Monday Morning Motivations: Recent Episodes
Broderick Ellison
"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams."
Many times we forget that there is a way to love others.
Our default is to love how we desire to be loved and not learning how that person actually needs love.
The same goes with God. He has laid out a way that He desires us to love him.
In today's episode I want to dive into how he has called us to love Him.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Sometimes a verse becomes so familiar… so woven into our Christian vocabulary… that we start to treat it like background noise.
We know it. We’ve heard it. We could recite it in our sleep.
But here’s the thing... nothing in Scripture is “filler.”
Every word Christ spoke, every line the prophets penned, every letter Paul wrote to the early church, it all carries the weight of eternity.
Every stroke of the pen, every phrase, infused with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, speaking from eternity past into eternity present.
In today's episode I want to zoom in on one of those “familiar” moments, one you may have read or heard a hundred times, and look at it with fresh eyes.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid...
Sometimes it may feel like storms and trials were crafted specifically to test and expose the weak areas of our walks with God?
… and that’s because it is.
James 1:2-4 reminds us that trials are there for the perfecting of our faith… to sharpen us… and to remind us who to put our faith in… because let’s be honest, without constant realignment, we struggle with forgetfulness.
We forget that God is God… that He is the one we lean on…
… we sometimes fall into an illusion that it’s OUR works… OUR ideas… OUR environment… so God has to disrupt our environment… destroy our ideas… and put us in a place where it is ONLY Him and us.
In today's episode, I want to dive into how we respond when God calls us out of the boat. When He calls us out of our safe place and the storm is raging around us.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”
How do we handle life when everything seems to be collapsing around us?
Failing relationships… Struggling with family sufferings…
Can’t get ahead at work… or just feeling lost and wandering around in life without purpose…
Or maybe all of this is happening at once… and you don’t understand the reason… and all you can do is look up and cry out
“WHY ME, LORD?”
In today's episode, I want to dive into how we respond when our world crashes around us. When everything seems to go wrong and we don't understand. In those moments, how do we come to God? DO we come to God?
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant,
'Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses....
Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.' "
Moses has died… The Leader of the children of Israel is gone, and the promise is still unfulfilled.
Everyone’s looking around confused like, what do we do now?
Who is gonna step up?
God has reached into your life, just like with Joshua, and called you forward to lead in a God-sized way… how will you respond?
In today's episode, I want to dive into being strong and courageous nd walking the path God has called us to. He's called you out of the crowd and onto a God-sized path.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”
If you've ever gone through a tough situation where it’s felt like your life is unraveling… believing you're on God's mind is a very very tough notion…
In today's episode, I want to dive into how our unraveling can be for our own good.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“...Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’
So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told."
Who’s progress is tied to your obedience?
Are there people who need your obedience to unblock, or unlock the next step in their journey?
Your obedience is never just about you.
You are a part of God's larger design, and just like a gear in a car, or a clock, the moment it decides to fail or delay working, it can cause other parts to break and even destroy the whole system.
In the same way, you not being obedient can cause someone else's delay or breaking down as they wait on your calling.
In today's episode, I want to dive into how our calling, our obedience can unblock and possibly even save the lives of others.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
"... and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey”
We enter the story with God telling Moses about the land of Canaan… the land flowing with milk and honey…
But as we continue through the story in their journey to the promised land, we see a common theme, “Moses, we are over it out here in the wilderness, let us go back to Egypt… because at least in Egypt there was certainty.”
Now that’s crazy work.
Let us go back to bondage, because at least bondage had certainty.
And every time I read this story, or even reflect back on it I get mad at them because I am baffled by their mindset…
… but then I realize that, so many times, we hold this same Egypt mindset.
We prefer the comfort of certainty over the discomfort of uncertainty, even when certainty comes in the form of bondage… because at least we know what to expect.
How many times have you chosen a situation you KNOW was wrong for you over the freedom of the blessings God has for you?
In today's episode, I want to dive into how God calls us to let go of Egypt, and walk with Him to the Land flowing with Milk & Honey.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
One thing I’ve learned is that imagination is a beautiful gift which can be very dangerous when not kept in check.
