Daily Devotional: You Lack Nothing

Philippians 4:19

19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Even in my suffering, my own "first world problems", I reach out for the comfort of Christ.  I am, by no stretch of the imagination, perfect. I stumble.  I fall. But I also know how to get back to my feet.  If there is an experience of lack in my mind, it is only a temporary vapor, dissipating in an instant.  

There is truly nothing that we lack.  As the Bible says, even as God supplies the animals with all they need, how much more will he do for us, his most cherished and beloved on this planet?  In our problems, it is hard to see the forest for the trees therein, and we get caught up in the future of what could happen instead of being concerned about the very moment.  

The Bible instructs us to not be concerned about the issues of tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough issues of its own.  We should not be worried about what will happen, but more concerned about what is going within us and within the moment.  

Have you ever sat down to meditate on God, in complete solitude?  Did you notice how peaceful it is to feel the moment and live within it?  Reading the Word will do this if you allow it.  Everything that you need is there; all the answers you seek are at your fingertips.  He will give you all that you need, if you just come to him and ask.

Praise God for his love and mercy. 

Be blessed. 

The Beautiful Walk

The beauty of life is yours to behold.

On my daily walks I take time to notice everything around me, with reverance and love. With each step I take, there is peace and serenity. I have no problems in these moments. There is no fear. There is only love and the feeling of God all around and within me.

I have taken to the habit of using prayer beads as I walk, holding them in my hands and running my fingers across them, one by one. Slowly I turn them and feel the texture, and I am filled again with peace. It is not even happiness, or joy. Just something greater that I can only truly decribe as serenity. The beads are as a key is to a door: they help to open my heart to God so that I can receive his Word.

My pastor would call this "quiet time". I find the more time I take, the more I desire to be with Him. It seems that time is still in these moments, and I can only give thanks and atone for my sins. These moments are of love and truth, which is the only reality that exists for us. All other things are just lies and fantasies that mar God's instructions for our lives.

Take care to feel His presence daily.

Through Devotion and Art

Holding on to nothing, I will be able to gain everything...

There are great worlds to visit, through devotion and art. There is God and love, granting light to this dark world. Even so, you cannot escape yourself.

Dealing with the inner man is the only thing that can save you from destruction. It is the only thing that will allow you to embrace God. Releasing your mind from the prison that the world has surrounded you with, will grant change and transformation.

Great worlds to visit. God is waiting on each path, to each world. Through art and devotion I find my way home, creating the steps toward resolution. But you must let go of your pain, release your reliance on worldly things. Discover the impermanence in all, so that you can be free.

Meditation (Selah)

“Thus meditating you will no longer strive to build yourself up in your prejudices, but, forgetting self, you will remember only that you are seeking the Truth.” - James Allen

I don't know about you, but meditation has become a daily practice. It is part of my daily discipline now because it allows me to focus inward instead of outward, so that I can leave the worries of the day and give myself sometime with God. Truly sitting down and having "quiet time" as my pastor says, is a form of meditation, but I take it a step further. I meditate like a Buddhist would...

I will tell you why. Even though I am a Christian, I find that there are things that can be utilized from all sorts of cultures that are effective tools to foster spiritual growth and development. Meditation is no different. If you recall, Jesus went into the wilderness and was tempted by the devil. What do you think he was doing when the devil came upon him? He was meditating on the Word of God.

Many people may think this is mysticism but I see it as nothing more than a process that invites me to a special relationship with Jesus. To commune with the One True God and feel his presence all around is a fantastic experience!

Check out the book called, Spiritual Liberation by Michael Bernard Beckwith. He gives some pretty good instruction on how to utilize your true being and find peace within God's presence. I can't say I agree with all his points, but I do find much of what he says very useful in growing and maturing spiritually.

If you read Psalms, you will see the word "selah" throughout (71 times to be exact). It likely means, "pause and calmly think on this" or "meditate on this" (it is defined as other things, because it is not a very proper translation in Hebrew). The power of meditation is known in the Bible and throughout the world. Don't be afraid to sit and be quiet for a little bit each day and just give God thanks. I mean, doesn't He deserve that time and appreciation? Don't you deserve to be closer to Him?

Psalms 62:8
"Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah."

The Never Man: Recovery

Recovery is slow, and I burn through the days, so my eyes glisten bloodshot red

when I swallow the morning; I almost choke on the sun, needing to eat light

cause this darkness is keeping my arteries tight.

