Tag: Surrender

Not A Performance

“The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.” — Psalm 145:18 

Today’s a new day! Prayer isn’t a performance. It’s not a speech, a sermon, or a spiritual audition. It’s a conversation — raw, real, and sometimes downright messy. You don’t need a robe, a pulpit, or the perfect words. You just need a moment and faith like a mustard seed. 

God doesn’t wait for you to sound holy. He waits for you to be honest. Whether you’re whispering in a hospital room, shouting in frustration, or mumbling through a mouthful of emotions, He hears you. He’s not grading your grammar — He’s listening to your heart. 

Daniel prayed in danger. Jonah prayed in darkness. Peter prayed while sinking. And you? You can pray in your car, your kitchen, your wheelchair, your recliner or your weakest moment. You can pray with a full plate or an empty stomach. You can pray with tears, laughter, or silence. 

There’s no wrong time to pray. No wrong place. No wrong posture. You can pray standing, sitting, lying down, or leaning on the edge of hope. You can pray in church, at the breakfast table, or as you’re being wheeled into the operating room. 

So stop worrying about sounding like Shakespeare or James Earl Jones. Stop waiting for the perfect moment to pray. Just talk to God. Tell Him about your hopes, frustrations, dreams and hurts. Tell Him what’s funny. Tell Him what you need. And if all you’ve got is “Thank You, Lord,” that’s more than enough. 

Because the power of prayer isn’t in how you say it — it’s in Who you’re saying it to. Can I get an amen? ~OC

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Lessons Being Learned

Today’s a new day! Here are four things that God has been showing me over the past few months. I guess God wanted to remind me of His love, care and purpose for me, even in the midst of this health journey. I pray they encourage you. 

I Am Precious In God’s Eyes:

Isaiah 43: 4 says, ‘You are precious and honoured in my sight, and … I love you.’

As my body and mind continues to be an issue, I need to remind myself continually that God loves me for who I am not what I can do. The Lord has chosen me to be his treasured possession (Deuteronomy 14:2) and I am still precious to him despite my illness. He knows what he is doing and he is good.

If you are feeling that you have no purpose, the Lord wants to tell you differently. He wants you to know that your purpose is being his child, not what you are able to do.

I Am Blessed:

As I continue to walk through this crazy beautiful health journey, I have periods of sadness,  as I mourn the things I am no longer capable of doing. Some days are harder than others and I feel helpless and upset that I am a burden on Laura and others. Yet, God promises that if I lean on him and trust him, he will give me the strength that I need.

I need to ask God daily to help me remember my blessings. I have so much to be thankful for. Each day is a gift to enjoy being with Laura and friends making memories. I cannot allow myself to constantly be distracted by those friends who have decided to walk away, for whatever reason. 

I am reminded that God’s word says that every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17) and I have been able to find much pleasure in the everyday things around me that I had not noticed before.

When you have a serious illness your world becomes much smaller, but in God’s grace even that can be a blessing. God has opened my eyes to see the little things in life and I can pray about them. I have time to see God answering those prayers and to see how he is interested in the tiny little details of our lives. Sometimes, living in the moment is a real privilege. I don’t need to worry about earning money or running a house because I have to trust that God will give others the strength and wisdom to do that. I know I can trust God in the big things because I can see him working in the little things.

I Am Useful:

It has been very hard not being able to get to church services and have fellowship with people. Zoom, text and phone calls are great but they aren’t the real thing. Often, although I know people pray for me and love me from afar, it can feel very lonely away from the church and everyday life. Yet, wherever I am,  I am still part of God’s family. I am still part of life. I really value people visiting and telling me what God is doing in their lives. It is good to be able to serve the Lord by praying for them and with them.

I can encourage others just by continuing to walk out this health journey, and let people see how He continues to move in the midst of the storm. I continue to learn that you don’t always need to be cheerful and smiling to be an encourager. Just sharing your life and your struggles and letting others see how God sustains you even in the midst of pain and darkness can be an encouragement. God continues to show me that Christian fellowship is about sharing your life with others, the ups, the downs, the differences and the bits in between. True fellowship is precious and points us  to Heaven.

