#62 “Identifying Barrier: To Answered Prayer!”
(Selfishness and Greed)
“If
a man shuts his ears to the cries of the poor,
he too will cry out
and not be answered.”
[Proverbs 21:13]
King James Version
(KJV)
This lessons topic is one that often strikes home more
times than not; because, we are often so busy trying to survive that we don’t
notice it. I remember my mother telling
me once that I had to realize that I could not feed the whole world. It seemed
that I was always giving away food to people I knew that I felt needed it even
as a young girl. Like me you’ve no doubt heard the old sayings, “My four and no
more,” which refers to taking care of you and your immediate family only. “Beloved, let us
love one another: for love is of God; and every one that love is born of God,
and knows God.” (1 John 4:7)
Perhaps that’s why this was always a
challenge for me; because, God had given me such a compassionate heart. I just couldn’t
stand to see anyone suffer or go without. Sometimes, even to my own detriment; I
can recall, giving someone money to pay a bill and not having enough to pay my
own.
It wasn’t until the Lord called
me into the mission field that this thing of being unselfish really became a reality
to me. I remember giving up everything I had or even owned, house, furnishings and
even my car; to leave for a country I know nothing about, for a people I didn’t
even know, with a language I couldn’t even speak. My family said you’re crazy
what do you think you’re doing? You were not raised to live in poverty! How will you
survive, how will you take care of yourself? The truth was they were right and I
didn’t know what I was doing, all I knew was that God had called me and I had
to go. “Remember every road
that God led you
on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing
you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his
commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then
he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything
about, so you would learn that men and women don’t live by bread only; we live
by every word that comes from God’s mouth. Your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t blister
those forty years. You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.”(Deuteronomy 8:1-5)
I understood
that there would be hard times and maybe some hungry nights but I couldn’t
allow this to stop me from going where God had called me to be.
Anyone that knows me can tell you
that my greatest fear wasn’t what I was going to eat or where I was going to
sleep, but rather how many bugs, spiders and snake I was going to encounter…
yet not even that could stop me from giving up everything to follow the call of
God. I had to step out of my comfort
zone in order to help someone else and even though I didn’t really know exactly
that meant I did it anyway. We as
children of God must be willing to give whatever we have in order to reach the
lost of Christ. We can’t be so consumed with our little lives that we can’t see
the needs of others. “Let nothing
be done through selfish
ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better
than himself. Let each of you look out not only
for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”(Philippines
2:4) It
could be your neighbor down the street, a coworker, the person standing in the
checkout line or even in the car next to you on the street. They all have lives
and issues that are weighing heavy on their hearts but we’re too busy to see
their needs for tending to our own. When we pray if our hearts are consumed
with our own needs we want have time to be concern with the needs of others. Don’t
get me wrong I know this is not an easy thing to do because we are all in
stilled with a since of self-preservation, so naturally we will think of
ourselves first. This is why God sent His Son to die for us, to teach us what
it means to give up what is dear to us for the sake of others.
God wants us to be compassionate
and freely give of what we have, He even promised that when we do He Himself
would see to it that it is given back to us, “Give, and it will be given to
you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put
into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured
back to you.”(Luke 6:38) So you see we’ll
never lose by giving to other, because we in fact are giving it to God and He
will repay. “A
generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.”
(Proverbs 22:9) So what happens when we give to
God? “Bring the
whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in
this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates
of heaven and pour out so much blessings that you will not have room enough for
it all.” (Malachi 3:10) In the book of Hebrews 12:1 it tells us, “Let
us throw off, and lay aside everything that hinders us and the sin that so
easily entangles us. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for
us.” It us up to us to lay aside the
things that keeps us from entering into God’s presence and being able to pray
effective prayers to the God of our salvation.
My Prayer: Heavenly Father, we
thank You today for your countless blessings and we desire to be a blessing to
others. We understand that we are often burdened by many things that can hinder
our spiritual walk with you and affect us emotionally. It is not our desire to
become entangled in yokes of bondage, but often times it happens anyway. These things
keep us from being able to fellowship with you as we should. Help us to truly understand
our relationship in Christ and who we are in Christ Jesus. We are willing to
let go of every hindrance currently in our lives in order to live in the
freedom of being you children. We thank
you for Your Son Jesus Christ who bore our burden and carried our sins and
sorrows; by his strips we are healed and we have peace with you through His shed
blood. Thank you for teaching us to give freely and completely just as you did
by sending your Son to die for our sins. These things we ask in Jesus name
Amen!
Have A Bless Day…Go in God’s Peace!
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