Sometimes we hold grudges or resentments over things that could be easily attributed to someone having a bad day or miscommunication. Let’s just say it is neither of those and we have legitimate reasons to feel some type of way. We still could simple write it off as their problem not ours, or we could fill our body up with hatred and resentment. When you hold grudges and harbor resentment you are only doing harm to yourself. I know from experience it can literally make you sick! Usually the other person is not aware of your feeling or they just don’t care. The more you continue to think about and judge the person, the deeper the anger and resentment grows. I remember the first time I heard the phrase “holding on to anger and resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” The truth of that statement really hit home with me. I was at Bible study and we were discussing how holding on to hurt and anger affects you. How we should forgive and forget. I was my mom’s caregiver. She had passed and I was still holding on to all the feelings of anger and resentment her sickness and death had brought between my siblings and I.  Each one of us felt we were right and said some hurtful things. I don’t know why people say as long as you don’t hit, words don’t hurt. Yes..they..do! Very much so. Our tongues can cut deeper than a knife! Some of my  siblings did not speak to each other for years! When I heard that statement, I knew it didn’t matter who was right or wrong. I had to let go of those feelings that were slowing killing me. I asked God for help. The one’s that would not talk to me, I wrote letters. I cannot tell you how much better I felt once I forgave and asked for forgiveness in return. I realised even if they did not forgive me, I had finally stopped drinking that poison, and it felt good. Even though you forgive, it is hard to forget some things. I am amazed at how when we go to God and ask him to forgive us, not only does he forgive us, he forgets as if it never happened. Our God is an awesome God! Some people believe that to forgive someone means completely forgetting the wrongdoing they committed. And since God wants us to forgive, they tend to impress that view upon the scriptures. I’m not sure about that. I’m not sure if we should forget some things for our own good, but I believe we should not dwell on things that keep us from moving forward. What the scriptures does talk about is forgetting what we have done in our own lives in order to move forward, I don’t believe it is stating that we wipe our minds miraculously; I’m not sure if that would be possible for us. I try though. Scriptures also speaks about not letting our past dictate our futures and being able to press forward in life. The one thing that we should constantly dwell on is Jesus and the cross, which rises above and overpowers any past mistakes or sins that we committed and anyone else committed. Thank God for Jesus! What I do know is that once you release it, let it go and move on, you feel so good. Stop drinking that poison!  Much Love…..

Jacob was a liar. Moses was a stutterer. David was an adulterer. Ahab was a prostitute. Esther was an orphan. You may think you have nothing to offer and God can’t use you. He doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Gideon is another one of God’s chosen leaders who argued that he wasn’t good enough. As soon as God called Gideon to greater things, Gideon began making excuses, allowing his insecurities and inadequacies to set limitations in his life. (sound familiar) Gideon argued, “How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family”. But God looked beyond Gideon’s insecurities. He knew who Gideon could be if he trusted in God’s power to work through him. God wasn’t limited by Gideon’s limitations, and He’s not limited by ours either. He didn’t want Gideon to depend on his own strength. God wanted Gideon to depend on His strength. God was going to conquer the Midianites, but He invited Gideon to join Him. And what about the women in the Bible? When you turn the pages from the Old Testament to the New Testament, you can tell something is going to be different for women. In the Old Testament lineages, women were rarely mentioned. However, in Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, five women are listed in the lineage of Jesus. Of course, Mary, the mother of Jesus is there, a teenage girl from Bethlehem. But who are the other four? Tamar who had an incestuous encounter with her father-in-law, Rehab, who had been a prostitute in Jericho, Ruth, who was a foreigner from a cursed people group in Moab, and Bathsheba, who had an affair with King David. I’m so glad these women were listed. This shows us we can never go so far away from God that His grace can’t reach in to save us, and then use us. Each of these women would have probably thought they weren’t good enough if they had known how God was going to use them in His kingdom. No matter what mistakes you’ve made in your past, first of all, know you’re in good company. Secondly, know that God loves using mess-ups who fess up and then step up to do mighty works for Him! Much Love….

