Category Archives: Devotionals

3:2 Write it down

Posted in 32, Are you listening, Blessings, Christians, Devotionals, Disciples of Christ, Faith, Faith Walk, God's word, Guidance, Journey to New York, New York, Purpose Driven life, Spiritual growth, Spreading the Gospel, The call, Uncategorized by

If you know me, then you know that I LOVE to write. I LOVE journals and pens!!! Pens just make my world so much better!

This pen was a gift from my friend Jessica.

Ever since I can remember, I have loved to write. I especially enjoyed writing on walls at home and furniture and yes I did get whooped for that. When I began to journal in high school, it helped me pour out my heart in a way that I felt safe. Sharing what was going on inside of me with others was not something I felt comfortable doing. Once I got to college, journaling was quickly replaced with all of my Biology and Chemistry notes, new friends and a new environment for me to try to change my past. Yeah that didn’t work out very well but during those years, I thought I was really changing and doing better. Oooh boy was I wrong!!

Next comes post graduation life aka the real world with real bills and real struggles. I found myself trying to get back into the journaling swing of life but that was short lived. There were too many new things going on around me. I moved to a new city hours away from home, I had a real full-time job in a career that I didn’t even go to school for or any training, dating and new friends on top of so much more. I was all over the place and distracted by so much. During that season I was depressed, broken down even more, faced failure in the most difficult and trying way possible. Inspite of that I pushed through all of the pain into God and truly desired a real intimate relationship with Him. I never had a real intimate relationship with Him before and only with a few people in my life up to that point.

As you read the title of this post Write it down, what came to mind? Well God downloads information inside of us that He wants us to bring it to life with our uniqueness that He has created within us. Only you can do what God has designed for you to do in a way that only you can with your personality and looks. Nobody else can do what you are called to do like you can. I REALLY want for you to get what I’m saying because I know that someone that is reading this post needs this. I have struggled pretty much my whole life with identity issues and how I didn’t understand why I looked this way and not like others. Especially when it came to my personality, I am am extremely silly person that is very spunky but at the same time I can go real deep with you in .005 seconds. A lot of people aren’t use to that and I included myself in that because I wasn’t use to it due to never meeting anyone like myself. God has used my personality in mind blowing ways that I am grateful for. He knew that I could only cross paths with certain people that needed to experience Jesus through the Spirit that’s within me and the way that I deliver it all.

So let’s get back to the title. I was told several times tonight that I need to write down the visions that God has shown me so that I won’t get distracted and off course. Ask God to reveal the different parts to your vision meaning who is apart of it and what you are desiring. My main take away from tonight’s Bible study was I can’t share my vision with everyone. God will release me to tell those individuals that will be apart of it. Everyone can’t handle and understand what God is doing in your life. He will separate you in order to elevate you to the level that He needs you on. That was for somebody 😊

3:2 Discussion question for tonight… Have you created a vision board for this year and wrote out the plan for it? Disclaimer… your plans and God’s plans may not match up and His plans will ALWAYS overthrow yours any day so make sure that you hold very loosely to your plans and trust that if God throws you a curveball, you will be ok with His greater plan.

Proverbs 16:3 NIV Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.

‘Til next time my loves remember to grab your favorite pen and sit quiet before God and let Him pour into you!!!

❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤

Oh and let’s just say that I DEFINITELY made up for the fewer tears that I shed on yesterday… Today – signed the big cry baby!

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3:2 Blind faith

Posted in 32, Blessings, Christians, Devotionals, Disciples of Christ, Faith, Faith Walk, Jesus Christ, Journey to New York, New York, Purpose Driven life, Spiritual growth, The call by

I am glad to announce that I’ve only cried one time today!! That’s a record for me LoL!! Today has been such a special day for me. It all started off at work when my work family had a breakfast celebration for me. The food was delicious and the decorations blew me away. Here are some pictures

Each week in our staff meetings, we take turns doing a devo for the group. Today was my last one. As I was thinking about what I was going to teach on, I asked God what do we all need to think about right now? So I did my devo on blind faith. I asked several questions about what does that mean to them and I asked myself the same questions. The responses were right on point and had a very interesting take.

