Missing by Inches

We are looking today at what I consider one of the greatest truths we can discover about receiving from God: “God does not just answer prayer—He answers you.”

The Almighty does not just listen to the words we weave into the air when we pray; He listens also to the attitude of our hearts. If the two are not properly correlated, then we miss out on many of God’s blessings. And this missing out is not because God is stingy about the way He dispenses His blessings, but because we short-circuit our own spiritual system and become imperfect receivers. To put it another way: our failure to receive isn’t due to the fact that God is not good at giving, but because we are not good at receiving. The fault is always in us, never in Him.

Are you a fully integrated person? When you present your requests to God, are your heart and mind as one? Is what you ask with your lips fully supported by what you are saying in your heart? If not, then when you attempt to climb higher with God, you will not have the precise coordination you need in order to scale the precipitous heights. The awesome fact that has to be faced by all those who want to climb the mountains of God is this—it is possible to miss your step on those steep slopes not by feet, but merely by inches. And it is in those seemingly trivial inches that our spiritual direction is often determined.

Further Study

Jl 2:1-13; Dt 6:5; Ps 119:2

What was God’s message through Joel?

When are we blessed?