brevity of life

I had been very bothered by a lack of tact in a friend, and it's been on my mind to bring it up to her. Well, I had tried to tell her about how curt she can be sometimes and how that attitude might be worth reflecting but I guess the message never got home.
So over the past few days, I got increasingly upset as I felt it was eating away at our friendship. Since she was a close friend, it really hurt me deep inside..

I prayed to God last night and lifted my cares to Him. As I stared at my swimming pool below, it dawned upon me that I was going to be moving soon and I will no longer enjoy that tranquil view of the pool in 2 months' time - so I really ought to treasure what I have now and to make the most of it. God then reminded me to say that a wise man takes into account the brevity of life. He added in Ecclesiastes 7:21-24

21 Also do not take to heart everything people say,
Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
22 For many times, also, your own heart has known
That even you have cursed others.
23 All this I have proved by wisdom.
I said, “I will be wise”;
But it was far from me.
24 As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep,
Who can find it out?

Upon hearing that, I felt a load taken off me. Truly, I need not be bothered by these little things in life for such is the brevity of life..

The Joy of the Lord is my Strength :)

You rescued me Lord..

God gives hope
God revives dreams
Nothing will ever be too late
if you see from God's perspective

Standing upon the plane
of past future present
I can only see where my eyes can take me
But my Lord overlooks all things
And He shall direct my path
When I acknowledge Him in all my ways


God You are bringing me on the road to recovery
I know and I know and I can sense it in my heart
You care too much to let me stay this way
You care too much to let me stay the same

Lord I give You my world
Lord I give You my life
Your love is bringing me to greater heights
I need not go back to the same place again

I want to know You God

I want to know You God
You are a magnificent God
Above and beyond all that I know
It is You who gives all wisdom

God I can ask of You for this and that
But who would know better than God Himself
..He who holds the perfect plan:
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,
says the LORD,
thoughts of peace and not of evil,
to give you a future and a hope."

Your word is true, and You are faithful
Help me grow in greater understanding of You
I do not know a lot, and
I always grapple with the truth
Your ways are higher than my ways,
Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts
Lead me by the Spirit I pray,
Not my way but by Your way.
Amen.

reach out with love

"Are you persuaded you see more clearly than me?...Then treat me as you would desire to be treated yourself upon a change of circumstances. Point me out a better way than I have yet known. Show me it is so by plain proof of scripture. And if I linger in the path I have been accustomed to tread and am therefore unwilling to leave it, labor with me a little; take me by the hand and lead me as I am able to bear."

-John Wesley


..hearing this, it dawned upon me how impatient I had been. I had not yet learnt the art of empathy, and truly this is something I need to master. Labor a little, and to convince others as I would so wish to be convinced myself, in reaching out :)

I do not speak for myself

I recently met with a crisis.
And my confidence waned.
I told my friend that I was no longer confident of what I know.
Her grandma just passed away.. and even in circumstances like this, when she needs comfort and encouragement, I felt inferior even to dispense advice for I felt I did not have anything to offer.
But she spoke to me to say that all these inferior sentiments are from the devil, and that I do not speak out of my own knowledge but upon God's promises. For who can be sure of what they know.. But if I lean on what He says, I can still have conviction and confidence.

I thank God that when all else fails,
He never fails.
His mercy endures forever..

The scriptures declare that His mercy endures forever (Ps. 136), He retains not His anger forever, but delights in mercy (Mic. 7:18), His tender mercies are above all His works (including His judgments) (Ps. 145:9), His love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8), and above all, He is love (1 Jn. 4:8)!

Thank God for Your grace.
Amen.

How to self-discipline aka crucify your flesh

First of all, I want to thank God for His presence.
If anything, what makes a Christian walk so special is the experiential knowledge of God. Walking with Him..Feeling Him close.. His presence so tangible, it brings you to tears..

One of the biggest obstacle I have in my spiritual walk is my distractive mind. I am generally very restless and I have a very short attention span, which disrupts my quiet time greatly. What is a Christian walk if I can't enjoy quality fellowship with God?

The Bible says, "Seek the LORD while He may be found.."(Isa 55) Quite obviously, it means we are to SEEK Him, and how can we find Him if we can't remain still to hear from Him? “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) So last night, I tried again.. to hear God by 'turning down the volume of the world'. I tried to focus and here's what I learnt...

The first step to discipline is to become very aware of your thoughts and to capture every single disruptive thought, and to bring it into captive; subdue it with the authority of Christ; by bringing it into the 'court' of Christ.
Keep pressing on and focusing on God as you pray and you can enter into His presence when you persevere. Run, run,run with God and persevere.
As I do so, I feel as if I am running from the outer court, into the inner court, and moving into the Holy of Holies..

Tonight's one of the few times where I break down and experience Him in my quiet time. I can feel His embrace and His presence is so real. I actually feel relaxed as I remain still and flow in the spirit, slowly praying for things/ people that come into my mind.. And when I pray that way, there is greater faith and conviction than just 'having-to-pray'.


God hears and God feels.

We need to be serious with God.

No wonder the verse kept ringing in my head the whole night.. "Seek the LORD while He may be found".

It's all about seeking - Knock and doors shall be opened to you.
Amen!

How to hear from God in daily life

I wanna thank God for answering my prayers..faithfully, without fail.

..I asked God, and I prayed. I said God I want to train myself up in godliness. Cos I really feel that I need to whip my spiritual life back into shape. I haven't been fellowshipping with God very much and that's bad. "So how do I become so sensitive to You such that I can hear Your voice even in my daily activities - I want to walk in natural and spiritual wisdom," I asked God.