So let me ask you what does blind faith mean to you?

My take on it is that in order for me to grow in my relationship with God, my faith has to be my foundation. When I’m called out of my comfort zone and out onto the water, I will not look at the size of the assignment but at who’s calling me to it. I will not know all of the details BUT my faith in God and the trust that I have is what’s leading me blindly to wherever God is calling me to with Him. My move to New York is definitely an example of this. He is strategically revealing bits and pieces about this new chapter. My trust and faith has been taken to another level right now and continues to grow.

I just love how God continues to remind me that I’m still on assignment here in Houston and He still has daughters that need to experience Jesus in a life changing way. Today was the perfect example of that. My bestie and I taught a class together tonight and I absolutely loved it. We feed off of each other and are very passionate about Jesus.

We only got to the third point due to some amazing conversations that were being had among us. Being obedient even when it doesn’t make sense is what God wants. I never thought in a million years that I would be teaching at this level and to this audience. So much joy and laughter filled my heart tonight.

As I was walking through the office, I walked by this picture and said “oh WOW, how timely is this”!!

In closing, during the discussion on blind faith one of the elders at my church which I call “The Don Father” answered the question by saying that sometimes we think that having blind faith while we are figuratively walking  in the forest that we won’t run into any trees or trip over a log. That’s not the case, things will come up in life while we are on our faith walk. Trusting God and continuing the journey is blind faith. We open ourselves up to be extremely vulnerable when we walk blindly with God because we don’t know what situation will present itself.

3:2 Discussion questions:

  1. What is a situation that you can think of that has required blind faith?
  2. What was the outcome of it?

‘Til next time my loves, show someone that you love them!!!!!
❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤🗽❤

This little light of mine….. Part II

Posted in Devotionals, Disciples of Christ, Fruitful living, Uncategorized by

Last night as I’m sitting at the stop light waiting for it to change, I was confused by all of the green lights that were shining when my light turned green. The confusion moment that I experienced showed me that even though light was present, it caused confusion to me because I didn’t process the timing of them being synced. At times in our lives, yes our lights are shining but they are off synced with God’s plan and purpose for us. Take time to get back in sync with God and make sure the light is shining with His control panel. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a bad thing to have the light out of sync because it should caused you to pause and allow that conviction to do its job. Having those convictions were created to steer us back to our Father. Admit that getting out of sync with God caused you to be confused and that you are going to get back on track with him. Another thing that God revealed to me about all of those green lights that I experienced last night, was Him giving me the green light to keep going pursing my dreams and that He has already gone ahead of me to make that happen. I invite you to truly seek God’s will for your life and allow Him to speak to you. It’s all about building that intimacy with Him. His desires will become your desires if you fully let Him in. Invite Him in so He can unpack a become a permanent resident.

SPOTLIGHT VERSE:

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin 1 John1:7

Have you ever wondered why when you meet or are around someone who is full of joy, causes you to feel extremely comfortable around them and happy? That person or persons are living in the light of Christ. The “comfortable” feeling  that they are experiencing is God’s light. When I was living in darkness, I didn’t appreciate and fully understand the meaning of the light. That caused me to try and avoid the light or most times I would just tolerate it and put my shades on to block it out as long as I could. I pray that you understand what I was saying. Are you wearing your sun shades right now or in constant search of some sort of shade? I’m here to tell you that being in the presence of the light and walking in the light is the way that God created us. He created us to be dependent on it and without it, unfortunately we will never live a fruitful purposeful life that He designed us to experience. I don’t know about you, but I want to experience all of the blessings that God has for me on this earth. It’s the only way to live! So be encouraged my friend…It’s not too late to turn towards the light and take off those sun shades.

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I have the light!!!

