In mathematics, if-then statements are statements that proves if something happens then something else will happen.
For example:
If you water your plants every day, then your plants will grow.
If you mix red with white, then you get pink.
If you swim without a life jacket, and you don’t now how to swim, then you’ll drown.
The two-letter word “if” is pretty loaded. Continue reading
No one likes to hear a “no.” 
“No” means you’ve been denied something, put on restrictions, cannot receive what you wanted. We dread hearing “no” from our friends, family, potential opportunities, even our lovers. We especially hate hearing a “no” from God.
We’ve been so conditioned to believe that being told “no” means we’ve reached end of our quest for what we sought after, that many times we stop seeking all together OR take a totally different approach in a different direction that we never wanted to go in in the first place.
I’d like to challenge our thinking for a bit.
What if every time you were told “no”, you knew that the next answer would be the “perfect yes”? How many “no’s” would you endure to reach that perfect “yes”?
Diligence:
n. [L., to love earnestly; to choose.]
Why?
There is power in the word “no”. It liberates us, gives us the power to know that the next job we apply for, relationship we try, business plan we write, school we seek admission to will get us closer to His perfect will.
I have a good friend who was given her dream job! She was excited and, after not working for several months, felt like her prayers had been answered. A week later, she was let go. No real explanation other than they needed to keep the position “open.” Devastated, she took a couple of days to regroup, packed her “no” in her satchel bag, and kept pounding the pavement.
A week later, she was called to interview for another job that paid more money, required less hours, and had more perks.
Had she never gotten a “no”, she would have never gotten to the perfect “yes”.
What “no’s” have you gotten lately? I challenge you to take them, pack ’em up, and get excited. Your perfect “yes” is on the way!
On the Chase,
Alisha L.
I don’t take any occurrence in my life as happenstance or by coincidence.
I believe that everything that I encounter is a result of divine purpose and intervention.
I’m not a religious freak that gives a “God bless you” after every sentence, but I do believe that nothing my friends, is by chance.
Today, I took Ashli to the movies to see Gnomeo and Juliet (great flick, BTW) and as we were leaving the theater, Ashli yelled, “mommy! There’s a $5 bill!” I took a few steps back and sure enough, there was a $5 near the bushes.
A few paces later, I spotted a $1 bill on the ground.
Considering the wind was at a high gust, it was surprising that those bills were lying there, undisturbed, seemingly waiting.
In usual “I’m addicted to social media” fashion, I tweeted our finds to the World Wide Web.
Someone suggested that I look up the biblical meaning of the number 6. So I did.
The number 6 is the number of man; man was created on the 6th day (as was Satan), it is the human number, the number of human labor (devoid of God’s assistance).
After reading that, I thought, I don’t know if I like that. I decided to look up a set of numbers that make up the number 6: 5 and 1.
The number 5 is the number of grace. Grace = favor. Favor to the unworthy (undeserving) = Grace!
The number 1 is the number of independence, the beginning, God is solitary, needs no help.
What, then, does this mean?
In my walk with God, I’ve done a lot of the work. I’ve toiled, labored, hustled, manipulated to manifest what I needed to happen. Whether that was to pay a bill or get an opportunity, I *cough* unnecessarily put myself to work to get things done. I’ve been “sixing”.
Lately, I’ve been faced with trials, been in need, believing God for some things that, in a former life, (you know, when I was a Sixer) I would have been on my hustle trying to make happen myself. I realized today that I’ve been operating at a 5 and 1.
I’ve received favor from God that I didn’t deserve. I decided to take my hands of certain situations, not revert back to bad habits and allowed him to work in solitary.
There’s someone reading this who is a Sixer. They’ve been trying to make things happen on their own for the longest, and while they’ve gained some ground, they haven’t been as successful as they’d like to be.
Stop working under man’s number. Stop “sixing”. Become a 5 and 1.
God’s grace and favor is there, waiting for you to take your hands off it and let Him work alone.
You may say, “I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to stop worrying, stop hustling. I’ve been doing it so long, that stopping my work to let HIM work seems backwards.”
His command his simple: Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. –1 Peter 5:7
Just do it. Be carefree in Him. Doesn’t mean you neglect responsibility and put your best foot forward, but let Him do the work. He doesn’t need our help or assistance and if you mess up, His grace is sufficient. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
On the Chase of 5 and 1,
Alisha L.
