“Only God can complete you”

“And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power”
- Col 2:10

While Christian singles wait on God to be bless them with a person worthy of dating or for a long term relationship and possibly even marriage, there are some things you should know. People often tell me how distraught they are with dating, waiting, unlucky in love and hoping to someday meet Mr. or Mrs. Right. People are looking for a wife or a husband so that they can live their Cinderella story. Some are perplexed and stressed with finding their soul mate. From all the stories I have heard, I have so many case studies that I could write a book on the subject for that matter. Going back a few years, I have spoken with many Christian who are single that feel as though their life is incomplete until they find their soul mate. Some believe that their life is empty and is devoid of gratification.

People think that finding their prince or princess will complete them. People think that having a mate will solve all their problems. I know people who’s only goal in life is to be married. They want a ring placed on their finger. Many are waiting on God to fulfill their dream of the house with the white picket fence, the wife or husband, kids and a dog named Spot. People simply want to feel alive. Some even think that marriage is the end all! Wrong! While having it all is not unattainable, it should never be ones goal in life. My recommendation to you is, get a life. For you who believe that you can only feel complete and whole when you find your soul mate, let me say that no one can complete you. Only God can complete you, “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power” Col 2:10. The right person can bring you joy and happiness but will never complete you.

Yearning and desiring for someone to complete you is not where God wants you. People spend an endless journey trying to find someone to complete them. People drift from dysfunctional relationship to dysfunctional relationship looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right. He or she should never be your everything! Sadly the cycle never ends for some people. I have friends on Facebook who change their status form single to in a relationship and back as often as there are months on a calendar. Instead, make having a close relationship with God your priority and all things will be added unto you. He must come first in your life. No one else will accept you, love you and open His arms to you unconditionally like our Heavenly Father. Who’s your Daddy! Learn to be content right where God has you.

Copyrighted Material ©2011 Marquis Evans

“Jesus delivers us from the power of the curse and restores us to the promise of blessings”

“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life”
- Deuteronomy 30:19

Life is about choices. Good or bad, we must make them. Everyday our mind is engaged in making choices. As a created being, we have free will to chose. God in His infinite wisdom has equipped us with His Word and empowered us with His Spirit to make the right choice when we are faced with making a decision. Set before us are blessings and curses, life and death. What will you choose? It is not a guessing game where you select what is behind door number 1,2 or 3. Our choices are a matter of life and death, blessing or curses. While we understand that the choices we make comes down to how discipline and obedient we are. Consequently we don’t always make the wisest choices and occasionally our indiscretions overwhelm us and God is grieved. However, when you follow the path of our Lord, it leads to blessings and a life more abundantly. The question then becomes what will you chose?
Heavenly Father, I am so grateful that you chose to die on the cross and be raised for my sins and the sins of the world. Through you, I have life more abundantly because I chose blessing over curses and life over death. Thank you for showing me the way that leads to everlasting life. – Amen

Copyrighted Material ©2011 Marquis Evans

"Keep the past in the past"

Some people never move forward in life because they are living in the past. They focus on who hurt them and how life is unfair. I was one of them. The one thing that I have learned is that when you go digging up the past, all you will get are a few calluses and blisters on your hands and your clothes get messy and dirty. Keep the past in the past. It is like Déjà Vu when you live in the past. You relive your unpleasant scenes over and over again. There are just a few reasons why digging up the past can be beneficial to you. Perhaps one would be to not make the same mistakes twice and to learn from them.

I have seen many people enslaved because of un-forgiveness. They tell the same sob story over and over again how someone did them wrong to the point that you know the story word for word, verbatim. They are trapped in the past, ancient history sort of speak! I knew a co-worker whose husband walked out on her and their children years ago and because she was unable to bury the past, it was her topic of conversation. I have known people who all they want to talk about is what someone did to them! They go looking for someone to co-sign their troubles with them. Or they want to drag you into their misery. Like they say, “misery loves company.” Get over it and turn the page. You can’t turn back time. So what if someone did you wrong, get over it. Your best friend the town crier who you confided in put all you personal business out on Front Street for every one to know, get over it. Stop winning over something that happened to you five, ten, fifteen and twenty years ago. Move on my brother and my sister. Leave the past in the past. Many people today are trapped by their past. Many are wallowing in their failed marriage, relationship and the business deal gone bad! They have one foot in the present and the other foot is in the past. This ought not to be. And you cannot always cast from your mind the pain of the past but you can decide to move forward in the present and reconstruct a new future.

“Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a vision, today is an opportunity”

Digging up the past only serves to relive the pain of the past over and over again. That is why Paul wrote, “Forgetting those things that are behind”, Phil 3:13. You cannot go back in the past and change history. A time machine has not been invented. We don’t live in an age of time travel where a portal allows man to go back in time and change the course of events. For all intents and purposes, you can’t undo what’s already has been done. And there is no medical procedure to extract or swipe your mind of painful memories. People are stuck in a moment of time. Today, I urge you to search for a way to get unstuck. As much as you want to live in the past, it is not the place where God wants you to be. He does not desire that you live in the past. Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a vision, today is an opportunity!

It is time you let go of your past and all the hurt and pain that is buried there. It is like playing instant replay in your mind. You replay over and over again in your mind that event. Until you learn to forgive, your mind plays reruns of some of your painful experiences over and over. It begs the question, “Why would you want to sit before a television set and watch reruns?” You have the power to stop the madness. It is time to get over it and move forward in your life. Pack away the hurtful memories into a trunk, lock it, throw away the key and bury it in the attic of your mind. As long as you live in the past you will always be a victim of it and be defined by what someone did to you. Are you a mother with children whose husband abandoned you? Are you someone who was passed over for a promotion even though you were the best qualified applicant? Did your spouse cheat on you? Don’t be defined by what someone did to you. Let go of the past.