Each day I ask God to help me to be content and to make life as easy as possible for those around me. There are times when I struggle with not being fully involved in daily life, but I know life needs to go on around me. I am still a husband, son, friend and I pray that God will make me the best one I can be.

I Am Being Made New:

I continue to learn that God is bigger than all of my health issues. He is good and his ways are perfect. I sometimes wonder why I am here after all these years, but while He allows me to continue living, I know that he will give me the strength to shine for him. I am reminded almost daily, even a weak and tiny flame can bring much light to a darkened room.

Guess what? God doesn’t see my body as decaying. No, my body is being changed for good and when God sees me as ready, he will take me to be with him, forever. I know that I am more than my illness, I am a child of God and I am loved.

Some days, the enemy tries to put fear in my heart. But on those days, I lean on the words of Psalm 23, which states, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me.” I know that God will give me the strength to keep going until he calls me home. I continue to learn not to worry about tomorrow, but to be thankful and trust him for today. God knows what is coming and he will be with me when it comes.

I want to encourage you, in whatever storm you might find yourself walking through, that you are precious to the Lord and he will never leave you nor forsake you. ~OC

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The Race

Today’s a new day! As I continue to recover from my hospital stay, God is reminding me that He created me to be a marathoner, not a sprinter. But, I want to be a 100% now and not wait through the months of recovery. You would think after twenty-three years on this crazy beautiful health journey I would have that lesson memorized.

Throughout my entire life of playing and watching sports, some of the people I have had the most respect for are those athletes who have overcome tremendous hurdles. They work through an injury or trial in life and reach the highest levels in their respective sports.

I always loved running as a child, but never ran a marathon until after my cancer diagnosis. Even a Parkinson’s diagnosis could not keep me from running. However, as I continue to run this crazy beautiful health journey, I realize that it’s not a sprint, but a marathon. Along the path of the race, there will be many trials and tribulations that come along our way. In any sport, teams will face tough stretches where their teamwork will be tested, but it’s how they come out of those trials that determine whether or not they will be called “champions.”

As I ran my marathons, I would often experience fatigue. In the heavenly race, we can consider fatigue to be a temptation whether it is not praying every day or letting our Bible collect dust. We all face different types of temptations and at times, we succumb to those temptations. However, Jesus wants us to drink the living water and trust in Him at all times. In John 4:13-14, we read the following words from Jesus to the woman at the well:

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

With the exception of a few very talented runners, most people run a marathon to finish the race. As Christians, we are taught to run to the finish line or in other words, until God calls us home to be with Him. After you accept the invitation to run with Jesus, there is still training that we all need in order to fully experience all that God has in store for our lives.

Our spiritual training is something we all need to do 24/7/365 in order to run the race God has specifically designed for each of us. It takes a lot of effort to stay in our lanes and sometimes we run into a few hurdles along the way, but the goal we have to remember is ultimately receiving that heavenly reward when we come face-to-face with with Jesus in heaven.

Today, I encourage you to keep running the race God has planned for your life. While it may seem difficult at times and a shortcut might seem tempting, remember the heavenly reward that God has set before us once we finish the race. His Son ran the most grueling part of the race for us when He suffered and died on the cross for us, so that we can have eternal life and have a heavenly reward. I want to encourage you to keep spending time in God’s word each day. When we are equipped with the Gospel, we can withstand any test the enemy throws at us just like our Savior did in the wilderness (Matthew 4).

I want to encourage everyone to run this amazing race with me. My hope and prayer is that everyone comes into a beautiful and personal relationship with Jesus. So as I close out today’s writing, I want to share a little of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians that I believe, sums up my post pretty well.

