Thursday, August 27, 2020

Gratitude And Obedience


I have had a few weeks of marveling at God's goodness, faithfulness, and above all, hearing and seeing Him acts. You may be wondering how does that happen, well here it goes. My friends and I started our "Friday Prayer Requests" whereby, we would each talk about the areas in our lives that we want to see God work. My first prayer request was for me to be grateful and boy did I go through hell. My second prayer request was for me to forgive and not hold offence, that too didn't go so well. 

What I realized is that, when I asked God to give me something for example, a spirit of gratitude or a spirit of forgiveness, that was when I faced issues that required me to act in those spirits when everything is telling me otherwise. But in the midst of it all, I did take time at night as I prayed before ending my day, and I told God how grateful I am for walking me through whatever I had been facing. 

As I continued praying for other areas of my life, and just thanking God for what I have and asking God to help me surrender in areas where I clearly felt that He was asking me to surrender, I saw His greatness even more. Long story short, I have seen God align things for me so strategically that there is no way on earth I could give credit to anyone but God. Everything is so vivid that it's His hand at work. 

Then I decided to analyse everything that has happened in the past few weeks, and I realize that God does answer prayers, God is faithful, God does make a way where there seems to be no way. Everything God promises does come to pass, but there is catch, God does want us to also do something, it can be to have faith that He will do what we ask of Him, it can be for us to surrender to Him, it can be for us to be obedient to what He is telling us to do. It's a two-way relationship. 

I remember reading something a while back that said, God's answers in various ways, He can say NO -that's not good for you, or NOT YET- it's not time for this yet, or YES - you can have it right now. We like the YES response best because it always happens so quickly. No one likes listening to the "Not yet" and "No" answers. Not yet can mean, continue to have faith, what you are praying for will come in due season. It can also mean, I am waiting for the other person to be obedient so that you will receive what you have been praying for. NO is very clear, no always means DANGER. No is perhaps the best response you can receive from God no matter how painful it can be. Be okay with all the responses God decides to give you. Above all, be obedient in all responses. 


Love,

MamaTembo Safari.