Believing for the Promise

Over the years I have been waiting on God for things he’s promised me, and it seems like it will never come to pass. When I get close to it coming to pass, I get pushed back, one step, two steps and then at times a whole world away. This used to be my mindset when thinking about the promises of God but not anymore!

I have gone through all the fads, name it and claim it, speak only faith, touch and agree and so on. These things are not bad, but they never worked for the specific promises I’m believing God for. Once I was told to go lay hands on a car and the Lord would bless me with it. So, my husband and I drove to the car lot late one night and laid hands on a car, praying and believing. You can guess what happened…. No car. Now looking back on that situation, it’s a wonder we didn’t go to jail for trespassing. We weren’t even mature enough to go in the daytime and talk to someone to see what the process would entail. I was 21, by the way. I was totally green to buying a car from a dealership and had no clue about what credit even was.

We can believe God for things accord to scripture but be doing so ignorantly. You need to know God’s heart concerning the promise he has made to you. Some things are for now and some are not. I know you’re going to hate hearing this, but some promises we’re not spiritually mature enough for in our lives and spiritual walk. I was listening to an apostle share yesterday that you can’t get a Bentley with a Toyota mindset. Meaning, you can’t afford the car note, you already complain about current gas prices, so we know you are not going to put supreme in the tank and you can’t afford the maintenance. So why would God give you something you are not matured enough for?

I heard another preacher say that before God can answer one prayer, he has to do ten thousand things. WOW, 10,000 THINGS! That’s a lot of stuff. But somehow this one phrase has comforted me over the years and has given me the ability to wait on the Lord with patience. Think about it, when you gave your life to Christ, someone share the gospel with you. Before that could be done that person had to get saved, learn about the Lord and then meet you. How many behind the scenes steps took place for that to happen? 10, 000 things!

Where are you in believing for what God has promised you? Often right before God is about to bless and fulfill what he said he would do things get the darkest BUT don’t lose hope. Our God is faithful to do what he said he would do!

Burn Out

Burn out is a real thing that I think each of us encounter at some point in our lives. I’m a wife, mom, in full-time ministry, a business owner, daughter, and friend. Each of these roles can be extremely demanding but the Lord gives me the grace to function in each task accordingly. Each position I’m in requires different things from me at different times.

As a wife I want to make sure I am caring for and attentive to the needs of my husband with meaningful conversations, passionate date nights and maintaining a solid friendship. The role of mom is never ending. I thought as my children became adults, I’d have more free time but boy was I wrong, lol. My kids are independent, but I now see that they still need “mom.” Breakfast dates, tons of texts, travel to their events, late night calls for prayer or crying over disappointments are all a part of my daily role as mom. I love every minute of it!!! Ministry, business, being a daughter and friend are all demanding in their own right. Each requires prayer and commitment to the cause or person. I am learning more and more daily that my life is not my own, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

Why am I bringing out all of these points of responsibility? Because you too have responsibilities and commitments that you must fulfill. I find that it can be easy to start but not finish well or even quit in the process. No one wants to be the bad friend who can’t take the call to pray with a friend because you are too burdened with your own issues. Nor do you want to be the one who signed up for a project and have to go back and reassign it because you’re overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, these things happen and why? Well, one reason is, because of burn out!

I become burned out when I am not caring for myself spiritually. What I mean by this is making sure I am purposefully connecting with God daily without distraction. This could literally be a whole sermon, within itself, right?

My intimate time with God is my lifeline.

I’ve shared in previous blogs about how important spending time with God is, but I think we don’t take this serious enough to realize that it governs every area of our lives. The more time I spend with the Lord the more I respond like him, by becoming more merciful, patient and forgiving. I can’t do this in my natural ability. Normal me, without

spending time with God, is impatient, “hangry’ A.K.A. hungry, and way toooooooo blunt! After failing many tests, I realize my time with God shapes how I function.

I remember when my kids were younger it was very difficult for me to the do simplest task. Mind you I have six kids and they are all a year apart. So, at that time I had 4/5 toddlers all at once. Simply going to lady’s bible study in the mornings would have me in tears. By the time I got there I felt like I was falling to pieces. Between the breakfast rush, wasted cereal, fights, poopie diapers that leaked up their back, projectile vomiting in the car, and a mini nervous breakdown I’d finally make it to the church where I’d just want to collapse on the altar and cry out, why me Lord.

