Saturday, December 20, 2014

A Condemning Heart Blocks Receiving Healing

"Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." ~ 1 John 3:18-22

There are so many things that can stand in the way of receiving blessings in our prayers. The Lord wants to always say "Yes", (For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; 2 Corinthians 1:20and He will say Yes, as long as we are praying the will of God, and that means praying His Word.

I was taught most my life that the Lord answers Yes, No and Wait - I've come to believe now that such a doctrine is a teaching that reduces God to a miserly parent who doesn't really want to give good gifts to his children as Jesus promised (Matthew 7:11) unless the child of God happens to hit the "answered prayer" lottery.

But I digress. In this passage, John distinctly says "whatever we ask we receive from Him." Again - as in The Power of Your Words- do we REALLY believe the Word of God? Does Jehovah Jireh REALLY want to provide "whatever we ask" to us? Either God is true and every man a liar, or this passage of receiving "whatever we ask" is not true.

What we fail to remember, at times, is that there are proviso's to us "receiving" God's Word in our lives through answered prayers. In this case, John says, "if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God" and THEN whatever we ask we receive. 

This is the challenge, is it not? That I can actually go before the Almighty One and ask confidently without condemnation in my own heart for whatever I ask and that I will actually receive it. (And, of course, there's another proviso - if you're praying the Word - you will be asking and praying before God HIS will and then He will answer YES.

Until next time...




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