Day 341: Crazy Love!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Romans 13:10

Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

1 Peter 4:8

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Has love ever caught you by surprise? Like have you ever been overtaken by love and didn’t realize it until something happens and you know only love could make you do something like that? They say love makes you do some crazy things, that can be both good and bad. But today we want to talk about the good kind of crazy love.

Love will take you by surprise sometimes, and sometimes it’s unintentional. I cannot stay mad at anyone, even when I try I cannot hold a grudge against anyone because my love for whoever it is is greater. I have too much compassion and it’s all Jesus’ fault. He made me like this. He did this to me. It may sound funny, but I’m serious. Sometimes I just want to be mad, like give me time to sulk and get over it. Just let me be angry sometimes, I’ll get over I just don’t want to get over it at this exact moment. But then I’m reminded of the scriptures and how Jesus loves us and forgives us, and how we are called to love one another. I’m reminded that love covers the multitude of sins. I’m reminded that love forgives, and does no harm. I’m reminded of all these things and I start to ask myself what would Jesus do. Then the next thing I know I’m praying for that person, because I love them so much. Because God loves them so much and God loves me, and His love is within me. I cannot help but to love His people the way He loves them.  

Our hearts are set up a certain way, they are set up in Christ, they have been captured by the Lord. This heart in me, that heart in you has been purified by the Holy Spirit and made new. This heart God has complete ownership over. Therefore we love like God and live like Christ. That means we love even when we do not want to. It means that the love we have in our hearts will catch us by surprise, and sometimes that’s how we know it’s genuine because we aren’t even trying to love but it happens. We aren’t even trying to live like Christ but our hearts have been captivated by Him so it just happens. That’s that crazy kind of love I’m talking about. It’s crazy because sometimes we don’t want it, but we cannot help it. Sometimes we love people so much only to have them not love us an ounce back. It’s the crazy love that says even though you sin against me and nail me to a cross I will ask God to forgive you while you are in the act of killing me.  That’s the love that is in us and we wonder why we can do no harm to our neighbor even when they harm us. We wonder why we have so much compassion for people even when our mind tells us they don’t deserve it, the heart does something different. We have to follow our hearts, because God is in our hearts. When our hearts are full on God, everything that comes out of them will be just like Christ. Yes, that will catch us by surprise sometimes but it is the best feeling ever! It is great to know that God is so good that He makes us good as well. God’s love towards us is so unconditional that we learn to love people without condition. It’s beautiful.

All this to say, walking with God will have us loving people even when we want to do everything but that. But love is the key to living. Love is the key to peace. Love is everything we need. God is love.

Reflection

1. Has love ever caught you by surprise?
2. If yes to the above question, elaborate.

Prayer Time

Take the time to talk to God about love. Thank God that He loved us first. Thank Him that He teaches us how to love and how to live. Whatever is on your heart talk to God about it.

I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for day 342!

Day 311: Guard Your Heart, Don't Block It

Proverbs 4:23

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Ezekiel 36:26

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Block- to obstruct

Guard- To keep safe from harm or danger , protect

I’m sure many of us have lived by Proverbs 4:23, as we should. We have set our sights on protecting our hearts. So we will not get hurt, or so that it will not be abused. Sometimes we’re trying to protect ourselves from the wrong things. What I mean is that we sometimes have our hearts so guarded that we forget how to let those guards down. Guarding our hearts becomes building walls around it so that nothing and no one can come in. Our generation is so afraid of being hurt that we would rather be numb. We would rather not feel anything. I understand that heartbreak happens, at this age many of us have had our hearts broken at least once, but we’re still here. God put our hearts back together and shows us everyday how we should be loved.

We have so many walls built, from hurt, disappointment, betrayal, abandonment, the list can go on and on. It like every time something happens to us we build a new wall and eventually our hearts become unreachable. We forget how to feel, we don’t know how to love or be loved because we are so guarded. We are so blocked off from everything that we don’t even let God in.

