What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. -James 4:1-2
Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 18-19; James 4
Isn’t this so true?
When I first read it the first couple of sentences grabbed my attention the most. But when I read it again that last sentence really brought it home for me.
Much of the struggle that we have in this life is because we try to go through it without God. We try to do it alone, our own way.
Don’t get me wrong. Just because I write this blog doesn’t mean that I have it all figured out. I’m not writing this joint while levitating on a cloud in lotus position contemplating feeding thousands with a fish sandwich. I struggle with this just like everyone else.
The tricky part about seeking God is that he asks us for our obedience. Sure, there are a ton of blessings for being obedient but I wonder how many folks really and truly believe that they will receive them? Do you believe that if you seek God he will respond to you in a way that is tangible in your life? Are you willing to do what God tells you to do when you seek him?
For most people the answer to those two questions is the same… No.
Many people think that since they do not see God moving in their life then there must not be a God; and if there is one then he doesn’t care about us. But what if the reverse is true? Maybe folks don’t see God because they are unwilling to follow His leadership? Maybe they were like how I was, presented with open doors so huge that they got scared and ran away. And now that they are bumping their heads against closed doors they are blaming God for having nowhere to go.
What if the wildest dreams in your heart are those big, wide open doors that God put in front of you? Maybe if we can take a chance on stepping forward and obeying the call in our hearts to pursue our dreams we will see God move and carry us through that threshold…
It is a scary proposition to live your life on terms that are not your own. It requires a leap of faith, but that leap will take us all on a journey so wonderful that we could not have imagined it in our wildest dreams.
OR, we ask God for something.
ReplyDeleteGet it from God.
Question God why we have it.
Choose not to believe and remain suspicious of it, cuz how could God actually hear us and give us what we ask for. Right?
And finally, ruin it.
If only we could keep the light in our hearts and minds like children. They are so bright with belief and hope. May be though it's because they have yet to do things to consider themselves unworthy (Eze 8:10-13) of receiving in life, exactly what they ask for.
Believe. :-)
"Question God why we have it." GREATTTTTTTTTTT POINT! You got my wheels turning with that one Alegria.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sometimes we allow these gifts to be defiled by onfusion, doubt, insecurity
ReplyDeleteand FRIENDS. Sometimes it is those we consider a God send, our friends, that help
us most to doubt God's "gift" answer to our prayers.
When received if we are only going to question and doubt the "gift" anwers
that God gives us, why bother God with our questions in the first place? JUST SAYIN.
Believe.
Look at these gifts with appreciation and light. If we have hearts of true believers, in
the same way God will give us that which we ask for, God will also keep us from that
which would cause us harm, as he proclaimed to the Apostles.
K, ima get off this soap box now. :-) ~Alegria
@Alegria PREACH! Yeah... if folks are taking you away from God then they aren't really friends worth keeping.
ReplyDelete