Experiencing God's Presence #196

Experiencing God's Presence #196

Because of your faith, it will happen.

Matthew 9:29

The things that Job feared came upon him. The things believed by the blind men (mentioned in Matthew 9:27-30) came upon them. Though the correlation is never exact and there may be lots of variables involved, there seems to be a general trend: God honors what we believe. If we feed our minds with fears, those fears can torment us and open the door to influences we don’t want. If we feed our hearts with faith, our faith is fulfilled.

That means that if we ask God for a deeper relationship with Him, a heightened sense of His Presence, supernatural experiences with His power, and answers to the prayers He has put within our hearts and we still think and act as if those things will never happen, they may very well not. But if we ask those things believing that God will accomplish them, He responds to our faith. To put it another way, God’s Presence seems to attend to those attitudes and actions that place full confidence in Him. He doesn’t seem to respond to those attitudes and actions that don’t.

Cast your faith unreservedly on God—on the promises He has made, on the calling He has put in your heart, on the Spirit who is working within you to shape your desires and guide your actions for His good pleasure. When you believe, you are inviting Him into your circumstances. When you don’t, you are shutting the door to Him. As someone who trusts Him to inhabit you, you can’t afford to vacillate between fear and faith, having a divided heart that doesn’t know what to expect from Him. Expect Him to do what He said. Trust His promise to be with you and work on your behalf. He responds “because of your faith.”

Jesus, You love faith because it honors You for who You are. I want my attitudes to reflect You well. Help me. Impart Your faith to me. Let me be a believer who actually believes.