6-2-16
Well go over a couple chapters today. They were both relatively short chapters and i skipped yesterday. So here's chapters 16-17!
Faith vs Doubt:
"Let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person shouldn't expect to receive anything from the Lord" -James 1:6-7
First off, God is not unaware, unable, uncaring, OR, unlikely to answer your prayers. The issue is, sometimes, our heart can be right with people and God, but for some reason, every now and then, we'll have doubts. These doubts create barriers. By doubts I mean we might sometimes deny the faithfulness or goodness of God. Sometimes we let those seeds of doubt get whispered in our ear that cause us to not be 100% faithful in God. Sometimes we think our ability in prayer isn't good enough for God to even bother listening to also. When we doubt, then our prayers, more often than not, don't get answered. When we don't get an answered prayer, we doubt even further, and sometimes we end up just not praying at all. We end up creating our own misconceptions about God's ability, love, understandings. We'll even go so far as thinking God doesn't care and doesn't wanna help us anyways. We're gunna go over 4 common misconceptions further.
1: God doesn't know or understand my needs.
Uh, HELLO!! Yea he does! He knows you better than you know yourself. He alone knows how many hairs are on your head, He knows exactly about what feelings you have. The guy had his own Son sacrificed(albeit willingly on Jesus' part) for the sake of the world for cryin out loud! He made us, then we pretty much spit in His face. God: hey..dont do that. Us: hey! hold me beer! watch this y'all!('merica). So don't even go there!! God is too good, merciful, and loving to just toss us to the side like that.
When we pray, we're spending our time and focusing on God. Prayer is our way to know, love, and worship God. Learning what HIS will is and learning how to walk that path. Learning and being joyous to gain ground and advance HIS kingdom. Making a joyful noise when we witness HIS power and glory. Let me put it this way. Lets say, you have the power of mind reading! you get to know every thought, want, need, of YOUR child. The child knows you know what's on their mind(s). Wouldn't you still want your child to talk and spend time with you? Even if you already knew everything? To experience each others love for one another and help give your child the wisdom they need?
2: God isn't able to help.
HOLD THE PHONE! GOD isnt able to help?! the one who CREATED the whole ENTIRE earth and all of it's inhabitants?! Sit down son! God, is "able to go ABOVE and BEYOND all that we ask OR think"(Ephesians 3:20); "If we ask anything according to HIS will, He will hear us"(1 John 5:14); "Jesus looked at them and said, 'This is something that people cannot do. But GOD can do anything'"(Matthew 19:26). Good day to you sir! GOOD DAY!
3: God doesn't care.
McScuse me?! A lack of immediate action hardly merits the thought that HE doesnt care! You're still breathing right? He didnt just go "screw it!", snapped his fingers and everything he cared to create just disappear like that to just start over right? You have to be PERSISTENT!!!!!!
4: God isn't likely to do anything anyways.
NOT WITH THAT KIND OF ATTITUDE HE WONT! How many games have you won with that kind of attitude? when you lost, because of your attitude, how much more worse did you make yourself feel? God is willing to listen, respond, counsel, comfort, encourage, and everything else under the sky for you! WE are the ones who are weak and unwilling. Not God! Bye Felicia!
Keep in mind folks, God is NOT a genie. You dont rub some magic lamp, get three wishes, then he washes His hands of you. That's not how God works. Your 'battle plan' for your prayers should be consisting of the following: EXPECT Him to know your heart and what you truly need.BELIEVE that no limitations bind God, that he CAN and WILL do anything. ANTICIPATE that He will respond to you with love, compassion, and mercy. Like a kid in a candy store, you're gunna be expecting to leave with candy; Same thing should apply with prayer, you should be praying and anticipate you're gunna walk away with an answer. ASSUME that He is there and listening, willing to come to YOUR aid and to HELP you. Everyday, you need to be asking the Lord to reveal himself and his plans to you. Ask for guidance, protection, wisdom, scripture to help you with something, ANYTHING, EVERY DAY!
