Day 365: Direction: God Will Always Make a Way

*I know Sunday's are usually our recap days but in light of this being the last post of the year, here is the last part of our direction series.*

Matthew 6:25-34

25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? 31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Okay so today is officially the last devotional of the year and it is by far the hardest one I have had to write. It is more emotional that I thought. However we shall proceed with today's devotional in which we will talk about not worrying about things and not worrying about stuff that is not even here, because God will take care of it all. There is no need to worry about anything because God has it all under control. We often spend too much time worrying about the future when we don't even know what it holds. We spend our time anticipating what will happen and being anxious for no reason. the moment we have is a gift and many times we overlook it because we are too busy looking into the future trying to figure out something God has already figured out for us. So why not live right now, there's nothing we can do about tomorrow until it gets here. I am a firm believer in crossing a bridge when you get to it. Meaning I can prepare all I want, I can get ready to walk the bridge I have never seen, but nothing can prepare me for exactly what will happen when I get to the bridge and when I get on it. I cannot try to cross the bridge when I am miles away from it, that just makes no sense. I have to cross it when I get there. With that being said, we are often trying to live in the future because we are so worried about what it holds that we are dismissing the journey to get there. 

I want you to go into the new year into worrying about what the future holds but having faith in who holds your future. Not worrying about material things but latching on to something and someone far greater than what money can buy us. Know that no matter what happens God will always make a way. In fact He has already made a way, He already has it figured out. Our job is to not try to do His job but trust in what He is doing. God cares so much for us and He will not leave us out to dry. Enjoy the journey to bridge before you get there, and when you do get there walk with God over it. 

Response/ Prayer Time

Take the time to respond on whatever way you feel led, take the time to pray about what we discussed today and pray about whatever is on you heart tonight!

I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and enjoy your New Year. 

P.S.

There will be another reflection post later on tonight. 

Day 6: Pleasing People

We touched on people pleasing a bit in one of the previous devos, but right now I want to focus on the subject alone. If you are like me, you are a people pleaser, you want everyone to be happy, you don’t like disappointing anyone, especially the people you love. I don’t think I understood how detrimental people pleasing was, until I realized that I lived off the approval of others. I enjoyed the gratification from people, but also I just wanted everyone to be happy. That meant putting their happiness, and well-being above and before mine, sometimes placing them above myself. Seeing myself as less than not equal to another human being. It got to a point where I did not know how to say no, I lost myself, and it felt like I was being pulled in every direction because all I wanted was for people to be happy. Or atleast that what I said. For some reason I felt like I owed something to people. I realized that for me, pleasing people was a way for me to fill the voids within myself, and those voids were so much deeper than I could have ever imagined.

Galatians 1:10

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Colossians 3:23

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Romans 13:8

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Who are we really trying to please by being a good and selfless person. I feel like we often look for validation from others to fill a void within ourselves, that can only be filled by one thing, or one person, God. God is the only one we should seek to please because man will never be satisfied. No matter how much we do or get, we are constantly changing and moving on to the next thing, we are always needing and wanting something different. We are in a constant search for validation and completion. These two things are only found on Christ, God completes us, He is our validation. The sooner we realize that we will stop seeking to please man, we will know that what we are looking for is so much deeper than a moment of gratification.

Pleasing man means we are not putting our focus on God, as servants of Christ or Christians our main focus and priority should be Christ. No one or nothing should come before him. When we are focused on pleasing people we are seeking the approval of man, and not Christ. In the end that is all that matters, man cannot get us into heaven.

Another part of people pleasing comes unintentionally, it’s the fact that we don’t want to let the people we love down. There is nothing wrong with that, but something that we must understand, is that we cannot make everyone happy while at the same time trying to maintain our own happiness. We want to keep our parents happy, we want to make them proud, and we do. But when we sacrifice who we are it can turn into heartbreak. I strongly doubt the people we love want us to be unhappy for their sake. I get wanting to make your parents proud and not wanting to let down the people you love. But when God is top of that list, when following Christ and seeking him first is number one, then everything after that will fall into place.  The only thing we owe man is love, and when we do things out of love and not because we want approval, or gratification, or reciprocation, that’s when it becomes selfless. People pleasing was not about someone else to begin with, it is about filling a void within us, it is about needing approval and gratification from others, but if we never get the approval, or the gratification, or the reciprocation, would it still be worth it?

Reflection

1. Are you a people pleaser and who are the people you aim to please the most?
2. What voids are you trying to fill, if any?
3. Is Christ your  top priority?

Prayer Time

Sit down and focus on God, as you pray be honest with God, if you have discovered anything about yourself today, let it out. Talk to God about what you are feeling. Be honest, and remember, prayer is just a conversation with God.

Intro Video

Here's a little intro video and a bit more info about where we are starting the New Year off.
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https://youtu.be/P3JCVq3HbmU

Day 1: Choices

There's no better way to start off the New Year than with choices. This year, I am making a bunch of year long commitments. One thing I love to do at the beginning of every year is make a vision board, or book. I write down my goals, long term and short term, what I expect from myself this year and how I want to change. I would like to invite you all to join me in doing that. But in the mean time, here is the first official devo of the year. Hope you enjoy!!!

-Dyamond 

In our twenties start to make real life choices. We figure out, who we are, where we want to be, what we want to do. We start to make decisions on our own, decisions that weren’t up to us before. There’s a lot of pressure to make the right choice, and make sure we are doing what’s right. Honestly sometimes, we don’t know what that is, because for so long we’ve had people making choices for us, and some of still expect that, or even have outside influence. With so many things to think about, so many inside and outside voices, which one do we listen to, and how do we know it’s the right one.

This week we will focus on the five choices or decisions:

1. Who am I/Who Do I want to be?
2. Where am I going?
3. What do I want?
4. Is it really up to me?

Proverbs 2:6

For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

As the new year approaches and we all set goals for 2017 and make new year resolutions, this is the perfect time for choices. We are making different choices than usual, and vowing to abide by the choices we make. For those of us who live in Christ these choices and decisions we make must be wise. We must seek God for an answer, and consult with Him. He knows it all, so as the year starts off let's vow to look to Him for His wisdom and seek His face for answers.