I can honestly say that I have not agreed with this statement for the majority of my life. There has not been much joy in my journey at all.
Most of this has been because I have not had a full grasp of the love of God. I have struggled with the truth that God loves me. I have struggled to really believe that He wants to bless me and fill my life with joy and that He wants me to be successful in all I do.
Life is hard and if I am completely honest, on the surface, mine does not seem to reflect any success. On the surface it feels like fail after fail and hard slog after hard slog. There have been no shortcuts, no easy rides.
Here is the funny thing – you can ask me to pray for miracles for people and you can rely on me to do that. More importantly you can rely on me to have faith for you, that you will receive the very thing we are asking the Father to provide. I have never had a problem believing for others my problem has come in believing for myself. I used to believe that it was totally okay for God to not bless me, for Him to provide for others but it doesn’t matter if He doesn’t bless me. All I need is to know that I love God with my whole heart and it really is okay if He doesn’t love me back.
BUT that is not what God wants for me. He wants to answer my prayers. He wants to grant me the desires of my heart. The problem lay in the fact that I, by saying it’s okay for Him not to do it actually says “I don’t believe You will.” I limit what God can do. Faith and trust in God to do what He says He will do is paramount to our relationship with God. Can you imagine being in a relationship where you say I love you, but it is okay for you to not love me in return. Our stance in that relationship is the expectation that we will actually not receive anything. We, by our attitude limit what the other person can give us. This is called limiting belief.
Matthew 21:22 “If you believe you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be done for you.”
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and the He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
Asking and believing go hand in hand. When we believe that God is a good Father and that He wants to bless us as it says in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – then we experience fullness of joy in our lives. We know God wants the very best for us and yes sometimes we ask and the answer is not quite what we were expecting, but I guarantee if you look closely the answer you receive is way better than you expected.
Captivating Freedom 