When We Ask God for the Wrong Kind of Blessings

 Sometimes we feel really disappointed when we ask God for something and it doesn’t happen the way we hoped. It can feel confusing, especially when it’s something we really wanted. There can be many reasons for that, but there’s something important that we really need to think about—what we are actually asking for.

Were we asking because it was really good for us, or just because we really wanted it?Sometimes we pray for things that would just make us happy for the moment. We don’t always think about whether those things will actually help us grow closer to God.And if we’re really honest, sometimes we want the thing we’re asking for more than we want to be close to God. When that happens, our wants might need to take a back seat so we can trust that God knows what He’s doing.

James 4:3 (NLT) says, “And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” This verse means that sometimes when we pray for something, our reasons for wanting it may not match what God wants for us. When that happens, maybe we need to pray a different kind of prayer.

Instead of only asking for the thing we want, we can ask God to help us have a heart that wants the same things He wants for us. For example, let’s say I wanted a new car just so I could show it off to my friends or family and make it seem like I’m better than everyone else. That wouldn’t really be a good reason. It would just be about showing off.

So when we pray and ask God for something, it’s important to check our hearts and make sure we’re not asking for something just for worldly reasons. Sometimes, if it doesn’t seem like God is giving us what we want, it might be a good time to stop and think about why we wanted it in the first place. So maybe the better prayer isn’t always “God, give me this,” but “God, help me want what You want.”

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“When We Ask God for the Wrong Kind of Blessings”, written for aheartforchristdevotions.blogspot.com by Kraiapril©2026. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Hearing from God

 

Hearing from God isn’t always easy. Even as kids or teenagers, we all have moments where we really need His help, but it feels like we can’t hear anything back. 

Sometimes people even walk away from God because they think He isn’t speaking at all. But that is never the case.  James 1:5 (NLT) says, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.” When we ask God for wisdom, we need to ask with faith and listen not just with our ears, but with hearts that are open to Jesus Christ.

The Lord isn’t hiding from us—He’s always speaking to us. The question is, are we slowing down enough to hear Him? Psalm 37:7 (NLT) tells us, “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.” School can get very busy, and when we’re dealing with everyone’s opinions and social media, waiting patiently can seem hard to do. And sometimes, even our own thoughts won’t even slow down. But this verse teaches us something important: hearing God isn’t just about talking to Him — it’s also about slowing down enough to listen. If our minds are racing or we’re constantly comparing ourselves to other people, it’s hard to notice His voice.

Being still doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means choosing to calm your heart. It means taking a breath before reacting and reminding yourself that God is in control. It means trusting that He’s already working behind the scenes, even when you can’t see it yet.

God never forgets about us. He tells us to wait patiently because He is strengthening us on the inside, keeping us steady, and helping us to hear Him clearly. 

So in the end, hearing from God really comes down to two things: having faith and slowing down enough to listen. God isn’t trying to hide from us. He’s a Father who wants to speak to His children. Jesus even said in John 10:27 (NLT), “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” That means God expects us to hear Him. So keep your faith strong, stay patient, and quiet your heart when life feels overwhelming. When you take the time to listen to God, you’ll start noticing that He’s been talking to you all along. 

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Hearing from God”, written for aheartforchristdevotions.blogspot.com by Kraiapril©2026. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Loving Your Enemies

God wants us to love others the way He loves us, and honestly, that’s not always easy. Sometimes we hold on to hurt because it feels safer than letting it go. But Proverbs 24:17–18 (NLT) reminds us, “Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall; don’t be happy when they stumble. For the Lord will be displeased with you…”God isn’t asking us to pretend the hurt didn’t happen—He’s asking us to choose love even when it’s hard.

Jesus Christ teaches us in Luke 6:27–28 (NLT), “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.” This verse shows us that instead of holding grudges or staying angry, Jesus wants us to respond in a completely different way—He wants us to respond with love, the same love that He has for us.

