Have you ever prayed for something and nothing seemed to happen? It almost feels like God was ignoring you. It was like you had this super strong desire and you knew that prayer was the answer. You connected your scripture to it and you stood by faith on the belief that GOD heard you. Yet nothing seemed to change.
Last night, I was up at 1:00am and God said to me, write a blog on this topic. I knew why he wanted me to write this. You see, there was a time in my life that I felt like God was torturing me. I prayed for things and it was not happening. It was like a flat line in the phone line and just nothing. I connected my scripture to it and I said Lord, this is the desires of my heart. Let me share with you why I needed to be delivered from that place....
1.) My motives were wrong. My prayers consisted of incredibly selfish things that were grounded in building up my ego. It was all about me. Even though I didn't see it at the time (we see what we want); my pride was blinding me from the fact that I had motives not founded in pure truth.
2.) I desired the "thing" more than God. This was a HARD lesson for me to learn. God asked me one morning a few years ago "Do you REALLY love me?" It was right after my prayer list and request was given to Him. I was like "Of course God, I do. Did you hear me though" (Horrible, I know!! I feel SUPER bad about it). Then he responded, "Do you remember what it feels like to fall in love?" Being that I was a newly wed, falling in love was a familiar feeling. I responded, "Yes Lord, I do." He asked me "What do you do when you fall in love that you are not doing with me?" BOOM! That's when it hit me. I loved God....but my pursuit of God had fallen short. I began a new endeavor or falling in love with God all over again. I had to get real with myself and why I had stopped that strong pursuit. It was EYE-opening to say the least.
3.) He had other plans for me that brought more peace. You see, the bible states to us and promises us that the "Blessings of the Lord, maketh rich and addeth NO sorrow". Proverbs 10:22 The things I was praying for, I truly believe would have stressed me out because it was NOT in Gods will. His "NO" was Him protecting me from me. That was a HARD pill to swallow so when I got to a point through frustration in myself and decided to "SURRENDER" (Took a whole year). I began to see Him manifest in my life in ways I NEVER imagined and you know what, I HAD PEACE!
4.) God wants me to share with you that "His delay is not always His denial". There are things that you are praying for that is just not time for yet. I think of my daughter Olivia. As she has been growing her appetite has been growing. There was a time I said, she has enough teeth, I'm going to chop up these apples into small pieces and give them to her because SHE was going crazy over them. She just had to have them. Well, she started choking on a small piece because while she had a lot of teeth her molars had not come in yet which caused her not to be able to fully chew on the apple slices. Needless to say, even though she wants them I will NOT give them to her again until she has a FULL mouth of teeth. For a moment, I was scared. Never again. She wasn't ready no matter how much she wanted it. She had some growing to do. I hope you get my point.
I want to pray with you. I know how it feels to go to the one that has the ability to give you what you desire but for whatever reason he hasn't. Can we fall in love with a God that doesn't gives us what we want all of the time? Can we find contentment with where we are instead of where we THINK we should be? I know it's not an easy thing to do, trust me...but contentment is a choice sis....choose peace in contentment and enjoy your life and the things YOU love. I also want you to continue asking questions to God...he's speaking so make sure you are open to hearing from in ANY way that he speaks. Let's pray....
God, I pray for the person reading this blog. You know what keeps them up at night. You know the lies the adversary is telling them about their situation. God help them to see YOUR truth. Help them to fall in love with YOU all over again. Lord, we need you more than ever in this day and time. We look forward to when you return. Help us set our affections on things above and NOT on thing of this world. Most importantly, helps us to fall head over heels in love with you over and over again. In Jesus name.....amen.
Let's go higher sis!