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It Happens In The Valley.

Dear God, thank You for another opportunity to grow Your Kingdom. I never take these opportunities for granted. Today, I want to remind people that the evil in the valley does not win. God, I personally want to thank You. You keep showing yourself in my life. Allow me to be what those around me need in order to see Your light. You are God from beginning to the end, the Alpha and Omega. This will always be for Your glory. Forgive me for my sins. In Your mighty name, Amen.

“It Happens In the Valley”

What is the cause of your valley? Is it the test you failed, losing your job, spouse, or maybe even a close friend or relative? Is it the circumstances that you were born into? How many of us know that sometimes it is not even our fault that we are in the valley? The reality is: it is much easier to feel like you are in the valley, than it is to feel like you are on the mountain top. The fall feels much faster than the climb. Think about the buildup of the big drop on a roller coaster. It takes minutes to build up the suspense for a five second drop. Maybe you have never rode a rollercoaster. Think about the fear that an upcoming situation may have caused you. You were nervous for 72 hours about a 30-minute event.

The beautiful thing about this verse and about those moments that you find yourself in the valley, is that YOU ARE REASSURED THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Fear is human nature, but to remain in fear is a choice. To remain in fear, is to choose to believe that we cannot handle something more than we believe that God can do all things. Sometimes we remain in our valley simply, because we settle. The valley is not meant to be the destination. In fact, many times the valley feels like stagnation, but I believe that God uses the valley as preparation. You are not waiting, you are loading.

Sometimes it takes being in those low places, to truly appreciate that moment you reach the mountain top. You have to understand that in your valley, God, is there with you. In the moments, that you feel the darkness trying to pull you, lean on him. In the moment that the valley wants to steal your joy, lean on him. You can’t start a verse with “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” without having supreme confidence in the God that you serve. Even though I am sad, even though it looks bad, even though I have been here before… Lord, you are still with me. Say this aloud: I know that with You, I can make it through the valley. I know that with You, I am being built up within the valley. I know that the devil thinks that the valley is supposed to kill me, but I have you Lord, to comfort me.

In fact, if you are able to read this blog then I know you have been through a valley. Guess what? You are still here, and you are still being protected. Maybe you are in a valley as you read this, and you are unsure how God will help you through this one. At this moment, I want you to try something that will take courage. Give it to Him. Put your faith to the test. If you do not know how, first just allow Him in. Allow God to be a part of those dark times, just like you shout Him out when you are winning. Let Him really have control and watch how He reassures you. Empty your hands and watch how He refills them with what you really need.

Many times, the valley is made to walk through, not run, not skip, but walk. It’s when you move too fast, that you miss everything that God, wanted to do. You move so fast that you start to lean on your own understanding. Society makes us feel that we are behind the curve. It feels like you should be in a hurry or we need to catch up. What happens when we start moving too fast is that we take our immature mentality, into a place that is meant for a mature mentality. The valley is made to cultivate those areas that we need to grow, so that when we reach the mountain, we are equipped with everything we need to make it to the top. It does not happen after the valley, IT HAPPENS IN THE VALLEY!

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this blog. It means more to me than anything, to know that I was able to share the Word of God with you. It would greatly be appreciated if you would share something from this blog that resonated with you. Share it to someone, to your social media, share it anywhere that you see fit. Make sure that when you share it, you let them know that: It Happens In The Valley.

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Different…But Still For His Glory. | Let’s Talk About It (Part 1)

Written on 02/03/2021 – Happy Birthday Ma, I love you.

Dear God, thank you for using all things. Forgive us for all of our sins. For your glory, forever and ever. Amen.

It has been a minute since I have written a blog. I have missed you all dearly, but I was in a season that I needed to focus on growing in Him. “The worst place you can find yourself is doing all these things for God, but not with Him (Jonathan McReynolds).” I was doing things for Him, because of Him… but I would forget to pray. When things got tough, I would try to handle things like I did before I accepted Him into my life.

These last few months I have really been focusing on building with Christ and making room for Him to be in every aspect of my life. It’s the months before then, that I really need to talk about.