You may not have small kids to care for right now but maybe the job is stressful and burning you out. You accepted the promotion but didn’t realize the number of responsibilities that were involved. The deadlines, long meetings and daily fighting your feelings of inadequacy that seem overwhelm you.

Maybe you’re the single mom with a stack of bills and a broken heart as to why you suddenly became single. You shuttle the kids back and forth, barely get dinner on the table nightly and fall asleep from exhaustion before actually spending tie with the kids all to feel guilty and start it all over again tomorrow.

Ministry assignments can be so rewarding but they also come with fruit bearing trials. Miscommunications, carelessness, comparison and hurts build up and cause you to forget your “why.”

Does any of this sound familiar? I’m sure one of the scenarios are relatable to you and if not just plug your story in where it fits.

Busy lives don’t equal productivity and spiritual maturity. This was a hard lesson for me to learn and I often have to keep that before me because my life is BUSY. As I read more about the sabbath, I am beginning to see why it’s so important.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Exodus 20:8-11 NIV

I want you to know rest is ordained by God and is not sin!!! I scrolled my Facebook memories the other day and noticed seven years ago I made a post saying I felt guilty for resting and not working on my “to do list.” Have you ever felt this way before?

Rest is just as important to your spiritual growth as reading scripture, fasting and praying are. It is so major that even God himself rested on the seventh day. Your world will not fall apart because you take a nap or slow down a bit. Have you ever thought that if you rested you could think clearly to find a more time efficient way to complete your assignment?

Rest can also look like stepping away from your phone, office or social media. With so many opinions flying around about the pandemic, government and other pressing issues; it can subconsciously weary you. Have you ever thought to just turn your phone off for the day? I know this seems unbearable and impossible but maybe start with an hour and then work up to a full day. The goal is to rest.

One thing I love about my pastor’s wife, Min. Monnet, is that she helps me balance. When I call her to share, she is like the Holy Spirit’s red flag for me to know it’s time to rest. Sometimes when you’re chatting with fiends or trusted leaders listen for the Holy Spirit’s red flag. God will often send us promptings, but we are so busy we miss them.

Life is filled with things we can’t do anything about. But the Lord has promised us that everything we face will work out for our good. Nothing is catching God by surprised and he is in full control of EVERY situation. Remind yourself of this when you feel like you can’t go on any further.

There are too many believers who are stressed out over life, problems, finances, health and so on. We have the God who is able to do anything but fail. So where is our peace? What I find is that I know all of this stuff in my head but applying it to “me” when issues come up is a totally different story. You and I must allow the things God is trying to imparts to us in our private time together come alive in us when trials come. All the time we spend with God should be to prepare us for the test. Way too often we fail miserably because we forget this.

There are other reasons for burn out but for me and I’m sure many of you, these examples presented are forerunners. I just wanted to encourage you this month to cut yourself some slack. Stop trying to hold yourself to an unbiblical level of perfection and allow the grace of God to flow through you.

Many of the responsibilities we have, we love but when they become burdensome that’s another indicator we are nearing or have become burned out.

Run into the prayer closet and seek the Lord. Ask, where you missed it and ask him to restore your joy and peace. Ask him to strengthen you to REST. If you are a doer like me you have to ASK for help with resting, lol.

God is concerned about everything that concerns us, Psalms 138:8. He isn’t just looking for us to be perfect, he is looking for us to the follow his process to eternal life. I’m not sure if we would obtain it if we were burnt out and overwhelmed.

Give that broken marriage to God. Give that lost child to God. Give your projects to God. Give your to do list to God. Ask him to govern these areas and to help you to be sensitive in how to move forward. Will it be easy, probably not but I know the end result will be amazing.

Don’t give up! Don’t allow burn out to stop you! Get out of that rut you’ve been stuck in! Depression gotta go! Overeating ends here! Now is the time to release every burden to the Lord because he cares for you.

It’s ok to REST.