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” ~Philippians 3:12-14

Today, I encourage each of us to press on towards the ultimate goal. ~OC

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Breakthrough

Today’s a new day! Prayer is about a relationship with Jesus. When we pray, we are committing our concerns, our worries, hurts, fears and joys to the One who wants to do life with us. We are spending time talking with Him just like a best friend. We need to stop making prayer a one way street, and grow in our relationship with the only one who will never fail us and who is always there for us. He is calling us to spend more time with Him. So my friend, pray about everything! Did you get that? Pray about everything. There are many scriptures that encourage us to pray.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” ~Matthew 11:28-30

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ~Philippians 4:6

God says commit your plans to Him. He wants us to surrender everything to Him. He wants to carry our burdens. God wants to do life with us. The trouble lies when we try to keep carrying ourselves and then get upset when the changes we are crying out for don’t seem to change, or go our way.

We need to learn to let go…..

So, today surrender your whole heart to Jesus. Give Him your life, your concerns, and worries today. Lay it all before Him and then trust what He is doing. Pray for spiritual eyes to see things His way because it doesn’t always go the way we want, but it’s always for our good when we live in relationship with Him.

Maybe you have found deep hurt after praying, or things went badly and you feel scared to let go. I get it. We have all been there. This can be so hard. But when we realize just how much God loves us and His plans for us are good, everything changes and we find healing. We can find beauty from the ashes. The key is to surrender it all to the Lord. Then trust that God is working it all out for our good.

God never promised us a life without trouble, but He did promise He would walk through it with us. So when life throws you a curve ball or you’re stressed out about the pressures of life, stop and do this one thing. Pray. God really does want us to pray about everything because He cares for every area of our lives.

As we have just started a New Year, I know many are praying about a breakthrough in your life. Here are some things I have learned over the years about experiencing your breakthrough.

1). Spend time with the God all day every day through conversation with Him, with worship music, or just sit in His silence. Listen and read scripture. Taking time to journal everything He is saying to you.

2). Repent. Sometimes we get so caught up in us, we forget about Him, so it’s important to ask for forgiveness when we have lost focus.

3). Surrender your plans for His plans. Sometimes it’s just a perspective change in seeing the blessings in the hardship. Learning to totally depend on Jesus is key to knowing His loving character better.

4). Ask for prayer from trusted and Godly family and friends to help carry you in prayer through this season.

5) Be specific in your prayers. Spend time talking and listen to Jesus telling Him exactly what you need. Rather than just saying Lord help me, pray specifically for what you want or need and pray in Jesus name (there is power in the name of Jesus!)! Pray wherever you are and while you are doing all the things, just like you would talk to your best friend. Always praying. Always in conversation with Him being specific.

Here is a prayer, I hope will help guide you through this season.

Dear God, I am struggling to know what to do and how to persevere in this. but God you need me to depend on you and not on my own strength so help me to surrender this over to you. Please forgive me for not despending on you. Where I am weak you are strong so I will depend on you today, so you show up and its not me. Forgive me for carrying the burdens you never intended for me to carry and I release it all over to you today ___________ (speak outloud your struggles you are battling with today).

I pray this post helps you as God prepares you for your breakthrough. Blessings. ~OC

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Daily Goals

Today’s a new day!

My Ten Daily Goals:

*Love Jesus

*Pursue Jesus

*Live out the gospel

*Love my bride

*Love people. All people

*Serve others

*Die to self

*Surrender all to Jesus

*Encourage people

*Show forgiveness

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United

In a divisive age, it’s easy to get caught up in our many differences. From denominational differences, political beliefs, even our favorite sports teams. We tend to argue a lot. With drama flooding our every interaction on social media to the real world, we can feel stressed. angry and alone. But are we really as different as we think?

There’s no escaping our many differences. They’re broadcast to us daily across social media, news outlets,work places and even our places of worship. We are hearing voices of disagreements from people of all walks of life. Sometimes, it feels like nobody is even trying to listen. These are trying times.

