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, December 6, 2019.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Hebrews 12:2

Keep Your Eyes On The Ball

Baseball is one of my favorite sports. I love baseball so much that I will go to a baseball game of any caliber. I have been to Major League Baseball games, college baseball games, high school baseball games, and little league baseball games. I love the experience of sitting out in the sun, having a hot dog and watching the boys, and now girls, of summer America’s past time. There is something that I have found to be consistent no matter what level of the game I have been watching. There is always some guy in the stands yelling out at a player, “KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE BALL!!!”It doesn’t matter if I am watching the Washington Nationals or the Elmora Pirates there is always someone yelling, “Keep your eyes on the ball.”

In baseball, when you take your eyes off the ball bad things happen. It is impossible to get a home run if you don’t keep your eyes on the ball. If you are playing outfield you may get popped in the face trying to catch a flyball if you don’t keep your eyes on the ball. The ball is the most important thing in the game so you have to keep your eyes on it no matter what. There may be other things vying for your attention in a baseball game, but if you want to win you have to keep your eyes on the main thing, the ball.

Friends, in our walks of faith we have to keep our eyes on the ball as well. If you are going to be a follower of Jesus you have to keep your eyes on him. Too often we can get distracted by other good things and forget the main thing of faith is following Jesus. When we forget to follow Jesus we can wind up lost, led astray, or worse yet really busy doing things that don’t matter and take us away from him. Daily, we have to remember to focus on the main thing. The main thing is for the believer is living a life of faith and staying focused on the Lord. So as you go through your day, when you feel like you are drifting from the Lord, remember there is a guy in the stands of heaven yelling, “KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE BALL!!!!!”

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, December 5, 2019.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2

It Just Doesn’t Matter

One of my favorite movies growing up was Meatballs. Meatballs is the story of kids at a summer camp and their rivalry with the wealthier summer camp across the lake. I don’t remember much about the movie’s plotline or the characters, but there is one scene that has stuck with me since the first time I saw it. The scene involves the campers getting a motivational speech from their lead counselor. It wasn’t a Knute Rockne, win one for the Gipper speech. This speech was very different. The theme of this speech, culminating with a chant at the end, was “It Just Doesn’t Matter.”

You see, the campers were behind in their competition with their rivals and quite demoralized. They were looking at this competition as if it was the end of the world. They felt like if they did not win that all would be lost, they’d be lesser people, and the world would end. Their counselor gives a rousing speech telling them that ultimately if they win or lose this competition, it just doesn’t matter. Realizing this, the campers start to have fun, they loosen up and like in all great movies, they go on to win the competition and live happily ever after.

I want you to know that some things just don’t matter. We can spend a lot of time and energy fussing, fighting, worrying and stressed out about things that just don’t matter. Think about it. You have stressed yourself out over a project at work before and in the end, it just didn’t matter. You have driven yourself crazy about a relationship, that ended you moved on, and found someone else better. Ultimately, it just didn’t matter. Think about how much time you spend trying to figure out if you should have burgers or tacos for lunch, and guess what, it just doesn’t matter.

Friends, the only things that will ultimately matter are the things of heaven. Your relationship with God, your walk with Jesus, your living a life as a disciple, that will matter. Most other things are here today and gone tomorrow. So don’t give a lot of unnecessary time and energy to things that do not matter. Set your mind on the things above, not on things that don’t matter, because, in the end, it is only the things above and how they influence your life here that will matter.

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, December 4, 2019.

The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him. Nahum 1:7

Here Comes Trouble

Have you ever noticed that trouble knows your address? It really is amazing. You can be going about your business, and trouble will find you. Trouble can show up unannounced at your house looking for you. Trouble can walk by your office, and you think it is looking for someone else, but know it turns around and finds you. You can be driving somewhere, and trouble will cut you off on the highway just to make sure you know that trouble knows where you are at all times. The thing about trouble is that it shows up indiscriminately, uninvited, and always ready to start something. Since you know trouble is coming for you, what do you do?

Honestly, when trouble comes most of us want to fight it. We want to put on our big girl and big boy pants, muscle up, and show trouble who is boss. The problem with that approach is, trouble came looking for a fight, and you gave it what it wanted. Trouble came looking to make you upset. Trouble came looking to throw you off your game. Trouble came just to make sure that you were distracted enough fighting with it that you got nothing else done, wasted your time, and then looked up battered, bruised, and tired with trouble laughing and saying, “See you tomorrow.”

Friends, trouble is going to come, but you don’t have to fight it. You have to treat trouble like a tornado. People who live in places where tornados are frequent know that you don’t run out and fight a tornado, you seek shelter. You find somewhere safe until the tornado passes by. You find somewhere that no matter how much the winds blow outside you are safe on the inside of your shelter. For believers, when trouble comes we should take shelter in God. When we see trouble coming we need to draw near to Him because he keeps and sustains us. When you are close to God and taking refuge in him trouble can huff and puff, but it can’t blow your house down. So take heart, here comes trouble, but you have somewhere safe to go.

