He Will Do It

"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. " 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Sometimes I wonder if we struggle with things simply because we don't ask God to take it away. When I read verses like this in the Bible, which say that God is faithful and will do what is being asked, it tells me very simply that if I pray, God hears and answers. God is faithful to His children and wants to answer their prayers...

Yet sometimes we struggle with something. I think of all those years that we struggled with finances, we were such spenders. Andy would bring home a paycheck that we needed to pay bills, only we decided not to pay bills and instead take the kids out for dinner, and stop for a new toy or something. Then, of course, our bills got behind and it was a horrible cycle that we replayed over and over. Oh, we would pray about the situation, but it was more prayers of this nature "Dear God, we need money." Instead, perhaps we should have been praying "Dear God, please help us with our horrible spending habits. Help us manage our money in a Godly way." See the difference? While we knew we were doing wrong, it didn't occur to us to pray about the bad behavior, just what we thought would fix the problems short term.

Thank God we did see the error of those prayers and gave our checkbook to God. We're still not perfect, but we certainly aren't spendy anymore. Not even a little! I honestly cannot think of the last time we were frivolous with God's provision. We asked, and God delivered. He took that desire right out of us, and we're changed people because of it. In fact, I wonder sometimes if I'm almost getting a little crazy about it. I've been eyeing up the clothes that are starting to look a little snug on Zander and I've been wondering if I could take a sewing machine to fabric and combine two sets of ill fitting pajamas to make one nicely-fitting set. Really? Who does that? Lol.

God is faithful!

So what am I not asking God for this time around? I've been guilty of not asking for motivation and energy to be honest. I feel like I've been sleeping a little later every day, and then when I wake up I just feel sluggish. Starting school with the kids is, well, lets just say that we're taking next week off and it's very well-timed for me. As I look around my house and see all the things I could be doing during the day, it baffles me why I justify laziness. We finish up school for the day and I take a break by sitting at the computer for a while or pulling out a book. Instead of tackling the mountain of dishes or cleaning the bathroom. Yet in the back of mind, I confess that I know that if I ask God for motivation and energy, that He will give it to me. But I don't ask.

I imagine it's the same for someone with addictive behavior. Regardless what the problem is, there is some part of them that enjoys the behavior. Just think about what talking to God could do... just think about asking God to take the bad behavior away, instead of just taking away the temptation.

This is definitely something to think about this morning. Why do we avoid asking God for what we truly need? I think it's because we know that He will answer us faithfully.