Success today!

Yesterday a lady wrote and asked me to unsubscribe her from Words for the Day. She said it was too long, too personal, and I was too arrogant. I suppose that she did not unsubscribe herself because she wanted to point all of that out to me. I wrote her back, told her I was sorry that she did not like it, and that I had taken care of unsubscribing her. Almost immediately she wrote me back and said that she really was not a rude person, but already subscribed to several daily devotionals and she just wanted something very short that she could quickly read.

Hmm I wrote her back and mentioned that for some strange reason calling someone arrogant seems a little rude to me, but I understood and I am glad that she is seeking God as evidenced by her subscribing to so many daily devotionals and that I trust and hope that God richly blesses her in everything she does.

WFTD is not for everyone. I do try my utmost not to come off as sounding arrogant and am disappointed in myself that I have failed in that regard. God has worked a mighty work in my life. I give God all of the credit for transforming my life and I more than any other person, who knows the full story of my life, stand amazed at what He has done. He has done miraculous and mighty things and I suppose it is difficult to write about the enormity of what “He” has done without it coming off sounding arrogant, but I can assure all readers from the bottom of my heart that I do not take the credit for it.

I do admit to it being personal. Yesterday’s entry was as personal as it gets. Watching my brother’s son suffer and die and try to deal with the grief and understand why something like that has to happen to such a sweet little innocent kid is personal, but my God saw me through it and I wrote about it because I was in hopes that someone who might be facing similar trials might benefit from what I learned and thereby weather their storm a little easier. The length varies in how long it takes to get my point across as God lays it on my heart. The only thing I can offer this lady in that regard is that it takes me a lot longer to write it every morning than it takes her to read it.

My goal for writing WFTD and the book about my life that I am currently writing is pure and simple. I want to help people. I want to pass on the hard lessons in life that I have experienced and how I managed my way through them using God and His holy word the Bible to traverse the treacherous paths that I have followed. In spite of being rebellious and a black sinner, I ultimately have achieved peace, joy, and happiness in my life. That is my definition of success. I have achieved success according to that definition and if I am arrogant for saying that I am successful, so be it. I am proud of God for what He has done in my life.

I think anyone can be successful according to that definition by simply humbling themselves before almighty God, asking for forgiveness, and moving forward doing the best they know how in trying to do what God desires of them as the bible instructs. We all make mistakes and we just ask God to forgive us and move forward and try not to make it again. I have found that studying God’s word is the key to success. In WFTD I try to relate problems as it has pertained to my “personal” life and then offer the Scripture that I found appropriate to deal with it in order to help others.

If you made it this far today, congratulations. For those of you who have asked, my book is really coming along well. I am putting together a website and will post some information about it in the next few weeks. Those of you who are willing to do so, I ask that you please continue to pray for me as I struggle with writing about the non-Christian side of my life. It was not pretty and is exceedingly difficult to relive those dark days. I look forward to moving beyond them where I reach the point in my life where I finally turned to God and He leads me out of the darkness towards His light.

Romans 8:31
What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can
be against us?