Category: Devotions

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Daily Devotion

Be Careful What You Ask For
 
"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."  Mark 11:24
 
I just wrote something that really made me think.  I said–quoting myself haha–"I now realize if you beg God for something hard enough, He will give it to you but sometimes things are much harder and teach you those critical lessons."  I expand that to say, sometimes we ask for stuff we weren't meant to have, because we really think we need them and God fulfills His promise to provide our needs.
 
I do not believe I was supposed to come back to Charleston–but because we have the free will to choose, and mouths to pray, we sometimes get things that God will work out for our good. (Romans 8:28)  See, I have gone through a great deal of difficulties–COUNTLESS attacks against my health, my body, my spirit, my mind, and my faith.  Now that goes without saying that had I gone to California instead, I would not have undergone some great challenges there to get me to this same central point–going about life His way, walking in His will, yielding to His voice.  Because we are told in my verse–one of my favorites :D, that God will work together all things for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.  I believe that if I had chosen Tampa, New Orleans, Norfolk, Timbuktu, or San Diego–my original destination, that God would have made me see it His way regardless.  But I say be careful what you ask for because in all of this, I have asked for  Patience, Strength, Endurance, Favor, Guidance, Direction, Wisdom and His Love among other things.  To get Patience, I have had to wait for a job to come through so that I can move away and I had to realize, truly realize God's purpose for me here, and in life, in the process.  For Strength and Endurance I have had to have strength for everyone else, including myself through illness, pain, heartache, and death, and I have had to endure less than favorable circumstances at work and in other situations to realize that God can carry it all.(1 Peter 5:7)  For running my big mouth some more lol and asking for Guidance and Direction, I had to obey when no one else's advice made sense, when no one could help me, and the only voice that was clear was His.  For Wisdom!!!  I can't even EXPLAIN!  Because sometimes I don't know where these devotions come from!  Somebody could say something, just one thing and I write.  I may say one thing and I write.  And praying for God's love—and this is ongoing—to love yourself when you never knew how, to love others when you didn't love yourself….
 
"But you, man of God, must flee from all these things. Instead, you must pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness."  1 Timothy 6:11
 
Be careful what you ask for!  Because God does hold true to His promises!  Good night!
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Daily Devotion #2

The Problem with Egos

Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

I love Beyonce’s “Ego”. But just in reflection of some recent happenings, it just made me realize how much I can’t stand arrogant and selfish people! You know that person who always has something to say and thinks that everybody wants to hear what they have to say. The person who believes that their way is the right way and refuses to see it anyone else’s way—yep, that’s who I’m talking about. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with having a unique opinion about something, just don’t force it on me. I also just realized that this is something I have been guilty of in the past; now, I give you my opinion and you can do whatever you wish with it—I’ll listen to yours too, no matter how wrong I think it may be, lol. 😀

The problem with having an ego problem is that it really is only misguided and foolish pride, selfishness, and arrogance. The saying “Too much of anything is bad” has never been wrong. Too much pride leaves you looking, excuse my bluntness, stupid. Okay, there is nothing wrong with being CONFIDENT in your abilities; there is a difference. Self-assured versus overbearing sense of self-importance or superiority to others—definitely different. I think it must hurt more for arrogant and prideful people to fall; I imagine that fall is a lot higher and harder than for a humble person.

Many scriptures speak against arrogance, selfishness, and pride (by the way, all are synonyms of egotistical). For example Hannah prayed in 1 Samuel 2:3, “Stop acting so proud and haughty! Don’t speak with such arrogance! For the LORD is a God who knows what you have done; he will judge your actions.” In James 4:16 bragging and arrogance are considered evil. I don’t know why this was on my mind, but if you suffer from what I like to call ‘smellingyourownfunkitis’, I suggest you take these pills every day until you recover or else you will get hit with a case of ‘gettingknockedbacktoreality’ by life.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 11:2