God is always with us

I wrote this today in response to a friend who is sure God is ignoring her and holding her past against her. I think it's easy to feel that way sometimes because God doesn't always answer the way we want him to. We need to be thankful that He watches out for us and sometimes says "no" to our prayers because He knows that what we want at the time is not the best thing for us.

God is not ignoring you and He is not holding your past against you. Absolutely nothing in this world can separate us from the love of God. You are His child and He loved you before you were ever born. There are two things that we must do – confess that Jesus is His only son who came down from heaven and suffered on the cross to take the punishment for our sins and confess our sins. He does not hold your past against you as long as you acknowledge the mistakes you made and truly seek his forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 says that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” The Message says it this way – “…if we admit our sins – make a clean breast of them – He won’t let us down; He’ll be true to Himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.”

Sometimes the answer to our prayer may be "no" or "not now" because that is what is best for us. Sometimes the answers to our prayers are so subtle that if we don’t look for them, we miss them. They may be answered differently from what we expected. Sometimes we are given a burden that we don’t know how we can handle it but with His help we can. I believe that we can choose as Paul did to “learn to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether being in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. (Philippians 3:11b -13)

God is full of grace. He doesn’t withhold things that are good for us. He will show us the way and provide for our needs. We have to trust him when the fulfillment of our needs and prayers aren’t the way we imagined them to be. He always does what is right, in order to fulfill His purpose and desires. My security comes from His absolute sovereignty. I really believe that sometimes we have to go through those valleys in order to learn the lessons we need to live on the mountain top.