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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | April 4th

📖 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. —Matthew 6:31-33 ESV 

Worry is such a major issue in many people’s lives today. They are worried about their finances, their jobs, providing for their family, etc. We have a God who has promised to take good care of us. There are no benefits to being anxious and worrying about tomorrow. We as Christians must put our trust in God by seeking His kingdom first. As we are pursuing the things of God, He will take care of our every need. We don’t have to fret like the world does. We have the God that owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Let us seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness and watch God show himself to us as Jehovah Jireh (the Lord our Provider). 

#Godcares #donotworry #devotional #vcccharlotte #trustGod

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | April 3rd

📖 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 
—I Corinthians 3:18-19 KJV

The Word of God tells us to come out from among them (the world) and be separate. We are to be separate from the world because Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). We do not want to embrace the values or wisdom of this world. That is one reason the Bible tells us to renew our minds. God wants our thinking to be in line with His Word. God’s Word is His Wisdom. The Wisdom of God is foolishness to the world because God’s way of doing things goes against the ideals of the world. The wisdom of this world is “earthly, sensual, and devilish” (James 3:15). We should seek the wisdom that is from above because it is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy (James 3:17). God’s ways are higher than our ways, but so is His Wisdom. Let’s stay away from the wisdom of this world, and let's embrace the wisdom that comes from God. We always come out on top when
we do. 

#wisdom #vcccharlotte #kingdomlife #devotional #trustGod

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | April 2nd

📖 When Jesus came down from the mountain, great throngs followed Him. 

And behold, a leper came up to Him and, prostrating himself, worshiped Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing, You are able to cleanse me by curing me. 

And He reached out His hand and touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed by being cured. And instantly his leprosy was cured and cleansed. 
—Matthew 8:1-3 AMPC  

God wants you well. He desires for you to be strong and healthy. Unfortunately, many people still aren't sure whether it is the will of God for them to be healed. They think the sickness is supposed to bring them closer to God. Some think the sickness will keep them humble. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that sickness will humble you. The Bible tells us that we are to humble ourselves and that God will exalt us in due time (I Peter 5:6). We accurately represent the kingdom when we are healthy and strong. We can pursue the will of God when we are totally strong and healthy. The leper was unsure about the will of God concerning his healing. Jesus made the will of God plain. God wanted the leper healed. God has not changed. He has always desired His people to be well. He demonstrated His desire by sending Jesus to the cross to redeem us from sickness and disease. The issue has been settled: God wants us well. 

#healing #vcccharlotte #willofGod #devotional  

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | April 2nd

📖 Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need. 
—Ephesians 4:28 AMPC 

Paul is giving insight into the purpose of our paychecks. Our paychecks are not primarily for paying bills (you should pay your bills). Our paychecks are not primarily for purchasing items for ourselves and our families (it's okay if you do). The Word of God tells us that we work so that we can have money to give. This is how the Kingdom of God operates. It functions through the principle of seedtime and harvest. When we give, it shall be given to us again, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto our bosom (Luke 6:38). It is after we give that we can claim that God will meet our needs according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). It is always better to give than to receive because giving puts us in a place of receiving. As we grow in faith, we should also grow in our giving. As we increase our giving, we can increase our receiving. It’s time for a shift in our thinking in the area of giving! When we change our standard of giving, we change our standard of living.  

#seedtimeandharvest #devotional #giving #vcccharlotte #compassion 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | April 1st

📖 I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be. —Philippians 3:12 The Living Bible 

One thing that Paul was working towards was that he would eventually become what God had preordained for him to be. He talked about forgetting things from the past and moving towards the things that were before him. Paul had made some pretty big mistakes in his past. He had persecuted the church and had people put in prison for their beliefs. None of that mattered once he became born again. His goal was now to be all that God had called him to be. He worked tirelessly toward that goal, and nothing prevented him from accomplishing it. In fact, several of the epistles that he wrote were written from a prison cell. He experienced shipwrecks, beatings, snake bites, and other things, yet he did not quit. We must do the same thing. Regardless of what the enemy throws our way, we must not stop until we have become all that God wants us to be. 

#dontquit #paul #motivation #destiny #verseoftheday #devotional

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 31st

📖 From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom was his theme—that beginning right now they were under God’s government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with a sickness, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. More and more people came, the momentum gathering. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the “Ten Towns” across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.
—Matthew 4:23-25 The Message 

God wants you well. God wants you well in every area of life. Jesus came to heal the sick, but not just those who were sick physically. Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted. Jesus came to heal the oppressed. Jesus came to set the captives free. God wants you free from a tormented mind. God does not want His children to have an unsettled, worried mind. We are to keep our mind on the Word of God. Keeping our mind on God will allow us to experience the peace of God. The Word of God is to be the anchor to our souls. That simply means that we can stay emotionally stable when hard times hit us because we are standing on God’s Word. 

