God is Good Even When it Isn’t Good

Psalm 34:1-I will bless the Lord at all time his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Prayer and praise are two different things; prayer means to petition, and praise means to glorify. To bless God is to recognize his power, strength, and his graciousness. In our praise we are saying I know who you are God, I know you can, and I know you will.

Last year, November 5, I posted on my Facebook “I stopped saying please God and started saying thank you God. I was practically begging God to change some things in my life. When I moved from begging God to thanking Him, I started to see a shift in my life. Matthew 6 tell us not to worry, that this does not add a single hour onto our life; but this is how I lived, I prayed and then I worried. Now I no longer worry, and I give God the praise, rather it is good or bad.

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The Decision-Ending It All

This blog is a part of a three-part series, it will give the reader an inside look at my journey to home ownership. I am sharing this to help those who battle with trusting God and having faith that He will work it out. Thank you for taking this journey with me and please be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss this!

On Sunday, July 14, 2019, I decided it was time to end my marriage. We have been married almost nine years and the marriage was empty, just two people coexisting. I often hear people say you should stay and work it out but that takes two people; not one person praying it’ll get better and the other carrying on like nothing is happening around them. There are many reasons I could use to justify leaving my marriage but in the end it all came down to one thing…. I needed to choose me. I needed to choose the things I wanted for my life. I needed to choose my happiness and that’s exactly what I did. I chose me.

Get off the Bench

On many occasions I had to comfort my son; after one of his sporting events he would be upset for one reason or another. After all my other advice failed to make him feel better I would tell him you could always just run on the field or run on the court, this would get a laugh out of him. I would ask him who’s going to stop him? He said the coach would take him out, but he was already out so what did he have to lose? Nothing! But he had a lot to gain.

Opportunities work like this; often times we miss opportunities because we are afraid to come off the bench, afraid to try something new or different. In your life you do not need permission to come off the bench and join the game. You have total control of how much playing time you get. Don’t let fear of failing, fear of ridicule, doubt, and uncertainty be the reason why you missed this whole game called life. Whatever it is you have been hoping for, been inquisitive about, or have been wanting to try, go for it, who’s going to stop you?

Faith for the Fire

The Fire

Have you heard or read the story about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? In the book of Daniel chapter 3, a king named Nebuchadnezzar built a gold statute and he ordered everyone to kneel before the statue and worship it. When the music played everyone kneeled with the exception of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. King Nebuchadnezzar was made aware of this by some Babylonian fortunetellers, who saw this in a vision.

A New Day

Today is a different day. Not the same as yesterday, or the day before. This means it doesn’t have a history yet, it hasn’t been created. Today is a day where you can start doing something that you have always wanted to do. You can forgive someone for what they did to you ten years ago. You can create new habits. You can breathe easily knowing that the troubles of yesterday are no more.

Use this day to create a new day, a day to do something that is going to make your tomorrow better. Monday (last week), I had a hard day, Tuesday I woke up and decided, that day wouldn’t be like yesterday (Monday). I decided to let the feelings subside and move on with what was in front of me. Many times, we have a bad day or a bad experience and we let it linger from day to day to day; never really experiencing a new day because we are still carrying the burdens of yesterday, so it’s really just a different day. I’ve been there, one day you look up and a whole year has gone by and you’re still in a funk about something you can’t even change.

As people we have to get in the habit of letting things go and understanding what will be, will be. We have to get in the habit of unloading some of our baggage. Your kid was disrespectful and acted a complete fool in the store, don’t let that carry over into tomorrow. A customer was rude, let it go. Things didn’t go as planned, oh well, plans change. It is important to not let experiences get in and take residence; learn to move on from them. Learn to experience new days.

Not every experience is going to come with closure, not every experience is going to lead to understanding, not every experience is going to make it easier to forgive, but with each experience you can learn and you can grow from it. Wake up each day with the attitude that today is a new day, what happened yesterday will not control my today.

Wake up knowing that you are blessed, you have been granted new mercies. Wake up knowing that your future is bright and that the only thing that can stop you from reaching you goals is you. Yesterday is out of your control but today, this new day, is yours to master!

• Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, -Phil 3:13-
• The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. -Lamentations 3:22-23-