Hi you guys!

It’s unbelievable how time flies. It has been so long since I’ve written a daily devotional, I didn’t think I knew how to anymore. The last daily devotional I posted was October 5th, and to be honest, not writing has driven me crazy. However, no matter how much God was revealing and teaching me that I desired to share with you all, God had not released me to share until now. Although I know that the content of what I was learning was life-changing, at the time, it was for me to grow, more than it was for me to try to encourage others. Being obedient to God’s timing is more critical than my expectations or timing.

See, I learned some life-changing news over the past few months that honestly sent me on a roller coaster ride of emotions. All of these emotions were negative. So negative that I lost hope. I even felt bad that I thought the way I did because many people prayed for what was causing me to be so anxious. I began to beat myself because, “I’m a Christian, a faithful Christian,” how is it that I don’t have enough faith in God not to lose hope. The more I focused on these negative thoughts and others, the worst my situation became. This one piece of life-changing news sent me into a depression. All I could think of was the worst possible outcomes. I was in a stage of distress. I found no joy. I found a lack of motivation, no desire to pray, no desire to fellowship, no desire to praise, and no desire to read scripture—all the things I should have been doing instead of worrying. I found myself getting further away from God, although I knew he was always there waiting for me to call out to him.

After days and weeks of crawling and crying in bed in the darkness, I finally reached out to friends to express just how low I was. I was so intense that I felt the need to call my doctor to see about having an antidepressant prescribed. Then I beat myself some more! How could such a blessing in my life cause me to be so low? FOCUS!

The growth I’ve experienced has propelled me forward in my walk with God. God revealed in me some things and thoughts that were not of him. Not that any lesson had a greater significance over the other, but what I didn’t know about focus had the most significant potential for destruction. My focus on all the negative took my focus off of God. Focusing on all the wrong things caused me to doubt God’s character and question his plans for my life. This doubt caused a ripple effect that, if left unattended, can cause a person from being in a stage of life to being in a state of hopelessness.

Remember this, what we put into our minds controls the focus of our minds and determines what comes out in our words and actions. Paul tells us to program our minds with thoughts that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Replace harmful thoughts with God’s word and pray. Ask God to help you focus your mind on what is good and pure. It takes practice, but not doing so can be tragic.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9