Ask and You Shall Receive . . . Be Careful!

I've been doing a lot of praying lately, and God has been doing a lot of listening . . . and answering. I've prayed for Him to enlarge my territory, particularly when it comes to His kingdom and how I could serve Him better through this website. As I have waited for Him to move, some interesting, difficult, and eye-opening things have been happening, and though I can't say that I have enjoyed all of this recent journey, I have realized that God is doing exactly what I asked. If I expect to write about living a tenacious life for Him, He had some things to teach me. Just as I had to become more of a writer to really be a believable writing teacher for my middle school students, I had to be a tenacious survivor to be able to share God's victories with all of you. And today, I have a message to share.

God can and does use the worst situations in our lives to draw us closer to Him and bring us to our knees before the Cross. And what do we find there when we lay ourselves bare and vulnerable before Him? We find strength from God that we don't have on our own. We find Him drawing us to His mercy seat. We find comfort from the greatest Comforter of all. And we find healing from the Great Physician. Try to survive the storms of life without Him, and you miss out on so many blessings, which brings me to my next point to share.

Every time I cry out to God in despair and allow Him to shine light on the dark places of my messed up heart, He helps me "grow up" in Him. He doesn't seem to mind that I cry and pitch a small fit before His throne, as long as I come in honesty, sharing my pain and disappointment with life and inviting Him to fill every inch of me.

There's one more thing . . . a warning that I want to share: if you seek God in your pain, praise Him in your storms, and trust Him completely, Satan will attack you. He hates worshipers who sing during battle and go to the front lines with voices of praise because it is in our total devotion to God and trust in His Word that Satan loses His power. He has already lost the war; Jesus took care of that on the Cross, and every time we stay in faith, even when crying out to God, Satan loses all over again.

I love it. God: one more victory. Satan: zero. I pray that your "score" will reflect the same.