09/26/2023
Do you have a gift to offer God, but you just can't find the right moment to give it to Him? Are you standing before the altar with doubt in your mind wondering if He will receive your offering? Is your spirit unsettled and in a state that keeps you at arm's distance from God's will in some matter? In moments like this there is something not right... there is emptiness of spirit... listen as the Holy Spirit directs you in clearing away the obstruction.
“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
Matthew 5:23-24 ESV
I have experienced times when I have been in prayer, and as I spoke I knew that I was speaking to myself alone. There was an emptiness in me, and it was like a deep pit that swallowed every word that left my mouth. My spirit was lost, flat, and without the uplifting presence that God brings to it. I was separated from God by something in my life that needed to be corrected... a roadblock that had to be removed. Have you ever felt that way? Are you feeling it now?
Listen intently to the Holy Spirit, He will guide you to the thing that troubles your spirit and prevents you from praying with a pure heart. It might be an argument you have had with your spouse, or someone else. It might be that you took advantage of someone in a business dealing that, although it was above board, just wasn't the loving thing a Christian should do... or perhaps it is something left undone, like giving a meal to an indigent person God placed in your path, yet who you walked right by. Whatever the cause... address it, and bridge the chasm that is swallowing your spiritual wellbeing into darkness.
I read an analysis of this inability to offer our gift of prayer, or some other spiritual gift to God, which was written by Oswald Chambers. He broke down this inability to freely converse or exchange in spiritual ways with God and detailed out the steps to resolve it. Let's listen to his analysis...
"The process is clearly marked. First, the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden checking by the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit, and the stoppage at the point of conviction, then the way of obedience to the Word of God, constructing an unblameable attitude of mind and temper to the one with whom you have been in the wrong, then the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God." - Oswald Chambers
In modern language, we have the desire to offer ourselves to God, but the Holy Spirit stops us in our tracks, and asks us to repair a wrong in our spiritual walk, then once that wrong is repaired we are restored and able to give ourselves freely in prayer, or other way, to God.
If you are having trouble today in prayer, or you just have an emptiness of spirit that is preventing you from experiencing a full and blessed communion with God, then take an honest look at yourself through the eyes of Jesus and diagnose the illness within you. Then, once identified, remove that tumorous blockage with a steady hand and the sharp scalpel of God’s Word. Once you have been returned to His will through action, contrition, and forgiveness, then offer yourself without obstruction to the waiting arms of the Father.
“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”
Acts 3:19-21 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for our times of glorious communion and togetherness. I pray that when I stumble that you will continue to reveal my shortcomings and allow me to repair them; thus restoring myself to you in fullness of spirit. Holy Father there is nothing of greater importance to me than to be in your loving presence, and no task more urgent than to restore myself to your good graces when I have strayed and feel alone. Thank you Lord Jesus for your teaching and the revelation of the fulfilled Word of God. Thank you for your sacrifice that provides for my redemption and forgiveness. Stand by me always, my Blessed Savior, and lead me as I walk this way towards a full and perfect relationship with our Heavenly Father. I praise you Father and from my spirit and soul I sing out to you "Holy, Holy, Holy, art thou!"
Rich Forbes