Let’s Talk About It – The Initial Reason for My Disapperence

See I battled with a guilt that showed how wrongly I depicted God. I felt unworthy of writing, of sharing my God-given talent, so I just stopped. I felt like I had let God down and the feeling made me think that I could no longer be used by God. Get this though, I felt this feeling even after I repented. This is when I knew that my perspective of God was a little off. I took the God of grace and mercy that I wrote so strongly about, and turned Him into this God of revenge and harsh judgement. I had forgotten how gracious the God we serve was, is, and will be.

I fell into this darkness where I began to run from my gift. I had repented, yet I felt like there was no way that I could still be used. So I would read the Bible, but instead of having my notepad out… I just read it to “comprehend.” I knew the truth, I knew that I was going out of my way to not receive His insight (to not get anything out of it). I knew this because as closed as I thought my heart was… He would still give me messages. As much as I thought He disliked me, He would still give me thoughts to share with my close circle. He was showing me that, He still saw purpose.

Yet, I could feel myself running away from Him, but God is so good that he planted reminders of His love all around me. I would go to work and they would ask where is your blog. I would go on Facebook and people would ask when was the next blog coming. I would talk to family and they were waiting to see how God would use me next. I explained how I felt to a few of them. They told me, “You are showing that you do not trust God to forgive you. Keeshon you have repented and He has forgiven you. Your problem is not with Him, it’s with yourself.”

This whole experience was meant to take me away from God. It was supposed to turn my gift back into only being a talent. The devil thought he could steal my joy. The devil thought that he could ruin my eternity, but instead it pushed me closer. It made me fall in love with myself again, but not because of who I am. I fell in love with myself, because of how much I realized that God loved me. So in my bad moments, on my worst day… I know that I am still enough. It showed me three things.

  1. God forgives and I mean He will forgive you, even when you have not forgiven yourself.
  2. The devil does not run away from you, you run away from the devil.
  3. GOD NEVER LEAVES!

The last one is my testimony as I am able to write a different type of blog, but one that is still for His glory. Today, I plead with those who are going through a season of satan trying to invalidate you. He cannot win. You see as you run away from satan, you will not even have to run far. You will truly be able to see just how close God is. You turn around to run from satan and fall right into God’s arm. I plead with those that are struggling to forgvie themselves, to understand that His grace is truly sufficient. He loves all of you, the good things and the bad things. He is the God of the mountain and the God of the valley. Remember, He uses all things.

Today, some of these words may have resonnated with you. You are tired of fighting against yourself. You felt a shift in your thoughts, in your heart and you are open to trying Jesus. Now after you let him in, do not get this misunderstood… you will still go through things and life may not always make sense. The one thing I can promise you is that you will never be alone. You will be connected to a source that never runs out of Grace and Mercy. If this is for you.

Say this aloud:

Dear Father,

I now believe that Jesus Christ is Your only begotten Son, that He came down to our earth in the flesh and died on the cross to take away all of my sins and the sins of this world. I believe that Jesus Christ then rose from the dead on the third day to give all of us eternal life.

Lord Jesus,

I now confess to You all of the wrong and sinful things that I have ever done in my life. I ask that You please forgive me and wash away all of my sins by the blood that You have personally shed for me on the cross. I am now ready to accept You as my personal Lord and Savior. I now ask that You come into my life and live with me for all of eternity.

Father, Jesus – I now believe that I am truly saved and born again.

Thank You Father.
Thank You Jesus.

Maybe you had a relationship with God, but life happened. The devil tried to take you away from your relationship with God.

Say this aloud:

“Father, I come to You in the Name of Jesus Christ.  I confess that I have fallen away from You.  I confess that I have sinned against You by backsliding away from You, Your ways and Your Word.  Like the prodigal son, Lord, I humbly ask for Your forgiveness for the evil I have done.  I repent and turn away from this evil life that I have lived.  I miss You so much!