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Both of these pictures symbolize me living in the light of God. 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

‘TIL NEXT TIME MY LOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

♡Posted by Sweet Inspirations by Candyce♡

This little light of mine….. Part I

Posted in Christians, Devotionals, Disciples of Christ by

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Ok am I the only one that started singing 🎤 this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine… Let it shine, let it shine, let it shinnnnneeeeeee (insert a run of your choice)🎤. That last part was me being silly. But as a little girl I use to sing that song and did not truly understand what it was all about. I would say within the past 2 years I grabbed a hold of the Scriptures that gave us the perfect examples to walking in the light. Another song that just came to mind is We’ll walk in the light, the beautiful light, somewhere the dew-drops of mercy are bright. Shine all around us by day and by night. Jesus, the light of the world. It’s amazing how songs that once meant nothing to you, can speak to your life in mighty ways once you allow God into your life. And not just allowing him come in temporarily to visit you but to unpack and reside in your heart permanently. There are so many verses that tell us how we should be as Christ followers. Here are some of my favorite scriptures:

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin 1 John1:7

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105 NLT

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9 NLT

You are the light of the world–like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. Matthew 5:14 NLT

All of those verses speak about Jesus and how He was sent to be the light to this dark world. When we decided to become a Christian, we made a decision to be some form of illumination source for this dark world. You may be thinking 💭💭💭 well my life is too dark right now and how can I possibly be a light to someone. Well my friend that is the beauty of knowing our heavenly father. He does not care how much you’ve messed up, he can still use your mess and turn that into your message. Don’t allow the enemy to feed you those lies of shame from your sins. It’s his goal to keep you down so that you will not illuminate this earth. I saw a quote about a year ago that talked about glow sticks. We all have to be broken in order to glow.

I just decided to make this a short series about the light. God has a way of delivering messages right on time. So stay tuned in to this light mini series. I will take a Scripture a day that I listed above and break it down to you. Also I will post some pictures I took of some different beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
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I took this picture Saturday right behind DFW airport in Irving, Texas.

Keep walking in the light shining brightly!!!!

‘TIL NEXT TIME MY LOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

♡Posted by Sweet Inspirations by Candyce♡

‘Tis YOUR season to be jolly…

Posted in Devotionals, Disciples of Christ, Faith, Jesus Christ, Purpose Driven life, Spiritual growth, Spreading the Gospel, The call, Uncategorized by

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‘Tis the season to be jolly… Fa la la la la la la la la!!! Have you ever thought about what that song means? Well it hit me yesterday while listening to my pastor that speaking about the Christmas season. I thought about my life and how much it has changed within the past year. I can’t believe that it has been a year since I moved back to Houston. God has used me in ways that I would have never imagined.

A thought came to me as ’tis your season (Candyce) to be jolly. Meaning it is hard to accept the seasons of life that you’re in especially when it’s not what you imagined or planned for. But rejoicing in the current season that you are in will produce that joy that only God can give. My life is far from perfect and no  where I thought I wanted to be but I thank God it’s where I need to be. He has shown me so much favor and I will be forever grateful. God has shown me that so many  people need to be exposed to who He is and how He uses me and so many other wonderful Christians to share His love. Even though I will never fully grasp how deep His love is for me, I experience it and I love passing it on. I challenge you to do the same

Now it’s your turn to rejoice in your season whether it’s storming in your life or sunny skies… Learn to be content and full of joy wherever you are. This current season of Celebrating Jesus is more than enough to bring joy to your life.

Matthew 1:23AMP Behold, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel–which, when translated, means, God with us. [Isa. 7:14.]

God is always with us even when we feel alone. Look at the positives in your life and not your mistakes. Remember mistakes are proof that you’re trying. Keep your head held high and connected to the only source of your life… GOD!!

WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎄🎄🎄

IF YOU HAVEN’T SUBSCRIBED TO MY BLOG OR SIGNED UP TO RECEIVE EMAILS PLEASE DO.

‘TIL NEXT TIME MY LOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!

♡Posted by Sweet Inspirations by Candyce♡

The race is on! Round & Around we go!

Posted in Blessings, Christians, Devotionals, Faith Walk, Purpose Driven life, Spiritual growth, Spreading the Gospel by

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Philippians 3:13-14

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.

This would be a great soul searching point to figure out what you are chasing after. Take some time to consult God to show you your heart ❤️. This will show you what you are truly chasing after in your life.