Why are we so afraid to let love in? In the sense that God is love, no one can love us the way God will, but sometimes we can be so guarded that we can’t even knock down the walls to let Him in. The amazing thing about God is, He will knock those walls down and pursue our hearts. God wants our hearts, He loves us so much, but we sometimes turn away from that love. We turn away because we view God’s love through natural eyes, not seeing  that His love is supernatural. We don’t realize that God will love us more than the people who broke our hearts, He will not break our hearts, He will not stop loving us. Sometimes we allow our experiences to influence of perception of who God is. When the truth is, our experience with God should change how we perceive the world, ourselves, and other people. We cannot learn to love properly if our heart is caged by walks we’ve built to try to protect it. When we do that we distance ourselves from God and His people.

With that being said we must not assume that everyone is out to get us.

I remember a point in my life where I was so guarded that I wouldn’t allow anyone to love me, or get close to me because everyone that said they loved me turned on me and walked out of my life in an instant. After that I assumed that everyone was the same way, I thought everyone was just going to break my heart. I made it very hard for people to love me, as well as for me to love people because I could not bare the pain of having my heart shattered again. It was like anyone new I met would have to go through a trial run before I would let them completely in, just to make sure they weren’t going to hurt me. I closed myself off because up unto that point in my life had found that love hurts. Then God showed me, love should not hurt in this way. He showed me how I should be loved, by sent people, good, genuine people into my life that would not be there to use me, or hurt me, but people who would wholeheartedly love me. It threw me, because I was expecting them to walk out of my life, and treat me the same the others did. But they didn’t, God sent them to show me what true love looks like.

-Dyamond

A lot of what we go through when it comes to this is, we cannot trust people, we refuse to trust people or we find it very hard to trust people. Also the inability to completely trust and give our hearts to Christ. The first thing we must do is trust God with our hearts. He made the human heart, He tends to every need. If anyone knows how to love us, it’s God. We have to trust that God will not allow us to hurt beyond what we can handle. And yes sometimes we will go through heartbreak, it’s a part of life, trusting God with our heart doesn’t mean we’ll never hurt again, it means that in those moments we trust God to put us back together, and so much better than before. We trust Him to love us through the pain and aches.

All this to say, we cannot allow what has happened to us in the past influence how we love people in the present and the future. Guard your heart, and protect but don’t block it and lock it away. God wants our hearts but we have to be willing to trust Him with it.

Reflection

1. Have you ever had your heartbroken?
2. Did it cause you to close yourself off?
3. Have you ever found yourself guarding your heart from God?
4. Why do think it is so hard for us to trust God and people with our hearts?
5. Discuss this.

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer, have a conversation with God about what we discussed today. Search yourself and see if you are blocking your heart and let God in.

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 312!

Day 289: Living Well Series (Part 4): Life is So Beautiful

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

1 John 2:6

the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

Ephesians 5:1-2

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

As this series comes to a close, today we are going to discuss what this entire series is about in the first place. It’s about our living, how we lives and does it imitate Christ. Coming to Christ means changing the way we live, and this is not a change that we can make on our own. We become a new creature when we give our lives to Christ, everything that we used to do that kept us separate from Him is gone. The life we used to live that was not pleasing to Him, yeah that’s gone too. We are a completely new creation. We are born again, we have a clean slate, and it’s like we get another chance at life, this time to do it right. It’s beautiful. I love the idea of being born again, because a newborn baby is so pure, so righteous, so clueless, and as that child grows they learn, from their parents how to live, what is right and wrong. Their parents raise them the best way they know how. However as humans we are born into sin. So when we give our lives to Christ it’s like coming into life all over again. We are so pure, so full of faith, and passion for the Lord. Through Christ we are adopted into the body of Christ. We have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior and from that point on God raises us to be more like Him every day of our lives. He raises us to live like Christ, He gives us an example, Jesus, and a guide, the Holy Spirit. He raises us like a parent raises a child from birth. The only difference is, God never stops raising us. He’s constantly pouring into us. Revealing Himself to us. Teaching us about who He is, how we are to live and love. It’s a beautiful life. God literally teaches us how to live well.

