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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 14th

📖 The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer. —Psalm 6:9 KJV

God answers prayer. Isn’t that comforting to know? When we find ourselves in a tough situation, we can pray and get His Wisdom. When we have a need, we can pray and know that He will meet that need. If we just need someone to talk to, we can go to God knowing that He hears us when we talk with Him. He is a very present help in the time of trouble. He is our shield and buckler. Whatever need we have in this life, we are only a prayer away from receiving from Him. We simply must go to Him in faith, knowing that we have the petitions that we requested of Him. God is always there for us, we simply must go to Him in prayer, knowing He wants to move on our behalf. 

#prayerworks #Godcares #devotional #vcccharlotte

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 13th

📖 Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord,”’ —John 1:22-23 NKJV

What do you say about yourself? How do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as a winner? Do you see yourself overcoming every situation of life? As believers we must see ourselves the way God sees us. We must know who we are in Christ. We must know what belongs to us. We must also understand that how we see ourselves is in correlation with how we think. The Bible tells us that “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. (Proverbs 23:7) God gave us His Word so that we can think like Him. When we think the way He thinks, we will talk the way He talks. When we think and talk like God, we will live like Him and He lives in victory. His Word tells us that He always causes us to triumph. (2 Corinthians 2:14) If God says we are royalty, then that is what we are. If we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, then that is what we are. If we are going to succeed in this life, it starts with how we see ourselves. We are who God says we are, and we can do what He says we can do. 

#success #vcccharlotte #wecan #devotional

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 12th

📖 If I were trying to glorify myself,” returned Jesus, “such glory would be worthless. But it is my Father who glorifies me, the very one whom you say is your God—though you have never known him. But I know him, and if I said I did not know him, I should be as much a liar as you are! But I do know him and I am faithful to what he says. As for your father, Abraham, his great joy was that he would see my coming. Now he has seen it and he is overjoyed.” 
—John 8:54-55 Phillips Translation

It has been said that “a man should never praise himself”. We should never make it our aim to elevate ourselves. God knows how to bring us honor. God knows how to elevate us. Our job is to walk in a spirit of excellence. We are to do our jobs with all our might. Jesus brings out two things that can cause promotion to take place in our lives. First Jesus said that He knew Him (God). The second thing is that He was faithful to what God said. When we have a relationship with God and as we stay faithful in reading and obeying His Word, our lives will not stay the same. God will begin to open doors for us. We will see a greater manifestation of favor. We will see our lives improve because we have made God a top priority. Jesus walked with God and He made the Word a priority in His life. When we do the same, we will see God move on our behalf. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). 

#spiritofexcellence #vcccharlotte #faithfulness #devotional

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 11th

📖 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
—2 Timothy 4:7 NIV

Our goal in life should be to finish the race that God has set before us. Some Christians start off running well, and for various reasons, get off course. God wants us to finish the race he has already set up. There are lives God wants to touch through us no matter what stage of the race we may be in. We must keep our pace and not allow ourselves to get off course. Push through adversity as the Apostle Paul did in his life. Let’s endeavor to run the race that God has set before us, not what He set before someone else. In Acts 26:19 Paul said to King Agrippa “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” We all have our parts to play so, like Apostle Paul, let’s be obedient and content with the vision God has blessed us with.

#vision #devotional #runtherace #verseoftheday #vcccharlotte

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 10th

📖 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of [fearless] courage. —Judges 6:12 AMPC

Gideon had been chosen by God to deliver His people from the hand of the Midianites. When the Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he called him a mighty man of courage. Gideon was anything but courageous. He asked God for several fleeces and was still shaky about his assignment until he overheard a conversation by the enemy (Judges 7). God did not see Gideon as he was, God saw him as a deliverer. God saw him as a fearless man of courage. Many times, we may not appear to be what God has called us to be. God called us healed, prosperous, redeemed, etc. Many times, we don’t look like it or even feel like it from a natural perspective. That is when you walk by faith and not by sight. That is when you agree with God regardless of how you feel. Our job is to call it the way God calls it and to see it the way God sees it. As we continue to do that, our circumstances will fall in line. As we walk with God, His thinking will rub off on us, and we will eventually start to think the way He thinks. And as we do that, we will experience victory the way He planned it. Let’s agree with God today, and things will get better as we do. 

