My thoughts (E’sha Cooper):

How would you feel if you always, always, always had a full refrigerator? No matter what time of day, week, or month you looked in, you’d always have shelves packed to capacity.

Well, you do. In your “spiritual refrigerator” that is always the case. Every shelf, drawer, and space is packed to the gills. There is more variety than Whole Foods and Walmart combined. Just think, anything you have a taste for is in there, and you don’t even have to cook a thing. Now here is the challenging question: are you eating?

God has given us work to do and it’s as simple as sitting down and eating an entire meal prepared with grandmother’s famous recipe and dad’s signature sauce. That meal is to do God’s will.

Not everyone has the same menu, but all of us have something to eat. And just like you see the response you get from your mother when you sit down and eat her cooking, God gets just as much joy when you sit down and eat at God’s table (v. 36). In today’s passage, Jesus is letting us know that we always have food, what our food is, how we got our food, and the how our eating affects us and the cook, who is God Almighty. Just like Jesus, God’s work is our sustenance.

Maybe all the variety in in your spiritual ice box has caused you to snack rather than eat. I encourage you today to spend time in prayer and ask God what is on the menu, and for the grace to eat every morsel.

Thought for the day: Do I eat what God has prepared for me? Is God’s work my sustenance?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (E’sha Cooper):

I was adopted when I was a baby, and it wasn’t until around second grade that I was made aware that my parents were not actually my biological parents. They were a man and a woman who wanted to raise me because my mother had abandoned me.

I didn’t find out through calculated and polite conversation. Rather a neighbor, my so called “friend” Michelle, was angry with me because I wasn’t playing with her, so she decided to let the whole lunch room know that I was adopted and that made something wrong with me. I remember being taken down to the counselor’s office, and she asked me how I felt. I didn’t feel “adopted.” Embarrassed, but not “adopted.”

When I got home I told my parents about my adventure in “haterville” and my mother affirmed to me that I was loved, and that was all that mattered. I knew deep down in my being that what she said was the truth, however I did go through some changes trying to see if Michelle’s declaration of my relationship to my parents made it true. I told my parents that I did not want their last name and a bunch of other stuff that I thought was a declaration of my uniqueness — but was really just my youthful foolishness.

Yet one day, long after that season had passed, I got some revelation. Although my dad was not my biological dad, I looked like him. (He said if you feed them they will look like you.) I liked doing the things he liked to do, and more importantly, he was my dad. It did not matter what the birth certificate said. I was his. He called me his daughter and I called him my dad.

That is why today’s scripture brings me so much encouragement. All that made me my father’s daughter was his adoption of me, no more, no less. All that makes us children of the Most High is God’s adoption of us. We didn’t have to do anything to get adopted. We don’t have to prove our worth now that we’ve been adopted. We just keeping eating at God’s table, and eventually we’ll look like Him.

Prayer for the day: Lord, help us to accept our status as your sons and daughters and embrace all the benefits that come with it. Amen.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (E’sha Cooper):

Several months ago I attended a self improvement seminar, and one of the exercises we performed was designed to help us find out what matters. It was intense and exhausting.

We sat across from a partner and we had to be either the “questioner” or the “answerer”. The questioner had to yell “What matters?”, over and over again for several minutes. The answerer had to answer the question at the top of their lungs as the answers came up. If one truly allowed the exercise to work, he/she would get to the heart of their motivations and purpose. Once “What matters?” was revealed, we could begin to live in a way more aligned with those values.

In today’s scripture, I believe the Holy Spirit asked Judas to ponder that question in his heart. What turned up for him quickly was money, and a quick way to get it was to deliver Jesus to the chief priests to be crucified.

What Judas didn’t realize, was that all the money in the world isn’t worth anything without a relationship with the Master.

Prayer for the day: Lord, when I am asked the question of “What really matters?”, may my first and last answer be You. Amen.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (E’sha Cooper):

A couple of years back a friend of mine was having some major trouble with her car. She had been to multiple mechanics, paid out quite a bit of money and the car sat for weeks. Eventually, the problem was discovered and it was just a four dollar fuse. It was annoying, but she learned a lesson: always check the fuses, if something isn’t working right.

This same principle can be applied to our prayer life and the events and situations that our occurring in our worlds every day. When you’re not getting what you’ve prayed for, or you don’t think you’re getting what you deserve. Check your faith.

In today’s devotional, Jesus’ disciples are wowed by a fig tree withering up after the Messiah cursed it three days earlier. In the midst of their amazement Jesus gives them a lesson in the power of faith.