As we grow in Him, our lives begin to change to fit His will, not the other way around. Sometimes in life we will find moments where we are tempted to pick and choose what parts of the bible are “for us” and what parts are not. With that being said, some things are very hard to swallow, However, we must commit ourselves to following Christ with every part of our being. Every part of our lives must be wrapped up in Christ. There is no part of us or our lives that should be separate from Him. As Christ begins to change our hearts, He begins to weed out the things that do not need to be there. Being born again is a process of purification, elimination, healing, it’s like a detox. He’s taking things from us that we don’t need and giving and equipping us with everything we will ever need. We start to give up those things that we thought we needed and wanted and we begin to latch onto the goodness of Christ. We begin to live like Him. We begin to see the world through the eyes of Christ. That my friends is living well.

All this to say, as long as we abide in Christ and walk like Him, allowing the word of God to penetrate our hearts and take root, we are living well. (Run-on sentences for days) Life is beautiful, and when we live abiding in Christ we are overtaken by the beauty of this amazing life.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Have a conversation with God, thank Him that He is a God of second chances and that He raises us to be the people He wants us to be.

I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 290!

Day 258: The Language of Our Heart

Luke 6:45

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

We are known by the fruit we bear. We all know this scripture and many of us have grasped the meaning of it. However, sometimes we can know who people are or at least who they are pretending to be by their language. The way in which someone speaks tells a lot about who someone is, how they are perceived and it tells what is really in someone’s heart. It’s like the language of our heart, we know you by the way you speak. We know how someone feels because of the way they are speaking. Like we can know where someone is from based on their accent or the language they are speaking. If you’re speaking spanish, I know you’re either from South or North America, if you speak with a british accent I am sure I know you are from the UK, Britain, or somewhere in europe. The way we speak about people says a great deal about who we are and how we feel. Sometimes our words cannot hide our feelings we will often be deceived by what we say.

What I’m getting at here is, how do our words, the way we speak, and what we say reveal who we are. How we speak about ourselves, others, God, says a great deal about where our hearts truly are. I’m not talking about profanity, swearing, or cursing, that’s another conversation, but I’m talking about the contents of our heart. Whatever is on our lips reveals what is in our hearts. What I’m saying is, is the word of God on our lips, and furthermore is it in our hearts? See when we have the word of God in our lives, and it written on our hearts, the condition of our hearts are in great shape. When the word of God is on our heart, speaking truly from our hearts will not be problematic. In fact our wrds will be beautiful. Our language tells who we are, and if our language is wrapped in the word of God, and the love of God, it will be pure. However we must check the condition of our hearts.

The Scripture states, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.” What is stored up in our hearts? Before we come to Christ our hearts are full of anger, pain, sin, mistakes, grief, guilt, shame, the list goes on. Which is why we could not seem to get it right before we came to Christ because the contents of our heart did not match the lifestyle we were attempting to live.  I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the statement or the theory that hurt people hurt people, or that we as humans tend to project our feelings and views on other. So if our heart is full of evil and pain, and if it is broken. How are we going to speak to others, how are we going to speak about life, and what will we bring into this world? We bring into the world out of whatever is stored up in our hearts. However on the flip side, when we allow Christ into our lives and God begins to take away the blocks shielding our heart. When He begins to pick up the pieces and put them back together, When He begins to wipe away the sin. Shame, and guilt. When He begins to change and pour His word into us. Our lives begin to change because God works from the inside out. The contents of our hearts become like Christ and we begin to speak differently. We begin to view the world differently, view ourselves differently, and the way we speak changes.

All this to say, that the language of our hearts reveal and powerful message about what is in our hearts. Check your heart, and pay attention to the things you say and the things you want to say but stop yourself from doing so.

