Tag: Devotion

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To Christ It Was Only A Nap

keeshonpatrick

Dear God, I want to thank you for putting this verse in my heart and mind. God please give me the words, so that this devotion will be a blessing. From this, may you get all the glory. Let’s remind people that to you, It Was Only A Nap! Amen

When you put into context the moments before these three scriptures, you will understand that this is a very different moment for Christ. Many of His miracles, were done for strangers and people that He had met along His journey of fulfilling His purpose. In this particular moment, the person who needed a miracle was one of His closest companions, Lazarus. Lazarus, was the brother of Mary and Martha, yes the same Mary that Christ showed himself to first once he had risen (that’s a sermon in itself). Christ was forced to come to the realization that his best friend was fatally sick, and the only way he would get better was through him.

What makes Christ, Christ?

In this moment, he knew and understood his power. He knew that He could heal Lazarus, while he was alive; Lazarus’ sickness would then cease. But what makes Christ, Christ is that he understood the opportunity of this moment. He knew that the timing of this miracle would be the key to how the story unfolded. And how the story unfolded, would then be the key to the glory that His father would receive. He knew that it was not enough for people to see Him heal the sick, but He needed people to see Him raise the dead. He knew that if they believed in Him, then they would believe in the Father.

This is what Christ is in our lives; The Bridge. He is our connection to God, which is why it is so vital to believe in Him. As my grandfather would say, let me give you some foundational truths. God is not one being. So when you read, John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. There is more than one person in this verse. God is three persons, the Holy Trinity to be exact. The greatest relationship to have ever existed, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. You cannot believe in one without the other. In fact, once you know this, scriptures even read differently. Trust me I had to reread the entire John, because of this very reason. What I came to understand from this, is why Christ seemed so eager to win souls. He knew that He was the bridge (the way) to the Father. He knew that if you believed and loved Him, then you believed and loved the Father and also the Holy Spirit. He also knew if you believed and loved Him, then the Father and the Holy Spirit would love you too. Christ was that conscience of His purpose, and He is that important to our faith. (John 3:16-17)

Now this leads us back to the verses for today. Christ, waited 4 days before going to see about his best friend, Lazarus. Once again a very intentional move by the God we serve. This was a moment for His disciples to see His true power. Lazarus was dead, but to Christ It Was Only A Nap.

How many of us need a brother like that? Someone that can bring back to life, the things that you thought were dead. Someone who cares enough about you; that they go into a place that they are unwanted just to meet your problem. That’s the God, we serve.

Now let’s really touch everyone’s situation. See many of us are needing Christ to bring our joy back to life, to bring our relationships back to life, our finances back to life, our faith back to life, and for some of us we just need ourselves to be brought back to life.

If that did not fit your situation, then you fill it in, “I need God to bring my _______ back to life.”

You know the saying, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired!” Guess what? There is GREAT NEWS… He sees your struggles and you are not alone. He sees the things that you are needing Him for, and He knows that only He can do it… BUT!

Can you be patient? Are you okay with him waiting, until he can get the largest amount of glory out of your struggle? I know that we want our thorn removed, but so did Paul. I know we feel like we cannot make it unless he brings our finances back to life, but just try to keep the faith. He is working it out so that he can get all the glory. Do you know what that means for you? Well, let’s just say that when God is getting the glory, then something great must have happen for you. Something life changing must have occurred. For example, CoVid-19 was supposed to kill the things I wanted to do in 2020, but somehow it brought me new life (This Blog). Remember, what we think is dead… To Christ It Is Only A Nap!

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Go To Sermons: Part II: Fading Faith (Crazy Faith Part 19)

keeshonpatrick
“It’s Only Crazy, UNTIL IT HAPPENS.”

Before I get going, I pray that he allows my words to be plain, and easily understandable in hopes to bless your life. I hope that if you are struggling with faith or any doubts, that this will feed your spirit. Each word typed is not me, but the God within me. May he get all the glory. Now, let’s get rid of that Fading Faith.

Let’s start here: What is Faith?

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see.”

Faith is CONFIDENCE in Christ.

