Day 357: Recap!

Merry Christmas Eve!

This week consisted of two series. The Life is Funny Series and the That's Life Series. We talked a lot about life this week, how it is unpredictable and how it is more that just a struggle and ultimately the kind of life we want to lead. So instead of doing a normal recap today I have an assignment for you all, instructions if you will. Take the time to go over what we discussed this week, just a bit of a review, if something spoke to you specifically, go back to that day and reflect on it.

1. Make a list of all the things you want to do with your life. Goals, dreams, aspirations, plans, everything.
2. Highlight all the parts of your life you want God to work on.
3. What is your perspective on life? How do you perceive things? How does your perception of life affect how you live?
4. How do you want you live your life in a way that will serve God and His people?
5. Make a vision board or start making one, you don't have to finish it today,  to have if ready by new year. On this vision board will be what you want it to be, how you visualize your life going in 2018. What do you want out of life? What do you expect God to do in your life?
*Keep a loose grips on your plans because God might change them.*
6. Make a promise to live the life god has destined for you, not for anyone else.

Take the time pray on all these things. Take the time and ask God for direction and allow Him to lead you.

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 358!

Day 306: Lose Control

Proverbs 19:21

You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Isaiah 55:9

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”

You ever felt like you were navigating through life but not really getting anywhere? You have a plan, you know what you want and you're going after it but it doesn’t seem to be working out the way you planned. Everything thing is out of control and falling apart. It’s like we’re losing a grip on everything. What if we’re think about it the wrong way. What if we have it all wrong, what if everything is out of control because no matter how hard we try life is too hard to navigate alone. Sometimes we think losing control of our life is the worst thing possible. Not knowing where we’re going and feeling lost is the bane of our existence. But, what if it’s not, what if it’s the start of something beautiful. When we’re in these positions we tend to open ourselves up to direction, when we’re losing control we try to find a way to get a hold of life again. It is in these moments when we find ourselves submitting to God. It’s in these moments that we realize how big He is and small we are. Sometimes we have to lose control to know that we never had it anyway. Sometimes we have to be lost to understand that only in Christ can we be found.

What I’m saying is we cannot walk around with our planners, our schedules, or six month plans and completely cross God out of the picture. There is nothing wrong with plans, goals, and following our dreams but we must keep a loose grip on them because we never know what God is going to do. If anything we hold tightly to God and His plan because it is better and greater than anything we could ever imagine. We have to learn to let go of our control over our lives and give it God. It sounds crazy but it’s not. Only when we completely surrender to God will we see how His hand has always been on us. We will see how His plan for our lives has been, is being, and will continue to be played out in our lives. When we constantly feel the need to be in control we are in a constant state of anxiety when things do not go as we planned them to go. But God is like, “I got this, don’t worry, I got this.”

All this to say, lose control. Submit to God and know that He is always in control. Don’t fight against it.

Reflection

1. Are you the type of person that needs to constantly be in control?
2. Do you really believe that God’s got this (your life in His hands)?
3. Why do you think it is so hard to fully submit to God?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Have a conversation with God about giving up the need to be in control to Him. Talk to Him about submitting completely to Him and trusting in His plan.

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 307!

Day 152: Loose Grip on Plans

I recently watched a sermon by one of my favorite speakers, Judah Smith, and something he said changed my perspective on a very familiar scripture, Proverbs 16:9 which reads:

A man’s heart plans his way,

But the Lord directs his steps.

He said, “You are only as surrendered as your next step.” He then goes on to expand on that statement by saying,

“God if this is where you want me to go then this is where I’m going...What if this next step isn’t what I want. What if it’s the loss of what I want to do.” Then he says something amazing, “One of the best things that might happen is we don’t get what we want but what God wants.”

