I got sick again for a whole week last week. I had fever while in a radio interview last Monday and that started it. It was terrible. I have had the flu on my birthday (May 6) and it had been also for a week. And I had pointedly asked God not to let any ailment fall on my family. And then I see folks who smoke and never pray for good health don't get the flu. What kind of life is this?
But I keep on praying anyway, still hoping the best from God, still hoping for his mercy. And if you think such perseverance gets you rewarded, it seems not. Well, I hope so. But there's written somewhere that if we did what we were told to do, we shouldn't expect to get rewarded. We did only what we should. It's among the parables of Jesus.
But I do see folks who did something that should be done and got rewarded for it. Drives me crazy.
And why is it that I pray for every need and not get them all and those who don't do get them? I pray that God spare my family from ailments and I and our boys all got the flu. Thank God my wife did not. But that wasn't my prayer. My prayer was to spare my family. And yet those drunks who get drunk each night at our street corner do not get sick and they never prayed for it. And I got the flu and suffered for it for a week!
Should I continue to pray when anyway, pray or not, what happens just happens? God doesn't seem to pay attention. To think that he said if anyone asks anything in my name I shall do it?
But inspite all these, I still believe with all my heart everything God says in the bible, even if doing so doesn't seem to get me any big reward. A lot of people act on God's Word to get some reward out of it. I was like that before. You give your tithes because God's gonna open the flood gates of heaven if you do. But today, I just believe and obey, reward or no reward. I just shrug my shoulders when others get rewarded and I seem not to. They prosper and I don't.
The only thing that irritates me is when they brag about how better their faith is, as evidenced by the rewards they get, and you don't get any because your faith is inferior to theirs. They insist on that to your face. And also insist that God's favor on your life is evidenced by the material blessings you get.
You insist that it's spiritual blessings that matter, not material ones. They insist that it's money, and then you get sick again and they think they win and are proven right because of it.
