I’ve been praying that God would be real in my life. I came to the conclusion that we fall not because we love this world so much, but that we are looking for something real. I think that this is why so many people in the Church are struggling. I know this is why I’ve been struggling. I’ve been settling for things that my senses tell me are real. We settle for the things we can see, touch, hear, smell, and taste. For the past three weeks my prayer has been “God make yourself more real to me than anything else around me”.
This morning He answered my prayer. To know that God is real I first had to come to the understanding the He is Truth. If He is the very definition of truth then, by default, everything else that is not of faith is not truth. Think about the temptations of Christ. Satan came to him and tempted Him to turn a rock into bread. Jesus didn’t comply. He knew if He had done so that the bread would not have truly filled Him up. Bread is not bad. However, in this case it was empty. It had no true sustenance. Same goes for the time when Satan took Christ to the highest point possible and told Him it could all be His if he would bow down and worship him. Christ saw through the illusion. It wasn’t what it really seemed.
Satan will often catch us out on the fringe of our faith and then set at our feet these trinkets of hell. These illusions that may not be inherently bad, and in the context in which they are presented could bring instant gratification. Then when we settle for the counterfeit, it will leave us feeling empty and wanting more. The enemy brings empty lies and promises to take us out.
In the realization of the tactics of the enemy, I’m beginning to see God clearly. God is more real to me than ever. I feel His presence. Read Psalms 139. My heart and Prayer is that of Psalmist. There is no where I can run. There is nothing I can do to separate myself from His presence. Oswald Chambers says this on January 9th of My Utmost For His Highest in regards to Psalms 139: “Thou are the God of the early mornings, the God of the late at nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea; but, my God, my soul has further horizons than the early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature—Thou who art the God of all these, be my God. I cannot trace, dreams I cannot get at—my God, search me out.”
Have you ever ask God for wisdom? Have you ever felt like He didn’t answer that prayer for you? I have prayed for wisdom many times throughout my short 10 years of being a Christ follower. I always go to James 1:5,6. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
So, here’s how I thought it worked. I pray before I go to bed “God I ask in all faith for wisdom for __________.” Then I fall asleep. I wake up the next morning thinking did God give me wisdom? For whatever reason I would think obtaining wisdom is like the Matrix. You pray, fall asleep, and then God uploads it to your brain, you wake up and you have wisdom.
How ridicules is this line of thinking? Last night I was praying and meditating on Jesus. I remember hearing that King Solomon was one of the wisest people on the earth. He had wisdom because he first feared the LORD. So I started reading Proverbs again. I saw it in a whole new light.
If you are looking for wisdom; if you have never had a godly father in your life and would love some fatherly wisdom, read Proverbs. There is a wealth of wisdom within the words Solomon wrote.
Now, I do believe that one can pray for wisdom and God then provides that which was prayed because of faith. However, I believe that God has provided everything we need to get through any situation we may face. And I believe that provision is found in the Word. Just going to say it. Read your Bible!!!! You don’t have a Bible? www.youversion.com. There is a free online Bible waiting on you.
I just hate the fact that I’ve been so spiritually lazy. I’ve been asking God for so many things and then I get frustrated when I feel like He doesn’t answer. When all along the answers were always there within the scriptures.
Well it has been a great day. Tonight will just be a quick thought because Jet lag is setting in and I’m exhaused from all the traveling. I came to San Diego for some much needed rest. I have been going through so much personal development in the past couple of months that I just needed to go and have some fun. So I ended up here. I’m staying with my second cousin Rod and his family in San Diego.
The big thing I took away from tonight was from around the dinner table. I had a family dinner tonight! And most of them I met for the very first time tonight. It was awesome. Everybody was cutting up with eachother and eating and being family. I found out that family is a very interesting thing. I have never met most of these people and I fit right in. I found that I’m like a lot of them. I got to spend a lot of time with my Cousin Rod and i almost feel like I’m staring at myself when I’m 44. But minus the huge amount of life experience and wisdom. I can’t wait to learn from him these next ten days. The thing I’m looking forward to the most is not having an agenda. I just get to come and be apart of the family. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before.
Like I said this was going to be a quick post and now it’s off to bed. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!!! » Read the full post
A retired coworker of mine came in to catch up with the old crew and he wanted to say something but he hesitated when he looked at me… I asked him what was wrong and then he said he had been enjoying his evenings (since he used to work the night shift with me) with his wife and also… with a glass of wine. He quickly hoped that wasn’t offensive to me. Let me stop here and ask you, would that be offensive to you or would you be quick to advise him not to drink alcohol and teach him to fill up on God instead? I soon found out this is exactly what several other coworkers had done to him over many years.
We had a short but sweet time visiting and after he left, another much younger coworker and I talked about the whole wine issue. He said, “It’s those 110% Christians that I can’t understand.”
I laughed but that statement arrested me as well. He went on to say that it’s been those “impossible” people that have kept him away from the church completely. I literally felt my heart ache. The irony is that those “impossible” people truly believe that the way they treat others will actually make it “possible” for them to turn from their “sin” and become a “Christian” as they are (I know, this used to be me at one point).
I told him that I was a 110% Christian myself… 10% me. 100% God. And by that I don’t mean I’m God obviously but as I like to say, if I just show up and rely on God (my 10%), 100% of the Lord will show up too and do the rest! Jesus says “apart from me you can do nothing.” Even obeying God’s commands, which 1 John says “this is love for God”, is impossible without his help to do so! If it wasn’t, why would Jesus have had to die for sins and why wouldn’t we just be living the Old Testament way, trying to keep the laws? Which led our discussion back to our discussion about the alcohol.
There was alot more said but I want to hear from you – what would you have said and just as important, not said?
Soon after the “moment that inspired it all”, this happened… and I had to sneak off and get the camera. I covered the lens at first since I worship with my eyes closed but I decided to show what was happening too ~ WORSHIP & ENJOY, Zane
I’ve been praying that God would be real in my life. I came to the conclusion that we fall not because we love this world so much, but that we are looking for something real. I think that this is why so many people in the Church are struggling. I know this is why I’ve been struggling. I’ve been settling for things that my senses tell me are real. We settle for the things we can see, touch, hear, smell, and taste. For the past three weeks my prayer has been “God make yourself more real to me than anything else around me”.
