The Daily Dose with Dr. Daryl L. Williams

A Word every day to get you on your way!

Here is the Daily Dose for Monday, June 17, 2019.

My heart is confident in you, O God; no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart! Psalm 108:1

Told You

My best friend from high school is a huge New England Patriots fan. Since we are both from New York, I have no idea how he became a Patriots fan, but he is. For better or worse he rides and dies with the exploits of the Patriots. As a New York Giants fan, the team that beat the Patriots twice in the Super Bowl, he and I have a friendly rivalry that plays itself out on text and social media every football season. This friendly rivalry had its most dramatic moment during Super Bowl LI when the Patriots played the Atlanta Falcons.

You see during Super Bowl LI the Falcons were well ahead of the Patriots at half time of the game. Because I get no greater joy than watching the Patriots lose and rubbing it in to my friend, I gave him a call at half time to gloat. I will never forget what he said to me as I taunted him. He calmly said, “We still have Tommy. We’ll be fine.” Mind you; they were down 21-3 at the time and not playing well, but he still believed. If you’re a football fan, you know what happened next. Tommy and the Patriots had the most epic comeback in Super Bowl history, and I got a phone call, two words, “Told You.” You see, he had seen Tommy win before and he was confident Tommy could do it again because of what he knew Tommy could do.

Friends, when, you believe in God, you can approach the world with the same confidence that my friend approached the Super Bowl. You see, for the believer, they know what God has done, and have full faith in what God can do. When you put your confidence in God, the score doesn’t matter, the odds don’t matter and the challenges don’t matter because you know what your God can do. So this week, stand tall, walk with confidence and continue to put your faith in God and when challenges come just say, “I’ll be fine. God’s got this.” Then at the end tell your challenge “Told You.”

Be Blessed,

Rev

The Daily Dose with Dr. Daryl L. Williams

A Word every day to get you on your way!

Here is the Daily Dose for Friday, June 14, 2019.

The prudent understand where they are going, but fools deceive themselves. Proverbs 14:8

Chain Reactions

It won’t be so bad. I can work with this. If you look at it the right way, this is actually a positive. This is what everybody is doing these days. Well, the critics say this works for everybody. It has really good reviews in magazines. This is in this season. If I just change a few things, I can pay this off in a couple of months. They may sell out by the time I get back. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you have ever said any of the preceding statements, and a host of others, then you have at some point talked yourself into something.

All of us, from time to time, talk ourselves into things. There are things we want to do, but we know we shouldn’t, so we tell ourselves what we need to hear to get over the hump. We sell ourselves on the idea that it will be ok, or it won’t matter, or everyone is doing it so that we can excuse ourselves from the responsibility for the action that we are about it take. In short, we momentarily deceive ourselves, do what we want, and deal with the consequences later. The problem is, later, always comes.

Friends, one of the main impediments to the lives that we want is us. All too often we talk ourselves into things now because we don’t consider what the longterm consequences will be. Achieving our goals and living our best lives requires that we don’t just live for now, but that we also look ahead. We have to remember that every decision that we talk ourselves into today sets off a chain reaction of events that come about later. So the next time you start talking yourself into something, remind yourself that what you talk yourself into now, you will have to pay for later.

Be Blessed,

Rev

The Daily Dose with Dr. Daryl L. Williams

A Word every day to get you on your way!

Here is the Daily Dose for Thursday, June 13, 2019.

Hope deferred makes a heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12

Keep Going

Everyone who has ever achieved their dreams has, at some point wanted to give up on their dreams. I say that as a reminder today because at some point we became convinced that success was a straight line and there are never bumps in the road. We think that the people that have achieved always got it right, always been inspired, and that success came quickly; it didn’t. Achieving a dream always comes with setbacks, disappointments, heartbreaks, and hard lessons learned. What sets the people apart that achieve their dreams and those that don’t is that in the roughest of times they kept going.

