Secret Place

 Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

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Thank you. Janice Austin Bates

When you pray do you ever feel like your prayer is hitting a brick wall? Do you feel like God isn’t even hearing you? Maybe that is your imagination, or maybe it is really true.

We know from the Bible that some people put on an act of being holy and serving God, but it is mainly for show. They put ashes on their head and tear their clothes trying to look sincere, but their prayers never go higher than their ceiling.

If you feel empty when you pray, perhaps God is trying to show you something. You might be praying very hard for God to draw you closer to Him, and yet you feel dead inside.

Maybe the problem is something else entirely.

Do you have something in your heart that you haven’t given up? It could be an action, an object, or even a person. If there is an obstacle in you way that you can’t quite let go of it can prevent God from being able to draw you closer. It can cause a dead spot in your soul. You might not even recognize it for what it is, but it is there just the same.

If there is an action you like to do even though you know it is wrong, you might be telling yourself it isn’t hurting anyone. After all, what people don’t know won’t hurt them. Right? Okay, maybe that is true, but who does know? Well, you know. And then of course, God knows too. If you are hiding something, you might fool yourself, but you will never fool God.

God had to throw Lucifer and a third of the angels out of heaven. Why did He have to throw them out? Not to punish them, but because He is so holy that He cannot allow sin to be in His presence. They had brought sin into their hearts, and into heaven. God could no longer commune with them. The link between God and them had been blocked. Heaven could never be pure as long as they were there.

Because they had been perfect and chose to go into sin, there was no forgiveness for them. They walked into it willingly, with their eyes open.

Thank God there is forgiveness for us. Because we are born into sin God knows we are tempted and we cannot always resist. But, even though God is willing to, and wants to forgive us, in order for that to happen we must give it to Him. He will not take away our sin by force. We have to give it up.

If you are praying about one thing, but refusing to give up something else, the sin you are not willing to give up can stop your prayers at the ceiling, just like it feels.

If we are unwilling to give up a sin, even though it might feel trivial to us, it can sabotage our entire prayer life. Even if no one else knows about our sin, and it feels harmless, sin is sin and there is no such thing as harmless sin.

If you feel a dryness you can’t get past, perhaps you need to examine your heart. Are you hiding something because you can’t quite let it go? As long as you hold onto it you are putting your entire eternity at risk. Is it worth it? Of course not. So what do you do about it?

You have to make up your mind to let it go. Then you have to confess it to God and ask for forgiveness. You might feel the burden of sin lift immediately or you might have to pray for quite a while to truly let it go.

Don’t give up until you know it is right between you and God. Even if it isn’t something that will send you to hell, it can still be an attitude in your heart that will prevent the closeness that God wants to have with you.

I am giving you a link to a song on Youtube that might explain it better than I can. It is beautiful and hopefully the words will move you.

Think about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI33izOgRdY