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Focusing On Our Relationship With God Series
Contributed by Alis Cerrahyan on Jun 23, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: We don't always receive the answer we are looking for every time we pray. Can we continue to revere God even after He has turned us down?
Prayers are our personal communications with our heavenly Father through his only begotten son Jesus Christ the Saviour. As we fall on our knees at the Cross upon which an amazing exchange has taken place in order to save us from eternal doom; we find that God has already pruned away the spiritual distances just so He would touch us, his beloved creation. The desire to converse is mutual. Seeing that we, too, look forward to being with him is very pleasing to him.
There are times God's answer is "yes" and we celebrate the outcome. But there are also times when God either remains silent or He simply says "no." In 2 Corinthians 12:8-9; Apostle Paul explains, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."
We may never understand why our Father refuses to give us a new blessing; knowing that we'll only praise him some more. But understanding the fact that God loves us no matter what and He knows what's best for us helps ease our disappointment. In any event; worshipping God should have nothing to do with receiving a gift from him. He deserves our worship because He is God. And worshipping him for that reason even in the midst of a challenging time is our greatest gift to him. It also preserves the blessedness of our union with him. Isaiah 30:15 says it this way, "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength." The more we learn to trust God; the closer we are to his power and his wisdom. By the same token; the more we tend to question him for the things we don't quite understand; the weaker our relationship becomes within which lays both our mental and emotional health.
All that we continue to receive from God is the icing on the cake. He has already given us the ultimate gift which happens to be a solid relationship with him. If we focus more on developing that relationship; we'll realize the fact that we don't really need so many things.
Blessings...