When you have a dream, you have to want it bad enough to keep going. Dreams are inspired pictures of a preferred reality. In the hard days, you have to keep the picture of where you are going front and center in your mind. You have to see yourself living, walking, and thriving in the dream that has not yet come so you can get past some of the nightmares that you may encounter along the way. In those dark seasons, you have to remember that every day you fight through, struggle through and claw through this season; it gets you that much closer to the dream that you are trying to make into a reality.

Friends, nothing great comes easy. You can expect hard times, challenges, and moments of wanting to give up, just keep going. Keep going so you can see what the end is and not just be caught in this moment. Keep going so you can have stories of triumph over adversity and snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat. Keep going so that you can keep moving towards your dream because if you give up, you’ll wind up looking back and wondering what might have been if you had just kept going.

Be Blessed,

Rev

The Daily Dose with Dr. Daryl L. Williams

A Word every day to get you on your way!

Here is the Daily Dose for Wednesday, June 12, 2019.

Lazy people don’t even cook the game they catch, but the diligent make use of everything they find. Proverbs 12:28

Nothing Goes to Waste.

If you grew up in the south, you know that very little goes to waste. I remember visiting my grandfather and learning the hard way that we don’t throw out stuff that’s still good. I had finished eating my lunch and was going to clean off my plate of what I had not eaten and put the plate in the sink. My grandfather looked up and said, “Boy, what do you think you are doing? We don’t throw out good food around here. You put that food over there.” I was incredibly confused. I was done eating and assumed that throwing out what was not eaten only made sense. That’s when my cousin pulled me aside and explained the process to me.

You see at Granddad’s nothing goes to waste. When you finished eating, there was a bowl in the corner of the kitchen that all the leftover food went into. That bowl was then taken outside, and that is how the dogs got fed. There was no going to the store and buying dog food. The dogs ate what we had leftover. That way nothing ever went to waste. There was typically so much left over that the dogs didn’t finish it either. What the dogs didn’t finish was then added to the hog trough, and the hogs would polish it off with their food because nothing goes to waste. I have carried that lesson with me since then.

Friends, in life nothing goes to waste unless you let it. Many times we don’t realize that everything has a use. When we face disappointment in life, it is a chance to learn how strong we are and to not make the same mistakes twice. When we face setbacks, we get the chance to learn that God can step in and use a set back to set up a comeback. So the next time something goes wrong, and you feel like it has been a waste, take a look at what happened, repurpose the pain and the lessons, then make some progress from where you are because nothing goes to waste.

Be Blessed,

Rev

The Daily Dose with Dr. Daryl L. Williams

A Word every day to get you on your way!

Here is the Daily Dose for Tuesday, June 11, 2019.

The godliness of good people rescues them; the ambition of treacherous people traps them. Proverbs 11:6

That’s Far Enough

Al Davis was famous for saying, “ Just win baby win.” It was his mantra for his Oakland Raiders football team. That ethos made the Raiders a colorful, interesting and occasionally dangerous group. You see Davis was committed to winning, so there was nothing that the Raiders did not do to win.  The Raiders took the guys that nobody else wanted for their team. They took guys who might be a little out there, guys who might have a checkered past, and guys who might be a little off their rockers and made them into a team. Davis was clear, they may be a little off, and other people may not want them, but if they can help us win, that’s good enough. In other words, just win.

Many people operate in life with the Al Davis mantra of winning. They are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want. Sure it might mean bending the rules a little bit, but it can help us win. It might mean tarnishing your integrity or being a little unscrupulous, but as long as I am winning so what.  But you also have to ask yourself, where is the line. For the believer, there should be some lines that you will not cross. There should be some things that are a bridge too far, a hole too deep, or a line that is simply too red to cross. For the believer, there should be some level of godliness in them that stops them from going too far, just for the sake of winning.