Secret vs Show:
"There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret. Only HE knows these things. And these teachings are for us and our descendants forever. And we much obeay all the commands in that Law" Deuteronomy 29:29
If you haven't noticed before, Jesus' main way of praying was always by himself(don't feel bad i didnt either til i read this book). His routine was to wake up early before everyone else, and go have him so Daddy and Me time(paraphrasing Mark 1:35). "Send everyone away in the afternoon and escape to a solitary place", Mark 6:46, or "stay up late", Luke 6:12(again paraphrasing). Essentially, do what you gotta do to get some personal one on one time God. It's not all about being out on a street corner praying out loud for the world to hear while you're damning them to hell. That's being self centered and hypocritical. In Matthew 6:5 it says, "when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. They love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners praying loudly. They want people to see them. The truth is, that's all the reward they will get". So, just ignore them and let them be trolls. Dont be or feed the trolls. OUR goal should only be to go after and please GOD.
Don't get me wrong, praying in public is perfectly fine. Leading others in prayer where your only focus is on God and not to gain attention is GOOD. It's when you go 'hey look at me! i'm praying!' that there's a disconnect. It's not about what other people think about us. It's what God thinks about us. God is the only one who can judge us anyways. God absolutely despises pride and hypocrisy.
Getting alone, and praying to God in secret, is not only fundamental, it's also foundational. Secret prayer puts us in a situation where you can remove ALL distractions and focus your attention all on Him. "therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because he loves you" 1 Peter 6:6-7. Matthew 6:6, "The Lord is IN the secret place, sees what you do, and rewards what is done in secret"! If God's in the 'secret place' why not go there too and have a party! I mean, who doesn't wanna be rewarded, have requests met, get some good ol' one on one time? Jesus even commands us to see out God in secret. Shouldn't we listen?
If you're answers prove to show more prayer in public, more than likely you're seeking the approval of MEN not God. Even if you pray in secret; if you brag about it in public, it's no different and now you're just being downright prideful. If it's one on one you're seeking and you dont care about anyone else. you're motives are pure. "as he thinks in his heart, so is he" proverbs 23:7. The secret to your success, comes from your secret place; your failure, comes from failure in your secret place.
That's all for today folks! hope you enjoyed it and have a blessed day!
Well go over a couple chapters today. They were both relatively short chapters and i skipped yesterday. So here's chapters 16-17!
Faith vs Doubt:
"Let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person shouldn't expect to receive anything from the Lord" -James 1:6-7
First off, God is not unaware, unable, uncaring, OR, unlikely to answer your prayers. The issue is, sometimes, our heart can be right with people and God, but for some reason, every now and then, we'll have doubts. These doubts create barriers. By doubts I mean we might sometimes deny the faithfulness or goodness of God. Sometimes we let those seeds of doubt get whispered in our ear that cause us to not be 100% faithful in God. Sometimes we think our ability in prayer isn't good enough for God to even bother listening to also. When we doubt, then our prayers, more often than not, don't get answered. When we don't get an answered prayer, we doubt even further, and sometimes we end up just not praying at all. We end up creating our own misconceptions about God's ability, love, understandings. We'll even go so far as thinking God doesn't care and doesn't wanna help us anyways. We're gunna go over 4 common misconceptions further.
1: God doesn't know or understand my needs.
Uh, HELLO!! Yea he does! He knows you better than you know yourself. He alone knows how many hairs are on your head, He knows exactly about what feelings you have. The guy had his own Son sacrificed(albeit willingly on Jesus' part) for the sake of the world for cryin out loud! He made us, then we pretty much spit in His face. God: hey..dont do that. Us: hey! hold me beer! watch this y'all!('merica). So don't even go there!! God is too good, merciful, and loving to just toss us to the side like that.
When we pray, we're spending our time and focusing on God. Prayer is our way to know, love, and worship God. Learning what HIS will is and learning how to walk that path. Learning and being joyous to gain ground and advance HIS kingdom. Making a joyful noise when we witness HIS power and glory. Let me put it this way. Lets say, you have the power of mind reading! you get to know every thought, want, need, of YOUR child. The child knows you know what's on their mind(s). Wouldn't you still want your child to talk and spend time with you? Even if you already knew everything? To experience each others love for one another and help give your child the wisdom they need?
2: God isn't able to help.