And honestly, even if someone did something so hurtful that you can barely talk about it, God still calls us to forgive. That doesn’t mean forgiveness happens instantly. We’re human, and sometimes it takes time. But we can choose to make an effort, and we can pray and ask God to pull any hate or bitterness out of our hearts.

In conclusion, we should always remember to treat our enemies with compassion and love. When we choose love instead of hate, it helps our own hearts heal from the damage someone may have caused. It also keeps us close to God and protects our relationship with Him. Loving our enemies isn’t easy, but it’s one of the ways we show our Heavenly Father that we want to live the way He teaches us. 

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Loving Your Enemies”, written for aheartforchristdevotions.blogspot.com by Kraiapril©2026. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

People Leaving for Good Reason

 

When someone who really mattered to you leaves your life, it can hurt in ways you didn’t expect. You might feel confused or you might even be wondering what you did wrong. But the truth is, God sees things we can’t see. He sees the bigger picture, and sometimes He lets certain people step away because they were only meant to be in your life for a season. Scripture tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT), “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” That doesn’t mean you stop caring about them — it just means you trust God enough to keep moving forward when He says it’s time.

Sometimes the person you care about is someone you really liked being around — maybe even someone you hoped would stay in your life. But if they’re not walking in the same direction God is calling you toward, it can slowly pull you away from Him without you even noticing. In Amos 3:3 (NLT), the Bible asks a simple question: “Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?” That’s God’s way of reminding us that some relationships can’t go where He’s taking us.

So when you end up in a situation where someone leaves, the best thing you can do is lean on God and trust that He knows what He’s doing. It doesn’t always feel good right away, but God never makes a move that hurts your future. He cares about your heart, and He won’t let anything or anyone hold you back from the good things He planned for you. Psalm 32:8 (NLT) says, “The Lord says, ‘I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.’”That means you can trust Him to lead you, even when things change. 

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“People Leaving for Good Reason”, written for aheartforchristdevotions.blogspot.com by Kraiapril©2026. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Dressing Modestly

Dressing cute and keeping up with the latest trends can be a lot of fun. God isn’t against that—He actually wants us to enjoy the life He gave us! In John 10:10, Jesus says He came so we could have a full, abundant life. We experience that kind of life when we follow Jesus’ example and walk in God’s love every day.

One way we show God’s love and shine as His children is by the way we dress. Modesty matters because we belong to God, and our bodies are His temples. When we choose outfits that honor Him, we’re showing the world that we represent His Kingdom.

1 Timothy 2:9-10 (NLT) says, “And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do.”

 

This verse reminds us that as young women of God, we should choose clothing that doesn’t show too much skin. Instead of trying to get attention with what we wear, God wants our true beauty to come from the good things we do—our kindness, our character, and the way we live for Him.

This doesn’t mean you can’t have your own style or enjoy fashion. It just means we should avoid clothing that shows too much of our bodies or pulls attention away from who we really are in Christ.

In the end, we don’t want to idolize our bodies or let our looks define us. As we grow in Christ, our goal is to let our actions, kindness, and the way we treat others be the most beautiful thing about us. 

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Dressing Modestly”, written for aheartforchristdevotions.blogspot.com by Kraiapril©2026. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

God is a Promise Keeper

 

1 John 2:5 (NLT)
“But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.”

Christians sin, and so does everyone else. This is a fact that comes with life on earth. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God, and He makes it clear in His Word that sin is a choice. If we truly understand the impact it has upon our lives, we would never make the choice to sin. God will always forgive us for our sin when we confess it and ask for His forgiveness, and this speaks to His incredibly amazing grace. 1John 1:6-8(NLT) tells us, “6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.”

God loves us very much, and He desires that we live a life that is free from sin. We can be sure that this is available to us all. We should not follow the world’s standards and way of life. Instead, we can live in such a way that we please God all the time. 1John 5:4(NLT) declares, “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.” Our Heavenly Father made a more than abundant life available through Christ. This abundant reality is possible for us because of the work God finished through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, and we can live powerfully through this victory every moment of each day.