Exodus 14:14

Guard Your Mind

Over the past few months, I've noticed that the more effort I make to purposefully pray in the spirit and read the word of God, the enemy targets my mind like I have a bullseye on it. His goal is to distract me from revelation God wants to impart to me. He wants my focus and attention to stray from God and miss the time of intimate fellowship with my father.

As soon I go into prayer, I begin to remember things I forgot to complete, or I remember what I need to do later, or a phone call I need to make and so on. My mind races with things I need to do and attempts to robs me of my focus. Can any of you relate to this?

I know some people struggle with getting sleepy as soon as they open their Bible. These things are challenges we must aspire to overcome to really dig deeper into God. We can’t keep saying we want more of God and not make the effort to press harder into his presence

I find that I frequently need to change my schedule to fit around what God wants and what I know will discipline me to make God my priority. My big sister in the faith, recently, encouraged me to guard and war over my mind with the word of the Lord. It was then that I realized this area needed more of my care and attention.

In this new year I know my schedule must be God first but knowing and doing are two different things. I normally hit the bed about 11pm and don’t fall asleep until about 12/1 o’clock in the morning. Going to bed this late hinders me from rising early to start my day off in peace and perspective.

The cycle begins: I oversleep, experience condemnation for the rough start to my day, try to redeem it but by noon I’m too far behind and just end up winging it. If you and I want unhealthy habits to change and be destroyed, we must have self-control to change our daily patterns and habits. This whole song and dance robs me of peace mind and focus.

I want us to dig into what the word says about our mind, how to guard it and how to keep it stayed on Christ. You and I can no longer miss out on quality time with God. I want to be the one he reveals his mysteries to. Do you want to e that person too? I want to know what prayer strategy to pray over my family, the universal church, and this land. The only way to get this is to hear from God clearly. The return of Christ is so near. Let us redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16) before it’s too late.

Isaiah 26:3 NLT - You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Our mind should be focused, attentive and engrossed in what the Lord wants. I find when my mind is stayed on the Lord, he keeps me in perfect peace. When I am focused on the Lord, I am productive. Those of us who are ambitious must prioritize and make sure we are doing what God wants, when he wants it and how he wants it. This keeps us at peace. It's way too easy for me to do my own thing and slap God's name on it. Often its only when frustration has set in and is full throttle that I realize my peace is gone and I've drifted from his plan.

If you and I want to maintain peace we must keep our mind trusting in the Lord and not our ability to do things. God has gifted us, but the gift must be surrendered back to him and we are to ask the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us to please God with our tasks. A way we can do this is to ask God if we can do what we are trying to do. I’ve heard so many sermons about seeking God before you do things but do we actually do this? Are we, with our bad habits, the reason why our minds wonder and are unstable? Are we really trusting the Lord or are we trusting in our ability?

One of the prayer points I pray over my kids, is to that they lead uncluttered lives. Is this even possible in 2022? The very thing I pray over my children is something I must pray over myself as well. Clutter and being too busy will also rob us of our peace. My mind can become so cluttered that when I go into prayer the clutter comes with me and becomes a distraction.

My mind is always running. What the Lord has been showing me is that before I can actually get into the presence of the Lord I have to empty out. I have to let go of the cares of this life, my lists, and anything that comes to steal my focus.

Colossians 3:2 KJV Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

It’s easy to worry about bills, marriage issues or being single. Why is it so hard to set our mind on things above and keep it there? In a prayer class I attended, Apostle Joshua Smith, he introduced me to the concept of “lift it and leave it.” Lift the request up to the Lord in prayer and leave it there. Don’t pick it back up after you leave the prayer closet. If you do, lift it and leave it again and again until it stays. Worry is sin and robs us of the peace and joy the Lord desires for us to have. Worrying has never solved one problem, ask me how I know. But it does cause depression, comparison, and discontentment.

Philippians 4:6-7 CEV- Don’t worry about anything but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.

We need this kind of peace! I love this verse! He is telling us that when we refuse worry, embrace prayer, and give thanks we will be filled with peace and this peace will control our thoughts! Everything we need is inside of the Word of God! Prayer is the battle ground where we release our burdens to the Lord and exchange them for his peace in our minds.