HOLD THE PHONE! GOD isnt able to help?! the one who CREATED the whole ENTIRE earth and all of it's inhabitants?! Sit down son! God, is "able to go ABOVE and BEYOND all that we ask OR think"(Ephesians 3:20); "If we ask anything according to HIS will, He will hear us"(1 John 5:14); "Jesus looked at them and said, 'This is something that people cannot do. But GOD can do anything'"(Matthew 19:26). Good day to you sir! GOOD DAY!
3: God doesn't care.
McScuse me?! A lack of immediate action hardly merits the thought that HE doesnt care! You're still breathing right? He didnt just go "screw it!", snapped his fingers and everything he cared to create just disappear like that to just start over right? You have to be PERSISTENT!!!!!!
4: God isn't likely to do anything anyways.
NOT WITH THAT KIND OF ATTITUDE HE WONT! How many games have you won with that kind of attitude? when you lost, because of your attitude, how much more worse did you make yourself feel? God is willing to listen, respond, counsel, comfort, encourage, and everything else under the sky for you! WE are the ones who are weak and unwilling. Not God! Bye Felicia!
Keep in mind folks, God is NOT a genie. You dont rub some magic lamp, get three wishes, then he washes His hands of you. That's not how God works. Your 'battle plan' for your prayers should be consisting of the following: EXPECT Him to know your heart and what you truly need.BELIEVE that no limitations bind God, that he CAN and WILL do anything. ANTICIPATE that He will respond to you with love, compassion, and mercy. Like a kid in a candy store, you're gunna be expecting to leave with candy; Same thing should apply with prayer, you should be praying and anticipate you're gunna walk away with an answer. ASSUME that He is there and listening, willing to come to YOUR aid and to HELP you. Everyday, you need to be asking the Lord to reveal himself and his plans to you. Ask for guidance, protection, wisdom, scripture to help you with something, ANYTHING, EVERY DAY!
Secret vs Show:
"There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret. Only HE knows these things. And these teachings are for us and our descendants forever. And we much obeay all the commands in that Law" Deuteronomy 29:29
If you haven't noticed before, Jesus' main way of praying was always by himself(don't feel bad i didnt either til i read this book). His routine was to wake up early before everyone else, and go have him so Daddy and Me time(paraphrasing Mark 1:35). "Send everyone away in the afternoon and escape to a solitary place", Mark 6:46, or "stay up late", Luke 6:12(again paraphrasing). Essentially, do what you gotta do to get some personal one on one time God. It's not all about being out on a street corner praying out loud for the world to hear while you're damning them to hell. That's being self centered and hypocritical. In Matthew 6:5 it says, "when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. They love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners praying loudly. They want people to see them. The truth is, that's all the reward they will get". So, just ignore them and let them be trolls. Dont be or feed the trolls. OUR goal should only be to go after and please GOD.
Don't get me wrong, praying in public is perfectly fine. Leading others in prayer where your only focus is on God and not to gain attention is GOOD. It's when you go 'hey look at me! i'm praying!' that there's a disconnect. It's not about what other people think about us. It's what God thinks about us. God is the only one who can judge us anyways. God absolutely despises pride and hypocrisy.
Getting alone, and praying to God in secret, is not only fundamental, it's also foundational. Secret prayer puts us in a situation where you can remove ALL distractions and focus your attention all on Him. "therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because he loves you" 1 Peter 6:6-7. Matthew 6:6, "The Lord is IN the secret place, sees what you do, and rewards what is done in secret"! If God's in the 'secret place' why not go there too and have a party! I mean, who doesn't wanna be rewarded, have requests met, get some good ol' one on one time? Jesus even commands us to see out God in secret. Shouldn't we listen?
If you're answers prove to show more prayer in public, more than likely you're seeking the approval of MEN not God. Even if you pray in secret; if you brag about it in public, it's no different and now you're just being downright prideful. If it's one on one you're seeking and you dont care about anyone else. you're motives are pure. "as he thinks in his heart, so is he" proverbs 23:7. The secret to your success, comes from your secret place; your failure, comes from failure in your secret place.
That's all for today folks! hope you enjoyed it and have a blessed day!
Wonderful!!
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