Better Than Okay

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him. Psalm 145:18

How many times has someone asked, “How are you doing?” And you reply, “I’m doing okay.”

That response is a red flag for me. It signals that there is something wrong and that there is an unbalance in a person’s life. How do I know this? Because this was me last week. Someone asked, “How are you doing today, Sis Overton?” Without hesitating, I said, “I’m okay.” I wasn’t lying. I was overwhelmed with tasks and overburdened with situations that are completely out of my control. However, when I said it, I felt a check in my spirit. I felt God say to me, “It doesn’t have to be this way, Angela.”

To be honest, I was carrying around my burdens without giving them to God. I wasn’t praying the way I should. Instead of making my petition known to God and casting my care upon Him, I was pretending that nothing was wrong. I was in denial. I didn’t want to spend time in God’s presence because I didn’t want to encounter the root of the problem—which just so happens to be me. (Ironically, if you’ve read any of my devotions in the past, how many times have I encouraged you to give your burdens to the Lord? I need to take a good swig of my advice, I guess.)

Yes, even Pastor’s wives can avoid reality. I felt that if I shared my heart with God that it would be too painful to confront head-on. Burying pain seems so much easier, but it isn’t. So, every day, I’ve been spending quality time with the Lord and talking to Him like He is my very best friend, sitting across the table from me, drinking coffee. Every day I share a little more of my heart and every day I feel pieces of my heavy burden lift, bit by bit.

Some healing’s are instantaneous and some healing’s take time. Today, will you meet with the Lord and abide with Him until you feel whole? Even if it takes longer than one day, one week, or for as long as it takes?

God wants you and I to live an overcoming life, even when you’re grieving, even when life doesn’t go as expected, even when you don’t have the answers.

When I eat a meal, I don’t want it to just taste okay, I want it to be delicious. When I go on vacation, I don’t want to have an okay time, I want to have the best time ever! I don’t want my marriage to be just okay or my walk with God to be okay or anything else in my life to be just okay.

Today, let’s not settle for an okay day or an okay life.

Ask yourself:

• Why do I feel overburdened?
• Have I spent quality time in prayer?
• Have I spent quality time reading the Bible?
• Do I have negative influences in my life? If so, what positive boundaries can I set?
• Is there something I can do right now to relieve some stress?
• Am I procrastinating? What step-by-step process can I have in place to eliminate some things on my to-do list?
• What does an overcoming life look like from a Biblical perspective? Find five scriptures that will encourage you and put them in a place you will see them often.
• Pray that God would reveal His purpose in your life.

If this devotion is hitting home today, I want you to know that His burden is light. There is hope. God wants you to live a ‘better than okay life,’ He wants you to live an overcoming life.