If you will ask

This is something I read this morning from the book "If You will ask" by Oswald Chambers. The book is about prayer. Below is something out of chapter 3

 

 

If we struggle in prayer it is because the enemy is gaining ground. If prayer is simple to us, it is because we have the victory. There is no such thing as a holiday for the beating of your heart. If there is, the grave comes next. And there is no such thing as a moral or spiritual holiday. If we attempt to take a holiday, the next time we want to pray it is a struggle because the enemy has gained a victory all round, darkness has come down and spiritual wickedness in high placeshas enfolded us. If we have to fight, it is because we have disobeyed; we ought to more than conquerors.

". . . and having done all, to stand"— a mental state as regards confidence, no panic. What is it puts us into a panic? The devil is a bully, but he cannot stand for a second before God. When we stand in the armor of God he pays no attention to us, but if we tackle the devil in our own strength we are done for. If we stand in God's armor with the strength and courage of God, he cannot gain one inch of way, and the position of prayer is held, as far as we are concerned, untouched by his wiles. Confidence in the natural world is self-reliance, in the spiritual world it is God-reliance. We run away when we have not been practicing, when we have not been doing anything in private, then when there is a new onslaught of the wiles of the devilwe lose heart instantly. Instead of standing we scuttle, and others have to fill the gap until we are sufficiently ashamed to come back. We cannot stand against the wiles of the devil by our wits. The devil only comes along the lines that God understands, not along the lines we understand, and the only way we can be prepared for him is to do what God tells us, stand complete in His armor, indwelt by His Spirit, in complete obedience to Him. We have not to wait for some great onslaught of the enemy, he is here all the time and he is wily. The secret of the sacred struggle for prayer lies in the fact that we must stand in the armor of God, practicing what God would have us do, then we can hold the position of prayer against all the attacks of the devil.

If we are struggling in prayer it is because the wiles of the enemy are getting the upper hand, and we must look for the cause of it in the lack of discipline in ourselves. There are some things we have not been strenuously practicing—we used to pray in the morning, do we now? We used to commune with God over the Bible, do we now? We used to be in contact with God wherever we went, are we now? Put on the whole armor of Godand keep continuously practicing, and then the wiles of the devilcannot get you unawares.

 

Proverbs 27.17

Being judgmental really makes me want to hurl sometimes. Case in point, I had to call someone yesterday to see if he was going on an event, to serve with me. He had not responded to any of my emails, so I had to call him. When I asked him why he had responded to my email, he responded with "I don't get online" I thought "okay" so I asked "how to you read the men's emails?" He responded louder and more sternly "I don't get online!" It really pissed me off the way he was talking to me. Then he said "Mike Chaney knows that" I said "I am sorry, but Chaney failed to mention to me that you did not get online." Now I am starting to get annoyed. (In my mind I am wondering if I am being Judgmental or is this guy being a jerk). What he failed to mention was that his daughter kept him up to date on the emails. He also said he had responded to Michael so he felt he didn't need to respond to me. That annoyed me as well. What I had to do was be super nice to him. He bowed up then I bowed up. So I had to make myself be nice so I could end the conversation on a good note. Which, that is what happened. Does this phone call still bother me…? Somewhat, but I am working through it. Here is what really got me. So I talked to a friend of mine who served with this man and he said that the individual that I am referring to is one of the nicest persons he knows. So now I have to really think about my tone with Him and did I start it?

When I told my wife this story she looked at me and said "that is what you do to me" I said "what" She said, "I will ask you a question and you will give me an answer, but I don't understand your answer, So I ask you the question again and you get louder and give me the same answer thinking that I will understand because you are louder and annoyed that I did not understand you the first time."

As Iron sharpens iron, so one wife sharpens a husband.

 

Proverbs 27.17 "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another:

Who are you?

When you look in the mirror, who do you see looking back? Do you see a Son? Romans 8:15
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"NASB95. Or are you judging yourself? When you see yourself in any other form other than what God sees you, you a creating a big problem for yourself.

Romans 6:10-11
When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.NLT

Romans 6:11
Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.AMP why do we as a people have such a hard time with believing who God says we are? This is how God sees us. He does not see the sin…….. He sees us!

 

Quote: You may say "Yes, but I have all sorts of problems. This can't be true about me." That's the problem you don't consider God's opinion to be real; therefore, you will never experience His version of reality. You will only experience what you consider to be true.

 

When you get to the point where you believe this verse you will be free from all other judgments, including the harshest ones of them all. The ones where you judge yourself. I assure you that I have not gotten there YET! But I am close.

 

So the next time you stand in the mirror are you going to believe what you see? Or who the Lord says you are?

 

Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.NASB95

 

Isaiah 42.9

Isaiah 42:9
"Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you."NASB95

 

The Lord gave this to me Thursday morning and when I think back at what has transpired over the last week it is pretty awesome. I know my Dad knows the Lord, I know that my uncle Stanley knows the Lord. I know that my mom is proud of the man I have become. My renewed relationship with my two cousins Holly and Poppy. (Something that the enemy stole from me over 45 years ago has been restored) I have a renewed passion to reach out to my family and stay connected to them. To know there kids.

 

So here is the big question and my challenge to you. Is there a family member that you have lost touch with. That one family member that the only time you would see this person is at a funeral.

 

Stop what your doing right now and ask Holy Spirit who that person or persons are. That name is who you need to call today and say hello too.

 

Kevin