I took out a loan on time cause I never have enough left over
As it slips through my hands. I’m the Never Man, never could-never can.
I never juked right; I barely ran. I’m in recovery and it’s slow processing and second guessing, terminal outpatient raving and foolish, puerile cravings of a young man, aging. The years grant gifts of periodic joy, I wander and wonder why I play life so coy, why I’m shuffling my packaged feelings like an errand boy.

Recover. Repair. Under duress, my blessings are a semblance of sleepy-eyed gestures within spiritual haze. A hollow wish pulls an empty gaze, a blind rodent scurrying through a tattered maze. The abandoned home. The missing page. I’m the actor performing his show off-stage, the unheard soliloquy fueled with rage.

I wake up and grab my cup and choke down the sun. I want to feel it going down but my body’s too numb. The Never Man: never free, never done, never defeated but always unsung. Recovery is slow, but the madness is fun, and I burn through the nights just to choke down the sun. I learn through the days and the battles I have won. I burned through the age to the man I've become.

Building

Relationships, man. They need to be cultivated. I am now realizing how I am lacking in my relational devotion to my family and friends. Lot of times I think it’s because of how I was raised, you know? My mother showed a lack of interest in most of what I did, even though I was a high achiever in school. She didn’t really show the kind of enthusiasm most parents would, but she showed her approval in different ways. But I wonder if those ways have stunted my growth as the type of person I need (and God needs) me to be?

I guess I shouldn’t dwell on that. I have made it through a lot. But I seem to shy away from the support others give me, or I don’t show the support I need to show to them. It’s like I have that same mentality that my mom had, and that hurts. I should be able to be better, for I know what I went through and how things were somewhat of a detriment to me. How can I be better?

I ask God for direction. I ask him to help me understand myself and why I am the way I am. Still, I don’t know if I’ll ever understand. Maybe that’s what it’s supposed to be like, anyway? Maybe God wants me to work and reach out and close those gaps that I have worked too long to widen.

I was with my friend Antonio at a release party for a local record label who just acquired a distribution deal from Universal Records. We spent a big part of the night waiting around just so he could talk to this label exec. When he finally did talk to him, the conversation might have lasted 5 minutes. Yet, my friend was satisfied, saying that the contact was crucial to his future endeavors.

As sleepy and tired as I was, I understood exactly what he meant. Who knows what that next relationship or contact could mean to your future? Don’t you owe it to yourself to at least reach out and risk giving a part of yourself, regardless of the possibility of rejection? I think so.


Stay sane and remember where your help comes from. Build your relationship with Jesus, first and foremost, then you may find that it comes a little easier to build them with others.

The Cup of Water

I was talking to my boy yesterday, and he relayed a story to me that he had heard from his marriage counselor, who just happened to be a chaplain. The chaplain said that he wanted his congregation to really understand the message he was trying to convey, so he decided to give them a visual aid. He picked up a glass and put water into it. He then picked up the cup and held his hand out. The chaplain motioned for a young boy to come to the pulpit and shake the arm that held the cup of water. The boy, more than eager to comply, walked up to the pulpit and shook his arm vigorously. Of course, the water spilled out from the cup. With that done, the chaplain asked his congregation: “Why did the water fall out of the cup?”

Many answered that it fell out because the boy shook it. Others gave outlandish answers that were far from the mark. After asking quite a few people, the chaplain decided to give them the answer, which was simply this: The water spilled from the cup because it was there in the first place.

See, it mattered not what was in the cup. When someone shakes the cup, its contents will come spilling out. What he was trying to say is that what’s inside of us will come out when we are tested. What was really inside, good or bad, will show when we are faced with trouble or adversity.

Just thought I’d share that one with y’all. Have a good day.

Comatose

Slipping into an emotional coma. Seemed to be drained of what little remained in the first place. I try to explain to myself that there is an underlying message for it all and it probably is. I would like to think that giving it my best is what I have done. Don’t know how to manage loving when loving seems to be returned to the sender like mail that went to the wrong house. Nothing changes, nothing stays the same. It’s a cycle that I seem to be drawn into, undoing what has been done, walking around a path that ends up at the same wall I just climbed over. Sadness pours like a fountain.