As human beings, and as products of the new generation we have been taught to always have a plan, a plan on where you’re going and you’re going to get there, and I don’t just mean in life. We are told to have backup plans just in case the first one doesn’t work out. We plan out our entire lives, with our schedules and reminders to do things, We make plans with friends and we have to figure out, where we’re meeting, but before that we have to figure out where we’re going, who’s going, and how many are going just in case someone is late. Then we figure out how we’re going to get there and the times we want to meet. Sometimes we go as far as to figure out who will get there first just in case we need to save seats or order appetizers. Then it’s set in stone, we are going to Applebee’s at 7 pm on Friday, one group will get there a 6 in case it’s crowded, and then we will figure out the rest of the night at dinner. We might not have the entire night planned but we have enough to get it started. The rest just might be on impulse, who knows what will happen.

Things go as planned for me about 50% of the time, if that. But I must say that the best and most memorable moments I’ve had is when things don’t go as planned or they just happen spontaneously. My friends and I plan stuff about 25% percent of the time, other times it’s just spontaneous. The thing is when we do make plans and they don’t go how we thought we’re usually cool with it because we weren’t holding so tight to our plans that we objected to them changing.  We might plan to go to Applebee's but end up at the park with pizza and blankets, and end up having a great time. I think you can figure out where I’m going with this.

That’s how it is with God, we make plans and He interrupts them but He will always interrupt them for the better. Now sometimes He will throw an interference when we’re out here planning to do things we know we shouldn’t be doing. But that’s another devo for another day. What I’m saying here is that wherever we are going God directs our steps for us to get there. You ever make a plan and didn’t know where to start, you know where you’re going but you don’t know how you’re going to get there? It’s a great plan but where do you start? God show us those steps, and the path may not look like what we thought it would, where we end up may not be on the vision board, but it will be greater than we ever imagined. God will take us further than we’d ever thought we’d go. We just have to trust the steps He’s telling us to take. We have to know that wherever our foot lands, it’s exactly where God wants us to be.

This doesn't mean that we give up dreaming, or we give up our plans, it means we hold them loosely. It means that we know that things could change and that is okay. Often we end up stagnate or traveling in circles because we are afraid of change. Sometimes interrupted plans are better than the original. We just have to be willing to go with the flow. It’s hard to swim against the current because it’ll keep pushing us back to where we are trying to get away from. It’s pushing us in the direction that it is going in and when we fight against that all we do is exhaust ourselves and end up right back where we started. When God is telling us to go one way and we are set on going the other direction because it’s our plan trust me, we will always end up right where we started going where He originally told us. Sometimes we have to give up our plans, to follow God.

At the end of the day, I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with making plans. There is something wrong with holding on so tight to those plans that not even God can move us. Make plans but grip them loosely and don’t be afraid of change. Don’t write them in ink.

Reflection

1. Do you have plans for where you want your life to go?
2. How tight are you holding on to those plans?
3. If God wanted to erase them and write a new plan, would you be willing to go with it? Really think about this question before answering.

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Talk to Him about your plans and be willing to give them up if He tells you to take a step in the opposite direction.

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 153!

Day 70: God Knows Better

If someone were to ask me to list the many reasons why I am a christian, somewhere along that line I would say, “God knows better than me”. I find comfort in serving a God who is definite. He knows far more about this life, about this world, and even about me than I will ever know. I’m smart but I have the brain of a fruit fly compared to Him. God has given us knowledge and the ability to learn but we will never know more than Him. He is omniscient, all knowing, omnipresent, He is everywhere at one time. There isn’t a thing He does not see or know. There is no one like Him.

Revelation 22:13

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Isaiah 46:9-10

9 I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

God knows everything there is to know about everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. We are talking about the man that created the universe, He created life, He created biology, chemistry, sciences. The organs in our body, every nerve, and cell was created by Him. This is the God we serve.

He knew from the moment He created us how our lives were going to turn out, That’s someone I can have faith in, He holds the future in His hands, He’s already planned it, and day by day He is leading us to the place He has for us. He’s planned out even the smallest moments in our lives. He knew the exact moment we would meet our best friends. He knows the exact moment we will meet the person we will spend the rest of our lives with. He knows when that phone call we’ve been waiting for will come through. He knows everything.

