To want or to give? That is the question - Tuesday Praise & Pray (for others) June 13, 2022

Confess, you're the type of person who spends most of their time (if not all) focusing on what they want from God instead of what they need to give to Him. Right?

Does that statement hit you in the gut? Then you won't like it I tell you you spend hours thinking of all the things you can get from God and barely any time considering what He wants from you? Now you're upset. You want to defend yourself with excuses and explanations. You want to flat our protest and declare you're not that type of person.

Stop it! YOU ARE THE PERSON WHO THINKS ABOUT WHAT THEY WANT AND NOT WHAT THEY'LL GIVE.

We all are, unfortunately and we inherited this selfish nature from Adam. When confronted with his failure in the Garden of Eden, Adam forgot how tasty the apple had been. He forgot he was told not to eat the forbidden fruit. He forgot how his helpmate had previously helped him. Instead, he blamed both Eve and God saying, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Genesis 3:21). In his selfishness, he protected himself and threw Eve under the bush. He pointed at God as if He'd messed up. To be fair, Eve shouldn't have been revealing secrets to the serpent in the first place, but that's a discussion for another time.

Each of us - in one way or another - focuses on our selfish self-ambition and self-motivated desires. We don't ask God what He wants for us (Hosea 4:6). We don't go searching in His word to understand what His expectations are. Instead, we flow with the ways of the world, we rely on our carnal nature and lean on our understanding contrary to His instructions (Galatians 5:19-21, Proverbs 3:5). In fact, we daydream of all we'll achieve, detailing the ways we'll do it. A few of us might remember to ask God to fulfill our desires, but only after we've determined what those are without including Him. And when we don't see all we've imagined, the way we dreamed it, we turn around and blame Him for not helping us!

God wants us to succeed (Jeremiah 29:11). He's promised to fulfil the desires of the upright (Proverbs 10:24). However, we've been warned that we don't see results because of our selfish motives (James 4:3). We put our desires, wants and needs before God's purpose and plan for us. This is why we all struggle to consistently honor Matthew 6:33. But praise the Lord that He has grace for us and will help us when we recognize our failures, renounce our sin, and strive to walk righteously with Him.

Today, take a moment and prayerfully repent for being stiff-necked and stubborn. For thinking you can design your life without His input from the very start instead of submitting to His will. Ask God what He wants you to do and commit to doing it. You can tell Him to take it easy with you and ask Him to help you obey Him. He'll hear you and help you. You just have to cooperate.