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

If you’re not getting what you’ve been praying for, check your faith. Don’t start rebuking the devil or calling ever Christian you know and start asking for advice. Check your faith.

Thought for the day: If my life is not working, it could mean I’m not working my faith. God, help me to pray and believe so that I can see mountains move in my life. Amen.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (E’sha Cooper):

In the course of a day, how many times would you say that you do the “right” thing? If you’re tempted to lie do you generally not? If you get the opportunity to get some extra change from a purchase do you let the cashier know that you got too much? If your normal m.o. (method of operation) is to do these kind of things, then good for you. Don’t mean to burst your spiritual bubble, however, that’s just scratching the surface when it comes to doing things God’s way. Here’s what I think God is asking of us.

In today’s reading Jesus tells a parable about a wicked servant who was forgiven of a major debt by his master, but he would not release a friend of his who owed him not even a 1% of what he owed his master. So we know that he didn’t even do the right thing by just releasing his friend. That was just plain wrong. The right thing for this servant to do was to release his friend of the debt because he had been released of his, but there is something more.

Peter ask Jesus how many times should he forgive a brother who has wronged him, and Peter suggests seven times because that was considered the “right “ thing to do. Jesus, however, challenges that idea of right by saying,” Not seven, rather seventy times seven.” We know that 70 x 7 = 490, but I don’t believe that exact number he wanted us to strive for. Rather, we should do things on such a major and distinct level that people recognize the God in you. The Bible tells us to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1), and according to Psalm 103 this is how GOD works out this forgiveness thing:

3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (KJV)

First God forgives us, then God heals the places in us that cause us to sin, then God stops the consequences that come with the sins we’ve committed, then God rewards us as if we have never done anything wrong, then God imparts to us spiritual food and blessings so we can start manifesting a godly harvest and then God even turns back time, so that we can bask and rejoice in God’s goodness. HALLEJUAH!

Now if the servant had wanted to take the path of righteousness, he probably could have forgiven his friend immediately when he asked and then gave him $20. That is the righteousness that GOD delights in. When our righteousness catapults us above just doing good works, to doing the right thing where we are actually doing things that void common sense but make God sense, then we can boldly say, ”I look and act just like my Father.”

Prayer for the day: JEHOVAH JIREH (The God Who Provides), provide me daily with opportunities to imitate You by acting righteously. Amen.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (E’sha Cooper):

Several years ago, I went to the annual Jazz Festival in Cincinnati. It’s a three-day-long event highlighting many top musical artists. On the night that attended, Patti Labelle was the featured artist. Now I knew Patti from watching her videos on BET and VH1 and most of the songs I heard I liked. So I guess I was a little curious just to see her perform.

Well, my curiosity was piqued even more when I overheard a gentleman say, “You haven’t been to a concert ’til you’ve seen Patti Labelle in concert, she’s a crowd pleaser. She loves entertaining so much that even after she goes off stage after her act, if you chant her name she’ll come back on and perform some more.” For some reason that got me really anxious to see her, and as I enjoyed the other acts (like After 7 and I think Cameo) I had developed a whole new anticipation for seeing Patti perform.

And when she came out she put on a show from start to finish, and did just like the man had described. Her performance left me with a new appreciation for her as an artist and for R&B music in general. This woman (I think she had just turned 54) danced and whirled around on stage like she was an entire band. Her performance was thrilling, inspiring, entertaining, even comical. I had a ball.

Now, you and I know that people that can entertain like that are called to do it. It’s in their veins, so to speak. Did you know that God has called you to be a crowd pleaser just like Patti Labelle or Barbara Streisand or Michael Jackson?

I know some of you are saying, ”How can I be a crowd pleaser?” In today’s lesson the Messiah reveals how easily you can be one. This is not directed toward the popular, because we know that Jesus wasn’t even accepted in His own home town. (See Matthew 13:57.) This is not for those who think they are talented because it is all by God’s grace. (See Zechariah 4:6.) So here is the formula I see in today’s scripture:

1. Be ready for your crowd. (v. 29b)
2. Be approachable. (v. 30a)
3. Do something that will radically change someone else’s life. (v. 30b)
4. Let heaven be your audience and let God get the glory. (v. 31)

Jesus did not try to make these people laugh, or show them how sorry for them He felt. He did those things that He knew would get God’s attention, and bring God glory.

I pray that from this day forward you will start to see why God draws people to you, and what you really should do for them when they’re in your presence.

Thought for the day: When I draw a crowd, is God getting a standing ovation for my performance?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.