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, December 3, 2019.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Isaiah 40:29

A Power Source

There are times that we all feel like we are at the end of our rope. We have been burning the candle at both ends, and it seems like there is still so much more to do. We still have commitments at work to take care of. We still have commitments at home that we have to take care of. We want to serve at church and not let anybody down. We also wouldn’t mind running some errands, doing a little reading and maybe some self-care along the way. Looking at all that we have to do, and the energy that we have left sometimes we just cry out, “Lord give me strength!”

The funny thing about the Lord is when we need strength he supplies it. The issue is we have to ask. Too often we try to do too much on our own and in our own strength. We take on too much, try to fix too many things, and want to do it all in our own power. Doing it all in our own power is not what we were designed to do. We were designed to depend on and lean on the Lord. We were designed to get to the end of our rope, and then call out for help to make it the rest of the way. When we call out for help it is not a sign of weakness, but rather it is a sign of strength. It is a sign that we are depending on the strength of our faith, the strength of our Lord and the power that only he can provide to give us the strength we need

Friends, none of us can do it all on our own. Doing it all will ruin your health, break your spirit and eventually have you give up. When you feel like you are getting to that point, cry out for help. The Lord takes pleasure in helping his children. You are not burdening God by asking for his help, you are acting in faith showing that you believe him and take him at his word. So the next time you are feeling tired and weak remember you have a power source on high that gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

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, December 2, 2019.

But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love. Jude 1:20-21

What About Your Friends?

On February 25, 1992, the music industry changed forever. It was on that date that the singing group TLC released their first album, Ooooohhh…On the TLC Tip. It could have been just any other winter album release but this one was different. These three young ladies from Atlanta had tapped into something that had not yet been seen. They were not a hip hop group, or an R&B group, or a New Jack Swing group, they were a hip hop, R&B, and New Jack Swing group and they were women. This blend of unique styles, amazing talent and personality for days made this one of the best selling albums of 1992 and launched three consecutive top ten singles including their What About Your Friends.

What About Your Friends had a great track, but it was the lyrics that were amazing. The song essentially asked you to do an evaluation of your friends. The refrain simply asks:

What about your friends, will they stand their ground,
Will they let you down again?
What about your friends, are they gonna be lowdown,
Will they ever be around,
Or will they turn their backs on you?

Friends, none of us get through life by ourselves. We need family and friends, but we need the right family and friends. You need people who will lift you up, comfort you and challenge you to be your best self. But what you really need are friends who will help build you up in faith. You need friends who will pray with you and for you so that you can build each other in faith. Those are the friends that will take you from where you are to where you want to be. So today I ask you, What about your friends?

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, November 29, 2019.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:8-9

Satisfaction

In 1965, the Rolling Stones released one of their most popular songs, Satisfactions. If you’ve heard it once, you’ll know the words forever. It starts off, “I can’t get no satisfaction, I can’t get no satisfaction, ‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try, I can’t get no, I can’t get no!” As you listen to the song, you can feel what Mick Jagger is singing about. He’s looking for satisfaction in life and just can’t find any. He is trying everything that he can think of but still, he can’t get no satisfaction.

That actually is the story of many of us. We are looking for satisfaction in life and can’t quite find it. We often think that something will give us satisfaction right up until we get it. We think that money will do it until we get money and look for something else. We think power will do it until we get power and it doesn’t quite work. We keep looking and like Jagger, We try and we try and we try, but we can’t get no satisfaction.

Friends the joy of the Lord is that in Him we can finally find satisfaction. When we get into a deep relationship with the Lord, we begin to see that there is satisfaction there. With him, we can find unfailing love, holy ghost power, and a release from the pressures of the world. When we fully connect with the Lord we begin to see not only what we are looking for, but we also get a glance of all that we already have and that God has already done. It is in him, that we can truly find rest from our searches, love that fills our heart and finally find satisfaction. So take some time today to be thankful that with the Lord you can finally get satisfaction.

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, November 28, 2019.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34

Thank You, Lord

Every Thanksgiving there is are certain traditions in our household. First off, we have to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. It’s a great tie to watch the acts, see the balloons and work into the day. After that, you have to have breakfast. Sure there is a big meal later in the day, but you have to work up to that. Breakfast allows you to get a good primer on the stomach before the big event. By noon or so you have to start getting ready for the afternoon games and the big meal. But the most important and the most unbreakable tradition in my family is the thank you tradition.

No matter how many of us have gathered, before we eat dinner on Thanksgiving we go around the table and say what we are thankful for. Now because our gatherings can be pretty large, you want to go early in the thanks rotation. The early people get the easy thanks. Once you have are 10 or 15 people in you have to start thinking a little about the thanks you are giving. By the way, I forgot to mention that you can’t repeat what anyone else is thankful for. So if you are number 17, someone probably took what you wanted to say and you have to start thinking about what you are going to say and hope that your cousin doesn’t steal it.

Friends, looking back, the great thing about this tradition was no matter how big the family was on those days, we never had a repeat thanks. We were all able to look at all that God was doing in our lives and find something that we were uniquely thankful for. If we are honest, we often thank God for the stuff that is easy to see, but if we are honest there is so much more that we can thank God for. If we take the time to think, we all know things that we can thank God for that nobody would ever know if we didn’t tell them, but we know and God knows. So today, don’t just be thankful for the obvious stuff, take the time to thank God for the stuff nobody sees or saw because his love and grace endures forever.

Be Blessed,

Rev