I now recommit my life to You, Lord Jesus.  I just want to come home.  I want You to be the Lord of my life now and forever more.  Please forgive me for wandering and walking away from You.  I’m so sorry that I have hurt You.  I ask that my sins be washed away by Your Precious Blood.  I thank You for the price You paid so that I can be cleansed from all my sins!

Lord, fill me once again with Your Holy Spirit that I might live unto righteousness with You.  Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me O Lord.  I choose on this day, a new life.  As for me and my house, I choose to serve the Lord!

Thank You, Father, for restoring me into fellowship with You.  Thank You for the Blood of Jesus that has cleansed me.  Thank You that, like Peter, I am restored to fellowship with You, and I ask Lord, that we would continue our walk again.  Flow through me to advance the Kingdom every day of my life.  I ask all these things in the Name of Jesus.  Amen and Amen!”

If you said either of these aloud and you believed it in your heart. I would love to personally congratulate you and welcome you to the family. He led you to this post for a reason. He used it to open your heart and ease your burden. Never forget that He loves you and has plans for you, that you have not even planned for yourself. Let Him use you. Yield yourself, so that He can show you the plans He has for you. All it takes it just a little trust, in Matthew 17:20 the Bible says,  “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Thank you God, you never left me and I know you never will.

HERE IS MY ANTHEM OF 2021.

(Shoutout to my uncle Jeremiah for putting me onto this song and really making sure that I stay connected with God through worship, songwritting, and reading my Bible. God is using you unc… cannot wait to see what 2021 has in store for you.)

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What If It’s Not As Bad As You Think?

Dear God, I come today to you asking to be used a vessel for both change and hope. God every day is another chance to be a better version of myself. I am just grateful to be used. God keep putting me in places that I can help others. Keep allowing me to see that, I am right where I need to be. Thank you for everything from the past to the future. For your glory, Amen.

In a time like this where every part of life feels like a storm, God is still in the midst working it out for our good. In fact, I come today with a question, What If It’s Not As Bad As You Think?

Let’s dive into this verse, 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.” How many of us are in a situation, that has made you give up all hope? Your current situation makes you think that there is no way God is still there. There is no way He is allowing me to go through this. You find yourself under what feels like your own dark cloud. It seems to be following every move that you make. It messes up your plans, your relationships, and even your appetite. This is for those people who have been through and seen some dark days. What would you do, if you found yourself in what feels like an everlasting storm? Would you lose faith?

Imagine, yourself in grade school. You are taking your exam and you come across a question that does not make sense. You read it multiple times to make sure your brain is not deceiving you. Then you muster up the courage to raise your hand to get the teachers attention. Only for the teacher to whisper to you, that this is a part of the test that she cannot directly help you with. Yet, she lets you know that; “1)If you do not find the answer for this question, come back to it later. 2)You may want to reread the passage to look for context clues, and 3) If you miss this one question, you will not fail the test, don’t worry about it too much.”

Like the teacher, in verse 21-22, Paul comes through with some advice that probably changed their perspective of the storm that they were going through. 21 After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Are you hardheaded too? I would have been right there in the boat feeling like God gave up on me. Deep down I would have known that I was actually there, because I chose not to listen. Seriously, there are some test we are taking and storms we are in, simply because we are not where we are supposed to be. Stop being so quick to blame God and think about what you did to end up there. Through self-evaluation you may be happy to find out that even when you are not where you should be, you are covered by His grace and mercy.

It Is Not As Bad As You Think! In fact, it had to happen, because you needed to see His powerful hand over your life. If you never went through the storm, you would have never known that no matter what He allows to happen around you… He won’t let you be destroyed! Even as you are lacking faith in Him, He still has your back. This is a message for those that need to know, you will not be lost! The coronavirus can’t destroy you; the government can’t destroy you; society can’t destroy you; bad relationships can’t destroy you… because we serve a God that can do exceedingly and abundantly more than all we ask for! You may have suffered some loss and your ship may be damaged, but if you are still breathing there is purpose for your life!

If you can find a better verse to sum up 2020, let me know. I truly believe that, God put this in front of me, because there is this lesson that we get from living through our storms. They may break the things around us, but they still have a way of making us stronger. Each storm prepares you for the next one to come. The storm may wreck your home, relationships, but it will not destroy you nor your spirit.

