Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?

It is extremely difficult when anyone, but especially a family member says, "God never answers me. He always seems to answer your prayers so YOU need to ask God for me because He won't hear me." That is just so sad. Has someone ever said to you, "God doesn't answer my prayers." Have you ever thought that of yourself? There were times throughout my life that my opinion was the same as my family member. In fact, there was a time I believed God hated me because no matter what I prayed was never granted. I too would ask others to pray for my need or something I wanted because I wasn't getting anywhere with God. Have you ever wondered why some people have prayers answered and why others never do? How much do you know about prayer itself? There is much written in the Bible about it. Prayer is certainly a great blessing from God and should be a powerful part of the Christian’s life. We know prayer is important to God because the words pray, prayer, prayers and praying are mentioned over 450 times in the Bible (I had to google that). I want to list five major things regarding prayer that will help clarify what, why, how, and who regarding prayer:
What is Prayer? — The word pray means “to petition, request or entreat.” It is the avenue by which we communicate with God (Romans 10:1). Prayer necessarily involves praise (Matthew 6:9), thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6), confession (1 John 1:9) and petitions (Philippians 4:6).
Why should we Pray? — Because prayer is a direct command (1 Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18). It is the medium through which we obtain God’s wisdom and blessings (James 1:5; James 5:18; 1 Kings 18:42; 1 Kings 18:45). Prayer is a powerful tool for God’s faithful (Acts 12:5-17).
How often should we Pray? — Petitions before God should be offered as often as we have a need, and prayers of thanksgiving should be offered as often as God blesses us (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4; 1 Peter 1:3). Note that the “how often” should be closely associated with the “without ceasing” attitude (1 Thessalonians 5:17; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:12-13; Ephesians 6:18).
What should we Pray for? — Just to name a few; for strength to overcome our temptations (Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38; Luke 22:40; Luke 22:46)-- I really utilize prayer for this one! Other examples are for God’s wisdom (James 1:5-7); for unity (John 17:20-21); for forgiveness (Matthew 6:12); for the sick (James 5:14); for all people and those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-3; Romans 10:1); for the saints (Ephesians 6:18).
What hinders our Prayers? — When we allow sin to remain in our lives (Isaiah 59:1-2; when we pray with selfish motives (James 4:3); when we pray doubting the outcome (James 1:5-8; 1 Timothy 2:8 – KJV).
Who can Pray? — Prayer is the privilege of the obedient (1 John 3:22); those who are submissive to God’s will (1 John 5:14; 1 John 3:22); and those who are faithful (John 9:31; John 15:7; James 5:16; 1 Peter 3:12).

Sometimes when asked, it becomes challenging to share with a non-believer that the Word declares, "We know (meaning Christians know) that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him" (John 9:31). DOING GOD'S WILL PLAYS A HUGE PART IN GOD HEARING US. I'll be honest, it is extremely difficult to tell someone their prayers aren't being answered due to the fact they are out of line with God. No one wants to hear that! Whether that is because they are entrenched in a life of sin or they just don't love God to actually hear what His Word asks- which is to walk in obedience. Obedience requires turning from our sin not remaining in it. That is God's truth! These aren't just suggestions, these are GOD'S words! Christians do not make the rules, however, our obligation is to TELL THE TRUTH when asked. If someone asks you, "Why doesn't God answer any of my prayers" it is your duty as a believer to share the scripture that answers their question. It is not, however, your obligation or duty to judge "how" they are out-of-line with God even if you know what it is. That is between them and God. Keep your fingers in your pockets and don't be tempted to point! If they ask why God never hears them share the scripture: 'The Bible teaches in the book of John, that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.' (notice the very important words "does God's will"?)
God's Word is sufficient. We don't need to add, change, or take anything from it. If someone confronts, "Are you judging me? Are you saying I'm some kind of a sinner?" It's best to share what the Word has taught you! I usually answer, "I had to learn the hard way myself that, God does not hear sinners or anyone outside of His will. I don't know anything about your relationship with God, but unless or until I aligned myself with God's will I never received answers to my prayers either.'
God's Word is so clear, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear" (Psalm 66:18); "But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear" (Isaiah 59:2). There is just no way to misinterpret those scriptures. They point to being disobedient and sin (iniquity) is a result of disobedience.