Friends, when you decide to become a follower of Jesus Christ, you decide to live differently. Being a follower of Jesus means that there are simply some things that you won’t do because you have a different standard. As a believer your standard is not just winning, it is winning the right way. When you are a follower of Jesus there should be something on the inside of you that says, that’s far enough. It is that voice that calls you back to holiness when you want to just win. It is that voice that calls you back to righteousness when you want to just win. It is that voice that reminds you that as a child of God you have already won, so this fight, this battle, this game is just not that important. So before you go too far to win, remember you are different, you have already won, and that’s far enough.

Be Blessed,

Rev

The Daily Dose with Dr. Daryl L. Williams

A Word every day to get you on your way!

Here is the Daily Dose for Monday, June 10, 2019.

Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut. Proverbs 10:19

What You Talkin’ ‘Bout?

There was a great half-hour comedy in the late 70s and early 80s called Different Strokes. The show chronicled the lives of Arnold and Willis Jackson. Arnold and Willis lost their mother at an early age and were adopted by a wealthy New York millionaire, Mr. Drummond. The Jackson boys come from meager backgrounds, and the Drummond family comes from great means. Their adoption creates an interesting cultural clash and the most amazing blended family ever. Over the years, you begin to see the effect that the Drummonds have on the Jacksons and vice versa as they live, love, and grow together. It was a great show, but that is not what anybody remembers about the show. What people remember about the show was Arnold’s catchphrase.

Whenever Arnold’s brother Willis said something that Arnold didn’t like or understand he would always reply with, “What you talking about Willis?” It always drew a laugh and redirected the energy of the show and would get Willis to take a second thought about what he was saying or about to do. Arnold’s question to Willis is a good one for us to ponder as well. The things we talk about are the things that we tend to do. We begin to talk about going shopping, and before long we are off shopping. We talk about going to church, and eventually we wind up going by a church. What we talk about, over time, transforms into what we do. Our words really do matter.

Friends, what are you talking about? Are you talking about things that will be uplifting and lead to your betterment, or are you talking about things that will lead to your demise? Your words give direction to your life, and you get to control that. So if your life is not going in the direction you want it to, change what you are talking about. Make the decision to the only talk about things that are positive, uplifting, and lead to the places you want to go. When you do that, you will see that your life, your future, and your friends will all change. So say something positive today, and if you can’t, then just keep your mouth shut.

Be Blessed,

Rev

The Daily Dose with Dr. Daryl L. Williams

A Word every day to get you on your way!

Here is the Daily Dose for Friday, June 7, 2019.

A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time. Ecclesiastes 7:4

Looking Back

Today is my birthday. It means that I have gotten a year older, and hopefully a year wiser. It also means that I am a year closer to my death. OK, now that sounds a little morbid, but it very is motivating for me. The older I get, the more than I begin to realize that life is short, and every day is precious. When I was younger, I knew that I had all the time in the world. There would be time to chase my dreams, time to waste on fantasies, and time to do everything else that popped into my mind. As I have gotten older, I have realized that time is precious, valuable, fleeting, and we have to use it wisely.

Getting older has meant that I no longer only look forward, but I also look backward as well. I look backward to see what I have accomplished, so I can see what I have left to do. This looking backward allows me to focus on what is most important in the time that I have left and to let go of the things that I don’t think will make a difference in the grand scheme of things. This means that I have let go of trying to play third base for the Yankees, which means that I am more focused on spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have given up on having a multi-platinum album, but I am now focused on writing books, articles, and other materials that will help people have more fulfilling lives and see the glory of the Lord. All of this is happening because one day I will be called home to glory, and when others look backward at the time God gave me I want to know that my time made a difference.

Friends, we only have so much time. To be exact, every day we have 24 hours, every week we have 168 hours, every month we have on average 730 hours, and every year we have 8,760 hours. What we do with those hours is of glory and honor to God. We want to make sure that when we are looking back, we have used those hours wisely, we have invested our time judiciously and that we can report to the Lord that the time we were given was well invested. So as I begin another year of life, I look forward to what God still has in store, and I look back to see what I have to finish doing.

Be Blessed,

Rev