If you have been dealing with a storm, if you have been dealing with a test and it feels like your ship is about to sink, can I offer you a chance to use the ultimate float, the ultimate life saver, Jesus Christ!

Say this aloud:

Dear Father,

I now believe that Jesus Christ is Your only begotten Son, that He came down to our earth in the flesh and died on the cross to take away all of my sins and the sins of this world. I believe that Jesus Christ then rose from the dead on the third day to give all of us eternal life.

Lord Jesus,

I now confess to You all of the wrong and sinful things that I have ever done in my life. I ask that You please forgive me and wash away all of my sins by the blood that You have personally shed for me on the cross. I am now ready to accept You as my personal Lord and Savior. I now ask that You come into my life and live with me for all of eternity.

Father, Jesus – I now believe that I am truly saved and born again.

Thank You Father.
Thank You Jesus.

Maybe you had a relationship with God, but life happened. The storm damaged your ship and you can feel yourself floating away from your relationship with God.

Say this aloud:

“Father, I come to You in the Name of Jesus Christ.  I confess that I have fallen away from You.  I confess that I have sinned against You by backsliding away from You, Your ways and Your Word.  Like the prodigal son, Lord, I humbly ask for Your forgiveness for the evil I have done.  I repent and turn away from this evil life that I have lived.  I miss You so much!

I now recommit my life to You, Lord Jesus.  I just want to come home.  I want You to be the Lord of my life now and forever more.  Please forgive me for wandering and walking away from You.  I’m so sorry that I have hurt You.  I ask that my sins be washed away by Your Precious Blood.  I thank You for the price You paid so that I can be cleansed from all my sins!

Lord, fill me once again with Your Holy Spirit that I might live unto righteousness with You.  Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me O Lord.  I choose on this day, a new life.  As for me and my house, I choose to serve the Lord!

Thank You, Father, for restoring me into fellowship with You.  Thank You for the Blood of Jesus that has cleansed me.  Thank You that, like Peter, I am restored to fellowship with You, and I ask Lord, that we would continue our walk again.  Flow through me to advance the Kingdom every day of my life.  I ask all these things in the Name of Jesus.  Amen and Amen!”

If you said either of these aloud and you believed it in your heart. I would love to personally congratulate you and welcome you the family. He led you to this post for a reason. He used it to open your heart and ease your burden. Never forget that He loves you and has plans for you, that you have not even planned for yourself. Let Him use you. Yield yourself, so that He can show you the plans He has for you. All it takes it just a little trust, in Matthew 17:20 the Bible says,  “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

 If you can think of anyone who could use this, send it to them and ask them, “What If It’s Not As Bad As You Think?

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In Whom Do You Put Your Trust In?

Lord, before I begin to put words on this page, please open my mind to see Your word in ways that have never been seen before. Allow these words to be the reassurance that people are needing in this moment. Allow these words to touch hearts and win souls to grow Your Kingdom. Have Your way Lord, in my life, in my writings. Have Your way in me so that it will spread it, to those who I interact with. For your glory, Amen.

Right now, we may find ourselves in situations that have caused us to lose faith in God. Situations that have made us put our faith in other places such as; the government, social media interactions, or people that make you feel better, but none of these thing will ever be able to completely aid your problems. When looking into this verse and looking at the moment we find ourselves in; I have one question:

In Whom Do You Put Your Trust?

Now I ask this question, not to receive the expected, “God of course” answer. I want you to be honest with yourself. When you are experiencing your highest moments, who do you put your trust in? When you are experiencing your lowest moments, who do you put your trust in? (Give yourself a minute to think about it!)

WRITE IT DOWN!

For me, I try my best to always put my trust in God, regardless of the situation. I came to the realization that God is the filler of my hope. God is the supplier of my joy and peace, without Him there are things that I cannot handle on my own. Yet, if I am going to be real with you and myself, I have moments where I am extremely weak. I have moments where I doubt myself, which is dangerous. When you doubt yourself, you are doubting the power of God. When you doubt yourself, then you do not give him the credit that he deserves in being God and you under mind the Holy Spirit.