God knows what’s going to happen, even when we don’t. He sees the bigger picture because He painted it. We just have to trust in His sight, and His vision so that even when we don’t know what to do even when our plans hit a wall we can know that whatever God has planned is better than anything we could have dreamed up ourselves. We must accept the fact the no matter how smart we are, what we know does not compare to the knowledge of God.  Overtime as we look back over our lives we will see that God’s hand was in it all along. We will understand that He had to take us some places we weren't planning on going to get us to where we are. But overall God always knew where we would end up, because He is God. His ways are better than ours, His thoughts are greater than ours. His plans outshine ours.

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Just know that as long as we trust God, as long as we are in His will, we are part of a grand picture that was completed before we were even born.

Reflection/ Prayer Time

Take the time to think about how amazing it is that God knows better than us. To think about how great He is, and how He already knows what will happen in our lives. Let it sink in that we are part of God’s bigger picture. Just talk to Him about it all. However you feel led to pray today, do it.

Day 10: Believing in Ourselves?

What does it mean when we say we believe in ourselves, do we believe that we can reach the dreams we aspire to reach or do we depend solely upon ourselves to get us there. If the answer is the latter than we have it all wrong. We cannot get anywhere without God. He is the source of our very being, we cannot breathe without Him. And if we can't do that on our own how are we going to get through life on our own? The simple answer is that we can't. 

I grew up being taught by teachers to always believe in myself, to trust myself, to believe and you can achieves. They told me, whatever you set your mind to, you can do, just believe. You can imagine my disappointment when I wasn't a big Disney Channel start with my own television show by the time I was 14. They just told me to believe in myself, to believe that I could do, focus and you will get there. My family taught me to pray. As I got older my perspective begin to change, and I found the source of my problem, pride. I felt like I could do everything on my own, I didn't need help from anyone I had myself and my dream and that was all I needed. I was going to make it to the top and everyone was going to know that my success was self-made. I prayed occasionally when I felt like I really needed God to get me what I wanted. I cannot tell you how wrong I was, when my focus began to shift off myself and focus on God, and entire new plan was revealed. When my vocabulary changed from, I can to God can, my life started to change. I began to realize that I was not meant to take on the world, I cannot go through life alone. I thought I could, and that was the very thing that broke me, because my pride had been built up for so long that it took me a while for me to believe that God could even do things for me. I was that person that always had to know what was going on, and where I was going, but when I put my faith in Christ all of the changed. I began to understand that my plan may look easier than His, but His is way better.

Philippians 4:11-13

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Paul is writing to the Philippians here, and he’s saying, I know how to be content. I know what it’s like to have a lot and to have nothing at all, And he goes into the last statement by saying I have learned the secret of facing this. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In other words, he’s saying I cannot be content on my own, I cannot face these life struggles, and the sustain the blessings you give on my own. I’m running on your strength God, I need it to survive the good times and the bad times. I need you to live!

I think we love the idea of believing in ourselves until we need someone else to depend on because depending on ourselves is no longer working. That’s when we turn to God, when we can’t handle it anymore. We must learn to stop using God as a tool. We tend to find the place in our lives where God “fits” and keep Him there because that’s where and when we need Him the most. Often times we use God to get what we want, or we try to put Him on a leash. Almost as if we are saying, "okay God I will let you take me so far, but I got it from here. I don't need you anymore I can handle it now, thanks for the ride." As I've mentioned before, we have to let go of what we want for ourselves and trust that whatever God is doing, it's better. I think the problem with believing solely in ourselves is that, in our eyes, we become invincible. We can do anything, and go anywhere because we believe we can, we start to believe that we are untouchable. Some places we aren't meant to go and some things we are not meant to do, at that point in time.

If we believe that we can can do all things through Christ, then it is possible. It's called faith. But when we decide that we can do it alone, apart from God that's when we  start to stumble. There is nothing wrong with believing in your abilities, but remember who gave you those abilities. We are here by the grace of God, we are not here on our own doing, we are here because God wants us in the place and position we are in. We can believe in ourselves all we want but without Christ we have no power, we cannot do anything without him Our hope is in the Lord not ourselves. It is through faith that we are given the strength to live, that we are given the ability to be better than who we were. As we take the focus off of ourselves and put it into Christ, we will find ourselves doing things we never thought we would do. We will find ourselves in positions we could only have ever dreamed of being in. When we give ourselves up to Christ, what we get in return is beyond us. We must choose to give up trusting in ourselves and trust in God and the outcome will be a million times greater than what we thought we could do on our own. Life is just so much better with Christ.

