another question to ask about your relationship with GOD…

another question to ask to evaluate if you have an honest relationship with GOD is am i currently in the present ignoring any of GOD’s principles?  in other words, when GOD tells me to do something, when i know i’m holding on to something that GOD wants me to let go of and i continue to hold on to it, that breaks the prayer chain, the connection with GOD. 

1 john 3.21-22 (niv), dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us we have confidence before GOD and we receive from HIM anything we ask [that’s the promise] because we obey HIS commands and do what pleases HIM.  this is HIS command: to believe in the name of HIS SON JESUS CHRIST and to love one another as HE has commanded us. 

you say, “how can i keep all of GOD’s commands?  nobody’s perfect. how am i ever going to get any answers to my prayers?”  GOD does not demand perfection.  HE simply demands obedience.  and obedience is an attitude:  i want to do what’s right.  HE expects you to obey.

example:  let’s say my daughter is 4.   she’s 30 but let’s say she’s 4.  i tell my four-year-old daughter, “stefanie, go clean up your room.”  if thirty minutes later i go in and the room is half picked up and she’s still got things falling all over the side – it’s not immaculate, do i get upset about it?  no.  she’s only a four year old.  but she did the best she could.  she’s not perfect, she did the best she could.  but if i come in a half hour later and she’s still watching tv, then do i get upset?  you bet.  why?  because as a parent, i don’t expect perfection but i do expect obedience, an attitude of “i want to do what’s right.”

so we ask, “am i hiding something from GOD in my relationship? ... am i doing what i know HE wants me to do at this point?”  if I am, then that will hinder my getting answers to my prayers.

just a thought from the front porch…