“An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, Judah fathered Perez and Sereh by Tamar...” (Matthew 1:1-3)
 
There are several classic movie scenes with families gathering around a table to eat dinner. A Christmas Story displays one family who are sitting down to eat meatloaf for dinner. One of children states they hate to eat meatloaf the narration continues stating the mom had not eaten a hot meal in fifteen years.  Holiday seasons can be hard especially if we grew up in difficult situations and our parents were not kind.

Here Matthew introduces us to Tamar a woman who was abused, betrayed, and left to fend for herself in an unfriendly world. She was not only a victim but a survivor. She is listed among several other women in the genealogy of Christ. Women who overcame hardships each step of the way continuing to have hope. Even our savior Jesus has a messy family tree.

The genealogy of Jesus includes imperfect people that had to overcome obstacles. Each step of the way they had hope. No matter how dark our situations may appear there is still hope. Redemption is not for those who have it all together but, for everyone who believes in Jesus.
 
Heavenly Father, no matter the situation may we continue to have hope.
 
Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins
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“I sought the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears.” (Psalm 34:4)
 
Some people might say that there is nothing to fear. President Roosevelt in his inaugural address even stated, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” The phrase was used to inspire and invoke confidence spurring individuals into action. The vision that everyone can conquer their fears. We are all afraid of something spiders lurking in corners, the dark, receiving negative test results, or even the future.

Many of our fears are situations that have not happened yet but could be a possibility. When we think of fears in the future, we start planning what to do. No matter how much we plan it does not get rid of our fears. The only true rescue comes from seeking the Lord. We can bring our fears to the Lord for he hears us and will answer. God is our ultimate rescuer, and we can seek him during all things.
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Seek the Lord he is waiting to hear from you and deliver you from your fears. You do not have to everything together to come before God. God isn’t waiting for you to have your life together. He just wants us. To love you and cherish you as his son or daughter.
 
Heavenly Father, may we continue to seek you in times of desperation and when life is good. God, we thank you that we can always come to you.
 
Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins

“I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.” (Psalm 34:1)
 
The world can feel completely hectic at times. The past week there has been hurricanes that have hit countries and left hundreds of people without homes, earthquakes that blocked roadways leading to flooding, and even unexpected fires. During these times we can question is there a God? Why is God not helping me? Or even how can I find joy in this moment?

The good news is that God has never left you. He’s right there with you in the struggle. When we praise God in the middle of our struggle we find peace. Praise reminds us that the situation that we are currently in is not our end story. There is more waiting for you. There are several ways we can praise God during our struggles we can sing songs, pray, and even practice gratitude during the situation.

When we shift our mind from the negative of what is going wrong to gratitude not only is there a shift in our mind, but our spirit. We can see things in a new light and have hope in dark moments. We can continue to place our hope in God for He is with us even in our struggle.
 
Heavenly Father, may we sing praises to you even in our darkest times.
 
Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins

“Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense:” (Acts 26:1)
 
Sometimes silence is powerful and it can be more powerful to stay silent in situations then speaking out. However, there is power in our words. Sometimes we can believe that our voice does not matter. While we continue to wait for others to speak up for us. Why wouldn’t we wait for someone else to speak up? They might appear more confident, are a great communicator, or even have more followers. This should not deter us from speaking out since we all have voice. We all are meant to be heard.

Many important decisions in our lives can only be decided once we have courage and speak for ourselves. Though we might want someone else to speak out for us because it would be easier. Unless we speak out for ourselves and let our voices be heard then sometimes our needs will go unmet. There are several things that we can speak out against; unfair treatment, professional goals, or even simple things that you need. The best person to advocate for you about what you need is yourself. Though we have friends that know us and might know our needs they can only truly know what we need unless we speak truth for ourselves and our needs.

Even when it is hard to speak out for us, we can take courage for the Holy Spirit guides us with the words that we need to speak. We might not know exactly how to say it or the right words but, the Holy Spirit knows what needs to be said. When we do not know what to say we can also pray to God to give us the courage to speak for ourselves and be heard.
 
Heavenly Father, may you continue to give us courage to speak out for ourselves. When we do not know what to say may the Holy Spirit continue to give us the words and help us to be heard.
 
Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins

“If then I did anything wrong and deserving death, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to what these men accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!” (Acts 25:11)

James Bond always seems to exude confidence he usually just says his name all suave “Bond, James Bond.” His name being an entire statement and not just a name. There is always something we can learn from people who are confident they are able to boldly proclaim things and have a self- awareness about their selves. When we are confident, we are standing firm in the truth about ourselves. We know we can have confidence because we are rooted in Jesus.

Confidence involves having courage and humility when we face situations that involve being misunderstood, false accusations, or even mistreatment we can stay honest, humble, and anchored in God’s purpose. Though it can be difficult to be honest and humble when facing tough situations especially when we know we have done nothing wrong and might have to face consequences that are unjust. We too can refuse to be condemned by false accusations and stand firm in truth. We can have faith that true justice will prevail.

True justice only comes from Jesus he sits on the rightful judgment seat. We are held accountable for our actions whether we believe that we are innocent or not, but we can trust God that God’s justice will prevail even when human systems fail us.
 