I will tell you that it’s not an easy pill to swallow IF what you’re chasing after things that are not in God’s will for your life. He will show you that your path is not the designed path that He created you to walk on. Trust me I have been on a path of obtaining everything that I wanted and thought would make me live a successful fulfilled life. Which left little room for God which was when I needed Him to come in a fix the hot mess of my life that I was creating. It wasn’t until I asked Him to show me the plan/path that He designed for me, that I actually felt joy, peace and guidance like no other. God had to completely shake up/detour my plans in order to unveil the once viewed as a road block that was under construction part of my path/life. View it as a new road that is new and less traveled with a mixture of beautiful scenery with some mysterious destinations that will become unveiled once you get to that location on your path. If you find yourself chasing after a career, a spouse, letters behind your name, fame, money etc. and you do not have God anywhere or He’s a very small part of your race, make Him first. I’m not saying that having all of those things is against God’s plan but if you didn’t seek Him first then it will all be in vain. Rememeber the Scripture that says only what we do for Christ will last. Those good works that were done out of self gratification and to show off for others will do us no good in heaven. It’s all about lining our priorities up with God’s priorities and not our own. He will show you your purpose IF you seek Him.

So I ask what are you chasing after in your life? The race was on the second you came into this world. We are all running our own race on different paths that hopefully ultimately lead to the greatest finish line of all times. I say hopefully because I pray that you all have accepted Christ as your personal savior so that you can cross that great finish line into eternity! 🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁

Here are some steps to running a purpose driven race: 🏃👟
1. Seek God first in everything you do at all times Matthew 6:33
2. Pray/talk to God as often as you talk to someone that is close to you.
3. Build your relationship with Him.
4. Ask yourself if what you are chasing after will be a testimony to others to show how wonderful God is.
5. Understand that you will be uncomfortable and there will be a lot of stretching you as a person to become who God created you to be.
6. Stay encouraged through the disappointments.
7. Remind yourself that you will only be on this side of heaven for a short time and only what you do for Christ will last. Heaven is full of blessings and rewards for the faithful believers.

‘TIL NEXT TIME MY LOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

♡Posted by Sweet Inspirations by Candyce♡

Are you wearing GOD-GGLES?

Posted in Blessings, Christians, Devotionals, Disciples of Christ, Spiritual growth, Spreading the Gospel by

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Have you ever wondered how it really looks to show love to others? Over the past few years I have discovered how to love everyone like God commands us to. Trust me when I tell you that it is not an easy task. When you look at them through the eyes of God, your whole outlook changes. That is when the compassion steps in and softening of  your heart steps in. Again this is no easy task that you can do on your own, keep God on your mind and practice showing this love to the world. ❤️🌍🌎❤️

Helpful tools and benefits to help with wearing your God-ggles:
1. Remember the love that God has for you.

2. Recall the non loving things that you have done and said to people. Remember how they still love you inspite of your faults.

3. Your outlook on life will be a much lighter and cheerful one.

4. Fun to be around due to your loving nature.

5. Patience level will increase.

6. Discernment will be sole dictator of your existence due to the wisdom that you gain from God.

7. You will truly understand God’s love and be able to show it.

8. You will be able to spot distractions and be able to fight temptations.

These are just some benefits to wearing your God-ggles. You will have better than 20/20 vision!!!

Don’t leave home without your God-ggles each day 👓 🏠 you need them to go along with your full armor of God.

Ephesians 6:10-18New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against [a]flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 [b]in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 [c]With all prayer and petition [d]pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, [e]be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

‘TIL NEXT TIME MY LOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
👓❤👓❤👓❤👓❤👓❤👓❤👓❤👓❤👓❤👓

♡Posted by Sweet Inspirations by Candyce♡

In the presence of God!

Posted in Devotionals, God's word by

1 John 1:9 But if we confess our sins, God will forgive us.We can trust God to do this. He always does what is right. He will make us clean from all wrong things we have done.

Confessing your sins is the only way that you will be in fellowship with God. When you approach God, you have to be clean from sins. Asking for forgiveness and confessing your sins gives you a pure heart and that’s what God wants from us. Repent of those sins and ask God to remove them from your life. God will give you the strength to do that and to recognize them as soon as it happens in order to give it to God. The desire to get rid of those strongholds in your life must come from a place of wanting to be pure and a spirit of wanting to be all that God has created you to be. He will guide you IF you allow Him to. Once those strongholds are broken, you will be able to see God CLEARLY!

