God is building characters!

Little song called Tent Revival. This is how I'm feeling this morning, y'all, so I definitely wanted to share this song with you.

Let's go! It's about the church, first giving honor to the head of my life, the life of the party. His beauty first, don't need no matches. He is fire all by himself. Hey! Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah! Let's lift up.

Okay, good morning and blessings everyone. Thank you guys for joining us on this blessed morning. That was in my soul. I've, you know, I see the word, it's time for a revival in our soul. So today, as we go through our daily devotion and reflection, I just wanted to share this morning how I was feeling. So what better way to express yourself when you're, you know, going anything Facing anything, about to do anything, it's worship. Always, always, always. Anytime lonely, worship answers your soul. So today for our reflection, we want to reflect on a giver's heart. And it's so important that we, you know, we focus on a giver's heart. That means like understanding a giver. Me, my name actually means a giver, and I love being a giver. You know, when I start to hear, you know, you can't outgive God, so that means that I can never stop striving to be obedient to what God says. If God says give, give. So a generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Giving refreshments.

See, we, we talk about giving refreshments. We give juices and all the— but what about a refreshment of the soul? Saying, you know, God, how great God is, you know, praying and sharing in love and joy. Okay, this already got me excited this morning, this devote— this reflection, just reflecting on giving. Like, what makes What brings joy to my soul is when I know that God has given me life. I am here today. I am, you know, even able to speak today, be able to walk. You know, God has given me so much, and I can give him back the glory and the honor. And just praising his name, you know, speaking his name, you know, there, you know, it's refreshing to hear how great God is. how powerful God is, how, how loving God is, how much joy God brings, you know. And then also, you know, Jesus, as far as how, how great he is, how he came and what he done for us, how he gave his only life, his, his life for us, like, so we won't be walking in shame. I, you know, I've been walking in shame before, and just how great Jesus is. I, I am on one this morning, but it's good. Um, Um, also put the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, like the comfort that has been brought to my soul. Oh Lord, let's go and continue to go into this, um, reflection this morning. On our last day in Wisconsin, a friend brought her 4-year-old daughter Kinsley to say goodbye. I don't want you to move, said Kinsley. I hugged her and gave her a canvas hand-painted fan from my collection. When you miss me, use this fan and remember that I love you. Kinsley asked if she could have a different fan, a paper one from my bag. That one's broken, I said. I want you to have my best fan. I didn't regret giving Kinsley my favorite fan. Seeing her happy made me happier. Later, Kinsley told her mother she was sad because I, I kept the broken fan. They sent me a brand new fancy purple fan. After giving generously to me, Kinsley felt happy again. So did I. So, you know, being able to give— we sometimes be like, oh, this is, this is broke, this is broken. But at the same time, it allows, you know, for us to be able to step in and give somebody a new, a new refresh, you know, refreshing mindset and a refreshing perspective, um, a refreshment of joy. You know, these things really— the, in the tangible and intangible things, you know, it's not what brings us joy. It's the action of knowing that, you know, God gave, gave us, you know, life. We can give life back too. So, you know, just speaking, you know, speaking life or giving life in a, in a joyful, gentle patient way, um, it actually helps people to be fulfilled and refreshed in happiness. In a world that promotes self-gratification and self-preservation, we can be tempted to hoard instead of living with giving hearts. However, the Bible says that a person who gives freely gains even more. Our culture defines prosperity as having more and more and more, but the Bible says that a generous person will prosper. And whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. God's unlimited and unconditional love and generosity continually recharges us. God's unlimited and unconditional love and generosity continuously recharges us. We can get— we can each have a giver's heart and create unending giving cycles because we know God. The giver of all good things never gets tired of providing abundantly. So he can do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever, you know, ask, think, or imagine. So therefore, he, he's the source, so he has unlimited amount of resources. So when everything is a resource, I, you know, I was thinking on that yesterday, like everything is a resource. I'm a resource, you are a resource, we're a resource, we're all resources. So, uh, just so we all have the ability to have a giver's heart and be resourceful and our giving in our understanding. So how has the generosity of others helped you get closer to Jesus? It provided— like, somebody gave me patience, you know. Somebody said, you know, although, you know, you You're, you're walk— you're going this way. I'm going to be patient with you in the time that you need to, you know, when I need to mourn or when I need to, you know, just be alone, you know, being patient. Um, but that's not just all the one way generosity. People are very generous every day. Some people don't even know how generous they are, but I do see it. Like, even it is a kind word, a smile. Those things really mean a lot to me. Um, even you can just— a glance, and you're just like— some people you could just glance at and just, you know, God sees you, God is there, you know, you're, you're awesome, you know, just, just telling them just some kind words. Kind words are also a way of generosity. How can you put someone else's need above your own this week? I love when I get to think about that because then that's going to put me into action. And, um, so I pray and ask that right now. Dear God, help me give as generously as you've given to me. So I pray that I give generously this, this week. And that's what I'm going to reflect on as I devote myself more to the word. So the devotion for today is going to be— let's see what the devotion for today is. I can fight injustice with heaven's angel armies. If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. Do you feel dread or anxiety when confronting someone who has wronged you? Many believers fear strong reactions when bringing correction to a brother and sister. I can agree. So, you know, something being a giver, sometimes even you have to give people their faults, um, or, you know, confront, you know, bring confrontation. But confrontation can be a good thing. Um, like you said, many believers fear that strong react, you know, fear strong reactions when bringing correction to a brother and sister. So that, you know, bringing correction, I love it. You— and sometimes even when I, I may seem like I don't like correction or don't want to be correct, I actually like being— I don't like to be complacent. So if, if I'm not receiving correction, then I, I— it gets to the place of being complacent. Um, like you, um, take a test And you get an F. But if nobody ever corrects you, you're stuck at that level of, you know, that grade. But then if you get it corrected, and then that allows someone else to be able to— I mean, that person to be able to continually work at it and improve. So how can you use, um, how can he use you to stop another's bad behavior? You know, they say let your words be seasoned with salt. I guess I need that for that one. My my devotion is adding a little salt, a little salt, a little just a little bit more salt. I'm I'm trying to you know add a little bit more salt. Or, you know, salt and pepper to, um, this correction thing. It's been a— it's been a, um, it's been a journey on trying to bring correction. So I guess I— for me, I would have to bring a little salt. And so our strategy and approach will be eye contact. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you. A stylish young lady is strolling along leisurely, texting with her friend. She glances up periodically to assess her location and then returns her gaze to the contraption she is holding. She senses a shadow looming and lifts her eyes, finding herself face to bark with a birch tree.