When submitted to God, it can bring forth the most amazing and wonderful ideas… but when combined with our oftentimes controlling nature, it can create anxiety and worry in us.
Because I can imagine ahead… many times I have to stop myself from stressing ahead… worrying ahead… and running ahead of God.
But in order to do that, I have to first get out of my own head.
But how do we even begin to get out of our own heads?
God lays out a response for us in Matthew 6…
In today's episode, I want to dive into how God calls us to not just let go of worrying, but to replace it with something so much better... HIM.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
So many times I’ve wondered why I haven’t turned a corner… walked into my next season… or overcome a storm
… and you may be asking yourself these same things.
What I've come to understand is that it’s because God knows that my next season, your next season, requires consistency.
Many of us have no problem starting strong in obedience and on fire… but somewhere along the path when dealing with the “ups and downs”, the new revelation of God asking us to give up ANOTHER thing in our lives, and just the general timing and having to be patient in the midst of all of that, we lose our excitement… the flame dies out… and we trail off the path and back to the comforts of our old ways… and God knows that that recurring cycle isn’t going to cut it for your next season.
In today's episode, I want to dive into how lack of consistency can prevent you from being effectively used by God, and sometimes not used at all.,
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. “
What follows is one of the more well known stories of moral failure for David.
A story that, at least for us, will always be burned into our memories when reading about the kingship of David.
But the part I want to focus on in this story lies in the first verse, a part we may often overlook, and that's the statement “the time when kings go out to battle”.
This is a pivotal part of the story because everything that follows is a consequence of that one statement.
It simply tells us that David was not where he should have been.
The word says, during a season of war… when most kings are out on the battlefield with their soldiers expanding their kingdom and influence… “David sent…” and “David remained in Jerusalem”.
In today's episode, I want to dive into how improper positioning can be the point of your downfall, and how to avoid that.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
I was watching a video the other day about how much money one should save for retirement to be considered “successful” and I found myself on edge just listening to the numbers.
How do we NOT be anxious when anxiety is being normalized?
And not just with our wants, but with those things we consider necessary to live.
A constant fear of losing a job, or finding a job, or transitioning out of a career path.
Feeding & clothing ourselves.
Finding love… keeping love.
And on top of all of that… I STILL haven’t washed last night’s dishes.
7 days a week.
365 days a year.
This is the life we’ve accepted as normal.
So how, in the midst of all this, do we NOT be anxious about tomorrow.
In today's episode, I want to dive into how we can reject the normalization of the anxieties that the world tries to spoon-feed us.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“...And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.”
If we aren’t careful, we can look at this story and say
… That’ll NEVER be me. I’ll never be like the prodigal son…
Simply because we incorrectly understood what actually made him “prodigal”.
We have heard the story from the angle of the loving father and how he is like God our father.
We have also heard it from the perspective of the older brother and how not to be jealous of the celebration of the return of the lost sheep.
But we have never taken the time to dive into what made the younger brother "prodigal", we just accept him as such.
In today's episode, I want to dive into the "why" of the younger brother and see if we can learn from and avoid his mistakes.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
"... So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.”
As I was working out one morning, I was listening to one of my favorite gospel artists, Hezekiah Walker, and I came across a song called “99 and a Half”, and in this song he sings, “Lord I’m running, trying to make 100 because 99 and a half won’t do” and as I listened to this song I begin to think on all the things that hold me back from fully following the vision that God set before me, and I begin to despair.
Was it fear of the uncertainty? Lack of trust in God?
What was it that kept me from running full force into the purpose and plan that God lay before me?
And who the heck was Elisha that he didn’t struggle with this?
In today's episode, I want to dive into the character of Elisha and the bold move of burning bridges backwards.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’
He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.’ “
Complicated Situations.
When I said that, almost immediately something came to your mind.
For some it’s a job.
For others it might be a person… an entanglement or situationship… whatever your word of choice may be.
And for others it might be forgiveness, like it was for the disciples in this verse.
But whatever it is… one word can usually sum it up.
Complicated.
In today's episode, I want to dive into why Christ choose a mulberry tree as the epitome =of a complicated situation and why uprooting it is such a big deal.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.
Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first...”
What are you replacing your bad habits with?
… more bad habits?
Does accomplishment come in JUST laying down a destructive habit… or have we missed the point entirely?
In today's episode, I want to dive into what it means to truly lay impure spirits and destructive behaviors aside and not return to them "unoccupied".
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
"Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’
The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’ And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked."
Resignation.
To abandon, quit, surrender, or stand down.
Many times we find ourselves at the doorstep of a blessing, but like the man in this story, we find ourselves making excuses instead of making moves to freedom. How did we end up in such a state, resigned to our circumstances and situation.
In today's episode, I want to dive into how this man found himself face to face with healing and still made excuses... and how we serve a God who offers us healing INSPITE of our excuses.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, 'Why stay here until we die?
If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.' ”
Transitions.
Sometimes as we go through seasons, we become better at transitioning, and sometimes it just continues to confuse us and we find ourselves in a stuck state.
Why do we find ourselves in this state? How do we transition well?
In today's episode I want to dive into what holds us back from transitioning well and find out what the Word says about how to actually do a better job in our season of transition.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
“A man’s gift will make room for him, And bring him before great men.”
When reading this verse, what comes to mind?
Does this verse excite you because of the opportunity to glorify God with your gift before great men… or do you feel this verse doesn’t apply to you because you feel that either:
- You don’t have gifts like that, or
- There is no way your gifts will bring you before great men.
Many times we fear the gift… fear it because it is unknown to us. And instead of seeking to understand the treasure inside of us, we choose to leave it buried.
We sit back and wait on someone else’s gift to make room for us… for another person’s opportunity to open a door for us to walk through.
In today's episode I want to reach out to those who are NOT content with fearing or not understanding the gifts and treasures God placed inside you and I want to answer the question, "Where do I begin?"
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
In Psalm 46. the psalmist speaks of the world falling down around him.
In verse 2… the mountains fall into the sea… the waters roar and foam so hard that the mountains quake.
In verse 6, the nations are in an uproar and kingdoms fall.
… and in the midst of all this, the command that God gives in verse 10 is… “Be still and know…”
He says this because He knows that when things get hectic… the last thing we want to do is “be still”. We have been taught that being still is equivalent to being unproductive.
In today's episode I want to answer the question "What lies in the stillness?" and talk through why He beacons us into stillness with Him in spite of our natural instincts.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
How do I reconcile my faith and my race?
One I was born into
… the other I was “born again” into.
Neither, in my mind, can I live without.
Both drive every decision I make
… but only one seems to drive every decision made towards me.
The world doesn’t see me as a Christian first.
They only see me as a black man.
And that one filter drives all of their subsequent actions.
So how do I reconcile the two?
Am I a Black man who is Christian,
Or am I a Christian first and black second?
Join me in today's episode as I wrestle to reconcile my faith and the reality of my race.
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
Plan B… or our "Backup Plan(s)".
We know these very intimately.
We are told that we are foolish if we don’t have one when it pertains to every area of our earthly lives.
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”
“Don’t put all your hopes in a person… People always let you down.”
It’s no wonder that we find it hard in our spiritual lives to “put all our eggs in one basket”.
In today's episode I want to peel back the layers and examine why our spiritual "Plan B" is so dangerous, and how we recognize when it is idolatry in our lives. How can we tell what household idols have we erected to take the place of God?
... and with that being said, let's dive right in.
What are you focused on?
In your battle with whatever sin that may entangle you, what is it that you set your eyes on?
Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “The pursuit of purity is not about the suppression of lust, but about the reorientation of one’s life to a larger goal.”
Even if your entanglement isn't lust, in today's episode I want to take the time to examine why his sentiments of, "The pursuit of victory over sin is not obtained from simply suppressing the sin, but also in greater part… refocusing our lives on Christ.” still hold true.
So with that being said... Let's dive right in.
What place are you operating from?
Are you operating from a place of need?
I need affirmation. I need validation. I need reassurance
Or are you operating from a place of purpose because your needs are already met in Christ?
No matter what context we find ourselves in (business, ministry, volunteering, etc), to allow ourselves to operate from our “place of need” can put us at odds with God.