‘TIL NEXT TIME MY LOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m going to make an example out of you!

Posted in Devotionals, God's word by

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I know that you have probably heard that ever so haunting phrase “I’m going to make an example out of you”. For a lot of us, that phrase carried a fearful and demeaning tone/message that was associated with it. Whenever you got in trouble or did something that another person that was in authority disagreed with, they felt that a punishment should follow. That punishment would show other people not to make the same mistake or to not disobey their authority. Either way you look at it, there was something to learn.

The Scripture 1 Timothy 4: 11-14 MSG

11-14 Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use.

So back to the title. In this sense of “making” an example out of you, God wants to use all of us as examples to this world to show how GREAT & LOVING & ALL POWERFUL He is. So when things occur in our lives no matter what age you are, be certain that He wants to use you as the perfect example of how God forgives and redeems us from our past. Being the perfect example is simply being who God created you to be. No matter what mess ups you have committed, God uses our MESS ups to be apart of our great MESSAGE. So do not be ashamed of them because we are redeemed!!

If you have any comments or questions please leave them in the comments or you can email me at sweetinspirationsbycandyce@gmail.com

Photo credits: CANDYCE D. I TOOK THAT PICTURE A FEW WEEKS AGO OUTSIDE AT THE MILLER OUTDOOR THEATRE.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
‘TIL NEXT TIME MY LOVES!!!!!!!!!!

♡Posted by Sweet Inspirations by Candyce♡

Do you want the real deal or a knockoff?

Posted in Christians, Devotionals, Jesus Christ, Loving yourself, Purpose Driven life by

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🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪🚪 Settling for imitations of love are like all of these closed doors. You are dancing in the hallways of “bliss” & “happiness” only to realize that you don’t have the right key 🔑 to open any of those doors. All of those doors represent something different in each of our lives. For example, one door could represent a relationship that you have invested so much time and wasted energy that functions outside of the will of God. Another door could be a job that you have but it’s not stretching or growing you into your purpose. Or a door that was closed by God in order to protect you from what you thought you wanted. Whatever these closed doors represent to you is something that you are going to have to take to God in prayer and ask him to show you why they are closed.

When we settle for knock offs, we are telling God that we don’t deserve His best for us and that we are ok with whatever comes our way. If it doesn’t line up with God’s word then it is an imitation and we should have no part of that. Knowing your true worth and value has nothing to do with monetary values and materialistic views, it comes from knowing that Jesus died to save us from these knock offs that fill our hearts with lies.

Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Lies that say you should do whatever you can while you can, you’re only young for a short while so do it, this person really loves you so accept it and love them back even if they are living contrary to God, your biological clock is ticking so hurry up and get a man/woman no matter what his/her view point is of God etc. And the list goes on and on of these imitations. So I’m asking you, do you know what true love is and what does that look like in your life? You have to be careful with those knock offs because they not only will lead to those closed doors everytime but heartache, stress, possible drugs and emptiness just to name a few. Trying to use those knock offs as the real deal will only lead to mediocrity and disappointments. There’s no way the hallway  “bliss” dance will ever supply you with the REAL love that God has for you.

His love will unlock those doors and will never be a knock off! I have been a victim of accepting the knock offs and dancing in the “blissful” hallway thinking that I was really enjoying life and “making things happen”. I had to learn what God’s love really meant and how that looked in my life. Accepting His real love will change your whole approach on life (relationships, attitudes, how you treat people, walking in your purpose, experience joy, eternal gain and kingdom building etc.) Walking through those doors will take you to another level in experiencing God’s love. He will never stop loving us no matter what BUT to understand and feel His love requires the imitations to be thrown out. When you love someone or something you naturally give your best and do not want to mess anything up. Give God your best and share His love to others so they can stop accepting the knock offs.

If you have any comments or questions please leave them in the comments or you can email me at sweetinspirationsbycandyce@gmail.com

Do you know what love means? ❤️

‘TIL NEXT TIME MY LOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

♡Posted by Sweet Inspirations by Candyce♡