Speaking words at God to elevate self is detestable to God. Communicating with God because of our love is His desire.
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Speaking Words at God Rather than Communicating with Him
Speaking words at God to fulfill the obligation to pray is not pleasing to God. He wants our worship, our love and to communicate to Him from our hearts.
Repeating words others have told us to say or repeating after them is not prayer it is meaningless mantra.
Matthew 6:5-15
5 “And when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they will be seen by people. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
6 But as for you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.
8 So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him."
Keep these words of God in mind when you enter a "Pentecostal" gathering where people are mindlessly blabbering gibberish to be seen by those around them while acting proud of themselves for how spiritual they think they are for doing so.
A Root of Bitterness
A root of bitterness builds up in us every time we refuse to confess something that is wrong in us.
We do not become bitter because of someone else's sin against us, they become bitter when they do not confess.
When we are innocent in a matter we desire to make sure we are not at fault, but the one resistant to correction will become bitter from many times resisting correction.
When we are innocent in a matter we have a clean heart that prays for the offender, and removes ourselves until they are repentant' We know that we cannot make someone else repent if they are resistant. We are only responsible for protecting ourselves from becoming like those who are stubborn.
Resuming a relationship without resolving a problem places another block on the wall that prevents reconciliation.
God expects us to confess our sins to be cleansed by Him and reconciled to Him. He also expects us to confess our sins against others to be reconciled to them.
How we handle relationships with one another shows our view of our relationship with God. Those who confess to God will confess to others, but those who will not confess to others will not confess to God.
Some people will say they have confessed to God but have no need to confess to the ones they have harmed. This is wrong because God expressly commands us to reconcile with those we have offended. To confess only to God is partial obedience which is a whole disobedience. To obey God one must do both confession to those we have offended and God!
We must confess to God and then to those we offend. If we do only one of these things we have disobeyed God.
James 5:16 "16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail. "
This passage is speaking of spiritual healing that reconciles relationships.
There are those who use David's prayer that says; "against you alone have I sinned" as an example of only confessing to God, but this is not accurate. When we use scriptures out of context with the rest of the bible we come up with partial truth or half truth.
In many other places in the Bible God commands us to confess to the ones we offend and to God and even do restitution to others. We must read the entire Bible to come to a proper understanding of God's principles.
Forgiveness God's Way
We are to forgive "as the Lord forgives", God forgives those who are repentant, He never forgives those who are not sorry or even think they didn't do anything wrong, and worse the offender keeps on doing the same things.
Relationship reconciliation is two sides to the same coin, there must be a confession of sin and forgiveness for the relationship to be reconciled. There is no reconciliation when there has been no confession of wrong. Saying we forgive does nothing, it merely enables the offender to enlarge his pride solidifying his terrible behavior.
Those who accuse you of being unforgiving when the offender is not sorry, are gaslighting to shape you into their idea of forgiveness by those who do not understand confession and forgiveness God's way.
What forgiveness is not: It is not a feeling, or a desire to make sure we don't become bitter. One does not become bitter because someone else will not repent. Nor do we become bitter because the relationship cannot be reconciled because of unrepentance.
Notice we see much pressure in our culture to forgive the offender but the offender is not pressured to repent, this is backward and ungodly.
Because of this mentality of forgiving without accountability, many people are not properly disciplining and training their children thinking if they are just kind and friendly without correction the child will learn to be kind and friendly. A child without correction will become unruly and selfish and so do adults.
We demonstrate God's response to sin through our handling of it. When we forgive when there is no contrition for sin we are sending the message that the offender will have everything they want without having to be accountable.
1 John 1:9 "9 if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
We are never to treat disrespectfully anyone but we are, to tell the truth, and require accountability from those who are offenders. Those who are not sorry will not change their behavior. There cannot be trust with someone who thinks it is alright to be rude and disrespectful.
We cannot change others, but we can protect ourselves from becoming like those who are disrespectful by avoiding them.
2 Timoithy 3:1-5 "2 Timothy 3:1-5
Difficult Times Will Come
3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."
Take note of verse 5 in this passage; "avoid such people."
God said that "bad company corrupts good character" meaning we will either become accustomed to the bad behavior and begin to emulate it or we will respond in anger.
Evil people cannot be changed or taught by us, they are resistant to any form of correction. God said we are not to "throw our pearls before swine."
One of the reasons the church has become apostate is because there is little correction in the body. Most people remain silent when someone is acting badly instead of correcting and disciplining them to return to the right thinking and right actions.
The day I realized I am not responsible to make anyone understand was the freest day of my life. I no longer attempt to make anyone understand but I do protect myself from toxic people who love their arrogance.
It is impossible to help others return to the right path when they have many other people in the group supporting them on the wrong path.
Seek Christ, be content to be with Him when no one else supports or loves you, because in these last days it will be very difficult to find people who love Christ and desire to obey His Word.
2 Timothy 4:3
"3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;"
That time is now!
Those Who Are Real and Those Who are Pretenders
Malachi 3:17-18 "…17“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. 18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
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