1Corinthians 1:9(NKJV) says, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” A fellowship is a partnership. It is a relationship of two or more individuals that have a shared interest. Our Heavenly Father has called us into the fellowship that He shares with His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ and with His Holy Spirit. When we give our lives to God by accepting and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and by believing that God raised him from the dead, we are saved! The Holy Spirit then recreates our dead spirit, and we become alive to God. 2Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we become a new creation in Christ, and the old sinful things that used to grip us fall away.

God’s Word also teaches us in Ephesians 2:1-5(NLT): “1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)”

The Holy Spirit made us alive in Christ and then made his home inside our living and recreated human spirit. Now we can have fellowship or partnership with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Romans 5:5(NKJV) declares, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” This is an extraordinary blessing! And we should demonstrate our gratitude for it every moment of each day. We should also understand that when we sin against God, our fellowship with Him is broken, and we need to acknowledge our sin and repent from it to restore our fellowship with God.

This should be easy for us to understand. In a marriage, if a spouse cheats on the other spouse, their relationship is injured. Adultery against God is cheating Him out of the honor and reverence He is due, and many of us have done this by continuing to sin against Him. In Ezekiel 43:7(NLT), God told His prophet, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place where I will rest my feet. I will live here forever among the people of Israel. They and their kings will not defile my holy name any longer by their adulterous worship of other gods or by honoring the relics of their kings who have died.” We must understand that when there is broken fellowship, forgiveness from God must be obtained to restore it.

Our Heavenly Father is a Promise Keeper. He is faithful to do what He says. He will supply our needs and send the man that He has ordained to walk with us through life, but we have a responsibility to set the environment of faith for this. We must not continue to sin and take ourselves out of fellowship with God. Acknowledging the error of our ways and seeking His pardon is the practice that honors Him.

1 John 1:9(NLT) tells us, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” Obedience to God and His Word is required to demonstrate our love for Him. Our sin is disobedience, and we must acknowledge it, seek God’s forgiveness, and correct ourselves. Some of us have been carrying the weight of our unrepented sin for a very long time. It’s too heavy to carry into marriage. We must release it by genuinely and sorrowfully seeking God’s forgiveness. When we do, He promises that He will forgive us and our fellowship with Him will be restored. 

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“God is a Promise Keeper”, written for aheartforchristdevotions.blogspot.com by Kraiapril©2026. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Speaking in a Way that Honors God

Cursing has become very normal in our society. You hear it everywhere—on TV, online, and especially at school. People use curse words in almost every sentence, and after a while, it can start to feel like no big deal. Some of us may even catch ourselves doing it and thinking it’s okay. But God actually talks about this in the Bible. In Ephesians 4:29 (NLT), He reminds us, “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.”

 

It can be hard to avoid cursing because you hear it all the time. People do it when they’re mad, joking around, or just trying to fit in. I hear it at school a lot, and sometimes people don’t even think about it. But as followers of the Lord Jesus, we can’t let this be our normal. God really does care about the words we use. In Luke 6:45 (NLT), Jesus said, “What you say flows from what is in your heart.” That means the things we say show what’s going on inside of us. 

 

If our hearts are full of anger or frustration, those feelings can come out in our words. But when we invite Jesus into our hearts, He helps us choose better words. We won’t always get it right, but we can pause, ask God for help, and try again. Even small choices with our words matter to God, and He cares about how we choose to speak.

 

The Bible says, “But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language” (Colossians 3:8, NLT). That lets me know God isn’t trying to shame us—He’s helping us grow. Even small changes in how we talk can make a difference. Let’s remember to ask God to guide our words every day so we can speak in a way that honors Him and lifts others up.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Speaking in a Way that Honors God”, written foraheartforchristdevotions.blogspot.com by Kraiapril©2026. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ our Lord!