Last week I posted a blog entitled “Sometimes We Have To Be Reminded” which talked about the importance of praise no matter what we are going through. As a result the daily devotions this week were all focused on giving us ammo for our praise. (check them out daily devotions!) My whole intention was to provide any reader with just one reason to praise even if they felt like there were none. So I thought, 

It was soooooo hard for me to praise God and even do the things I love to do this week no lie! I was good until the moment I pressed send on the blog post at midnight last Sunday. I was already super exhausted after making sure I had a couple of my projects done on time and ready for release, one of these being Let Him Lead which, is available for download right now! Download Now!!!  so when I plopped down in bed I didn’t think too much about the minimal attention I gave to God in our devotion time that night. Bet if I would have taken the time I would have been a little bit more aware of what I was about to come up against.

Sunday while getting ready for church I was doing fine until I realized I would be late. It was a steady struggle from that point on. I ran into my Pastor in the parking lot, he was in such a good mood and praise-filled it automatically let me know that I was NOT lol…I literally had to force myself into praise mode and force myself to remain there. Once I was in, I was in but when I was out it took that same fight to get back there. All this and the only thing that happened was me being late…not exactly a storm! This was just the beginning of a week of fighting for my peace, strength, joy, and ability to praise.

While I hope last weeks daily devotions were helpful for you, they were surefire reminders for me that 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6)

If we are striving to be anything like David when it comes to praise, we should technically be praising God continuously and at all times (Psalm 34). That means no matter what! The good, the bad, and the ugly! This is totally a goal of mine.

Some days the weight of our circumstances, thoughts, and what’s going on in the world can stifle our praise. Times are hard for everyone and not everyone is able to deal with what they are facing. Because of that, there are some people who find it difficult to find reasons to praise. Neglecting to praise in hard times dupes us out of the benefits of praise. No matter what we go through YET shall we praise! (Psalms 71:14; 43:5; 42:11) Praise is a ministry tool, a weapon of spiritual mass destruction, and a method of encouraging the one who is downcast in spirit.

Just the other day I was working on a project and got extremely overwhelmed and exhausted. Because I had just been studying how important our thoughts are and how they can drive us down to pits of despair, I quickly noticed where my negative thoughts were leading me. I had to force myself to praise. The easiest way for me is by turning on music. I made sure to sing a long so that praise was coming from my own lips. (So obviously I didn’t turn it to Nicki Minaj or Nipsey Hussle radio). When the first song went off so did my praise type thoughts! I was straight back to feeling anxious and overwhelmed. When the next song was about 30seconds in I realized what happened. So once again I had to purposely 

Question: What do ballroom dance partners, employees and their supervisors, and God and his children all have in common? Do you give up or did the title give it away?

Answer: One leads while the other follows.

Follow the leader was a fun game for me. It was cool to follow but it was pure joy to lead and have kids do off the wall stuff that I felt like doing! If you think about it, life is like a never ending game of follow the leader. We are always following something whether we want to or not. I was reading Joshua chapter 3 last week in the message version and it caught my complete and total attention.  

When you see the Covenant-Chest of God, your God, carried by the Levitical priests, start moving. Follow it. Make sure you keep a proper distance!—and you’ll see clearly the route to take. You’ve never been on this road before. Joshua 3:3-4 MSG

The message for me was simple: Let God lead. (I wonder what you just got from reading it)

I automatically put my head down because I knew the word was tailor made for me. Even though I immediately accepted the word, it took me several days to realize I should repent for this. Why? I have tried to take God’s leadership position in my own life and it has negatively affected me and my ministry. Over the last few days I learned that I’ve taken control of things I have no experience in dealing with. My biggest tell? I was worried. When we worry it usually means we have taken the trust we have in God and placed it in our feeble ability or whatever circumstance we’re facing.

I think we all have moments we want to step in as God’s boss. But maybe I should only speak for myself. Sometimes I want to tell God what to do, how to bless, how much to bless, when he is not being fair, and when he should do this and/or that. Of course I don’t sit and say “God do this now”. It

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Earlier this week I woke up with the words “premature movement” in my spirit. I automatically thought about a journal entry I wrote back in December of 2011 and figured it was time to share it with all of you. For four days I have gone back and forth about how to present the information and if it is something that I am supposed to be sharing with you at all. Maybe this is just a word that I need to go over for myself.

You see I am in an odd season of my life. This holding place where I am uncertain of what I should do in several areas of my life, stay put or make moves. There are plenty of people who are certain of what I should do however all of their ideas are different. Of course this leads to a greater state of confusion and we all know that God is not the author of confusion (1Corinthians 14:33). One of my biggest mistakes was not slowing down long enough to let God tell me about these things first! That way their input would have been confirmations instead of suggestions.

As I sit in the middle of all this water looking for the land I belong on in every aspect of my life I can’t help but to think about how I have dropped the ball. How you wonder? Well I may pray and read my bible but in recent weeks it has become more of a chore than a heart felt desire. Of course there are reasons for this but I’ll just list spiritual warfare at the very top and leave it at that. Because I have not placed myself in proper position to hear from God in the manner necessary for where I am in my life I have placed myself in proper position to be thoroughly confused and lost. I can’t blame God and I refuse to blame the devil. I must take the fault for this. Am I ashamed? Nope, not at all. Just grateful to realize that I’m not headed in the right direction before I fell into something I’m not able to pull myself out of. Instead of being discouraged I’ll be more proactive as I wait on the Lord to strengthen my heart and mind and provide me with direction. Psalm 27:14

I don’t know if “premature movement” means that I have already done something too soon or if I am about to make a move that will be done too soon. I do know how I can get the answer to this question and that just involves pressing past physical and mental exhaustion and consecrating my heart, mind, and body. In other words getting Melanie back into a whole person who is ready to receive the directions of the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NLT) encourages this! Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. In order to consecrate, or make myself holy, I must separate myself from those things that are keeping me away from the type of thoughts encouraged in Philippians 4:8 to meditate on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.

There comes a time we have no choice but to put ourselves in position to hear from God. In these cases removal of all distractions are necessary. And this is what I need to do for myself this week. For those who only follow Truth Thru Truth via facebook I will not be posting daily devotions on social networks this week. Mainly because once I go into one notification I'm off into all kinds of stuff lol and I need to focus. HOWEVER I want to give you another option. There will continue to be devotions posted on the website daily as always because I have made a commitment to do so. If you would still like a daily update for this coming week’s daily devotions you can fill in your information below. You will only get the reminders THIS week! So don’t worry about Truth thru Truth email overload!

This is actually the first thing I have written that I feel comfortable sharing so for now I think that I will leave “premature movement” for another post. Maybe next week could be next year.

I will say this, if you are uncertain about an upcoming move in your life the best thing you can do is shut down everything that pulls you away from the source who knows all. (I’m talking about God yall) Be patient, get in line with his will, and once he speaks, be obedient.

See you in the daily devotions!

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July 7, 2013-July, 13 2013