DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
WHAT’S NEXT?!
Wow! What an Easter!
Worship! Celebration! Drama! Food! Fellowship!
Our Hope in the Hills in Bev Hills was popping. How were your gatherings?
The Lord, by His Spirit, was with us. And we honored Him.
We are so grateful and still full – spiritually and physically.
We ended our fast from Lent with an incredible Easter meal from French Quarter Cuisine catered by Chef Anthony Stemley. If you’re in LA, and want his info, let us know. The smothered yams and sweet potato pecan pie with the graham cracker crust were divine.
The best part was spending the day with family and friends. There is nothing like community and celebrating together. It is always good to know that we are in this thing together. We had a blast. We have a great core team that helped bring everything together, and my oldest brother, sister-in-law, nephews and niece drove in. Beautiful to spend time with them too. It was a good day.
So, you and I journeyed together for 40 days thru Lent with fasting, prayer and reflection. Thank you so much.
WHAT’S NEXT?!
No pressure or anything, but after Jesus’ 40 day fast in the wilderness, He started a ministry that turned the world upside down. Just saying… Anybody ready to shake things up? Anybody’s vision and purpose been renewed?
Today’s meditation:
Read below or click: LUKE 4:13-15
13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him (Jesus) until an opportune time.14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. 15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
To be fair, there is some down time between the fast and the ministry. In Matthew’s account (Matthew 4:10-11), after Jesus tells satan to step off and get to moving, angels come and minister to Him. There is a time of restoration.
I’m not an angel, obviously, but I know a little something about ministering to others and times of restoration.
For all the Fam who works out, you’ll recognize this as the “cool down” part of our routine. If we lift weights, dance, exercise, walk, jog, anything physical, there is a “warm up” that precedes the work out, and a “cool down” that follows the work out. When we go to a restaurant, there is an appetizer that precedes the main course and dessert that follows. We could make the same metaphor for sex. And all the married folks say, “Amen!”
Either way, let’s “cool down”. Let’s debrief and examine what happened over the last 40 days so that we can launch out into our next steps.
WHAT HAPPENED?
What happened in our lives over the last month+ during Lent? What was wonderful? What was not the best? How can we continue to grow?
How was this season for you?
Many of you sent praise reports of what the Lord was doing.
If you haven’t already, let us know. We’ll be sharing some of your testimonies in our service next Sunday as an encouragement about God’s faithfulness. If you want us to keep your name confidential, we can do that. We honor your privacy. No problem. So, let us know about your experience:
Was this your first Lenten fast?
Was this the first time you did a 40-day fast? 20 days? 10 days? 7 days? 1 day?
What did you sacrifice?
What were you lifting up as a prayer request?
How did God respond?
I’ll go first to give an example of the process.
This wasn’t my first Lenten fast or 40-day fast, but this one proved a tremendous struggle in my areas of sacrifice. In the blog, If At First We Don’t Succeed, Try Again (https://naimalett.com/blog-day-5-lent-if-at-first-we-dont-succeed-naima-lett/), I explained that my sacrificial commitment was two-fold: food and time.
Food!
I’m a vegetarian, so I had to get creative with what I let go. Giving up meat would not be a sacrifice, seeing that it hasn’t been a staple in my diet for a decade. So, I gave up sweets (and in the process realized I could very well be addicted to sugar) and breads (I L-O-V-E breads, all kinds, I do not discriminate).
I was constantly hungry for sweets and breads. Whenever I craved a blueberry muffin or raisin bread or cereal for breakfast, I would have my fruit and water and pray. I was in constant communication with God, Fam! Constant!
Then, I started craving hamburgers (and I haven’t eaten a beef hamburger in 10 years). I told my husband, “This is the weirdest thing ever!” You would think I was pregnant and ready for a pickle and ice cream run in the middle of the night. Bizarre!
Thank God, I was able to hold fast in the fast. Do you know the thought that kept me most days? What held me accountable? The idea that if I decided to go and inhale an entire cheesecake, I would have to get up early the next morning when I wrote the next blog and confess to you what I’d done. Accountability is powerful, people! Powerful!
Time!
The area where I struggled the most was sacrificing 10% of my day. For the most part, the first hour of quiet time was the easiest, as it was already a part of my routine. But that extra hour and 1/2? I NEVER knew carving out 2 1/2 hours a day with the Lord could be SO hard. It’s not difficult when I’m teaching or setting aside time for retreats. But in my normal roller-coaster-all-cylinders-on-go life, 2 1/2 hours is a BIG DEAL!
