Faith – believing in what we cannot see – is a prerequisite to trusting God with our whole heart (Proverbs 3:5-6). Due to our past experiences, we often withhold part of our heart from God. We put up walls, boundaries between us and Him. This hinders our trust in Him and limits His ability to bless us as He wants to provide for us.
We allow our human nature, understanding, misconceptions, expectations, wisdom and thoughts to keep us from following the peace of God in our spirit, and from seeing firsthand the power that comes from Him to us, in us and through us in order to affect our world.
However, human nature is restrictive and keeps us from intimately knowing God. Sometimes, we pray according to our own will, rather than in accordance to submitting to His will; and we get disappointed when we think that He lets us down, abandons us, or spoils our expectations.
We suffer because of our despair, and we take it out on Him. Our shattering experience roots cynicism, bitterness and feelings of rejection into our soul. Sometimes, we cannot accept the pain that shrouds our heart, and we strike out at God, blaming Him for ruining our life.
This puts us in bondage to negative thoughts and behavior that etch away at our soul, as they put a thick shell on our inner wounds. We refuse to entrust Him again with our well-being. We withhold our faith in Him, and we allow satanic forces to fill our mind with humanistic ideals and goals.
Only God can mend our broken heart, but we will not let Him get close enough to us to make a difference in how we are thinking and feeling until we realize that everything good in our life is inspired by God and comes from His Spirit’s sanctifying work in our soul.
We take Him and His gifts for granted and even give our self the glory, as if we earned them by our behavior. Yet, when we praise Him for each good thing that He accomplishes in and through our life, our heart swells with love and gratitude for Him – even during our negative circumstances.
Prayer:
Father God, we often consider Your provision for our life as our right, as if we earned it. Nothing is further from the truth. We actually do not deserve anything more than hell, because of our unbelief and our transgressions throughout the years of our life (John 3:18). Even our best behavior is equal to filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:19-23).
We forget that You desire nothing more than to abundantly provide for all of Your children. You are the Father of Light, and You know how to give good gifts to Your children (James 1:17). We want to acknowledge Your generosity in Your provision for us, and to give You the glory that is due to Your name (Psalm 136:1-3).
Thought for the Day:
God calls us to ask, so that we can receive from Him, to seek so that we can find His fullness, and to knock, so that He can open wide the windows of heaven in order to pour out His blessing on us; this takes one giant leap of faith to cross the threshold of doubt and to enter that place of total surrender to our Christ and King.
- Matthew 7:7-8
