Missing You....................

Its been a long time. I have been off the scene for some months now. Am doing so well and I hope all my readers and followers are also blessed. We are back and I wish you all a happy and fruitful 2014. Stay blessed!!!

WAITING ON GOD FOR ANSWERS TO OUR PRAYER

Scripture makes it clear that our heavenly Father hears and answers prayer. Yet we all experience times when, though we pray for God to act right away, He does not. What are some reasons for the delay?

At times the Lord sees that our attention is misdirected. Our relationship with Him should have priority over any earthly matter (Mark 12:30). Yet minds and prayers can become so fixed upon a need that our gaze shifts away from Him. The Father may delay His answer until we refocus on Him. In other situations, God waits because the timing is not right for granting our request. Perhaps certain events must happen first, or people’s thinking needs to be changed.

There are also seasons when the Lord wants to stretch and grow our faith. One of the ways He accomplishes that is by having us watch for His response. The Holy Spirit will work in these times of waiting to mature us and bring forth righteous fruit (Gal. 5:22-23).

Other reasons are a wrong motive for our request (James 4:3) and the practice of habitual sin. We all fall short when it comes to God’s standard of holiness, but some of us persist in a lifestyle of disobedience. The Lord may delay His answer so He can prompt us to confess our sin and turn back to Him.

Waiting on the Lord isn’t easy—faith and trust are needed (Heb. 11:1). If His answer is delayed, check that 1) your focus is on Him, 2) your motive for asking is God-honoring, and 3) you aren’t practicing habitual sin. Then believe that His response will be for your good and His glory.

Credit: InTouch Ministries

IS THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO ASK FOR?

.....When He had come near, He asked him, "what do you want me to do?" He said, "Lord, that I may see again".[LUKE 18:35-43].

Other versions say, "that I might receive my sight". What an answer, how beautiful. This message dropped in me on my way to work this morning. We all have needs. Some of us have a tall list and it includes everything you can imagine or think of. I was trying to find out what people were requesting from God when they had the chance to do so and among those whose request took me into thinking was that of the blind man Jesus healed on His way to Jericho and that of Solomon. Sometimes, God knows very well what we need but He will ask again, "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU"?

Are you prepared for such a question? Are you backing your request by FAITH? There is one thing I hear almost all blind men can do perfectly and that is finding the way to their mouth [Just by the way] but the blind Bartimaeus still wanted to see. Some of us are lucky now to have eyes but we still must ask for sight. "We see but we can't see". Its time we stop praying for money, etc and turn our request to other things. The question God is asking is, "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU/WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" At first it appears that Jesus asked a seemingly ignorant question "What do you want me to do for you?" It seems to me it would have been intuitively obvious what the blind man wanted. But I think the point is to give this man an opportunity to ask in faith specifically what he wanted. At times our prayers are too vague. Let us learn to also be specific. "THAT I MAY SEE AGAIN" was the answer.

Solomon knew that to rule you will need so many things but when he was given the chance to ask for anything [I Kings 3:5], he said he he needed wisdom. That is simply what he need at that time and I love what God said and all the things He added unto Solomon [1Kings 3:12-13.

Am convinced and forced to say that most of our prayer request are not answered because their are either not specific, not backed by faith or we are asking for things we shouldn't be asking for. Stop the money, wealth and health prayer for a while, change the topic for after seeking first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, all and I mean all other things shall be added unto you. This man needed sight to literally follow Jesus better. What do you want that will help you to follow Jesus better? Don't be afraid to ask the Lord, nor be hindered by others who may discourage you from doing so.

Have a blessed weekend.

WONDERFUL LESSONS FROM JOB

The story of Job in the Bible is a story with lot of lessons. From now till somewhere in march, I would like us to learn some of the lessons found in Job so we apply it to our chrisitan lifes.
We shall start from Job chapter 1. In this chapter, the Bible teaches us that Job was a perfect and upright man and one that feared God and eschewed evil.What a man? Anyway, you can see that he was blessed with children and a lot of animals and the Bible tells us he was the greatest of all the men of the east (vs 3). The chapter 1 talks mainly about his wealthiness to the begining of his suffering. The questions and the lessons in this chapter are;
1. The bible describes him as a perfect and upright man that eschewed evil(vs 1). What of us? How upright and perfect are we and how smart are we to eschew evil in todays modern world?
2. Imagine having all those riches and animals and being the greatest man in America, Asia, Afica, your office or family or wherever you come from. How will you feel? Are you going to be proud? Will you help the poor or you will keep them to yourself?
3. How often do you pray for your sons? Look at vs 5. Job knew in the midst of joy, his sons may say things ungodly so he made sacrifices and prayed on their behalf. Do we do that? How often do we pray on behalf of our family, children, employers, friends etc?
4. Should satan go before God to ask permission to destroy us, how sure do we think God will be about us? Can God boldly give us out for a second without us turning our back on Him? Is our faith that strong that God can use us for an "experiment" as He did to Job? I don't know your name now but can God say to satan, hast thou considered my servant William, Worlasi or daughter Natalie, Josephine etc? Just put your name there and ask yourself. Can God withness about your faithfulness to Him to the devil?
5. Look at the last verse in chapter 1. In times of trouble and difficulties, what do you say to God? The first thing Job did was to worship God after which he said "Naked I come........" (vs 20-22). What would have been your first word or action if you loose all those riches and children?

To be continued........