Reflection

1. Have you ever had a moment where you said something and didn’t realize you were feeling that way?

Prayer Time

Take the time to further respond in whatever way you feel led. Have a conversation with God about the contents of your heart and ask him to search you and heal you. Ask Him to take away everything that is unlike 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 259!

Day 242: Faith is For Everyone

Galatians 3:26-29

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.  There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Let me first start off by saying that, no one, and I mean no one is excluded from God’s love. No one. Now that we’ve discussed that, let’s dive in a bit and talk about how faith is for everyone.

When we think about the Old Testament and the Law and how the Jews were God’s chosen people, you would think that anyone who wasn’t Jewish was excluded from the faith. You would think that God loved Jewish people more than anyone else, because they were His specially chosen people. When we think about it, God used a people to be set apart from the rest of the world and say, these are my people and this is how they will live. I believe it was to show that God’s people were set apart for the word. Actually the Hebrew word for “holy” means, to be set apart. So when God called the Jews to be holy He was calling them to be set apart from the rest of the world. Meaning obeying the law, and commandments, Obeying every detail in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, no matter how boring and repetitive it is reading them. Jewish people were living lives so completely different from the rest of the world that it made them stand out. It made them different from anyone else, because they were following commands directly from god. God has chosen a people to carry His word, to live out His commands and lead generations of people to Him. Anyone who was not living the way God had instructed the Jewish people to love were not considered people of God. They were Gentiles (non-Jewish people).

Now that we’re done with the little history lesson let’s take it back to the New Testament, when Jesus arrives. Jesus, a Jewish man Himself, comes to save all humanity, Seeing that He was Jewish He was obligated to obey the commands and the law, which He did, He did not come to destroy it but fulfill it. Jesus came to offer everyone a relationship with God, not just the Jewish people. Because of Jesus you no longer had to go through a priest to be forgiven of your sins. We had a direct connection with God.

Jesus came and united all people for one purpose, to serve god. He came and said, you weren’t born Jewish but you deserve salvation too, it doesn’t matter if your Greek, God loves you too. Oh, you’re a sinner, come to me, I can fix that. Jesus came and changed the game completely when He came looking at people’s hearts, and seeking their souls, instead of trying to figure out their bloodline, (plot twist: He already knows). It didn’t matter if they were Jewish, Gentile, slaves, sinners. None of that mattered anymore because god wanted His people, not just the chosen people of Israel. No, He wanted all of us, every single one of us. Which brings me to my main and perhaps only point I want to make today, faith is for everyone.

No one is excluded from Jesus, No one is denied access to God. We are all one in Christ Jesus, He loves us all the same. When Jesus came He did not show favor to the Jews, in fact He was harder on them. He came to let everyone know that it doesn’t matter who you are, there is room at the cross for you.

I want to you know that. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’ve been, Jesus wants you. I think a lot of times, for many different reason we feel like God doesn’t want us. We feel like we aren’t good enough or we’ve done too much. We feel unworthy of His love and grace. I want to let you know today that God loves you so much. He wants to have a relationship with you so bad that He sent His only son to die so that you could have a direct connection with Him. I know sometimes we feel unworthy when we think about how good God is, but He’s so good that He’s finds us worthy of His grace when we know we don’t deserve it.

All this to say, there is room for you in the house of the Lord. There is a specific spot waiting for you actually. We are all His children, no one is excluded  from that. We all have a seat at this table, even when we decide to give it up. It’s always open because Jesus is constantly interceding for us, and pulling us back. We always have  seat waiting waiting for us at our Heavenly Father’s table. This message will never get old or tired. No matter who you are, where you’ve been, or where you are at the moment, God loves you. He is waiting for you, standing there with open arms, He will not judge you, but He will shower you with gifts and grace. One day, it will be too late. None of us know what that day is, but let’s not try to wait and find out. Turn to Him today, make that decision.