We know that God wants us well physically. Jesus took the stripes on His back so that we could be made whole (Isaiah 53:5). III John 2 tells us that God desires for us to prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers. God wants us to prosper in our health, our soul, and in our finances. It is easier to help make someone whole, when we are walking in wholeness in our own lives. God wants us to be examples. We are His evidence that we can experience the blessed life that Jesus shed His blood for. That life is possible for us if we can believe in what the Bible tells us — that all things are possible to him who believes. 

#believers #vcccharlotte #allthingsarepossible #devotional #WordofGod 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 30th

📖 A [self-confident] fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to himself. 
—Proverbs 18:7 AMPC  

A fool will destroy his own life with his own words. Think about that for a second. We can choose our words, but we must choose our words carefully. Proverbs 13:2, tells us that, “A good man eats good from the fruit of his mouth”. We determine how we eat based on our words. We determine the quality of life we live by the words we speak. If you don’t like the life you’re living, change the words that you are speaking. Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). It is in our best interest to speak words of life. Speak life over your children. Speak life over your health. Speak life over your finances. Don’t allow your lips to be a snare to yourself. Your words can bring ruin, or they can bring success; the choice is yours. 

#wordsoflife #vcccharlotte #speaklife #devotional 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 28th

📖 Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need. 
—Ephesians 4:28 AMPC 

Paul is giving insight into the purpose of our paychecks. Our paychecks are not primarily for paying bills (you should pay your bills). Our paychecks are not primarily for purchasing items for ourselves and our families (it's okay if you do). The Word of God tells us that we work so that we can have money to give. This is how the Kingdom of God operates. It functions through the principle of seedtime and harvest. When we give, it shall be given to us again, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto our bosom (Luke 6:38). It is after we give that we can claim that God will meet our needs according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). It is always better to give than to receive because giving puts us in a place of receiving. As we grow in faith, we should also grow in our giving. As we increase our giving, we can increase our receiving. It’s time for a shift in our thinking in the area of giving! When we change our standard of giving, we change our standard of living.  

#seedtimeandharvest #devotional #giving #vcccharlotte #compassion 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 27th

📖 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing. 
—Philippians 2:14-16 The Message 

As believers, we should stand out. There should be a difference between the way we act and the way the world acts. Our responses to trials and tribulations should be different. Christians should be a breath of fresh air. We don’t complain like the world. We walk with a different spirit. As believers, there is a difference in our countenance. Our job is to provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. As Christians, we are God’s ambassadors. We carry the light giving Message wherever we go. Not only do we carry the Message, but we must also live the Message. We are living proof that Jesus is alive and His Word is true.  

#standout #vcccharlotte #different #devotional  

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 26th

📖 Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’ 

“So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to feel it. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corn-cobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. 

—Luke 15: 11-16 The Message   

Are you a short-term thinker or a long-term thinker? This young man was only concerned about the present moment. He was ready to go and spend his money and have a good time. He did not consider his future. He did not think about the possibility of famine. He did not think about investing his money. He was only thinking about himself. He had the mindset of eating, drinking, and being merry. We cannot have that type of mindset. We must consider our ways. We must examine our spending habits. Are you a healthy eater? Do you exercise regularly? The things you do today will affect your tomorrow. Don’t be like this young man. Let’s be long-term thinkers, and not just short-term. Your future depends on it.  

#thinker #vcccharlotte #future #devotional 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 25th

📖 The great God who rules over Israel always does what he says he will do. He does not change his mind. People may change their minds, but he does not!’ 
—I Samuel 15:29 Easy English Bible 

God keeps His Word. He is not like a human being. God is not wishy washy. He isn’t up one minute and down the next. God says what He means and He means what He says. God does not change His mind about His thoughts toward us. God sees us as His children once we have accepted His Son as Savior and Lord. Our flaws and shortcomings don’t change His mind about us. If God tells us that He will meet our needs, He will. If He calls Himself our Healer, then He is. God is who He says He is and He does what He says He will do. We are the ones who have trust issues. We are the ones who have difficulties believing God’s Word. God does not change. There is no shadow of turning in Him. When we stand on His Word, good things happen. When we act on His Word, good things happen. God’s Word can be trusted. We can trust His veracity. God will always do what He says He will do. 

#trust #vcccharlotte #reliable #devotional 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 24th

📖 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. —Isaiah 59:1 NKJV

God is not new to saving His people, and matter of fact, He alone specializes in it. There has not been a situation or problem brought by His people that has given Him any ounce of trouble or difficulty. He is the Almighty and All-powerful God, and we, as His children, must start recognizing that. The Lord’s power has not been diminished, and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is still active and available to change whatever is wrong in our lives. As His representatives on earth let us remember that God hears our prayers, and He is still all powerful. 