But it got me to thinking. Do I spend 2 1/2 hours a day in communication with anybody? Maybe I was going about this all wrong and setting myself up for failure. My husband and I talk constantly and we work together and serve together in ministry, but we don’t actually spend 2 1/2 hours a day just sitting and talking. We talk over meals. We carve out time together. We still date and hang, but it’s rare that we just sit for 2 1/2 hours straight talking unless we’re in a strategic planning session or something.
So, I realized, it’s best for me to spread out my quiet time. An hour in the morning works, praying, reading, journaling. A prayer walk in the neighborhood is another 1/2 hour. I might listen to some music or scriptures or preaching or praise and worship in the car to and from destinations, etc. I’m constantly praying over decisions as I work throughout the day. I spend some time interceding and praying over other’s prayer requests. I am constantly praying while tending to the needs of the fam of Christ, visiting, counseling, building, listening. And, I reflect at night before I go to bed.
Everybody’s different. I’m not saying this would work for you. Neither am I saying it should. I’m just saying, this is what I figured out would have to work for me. Because trying to sit still for 2 1/2 hours each day in QT set myself up failure and then I’d feel bad when I just couldn’t do it. Spreading things out helped a lot more!
I normally consume lots of books, magazines and television daily to keep up on current events, trends and what’s happening in the industry. During the 40 days, I cut way back on that and felt a little lost. I still looked up breaking news on the internet, but I don’t know what’s going on with the new mid-season TV shows that opened.
Anybody keeping up with Smash? Is The Voice over? I don’t know anything re: American Idol. Did anybody see the show Scandal created by Shonda Rhimes starring Kerry Washington? If so, what did you think? In 1968, Diahann Carroll became the first black actress in television history to star in her own series called “Julia” for NBC. That was a 30 minute sitcom. Now, almost 45 years later, I think I read that Scandal is making history as the first hour-long network drama starring an African American female. It also happens to be written by a sister. So, I’m interested in checking it out. Not to mention I had an audition for that pilot episode last year, and I’d like to see what they did with the script. The first draft I read was a bit racy. How did it turn out?
Needless to say, I had to carve out extra time, and some days, I did better than others, but I learned a huge lesson along the way that should help me moving forward.
What are your lessons?
What did you learn?
GOD’S PART
What encouraged me the most was God’s faithfulness. He is so faithful.
During the 40 days, in addition to answering the many prayer requests I was bombarding heaven with on your behalf, the Lord also took time to answer a very specific question I had regarding my future. I have about 10 projects going, no exaggeration, and I was praying for clarity on what to keep, what to let go, where to press, where to retreat. God spoke very clearly and renewed hope in a place in my soul that very much needed hope.
Yesterday, on Easter, I said, “Because of Christ’s resurrection, we have hope and a future”. I meant that. It’s personal. I have hope and a future. We have hope and a future.
SO WHAT’S NEXT?!
Did you receive any direction during the fast? Usually, after an extended time with the Lord, direction is given. Do you have any clarity or sense an area of moving forward? Again, no pressure, but we’ll explore this in the coming days.
Did you know Easter is a season, not just a day? In the church worldwide, Easter and the resurrection of Jesus is celebrated between Easter and Pentecost. That’s a 50 day stretch. There is no fasting. There is celebration and one of the church fathers said they stand while praying to denote the resurrection. Now, I’m not saying anybody has to change their prayer posture, but the point is, the global church is still celebrating.
So, we’ll keep celebrating. Many of you asked to keep receiving daily devotions. I’ll keep writing. If you don’t want to get emails daily, just email us and we’ll take you off the daily BLOG list, but you’ll still get the monthly news update. No worries, no stress. We are also researching a weekly digest option. We may have to switch blog clients to do so. We’ll do our best to make this a fuss-free process, maybe add some audio or video, a podcast, or vlog. We’ll see.
But today, I’m resting.
I’m exhausted.
And I may have another piece of that sweet potato pecan pie. Somebody put a couple of leftover slices in my car when everything was packed up after service. I don’t know who did it, but a very special thank you and blessing over your life. You knew my sugar-depraved heart.
Mad appreciation,
Naima
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