While you are waiting

Waiting for a breakthrough, a miracle or a blessing can be a frustrating experience. It can also be a lapse of time when we lose hope and we give up on our answers from God. While we are waiting, thoughts can grow and rob us of the joy of living in the present. There is something special about the wait. It can be especially bad or very beautiful. God sees beauty in the waiting. He is a God of patience and He wants us to cherish every moment of every day and that includes the waiting period. When we are hoping for the best, we must remember that we are with the best in that very moment. Jesus is the best! The length of the wait doesn’t change the depth of God’s love. Many characters in the Bible had to wait for a long time to get to their promise land so to speak. What we are waiting for is a land of many promises where honey and milk flow and where peace is the centerpiece. As you are reading this message you are probably waiting for something to happen in your life. You are waiting for an answer, for relief, for peace to come back or for joy to visit you. I am here to tell you that while you are waiting your Lord is the same. While you are waiting, know that your number one answer is in the waiting. God has something for you now that will bless you and that will help you. Dig into the waiting period and find the treasures the Lord has available for you before your breakthrough comes. It doesn’t matter if it’s around the corner or miles away; it will happen and the wait will give you what you need in the meantime.

 

I used to get so demoralized when I was waiting for something to happen in my life. I used to get so blue and sad thinking that it would never take place. The wait for me was synonym to the impossible. The longer the wait, the greater the suffering for me. Then I learned that with God nothing was impossible. I found out that God had defeated the impossible and for Him the impossible didn’t exist. The wait started to look differently. It didn’t equal impossible anymore. What did the wait mean? I received the revelation that God was in the waiting. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. Where there is patience, there is a fruit from God. I decided to take that fruit and eat it on daily basis. If God was a God of patience, I needed to be patient and develop God’s fruit. I love fruit and that fruit has turned out to be more satisfying than any strawberries and pineapples in the world. If I were to liken patient to an actual fruit, I would say it’s a hybrid of my two favorite fruits, the ones I just mentioned. Patient is sweet and it gives great satisfaction. It can look harsh and prickly on the outside like a pineapple, meaning that it can seem to be hard to eat but once you open it, it is delicious and fulfilling. It is like a strawberry because it is soft and it is seeded. Each seed gives life to more fruit. Patience yields seeds of peace. Once you are eating the fruit of patience, you get the benefit of peace and contentment. I have noticed that peace is a “side effect” of patience when we trust in the process. Patience also works with faith and the seeds of patience can also be described as pockets of faith. You need a lot of them for patience to work. Just the way strawberries have many seeds, the many seeds of faith are inside the fruit of patience.

 

I have talked a few times before about what to do while we are waiting. One of the things Jesus tells us about fasting, is that when we do fast, we shouldn’t act like we are fasting. We shouldn’t act like we are going through a hard time. We shouldn’t show it to people. I believe the same is true about waiting. While we are waiting, we shouldn’t show it to people. We shouldn’t talk about agony, frustration or how tough it is to wait. We should go about our normal business and enjoy it all. Wait should equate to praise and not to pain. If we see the wait as pain, we have lost the battle before it even started. Wait stands for “while angels intervene today.” I made this up but it is encouraging. God’s angels have been placed in charge of protecting you and helping you. They are working on your situation while you are waiting and they are intervening on many levels that you can’t see or understand and they are doing it today. Today might seem like a normal day in the waiting process but God is acting behind the scenes and He has commissioned angels to assist you and make sure things move in your favor. Praise while you wait. Enjoy every day and work on your passions. Work on what God has given you. Focus on your talents, focus on your God-given abilities and serve the Lord with all your heart while you are waiting. Be active for Jesus while you are waiting. He is active on your behalf while you are waiting. Honor Him. Be God’s instrument while you are waiting for the end of your symphony. Stay positive, stay creative, stay in faith. While you are waiting, life with God is still happening. Make the most of it!