#representGod #AlmightyGod #vcccharlotte #power #devotional

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 23rd

📖 Seek, inquire of and for the Lord, and crave Him and His strength (His might and inflexibility to temptation); seek and require His face and His presence [continually] evermore. 

[Earnestly] remember the marvelous deeds that He has done, His miracles and wonders, the judgments and sentences which He pronounced [upon His enemies, as in Egypt]. 

He is [earnestly] mindful of His covenant and forever it is imprinted on His heart, the word which He commanded and established to a thousand generations, 
—Psalm 105: 4-5; 8 AMPC 

We serve a covenant keeping God. He is a God of miracles. He is willing to do signs and wonders on our behalf in order to honor His covenant in our lives. That could be the reason the people were told to remember all the marvelous deeds that God had done on their behalf. He did it to honor His covenant. He did it out of His love for His people. We ought to seek the Lord. We should crave Him and His strength. Our relationship with God will enable us to believe and trust in God, especially when times get difficult. God is ever mindful of His covenant. He promised to never leave us nor forsake us. He even promised to reward those who diligently seek Him. Our expectations should go through the roof when we consider Who God is and what God can do. He is earnestly mindful of His covenant and ready to act on it on our behalf. What a privilege it is to be in the household of faith. 

#vcccharlotte #covenant #devotional #householdoffaith 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 21st

📖 In the same way that nursing infants cry for milk, you must intensely crave the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word. For this “milk” will cause you to grow into maturity, fully nourished and strong for life- especially now that you have had a taste of the goodness of Yahweh and have experienced his kindness. —I Peter 2:2-3 The Passion Translation 

How intense is your desire for the Word of God? Do you crave it? Do you meditate on it day and night like God told Joshua to? In Psalm 1, the psalmist tells us that when we meditate on the Word of God day and night, we will be like the tree that is planted by the rivers of water and whatever we do will prosper. (v3) Can you imagine prospering in every area of life? We can understand why when we read the Scripture above. Our hunger for the Word will cause us to grow and become mature in the things of God. That maturity will allow us to make decisions in line with God’s Word, which will then cause us to prosper. It is the doer of the Word who is blessed. You cannot expect an immature Christian to be able to handle the blessings of God. Those blessings come upon us as we grow or “mature” in the things of God. God is not holding back on us; He is waiting on our maturation. He is watching our development and blessing us in proportion to our growth. You can experience more of the blessings of God, or you can stay the same. The choice is yours. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 

#growth #vcccharlotte #meditateontheWord #devotional 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 20th

📖 Be careful what you think [ Above all that you guard, protect your heart], because ·your thoughts run your life [life flows from it]. —Proverbs 4:23 The Expanded Bible  

Guard your mind and guard your heart. It has been said that “your life goes in the direction of your most dominant thoughts”. This is one reason why we must be careful what we think about. We don’t want negative thoughts to infiltrate our hearts. If we allow those negative thoughts to get into our hearts eventually, we will start to speak those thoughts and we will have what we say. (Mark 11:23) The mouth will speak whatever the heart is full of (Luke 6:45). As believers, we walk by faith and not by sight or appearance (II Corinthians 5:7). We keep our eyes on the Word and not on what we see in this natural world. God’s Word will change what we see. We must get His Word on our minds and in our hearts. Guard your mind and your heart. If it doesn’t line up with the Word don’t think about it. We should do what Philippians 4:8 says: For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]. 

#protectyourmind #vcccharlotte #protectyourheart #devotional  

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 19th

📖 Sow for yourselves according to righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God); reap according to mercy and loving-kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for and of Him, and to require His favor, till He comes and teaches you righteousness and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you. 

You have plowed and plotted wickedness, you have reaped the [willful] injustice [of oppressors], you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your [own] way and your chariots, in the multitude of your mighty men, 

Therefore shall a tumult arise against your people and all your fortresses shall be wasted and destroyed, as Shalmaneser wasted and destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle; the mother was dashed in pieces with her children. 

So shall it be done to you at [idolatrous] Bethel because of your great wickedness; at daybreak shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off. 

