Your Daily Dose: 60 Days of Self Reflection for Millennials

By Ashley Kelly

This devotional is meant to discuss the relevant situations, emotions, and circumstances we deal with daily and learn how to deal with it God's way through the scripture. Each day we have to face different problems that can cause us to lose control of our emotions, lose ourselves, and even lose our minds. But as my first Pastor use to say, "You don't have problems you have God!" God has given us the tools we need to be successful in our situations and our emotions and the most powerful tool that He has given us is the word of God, the sword, the good book! It is up to us to read, study, and hide the word of God in our hearts so that we are able to recall the scriptures in order to help us in our times of need.
The bible is a powerful resource that is living and breathing and stronger than any two edge sword. His word tells us exactly what we need to do in every situation in our lives. Without the direction of the word of God we will surely be lost as this is what gives us strength, peace, love, joy, and guidance.
Sometimes we can get overwhelmed when we think about taking on the challenge of reading the bible, with its 66 books and over a 1000 of chapters to tackle; but God doesn't expect us to "stuff ourselves" with His word. We are to digest it and ask for His understanding so that we may apply it to our daily lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667883687

Book preview

Day 1

Slay All day, Every day!

Slaying the Giants in Your Life

1 Samuel 17:45-47 NIV

David said to the Philistine, You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.

Giants are defined as very great size or force; gigantic. Don’t we all have some very great size or gigantic things that we have to face in our lives; they seem to be so scary and intimidating, causing us to run with our tails tucked in between our legs? Depression, loneliness, tragedies are just some of the things that we may deal with in life. There are some situations that happened to us in childhood, our teenage years, or even in our adulthood, but these things were not meant to come into our lives to break us, but for us to overcome. These things can cause us to lose focus, become overwhelmed, live in the negative spaces of our minds, harden our hearts, and do many other things that God has not called us to do. God has given us the power to slay the giants in our lives.

When Goliath came against David with his sword, spear, and javelin, David declared that he came against him in the name of the Lord Almighty. Isn’t that encouraging to know that when the giants in our lives come up against us, we can declare that we come against anything, in the name of the Lord Almighty! Whatever rises against us may be big, it may be strong, and it may even be scary, but one thing we know for sure is that it cannot defeat the Lord God Almighty. God will deliver that stress, that doubt, that fear, those thoughts of suicide, that childhood trauma, the abusive relationship, that lack into your hands and cut off its head! There will be giants in our lives that come to intimidate us and make us feel like they will overtake us, but if we remember who our God is, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle (Psalms 24:8), God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Psalms 46:1), The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower (Psalms 18:2), we will focus on taking down the giants in our lives and not the giants trying to take us down.

Sometimes the giants in our lives can stifle us and cause fear, which can cause doubt in ourselves and our savior, but once we decree and declare to the giants that we come against it in the name of our Lord God Almighty, NOTHING will be able to stand against us. Remember, if God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31). Decree and declare to your giant that you come against it in the name of our Lord God Almighty, and your giants will be slayed!

Reflect on This!

Day 1

1. What giant(s) in your life, past or current, has caused you to become overwhelmed, fearful, and doubtful of who our Lord God Almighty is?

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2. Can you recall a time when you spoke to the giant(s) in your life in the name of our God, and the giants fell?

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3. What keeps you from remembering to call on God when the giant(s) arise in your life?

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4. What does the scripture mean when it states, All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.?

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5. In what ways can you ensure that the giants in your life do not consume, overwhelm, and overtake you?

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Journal Time!

This space is for you to do you! Whatever you learned, any notes you want to remember, any takeaways, or any feelings you need to release, this space is for you.

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Day 2

Is the Joy of the Lord My Strength?

Nehemiah 8:10b NIV

This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

Have you ever had a bad day, a moment of loss, a grieving period, a time in your life where you felt like your joy was just… well… gone? Have you ever felt like you did not know where, how, or whom you would get your joy back from; and you tried to go to a kickback, get drunk, or even sleep it away with that cute guy or sexy girl and your joy still seemed to be lost? Well, my friend, have you ever tried Jesus? Yea, you know the man that died on the cross for you and me? The man who gave his life that we may have life more abundantly?