#devotional #vcccharlotte #believe #courage #thecalled

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 8th

📖 Then He told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man was fertile and yielded plentifully. 

And he considered and debated within himself, What shall I do? I have no place [in which] to gather together my harvest. 

And he said, I will do this: I will pull down my storehouses and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain or produce and my goods. 

And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many good things laid up, [enough] for many years. Take your ease; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself merrily. 

But God said to him, You fool! This very night they [the messengers of God] will demand your soul of you; and all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? 

So it is with the one who continues to lay up and hoard possessions for himself and is not rich [in his relation] to God [this is how he fares]. 
—Luke 12:16-21 AMPC

There is a lot that we can learn from this rich man. One thing we see is that his dependency was on the wrong thing. He took comfort in the quantity of his possessions. His trust was in what He had. He was rich in goods, but not rich in God. God wants us to pursue Him and to keep our eyes on Him. Later in the chapter, Jesus told the people to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (or His way of doing things) and the things that the Gentiles seek would be added to them. The rich man’s focus was on his possessions. God wants our focus to be on Him, and the goods will follow. There is nothing wrong with having plenty of goods; we must only make sure that what we have does not control us. 

#richinGod #vcccharlotte #devotional #eyesonGod #focus

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 7th

📖 The merciful, kind, and generous man benefits himself [for his deeds return to bless him], but he who is cruel and callous [to the wants of others] brings on himself retribution. 
—Proverbs 11:17 AMPC 

The Bible tells us that “as you would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31). It is to our benefit to be merciful, kind, and generous to as many people as we can. We must not be cruel and callous to the wants of others, unless we want people to be callous and cruel to our needs. We must understand the importance of the law of sowing and reaping. We reap what we sow. If we sow love, we reap love. If we sow kind words, we reap kind words. If we sow finances, we reap finances. It is to our benefit to live a life of generosity. When we do, our deeds return to bless us, giving us an opportunity to be a greater blessing to humanity. 

#generosity #reap #devotional #sow #vcccharlotte #blessing

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 6th

📖 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 5th

📖 I gave them your word; 
The godless world hated them because of it, 
Because they didn’t join the world’s ways, 
Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways. 
I’m not asking that you take them out of the world 
But that you guard them from the Evil One. 
They are no more defined by the world 
Than I am defined by the world. 

—John 17:14-18 The Message Bible

As believers, we were never meant to embrace the ideals of this world. We are told in Romans 12: 2, “to renew our minds”. We are to be Kingdom minded believers because we are not of this world just as Jesus wasn’t. We don’t embrace the world’s ways just like he didn’t. Jesus operated from a different place. He operated from the Kingdom of God. He spoke and acted differently. John the Baptist said, “he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth” (John 3:31). We are not of the earth (world), we have been born again. We have been translated out of the realm of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. We must conduct ourselves like ambassadors of heaven. We think differently. We talk differently. We were born into the earth, but we are not of the earth. We are no longer defined by the world, just as our Savior wasn’t. We are being conformed to His image, the very image of Christ (Romans 8:29). 

#Kingdomminded #vcccharlotte #different #devotional

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 4th

📖 “A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." -Proverbs 28:20 King James Version

A faithful man is one who realizes that it comes over time. A faithful man is a consistent man. It is a person who is consistent in serving. That person is consistent in their giving. They are consistent in their church attendance. They are marked by their consistency. God is a faithful God. He is consistent in His love for us. He is consistent in His mercy and His kindness towards us. He is our example of faithfulness, and we should follow His example. He wouldn’t ask us to do something that He would not do. Many believers want to be blessed, but their lifestyle will not allow it. If we are going to experience the Blessings of God, we must be faithful. Faithful in obeying His Word. Faithful to what He has called us to do. Faithful in every area of life, just like our Father.

#faithful #proverbs #Tuesdaywisdom #consistency #devotional

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 3rd

📖 Then he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, as the man of God had said, and his flesh was restored like that of a little child, and he was clean. 

Then Naaman returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and stood before him. He said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. So now accept a gift from your servant. 

