November 5, 2023 - INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE HEART

By Ron Joshua Javier

IFH: November 5, 2023

I just want to share my Forgiving Challenge testimony (Week 2: SIN-Day 11: Killing Spiders & The Lamb) and how it moved me. So this week was a little harder for me because I was embarking on a new journey in my career. There is a story in the chapter about a pastor who held 3-day revival meetings in Panama. A woman approached the pastor and asked him to remove the cobwebs in her life. So the pastor prayed for her. This woman approached the pastor a second and third time with the same prayer request. On the third day while the pastor was praying, he stopped mid-sentence and said "Father, we do not ask you tonight to clean the cobwebs from this [woman’s] life. In fact, Lord, keep them there for now. But tonight, we ask for something greater. Tonight, we ask that you kill the spider in her life. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen."

In the midst of my worries and stress, I was reflecting "What is the spider in my life and would God really help me kill the spider?" I've been praying to take away my stress, but it is still there. I've prayed to take away my sin, but the desire to sin does not go away. I prayed to take away the problem that I'm facing, but God didn't take it away. And finally God revealed to me through prayer and reflection, that “my spider” is the high expectation that I put on myself to be successful. Occasionally you would hear about how your friends are doing and then you see yourself as a failure. As a man, we like to talk about our status, and how much money we make. But the way I measure my success as to my status, fame, and money changed. When I sought God, He removed those expectations and reminded me of who I am. "I am a child of God" John 1:12, "Heir of the kingdom" James 2:5. This is the truth and our firm foundation. Though our feelings or the world will say otherwise we can hold firm to the Truth of God. Our relationship with God is something that never fails.

We ought not to be complacent–our calling and purpose are harder but greater. In the Forgiving Challenge the sin of omission was also expounded. God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, care for the widow and orphan, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, pray for those who mistreat you, go and make disciples.

Sometimes we will be misunderstood, persecuted, and it will require us to carry our cross. But at the end of the day though we fail, or make mistakes we can rest on the thought that God still loves us and we are still the children of God.