The Lord spoke to Moses and told him to send men out to scout the land of Canaan that He was giving to the Israelites. Moses sent out twelve spies. He told them to see what the land was like and whether the people there were strong or weak, few or many. He wanted to know was the land good or bad and did the cities have walls around them. They were to check the soil and see if the land had trees. He told them to try to bring back some fruit from the land. Forty days later, they came back from exploring the land. They gave their report and showed the fruit from the land. They said it was a land flowing with milk and honey. They reported the people who lived there were strong, and the cities had walls and were very large. The men said, “We can’t attack those people! They’re too strong for us!” They said, “It is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. We felt as small as grasshoppers, and that’s how we must have looked to them.” The people began to panic and complain as it seemed they were quick to do. They forgot all they had seen God do and refused to trust Him. Everyone except for Joshua and Caleb, two of the 12 spies, who wanted to take the land and begged the people to trust God.  Out of the 12 spies sent into Canaan, only those two made the right choice. Now look back at my first sentence and see where I italicized giving. God had already given them the land; he just wanted them to check it out! If they had trusted in God they would have entered the Promised Land, instead they wandered for forty years until everyone in that generation, except Joshua and Caleb, died off.

 This story sounds so familiar. We start off really excited about a new relationship or marriage. We are all pumped up because we got that new job or better yet starting our own business. We trust God and believe in the possibilities and what we set out to achieve. We believe he gave us that job or that mate. We know with God on our side we cannot fail! Then the giants appear, imaginary or real; trust issues, doubt, fear, the vision killers, and every other negativity to steal what God has given us and to kill our dreams. A giant is anything that stands between you and God’s plan for you. A giant is anything that seems bigger than you and your desire to serve the Lord. There are physical and spiritual giants that put barriers in front of you to keep you from accomplishing what God intends for your life. A giant may be stronger than us and cannot be faced alone. But why is it that we see these giants as bigger than our God? Why like the Israelites our faith fails and we forget what God has done? Why is it that we forget how he showed up the last time and slayed the giant? Uh, did we forget that we prayed for and believe God gave us this job or this soul mate. I’ve said it before, we have to sometimes fight to keep what God gives us. The devil comes to kill, steal and destroy! Is it just human nature that we tend to remember our own limited strength rather than the unlimited strength of God? So again we fall back into half trust, half victory and whole despair. How often do we go over the same ground again and again like the Israelites, being kept back by our own unbelief? We must learn to choose to do what God says when He says it. We must not focus on the giants but focus on the Lord. What looks like a giant to us is like an ant in the eyes of God. When you know God is leading you somewhere or he has given you what you prayed for, step out in faith and go the whole distance? He is greater than all and He wants us to trust Him. I for one am done going in circles and running from giants!  God has shown me that he is the God of miracles! I may be a grasshopper in the giant’s eyes but my God is a giant slayer! It has taken a long time for me to understand this. If only I had realized it doesn’t matter how big the giant is, because the battle is not mine to fight anyway. Wow, I could have saved myself plenty of heartache and pain. We can be pessimistic putting difficulties and challenges between us and God, telling ourselves we are not able, or we can be optimistic and put God between the difficulties and challenges and not let giants steal what God has already given us. Giants do fall down! Much Love…

In 1960,  six-year-old Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to integrate an all white public elementary school in the South. Every day for months federal marshals escorted Ruby past a mob of angry parents. They shouted, cursed, and threw objects and insults at her. She sat in a class room alone with the only teacher willing to instruct her, while parents kept their children home. A psychologist met with Ruby for several months to help her cope with the fear and stress she was experiencing. Ruby’s mother kept encouraging her to be strong and pray while entering the school. Ruby said every day as she walked to school and back home, she prayed, “Please God, forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing.” She said this reduced the vehemence of the insults yelled at her and gave her courage. This was a six-year-old child! Her mother protected her the best way she could; with the power of prayer! Did I mention that Ruby was born in 1954, the same year that the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education’s decision to desegregate schools? I don’t believe this was a coincidence, I believe that Ruby was God’s ram in the bush!

Fast forward to June 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school sponsored prayer is a violation of the First Amendment. I believe as many others do that prayer in schools (and everywhere else) is a necessary part of the struggle to limit violence, drug abuse, and other social evils that afflict our country in general and schools in particular. We have seen the increase of violence in our schools and it is devastating! My heart aches whenever I hear about another shooting and innocent kids dying. I don’t have the answers on how we can get prayer back into our schools; however I pray to God that he intercede. Even though I don’t understand, I believe God is still in control and he has a ram in the bush!

