Category: Devotions

Give Me Directions

"It changes direction, turning around by His guidance, That it may do whatever He commands it On the face of the inhabited earth."  Job 37:12

I am one of those people that prides myself on having a good sense of direction.  That's right fellas!  Not all women are directionally-challenged!  I have a good sense of direction and I can usually explore my way back home even if I am lost.  I can find my way back home after visiting some place only once and usually I can make it back there too.  I even learn from examples!!!  In school when I learned something new, I only had to see an example after being taught to know and grasp the concept.

If only that were the case with LIFE!!!  I cannot tell you how many times I wished someone would have just told me of their experience in a particular situation and I could have learned from it rather than having to experience it for myself.  And true enough those were the most painful lessons I had to learn.  If only God could have pulled me to the side and said "Marquita, for this situation, here is what you need to do…"  I would have simply been like "Okay God!! You know best and I do not want to be hurt or get in trouble…"  But hey there is that thing called Free Will that He gave us…that forces us to make some decisions in life on our own, that allows us to make bad decisions but allows God to ensure that we can learn from it.  Nowadays we have GPS systems that we can use to get us from a known point A to unknown point B and back.  Ahem, ahem….the GPS for life is called the Bible and prayer and we must make sure that we have volume on the speaker turned up so that we can hear God as He speaks to us through them!!!

How many times do you enter a situation and come out on the other side thinking "Dang, I wish I would have listened to that" or "I wish I would have heeded that advice"?  How many times do you pray about something, get an answer or lack thereof and move forward with no peace only to realize that you should have waited or avoided that situation?  How many times do you ignore that gut feeling?  I used to do that like clockwork.  Taking a test I would always go with my second guess.  Even in life, I have doubted myself on things only to end up angry with myself for not trusting my own instincts.  We have an inner GPS that if we are a part of the Body of Christ, is always with us.  We have to learn to listen to Him because He will not lead us wrong.  Trust in that internal system, the Holy Spirit that is, that He is God's appointed representative to make sure you get where God is leading you.  A car does not often make it from a road trip scratch or dent free–on the contrary, there are sure to be dents and dings that get picked up along the way.  Trust that God will not allow harm to come to you–but there is no guarantee that you will not make it through unscathed.  Trust God and trust the Spirit within you to get you to the right destination.  On that note, good night people and be blessed!!

"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;"  John 14:16

What Season are You Residing in?

"He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers." Psalm 1:3

This is actually one of the things I have on my prayer list, that God reveal to me what season I am in.  It is important to know what season you are in because then you will know what you need to do.  There are many kinds of seasons–seasons for weather, seasons for growing food, seasons for procreation.  I'm going to focus primarily on seasons for growing food or simply seasons of harvest.  There is the planting season–where you plant seeds.  You dig the hole, drop the seed in, cover it with soil and fertilizer, and you water it.  You repeat this process until you have seeded the entire field.  Then next you need to water the seeds–the seed receives the nutrients it needs to grow and take root.  It has to have sunlight too.  So the seed is watered on a regular basis, followed by sunlight and even re-fertilized.  This cycle continues until it is time to harvest.  Your plant has to have those particular conditions in order to thrive.  Sometimes plants are faced with difficult weather or neglect, which can potentially kill it.  Yet all in all, when its time to harvest, you will see the fruits of your labor.  During the harvest, the plant is dug up or picked and taken to be processed.  It is in the season of harvest that all the work, the water, the sunlight, everything that is put into that seed is realized.  The seed undergoes a transformation of breaking from its former shell to become something new during the growth season in which it is tended to.  And the process repeats itself.

We all have seasons in our lives.  Sometimes that growth phase is long and ugly, where we have to weather monsoons and hurricanes that come at us for no apparent reason.  Sometimes we are in the planting phase, where we need to stock up on a much of God's word and promises as we can.  We need to plant the word deep in our hearts so that we can reap its benefits whenever we are under attack.  We must meditate on the Word so that we can produce harvests of spiritual, physical, mental and emotion, and financial prosperity.  We must read the Word every single day so that we can keep that seed of faith alive during periods of dormancy.  But like a perennial plant that keeps coming back, once we sow in God and His Word, it keeps on producing in our lives.  We will continue to reap bountiful harvests as long as God resides in our hearts and we nourish what has taken root within us.

"You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours." Psalm 128:2