—Hosea 10:12-15 AMPC 

Seeking the Lord doesn’t cost; it pays. It is during those times of seeking that we learn from Him. Seeking God causes a transformation to take place. It is where we break up our uncultivated ground and learn more about our righteousness and the gift of salvation. When we don’tspend time with the Lord by seeking His Face, we become susceptible to making mistakes. When we don’t seek His will or His way, we tend to lean to our own understanding. We tend to depend on our resources, our ways, and our intellect. Relying on ourselves is a quick way to destruction and ruin. God does not want that for our lives. He desires us to prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers (3 John 2). The Bible tells us to, “trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not to our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). In all our ways, we are to acknowledge Him, and He will direct our paths (Proverbs 3:6). When we direct our paths, we get into trouble, and then we want God to bail us out. Seeking the Lord would have kept us out of trouble. God’s way is the best way. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.   

#learnfromGod #vcccharlotte #seektheLord #devotional #God’sway 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 18th

📖 So Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat, whose plowing was being done with twelve yoke of oxen, and he drove the twelfth. Elijah crossed over to him and cast his mantle upon him. 

He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you. And he [testing Elisha] said, Go on back. What have I done to you? [Settle it for yourself.] 

So Elisha went back from him. Then he took a yoke of oxen, slew them, boiled their flesh with the oxen’s yoke [as fuel], and gave to the people, and they ate. Then he arose, followed Elijah, and served him.  

—I Kings 19: 19-21 AMPC 

When God is doing a new thing in your life, don’t go back to the old. The new is always better. It was time for Elisha to enter a new phase of life. His old life of plowing with the oxen was over with. It was time for him to serve under Elijah in preparation for him to eventually succeed him as a prophet of God. Elisha would eventually kill the oxen and serve them to the people to eat. This was a symbolic gesture. This was Elisha’s way of turning his back on his old life and moving forward to this new phase that God had for him. Every one of us will have to do this at some point in our lives. Jesus told his disciples that “no man with his hand to the plow, looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Like 9:62). One cannot move forward looking back. We must all look in the direction that we are headed. If we are moving forward, we must look forward. Paul made an important decision in his life and wrote about it in Philippians 3: 13-14. He wrote: 

I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. 

If we are going to walk in all that God has for us, we must do the same. We must forget what is behind and toward the goal. 

#new #vcccharlotte #outwiththeold #devotional #moveforward 

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 17th

📖 At last the wall was completed to half its original height around the entire city—for the workers worked hard. —Nehemiah 4:6 The Living Bible

There is no substitute for hard work. The Bible tells in Ecclesiastes 5:3, “For a dream comes with much business and painful effort, and a fool’s voice with many words.” It takes diligence to accomplish a goal. It takes diligence to see the fulfillment of a dream. There is a time to pray, but then there is a time to work. It's been said that we should pray like it’s on God, but we should work like it's on us. Prayer has its place, but so does work. It may take late nights and early mornings, but it is all worth it in the end. The path to the prize is greater than the prize itself. The substance of the diligent is precious because the diligent know what it took to get it. Laziness will get you nowhere. Diligence is the vehicle that will take you to success. Selah. 

#diligence #hardwork #verseoftheday #vcccharlotte #dream

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 16th

📖 Then God said, “I’ve given you 
    every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth 
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree, 
    given them to you for food. 
To all animals and all birds, 
    everything that moves and breathes, 
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.” 
    And there it was. 
—Genesis 1:29-30 The Message Bible

God provided food for Adam, Eve, and every living animal that was on the earth at that time. God knew what it would take to feed the birds, the lions, the tigers, and every other creature. God has not changed. He still knows how to feed us and sustain us. He fed the Israelites while they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. He fed Elijah when there was a drought. God has always provided for His people. God will always take care of us. He told us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the things would be added to us. We won't have to go after them, they will come to us. Let’s resist the spirit of fear and worry. Let us put our trust in God. He is our provider. He knows how to take care of us. If He provided back then, He will provide now. God has not changed. 

#provider #vcccharlotte #nofear #noworry #devotional

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 14th

📖 See what [an incredible] quality of love the Father has given (shown, bestowed on) us, that we should [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! The reason that the world does not know (recognize, acknowledge) us is that it does not know (recognize, acknowledge) Him. —I John 3:1 AMPC

What a privilege it is to be called the children of God. We aren’t servants, even though we should serve God. We are His children. He loves us so much that He would call us His children. Despite our shortcomings, despite our struggles, despite our imperfections, God deemed it appropriate to call us His children. He doesn’t see us the way we often see ourselves; He sees us through the Blood of Jesus. God sees us as righteous. He sees us as kings and priests. When we make Jesus the Lord of our lives, it puts us in a different class. Because of this, the world does not know or recognize us. They did not know or recognize Jesus, so we should expect no different. We are not of this world; we are of God! We should embrace this and meditate on this truth until it becomes a reality to us. We are the children of the almighty God—the Creator of the universe. When you finally get a revelation of this, it will change your life. It will change your perspective and take you to another level. 

#childrenofGod #devotional #vcccharlotte #righteous

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