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You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
When you were born and your eyes opened for the first time – you were in awe and wonder at the things you saw around you. As the years went on, you went from drinking milk to eating solid foods. You went from being held to crawling. You heard bedtime stories, then began to read for yourself.
It is our human nature to long for something more. We want to learn, grow our skills, and become better. We watch hours of videos to learn how to become better at sewing, cooking, music, or working on cars. We buy books that will hopefully help us be better leaders in our school or workplace.
The reality is that our walk with Jesus is just like this. When we first begin to walk with Him, we are newborns in our faith. Then why do so many of us remain constant and don’t take the steps for change and growth to happen in our faith? If drinking milk alone wasn’t good enough for us, then sitting in a chair on the weekend shouldn’t be good enough for us either.
Your problem may be this, when you said yes to Jesus, your eyes were open, and you were in awe and wonder. It was like He ripped the blindfold off your eyes. You were on FIRE for Christ. You were at church every weekend, serving on a serve team, and surrounding yourself with other believers. It was awesome! Then life happened, and you began to wonder if God was still there. Maybe you lost a loved one, had a bad health diagnosis, or someone left you. Slowly, you began to stop lifting your eyes to Him. You stopped praying, spending time in your Bible, and eventually stopped coming to church every weekend.
You see, this is the very thing the enemy wants you to do. He would love for you to turn away from God and go back to living your life the way you were before. But right here -right now you have a choice to cry out to your Father who is still there waiting for you to turn back to Him. If you are DESPERATE for change, tell Him. If you need His wisdom, ask Him. If you need a better prayer life, ask Him. If you need patience with others, ask Him. If you need Him to simply bring you back to where it all began, ask Him. His answer is always, “Yes, my child!”
“You have not, because you do not ask.” Don’t settle for a newborn faith. Ask God to take you deeper into His grace, love, and mercy. Ask God to reveal new things about Himself to you. He does this through the power of His living and active Word (the Bible).
Even if you have been walking with Jesus for 50 years, He is not done with you yet. Ask God to continue to mold you into his Son, Jesus. Ask God to fill you with His Spirit today in a new and fresh way. The Father longs for a relationship with you that grows and is always changing. When you encounter life’s obstacles (which you will, it is a guarantee) ask God to help you look at them as a chance to grow in your faith and walk with Him. Because a tested faith is a TRUSTED faith. You will learn you have REAL faith, when it is tested.
Lord, in this moment, I am sacrificing my wants, my thoughts, and my hurt, and I am looking to you. I want to be honest with you about how I am feeling towards you. (If you feel distance from God or need Him to freshen and revive your relationship - tell Him. Be honest.) I want my relationship with you to grow and strengthen. Prune what needs to be taken away in my life, and make clear in what areas I need to grow in. God I am dependent upon you and the truth that you will make something beautiful out of me. (Now ask God for what you need for today.) Father, I love you.
Amen.
Today pray for our Journey Church staff. Pray for protection and guidance from the Lord. Pray that God’s will and purpose for all of our ministries are clearly revealed.