Elisha said, As the Lord lives, before Whom I stand, I will accept none. He urged him to take it, but Elisha refused. 
—2 Kings 5:14-16 AMPC

Naaman almost missed out on his miracle. The man of God told him to dip seven times in the Jordan, but Naaman initially would not do it. He expected the prophet to give him a different set of instructions. Finally, one of his servants talked him into obeying the man of God, and he received a miracle. He was cleansed from leprosy, and his flesh was restored. When we obey whatever God has instructed us to do, there is always a blessing attached to it. God will never tell us to do something that would be harmful to us. The Bible tells us that if we are willing and obedient, we will eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19). God wants us to eat good, and He wants us to live good as well, but it all starts with obedience to His Word. 

#obedienceisbetterthansacrifice #trustGod #dailydevotional

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | March 1st

📖 “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry.”
-Luke 3:23 The Living Bible

Jesus began His ministry at the age of thirty. He began His preparation at the age of twelve and that would mean He had eighteen years of preparation. Jesus' ministry lasted three and a half years, but it was three and a half years of maximum impact. We must be willing to prepare for whatever God has preordained for us, and we must be willing to prepare for as long as it takes. God knows how to prepare us for what He has called us to do. As a teenager, David was anointed king but did not become king until he was thirty years old. We are not born qualified; we must become qualified. We must be willing to allow God to qualify us through His training and preparation. God knows what it takes for us to succeed, and we must trust Him. He knows what He is doing.

#trustGod #verseotheday #JesusChrist #preparation #ministry #vcccharlotte

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | February 28th

📖 Day by day the Lord observes the good deeds done by godly men and gives them eternal rewards.  He cares for them when times are hard; even in famine, they will have enough. —Psalm 37:18-19 The Living Bible 

It doesn’t matter what is going on in the world, God’s got us. He cares for us. When there is chaos in the world, we can have peace because we know that God has our backs. Even in famine, God will see to it that we have enough. When you read the Word of God, you see God doing that repeatedly for His people. God doesn’t depend on the resources of this world, but He uses the resources of the world to bless His people. His coming through for us is not dependent on the state of our economy. God knows where all the money is. He knows where all of the food is. He knows how to get it to us when we need it. David said, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread”. If God did it for David, He will do it for you. He is no respecter of persons. 

#faithfulGod #provider #psalms #faith #Jesus

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | February 27th

📖 They spent some time in Jericho. As Jesus was leaving town, trailed by his disciples and a parade of people, a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was sitting alongside the road. When he heard that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus! Mercy, have mercy on me!” Many tried to hush him up, but he yelled all the louder, “Son of David! Mercy, have mercy on me!” 

Jesus stopped in his tracks. “Call him over.” They called him. “It’s your lucky day! Get up! He’s calling you to come!” Throwing off his coat, he was on his feet at once and came to Jesus. Jesus said, “What can I do for you?” The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “On your way,” said Jesus. “Your faith has saved and healed you.” In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road. 

—Mark 10: 46-52 MSG 

What’s stopping you? Blind Bartimaeus would not allow anything to stop him from receiving from Jesus. He would not allow the people to shut him up. When they told him to shut up, he cried even louder. This could have been the only time He would have been in the presence of Jesus. He would not allow anything to stop him. Because of his persistence, Jesus stopped and asked for him. He had gotten Jesus’ attention. Bartimaeus received his sight that day. His faith had made him whole, but his faith also caught the attention of Jesus. Faith will always get the attention of God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. God is always pleased when we stand on His Word. He is pleased when we act on the Word. Bartimaeus believed that Jesus could heal him, and his actions showed that. If we want to receive from God, we must do the same thing. Our actions must demonstrate what we believe. 

#walkbyfaith #vcccharlotte #standontheWord #devotional

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | February 26th

📖 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use]. 

So whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work. 

—2 Timothy 2:20-21 AMPC 

What type of vessel would you like to be? A vessel of gold? What about silver? The good news is that it is not up to God to determine what type of vessels we will become. That responsibility is on us. We must cleanse ourselves from contaminating and corrupting influences. We must examine our lives and see what we need to remove to live a life that is pleasing unto God.  As we walk with God and fellowship with Him, He will show us the things that we need to get rid of. Sometimes being in His presence will burn up the things that need to be removed from our lives. God’s Word is another tool God uses to shape and mold us. His Word reveals what is displeasing to Him and shows us how we are supposed to live. God’s Word is like fire (Jeremiah 5:14). It will burn things out of us and purge us. If we hearken to His Word and spend time in His presence, we can become consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work. 