Reflection

Today just shift your focus from self to God. Make that slight change in your vocabulary to choose to trust God over self.

Prayer Time

If this message spoke to you today, or it didn’t as much. Talk to God about it. Talk to God about how you are feeling. This is just a conversation between you and Him. You can write it down, or you can speak. However the spirit leads you, just let the Holy Spirit guide your prayer today.

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.

Day 4: Where Am I Going?

This is probably one of the biggest questions we are either asked or we ask ourselves with: society, parents, friends, family, and just people in general, constantly poking at us, asking about our lives and plans for the future or what our next move is, making  suggestions on what type of person we should be, it’s very easy to get confused. They want us to have a plan for the future. As someone who has suffered through the questions about the future and racked my brain and worried so much about where I will be in five years, ten years, twenty years, I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing is certain. I learned a quote a while back and it has stuck with me, “Write your plans in pencil, and hand God the eraser.” We can make plans but how sure are we that it will go our way. It’s not certain. I choose to go with what God has planned for me.

In our early twenties we deal with these questions a lot as we are recently graduated or preparing to graduate college, or making transitions in our lives, and we do not know what our next move is.  Trying to figure that out is probably one of the hardest battles we will fight in our life, but it’s ten times harder without Christ. I definitely did not think that I would be in the position or place that I am in now, but God worked it out that way. As I step back and take a look at my life  I see how His hand was upon me all along, and that everything that either worked out or didn’t work out for me, was for  a reason. Don’t stress, I’m still trying to figure life out, but the more I put my faith in God the easier it becomes, he knows where we are going and where I will be, I’m just taking direction as He gives.

-Dyamond

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope,
It is insane to think that before we were created, before God created us, He had a plan for our life. He knew who our parents would be, where we be born, when we would be born, and how we would be raised. He has a plan for us, He didn't just place us here, there is a purpose. He's had a plan for us, before anyone else had a thought of us.

Psalm 32:8

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
I think the simple takeaway here is God gives direction, He shows us where to go. He always has His eye on us and is paying attention to our every move. He wants us to succeed, He wants us to be successful in everything we do, which is why He gives us His direction and counsel.

Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
This is a reminder that sticking with God being committed to Him, and honoringHim, has rewards. We reap what we sow. God will give us the desires of our hearts, but we must be faithful to Him.

I don’t think we have to worry about where we are going or even when or how we will get there, God has it all under control, we must trust His direction. We often have an image in our head of where we want to go. We see the destination but the journey there in unpredictable, it can take longer to get there than what we originally planned, we’re going to hit some stops, detours, and roadblocks. I can guarantee you that almost everything that comes our way we did not expect it coming, I know many times I have felt blindsided by some of the things I have experienced in my life. But it is in these unpredictable moments that shapes who we are in Christ, these moments test our faith the most. We choose to see God’s grander plan we will not be shaken. And yes, I know it’s better said than done, and it’s easy to take the road that looks more promising to the naked eye, but it will  never compare to what God has in mind. Everything is in His timing, He is guiding us through this emotional thing called life, and taking us on the most adventurous ride ever.

By no means am I telling you not to set goals or have dreams, but find your identity in Christ first, make God a priority and everything else will fall into place. God will give us direction on where to go, He will lead us to our destination, we just have to trust His path. It’s not always easy, but it is so rewarding and worth it.

Reflection

God will give us the desires of our heart, but are we willing to sacrifice those desires for His sake, in the same way Jesus sacrificed His life for us?

Prayer Time

Pray about this question before you answer. We cannot go anywhere without Christ. Ask God for direction and guidance. If you are ready and willing, surrender everything to Him give it all to Him and watch Him take care of you.