Daily Joy

  Day 2: The Wilderness is Not the End Scripture: Exodus 16:3 (NIV) - “The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve to death.’” Devotional: The wilderness will make you question everything. The Israelites had just experienced a miraculous escape, yet the moment they felt lack, they romanticized their bondage. Isn’t that how we do? When the journey to greater gets uncomfortable, we start reminiscing about what we asked God to free us from. But the wilderness is not punishment—it’s preparation. It is the place where God removes the residue of Egypt from your soul. It is the place where trust is built, where miracles are revealed, where identity is formed. The wilderness isn’t a dead end; it’s a passageway to destiny. Don’t allow frustration to distort your vision. God didn’t bring you out to leave you here. He’s sustaining you even...

Day 1: When God Says Move Scripture: Exodus 14:15 (NIV) - Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” Devotional: Sometimes, we mistake stillness for obedience when God is actually saying move . The children of Israel had prayed for deliverance, and when God sent Moses to lead them out, fear gripped them. The Red Sea was in front of them, Pharaoh was behind them, and in their panic, they cried out. But God didn’t tell them to stay stuck in their fear—He told them to move forward. How often do we cry out to God, asking Him for a way out, yet hesitate when He actually opens the door? We hesitate because the unknown feels riskier than the bondage we’ve become familiar with. But when God says move, He has already prepared the way. What looks like an impossible sea before you is actually a path waiting for your obedience. You don’t have to have it all figured out. You don’t have to know every step. But you do have to trust that when God cal...

This past week was a week of expectation. For the first time in a while, I was expecting greater . Not hoping, not wishing, not daydreaming—I was expecting it. And that’s a different type of faith. Expectation makes you sit up a little taller. It makes you clear space for what’s coming. It makes you move like you know something good is about to break through. But let me be real—expectation isn’t always easy. It’s a fight. It means choosing to believe in greater even when life still looks like less . It means preparing for doors to open when all you’ve seen lately are walls. It means waking up each morning and telling doubt, fear, and frustration, “I hear you, but I’m still moving forward.” Because when you expect greater, you don’t just sit around waiting—you start making room for what’s on the way. And making room is uncomfortable. It requires clearing out the clutter—mindsets that don’t serve you, patterns that keep you stuck, people who only know the old version of you and can’t ...

Shake It Off Written by Joy Harris-Bird | Contributing Author - Cathleen Harris I was sitting at work talking to my sister on my break, like we normally do. And she hit me with a revelation I wasn’t ready for. She said, "Jesus called Lazarus forth, but he still had his grave clothes on. But when Jesus was resurrected, He left His behind." That shook me. Because too many of us are trying to walk into new life while dragging dead things with us. God is calling us forward, but instead of stepping into the new, we’re still wrapped in the old. We still carry mindsets, relationships, and habits that no longer fit who we’re becoming. Lazarus came out of the tomb, but he was still bound. Alive, but restricted. Free, but wrapped up in what was. And then there was Jesus. He left the grave clothes behind when He walked out of His grave . He didn’t bring His past into His resurrection. He didn’t hold onto the evidence of what He had been through. And neither should you. But let’s be rea...