Christians should never take the avenue of prayer for granted, but we should humbly thank God for this blessed means of communication with Him because He is the One who richly provides all good and perfect gifts (James 1:17; John 3:27), including life itself (Acts 17:25; Acts 17:28). If you are not hearing from God on a consistent basis it may be time to take spiritual inventory. Are you still aligned with God's will? Sometimes God will be what we interpret as "silent" and it can be when His answer is no! Understand though, "no" is still an answer it's just not the one you wanted or were anticipating. Hope is not lost. If you are truly walking in His will, if you fear Him with godly fear, if you seek to obey Him, He will hear you and HE WILL answer and grant your prayer requests either exactly as you've asked or in a different way, even perhaps at a better time than what you understand right now. He knows what is best: the what, where, why and who. Go over all the scriptures I've included today: the what, why, how, and who regarding prayer until you better understand how prayer works and then make an adjustment to do what is necessary to be heard. If nothing else today, I URGE YOU to read Proverbs 1: 22-33 on your own. Look at the words, especially verses 28-33! It says so much about unanswered prayer!

Until next time,
-Pat-

Were You There When God Created?

So often throughout my Christian life, I've been asked to denounce Creation and side with evolution. I suppose your choice to believe in creation or the Big Boom depends on what you do with the first sentence found in Genesis, Chapter 1 of any version of the Bible. It states simply and clearly, "In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth." (just a quick notation. God created heaven(s). plural!) If we believe that statement, we can believe everything else that follows. If we reject that statement, we will also deny every other general truth in the Scriptures.

Several years ago I was engaged in a conversation with a non-Christian regarding the creation of all things and gave several verses from the book of Genesis to uphold my belief that 'in the beginning, God created all things' and I let it be known I did not support evolution as is being taught. I stressed that I believed the record of creation just as it was written, nothing added, nothing removed, nothing changed. The non-Christian was quick to interject all that she believed and went to great lengths in giving her own theory of not only how the world began but how life developed from what she called a primordial cell through reptiles, monkeys, and up to humans! When she was finished with her explanation I had to ask a very basic question, "Were you there?" I thought it was a simple, straight forward question. She replied, "Of course I wasn't there!" I responded, "Well, God was there and I'll trust the word of the eyewitness rather than that of those who rely on their own speculations, opinions, intellect, ideas, or guesses." This is the same response I will give today.

We all know that in a court of law, eyewitness testimony carries the most weight. Hearsay testimony is always thrown out. The same is true of creation. God asked Job this question (and it is one you can actually ask any naysayers of creation), "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" (Job 38:4). God Himself laid the foundations of the earth. If you look up the word 'foundation' in the dictionary, you'll find that it means: starting point, base, beginning. Therefore God had a starting point ("in the beginning"), the foundations of this physical globe upon which he made everything in it and on it which includes LIFE itself: all the elements from atoms, cells, electrons, DNA, you name it. Creation began with God Himself. God was there, and His Word can be trusted (Psalm 104:1-5; Psalm 119: 142; Psalm 19: 7-9). If you want to read a very interesting article that will challenge evolution and ask you questions you will not have an answer for you can go to https://creationtoday.org/creationist-challenge/

Every living creature manifests an intelligent design. An explosion or "big boom" as evolutionist refers to could not possibly have created a perfect intellectual design in something as complex as a cell. A living cell is so awesomely complex that its interdependent components stagger the imagination and defy evolutionary explanations. Take DNA. DNA is the real mind-blower! The fact that you need DNA to make DNA is amazing. No genetic code can be demonstrated to have risen by chance, together with the ability to read that code and carry out its instructions. But that is what DNA does! We must honestly consider that information does not arise spontaneously, and there is an incredible amount of information in even the tiniest of cells ... plant, animal, or human! So as far as evolution vs creation I ask you, "Were you there?" How do you answer? What side do you support? I suppose your choice to believe depends on what you do with the first sentence in Genesis, Chapter 1 of any version of the Bible. Keep in mind, evolution constantly changes with theories and speculations as more scientists add their opinions. However, the Word of God has never changed, nor will it ever. "For this is what the Lord says—
he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:18). Creation is by God and nothing else!
Until next time,
-Pat-

