Tag: meditation

2025 In Focus (Day 3)

Ecclesiastes 3:1

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

Unseasonable temperatures in the winter are a sign that the atmosphere has changed significantly. When I was a child, winter would bring all the elements to demonstrate what winter was all about. Yet, we live in a time where winter seems to come later and later in the season. Nevertheless, winter always comes at the same time every year, whether the signs of it are there or not. 

Seasons cannot always be measured by the signs associated with it. Seasons are always moments in time that let us know change is on the horizon. Our issue is not if we are in a season. However, we must be prepared for change at any given moments. God already knows each moment that we enter. 

We must prepare ourselves for change. We must prepare for the opportunity to see new things at all times. We must recognize that the atmosphere may never show us what we think a season might look like. Yet, we must be ready when change comes. Why? Because God appoints the times to shift us into a new gear. Be prepared. Change is coming. 

2025 In Focus (Day 2)

James 5:13-18

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

The power of prayer is an amazing phenomenon. Most of the time, we look at prayer as strictly a communication between us and God. I don’t think we really take the time to witness how powerful prayer can be in many situations.

Prayer has the capacity to do many things for an individual. First, it provides the opportunity for us to experience a peaceful setting between us and the divine. Second, we are given the opportunity to express our joy, pain, happiness, or sadness to a power greater than ourselves. Third, prayer grants us access to power that can literally move the impossible.

In this season, prayer should not be used strictly as a communication tool. Prayer is a multifaceted element that can lift us from various places in our spirit and even our emotions. I can no longer pray. Prayers with shallow intentions. My prayer life should be such that it can move all types of mountains pertaining to my life. No matter the obstacle, no matter the difficulty, prayer is my method of choice to alter my atmosphere.

2025 In Focus (Day 1)

Luke 24:1-12

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

It’s a interesting thing to sit in the sanctuary on the first day of the year. Total silence. Extreme quiet. Having time to reflect. This is the only way I knew to begin this year. 2024 felt like the biggest blur and environment of chaos. Every month was filled with some obstruction or challenge. That year, tested, my faith, my commitment, and my will to fight.

I can’t take away any of the pain, suffering, or hurt from all that was revealed to me. Yet, I begin this year living into the hope of the resurrection. It feels slightly odd to be on the tail end of the advent season looking towards the empty to.

I think I understand why the Lord led me to this particular scripture. Sometimes, we place so much emphasis on being crucified That we do not take the time to recognize the magnitude of what Resurrection means for our lives. The Resurrection provides many things. It presents shock to those who witnessed your death. It presents disbelief when you witnessed the object of your love die. It provides hope and recall to things said and done before.

2024 was a three day grave for old things. It was the final resting place for old mentalities, old methods, unwanted attitudes, and entities that are no longer useful. I cannot treat 2025 or any year going forward as a rebound from the previous year. This time must be handled as his own separate entity. It must be the season where I personally lean into the resurrection power of my Christ. To rise from the dead, not with perfect skin or lack of blemish. However, I must stand in this season as healed from the wounds of the cross and the indignity of the whipping. I must rise and sand as the evidence that one can endure and overcome.