Let’s break down the first part of this verse, 13May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him,” So as you trust in God in whom gives you hope, He will fill you with joy and peace. How many of you are thinking “if that is all I have to do… sign me up.”? See it is not meant to be hard, but the enemy comes in and tries to rob us from our joy and peace. Right now I can think of a million reasons why I should not be happy. I looked to the left of me and there lied three mask. I look on the news and the government told me that I am worth $1200. I go into my favorite store, Target and there are 6ft stickers telling people where to stand. I cannot go see my grandma at her nursing home. Did I mention that schools are reopening, even though the thing that made it dangerous to be there last semester has gotten worse? If I did not have my faith… I would probably be the most pessimistic person you know. Yet not only am I calm, but I am trusting in God with my life, my peace, my joy, my hope and He has not let me down yet… and I have a feeling He never will.

As I trust in Him, as I lean on Him, He fills me up. God gave me a counter move for every move that the enemy tried to use to take my hope. We have to be careful, because where we put our trust, our heart follows. Stop putting your heart in danger, by putting your trust into things that are not sufficient enough to support it. See God wants to give you your joy and peace back, so that you have enough for it to overflow.

Don’t believe me? Let’s finish the verse. 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The beauty about some hope overflowing is that, when it overflows from you it will get onto those around you. This is the order: Emptiness, Trust, Refill, Overflow, Blessed To Be A Blessing. You most likely do not want to be filled, unless you think you are lacking something. Hopefully from that lack, you run back to your source, actually the one and only source: God. Then when you go back to the source, He refills you. See because of the mercy the that He gives us, you will even have enough to be able to be a blessing to others. You will start to realize that this whole time He was blessing you to be a blessing. The reason that this is not a cycle is because when He gives us hope once… it is sufficient enough to last for the rest of our lives, but sometimes we just have to find it again. “All that we have is all that we need,” shoutout to #TCNation.

Need a visual that will last forever for what it may look like to be blessed to be a blessing:

Gross, right? Yet that may be how it looks when He has given you enough hope, that people are able to get hope just by being connected to you. I know you have that person that regardless of how you are feeling, if you see them your day just brightens up. Maybe the next time you see them, you should ask them in whom do you put your trust in?

It may even be time to ask yourself, “In whom do you put your trust?” Do you trust in others to be able to give you the courage to be honest and transparent in order to heal? Do you trust in me, in order to be able to restore your joy and peace? I pray that you do not put your trust in any of these things. “Try God, please don’t try me. Try Jesus, please don’t try me”

Again I feel led to try and build the Kingdom of God. So if this is your first time or your 101st time. Say this aloud:

Dear Father,

I now believe that Jesus Christ is Your only begotten Son, that He came down to our earth in the flesh and died on the cross to take away all of my sins and the sins of this world. I believe that Jesus Christ then rose from the dead on the third day to give all of us eternal life.

Lord Jesus,

I now confess to You all of the wrong and sinful things that I have ever done in my life. I ask that You please forgive me and wash away all of my sins by the blood that You have personally shed for me on the cross. I am now ready to accept You as my personal Lord and Savior. I now ask that You come into my life and live with me for all of eternity.

Father, Jesus – I now believe that I am truly saved and born again.

Thank You Father.
Thank You Jesus.

If you said this aloud and believed it in your heart. I would love to personally congratulate you and welcome you the family. He led you to this post for a reason. He used it to open your heart and ease your burden. Never forget that He loves you and has plans for you, that you have not even planned for yourself. Let Him use you. Yield yourself, so that He can show you the plans He has for you. All it takes it just a little trust, in Matthew 17:20 the Bible says,  “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

If you feel that this post can help anyone, send it to them and ask them, “In Whom Do You Put Your Trust?”

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God Laughed.