So I went to His word and started reading, and God says, "When trying to decide which option is best or what path to choose, ask yourself, 'which way would bring God glory?' If God would be honored in any decision, then choose the one you like most. God hasn't put you on earth to make you miserable. A lot of Christians mistakenly think that the most miserable option must surely be God's will. That's not true. God has given you preferences and passions on purpose. He knows you will accomplish more for the kingdom when you are working in an area you love. If bringing God glory is your first priority, then you will always make wise decisions. They may sometimes be tough, but in the end, you will have made the right choice."

Ahh.. Right!
Hearing from God; Giving Him glory.. Making Him the first priority..
That's wisdom in decision-making!

God loves speaking to me through His word. I also must seek Him more in His word.. AND pay attention! :D
Amen!

Our spiritual metabolism

I recently had a revelation about training ourselves in godliness..

"The apostle Paul warned Timothy, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old
wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.” 1 Tim 4: 7.
In an age when everything is instant, we expect transformations to happen quickly but
there is no such thing as instant godliness. The apostle wrote, ‘Train yourself to be
godly’. He exhorted Timothy to be disciplined in order to attain godliness."

Here, we can see that godliness isn't something that comes naturally, or without any hard work, but something that requires exercise; training; discipline.

The Bible constantly urges us to be holy, to live lives that please God, hence to do that, we need to discipline our flesh and here's what I learnt:

My boyfriend explained to me about our metabolic system.
He says that to get our metabolic system going, we need to be constantly pushing it beyond its limits. Like for example, when we run, we need to push it beyond what we can bear, so that when we stop, the body is still in gear; the metabolic rate is still in motion. And as for our daily lives, even when we are doing mundane things like taking the lift, we can lift our bags to work our arms, and such little exercises keep our body going. This is so that even when we are not doing anything, our body's metabolism goes into auto-pilot, and is always in gear.
I see it as the same way as our spirituality.
In training ourselves up in godliness, we need to constantly crucify our flesh, such that on its own, we are always in tuned with the Spirit. Like, for example in little ways like praying.. Whenever we don't feel like praying when we should, we should crucify the flesh and push it a little such that even when at rest, the body (us) is always in the Spirit zone.

..And now, time for a little pushing ;)

Revelation about love

I had a revelation about love..

The bible says, Love bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7);
To bear all things evil, and is not overcome. This is the idea of bear. Love bears up against the tide of evil, as the rock against the waves. Believes all things, is not distrustful and suspicious; Hopes all things, is hopeful instead of despondent and hopes for the best. How hard for the loving mother to give up on her recreant son! Endures all things; To endures patiently persecution and suffering. And here, the cardinal quality of fortitude, hardihood and unyielding persistence is meant.

Love is not on the basis of how the person is to you. It is to love irregardless. That loving someone is not on the basis of how well he treats you, or if he has a mood swing you love him less. That is not love. But the real kind of love is one that is borne purely inward (not out of an outward reciprocration), regardless of how the person treats you. And when you love that way, nothing the person do can affect your love for him. And even when the other party hurts you or upsets you, or even if it seems like the other party does not care, one can continue to love and give. For that kind of love is not circumstance nor person-driven.
And there can be greater joy in loving this way; to love irregardless. For half a heart is not a whole. To love wholly, is to give it your all. The same way God loves us.

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

too long..

It's been too long since I last wrote in my good news journal..
Did God not bless me? Did He not speak to me? Of course not! He never stopped speaking; never stopped blessing. He is faithful. Always.
I was reading today's Daily Bread (February 6, 2007) on Spiritual Passion:

I have this against you, that you have left your first love. —Revelation 2:4

"Why does spiritual passion fade so easily? When we first experience God’s love, we spend hours thinking about Him, studying His Word, and telling others how much He means to us. Then it happens. Our busy schedules slowly dampen our passion. Our longing for Jesus and our study of His character become an occasional glance. Surely the object of our affection hasn’t changed!

The church at Ephesus wrestled with maintaining its spiritual passion. Jesus, through John, wanted to help them restore and maintain their love and zeal for Him. Although He commended this church for their work, Jesus saw that they had abandoned their first love—Him (Rev. 2:4).

The Ephesians had lost their spiritual passion for Jesus. It had become a cold and mechanical orthodoxy. I wonder if they had allowed the stealthy culprit of religion and busyness to enter their hearts. Whatever it was, something had stolen the affection they had once reserved for the Lord.

Have you allowed something to steal your passion? If so, it can be restored and maintained when you consistently remember His amazing love demonstrated at Calvary. Repent of your sinful, unloving attitudes, and out of love for Jesus repeat your "first works" (v.5). —Marvin Williams

What once was filled with wonder
Lies cold within my heart;
Return, O Lord, that wonder,
And may it not depart. —Sper

Devotion to Jesus is the key to spiritual passion."


... and so I decided to continue from where I left off..
Hence my first entry for the year :)

No matter what happens, we will never cancel out God's love for us.
The bible says, Draw close to God and He will draw close to you (James 4:8) and it cannot be more true than that. Which is why, no matter how spiritually low or dry you feel, never stop seeking Him. When troubles come, run TO Him, not away from Him. Even when you feel guilty, ashamed or even embarrassed, go TO your Father. When we take one step towards God, He will take a thousand steps towards us. Don't entertain thoughts of condemn and escape from Him. Should you feel low, my advice is to squeeze out any ounce of energy to seek after Him, and you will be glad you did so, for you will be rewarded. I have been, that's why I can testify to that.

He never fails.
He is faithful, and His mercy endures forever.