Hello -- I'm back again to share some things I have learned during yet another time of fasting. It seems like the only time I find inspiration to blog is when I'm fasting or just finishing up a fast haha. I want to blog more frequently so I offer my apologies. Anyway, as I just mentioned, I am currently on a 10 day fast with my church. In this fast we are giving up social media, and television. Additionally, I am giving up some parts of my diet. Thus far this fast has opened my eyes to a few things and I know that if I stay attentive and remain in Him then I will be opened to many more things. The biggest win of this fast thus far has been understanding prayer and how to get answered prayers. I have struggled with this for a long time because of my ignorance. I call it ignorance because all this time I have been confused about this aspect of prayer, the answer to my confusion was in the Holy Bible, God's written word. Although I have said this numerous times and claimed to believe it, EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING we need to know about this life is found in the Bible. The aspect of prayer I have always been confused about is when Jesus says in Matthew 21:22 "whatever you ask for in prayer, if you believe, you have already received." This always confused me because I know that our prayers have to be made according to God's will for them to be answered, not only by us having faith. Just because we may have faith in a particular thing or situation doesn't mean that it will happen. God may answer it totally different than what we originally asked for because it wasn't in His holy and divine will. I've heard Matthew 21:22 preached unjustly in a way that basically tells Christians that we can get anything we want if we believe - as if God created our prayers to be a blank check. I know this for a fact is untrue.
So for almost a year now, or maybe even a little over a year, I've prayed alot prayers with doubt in my heart because I went in with the attitude of "God I know that you CAN make this happen, I'm just not sure that you will". I believed that this was the only way to be sure to have a humble heart before God -- to not really believe in anything I'm asking for and to just accept the situation as it plays out because I'm not sure what I'm praying for is in God's will anyway. Two days ago, earlier in the day before I received my revelation I'd decided that I was going to develop an outlook on life of "it is what it is." I heard another one of my Christian friends say this and decided that it was genius. I decided that my attitude would be "I'll just go hard at everything I do -- giving God my full focus and exuding 100% of my effort into every task. Whatever happens, happens. Whatever doesn't doesn't, it is what it is." I came to this state of mind while I was "spending time" with God in prayer. Honestly I was upset and full of pride so I just decided this before I could utter any worthy prayers out of my mouth. God revealed to me later during the day that this was certainly not the outlook I wanted to have. "It is what it is" is a cop-out to not having faith. It is the easy route. It is denying the power of prayer and the relationship God has granted us to be able to come to Him with expectancy about anything. My thoughts reeked of "well in the grand scheme of things nothing matters on this earth anyway. I'm not gonna remember these worries and desires when I get to heaven. Outside of being faithful to God, this life doesn't matter." WRONG!!!! Wrong -- on so many levels.
The psalmist in Psalm 27:13 clearly states
"I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."
This is included in the Bible because God wants us to know that although our true riches will be attained in heaven we will experience His goodness while here on earth as well. This does not limit God to only spiritual blessings such as joy, peace, and patience. God desires to bless us in ways that apply to the land of the living as well such as financial and material blessings. Jesus tells us in John 10:10 that He came to give us "life and life more abundantly." Although I believe that focus the "more abundantly" should be on the fact that because of Christ we now have peace, joy, love, and perseverance (spiritual fruit), we should not limit God to only spiritual blessings but earthly ones as well.
Bringing it back to my revelation: as I was preparing for sleep I decided to open up my Bible to 1 John. I know it was the Holy Spirit directing me in a way to come across what He needed me to know because my reading selection was completely random. 1 John 3:18-24 spoke to me loud and clear.
"Dear friends, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts and He knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him."
Basically in layman's terms this text explains that
- We should not merely say that we love one another - we should prove it with our actions. Words are meaningless without application. (v. 18)
- Our actions will show that we belong to the truth so we should have confidence when we stand before God. (v. 19) This really spoke to me because people can portray themselves anyway they desire to the world but when approaching God we are forced to be completely honest with ourselves. Do we truly love God? Do we obey His commands? Do we say we believe but our lives show no application of the belief? Am I claiming to trust God with my relationships but still continuing to do things my own way? Do I claim to believe the whole Bible as the Holy and Divine word of God yet ignore its vital teachings such as remaining pure (being abstinent) until marriage? Well??? Are we truly doing all that we can to live a life worthy of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?? Or are we just accepting the plight that we are sinners and always will be so there's no use in changing? -- What I am saying here, if we are truly honest with ourselves we will know where we stand before God. Our hearts are exposed in His presence. Although no man is worthy of God - righteous or unrighteous, the upright at heart, those who follow God's commands can have confidence that He hears them.
- "If our hearts do condemn us" = if we feel guilty. Once again, our hearts are revealed in God's presence. We will know inherently if we are asking for something out of our own selfish gain or if what we are asking is truly so that we can be made better in Christ -- for His glory.
- "If our hearts do not condemn us" = if we we don't feel guilty then "we have confidence before God."
Basically, before going into a prayer about a particular issue we should assess our motives. We should sit down, write out, and meditate on the motives behind our prayers before we submit our requests to God. If our motives reveal that we are only self interested, then we should know that our prayers do not have a good chance of getting answered with a "yes". However, if our motives reveal that our hearts are pure, and that whatever we are desiring is of God, we should have BOLD CONFIDENCE in going forth to our King to make our requests known. The last part of my revelation is something that I "already knew" but has finally become real to me. James 1:6-7 states "But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord." Basically, if you ask while doubting the power of God, you should expect nothing from Him. Therefore, in my previous mindset of "I know that you CAN do it God, I just don't know if You will" I was exuding doubt. Even if I did try to sandwich it in between praise, doubt is doubt.
All in all, I'm only on day 5 of my fast so I look forward to all else God has in store to reveal to me for my betterment. I am thankful that I can now finally approach His throne with confidence, boldness, and knowing that without a doubt, because I obey His commands, my requests will be granted.
Until next time,
Camille4Christ
