June 5, 2024

Sometimes you can pray so long for a breakthrough that it seems like God isn’t hearing you. Do you recognize this? You can become frustrated because there seems to be no end to the situation you find yourself in. So I was in such a situation and eventually discovered that I was the problem. Ai! For a very long time, I was praying about a difficult conflict I was in with another person, and it just didn’t seem to end. I prayed, and I prayed, asking God over and over to move that person (in the right direction for my benefit, of course, how selfish) or to make them less stubborn, but absolutely nothing happened! I really didn’t understood it, and God only gave me cryptic descriptions that I could interpret so broadly that I didn’t get much further with them, such as ‘be patient’. Well, you can elaborate on that in many different ways. But it didn’t get more specific than that. Months and months went by and nothing changed, and the person turned out to be annoyingly stubborn to me and wouldn’t move. Very annoying! Until I decided to fast. Not even for that reason, but because I wanted to give the beginning of the new year to God, I decided to fast my first twenty one days of 2024. And let me tell you, I’ve tried fasting before but never lasted longer than a few days, where it was nothing more than starvation, headaches and irritability. I didn’t experience all those beautiful stories of people who had a fantastic time with God during their fast; to me, God seemed miles away. Anyway, you can read about that process in my blog “My struggle of fasting and praying”, from a few weeks ago. This time, I had a wonderful time with God, wonderful breakthroughs and insights in all kinds of areas, and then suddenly it happened! On this issue, God suddenly taught me something that made me think to myself, “Mmm, I didn’t see that coming.” All those months that I had prayed, begged, irritated, broken everything in Jesus Name (because of course the enemy was also blamed for the fact that nothing happened) and waited without results, and then God taught me that there was still a part of my heart where a wrong attitude was hidden. It was hidden so far away that I myself didn’t even know it. Was it bothering me?? “I don’t think so. Huh, oh wait…………” /*! elementor – v3.21.0 – 26-05-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Wake-up call Well, that hit hard! Of course, I had to repent of that and express to God that it indeed still needed to be cleaned up, and I asked Him for His help. Immediately that afternoon, I had a revelation about this issue, and God told me; “Now that this has been exposed, you can take the next step.” While all along I thought the person had to move, it was accualy ME who had to move, but first something had to be cleared up, and then I could take that step. If I had not freed my heart first, I would have taken steps with the wrong attitude. And because I was the one who took a step instead of the person, God got the glory because this person certainly didn’t expect this decision on my part, LOL. Then suddenly, I thought, Of course! God is going to work with ME! He helps us to change more and more into His image; we can pray and ask Him all kinds of things about other people, and of course nothing is impossible for God, but first, He goes to work with us! How could I have missed that all those months? I really felt like a donkey for a moment. But hey, that’s why I’m human, and God is God. Pray like David When you find yourself in a situation where it seems like nothing will ever change, I want to challenge you to ask God to examine your heart. As David prayed,  “search me, Lord, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23).  There may be obstacles in our own hearts that can create blocks to receiving our blessings. Be prepared to receive an answer that may hurt for a while, but be open to learning and growing because eventually He will show you exactly what is hindering your growth in Him. By dealing with it and cleaning it up, you will be able to move forward again, together with Him. He can then take you to your next step. From glory to glory!  (2 Cor. 3:17-18)