As a young father of two precious children, he lost his wife to a brain aneurysm. At that point, he had to learn to stand on his knees. Tommie Harris Jr. was a chubby kid, a high school athlete, a college football All-American and an NFL star. He learned to play through the pain at every level. This plan is the third of five in the series.
For Generations
Day 1
Scriptures: Psalms 93:1-5, 1 Samuel 13:14, Jeremiah 1:4-5, Exodus 3:4
Trust & Rest
A few years ago I had the opportunity of a lifetime to experience baptism again… but this time in the Jordan River. It was an overwhelmingly spiritual and emotional experience.
Water is not just a liquid that we drink or bathe in, but it has a unique power. Did you know that it has been scientifically proven that water has a memory? Go ahead… Google it. The Resonance Science Foundation puts it this way: “By examining individual drops of water at an incredibly high magnification, scientists have been able to physically see that each droplet of water has its own individual microscopic pattern. A pattern that details its memory.” A memory that includes the people that it has come into contact with.
Think about it… if rocks will cry out, then surely water can remember.
For me the opportunity to experience baptism again wasn’t so that the water could wash away my sins, but so that I could interact with the same water that had experienced the transformative power of the ONE who had been baptized in it before me – JESUS.
In John 1:29, John the Baptist interrupts his own preaching while baptizing in the Jordan when he sees Jesus arrive.
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
In the next moments, as John baptizes Jesus, submerging him under the water, something powerful occurred. The heavens opened and the voice of the Father was heard speaking over the Lamb of God saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Wherever you are in your journey of transformation I want today to be the day that you realize that the same way the Father spoke that affirmation over Jesus – He has already spoken the same over you.
The same way God spoke to David when he called him a man after his own heart, God is speaking to you.
The same way God spoke purpose and destiny into Jeremiah, God is speaking those into you.
The same way God called Moses from the burning bush; God is calling you.
No matter how difficult your personal transformation process has been, it is worth it. I want to encourage you to lean into what God is saying to you with the same intentionality that Jesus had when He encountered the Father as he emerged from the waters of the Jordan River.
This is the third YouVersion Reading plan in our six-part series We have spent the first two months of plans discussing the development and preparation that went into the life of the young not yet king David. We’ve also looked at how this story gives us the recipe for personal development & preparation. This month I want to invite you and challenge you to tune in each day to listen to God speak over you through David’s words in the book of Psalms.
Transformation is such a needed process that each of us goes through. Too often, it is the loneliest when we are in our own cocoon, like the faithful caterpillar that chooses to grow through to become a butterfly. So then allow these days to be the encouragement you need to simply TRUST & REST. Allow God, through the voice of David to bring you the encouragement needed for your personal transformation process.
Now then, LISTEN to God speak over you through the written words of David.
Day 2
Scripture: Psalms 21:1-13
One of the most inspiring things to watch is a person who is experiencing great difficulty, while simultaneously remaining steadfast in the midst of their struggle.
I’ve been blessed to have been exposed to a variety of phenomenal players, both on and off the field. One of the things they have all had in common is an unmatched mental toughness. The ability to trust their own process even when the going gets incredibly tough.
One of my mentors, Bill Horn, is constantly encouraging me to Trust & Rest. These two are inseparable. In order to trust completely, you must be at rest completely and in order to rest completely, you must trust completely. It is really like an art and a science, all at the same time.
David knew this tactic well. So often we see him in moments that should rattle him to the core, but they don’t. When, from our perspective, he should be the most worried or fearful, we find him faithful.
Our word from David today comes from Psalm 21. Pay close attention to verse 7 and notice that the king trusts in the Lord not because the Lord gives him everything he wants, but because the unfailing love of the Most High God promises to keep him.
This is true for you too.
You can Trust & Rest because the Most-High God will keep you by his unfailing love
No matter what you are going through. No matter what you experience…
Trust & Rest.
Now then, LISTEN to God speak over you through the written words of David.
Day 3
Scripture: Psalms 34:1-22
God is faithful. No matter what, His promises are true.
He promised me from the beginning of my life to “never leave me or forsake me.” He is in control. Why is it that I find myself in certain moments trying to take back the control? As if God isn’t completely capable of handling all that is happening in my life. But I know the truth, He is more than capable for me and for you. Capable to lead us to become all that He designed us to be.
But what about those moments we experience where it seems impossible to press forward?
Times where disaster seems to strike, and we wonder how will we ever make it?
Can you imagine what it was like for me to stand in front of my daughter’s casket…while knowing that I was prepared and in shape for this because I had already buried my wife?
And while I stood there at my daughter’s gravesite, I heard God’s voice say to my heart, “Bless the Lord at ALL TIMES.”
“All times?” I thought to myself ambivalently.
- Have you ever experienced a moment where you wondered how you could ever move forward?
- Have you ever thought that you might not be able to continue amidst all of the adversity you’re facing?
- Have you ever been so overwhelmed that you didn’t know what to do?
The promise from Psalms 34 is that when we praise the Lord ‘at all times’ and seek Him even when the personal process of transformation has us feeling down, God will hear us and deliver us from our troubles.
Understand that sometimes what God sees and what we see as deliverance are starkly different, yet God’s purposes are perfect.
My hope is that these verses of scripture will be the encouragement you need to continue to follow or to begin to follow Jesus in the midst of what may feel like a total disaster.
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 (NLT)
“A person may have many ideas concerning God’s plan for his life, but only the designs of his purpose will succeed in the end.” Proverbs 19:21 (TPT)
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)
Now then, LISTEN to God speak over you through the written words of David.
Day 4
Scriptures: Psalms 98:1-9, 2 Timothy 1:7, 1 Corinthians 13:9
Transformation brings a newness that cannot be faked. It must be authentic.
When my good friend, the late, great Reggie White came up in his professional football career, he carried a new level of power that had yet to be seen in the league. His nickname was ‘the Minister of Defense’ because he not only quickly became one of the most legendary defensive players to ever touch the field, but he was also an ordained minister.
Deep down in my friend’s heart, he carried a supernatural transformation that showed up both spiritually and physically. In 1993, Reggie played his first season with the Green Bay Packers. Even though they had the same win-loss record in his first season as a cheesehead and their defense that had been ranked as 23rd out of 32 teams the year prior, they finished second in the league after having added Reggie to their lineup. The then Head Coach, Mike Holmgren, said that White was the reason for this shift: “Reggie has changed everything – the way we play, and the other team’s offensive scheme.”
Too often we wrongly believe that if we are not in church or on a mission trip that we cannot bring about transformation wherever we are. My friend and mentor proved this to be false. Transformation in you produces transformation around you.
We are carriers of the transforming power of Jesus Christ everywhere we go.
David definitely illustrates this for us. If he had not delivered food to his brothers as his father, Jesse, had instructed, the Israelites might still be standing on their side of the battlefield frozen in fear because of the giant Goliath. If David had not believed in his own experiences with God, then he might have refused to walk out his destiny.
What battlefield moment is waiting for you to walk out the transformation inside of you?
I love what Isaiah records for us in Isaiah 43:19, “See (God says), I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Paul says, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part.” In other words, this happens when God is telling us how things WILL BE, yet these things have not been revealed to us, and we announce them anyway.
Maybe you’re depressed and fearful, but “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)
So instead of saying I am depressed and fearful, we respond to our depression & fear and say: “I HAVE A SOUND MIND.”
When things feel like you’re under attack, remind your hearts that God is the Minister of Defense. In advance of a victory that we know belongs to the Lord, I want to encourage you with the words of David that have encouraged me: “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! For He has done marvelous things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.”