I Have Nothing To Offer

On a beautiful warm Saturday morning years ago, a very good Christian friend and I were having breakfast at an Einstein's bagel shop. At a nearby table, I noticed a young woman sitting quietly reading her Bible. She was absorbed in the text, occasionally looking up to consider what she had read, then bowing her head in what seemed like a prayer to God. She never said a word, but her heart and priorities were visible to everyone in the bagel shop. As I think back now, it strikes me that her actions were a gentle, positive, and silent influence. There were as many eyes were on this lady as there were eyes ignoring her. I just remember how I admired her willingness to live out her faith in the midst of "the world." She was not ashamed of Christ nor of His New Testament (Hebrews 9:11-15 KJV). She didn't stand to preach or break out in heavenly song. This lady was willing to be identified with the Savior, yet she did not need to announce that allegiance, it was obvious!

We can learn from the example of this woman. There are times when the quietness of our everyday actions speak louder than our words, revealing our love for the Lord (Philippians 1:21-27). In our desire to share Christ with a sinful world, we should not ignore the power of our silent influence (1 Thessalonians 1:5-8). All of us have a testimony whether it is expressed verbally or even silently like the lady in Einstein's bagel shop. And just because some of us are not preachers, teachers, authors or otherwise, we are NOT less qualified to influence or even change a life with the smallest of gestures. We can 'be Jesus' in imperfect simple ways.

What was most impressive about my visit to the bagel shop that day was a little boy who wasn't much older than 3 or 4 who kept imitating the lady who was reading her Bible. He would hold his hands as if he was holding a book, talk to himself, the place the imaginary book on the table in front of him. He continued this behavior and every so often would tug on his mother's arm as if he wanted to tell her something. He was the cutest little boy! Finally, his mother looked down at her son. He quickly pointed to the Christian lady and turned and whispered something in his mother's ear. The mother looked up, saw the lady, then signaled her family ... I'm assuming as a reminder they forgot to pray before eating ... then they all bowed their head and said a prayer! It was evident the little boy's family gave him a foundation of faith and prayer. So much so that when he observed the Christian lady's behavior, it was that behavior that influenced him to follow suit. Again, you are NOT less qualified to influence or even change a life with the smallest of gestures. You can 'be Jesus' in imperfect simple ways.

The world is desperate for Christ. They just don't know it. Acts of kindness or love, giving, sharing, letting your faith be seen in a Christ-like manner is influential. Even I remembered this incident which happened over 15 years ago! You might be surprised what things the world sees and observes, and how much influence those things may play in a persons life now if not later. So many times as Christian's we think we have nothing to offer. That just isn't so. Be aware of your surroundings and always let the light of Christ shine through love, kindness, a simple gesture, helping someone, a kind word, encouragement, etc. People may not remember certain things or details that happen, but they will always remember how you made them feel. Colossians 3:12-16 NLV, "God has chosen you. You are holy and loved by Him. Because of this, your new life should be full of loving-pity. You should be kind to others and have no pride. Be gentle and be willing to wait for others. Try to understand other people. Forgive each other. If you have something against someone, forgive him. That is the way the Lord forgave you. And to all these things, you must add love. Love holds everything and everybody together and makes all these good things perfect. Let the peace of Christ have power over your hearts. You were chosen as a part of His body. Always be thankful. Let the teaching of Christ and His words keep on living in you. These make your lives rich and full of wisdom. Keep on teaching and helping each other."
Until next time,
-Pat-

Failure

How do we define failure? It seems that when we don’t succeed at something, we say we’ve failed. We didn’t win the championship, so we failed to win the championship. I didn’t get the job I wanted, I failed to get the job. I missed that shot, so I failed. I didn’t make millions of dollars, so I failed as a provider. I didn’t get the boy I wanted from this pregnancy so I’m a failure. That list could go on and on listing perceived failures. Why do we always talk about the fact that we all fail or that failure is inevitable? One of the things I want to do as I address the subject of failure is to redefine what failure means. At least what it means according to my definition because I believe it’s too easy to say, “I failed, therefore, I am a failure.” It’s too easy to make that jump from not getting something we wanted to suddenly pinning the failure tag on ourselves. At times we mess up. We sin, we do wrong, we make mistakes, we don’t do what we should do, in fact, Paul reminds us of that fact when he speaks personally about himself, saying "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing" (Romans 7:15). Some might label Paul as a failure. If we were Paul, we might have said, we’re failures. We can do the same when we don’t do what we believe we should be doing. However, my struggle with the word failure and failed is that it’s too easy of a label to pin on ourselves. So, let me tell you my take on failure.

Failure is inaction! Failure is not making an attempt to do what you believe you are supposed to do. If I try, then I have not failed. For example, if you didn't win the championship, some would say, maybe even you would say, you failed. But I don’t believe that's failure! You simply didn’t succeed as you had hoped. The fact that you competed and tried and worked to attain that goal is not failure. Failure would have been quitting, failure would have been not making the attempt. Think that through. Even if you tried out for the team and you got cut you didn’t fail. It’s easy to label yourself as a failure. But you didn’t fail!! You simply didn’t succeed in your pursuit to make the team. If you applied and interviewed and did the best you could, but didn’t get the job, you didn’t fail, you didn’t succeed as you hoped for. So, with that in mind, when we don’t succeed or even if we have failed, then we’ve opened ourselves up for an opportunity to have God work in our lives in a way that can change who we are. Let's examine some scriptures.

In Luke 22, after the supper, Jesus looked at the disciples and said, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ Peter answered Jesus, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to Him, Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!" And all the disciples said the same (Luke 22:31-35). We all know what happened. Peter did deny Jesus! He denied the very Savior He proclaimed was Christ the Son of God. Did you miss Jesus words-- YOU WILL ALL FALL AWAY BECAUSE OF ME THIS NIGHT? Jesus said ALL! That's an amazing statement!

Had Peter "failed" and blown his chance to spend eternity in heaven because of his blatant denial of Jesus? Not one denial mind you, three denials! Let's go on to verse 32 which is very enlightening. Jesus addresses Peter in verse 32 saying, "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fails not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." What exactly was Jesus saying? Why would Jesus suggest Peter be "converted"? Wasn't Peter already converted? After all, he was a disciple! What does this mean? The word converted in this sense means to turn back, to return to, to turn again. If we understand that Jesus was telling Peter 'when you are converted' He was telling Peter and every Christian believer who follows Him, that Peter was going to turn around, that he would come back, that he would return and convert back from his temporary inaction to do the right thing. It also points out that Peter became weak because of one thing- fear, and it was a temporary weakness brought on by fear that made him deny he ever knew or had been associated with Jesus. Peter was not acting unlike many of us when we face choices to do the right thing becoming overwhelmed by disappointments, doubts, or insecurities, etc. How often have we taken a step back and denied that Jesus could resolve our problems, was listening to our prayers, or really cared what was happening in our lives? Have you ever denied you're a Christian in a crowd of secular people who are making fun of the bible and its promises? Did you remain silent? Your silence is a manifestation of fear. In those moments of testing, we can sometimes fail to act, but we are not failures. Peter did not fall away or abandon Christ altogether. The mere fact Jesus pointed out to Peter "when you are converted" (when you come back to me realizing your inaction to speak up) shows that we too mess up but Jesus still wants us (as He did Peter) to "convert", to come back, to turn around because in truth, we aren't failures! We are His people, His Church on earth, His called, His faithful. In other words, Luke 22:32 highlights the mercy of Christ yet once again. You see, sometimes when we mess up, instead of turning to God, we turn away from God. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done. Sometimes we think, ‘well, I did it now, God doesn’t love me anymore. God is probably super angry, shaking His head at me, trying to disown me as His child.’ But that’s not true! Jesus came and died for you, He loves you, you’re His child and you are passionately and unconditionally loved. He wants you to come to Him so you can find healing. Think about how crazy that thought process is. Why would God send Jesus into the world to forgive us, and then when we mess up, He would disown us. That’s the last thing on God’s mind and heart. He wants to bring healing and wholeness to you, not beat you up.

