The Importance of Receiving:
Getting our priorities right
Hebrews 12: 1 - 3
"... Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus ..."
Matt 6: 33
"Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
We need to do things in God's strength:
Philippians 4: 13
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
| We need God' strength to: (1) Worship (2) Witness (3) Love - God, others and ourselves (4) Change |
We can't do anything in our own strength.
Matt 11: 28 - 30
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Gal 5: 22 stresses the importance of the fruit of the SPIRIT - not the fruit of our efforts.
Blockages to receiving from God:
(1) Unrepented of sin. Sin is fundamentally rebellion against God and we cannot receive from God while we are rebelling against him.
(2) Pride - being too proud to accept that we can't live the Christian life in our own strength. We need to submit fully to God and admit that we need his grace and love to sustain our daily Christian walk.
(3) Mistrust/fear We need to remember what we can learn about God's character in Matt 7: 9 - 11. God would not give us a stone when we asked for bread. God longs to give us good things and has our best interests close to his heart.
(4) Lack of understanding. We can be unclear about what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and the blessings that God wants to give us, perhaps because we don't read it enough for ourselves, and so we get lulled into a cynical, doubting worldy attitude.
(5) Asking with the wrong motives.
James 4: 3
"When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
(6) We don't ask. Quite often we simply do not come before God with our needs and desires and ask for his blessing and provision.
Luke 11: 9 - 13
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be gievn to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you..."
John 16: 24
"Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete."
How to receive:
(1) Repent of sin - submit totally to God. Hand all rebellious ways over to him and allow yourself to receive his forgiveness. Know that Christ's sacrifice on the cross is enough to pay for all our past, present and future sin.
(2) Be open minded - trust in God and be obedient to him
Psalm 62: 8 "Trust in him at all times"
Rom 12: 2 "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind"
1 Thess 5: 19 "Do not put out the Spirit's fire"
Eph 5: 18 "Be filled with the Spirit"
(3) Be open hearted and honest
Psalm 51: 17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."
Psalm 62: 8 "Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."
Eze 36: 26 "I will give you a new heart and I will put in you a new spirit."
We can only do these things if we spend time with God - spend time searching his word and spend time in prayer and meditation. It is not enough to barge into God' presence, ask for something (however honourable) and then rush off again. The best thing we can do is to spend time just being with God.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
First published in Great Britain 1979. Used by permission of Hodder and Stoughton, a member of Hodder Headline Group. All rights reserved.