Suggested reading: Matthew 6:16-18; Galatians 5:22; Romans 5:2-4

 

When you get to the end of your rope

When you get to the end of your rope, the Lord is on the other side. He is there pulling you gently toward Him. His sweet nudge can be hard to perceive but His Spirit will open your eyes to His love that is drawing you closer to Him. If you feel like you are at the end of your rope today, pray for that nudge to be revealed. Pray for your eyes to be open. Pray for love. Pray for God’s love. Open up your heart. Be transparent with God. Cry out to Him and let Him know you can’t see His love; you can’t feel His touch and you can’t make it without His mercy and grace. God loves you to the moon and back and He is there holding that rope that you think is useless at this point. The end of your rope is the start of God. He will pick up where hope left off. He will give you the courage and the desire to keep going. He is about to inject you with a strong dose of hope that will keep you going. Don’t give up. God is not giving up on you. He knows you can make it. He knows you can make it through Him. He is the strength you need. He is the love that is missing. Love will make a way. His love will make a way. If you are at the end of your rope, let God pull you toward Him. The end won’t happen until He says it’s over and it will end well with Him!

Know that God has been at the end of your rope before. Jesus reached the end of the universal rope for you and me. He did it not only for our sins but to also to give us salvation, freedom, to heal us and lead to where we can be more like Him. At the cross He saw you. He saw your struggle; He saw your pain. He felt your tears. He felt your agony. He saw your mind and He saw your heart. He knew what went on inside of you. Your thoughts of despair and of ending it were all there in front of Him. He took them and made them His own and they died with Him. He came back to life with the victory that you and I will need every day of our lives. Your problem today, your discouragement and your suffering were conquered on the cross. Jesus gave them the death sentence. It’s time you and I lived like justice was served. It is all taken care of. Your rope might look like it’s cut but God has a way of restoring everything and your rope is going to be much longer than you can imagine. Hang on to it because Jesus is on the other side holding it and keeping it sturdy for you.

If people in this world haven’t been able to help you, know that our God who is in this world but also out of this world, has all the help you need. He will bring relief and peace and give you serenity in ways that no one else can. The Lord adores you and He will give you a piece of Heaven so you can deal with the harshness of the earth. Life throws things our way that make it seem like it’s the end. God gives us hope to help us deal with the feeling of the end. There is always more. God always gives more. When it looks like it’s over, there is more to come. Friend, hold on to hope. Don’t get discouraged. There is an abundance of love and peace coming your way. God will give you what you need. His timing is precious and it is perfect. Stay with Him while you are waiting. Stay in faith and let hope take over. Celebrate that the Lord your God will never leave you. He is adding miles to your rope and you are going to do amazing things thanks to Him and have wonderful times sponsored by His love. If you are at the end of your rope, know that God is the owner of that rope and He won’t let you down. Stay encouraged!

 

Suggested reading: Isaiah 41:10; 1 Corinthians 16:13; Ephesians 6:10

 

It doesn’t matter who is against you

We all face adversity at some point. We all have to deal with people who are oppositional, with situations that are difficult and circumstances that we don’t know how to handle. The opposition is real and it can be relentless. However, we have a God who is also real and His love is relentless. He is more powerful than any opposition that will ever come our way. God is bigger and greater. He is powerful and He is invincible. How come we go through times when we are defeated if our God is that amazing? Trials form our spiritual character and help us exercise our faith. We can look at the bad things that are happening to us as training ground for faith or as fields of defeat we don’t come back from. Our attitude toward what takes place in our lives is crucial. One thing that gives me strength when I am faced with tribulations is remembering that God is with me. The Lord is with me and for me. It doesn’t matter who is against me because Jesus is by my side. Does knowing that truly makes a difference? It does because I have meditated on it and I have used that truth on many occasions. Knowing it is not enough. Applying is over and over again is helpful. We ought to be relentless just like the opposition and just like God’s love. We can learn from what is bothering us, from the problems we are dealing with. One thing I have gained is a relentless spirit that keeps going despite the opposition because Jesus is there and He is the One who matters. Not the adversity. Today I want to remind you that it doesn’t matter who and what is against you. What matters is that Jesus is with you!

