HOLD ON TO GOD
I didn’t intend to write this message, but I felt it strongly in my heart to do so just now. I feel like its an urgent message meant for someone.
This is for any real born again Christian who feels like life has turned against them and they are not prospering in anything they do.
Maybe you’ve been praying for something for so long and yet it seems like God is not hearing your prayer. As a result, Satan is tempting you to backslide, telling you that you became a Christian,left the world and everything behind, yet God does not regard your prayers. Your desperation may even sometimes drive you to a state of contemplating suicide despite you knowing the eternal consequences of hell fire brought by this Act. You give up on everything and you feel like God doesn’t care.
I’m here to tell you today that that is a lie from the pit of Hell,as the bible says that Satan is the Father of lies. This means he specialises in twisting lies to make them seem believable.
No matter what you are praying for as a child of God,know that God is hearing your prayer.
Psalm 34:17-19 says, “The RIGHTEOUS CRY OUT, AND THE LORD HEARS,And delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous,But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Many Christians feel distraught when they have been vehemently praying for something for so long and yet are not receiving it. You may have been praying for YEARS and yet are not receiving.
This does not mean that you are a sinner, nor does it mean that God does not want to answer your prayers.
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.”
God wants to prosper us and not to harm us. The only one who wants to harm us is Satan and He will use any means to achieve this. Even if it means taking advantage of a desperate situation, to make someone backslide, by convincing them that God is not answering their prayers because He does not love them. Satan always aims at winning souls to Hell.
So why does God not answer our prayers immediately?
When we just first believed in God,it seems like He would answer our prayers at our beck and call. I remember for example in 2012, my younger sister who was then 10 years old was very sick. She had been lying down sick for 8 days straight. It reached a point where we were individually thinking to ourselves that it would be better for her to die,than to suffer the way she was. We thought it would be better for her to die so that she goes to Heaven. Then it came into our hearts that we should pray for her recovery. So My Mother, Rachael and I went into fasting and prayer.
On the same day of fasting at around 4pm,my very sick sister was touched by God and healed! It was amazing! Our prayer had been answered in a few hours. We had only been born again for a few months then,and God wanted to encourage us to believe in Him.
However as the years go by,God desires for us to grow spiritually and now, we find that God sometimes requires us to pray for long before we receive some things. Not all things,but some things,especially those we perceive as very important for us to have. Sometimes, we even have to pray for YEARS before our prayers are ever answered.
So why does God do this? Does He not love us? Does He want to see us feel hurt by delayed answers? Or is He trying to push us away from Him by answered prayers? The answer to all this is, He does that because He LOVES us. It may not seem so at the time, but what you think is causing you pain is actually working for your own good.
Here is how.
God’s Love is not like human Love. Human love demands that a Father give a child what he/she wants as long as it is within their power, or else it will be concluded they do not love that child.
However, God’s Love aims at creating in us a GODLY CHARACTER OF OBEDIENCE TO HIM. In the bible, we see that OBEDIENCE to GOD is learnt through SUFFERING. Hebrews 5:8, “Even though Jesus was God’s Son, HE LEARNT OBEDIENCE THROUGH THE THINGS THAT HE SUFFERED”
This is because when one is in a state of suffering, they seek God night and day to deliver them out of their situation and in the process of doing this,they draw closer and closer to God and the closer one is to God,the more the flesh is crucified. There is a constant war for domination between the flesh and the spirit and in order for one to overcome, they must CRUCIFY the flesh. Galatians 5: 1-26. We become stronger in prayer by always being in the presence of God seeking an answer to our prayer and eventually, prayer becomes a lifestyle.
God not answering our prayers immediately does not mean that He WILL NOT answer them, but it is simply a testing of our FAITH.
God wants us to truly rely on Him and not just use Him when we want things. If throughout our Christian journey God continues to answer our prayers at our every beck and call,then it will mean that we will not develop any relationship with Him. We will begin to treat God like some button that you press when you want something and leave immediately it is achieved.
Praying for something that we want for a long time keeps us in the prayer place and hence we develop a relationship with God,leading to the salvation of our souls, as we will be crucifying the flesh by spending more time in His presence. We will begin to die to self and will be more obedient towards His word.
However if we leave God because we feel like we have had enough of waiting, then it just shows that we have no Faith in Him answering our prayers. If we have Faith that ONLY God can give us what we are asking for,we WILL NOT STOP ASKING until we RECEIVE. However if we believe that we can have what you want even without God,then we will stop asking. We are simply saying,God will not answer even if I continue asking so let me just stop. I’ve been asking all these years and He is not answering so what is the use of continuing to ask?
This shows a LACK OF FAITH. I do not have Faith that God will answer my prayer even if I continue asking so let me just stop.
In the story of the Unjust Judge in Luke 18:1-8,Jesus tells us about a woman who got JUSTICE from an UNJUST Judge because she kept asking him to get justice for her CONTINUOUSLY. In the end,the UNJUST Judge got fed up and gave the woman what she wanted even though he did not believe in Justice. Jesus in the parable was trying to teach us about FAITH. In verse 6-8 it says,” Hear what the unjust Judge said. And shall God NOT AVENGE HIS OWN who cry out NIGHT AND DAY to Him though He bears long with them? I tell you,He I’ll AVENGE them speedily.Nevertheless,when the Son of Man comes will He REALLY find FAITH on the earth?
The principle Jesus was teaching us is about NEVER GIVING UP.
The unjust Judge felt compelled to do what was right because of the woman who was not giving up. How much more will God who is a JUST God give us our heart’s desires if we DO NOT give up?Job 36:6“He does not keep the wicked alive,But gives justice to the afflicted.”
Another key verse about not giving up in the bible is from Mark 7:24-30 where a Gentile woman was asking Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter. Jesus said He could not to this because at the time, He had been sent to the Jews but she was a gentile, and therefore,’ It was not good to take the Children’s food and throw it to the little dogs’
The woman was however insistent,and was not even offended to be referred to as a dog but said, “Yes Lord! Yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs!”
It was then that Jesus answered her request,because He saw how GREAT her FAITH was that ONLY He could save her daughter. That woman was not entitled as a gentile,but God gave her something that was not even within her right because of her FAITH.
How much more will God be willing to answer BORN AGAIN Christians who are ENTITLED as His Children if they do not give up on their prayers?
There is also the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel Chapter 1 who got an answer for a child because she did not give up praying. That child even became one of the greatest Prophets in the bible.
There are many examples like this, and the key is to keep on praying. However, God knows when our Faith has been tested enough, and He will not let us be driven to breaking point.
1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but GOD IS FAITHFUL WHO WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BE TEMPTED BEYOND WHAT YOU ARE ABLE TO BEAR, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it.”
For people in the world, it may seem like their prayers get answered faster and you as a child of God get angry that you are born again, and yet God is answering prayers for those in the world faster that He is yours.
That is because He has no business in building the character of someone in the world by teaching them obedience through WAITING,but He is interested in building a Godly character in you as His child,leading to the salvation of your soul.
Today, know that God has not lost control of the situation. He sees everything that goes on in your life and He is hearing your prayers.
Don’t give up praying and you will receive.
Many times,we set up a life timetable of what we should achieve by what age. When we’ve been asking God for things in prayer and it seems He is not answering, we feel like failures and like we will never achieve our real life goals because we feel like time has gone. However,the bible tells us that God has got the power to restore. What may seem too late for you is not too late to God.
Joel 2:25-32 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.
You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to shame.”
Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
SHALOM
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