There is a certain walk a person has when they are walking with confidence. Most of the time it’s; chin up, chest high, and an exuberance that is unshakable. Most of us build our confidence on positivity. Things like a raise at your job, a compliment, or getting a good grade. Only if the feelings from these things could last forever, BUT let’s be real.

The truth is, many of us are not as confident and in return, we lack faith. Now, I am not saying that you have to be confident in yourself, in order to have faith in Christ; actually I am saying the opposite. If you have faith in Christ, then there is no reason why you should not have faith in yourself. His grace alone is sufficient enough, for you to believe that he will never leave you, nor forsake you. To make it plain, because of his grace God will not give up on you. If you know that you serve a God like that, why is it so easy to lose faith?

Maybe it’s because our expectations of what Christ should be doing, does not match His will. Let’s break that sentence down by using everyone’s FAVORITE verse, Romans 8:28. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Now here is the reality pill of this verse, number one “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him.” Pastor Mike poses the question, “What happens when the thing that you were believing in him for does not happen?” This made me think of a few questions of my own. Do we actually love him or do we love what he does for us? Do we love him when we are going through our valley? Why am I asking these questions? Well, mainly because we think that we love him all the time, but when we are honest, we will probably notice, that the only time we truly love him is when everything is going well in our lives. That’s when we have the most confidence (faith) in Christ, when he is answering every prayer or raining down every blessing we asked for. That is when many of our faith is the strongest. It does not take faith to believe that everything that is good is God, but it does take faith to believe that He’s using the bad things to fulfill our purpose, just as much as the good things.

Reality pill number two, “who have been called according to His purpose.” You know the things you want for yourselves, but he knows the things that you NEED. So, if you do not have something that you want, that may not mean that he is punishing you. It might mean is that it does not fit into the Will of God! So, maybe instead of holding it against God, thank him for saving you from something that you may not be ready for. Stop losing faith in God, for not having something that is supposed to be in the next chapter of your life. Little do we know, if we stop writing our book at our disappointments (at our moments of Fading Faith), then we will never allow ourselves the opportunity to write our testimonies.

Now that we have defined faith, let’s talk about the cure to Fading Faith!

In this video, from 43:00-1:16:00, you get to see Transformation Church, giving to different charities, churches, communities, families and staff members. When I watched this for the first time, my faith was not low or fading. My faith was actually in a decent place, yet within these moments I felt something brewing inside of me. Something that I had never felt at that capacity before. Something that instantly felt contagious.

SEEING OTHER PEOPLE GET BLESSED, WAS BLESSING ME.

It was at this moment that I realized the cure to fading faith. The cure is when you can get just as excited for the blessing that you witness other people receive, as you can get for the blessings that you receive. I begin to shed tears, watching these lives get changed and watching these people receiving blessings that they could have only obtained by having Crazy Faith. But I begin to bawl, when I realized that if God can bless them, then he can also do the same for me.

“It’s only crazy, until it happens.”

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Give Yourself Time

keeshonpatrick

First thing I want to do is thank God for putting these thoughts in my head. I pray that he anoints each word, so that they will be a blessing to your life. A feeling that has been on my heart lately, is feeling like I’m running out of time. I am 23 years old and I feel like I don’t have enough time… I can’t wait to laugh about that with 33 & 43 year old me.

I’ve had questions and I needed answers but luckily I have THE TEACHER OF ALL TEACHERS. He put in front of me a set of verses, reminding me that there is a time for everything that we are going through. These 8 verses touch nearly everything that we can face as a human. Each of these verses are inevitable as we live. The beauty of it is that if you believe in God, then you believe that he already knows the things we are going to deal with. Therefore, we can trust and believe that He has already created the healing, the blessing, the person, and the strength to help you not only manage these things, but get through them as well.

How did we get so lucky to serve a God, that loves us this much? Right now in this moment he is mending together what we will need for the next season of our lives and we don’t even realize it. Our God is intentional. There is a reason for every good or bad thing that He allows. It is not up to us to figure out that reasoning, but it is on us to believe that it is all for our good.

When you get a chance today, write down a few things that you wish you had more time to do, and then a few things you feel that you spend too much time doing. See if there is anyway you can substitute those activities for each other, without dramatically interrupting your flow. Remember the goal is progression, not perfection.