I find it interesting that the definition for the word “sacrifice” says that we surrender something “prized or desirable…”
Sometimes we feel like what we have right now is the best of the best. That boyfriend or girlfriend. That job or business. That chunky booty. For so long, we’ve become content with the current and, eventually, we begin to believe that it has become our “prized or desirable.”
The second part of that definition, however, gets to the good stuff.
“…for the sake of something considered having a HIGHER or MORE PRESSING claim.”
Sacrificing, in itself, sets us up to receive better, more, greater than what we had before. Everyone may not have to sacrifice in the same areas (i.e. if you have a great relationship/marriage, you don’t sacrifice that for “greener grass. Sitcho butt down.)
But those areas in which we desire for more, we must lose or surrender something that we may feel is already a prized possession.
Before the clock strikes midnight and brings in a new year, I want us all to consider what we would be willing to sacrifice to gain what it is that we want. Really consider it.
And Jesus called [to Him] the throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his cross, and follow Me. Mark 8:34, Amplified
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1, New KJV
I like the fact that the bible says that it is our “reasonable service” in Romans 12. Reasonable means to be moderate, something that is capable of doing or expecting.
What God expects of us, when we “sacrifice”, is reasonable, doable, and in most cases, moderate.
Surely, it doesn’t feel that way when we have to give up what we’re used to or what our flesh likes. But when we consider that what we gain is much greater than what we feel like we are losing.
In the New Year, I plan to sacrifice. Yes, it’s going to hurt like hell, but what I plan to gain is much, much greater than what I feel I’m losing.
Join me, wont you?
On the Chase,
Alisha L.
Mark 11:22 reads:
And Jesus answering saith unto them, “Have faith in Money. Man. The GOP. Cars. Weezy. The Real House Wives. Your boss. Your crazy baby mama. Your equally crazy baby daddy. Obama. Your [insert college/university name here]. Your skills. Who you know. Your family name. Your education. Freeing T.I. Your sorority. Your frat brothers. The NAACP. The BET Awards. Self. Love. Man. Sex in the City 2. Big. Facebook. Their opinions. Your past. Your potential. Your future. Him. Her. Them. Lawmakers. The Feds. The media. The medicines. The doctors. The health reports. Your bank account. The economy. Your job. A book. Oprah. Dr. Phil. Dr. Oz. The Illuminati. Nicki Minaj’s Monster Voice. Drake’s album. Kanye’s ballet dancers. MC Hammer’s diss track. Your father. Your lost innocence. Your mother who didn’t protect you. Your pain. Your refusal to let go. His mistakes. Your failures. Your pastor. Your church. Your religion. A lace front. A Booty Pop. A facade. The fairytales. Prince Charming. The white horse. Lebron. Kobe. Your degree. Your dissertation. Your collegiate “greatness”. Your gargantuan amounts of supercilious vocabulary. Your iPhone, iPad, iPod, i..i..i.. Your BLACKer the BERRY. People.
God.”
On the chase,
Alisha L.
Target practice. Watch your back.
The closer and closer we get to destiny, the bigger the target we become.
Not Target™, the fun, whimsical store that sells the upper echelon things that Walmart™ has for 20% cheaper…
That invisible target that is on your back, radiating, waiting to be struck with the enemy 9MM. Well, he’s a heavy hitter. Let’s say his .45.
Remaining in the will of God gives us protection like no other. No matter how big our “target” grows (it grows with more obedience and the closer you get to God’s will for your life), as long as you are in His will, you are guaranteed protection.
Anytime we step out of God’s will for our life, we are prime targets for the enemy to take us out, to snipe us.
Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
IN the Lord. Not next to. Not ahead of. Not behind or on top of. IN the Lord. It is IN Him that we are granted those things that we desire the most and it is in that same place that we are protected.
As an old pastor of mine use to say, “stay under the spout where the glory comes out.”
This is not to say that God can’t and won’t protect you, keep you, show you grace and mercy if you were to do something out of His will. However, why take to steps backwards in His plan for your life, try to play catch up, and do a 1,000 hours of prayer to fix something that could have been avoided by simply staying IN.
The pressure is on for people everywhere to get in line with God’s will for their lives. Sooner or later, like in any war, the enemy will be come a renegade and begin taking people out at random.
I, my friends, won’t be one of them. My target is big, wide, heavy, and shielded with bullet proof, fire-proof, arrow proof, hater proof steel.
Get at me. I can help you get your “weight” up too… piecemetogether@gmail.com
On the Chase,
Alisha L.
Rev. Alisha L. Gordon 