Boom!

Keeping our spiritual eyes focused on what's ahead is even more important. Often we look around searching for other resources to meet our needs, to solve our problems, to give us direction, instead of looking straight to Jesus. The amazing truth is that God is longing to make eye contact with us. We look to Jesus, he looks back. And when our eyes meet, we have indeed touched the divine. I was actually, you know, when it comes to always look a man in the eye when you're talking to him, you know, I think that was more for the young men when I was a child. I actually adopted that whole behavior. I adapted that behavior to you. You know, look a man in the eye when I'm talking to him. So at this point, looking in the eyes of Jesus, for me, it brings a great focus of conviction. Like, yeah. So I was actually doing an exercise with kids one day and I was trying to get them to focus, and I was like, okay, everybody hold your arms up. And as they holding their eyes up, do you— it— I don't think I still got full, um, focus, but the, the— it was, you know, a little bit hard for them to focus even with their hands up. And their hands up trying to focus It's the same thing as like keeping our spiritual eyes focused on Jesus, and that's on what, you know, he— God knows the plan. So keeping our minds set on trusting God in what he's doing. So that's the strategy and approach is, um, what image do you see when you picture God? What image do I see when I picture God? I have a picture, and it's full of words, but it's the face of God that you know that's the image of God when I when I see, and I pray one day I get to share it with you guys. So thank you guys for joining. That just today, I'm in. I went into deep reflection and you know devotion and really thinking about this strategy and approach because as I think about the image of you know what do I see when I you know picture God? When I picture God, I see that image, and the image is full of words. So I, I want to seek his face, so I need to seek and go, you know, I'm looking to go look at the picture now. So everybody go out, be blessed, and be fruitful. Plant the seeds. Continue to keep your eyes focused on the word of God and God, and knowing that he is there with you at all times. So thank you guys for joining. Have a blessed day.