Are you pursuing things in your life because they are appealing to your flesh, or because the Lord has called you to them? And if God does wipe out what you’ve invested in, ask yourself: Was it ever really God-ordained in the first place, or just God-allowed?
We must enter our battlefield armed with the armor of God, our trust in Him, and confidence in the abilities God has gifted us. Never let the challenge of a battle or a beast make you forget that the One who overcame the grave and has a train that fills the entire temple is fighting with you. On your own, your giant will seem too big to take down. But with the Lord, it’s an easy target.
Just like shoes gather all the dust and muck from the places we walk on, so do our minds, hearts, and eyes inevitably pick up the unclean things we are exposed to day to day. But before you can truly enter into His holy atmosphere, He’s going to require clean hands and a pure heart.
The intention of Jesus was for us to imitate the prayer in our daily lives, not duplicate it. He was telling us to always enter into our time of prayer acknowledging and praising the Lord as our Heavenly Father who loves us, guides us, and corrects us when needed. And to pray for God to return to this world, destroy all evil, and establish His Kingdom on a new heaven and earth as He has promised us.
Have you ever felt like you are constantly at war within yourself? Like you desire to do what’s right and follow God’s Word, but there’s always this part of you that wants to go your own way? Don’t worry, we can ALL relate. Our human nature – our flesh – is drawn to sin. It urges us to ignore God’s voice and doesn’t particularly like to submit. So how do you battle this?
Don’t let sin warp the truth about God’s infinite love for you and keep you from running back into His arms. While He cannot let sin go untouched, His guidance does not end with reproach. You see, God has given us all the beautiful gift of grace. Even when we do fall into sin, He desires to give us another chance. And another. And another. So if you make a mistake, don’t run from Him. Run to Him.
With so many different things trying to crowd our lives, it can sometimes seem like it’s impossible to reach Jesus. Relationships, obligations, media, confrontation, temptations, pain, sickness – they all try to stand between us and the Lord. But it’s our job to push past them in order to seize God and all He has for us.
What has God told you to do that you have avoided? Is it the pull to start a Bible study with your friend? A burden to serve on the foreign missions field? A conviction to abandon unhealthy habits? No matter what you’ve neglected, your story isn’t over yet. You may feel that you have missed your chance to obey His call, but don’t fret!
Do you have the heart of Barnabas or the attitude of Ananias? Are you just putting on a show to make it seem like you’re totally devoted, but are really only giving part of your life to God? Are you offering your time, money, and talents to God just so that you can boast about it to your friends on social media? Or can you be content with making unseen sacrifices that are just between you and the Lord?
Can others see Jesus in you by your boldness to speak about His mighty works? What miracles could we witness if we simply began shifting our everyday prayer to asking for our own unprecedented boldness? What if we started intentionally laying aside our personal wants, needs, inhibitions, and fears in order to seek after a courage to fulfill our calling of preaching the Gospel?