Response /Prayer Time

Respond today however you feel led. Talk to God about what we discussed today, and 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 discuss it with someone. Come back tomorrow for Day 243!

Day 130: God is Not a Feeling

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

1 John 3:20

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Many times we equate God with a feeling, and we allow our emotion and how we feel to dictate our faith. We get the sense that if we do not ‘feel’ God then He must not be there. But that is not true, God is not a feeling nor is He run by our emotions. We don’t feel an engine in a car but we know it’s there or we wouldn’t go anywhere. It’s the same thing with God, we may not feel Him here but we should know He is always there. Without Him, we would not go anywhere. We would not wake up in the morning. That’s called faith, knowing that God is there even when we don’t feel Him. Too often we depend on our feelings rather than lean on our faith in God. With that being said, we begin to chase a feeling rather than chase God, we are seeking what it feels like to know God rather than knowing God Himself. We will miss Him searching for a feeling when He’s right there with us.

We often think that we have to feel a certain way to be saved. We have to “feel saved” or it’s not real.

Romans 10:9

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.

Nowhere in this scripture does is says we will feel saved it says “You will be saved.” We are not saved because we feel saved, we are saved because we believe in Jesus Christ, we believe that God raised Him from the dead. We declare that He is Lord. Putting feelings aside, whether we feel it or not Jesus is Lord and He is alive, God did raise Him from the dead three days after He died on the cross at Calvary. Nothing is going to change that. If that is true, why do we base our salvation on how we feel? We, again, are searching for something that we cannot find because it is not about how we feel it is what we believe. We cannot let our hearts or minds deceive us. Just because we are feeling a certain way does not mean we are not saved, it means we are human. We are an emotional people. Imagine if every time our parents got angry at us, they told us we weren't their kid anymore, but when that anger ceased they claimed us as their child again. It does not work that way, angry or not our parents cannot get rid of us. No matter how angry or happy they are with us we will always be their child. Take that and apply to what we are talking about, not matter how we feel if we still believe that Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead than we are saved.  

Sometimes following our heart is not the answer, our hearts can deceive us. As I said before, we are a bunch of emotional people, and sometimes that leads us to jump to conclusions very quick. Sometimes our hearts tell us one thing but our mind tells us another, this is why God is not moved by our emotions because they change so fluently. Sometimes when it comes to our faith we have to ignore our feelings and not allow them to dictate what we believe to be true about God.

Reflection

1. Do you agree that we as humans are very emotional?
2. Have you allowed your feelings to dictate your faith?
3. Based on the above question, do you allow your feelings to dictate your faith?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Ask God to help you depend on your faith in Him rather than how you feel or how you think you should feel.

Day 95: Let's Talk About It- "Broken People"

Psalms 147:3

He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

Psalms 34:28

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

This generation gets a lot of slack for acting out, we are constantly told to get our lives together. I think many times when we see people who are acting out, or having a hard time giving themselves to Christ, we must consider that these are broken people. We live in an age where people are walking around completely broken with a smile on their face. People are walking around ready to take their own lives but will smile and say, “I’m okay”. Why do we wait until tragedy strikes to notice that someone needed our ear, or they needed our prayer. They didn’t need us to beat them over the head with a bible, they needed us to be there. We have people walking around feeling unloved, and never knew that someone could love them. We are often told what we did to be in the position that we are in. Something we have to realize is that sin isn’t the only thing that causes brokenness within humanity, There is heartbreak, relationships gone wrong, death, mental illness, tragic accidents, natural disasters. There are so many things that can break a heart, but only one can truly heal a heart. Yet we have people walking around because they are unaware of this magnificent healing. We know of this healing, we know that Christ is our healer, but can we relay that message to the young girl who suffers from an eating disorder and cuts herself. Can we tell that to the young boy struggling with body image issues. Can we acknowledge that there is a deeper issue to the brokenness of people.  We are good at acknowledging pain and hurt, but what are we doing to make sure these people receive healing from God? Why are brushing off people’s pain? We have been told to let it go, let God, surrender, but what about when the wound is fresh and we can’t let it go that night or day. What if just lifting our hands in church won’t take the pain away, I have to be honest. Why do we sweep these things under the rug and act as if they are not there. There are broken people, we were once one of them, and many of us still are.