There is something we can do. Let me ask a question, if the schools say your child can not take their medicine at school, would you not give it to them at all? We must teach our kids the power of prayer! Pray with them before they leave home. Teach them to pray when they get there and all day in between. Private, voluntary prayer is not only permitted in public schools, but it is constitutionally protected. Let them know that prayer can also be spoken within the heart. Students can pray privately before class or during lunch, before a test, etc. Groups of students can pray together as long as it does not interrupt activities or the classroom. As Ruby’s mother did, we can protect our children the best way we can, by teaching them the power of prayer! Much Love…

There is a story where this little boy told his sister if she used an umbrella and jumped off a barn roof the umbrella would hold her up. He told her she only had to “believe so by faith”. She jumped off the barn roof and knocked herself out, suffering a minor concussion, no, it was not me but a similar story happened to me involving my sister, brother, and a wood stove. I have the burn to this day! God does not lie, what He promises, He will do. He is a promise keeper. We just have to make sure we are standing on God’s actual Word when we claim a promise. The popular saying: “I name it, I claim it”, should very well be “God names it, I claim it!  Faith has no power by itself. It only counts when it is based on a clear and unmistakably promise from God. Anything else is wishful thinking. Faith is not a tentative concept where we simply “wish” something to be true. Faith means certainty. In the Old Testament, the men and women were obedient to God, knowing by Faith that the promises He made to them would come to pass.  Wishful thinking wonders if He will, while faithful expectation testifies that He will with boldness. Someone said wishful thinking may or may not be based on the Word of God; but faith always is. I also believe there is passive faith, you know the type of faith where you know that God has promised you something but you are not willing to fight for it. Sometimes faith involves a fight, everyone else may think you are crazy, but because of your faith you will not give up and give in to the enemy without a fight. Another big difference, wishful thinking believes God is a genie or santa claus, ready to do our will; Faith knows God as our father, and we are ready to do His will. God is dependable, reliable, and worthy of our trust!  He has already kept his greatest promise, by sending Jesus to die on our behalf so we can have eternal life in Him. How can we doubt He will keep other promises He has made? I know that the Word says by His strips we are healed. So no matter how I feel and what the providers say, I am healed! At one point the doctors thought I was crazy when I claimed that, now they are amazed! In this life people will disappoint us. And we, as much as we try not to, may fall short in keeping some of our promises to others. But one thing I know for sure: God will never break his promises. He is the promise keeper! Much Love…

A book by Sharon Jaynes titled, Silencing the lies that steal your confidence, discusses the lies that keep us bogged down in shame, insecurity and feelings of inadequacy. We look at others and view them as examples of what we should look like or how we should act. We let these negative thoughts enter into our heads; I’m not educated enough, I’m not pretty enough, my body does not look right, I’m just not enough! I agree with Ms. Jaynes, we must silence these lies that steal our confidence! God desires perfection and our good deeds will never erase our sin. But thank God for Jesus who was perfect in every way shape and form. He took responsibility and courageously died for our sins. So even though we don’t deserve it, God loves us just as we are and knowing him will only make us better. Don’t pay attention to the world because through Christ you’re a child of God. Don’t ever feel you have to look a certain way or behave a certain way to be loved. God loves us.  God does not look on the outside for perfection. He looks at our hearts and it is a display of love not perfection that moves God. I rather live by God’s standards than the temporary standards of the world. We silence the lies by accepting God’s grace, and no longer let past failures define or confine us. We silence the lies by knowing that no matter what the world thinks of us , in God’s eyes we are beautiful and each of us is valuable to Him. We are good enough because of His power that works in and through us. Last week I had a flare-up and I did not write at all. My energy level was down to zero and I started thinking, maybe I just need to stop blogging. My Spirit said no, this is what I told you to do, and when I tell you to do something, I will give you what you need to do it. So I encourage you to not put off doing something because you feel you are not good enough. Unleash the champion in you! God chooses to do extraordinary work through ordinary people who will bring glory to his name. He is looking for believers who will be obedient regardless of how they feel, their present fears, or past failures. Whenever I start to fall in the “I’m not good enough trap”, I think about how God loved me so much he gave his only son. Am I good enough? Oh yes, I’m good enough. In fact, I’m better than good. So are you. Much Love…

There are people who use the “nobody’s perfect” excuse to rebel against God and his expectations of Christians. They say; God knows me, the Bible says don’t judge, so you’re trying to act holier than thou, etc. It is true we will sin and make mistakes, but we must not use that as an excuse or to justify sin. While we are saved by faith alone in Christ, that faith will result in obedience and good works. We must strive to behave everyday like Christ. It is not what we are trying to be but what we are, God says when we are truly saved, we are a new creature. We may fall short at times, I know I do, but there should be growth. I thank God for His instruction book on life; the Bible.