 

What does the opposition look like? What and who can be against you? I am sure you can come up with a list of agents of opposition for yourself. Financial struggle is an opposition. Stress is an agent of opposition. Fear and worry are friends with stress. Health issues are part of the opposition. Being at a loss and not knowing where to go next is a form of opposition. Spiritual and emotional torment is also opposition. The opposition can also manifest through people that are against us. People that seem to enjoy making our lives miserable. The Bible specifies that we have to face powers of darkness that are bigger than what we see. It doesn’t give a free pass to those who are opposing us but it helps understand why some people can be so against us. The enemy will use just about anyone; people we don’t know but also people we are close to. What is the best way to deal with all forms of opposition? The best way is Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Dealing with life with Jesus is the best way to live our lives. Think about all the agents of opposition in your life. You can even make a physical list of them. If you do, write them on a piece of paper and be sure to not write them in big letters. Then write over them. Write “Jesus is greater than all opposition” in big letters. Always keep that piece of paper close by and review that amazing reminder as often as needed.

 

My advice to you is that you find a way to be reminded of how much bigger the Lord is. It has to be anchored in your mind and sink down into your spirit. You might be facing some terrible challenges now and they are probably discouraging you but those challenges don’t make God smaller. His love is bigger than the universe and when you stay in faith, you experience it and you can see that nothing can stop Him from protecting you. The opposition is no match for Jesus. Exalt Him above the problems. Put Him on a pedestal. Make Him look big, the way He is. Don’t let the opposition get the upper hand in your mind. The enemy does most of his work in the mind. Kick him out of there and put Jesus in there permanently. Dedicate your mind and your thoughts to Him. How? Let His Word be the word you abide by the most. Surround yourself with the truth that He is bigger than anything and everything. When you are facing opposition, declare that you have nothing to worry about because Jesus is with you. Deal with people who are against you with love. Deal with them with Jesus. Ask His Spirit to show you how to handle them with love and how to do what the Lord wants for you in that situation. Love is bigger than hate. Love will always conquer hate. Jesus is love. Jesus always wins over hate and over all the powers of the enemy. You have nothing to fear; it doesn’t matter who is against you because Jesus is always with you!

Suggested reading: Psalm 118:6; Jeremiah 1:19; Romans 8:31-39

 

Making God famous on the inside

One of the nuggets of wisdom that I recently wrote and that I will share next weekend is about fame and notoriety. Are success and fame goals we should pursue for ourselves? Is it important to become famous? Is it a way to advance on our spiritual path? For many people, being popular and known is being successful. If they can be famous on social media, they have it made. The more followers, the more success. That is the definition of fame and success in the world nowadays. Why is it so crucial? I believe that part of it stems from a lack of love.

People are trying to plug in the holes left from the absence of God’s love in their lives. There is a void that they try to fill. It is also a question of feeling powerful and not just feeling loved. Power is appealing and it is tempting. We can’t control what happens to us most of the time so we try to find a form of power, something we can manipulate. Does God love famous people more than people who have no notoriety? Absolutely not. Does God want His people to be superstars with millions of followers? Well, I believe that it depends on how the fame is used and perceived. All we do should be done for God’s glory and to exalt Him. Making God famous is key here. Exalting ourselves above Him is dangerous because we are putting the focus on His creation and not on the creator.

When I was praying about fame and success, trying to understand it all, I heard that making Jesus famous in our hearts and minds is more fulfilling that making ourselves famous in the world. God should be the celebrity we honor and worship and the first step before making Him known to others is to make Him be adored on the inside. Is Jesus the celebrity that your body, mind, soul and spirit adore? If not, that is where it should start. Today I want to encourage you to make Jesus famous in you. Let your soul exalt Him. Let your heart keep Him nice and warm inside and let your body honor Him. Work on your mind so the Lord is the One that you think about the most and that guides your thought process.

What is a powerful way we can make the Lord famous inside of us? Relying on the Holy Spirit can get us there. The Spirit of the Lord always points to Jesus. He extols Him and He can’t lift up anyone else. I talk to the Holy Spirit. I thank Him for keeping me centered on Jesus and for helping me in all I do. I acknowledge in all my ways the best I can. He guides me and He opens me up to the Lord. He speaks gently and He speaks of love and it is always about Jesus, related to Jesus, and connected to Jesus in one way or another. Accepting God’s love, accepting that He is love is a good way to make Him famous in our hearts. Love has to be the biggest part of the picture we have of God in our minds and hearts. It has to be the frame and the picture. It has to invade all the visions of God that we have. It has to be an anchor in our minds, in the way we think. The Holy Spirit makes that happen when we keep the door to our soul wide open for Him.