It is time that you rise up and stop living in the past. It is time that you stop being a defeated foe. Now is the time to turn over a new leaf! God can take you past your pain and past your past. Trust God to move you past your hurt, pain, and betrayal. Is there anything in your heart or mind so painful that you cannot forgive? You can be more than a conquer when you step out from the shackles of your past and start living in the here and now.

Life must be lived forward and not backwards. Seize the moment by being in the moment. When you keep the past in the past, you can progress along the journey that will not only help you tear down the wall of un-forgiveness but will enable you to blow that sucker up. If you keep looking back in your past you are going to miss out on your whole life. Sadly, many today are walking the path of un-forgiveness because hurtful memories die hard.

© Copyrighted Material 2011 Marquis Evans

"Armed and Extremely Dangerous"

“Put on the whole armor of God”

Everyday we are engaged in a conflict with the enemy. Everyday we have to bear arms to defend ourselves. The good news is that the Lord has given us weapons to fight and defend ourselves. He would not leave you defenseless. The weapons of our warfare are not physical in nature as one would come to expect to use to protect and defend. No, the weapons that we use have far more greater power than that of a conventional gun or a bomb. Our weapons are “mighty through God”, that is, they are stronger, more powerful, unbreakable, impenetrable, and everlasting. Though the weapons are not of this world, yet they have divine power to demolish strongholds. As a soldier fights in a war he is equipped with weapons and gear to protect against enemy artillery. Similarly, a Christian soldier is equipped with armor to withstand all the fiery darts of the enemy.

While Paul was imprisoned, he looked upon the armor a Roman soldier was wearing. From there he began to visualize the armor as means of protection. He also visualized believers in Christ wearing armor to defend themselves against the enemy. Paul admonishes believers to, “put on the whole armor of God.” What is this armor of God? And why should I wear it? Armor must dissipate a projectile's energy and thus prevent total penetration. We have to remember that this is not a conventional war were soldiers engage each other with hand to hand combat on a battlefield. This is a war that is fought against, “principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”, Eph 6:12, against Satan and his kingdom.

Therefore, as Paul said, Eph. 6:11, “Put on the whole armor of God. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

We are called to put on a breastplate, shoes, a girdle (armor around the waist) a shield, a helmet and a sword. Then and only then can we declare war on the enemy. Without the armor of God you are defenseless and powerless. There are many people who are winning the battle but losing the war and become a prisoner of war. It is, game, set and match! You lose and the enemy wins. That is why Paul said, “that you might be able to withstand.” If you are serious about taking the shackles off your mind so you can take back your life from the enemy, then you must put on the whole armor of God. My brother and my sister you can be fully clothed in the armor of God. Spiritual warfare is very real. That is why I encourage you to take up your sword and shield and with these two symbolic weapons of the Spirit so you can be fully clothed in the armor of God. When you put on the armor of God you can go on the offensive and attack what is attacking you and render the enemy ineffective. It is time to take the gloves off and put the armor on. The enemy is no match for you when you put on the armor of God. Become the enemies, enemy.

© Copyrighted Material 2011 Marquis Evans

"Christians Currently Under Construction"

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus"
- Philippians 1:6 NIV

Have you ever browsed the Internet and you come across a web site the says, “Currently Under Construction”, meaning that the web site is incomplete. Not finished yet. As Christians we are also incomplete and under construction. God is not through designing and refining you yet. The sign reads, “Christians Under Construction”.

The Master wants to create a masterpiece in you. He has taken every struggle, every test, every tear, every defeat, every relapse, every disappointment to cultivate in you the soil needed to make you productive and ready. He is about to give you a blessing that you want to share with others. He has already prepared you, now he wants to position you by unveiling a new realm of glory in you! Be confident that what God has started, He will finish! What work in you do you want God to finish?

Excerpt form my soon to be released book, “Take the Shackles Off Your Mind”
© Copyrighted Material 2011 Marquis Evans

“Forgiveness will always point to the cross, condemnation will always point to me!”

Too many people hang on to the wrongs in their life and become prisoners of their sins. Many are under siege because of poor decisions, mistakes, regrets and condemnation that burden them down. While the rest of the world goes on they get left behind. I'm waving a new banner these days. Freedom! Freedom from the battle in my mind! Forgiveness will always point to the cross, condemnation will always point to me! Jesus bore the weight of our sins when He hung on the cross and said, “it is finished.” He became sin for you and me. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.

© Copyrighted Material 2011 Marquis Evans

"User-friendly Faith"

Try to think of faith as being user-friendly. When something is said to be user-friendly it means that is easy to use or learn to use. Many gadgets, devices, electronics today are said to be user-friendly. Faith is also user-friendly. It does not require anything more that your belief and your trust in God to have faith. All you have to do is believe. There is nothing complicated about having faith. Either you have faith and believe or you don’t and doubt. Faith and doubt are mutually exclusive just like if you flip a coin, it will either be heads or tails, but not both. Faith does not come with an instruction manual all you have to do is believe.

Excerpt form my soon to be released book, “Take the Shackles Off Your Mind
© Copyrighted Material 2011 Marquis Evans