God's Response : His Best

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It is interesting to look back and see the blessing despite ME. Despite my inconsistencies, despite my lack of faith. A phrase that has rung true through this whole experience is: "Lord I believe, help my unbelief!"  • • • This 30 Days of Answered Prayer has be one of my first explorations into consistent, purposeful, expectant prayer. Here are some of the results of the experiment : Relationships are built on trust and vulnerability. • I do not have what it takes to be consistent. • God shows up every single time. • If you give God a time limit, you can bet he will use every second to teach you all he can. • • • In this 30 Days of Answered Prayer, really a practice in the discipline of prayer, (not as punishment, but in the building up of a characteristic) I was most inconsistent when things were grievous, painful and lacking in joy. A lesson I have been learning is to see my past mistakes as a part of my humanity - not changing how God loves me and relates with me in the past, present and future. Learning this lesson allows me to read the verse above not with a guilty, accusing tone, but one of promise. God is saying that if I stick with him through the hard times, he will come through with "fruit": a positive change as the result of the difficulty. • • • I also get to recognize how God is already making this promise happen. Even when I do not have what it takes, if I make an effort to live the promise he responds with exponentially better results. • • • This is how God always responds to us. He wants to give us his best, not match our efforts or our love or our perfection (all of which are pretty pitiful sometimes).  He only waits for an avenue of relationship to open up, so he can respond with his effort, his love, and his perfection - all as his best gifts.