A NEW SHORT SERIES ON PRAYER
"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-- unless indeed you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5)The most important relationship any human will ever have in this life is the one with God. I am not talking about the gods of your choosing, but the One True God of Heaven - Yahweh. Our heavenly Father has made this journey with Him even simpler and more intense, when He - Abba Father (Daddy) - sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth some 2000 years ago.
This same Jesus, in the most important discourse in History on the Christian Life - the Sermon on the Mount said the following (Matthew 6:33) "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble". To get the full context of this verse, click here for the entire chapter of Matthew 6.
What the Lord is teaching us is this - our Faith is an intentional daily walk with Him which has to be recharged daily. We know from experience that several things occur during one 24 hour period which can alter the course of a life, change circumstances and even affect our worldview. In life, we have more valley experiences than mountain top ones. Bad things are more apt to happen to a person, and especially a Christian, than good ones. Sometimes a good day is when things are status quo.
So God is calling for us to wake up each day with a certain mindset of overcoming those not so good days, when our vehicle of life is out of alignment. At those times we must fall back into zone coverage. That is, our relationship with God through Christ and its strength must be such that it can withstand incoming. This is the testing called for and it comes from recharging with Spiritual Food - a Holy Breakfast, if you will, when we wake up recharged physically.
But more than this, God is calling here in 2 Corinthians 13:5 for a testing the tensile strength of our relationship. This is why the Lord does not mind you and I asking Him questions, even in doubt. Because then, we can say to Him "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief". If more and more and us, search our hearts as Psalm 139:23-24 says "23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting"...and call for God to cleanse us and purify us and that the precious Supernatural Blood of Christ can make us clean as the wind-driven snow, we will pass this daily test with flying colors, and the rest of the day's events will pale, as we sail!
The steps here are really simple to a spiritual daily diagnosis - praising God for a new day and then checking to see if our heart, mind, body and soul are all pointed north to Him, by praying for the same, as indicated above. This gives us such comfort and rest in the promise, that we cannot help but say like Jeremiah shouted out in praise in Lamentations 3:22-25, the immortal words which became the great hymn of the Faith (Great is Thy Faithfulness): "22 Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!" 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him."
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