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James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (KJV)
Have you ever been in prayer over a certain situation, and it seems like nothing is happening? Or maybe your life seems like it is same O, same O, like walking a treadmill, you exhort the effort but you are not moving forward. The Word says that all things have become new to those in Christ, yet it seems “I am still stuck in the old”. So then we plead with God, “if you would only let go and let me have this request, I could move forward in my walk and I would be home free”. But is it so much that we are waiting for God to let loose, or could it be He is just waiting on us to let go? Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: (2) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (KJV) Maybe it’s time to rethink our request. Maybe the snag in our walk is not on God’s end, but rather on ours; and our Father’s response is a reflection of our own stubbornness of hanging on to unhealthy things He has asked us to let go of. Your walk, your life is a mirror reflection of the spiritual, so if you don’t like what has manifested on the outward, take a look inward to find the solution. 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, (18) And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (KJV) When there is an outbreak of an unhealthy, possibly fatal disease, the person infected is put into quarantine. They are isolated and set apart so not to infect others. When you associate with those people or groups that are unhealthy spiritually, you also become quarantined from the Father. So it is not until you are ready to take Father’s dose of what is needed that you will be let out of the quarantine of the flesh you put yourself into, and continue on the path of life and receive the answer to your prayers. You need to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only to be justified in His sight. Psalms 62:7-8 In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. (8) Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. (KJV) I have found for my own self, that if I come clean before God, pouring my heart out to Him, which by the way He already sees the thoughts and intents of the heart, that God opens up to me as well, and the relationship is strengthened. Rather than try to hide things from Him, and pretend they don’t exist, which is an area the devil would like to keep us in, I ask for help to overcome these issues in my walk that can hinder my relationship with God. Psalms 32:3-5 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. (4) For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. (5) I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. (KJV) Ever wonder what that roaring is inside you? The Bible says the devil is like a roaring lion, seeking those he can devour. That roaring sound is the voice of the enemy, telling you that there is nothing wrong on your end, but rather someone else’s fault, and the more you try to justify yourself, the louder that roar gets and tries to drown out the voice of truth that will restore peace and shut the lions mouth. John 10:14-15 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. (15) As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. (KJV) The Lord Himself makes an interesting statement concerning His own relationship with the Father, one we too can pattern our life after. How well known I am to the Father is based on how well known I make myself to Him as well. Do I take the time each and every day in prayer and in His word, making my walk in the Spirit a priority, or am I just doing lip service? Am I truly being honest with the Father, coming clean and admitting when I fall short so that He can show me how to make the correction to keep us close? What kind of marriage would one have if they never communicated with each other, or when they did, they would hold back and not be honest? All one needs to do is look around to see that answer, which eventually is divorce. And for those of us that have experienced the D word, it is not pleasant. Psalms 84:11-12 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. (12) O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. (KJV) Have you ever had someone you could tell anything to? Someone you could tell your deepest secrets to, things you would never tell anyone else? Would not that person be someone you trusted, someone you established a tight bond with? What about our Father, did you know His ear is never too heavy to hear, in fact He is available 24-7, 365 days a year? Do you trust Him enough to open up too as well? If you do He will open up to you in return. If you sense your life is being put on hold, and you’re waiting for something to happen, being open and honest with God is what will set you free and get you off the bench and back on His field. God bless and have a prosperous day in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is up to each of us to work out and walk in our own relationship with God through His Son Christ Jesus, and to take ownership (stewardship) of that relationship with Him.
Think about a relationship you have been in. Did you take ownership of it, nurture it and feed it with love, or did you ignore it and allow it to die away? It takes a constant source of love with trust and confidence for the relationship to grow and mature. This relationship that you are thinking about, were you both involved in the nurturing of it, or was (is) it one sided? How can there be trust and confidence in the relationship let alone love if both people are not willing to reason together. Sometimes we have to die to self, and other times it is the other person that needs to for the relationship to continue and grow in a healthy way. Either way, if you don’t work together, if the house is divided, the relationship will fail and fall away. Our Lord took on the ownership (stewardship) of His relationship with the Father and was willing to die to self for us; and in doing so He made peace with God and provided us a way of our own relationship with God our Father. He was willing to work on the relationship with our Heavenly Father and was able to build a bond of trust and confidence with Him. Are you willing to do the same; are you willing to die to self so that you can live together with Him today and for eternity? One has to continue steadfastly in the faith in order for one’s relationship with our heavenly Father to build trust, not only on our end, but on our Father’s end as well. He who is faithful in the least will be faithful in much. If we can be faithful in the least of what He asks of us then He knows (trusts) that we will be faithful in much; in other words in the deeper things of the Spirit that He reveals unto us and asks of us. He trusts that we will not use those things for gain in this life, but to use that which He reveals unto us to the benefit of others; to build up the body of Christ; to be instant in season and out of season, ready and willing to go about His work and business that He asks of us. As we continue to develop trust we grow in confidence, and we mature in our relationship with God. And we begin to realize that Christ is our confidence; He is the bond that keeps our relationship with God in place. You realize that without Him you can do nothing; and without Him there is no security or boldness in that you know the relationship with our Father is secure and that you have the freedom to reason together with Him because you continue to do those things that please Him. John 8:29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. (KJV) Jesus Christ developed trust and confidence in His relationship with the Father as you can plainly see in the above verse. He knew without doubt. This is the same place that we should be striving for in our relationship with our Father as well. Are you willing to put in the effort and continue steadfastly in this Spiritual relationship that has begun to see it to the end? Dearly loved, I encourage you to put in the effort, fight the good fight of faith so that when the time comes for you to stand before God our Father He is able to speak these loving words ‘well done my good and faithful servant, come and abide with me forever’. God bless and have a prosperous day in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
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