Heavenly Father, help us to stand firm in your truth even when the outcome does not look good. Help us to believe in the purpose that you have set before each one of us.
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Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins
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"'I said, What should I do, Lord?' The Lord said to me, 'Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that you have been assigned to do.'" (Acts 22:10)

School assigned projects sometimes are not fun since often teachers assign partners who might not be our friends. Some assigned tasks we might get at work might include administrative taking messages, answering phones, or even operational involving ensuring the work environment is clean and orderly or even supervisory assignments including hiring, training, and supervising tasks. There are tasks that we all must complete. Some are more strenuous than others and some take more energy but no matter how difficult, we must complete the work that is before us.

Often, we do not know what the next step is that we must take. We can ask the question “What shall I do, Lord?”, it marks the beginning of transformation. We stop telling God what we want and ask Him what He wants us to do moving ourselves from control to surrender. We learn to seek out the assigned tasks that he has for us and not just the desires of our hearts. Not all the tasks will be laid out exactly before us and may come one step at a time. It is okay to not know exactly what to do, and you may feel stuck however, continue to ask and seek God for guidance.

You are never alone when you feel stuck and are unsure what to do next. God promises He will never leave us nor forsake us. He also goes before us in all situations. He is always there right beside us. When you are stuck and unsure what to do, pray to God and He will give you direction in what to do next.

Heavenly Father, thank you that we are never alone that you walk beside us. When we are uncertain or plans fall apart, help us to ask what we should do, Lord?

Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins

“After we had been there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. He came to us, took Paul’s belt, tied his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him over to the Gentiles.’” (Acts 21:10-12)
 
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The saying means when things get difficult, strong people continue and do not give up. Often, we might want to give up when facing difficult challenges since, we love things to be easy in life. We love not having to try extremely hard to earn money, at work, or make dinner. A quick-frozen pizza that can be thrown in the oven is always the perfect solution. Some can even mistake “Well, if it’s hard, it is not God’s will for our life.” Believing that everything within God’s will for their life is going to be easy. Learning to obey even when it is hard can be challenging. Not everything in life is easy; believing you can do something after you failed, starting over in life, admitting to others you’ve lost your job. When we face challenges head on, we learn obedience and build strength.

Many of us know what it is like to face tough situations and sometimes the pain is unbearable, and we wish we could just skip it. However, we need to continue to move forward walking in faith knowing that God is with us no matter the circumstance. During strenuous times we can be led by fear causing us to make wrong decisions but choose to be led by faith. Faith in God. Even in the middle of the struggle, God is working continue to obey his voice.
                 
Heavenly Father, help us to continue to obey even in the face of hard decisions.
 
Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins

“But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:24)
 

Have you ever attempted to run a marathon? Running 26.2 miles does not sound fun although successful marathon runners say it is rewarding. It takes preparation and training for people to be able to finish the race. The training is what makes runners successful in being able to finish the race.

Training for a marathon compared to the Christian life involves the same strategies people to walk alongside the journey with you, the right fuel, and rest. People need to walk alongside the journey with you to encourage, accountability, and prayer. Not only do we need people to walk alongside us but, the right fuel. The right fuel comes from reading scripture and learning from God’s word. God’s word nourishes us and gives us what we need to minister to other individuals. Many beginning runners believe that they should not rest. However, on the rest days is where strength is truly built. We learn not to overload our lives at the expense of staying connected to God. We learn to rely on God’s strength and not our own power.

​A marathon is finished one mile at a time. At first it feels hard with no end in sight but, the training prepared us for every step of the way. How do we finish the task God has given us? One day at a time.
 
Heavenly Father, help us to continue to finish the task that you have given us. May you strengthen us when we feel weak.

Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins

“The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul- but who are you?”  (Acts 19:15)
 
Teachers lecture students on formulas that they use in class. Formulas such as the mass energy equivalence formula or the mass energy equivalence equation commonly referred by E=mc2, there are several equations that we learn while attending primary school. Some equations are useful to learn while others are in the back of minds forgotten.

The formula used shows that mass can be converted into energy and vice-versa. Mass moves mass and it can be calculated to find how much energy it takes. In Acts 19 certain men were trying to use the name of Jesus as a formula to expel evil spirits. They did not realize that a major piece of the equation is having a true relationship with Jesus. They try and use the name of Jesus but, had no relationship with Jesus, so they had no power or authority. Faith cannot be faked.

​Faith cannot be imitated either we cannot copy another person’s faith. Faith must be genuine and our own this comes from spending time with Jesus. Building a relationship with Jesus as our Lord and Savior this happens through reading the Bible, spending time with Jesus in prayer, and worship.
 
Heavenly Father, help us to develop a true authentic relationship with your son Jesus.
 
Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins

“The Lord said to Paul in a night vision, “Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent. For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.”
(Acts 18:9-10)
 
A slogan sometimes seen on t-shirts is DON’T QUIT with parts of the words crossed out DON’T QUIT  emphasizing instead of reading don’t quit the shirt now reads as do it. There are moments in our lives when we feel like quitting and shifting our focus. We might have applied to several different jobs and have not heard back from any companies or been hired after months. We might have started a community group, and no one shows up. We can even wonder “why are we even trying?” It can feel defeating and discouraging but keep going. It can become easy to stop applying after several no’s. No matter the circumstance do not give up.
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It is easy to throw in the towel in these moments and shift our focus to do something else. When we are ready to give up remember that God is with you even, when it is not working out. Continue to be faithful even when results are not visible. God has gone before you and at the right time the opportunity will come. God is with you even when it feels like he is not. God continues to prepare our hearts for exactly what we need at the right time. Just keep going.
 
Heavenly Father, may you give us courage to continue and be faithful even when we feel discouraged.
 
Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins