Over those two weeks that I have written about recently and the weeks following, the Lord has done many things in our lives to get us back on the right path and has done some changing to our heart's desires. While I love teaching, it can be a very frustrating career, especially at the high school level where kids have no hesitation to tell you how much they hate you and how stupid they think you are. I have tried to get a job closer to our current home but it has not worked out. After the last unsuccessful attempt (and the most promising), I decided that I was content with my current job and would finally put our house on the market and move closer. Uh oh, contentment is usually the last thing before God decides to change things up. That happened to us in a major way before. My wife and I decided that we were content with living in Arizona and the Lord had us living in Oregon a couple months later. Now that I had finally reached a point where I as content working at my current school, God has done some things to lead us to believe that things are about to change drastically.
Over those two weeks, the Lord did some work on us to get things straightened out. Today, He had me read 1 John 5 after I was finished praying which says:
1Jn 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1Jn 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
1Jn 5:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
It seems like every time I pray now and ask Him to show me a word of encouragement or direction, I get the same thing no matter where I read. Wait on the Lord, follow His commandments, and anything I ask of the desires of my heart according to His will, He will hear and grant.
I followed reading 1 John 5 by looking at Jon Courson's commentary. He gave several verses including Psalm 66:18, 1 Peter 3:7, Matthew 5:23, 24, and John 15:7 which talk about things that we can do to prevent God from hearing our prayers. He narrows it down to sin that we have been harboring, problems with our marriage, relationships that need repair, and the neglecting of the Word. I was doing all of these things. I had sin that I was hiding and keeping hidden in the closet, there were issues with our marriage, and we were severely neglecting the Word. It was no wonder that few of our prayers were being heard and answered. First of all, we didn't know what to pray for because we were not in God's Word daily. We had hidden sin that kept us at a distance from God. Both of these were leading to problems in our marriage.
It all came down to my wife not submitting to me as unto the Lord and me not loving my wife as Christ loves His church.
Eph 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.
Eph 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
We were both blowing it but the Lord did a great work and changed all that. On one amazing Sunday, my wife submitted to me and I loved her as Christ loves the church as we are called to do. I started tithing a full 10% as He instructs us to do and we spent quality time in the Word all throughout the day. We were finally giving God the first fruits of our lives and our "closets" were cleaned. Since then, our prayers have been much more in line and in tune to God's will for us. We have received many of the desires of our hearts already and He has revealed many more to us that He wants to give us. We now know what to pray for and how to pray and can be sure that we will receive them. We also know that if we do not receive them, they were not in line with what the Lord wanted for us in our lives.
I am excited about what He has in store for us in the coming months, years, and decades. My main prayer for us is that we will continue to remain steadfast in His commandments and wait on Him so that ALL of the desires of our hearts will be given to us.
My prayer for anyone reading this blog is that you will do what we did (if you haven't already done so) and give up those areas that you are trying to hold onto and control.
1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
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