Don’t cry for me, I am awaiting closure. Not so much more I can take. God asks me to have patience, and to ignore my pride, which I do. Pride is the offspring of the Ego, and they are both monsters, so much that I don’t know which is worse. Sadness.
My eyes dream of something I remembered and possibly lost again. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s much more than a man such as myself can even hope to accomplish.

God grants you what you need in order to get over. It may need to end in order to get over. And if that’s His plan, I’m good. I’m fine with it.

Respect Yourself

If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

With a little illumination, just a bit more light, comes a brighter piece of the whole picture, shining for one to explore. I think that I have disrespected myself long enough, and with that, I have to make amends. I look at myself these days and see only a shadow of the former me. Though stronger, I am more agitated. I think I am wiser, but what have I to show for it? To what aim do I drive myself towards?

I only mean that I have come to the brink. I am looking over the precipice and down into the abyss. This, I think, is much like facing the inevitable downfall which is death: the release of our soul essence into God's infinite spirit. Through Jesus who strengthens me in my beliefs, I am grounded. I dare not waver, for as I respect He who gave me breath, I must realize that I gain respect through the ideals I have faith in. Basically, as I show my respect of God and others, others will respect me for those very things.

Your light can shine bright, for all to see. It breaks the darkness and shows the way, like any modern flashlight. The light is within us all and yearns to eminate from our being for all to notice. Some people call this an aura. It doesn't matter what it's called, because the idea is to cultivate your inner man in order to influence the outer one.

Respect of yourself will lead others to respect you. You must show that you are a person of principles; of faith. I am just now remembering what it is I need to be the happy, loving, gentle and caring person I know that I am. Sometimes when there is something missing from our lives we lose touch with who we are and begin to falter in our principles. I submit that at those times, we are disrespecting our inner being, refusing to grasp the true happiness we are allowed.

Think on it.
God be praised.

I Am In Your Debt Lord

Thinking back on my childhood, I don’t believe I dreamed about the future very much. My imagination wandered to less important things, like cartoons and music videos; He-Man and Rap City on repeat. There was no speculation, really, because I wasn’t forced to contemplate any eventualities. Or rather, those eventualities extended to only two outcomes: not going to prison and getting into college. Maybe I thought of it in comparison to other male figures such as my uncles or even my father. Many of my uncles on my mother’s side of the family had been to prison. Some were drug abusers as well. My father’s brothers didn’t seem to be much to look up to, either. Some just ran the streets, Olympian hoodlums, with several children, all born out of wedlock.

Remarkably, as I sit here, I am convinced that each and every person in my life has helped guide my life in a direction that lead me towards Christ Jesus. Though I have been an atheist and a Muslim, I am certain that they were but stepping stones to what I am today. The cause leads to an effect, see? To see the world as my enemy was probably something engrained in my psyche, so much that I rebelled against anything that was thrown at me, causing my beliefs to evolve. I grew up as a Baptist, in a Pentecostal Church, my grandmother singing in the choir and my great granny smacking me in the head so I could wake up and listen to the sermon.
I found most of the congregation to be hypocrites and lip professors that praised the Lord by day and slithered like snakes through the night. Bad juju. It was there that my faith was altered. Still, I inquired of my baptism to which my mother responded that she had not done. I took it upon myself one day to be baptized, at the age of 12, at a church that I knew little of. Their earnestness intrigued me, and I couldn’t refuse salvation, could I? That baptism was a blessing and I thank God for putting those people on my path.

I am almost 33, the supposed age of Jesus when he was crucified and I believe this will be a year of “resurrection” for me. Changes have destroyed me, built me up and rearranged everything I thought to be right and exact. But change, change is the only thing other than God that is constant in this world. I don’t expect my God to change because he is already perfect, but I know he expects me to change. This is why I don’t get that people go through life thinking that “this is how I am and I will not change, so don’t expect anything to be different”. Honestly, God requires a transformation of us, for it shows that we are new creatures in Him, right? Our hearts and minds are renewed by the coming of His Spirit.

Why would you want to remain as you are for the rest of your life? Why would you want to be stagnant and not grow up in the Faith? These years since I have left my undergrad I gained a great amount of wisdom through my experiences. My life is changed because of what I have gone through. I am stronger because of what God has allowed me to experience. It’s hard to regret anything because I love who I am. And with all my faults, I find that it compels me to try harder to be a good man. A good brother. A good son. A good lover.

I am on my way, Lord. Thanks for giving me another chance. Thank you for your Grace and Mercy. Thank you for your Love. I am in your debt.