God wants you to know that we can look to the hills from which comes our help, for all of our help comes from Him; He will be our strength, and the joy of the Lord is our strength! God has allowed us to inhabit the fruits of the spirit, and fortunately for us, joy is one of those fruits that we can embrace. But it is not a joy that the world gives, things of the world, other people or even we, ourselves, can give, but it is a special fruit that only our heavenly Father can give to us. God’s joy comes with peace, love, and clarity. When we have the joy of the Lord, we can have peace that surpasses all understanding. When we have the joy of the Lord, we can learn to love others as Christ loves us and not be bogged down by the things of life. When we have the joy of the Lord, we can have His clarity as we will be better focused on who He is to us and who He has yet to be to us.

Joy is the happiness and gladness of our spirits; it’s down on the inside. Imagine having God’s joy, His happiness, and gladness? God’s joy is not depending upon the things that are going on around us, our circumstances, or situations, but it is the pure existence of God’s goodness dwelling on the inside of us no matter what is going on. So, despite the happenings that happen in our lives, we can stand on the fact that the joy of the Lord is our strength. He is the source of strength and the strength of our lives, and in Him, we can be joy-filled.

Reflect on This!

Day 2

1. How can we truly embrace the joy of the Lord in our daily living and ensure that it does not dissipate?

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2. Why do you think it was important for Nehemiah to start the verse with, This day is holy to our Lord as a prelude to letting us know that the joy of the Lord is our strength?

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3. Are you able to recognize those things in life that cause you to lose sight of God’s joy? What can you do to protect God’s joy from those things at all costs?

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Journal Time!

This space is for you to do you! Whatever you learned, any notes you want to remember, any takeaways, or any feelings you need to release, this space is for you.

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Day 3

Are My Happenings My Happiness?

Psalms 144:15 NKJV

Happy are the people who are in such a state;

Happy are those whose God is the LORD!

Being happy is not just a song you can sing or a feeling that the things around you make you feel, but happiness is a state of mind. We all want to be happy, right? But are we willing to truly do the work to make ourselves happy? I know you think I might have said a couple of crazy things in relation to happiness. First, I said work, yes that is right, work! You have to get to a mental, spiritual, and emotional place that you truly authentically understand that no one, person, place, thing, or idea besides God, can make us happy. We have to know that the things around us canNOT determine our happiness. Suppose we allow our situations and circumstances to dictate to us how we should feel. In that case, we will forever be on a mental, emotional, and spiritual rollercoaster that we do not have the power to stop or get off of. But if we understand that we can control the way we view the things that happen to us and control the way we react to those things, we can move throughout life thriving in a positive head and heart space, allowing us to be freer and more uninhibited. We should allow our minds to automatically think positive thoughts and thoughts of gratitude instead of complaining, sadness, and negativity. When your tire goes flat, you can think, well God, thank you that I have a car, that I am safe, and nobody got hurt. Or if you didn’t get the promotion you wanted, you could easily think, well, I deserved that more than they did, but doing the work causes you to think, well God, I’m thankful that I have a job that allows me to be in the financial space that I am in.

The second thing that might have seemed crazy when you read it is,… make ourselves happy. We cannot depend on anyone else besides God to bring happiness into our lives. If we are unhappy with ourselves, there’s no human being in the world that can make us happy. God wants us to make Him the Lord of our lives so that we can understand what true happiness is. If we serve God, allow Him to have complete control over every aspect of our lives, and are obedient to His word, we will experience happiness like no other. Making Christ the Lord of our lives means that we willingly give Him power, authority, and influence over and in our lives. With God as our guide, how can we go wrong? He is the one who created us and knew us when we were in our mother’s womb. He created us in His image, and He knows exactly what we need and don’t need to make us happy. When we serve the one true and living God, there is nothing that our heavenly Father won’t do to put a smile on our face and illustrate in our lives what true happiness is all about.

Reflect on This!

Day 3

1. What things in your life have you subconsciously focused on to make you happy that were not from God?

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2. How did it make you feel once that person, place, thing, or idea could no longer provide your expectations of happiness?

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3. In what areas haven’t you made Jesus the Lord of your life, and what can you do to intentionally invite Him into every aspect of your life?

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4. How can you intentionally make God the center of your happiness and not focus on your happenings to fulfill you?

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Journal Time!

This space is for you to do you! Whatever you learned, any notes you want to remember, any takeaways, or any feelings you need to release, this space is for you.

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Day 4

Real Love

John 15:13 KJV

Greater