Day 27 - Prayer Journal: Fighting Temptation

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished brings forth death." - James 1:14-15

I have really been struggling with getting the blog done. I think it has something to do with the fact that we are nearly at the end of our 30 days of prayer, and the enemy knows God has something grand in store for us. Many of you have shared how difficult is has been to continue, especially in these last few days. All I can say is that we must persevere and fight to see this thing through. I don't know the complete work of God, or how He will choose to use this experience to bear fruit in our lives, but I know that God is faithful and sees beyond where we are right now and into our eternity.

For the past week, I have been throwing my own personal pity party, complete with invitations, party hats, and streamers. I have been complaining how life is so unfair, questioning God as to why is He allowing me to suffer, and pondering going ahead and making my own Ishmael since God's promise of Isaac is taking soooo long. It has been a daily battle, where my saved self is literally arguing with my flesh. My flesh is screaming for instant gratification, lying to me by saying I deserve a breakthrough, accusing God for being unfair for allowing people I know who don't serve Him to have their heart desires, while I must wait! The devil is busy, but he is still a liar. Talk about having to cast down my imagination! It is a constant battle, and I was starting to lose. I would pray, and five minutes later the enemy was encouraging me to take matters into my own hands and bring about a change in my life.

Yesterday, a darling heart sister, called me and shared how a spiritual work I had planted in the lives of several ladies have been changed. It was just the dose of reality I needed. I began to thank God for revealing to me how much my consecrated life is important to kingdom building. If I choose to quit waiting on God and make my own way, I will have a few moments of satisfaction but I will lose my effectiveness in being a Christian. The only power my life has right now is in the fact that I walk the talk completely without wavering. If I give in to disobedience, I won't be able to touch lives the way Christ wants me to and I will not reap the blessings of God the way that He has planned.

I began to ask God why was I struggling so with my own will and desires. God showed me that it began over two weeks ago when I began to think about the promise and the desires of my heart rather than to the one who Promises and the lover of my soul. Once I began to focus on what I wanted, my deceitful heart began to suggest to my mind that it should be my "season" of harvest. The more I played with the thought of what I want that God has promised to give me in His set time, the more I began to convince myself that I deserved the promise, and that I had worked hard at being saved so I probably deserved what God says he will give me anyway. So why not now, why should I have to wait, why wait when maybe God wants me to step out in faith. Do you see where this lie is headed? We begin to justify walking in disobedience by thinking God wants us to have what He said so we might need to get it ourselves, which we believe is a step of faith. I am sure that is what Abraham and Sarah said when they stepped out in faith and helped God give them their promise, except that wasn't God's plan and they ended up having to live with a false promise, Ishmael. They moved outside of God's plan and will because they felt He was taking too long. or Maybe they thought God had forgotten them. It could be that they thought they had to do something to receive what God said He was giving them.

I am sorry, refusing to wait on God to do the work in His way and in His time is too expensive for me. I really want my Isaac, but I refuse to live with a false promise that I bring upon myself. So I will continue to fight temptation, and wait on God until He brings me the promise! God is faithful.

Focus
- Ask God to show you areas where you are tempted to do things your own way.
- Pray that God gives you the strength to persevere in waiting on Him.
- Thank God for the promise that He will bring in His time and His way.
- Ask God to show you where your eyes got off track and looked away from Him, and repent.
- Praise God for His faithfulness.
- Ask God to show you where your spiritual life affects others.
- Pray for the people who don't know God but seem to be "blessed". (If they don't know God, they aren't blessed.)
- Seek God for spiritual eyes to see your situation the way He sees it.

Remember
God is faithful to His word. He will do what He said. Temptation usually comes just before the manifestation of the promise to abort your faith and obedience and to push you back to the starting line. It may seem hard, but that is a lie. God has not forgotten you, nor will He fail you. We must wait on God no matter what things look like. He sees what we cannot see. Don't become independent from God, that is what happened to Adam and Eve and they were denied their promise of the garden. It is also what happened to Abraham and Sarah, and their descendants are still at each other's throats in the Middle East. Disobedience and impatience are expensive. Wait again I say on the Lord!
Be Blessed!