I used to think it was a sin to get angry. So I would say, “nobody’s perfect” (I was one of those folks I was talking about earlier). But in my Christian growth, instead of justifying it as me not being perfect, I wanted to know what the Word said about anger. God did not tell us we couldn’t feel anger, He said we should not vent our anger. The Word says be slow to anger. I have always been slow to anger, but what about when I do get angry?As Christians we do not like to admit we are angry. We might say we are “upset”. Upset and angry have different meanings. When you are upset you are usually sad and tearful, but when you are angry you want to react, even if it’s just with words. The way the world is today with satan running rapid with deceitfulness and his lies, it’s easy to get mad. I get mad when I see injustice, homelessness, hunger, and the mistreatment of children and the elderly. What do you do as a Christian when it’s personal? Someone or something has lit your fire and you are burning up. What do we do as Christians when our “mad” is too big. I used to say, (still do, but not so much) “please don’t make me angry because then I’ll get mad!” The word mad originally meant “crazy” or “insane” in American English, and in the UK it still does, but is commonly used in the phase “mad with rage”. That doesn’t even sound good so you know it’s not of God! Everyone has or will at some point experience anger. Sometimes it is difficult to control your emotions.Through the grace of God, I am learning when I do get angry how to control it instead of it controlling me.

Admitting that we are angry is the first step to dealing with anger the christian way. The second is realizing it is impossible for us to control anger without the power of God at work in our hearts and lives. Thirdly, it must be properly motivated. There are times a person can be angry for appropriate reasons. Religious hypocrisy, injustices of poverty, or oppression is proper, godly reasons to become angry. Jesus experienced anger.When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. They were taken advantage of those less fortunate. He drove them all from the temple area, he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. When Jesus asked the religious leaders if it was okay to heal a person on the Sabbath day, and they would not answer, scripture says, “he looked around at them with anger.”  He stilled healed the man while angry which lets us know that we can still do good while angry. Clearly some forms of anger are wrong, and this is the anger that Jesus spoke out against in Matthew 5:22 – angry that you did not get your way, anger that is destructive and unnecessarily demeaning. We should not let our anger turn into bitterness or hold grudges. Never let others anger you to the point where you become someone who you don’t  recognize! That is man’s anger; Jesus did not exhibit man’s anger but the righteous indignation of God. When we let our anger control us, we break unity with the body of Christ. I tell you God and his Word is the best anger management class you can take! It will take time, for spiritual growth, like human growth, is gradual. I thank God for not just convicting us of our sins, but for transforming us through the Holy Spirit. I thank him for meeting us where we are but also loving us enough to not leave us there. For myself, when my mad gets too big, I like to say “Jesus fix it”, because I know He can. Please refer to the scriptures in Food for the Soul to see what God has to say about anger. Much Love…

                                               SOME HARD TRUTHS:

TAMMING THE TONGUE (James 3:1-10)

“The tongue is the smallest part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. It can corrupt the whole body, set the course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. Animals can be tamed but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless quill, full of deadly poison. How can we praise our Lord and Father, and with the same tongue curse our brothers and sisters who have been made by God in his likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. This should not be.”

DON’T JUDGE ME (James 4:11-12)

“Brothers and sisters do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the Law and judges it. When you judge the Law, you are not keeping it but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?”

 TOMORROW IS NOT PROMISED (James 4:13-16)

“You say “Today or tomorrow we will go to the city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.”

 So there you have it my people. Some hard truths from Apostle James.  He is described as one of the first disciples to follow Jesus. Please go to Food for the Soul and pray with me to our Father for help with these things which are not pleasing to Him. Much Love…..

I have never been a spontaneous person. I have planned things as long as I can remember. I had my life all planned out. And when things didn’t go as planned, I just moved to plan B. Yes, I always had a plan B. I thought I knew what was best for my life. That was before the wilderness. My plan B did not stand a chance up against the wilderness! In hindsight, I feel like God was trying to get my attention. There is nothing wrong with planning, if you are getting direction, advice and guidance from God. God’s plan comes with total submission to His will and authority in our lives. There was a time when that would have been hard, giving total control to anyone, even God. I thought I knew what was best for my life. Our plans are self satisfying, temporary, and usually separate us from God. God’s plans are always best for us. God’s plan for our lives are peace, prosperity, hope, and a future with Him. Even when we follow God’s plan, there will be detours on the road we travel. We will find obstacles, persecution, hurt, pain, rejection and suffering. The difference is God will be there with us, guiding us through all of them. I believe before I ended up in the wilderness, I was following my plan. The wilderness was not in my plans so I didn’t know what to do. Once I submitted it all to him, he was right there with me in the wilderness. And what I thought was the worst thing that could happen to me, turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me. He is the God of second chances. I no longer need a plan B. I know God’s plan for me is not only eternal, but full of hope, joy and peace, even in the mist of life’s storms. What do you do when God’s plan does not align with your plan? Go with God’s plan, it is always better! Check out Food for the Soul and read what God has said. Much Love…..