#Godlyinfluences #vcccharlotte #cleanse #devotional #fellowshipwithGod

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | February 25th

📖 “Day by day the Lord observes the good deeds done by godly men, and gives them eternal rewards. He cares for them when times are hard; even in famine, they will have enough." -Psalm 37:18-19 The Living Bible

It doesn’t matter what is going on in the world, God’s got us. He cares for us when times are hard. When there is chaos in the world, we can have peace because God cares for us. Even in famine, God will see to it that we have enough. When you read the Word of God, you see God doing that repeatedly for His people. God doesn’t depend on the resources of this world, but He uses the resources of the world to bless His people. His coming through for us is not dependent on the state of our economy. God knows where all the money is. He knows where all of the food is. He knows how to get it to us when we need it. David said, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread”. If God did it for David, He will do it for you. He is no respecter of persons.

#faithfulGod #provider #psalms #faith #Jesus #saturyay

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | February 24th

📖 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. —Joshua 24:15 AMPC 

Joshua is letting the people know that it doesn’t really matter who they choose to serve. He had already made up his mind that he and his household would serve the Lord. As believers, we must make that same commitment. God desires for our families to serve Him. The angel told Cornelius to ask for a man named Peter, who would explain how he and his household could be saved (Acts 11:13-15). We must have the same attitude. Not only will we serve God, but our children and their children should too. God is a generational God. He desires to walk with each generation. He was called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God put marriage in place so that He would have godly seed. God is always concerned about having a generation that will serve Him; we should be the same. Whatever concerns God should concern us. 

#Jehovah #Bible #devotional #family #vcccharlotte #familyfirst #Godfirst

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | February 22nd

📖 So keep the words of this covenant and obey them, so that you may prosper and be successful in everything that you do. —Deuteronomy 29:9 AMP

The world has its ideas about what it takes to be successful. They have their ideologies, and they have their formulas. Some of their ideas have caused success, but it has not guaranteed success. When we operate by the Word of God, we can know that success is imminent. We can know that God is watching over His Word to perform it. We can know that God is not a man that He should lie. We follow the commandments of the Word of God out of our love and respect for God; and as we follow them, we know that God will honor our obedience. The Bible tells us that it is the doer of the Word that is blessed and not the hearer only (James 1:22). As we are doers of the Word, we can expect the Blessing of the Lord to come upon us and overtake us. It may take patience. It may take diligence, but eventually, we will walk in it if we don’t quit and give up. God’s Word works. 

#success #Godsword #devotional #vcccharlotte

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | February 21st

📖 Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever]. —Romans 8:6 AMPC

What type of mind do you have? Do you have a spiritual mind, or do you have a mind of the flesh? Do you make decisions only out of your intellect? Do you base your decision making on sense and reason without the Holy Spirit? That type of decision-making leads to death. God wants to be a part of every major decision that we make in our lives. He wants to lead and guide us. We can have peace when we know we are following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We can have peace when we know we have heard the voice of God. When we have renewed our minds with the Word of God, and we act on the Word, we can have peace because we know that God is watching over His Word to perform it. We must continue to work on our minds. We must examine our way of thinking. We must make sure that our thinking is in line with the Word of God. 

#mindset #intellect #vcccharlotte #devotional #thinking

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL | February 20th

📖 The king said to me, For what do you ask? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to [him], If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you will send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may rebuild it. 
—Nehemiah 2:4-5 AMPC

Despite the king asking Nehemiah what he wanted, Nehemiah went to God first. Nehemiah was going to the Source of his life. Even though he would later make known to the king what he needed, he was looking to God to make it happen. Nehemiah went to God first. Let this be a lesson to every believer. We are to seek God first when problems or obstacles arise in our lives. If there is an issue in our finances, we go to God first. If our bodies are attacked, we seek God first before we seek anyone else.  Regardless of what comes up in our lives, we go to God first because He is our Source. He is the Source of our wisdom and everything we need. God may use a man, but man is simply the resource. God is the Source. Nehemiah had access to the king, but access to God was more important. Nehemiah kept his eyes on God and God came through. We must do the same. We know we can count on God when we keep our eyes on him, and not on the position of a man. God owns it all and knows how to get it to us. 

#OurSource #vcccharlotte #seekGodfirst #devotional

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