may live. This concludes that life is so much greater than what we gain or lose here on earth. There is a greater purpose, a mystery to it all. That mystery is Christ. How great it is to gain everything through Christ, even when we’ve lost everything in the world.

How many of us can say that we are willing to lose everything for the sake of Christ? If we had too or if we were given the choice. I’m not telling you to go and give up everything you have, what I’m saying is that if we had to, if we lost everything it will have been worth it, just to gain Christ. Just so we can have a relationship with Him, and experience the love and freedom He has given us. I believe that this is what Paul was saying. He’s saying none of it matters if I don’t have Christ. I will rip up my credentials, and give up all my earthly possessions because truly if I do not have Christ, what do I have? I have nothing.

I remember when my sister and I were sixteen, it seemed like our world came crashing down. My mom, my sister, my brother, and I fell on very hard times. We lost everything. From our house to our car. We put everything we owned into storage and then we lost that. Everything we owned, thousands of dollars worth of stuff, heirlooms, everything! All we had were the bags of clothes we needed and the clothes on our backs. We were living in a motel at the time. As someone who grew up very sheltered and spoiled, I found myself at the lowest point of my life. I thought we couldn’t get any worse. But it was in these moments that Christ found me. I would love to say, I found Him but I wasn’t looking for Him, if I’m being honest. It was when I had nothing that Christ gave me everything and I don’t mean materialistic stuff. I mean He showed me that there was a reason to live beyond what was tangible. He showed me that I had a greater purpose, He gave me life when I was dying. Everything I could need or ask for He gave it to me. I found it all in Him, all the answers I needed, all the healing, all the grace, everything was and is in Him. Going through all of this sucked, it was very hard, but if Christ didn’t find me, if He didn’t meet me where I was I would not have made it through. Going through much more than just losing everything I was dealing with some dark emotional, and mental issues at the time, and battled with suicide. Even went as far as planning my suicide, multiple times, but He never allowed me to carry out the plan. If He hadn’t found me, where would I be? I would have died at my own hands. So yes, I lost everything but it was all worth it just to gain Christ. I would not go back and change anything because through it all I receive my salvation and an eternal relationship with my heavenly Father. I might have lost everything, but in reality I truly gained everything.

-Dyamond

All this to say, sometimes we have to lose everything to gain Christ. Maybe not on that grand of a scale but we must come to realization that all of this can vanish at any moment. We must not put our faith in what is disposable. This doesn’t mean that we dismiss everything that is tangible, or things that are disposable, but our faith, our lives, our devotion belongs to Christ. When we put Him first, everything else will fall into place. The biggest lesson I learned from that experience is, I can live without these worldly possessions, tangible, and even sometimes intangible things that make up my life here on Earth, but I cannot live without Christ. I cannot do it.  At the end of the day, none of this can save us, whatever ‘this’ is. It cannot save us and it cannot give us peace or life. We have to get to a point where we hold tightly to God, so that when other things fall away we will still be standing because of our firm grasp on God. We will not be shaken or moved. Even when we have everything we ever wanted we will still have a solid foundation in Christ. Because like I said before if we are not living in Christ, are we really living?

Response/ Prayer Time

How do you respond to what we discussed today? Are you truly living? Maybe you’ve had a similar experience, maybe not, but respond however you feel led today and let that guide your prayer. Have a conversation with God, just you and 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 270!

Day 179: #LoveYourself Part 2

Mark 12:31

The second is this: ‘You should love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.

Ephesians 5:29

For no one has ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, as the Messiah does the church.

Psalms 139:14

I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.

Today we are taking it all the way back to the beginning, 171 days ago, but who's counting. On day seven of the devotional we started a little series on self love and this specific day was about loving yourself. I’m going to bring that theme back today and talk about loving the person you are from the inside, but also loving who you are on the outside. Being comfortable in your own skin and loving the person you are and not trying to shape and mould yourself into something or someone you think you should be. The goal of today is for us to be comfortable with who we are, and see that we are beautifully and wonderfully made.

“You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.”

– Diane Von Furstenberg

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in my twenty four years of living is to love myself and be comfortable with who I am. I spent so much time trying to change who I was an hating myself and not being comfortable in my own skin that I didn’t know what it meant to actually love myself. I didn’t know how to appreciate the body, the hair, the skin tone, the looks, the personality, or the gifts that God gave me. This as a result of me being bullied and blaming myself for being bullied. I hated who I was at a very young age, so I grew up very insecure, I hated my appearance, I hated my skin color, my hair, my height, everything about me I hated. But I loved acting because it gave me a chance to be someone else, that I could possibly fall in love with. Over the years as I’ve grown closer to God and closer to myself (I know that sounds weird but bear with me), I’ve learned that God made me who I am on purpose, He gave me this beautiful dark skin on purpose, this kinky-curly hair, that was on purpose too. My short stature, He gave that to me too. He created me in His image, in His hands, and I thank Him for that. I thank Him for showing me how to love who I am.

I believe that as people we are meant to love ourselves, if we don’t we cannot learn to love anyone else. As we pointed out in Day 7, Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourself. Now call me crazy but i think that there is a demand in there to love ourselves. Jesus doesn’t say things on accident, and we tend to overlook the part that says “...As yourself”. But once we truly love ourselves we will be able to spread that love and pour it onto others. My mom used to always say, “hurt people, hurt people” meaning we tend to throw our own insecurities and our own heartache and pain on others. We project ourselves onto other people. How we treat ourselves is often how we treat others. So just imagine, if we are loving ourselves and feeling confident and beautiful, and good about the skin we are in. Thankful for who we are, and the life we live. How do you think we are going to treat others?

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” and Mark Twain said, “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”

We call the shots, we are responsible for our own happiness, we are responsible for loving ourselves. I am going to say that loving yourself is a human responsibility. We are not always going to get compliments but that doesn’t mean we are not beautiful and handsome. One of things I pray is that God will help me to do is, be comfortable in my own skin. He has given us freedom and a life to live abundantly, the only one who can limit that is us. We have to learn to accept and love every part about us, the weird parts, the crazy parts, the parts that others will hate. Life is about freedom, live freely and be yourself. I truly believe that God gave us all different personalities, He gave us all different looks, shapes, and sizes and He loves it. We are all a melting pot of diversity, we don’t look the same, or act the same. How boring would that be. So let’s love ourselves, Be comfortable with who we are and who God made us to be.

Reflection

1. Are you comfortable in your own skin?
2. Do you love yourself?
3. List everything you love about yourself, and remind yourself everyday that you are beautiful or you are handsome, and you are who God made you to be.

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Ask God to help you learn to love yourself or continue to love yourself.

If this is a area you struggle in or have a hard time with, please do not hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns. I will answer them and talk to you and share with you.

I love you, know that your are beautiful on the inside and out. You are gorgeous, Make sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 180!