It’s tough to admit, but we tend to turn a small disagreement into WWIII. When truth be told, we have much in common with our brothers and sisters in Christ. For example, we are all sinners. We all need forgiveness. We all need grace. We all need love. We all need Jesus.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we should all be united in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Some of us attend different demonstrations. Those denominations have different ways of doing things. But at the end of the day, if we believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried, rose three days later and is coming back for His children, we should rejoice together and lay our differences at the foot of the Cross. We should stand United. ~OC

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Surrender

The following words are from Jesus:

Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple. Luke 14:33

Are you truly willing to surrender it all to Jesus? I encourage each one of us to spend time in prayer with Jesus before answering this most important question. ~OC

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Surrender

Most people do not like the word Surrender. For many the word means giving up or losing. This is especially true in the me first culture of today. But if we want to truly walk as a disciple of God’s, we cannot skate over the beautiful truth of surrendering.

When our bodies are out of alignment, we can definitely feel it. If we do not have our doctor check things out, our bodies will continue to decline. Not just physically, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually. We will start experiencing more defeats than victories.

Until we bring our thoughts and actions into proper alignment with God, we will continue to wear out. We will continue being out of alignment. But when we completely lay everything at the foot of the Cross, we become properly aligned with the will of God. Our hopes and dreams stop being centered around us and start being centered on the will of our Heavenly Father.

When we get caught up in the culture of the world, it can be tough to get realigned with the will of God. But surrendering everything to God is the first step to living a victorious and abundant life. I pray you take that first step today. ~OC

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Why A Christian?

I am a Christian. A lot of my family and and friends are Christians. There are 2.18 billion Christians worldwide. That is a lot of people. But why do so many people call themselves a Christian? Have you ever spent time asking yourself that question? I think it’s a pretty important question to not only ponder, but to have an answer. Here is a little of my story answering this very important question.

I grew up in a home where everyone believed in God. We were taught to treat people with respect. To love our neighbors. And don’t you ever take the Lord’s name in vain. But we did not attend church on a regular basis. Not that my parents had anything against church. We just did not make it a priority. My brother and I were baptized at the local Baptist Church as children. I considered myself a Christian at that time, but could really not tell you why. That started changing in 1985.

I graduated from Twin Lakes High School in 1984. Yes, I am that old. After high school, I was not really sure what I wanted for the rest of my life. Then in 1985, a group of cheerleaders from my old high school were involved in a terrible car accident on their way home from a competition. Several were injured and one young lady was tragically killed. I did not know this young lady very well, but I knew her. Her father was actually one of my middle school teachers. We called it Junior High back in the day. That accident rocked a lot of people. Including myself. At Debbie’s funeral several people shared how short life was and how were we choosing to live it. I walked away from that funeral with a lot of questions. How was I living my life? Was my life making a difference?

Several months later, I truly accepted Jesus into my life and was baptized. I wish I could tell you that I turned away from my old life and everything was full of sunshine from that day on. Sadly that was not the case. For several years, I walked in between my old life and my new life in Jesus. Then one of the greatest things in my life happened. My parents moved away from West Palm Beach, FL. Wait. What?

In 1988, my parents house was bought by the airport and they decided to move away from West Palm Beach. At the time, I was attending Palm Beach Atlantic University and living at home. With my parents moving, I decided to move on campus. A life changing decision. I was blessed to have some great roommates in Tim Tate, Ben Starling, Pedro Linares and Bruce Speers. They were patient with this young guy who had a lot of questions about faith. Besides my roommates, Tim Moffett Jennifer Vaughn, Julie Tyler and Babs Tate decided to pour life into me. Never any judgement. Just a lot of understanding and a bunch of grace. It was during that year that I fully surrendered my whole life to Jesus. I have been far from perfect since making that decision, but I have continued to seek after Jesus.

Today as I walk through this crazy beautiful health journey, I am grateful for those people who built into me all those years ago. They helped me become the person God created me to be. Thank you.

Because I saw firsthand people living out their faith and sharing it with me. Because I have seen God use a broken person (me), to help encourage many as I walk through this crazy beautiful health journey. The only answer I have for any of that is Jesus. That is why I am a Christian. ~OC

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