James 4 tells us, "Draw close to God and he will draw close to you." What is it that you are not succeeding in? Is there something going on in your life, in which you’re beating yourself up about it? You can’t forgive yourself? You can’t move forward? You believe you don’t deserve to be forgiven or redeemed so you move further from God, when in fact you should be drawing closer to God. What issues are you going through? Remember, the thief is Satan. And his job is to get you to believe you don’t deserve to have joy. You don’t deserve what’s good in life. You don’t deserve salvation. He wants you to believe you’re a total screw up, a sinner who’s unredeemable. He wants you to believe you’re a failure and what would God want with a messed up sinful failure. Well, Jesus wants that messed up, sinful failure. I don’t believe God sees us as failures. We are sinful, yes. So, Jesus came to give us life. He came to give you more than life. He wants you to more than survive through the tough times. He wants you to thrive. He wants you to live the abundant life that only He offers. It’s there and it’s available, but you have to call out to Jesus for the healing, help, strength, and power. We don’t do what we should do. We do what we shouldn’t do. But in God’s eyes, we’re His kids, He created us in His image so we have intrinsic worth because God is worthy. Now get up, brush yourself off, return, be converted and walk like you are a child of the KING because you are!
Until next time,
-Pat-

Inside The Heart Of An Apple

I'm not invested in watching that much television anymore. If I do watch anything it's programs like National Geographic, Animal Planet, or DYI shows. The other day I was watching an interesting program about earthworms. What I found fascinating is that they are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female sex organs. Fascinated by all the information I continued watching as the narrator exhausted everything there was to say about different species of worms. He then asked the question "Have you ever wondered how a worm gets inside of an apple?" I was, so I listened intently as he went on, "If you think that the worm burrows in the apple from the outside, you'd be wrong," he said. He explained that scientists have discovered that the worm comes from the inside of the apple. I no sooner thought to myself how is that possible that he answered, "Female apple maggot flies find a sweet-smelling apple that is ripening and lands on it. Using a small, sharp, hollow tube on the underside of her body, the fly stabs a small hole in the fruit. Then she releases her eggs, which slide down that hollow tube into the apple." **I wonder how many apples I've bitten into that had eggs I knew nothing about?** YUCK! But I digress.

Soon after this process, the narrator explained that "the eggs hatch inside the heart of the apple." (That was an interesting way of putting it) Then, the tiny white worms called railroad worms, eat their way out of the apple! It dawned on me that this is a perfect illustration of how SIN, like the worm, begins inside the heart of a man and works out through an individual's thoughts, words, and actions. Listen to what Jesus said when addressing the Jews in Matthew 15: 15-20, "Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man." He is saying, there is nothing externally outside a man, that entering into him can defile him (spiritually): but the things which come out of the man, those are the very things that defile the man (Mark 7:15). Drinking a cold beer, a smoking vice, or eating a diet high in fat ARE NOT what Jesus is telling us that defiles the soul. Granted these things may harm, injure, or even kill the body, but they are stupid choices we may eventually pay for in the body! Again, in simple speech, Don’t you understand yet? Anything you eat passes through your stomach literally goes into the sewer. But the words you speak, my friend, come from your heart—that’s what defiles you! Why? Jesus told us, "For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander." THESE are what defile you.

The Pharisees had questioned Jesus in the above explanation because He permitted his disciples to eat with what the Jews considered were defiled hands (from the outside). We inherently think that defilement comes from outside of us. This is what religion teaches us. As long as we can stay away from certain people or places or things, we can remain pure and right with God. It’s all about overcoming bad habits and bad company because if we can remain separate from the evil outside of us then we will remain pure. That's what most think but that is incorrect. It is much easier to keep the outside clean and so it follows our souls must, therefore, be clean. Right? Wrong! Religion and its insistence on rules, however, cannot change the heart! And yet, this is how we are defiled before God, and this is what Jesus addresses in the second part of his parable. He is not saying that there is no such thing as defilement; he just challenges the popular opinion regarding its source. Defilement, Jesus says, does not come from out there. Rather, it comes from within here. It is “what comes out of a person” that defiles him. It is said in James 3:6 "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. (the tongue manifests what is hidden in the heart) The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. (Luke 6:45) For thousands of years, the cure has always been A NEW CLEAN HEART. God said, "And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart." (Ezekiel 36:26). And David prayed, " Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). The message is simple. We need a heart change!

Now when we talk about the “heart” we tend to think only about emotions. Here it is contrasted with the stomach, but not because the heart refers to the spiritual part of a person as opposed to the physical part of a person. Both Hebrew and Greek speak of the heart as the seat of all physical, spiritual, and mental life. The heart is used to summarize who we really are, and the way we relate to God. We typically refer to this as our “soul.” It is that which makes us who we are. Again, not that our bodies are not a part of the “real you,” but it is also self-evident that there is something more to us than our bodies. I love what C. S. Lewis said: We do not have a soul. We ARE a soul. We "have" a body.
Jesus tells us all the sins listed in Matthew 15: 15-20 come from our hearts. Instinctively we know this! Before we ever commit sexual immorality with our bodies we do it with our hearts. Right? Same with theft, murder, deceit, envy, and pride. These things are sinful not because God has made rules to rob us of joy. What makes things sinful is our hearts in rebellion against God and the good purposes he has for us in His gifts.