If Netflix is more popular in us than Jesus, how will we make Him famous when we don’t know Him well enough? I now there is nothing wrong with having hobbies and entertainment in our lives. We need them but when they are our only outlets, we run the risk of knowing the world better than we know the Lord. It’s easy to be well acquainted with the world. We are always in it and the world gets inside of us. Knowing the Lord intimately requires more work. We ought to try our best to be as intimate as we can with God so that He is on the inside of us more than the world is. We can read His Word, pray, have communion with Him, praise Him, thank Him and let His Spirit have His way in us. When we make the conscious effort to see all these things happen, the Lord will be more popular inside of us. Our mind, soul and spirit will be in harmony with Him. When we get there, we can present Him to the world more easily. Let’s make Jesus famous on the inside so we can introduce Him to the world on the outside!

 

Suggested reading: Psalm 96:3; Mark 16:15; Matthew 24:14

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Saturday (Part 103)

God is not always a blessing in disguise. He is a blessing in plain sight. He dresses the part and He shows Himself the way He truly is. The question is, are we recognizing the blessing?

Jesus gets in the way when there is no way. He makes a way and blows you away with His mysterious ways!

Consider God as the highest source for everything. Highest source for life, love, peace, freedom, wisdom, victory, deliverance, truth and joy.

Some people are only in your life for a season and only God knows the reason. Don’t try to figure out the departures and arrivals. God is in charge of everyone’s journey.

Some doors are more like windows. They are shorter and thinner so the opportunities are fewer but they are still there. Ask God to reveal the doors and the windows in your life.

Put one foot forward in faith and keep walking in love. Put the other foot forward in faith and keep running your race. Put one foot forward in faith and let God show you the way. Put the other foot forward and see how God leads you to amazing places one step at a time.

Stress and anxiety are conduits for the enemy to get into our lives. They are open doors for negativity and depression. Open the door to faith and hope and positivity will follow you everywhere.

Peace is what God gives and what we should expect. The absence of peace doesn’t mean the absence of God but God can make peace present even when there is turmoil and chaos.

The Lord gives us notifications about how much He loves us. They are reminders of His goodness and kindness. Let’s be aware of those promptings and embrace His loving nudges.

Your breakthrough will come true. Your blessings will show up. Your answers will come. Your deliverance will manifest. Your Lord will keep His promises. Your current misery is not the end!

Suggested reading: Jeremiah 17:7-8; Psalm 20:4; Philemon 1:25

God has already been there

The other day I was talking to a close friend about how amazing it is that God is omnipresent. He is omniscient. He is everywhere at the same time. He has been to the past, He is in the present and He has been to the future. It seems so unreal but yet it is so true. God has been to every part of your life, present, past and future. When I was talking to my friend, I told her that God had been to the meeting I had to attend later that day. He had been to every class I had to teach that day and He has lived and seen everything that will ever happen. He is never taken aback by anything. He is never surprised by anything. He has been everywhere and He can take you and me everywhere.

Wherever you have to go physically, emotionally and spiritually, God has been there. God is ahead of you and He will accompany you. It’s always reassuring when we travel to an unknown place with someone who already knows the place. Having a well-traveled guide is key. That is what God is. He is the company that goes with us and knows exactly what to expect on our journey because He has visited it and He is still there. Your situations and circumstances are not foreign to God. There is absolutely nothing that will ever stop God from traveling with you. Your worst tribulations don’t scare Him. Your strongest fears don’t derail Him. Your darkest secrets won’t keep Him away from you. He saw them way before they were formed in your heart and He still loves you. My message today is to remind you that God has been where you are going and He will always be with you. He can always protect you, bless you and love you no matter where you are.

Do you ever play your day in your mind before it starts? Do you ever wonder how parts of the day are going to go? There is usually some apprehension and some anxiety attached to the unknown and what we picture is not always the most positive picture unless we are very anchored in faith and hope. We all have moments when we get nervous about an upcoming event. Now, if we take into consideration that the Lord has already been to those events, we can look at them from a very different angle. We can see ourselves more as spectators of those events and the Lord as the main actor. When we leave everything in God’s hands, He takes care of everything. All we have to do is show up with faith and let Him be in control. It’s not the easiest thing to do. It takes practice and when we do it that way, we stay in the Lord’s way. He has a way of making all things work out for good. Your interview next week has already been visited by the Lord. The exam you have to take has already been taken by the Lord. The move you have to make has already been made by the Lord. He has been there and He will get you there with flying colors.