As the body of Christ we must see past what we think of people, we must look past our judgements and see the heart of humanity. We have to take our eyes off of ourselves for a second and look outward to see the brokenness of this world.

We see the flaws of humanity, and but we don’t see the heart of man. If we did we would know that the person who is walking down the street talking to themselves isn’t crazy they lost everything including hope and no one took the chance to listen to their story. No one took the time to sit with them and lend an ear. No one stopped to pray for them. No one took the time to tell them that there is healing in the Lord, that He sees the hearts of humanity even the ones that are in pieces.

We live in an era where everything must be okay, and when it’s not we put up a facade. This generation has the best poker faces I have ever seen. Because we don’t have time to deal with people who are really suffering, even if that means we ignore our own pain. We don’t have time to dig deep down to the root of our issues and be healed by God. We cover it up with a band-aid until the infection spreads and we can no longer hide it.  We have lost the ability to be vulnerable, we’d rather walk around dying on the inside than go to someone with our pain. We do not want to look weak, even when we are, The scripture tells us that God is near the brokenhearted, why are we walking around harboring pain. We have to realize that it is okay not to be okay.

I walked around broken for so many years, harboring so much pain, anger, self-loathing, hate, the list goes on. From being bullied all throughout school starting at the age of five. From looking in the mirror at the age of seven and hating who I was, and literally saying to myself, “You’re black and ugly”. To choking and hitting myself at the age of eight because the bullying was so bad, I felt like I needed to inflict pain on myself. I suffered secretly for years, and alway put on a smile and pretended like I was okay. It was only when I was twenty one that I really found healing in Christ. I felt like I always had to be okay, I had to put on a mask that said I was strong and confident even though I was broken. I was in pieces, there was still a little girl inside me who never got healed. I was walking around preaching at different churches at the age of sixteen and planned out my suicide at seventeen because I was in so much turmoil that I could not handle it anymore. Or when I had a mental breakdown when I lost my father at the age of eighteen. Because I blamed myself for His death and couldn’t understand why GOd would choose to take him from me. I gave up on GOd and church, but I had people praying for me, there were a few people who could see past my poker face, and that is why I am here today. Someone looked past my acting out and my mask and saw that I was broken. I am living proof that Christ is our healer. I did not have a platform or a place to really talk about what I was going through at the time, which is why I’m doing this, If I have to air my dirty laundry to save someone else I will do it. But God healed me and repaired my heart and if someone didn’t take the time to sit with me and pray for me and see through my pain, I would not be here today. I would probably be dead by my own hand. It is important that we talk about this stuff because it can literally save a life.  

We live in a broken world and people are walking around broken. We know what it is like to be broken our have our hearts broken. If we have encountered the love of God we know what it is like to be healed by our one and only healer. We must  let people know that their is a God, there is a Savior who can take that pain away.

I don’t know who you are but if that’s you, know that there is a Savior. Jesus Christ died to save this broken world, he wants that heart, even if it’s broken. Especially if it’s broken. Even if you have to give it to Him in pieces, he will take it and put it back together. You’re not crazy, you’re not a bad person, you’re hurting. Today is the day for you to get rid of that pain, and start a journey of healing. You do not have to hide it or cover it up. God sees your heart in every condition and He wants it the way it is, so that he can fix it and heal it.

Reflection

1. How’s your heart? Are you broken?
2. Are there some things that need to be healed in your life?
3. Are you walking around like everything is okay but it’s not?
4. Do you believe that God is our healer?
5. Do you believe that He can and will heal you?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions  guide your prayer today. Know that God is our healer. We call Him, Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord who heals. Pray for the brokenness of humanity, and if you are broken, bring that heart to God today. Talk to GOd about whatever it is, maybe you don’t even have words, maybe it's tears, maybe you don’t even have that. Just open your heart to God and give HIm what you have. Know that He can heal the broken.