I read an interesting quote while on my Twitter account this week, “The wicked think their sin is nothing, the moral think it is small, and the religious think it is manageable.” You see, if the problem is dirty hands, that’s easy. We can manage that with a little religion. But if the problem is a defiled heart we need more powerful medicine. The rules of religion can address our behavior. But dirty hands are nothing compared to a defiled heart. The good news is that God has given us a promise. To those who are guilty of defiling His holy name, He says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:25-26).Through the gospel, we can be saved from our defiled hearts. God will give you a “new heart” that can respond to Him, rather than your old heart of stone that stubbornly refuses to obey Him. We come to Christ, then, not to rid ourselves of the impurities outside of us, but to find the only solution to the problem within us! If you are serious in following Jesus and you faithfully carry it out, He promises to wash your heart, to make you undefiled, blameless and pure and holy before God. You cannot do it by any effort on your part. He works that miracle by the Holy Spirit inside you. Father, I pray that no one will walk away from this blog today with an unwashed heart, but that their hearts might be made clean through the blood of Christ.
Until next time,
-Pat-

Garage Sale

Who doesn't love a good garage sale? You've heard the idiom, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." That is so true!
What if Satan had a garage sale. What do you suppose he would have laid out on tables? I imagine he would offer ALL THE TOOLS of his trade to anyone who would pay the price. (His wages demand death.) I can see it now. Spread out on the tables, each "tool" labeled hatred, malice, envy, gossip, perversion, lust - all the weapons that everyone knows so well. But off to one side on a table lay a harmless-looking tool marked "discouragement." It is old and worn looking but is priced far above anything else Satan offers. The reason it is priced so high is that Satan can use this one tool so much more easily than the others. No one ever seems to know this one even belongs to Satan, so with it he is able to open doors that are bolted tightly! Once he gets inside a man's heart with this particular tool, he can easily use any of the other tools that best suits his purpose!

Ask yourself, "What heroic and inspiring accounts were never written because Satan effectively used his tool of discouragement?" I have personally experienced this when attempting to write my blogs. Satan whispers his discouraging cadence like these on nearly a weekly basis: "No one will read your stuff" or "That subject is boring, don't write it" or "Just stop! No one is reading your blogs. See, no one even comments." In God's Word, we can find many sad stories of people who lost heart and gave up because of discouragement. For example, when Moses sent the spies into the land of Canaan, all but Caleb and Joshua came back with discouraging news. The fearful saw the size and strength of their opponents rather than remembering the signs and strength of their God (Numbers 13-14).

Remember Peter? Peter vowed he would never deny Jesus, yet he denied Him and fled with the rest when Jesus was arrested! He became so fearful of the retribution he would receive should he have agreed he was one of his disciples that he denied he ever even knew Jesus (Matthew 26: 31-75). Also, Timothy was discouraged to the point that he had become withdrawn and afraid of saying what needed to be said regarding the gospel message (2 Timothy 1:6-8) and thus Paul reminded him, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

We become discouraged when we start paying more attention to obstacles than to opportunities. We become discouraged when we start believing those whispers in our ears from the "father of lies" (John 8:44) instead of the Father "who cannot lie" (Titus 1:2).
We must keep reminding ourselves and other believing Christians that God can do great things with a heart that is His (Joshua 14: 13-14; Numbers 14:24; Deuteronomy 1:36).
My question for you is, does He have your heart and mind or is Satan having his way with you? Have you been fooled by what the father of lies has offered? James has the solution for getting out of the devil's clutches: "Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7; Ephesians 6:11; 1 Peter 5: 8-9).
What lies has the enemy of your soul tried to convince you of? His assault on your mind is very subtle. He wants to influence your thinking. He wants to wear you down for his purpose. Stand firm, resist, withstand, and know he is a liar. I'll leave you with these words from scripture, "Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the battle is not yours, but God's."
Until next time,
-Pat-