 

Next time you get scared of something that is coming up, declare that the Lord has been there and you have nothing to worry about. God took care of it before you have to go there. It will be handled nicely by the One who created the universe. There is nothing to fear and nothing to worry about. Not only has He been there but He is right by your side when you are there so you can rest assured that He will help you deal with whatever you have to deal with. Think about it. He is by your side and He will never leave you nor forsake you. You don’t have to do anything by yourself. God is your helper and your guide. His Spirit will show you what to do and His presence will cover you. You are covered everywhere you go. Step out in faith and keep walking. You are going places and the Lord has paved the way for you. Stay encouraged!

Suggested reading: Deuteronomy 31:8; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5-6

Sing a new song to the Lord

Music is a big part of my life. I know that a lot of my friends and family also love music and can’t go a day without it. Life without music would be like a tasteless dish with no salt, no flavor and no joy. You probably have one ingredient, one condiment, one spice that you love that makes your food a joyful experience. Music is what makes my life a joyful experience because the music I love is music that exalts the Lord. It is uplifting and it is exquisite. It puts Jesus on a pedestal and it minimizes the influence of the world on my mind and in my heart. The world has ways of getting inside our heads and in our spirits and shaking everything up by taking the place that rightfully belongs to the Lord. Music is powerful. It is one of the most powerful things that exists. It was meant to exalt the Lord but we often see that it exalts the world over the Lord. When I had the big change in my life over 6 years ago, one of the most impactful encounters with the Lord, the music of my life changed. I started singing a new song to the Lord. My life started being a praise song instead of the sad song that I used to be so attached to. God gave me new lyrics. I embraced them and I have kept them all these years. What song is your life singing? What are you singing to the Lord repeatedly? Who oversees the lyrics of your life? What tune do you choose first thing in the morning? What song do you keep throughout the day? Do you let life change the record and put on a song that brings you down? Today I am here to encourage you to sing a new song to the Lord every day. Let me explain.

Our words are melodies to the Lord. He loves hearing our voices. He knows what we are going to say and He understand the songs of our lives. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He hears every note played by our lives and He listens to the cry of our hearts and the laughter that comes out of our spirits. He knows the rhythm and the beat of every day of our lives. He can’t miss a beat and He never tune out. He is always in harmony with our thoughts, our emotions and our ideas. It doesn’t mean that we are in harmony with Him. His desire is for us to change our songs and tune into His music. He wants our lives to be vibrant sounds of hope and sounds of joy. He has a song for us to sing that He gives us through His Spirit. We can choose to sing it or we can side with the songs of the world. The songs of the world can be very whiny and very depressing. They can bring you down without you saying anything. Those songs are in our heads and they don’t have to be sung to create havoc in our lives. All we have to do is play them over and over in our minds and the enemy has us where he wants us. He wants us away from the Lord, away from faith and hope. The more we play the negative music of the world, the less receptive we will be to the melodies of the Lord. His melodies are what we should long for and what we should express. Our lives are songs that we should choose carefully.

I have mentioned before how I often hear music deep down inside. I hear songs of praise. Songs that I have never heard in the natural but that sound amazing. Songs that focus on Jesus and that glorify Him. Now, I have noticed that those sounds from Heaven come more naturally when I am positive and I stay on God’s wavelength. When I stay tuned to joy, faith and positive confessions, the music starts. God has a song for you and me to sing but it can’t grow amid doubt and negativity. It won’t emerge when we put a pile a negativity on top of it. The secret to a beautiful song to the Lord is to sing to Him no matter what happens to us. Maintaining a song of praise through the way we lead our lives and how we approach every event is a great dedicated song to our Lord. It is a wonderful way to praise Him without words. Our actions and our deeds can produce incredible music that highlights faith and the goodness of God. Emotions should be taken out of the equation and faith should be the instrument we use to sing with our lives. You can always sing a new song to the Lord. Decide to make it a good song that celebrates Him. Keep the lyrics in line with His Word and His love. Sing a new song to the Lord with your life today!

Suggested reading: Psalm 40:3; Psalm 96:1; Isaiah 42:10