Hello Father, thank You for giving me another opportunity to share Your word. Use me God to do Your will. You are a way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My faith lies in knowing that regardless of what I think I want, You will always provide me with what I need. This is an opportunity to ease the burden of those who have put themselves on society’s timeline. For Your glory, amen.

Have you ever heard the saying, “When we make plans, God laughs.”? This is dedicated to that quote. The reason why it is funny, is because everything we do has already been written. No matter how many ideas come to mind, you can live with the belief that where you are, is exactly where you are supposed to be.

During our life many of us write a will or have written down a timeline of when we expect to accomplish certain things in life. Some of those timelines, may look a little depressing if you look at them now. It is okay, because remember: Where you are, is exactly where you are supposed to be. A plan without God is just an idea, it’s just a thought. If it does not align with His will then, it does not matter why or when you want it to be done. It will NOT HAPPEN! Remember: There is nothing that surprises God, meaning that if it is happening… IT IS NOT A SURPRISE and if it is not happening… THEN IT IS NOT A SURPRISE.

How many of us can be just as glad for what he did not allow, as we can be for what he did allow? I ask this question, because growing up everyone told me a certain timeline my life should abide by. It actually felt like you were a disappointment if you broke that timeline in anyway. To society; kid before the marriage, disappointment, didn’t graduate in four years, disappointment, didn’t go to college at 18, disappointment, not married by 30, disappointment… BUT GOD LAUGHED.

What you realize is God purpose for your life will prevail, whether you are 10, 16, 25, 60, 99, or even 120. If God wants your life to be used for a specific reason, it will be used. Look at Abraham and Sarah, “old and dusty” to society, but God made a promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nation’s and it had to be fulfilled. Look at David, the youngest son of Jesse, but still chosen to be the king. Why? Because God judges the heart. Society may judge what you have, but God wants to know who you are. Society may judge the physical, but God works through the spiritual. So, if you are not the tallest, if you are not the most chiseled person, it will not take away from the purpose that God has for your life. If it is through him then it will always prevail.

This is so important to understand, because right now you are stressing and stretching yourself. You are doing things that you do not even like to do, just to fit in with society’s ideas (even me). Stop forcing it. Just try giving those things to God and watch how your life begins to flow. God has been laughing at my plans for 23 years. He is not dissing me, but he knows the plans he has for me. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) After reading that verse, ask yourself … what am I doing that is harming my life? The harm may not be physical it could be mental. The harm may not be mental, it could be spiritual. If it is harming you, it cannot be God. Even if you heart is desiring it, if that desire is harming you in anyway it is not God. God does not tempt us with evil. (James 1:13) Stop making excuse to keep doing those things, that you are doing literally to only please others and give it to God. He wants to see you prosper, He wants to give you hope and a future… He wants His purpose to prevail in your life. But He cannot do it without your permission.

He wants to make provisions that will surpass all of the desires of your heart. He wants to give you exactly what you need, when you need it. Right now, I feel this conviction to give some people who are tired of doing things on their own a chance to truly give it to God. This is a chance to give Him the most important thing, your heart.

So if this is your first time or your 100th, Read this aloud:

Dear Father,

I now believe that Jesus Christ is Your only begotten Son, that He came down to our earth in the flesh and died on the cross to take away all of my sins and the sins of this world. I believe that Jesus Christ then rose from the dead on the third day to give all of us eternal life.

Lord Jesus,

I now confess to You all of the wrong and sinful things that I have ever done in my life. I ask that You please forgive me and wash away all of my sins by the blood that You have personally shed for me on the cross. I am now ready to accept You as my personal Lord and Savior. I now ask that You come into my life and live with me for all of eternity.

Father, Jesus – I now believe that I am truly saved and born again.

Thank You Father.
Thank You Jesus.

If you said this aloud and believed it in your heart. I would love to personally congratulate you. He led you to this post for a reason. He used it to open your heart and ease your burden. Never forget that He loves you and has plans for you, that you have not even planned for yourself. Let Him use you. Yield yourself, so that He can show you the plans He has for you.

If you feel that this post can help anyone, send it to them and ask them, “Can you hear God Laughing?”