Confronting God

It is especially our experience as Believers in Christ when we may find ourselves at some point or the other being forced to “Confront God”; and I would also say, “Back up God in a corner”. Sounds like I am “out of order.” How dare me! But guess what? God loves our honesty! Yes… that is where the relationship may reach sometimes. We have to pour out our heart to Him…. Honestly and unreservedly let Him know how you feel about this particular situation. Hold nothing back! Tell him what he should have done, how he should have done it and when he should have done it. Leave no stone unturn! Let it out!  And we sometimes go this far because we have great expectations of our God and Father. We trust him and take him at his word, but at times a feeling of disappointment sets in as our circumstances overpower us and we just have to “Take it to God” with all that is in us.

When you see others around you who are not serving God are prospering and you have been so faithful to God over these many years you have no choice but to honestly get in this type of confrontation with God. Jacob found himself in a similar situation when he “wrestled with God” in order to obtain his blessings. Genesis 32:24-32 – “And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

So should we not also hold on. Be determined… Do not let go… Trash it out to the end… And like Jacob we will prevail!

Interesting inspirations as this one, and more from daily devotional – Devotions on the ROCK. The first edition available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1978141696 in print and kindle.

 

“Come clean” with God

So you think you are smart, and you may just think that you can fool God. Think again! No, you cannot! So might as well “come clean” with Him and admit the truth. Confess… You must go to the fountain daily not only to drink and be refreshed, but to also “come clean” in your heart before God. Telling him that… “I have not been loving you as I should. I am only praying to you and pretend to love you because I am looking something… I wanted you to deal with this particular need for me…” “All I am praising you and lifting up your name, my heart is not with it. It is not for real. I am now coming clean with you.”

Yes… He knows that feeling that you say you are feeling is just not true. He knows that love that you say you have for him and your neighbours is just not true. Because you are not living out your faith. You are not demonstrating it. James 2:14-26 confronts us head on! “Faith without works is dead” – “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

You ain’t going no where… No progress… Faith in a state of stagnation… No outworking of this faith! By all means not active! Soon die… Going to die… Dead!

“And even with the good works I am doing, I think it is all about me and giving no thought to the fact that it is God who provides me with the resources and empowers me through the Holy Spirit to do the good I am doing for others. I want to give myself all the credit.”

But in all of this, if we are to live out the good virtues of life, we cannot manage to do this on our own and possibly that is why it is so difficult to love God, love others and thus being obedient to God’s will and purpose for us. We have to genuinely ask God to enable us to do his will. We need his help to do it. Lest we come to the  belief that what we do is by our own strength and power.

Therefore, if all this time you have not been doing it right, it means that God has not been pleased with you. So you need to “come clean” – confess to God, beg his forgiveness of what we may consider to be minor sins or not a sin, to cleanse us and transform our minds according to his own will and  purpose. Not ours!