In today's episode I want to take time and examine what fills us up, and why that even matters when considering how we operate in purpose.
Let's dive right in.
Are you ready for your next steps?
Many times we can become so focused on our “next season” and getting out of our current season that we rarely ask ourselves are we even ready for what’s next?
What does Ready even look like?
How do you know if you’re ready?
In today's episode I want to walk through the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan to see what we can learn about “readiness” for the Promises of God from the people of God.
Let's dive right in.
During this time of self-distancing, I have seen people struggle with mini-storms inside of the larger storm.
Sometimes these mini-storms are a direct result of the larger storm, like depression from the loss of a job and the ability to provide for one's family or anxiety about the health of ourselves or a family member.
Other times, those mini-storms are things that have always existed, but “busyness” was an amazing facade that kept us from having to actually deal with it, like anger and pride.
Whichever category you fall into, I pray that this moment of meditation will meet you where you are. And with that being said, let's dive right in.
In order to make sense of this season, we often find ourselves trying to understand God.
Trying to piece together, as best we can, a reason for it all.
And if you aren’t, you’ve probably heard other people inject their “God reason” into the situation... using words like "judgement" or "end times" or a number of other rationalizations that help them cope with the stressful season that has descended on us like the plague.
Why does God have us here?
What is the purpose of it all?
In today's episode we see if the Word can answer the 'Why' and the 'What' of this season.
Let's dive right in.
I will walk in freedom BECAUSE I have sought out your rules.
Usually when we think about freedom, the LAST thing that comes to our mind is the word “rules”.
As a matter of fact, rules and restrictions are seen as the exact opposite of freedom. When we think of freedom, we think of a space without rules or the ability to do whatever we please without consequence.
So why does David seem to beg to differ?
In today's episode we look at what "freedom" really means and ask ourselves... Have we had it wrong this whole time?
In Acts 13:22 God refers to David as, “a man after my own heart…”
The same David that slept with another man’s wife, got her pregnant, then killed her husband to cover up his mess.
How could God consider this man someone after His own heart?
In today's episode we dive into how David reflected the heart of God even as his life was being sought after for death. How did David remain calm in the midst of peril, and as such, how do we do the same?
When we think of blocked paths, the first thing that probably comes to mind is frustration from not getting what we want.
We handle these feelings and circumstances differently depending on how badly we want what’s being blocked.
But what about those situations where it was God who placed the blocker there?
In today's episode we look at one of the reasons why God may block our path, and how we, in turn, respond when we come across blocked paths versus how we are supposed to respond.
In John 10:27, Jesus describes His followers as sheep by saying “My sheep know my voice…”
With this verse many Christians get discouraged because they feel like they don’t hear God speak. Many would even go as far as to say that God does not speak to them at all.
But often it’s not that He doesn’t speak, it’s just that we aren’t trained to listen.
In today's episode we revisit the Prophet Elijah and see how he "hears" God and why God refers to His children as sheep. Let's dive in and train ourselves to hear God speak.
What if our war was with God?
What if the enemy we fight so desperately against was not the Devil, but God Himself?
So many times we blame the devil for our downfalls and temptations, but what if it was our own hearts that took us away and caused us to sin?
In today's episode we look at the war we often find ourselves in with sin, and look at who we are really fighting against. Are we fighting of God's side to destroy the idols in our lives or opposing Him to keep them?
"How is it that you have NO faith"
Wait Jesus... but it was a storm... a big storm.
And our boat is so small.
Isn't it normal to be a little concerned about our lives?
Today we dive into the situation where an unbearable storm meets an unchanging God, and we find out if we believe more in the storm or in the words of the God who created the storm.
What if your blessing lied in your obedience?
What if God has already laid the path and was just waiting on you to step on it?
Would you move...
Or would you resign yourself to death?
Today we dive in what obedience looks like from a widow's perspective and what happened in Kings that would hinder her obedience and make her consider choosing death over obedience.
Restoration. A return of something to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired condition. When we think of being restored, we think of something that we lost being re-established.
Today we dive in what restoration looks like from God's perspective and what happened in Joel to bring about the need for restoration in the first pace.