If you need someone to talk to or pray with, reach out to someone. I’m open to talk as well, you can email me, (TheDyamondj@gmail.com).

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone and open the conversation up to talk about it. Have an amazing day and come back tomorrow for Day 96.

Day 78: Faith Based Living

1 John 3:18

Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.

1 John 2:6

Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

I have found in my life that living is a collection of experiences. We don’t have to talk about living because it is just something we do, we wake up every morning with steady breath and heartbeats, we walk and talk we do things that shows for itself that we are living breathing beings. We don’t have to prove that we are alive, the breath in our lungs as our chest rises and falls is proof of life.

It’s no different  with our faith and this Christ-like life we are living. When we commit ourselves and our hearts to Christ our lives begin to look like His. Our actions become similar to His, we begin to live a life that is fully devoted to Christ and stands as a testimony of His, life, death, and resurrection, because we have committed our hearts to Him. When we are fully committed and devoted to God we do not have to prove our faith. We do not have to prove our Christianity because our lives speak for themselves. It’s the way we love, the way we live, the way we treat others, the way we walk this day to day life. When we are committed to Christ it becomes less about talking and more about the walking. We don’t have to force Jesus into our lives because He is already there.

I have found from experience that the times I was forcing Jesus into my life and trying to prove my Christianity was when I really wasn’t devoted to Him at all. When I had a desire to be a Christian, but no desire to live like one. That presented a problem, I was a sunday only Christian. But Monday through Saturday I had to keep up the image of a Christian. Fooling people into believing that I was a ‘Good Christian. Making sure I talked about God at least three times a day, read a few scriptures, and bragged about my Christian lifestyle. This was because I needed my life to look good, I had to talk about it because I wasn’t living it. It was rough, at times I didn’t even feel like a Christian, I felt like I was doing everything out of obligation, going through the motions. I was being a hypocrite. Not really experiencing God because my ego, and my lack of humility got in the way. See I wanted to be a Christian but I also wanted to be the center of attention, I wasn’t ready to let go of my pride and selfish desires. I wanted to find a way to fit God into my life, not realizing that if I just gave up my pride, my selfish desires that God had my life planned already, I fit into God’s plan, not the other way around.

-Dyamond

All that to say, when we are fully committed to Christ when we make the choice to follow Him with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and seek His face first, then we are living, we will not have to prove that love. Our lives will speak for us, Matthew 7:16 states, “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act…” We are known by our actions not our words, by the fruit we bear.

If we are not bearing good fruit, where are our roots planted? On what foundation do we stand? We must commit ourselves fully to Christ, and continue to make that choice every single day. Everyday we get up we choose to continue following Christ, we choose to dive into His word. We choose to pray and talk to Him, we choose the soil we are planted in. When we do this, and when we start to grow, the fruit from the tree will speak for itself.

Live, don’t talk about it, just live.

Reflection

1. Where are your roots planted?
2. Do you find yourself trying to prove your Christianity?

Prayer Time

Think about the questions and answers. Reflect on what we talked about today and respond to God. Give Him every part of your being. If you have not fully committed our life to Christ, I believe that right now is the perfect time to do so. We all must make this choice and no one can make it for us, so if you feel the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart, that gut feeling, whatever it may be pushing you to respond, do it. Maybe you have never been offered the gift of salvation, if that’s you and you want to make that decision, you just have to believe it in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that He was raised from the dead. Wherever you are, you don’t have to be in a church or religious setting to give your life to Christ. There is no better time than right now.

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.

And repeat these few words,

Jesus I declare that you are my Lord and Saviour who died for my sin 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. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, Amen.

Congratulations! The angels in heaven are rejoicing right now.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 79 and everyday for the rest of the year!