Sunday, April 08, 2007
More backdated stuff
dated feb 21
found myself asking God, so what is peace and what is joy. God gave me very simple answers. Joy is satisfaction. Peace is security. Perhaps the bigger question would be to elaborate on these. Well, since I am on it, might as well do a quick one.
Joy is satisfaction, satisfaction in Christ. How to be satisfied in Christ? One may ask. I believe the first would be to remember how unworthy we are in the first place, how what we are currently given is by provision of grace and it is really more than we deserve. In Scriptures it is said that all have sinned and fallen short of His glory and if we would to really examine our lives in accordance to the 10 commandments, we really do not make the mark. But Jesus came along and redeemed us all, by His death, instead of physically forcing outselves to follow the laws, we have the Spriit within us that would prompt us and guide us along the way.
And with that, there is even more to give thanks for, more to find ourselves unworthy of. If what was written just now was too "abstract" , maybe a list of worldly things could help.
1. I don't deserve my grades nor brains that I am really proud of. First, God gave me those brains and for the times that I have happily used my intellect to do bad things (eg fabricate a good lie) or decide that I (my brains) were better than God's wisdom, God would have simply took away His gift for me, after all, all is in His hands. But He did not. He continued to let me boast around (while quietly looking at me), to dop ungodly things with it. I am feeling guilty about it. But this guilt just makes me how thankful that God loves me and that I should more than happy with my grades, henceforth joyful.
2. I really don't like so and so. I am so irritated abt such and such. That sounds pretty much like me, especially recently. So, what right do I have to complain in the first place? Afterall I should have gotten worse treatment, I should be thankful that God was gracious enough to not let little sinful me get more frustration and irritations, I pretty much deserved hell for all the things I did, and I am still on earth and still enjoying gOd, so what ion earth do I have to complain for?
And there is this part about peace. Very simply put, peace is knowing that all's well. Why do we panic? Why do we stress? Why do we get worked up? Because we think that we are NOT going to make it and so we decide that to make it, we need to put in extra effort and do it, we need to speed up before we lose out. With peace in God, we know that 1.It's not abt us making it. God has already planned whether we can make it or not anyway, it's abt fulfilling His will. 2. Peace is knowing that God has a plan to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and future. It is to know that we can lose this one worldly thing but God will never shortchange us. He will provide us with all that we need. Sometimes, thinking back, which prayers that we have prayed for have not been answered? Very very few. And the very few are those that answers would come sooner. Sometimes, we just have to stop and remember that what we feel is important might just not be really important to God. And then the question comes, so it's my priorities or God's priorities then? I guess the answer is pretty obvious.
And then after this peace and joy issue, I asked God about life. We all know that we should live our lives for God, for the eternity above and etc. But really, the fact doesn't help in real life. I told God I felt that there's a missing link. ANd He began to reveal it to me in bits and pieces. One thing he revealled was that of shaping and molding. When we have our perspectives on the future, we know that whatever we are going through now is a matter of shaping us up for the future, to better equip us for challenges ahead.It is not about the here and now results that we see now, but it's more about the learning process that leads to eternity.
And when I opened my devotions book, there's something else about life. Exodus 33. He said, "You can have everything you want, but you will not have me" I was instantly placed with an option. To embrace the world and have everything (looks, money..) and lose God? Or would I choose to get rid of the former and embrace the latter instead? And when I say latter, why? The moment I proclaimed that I would choose God, He showed me why. The world can give you everything of the flesh and you can never be satisfied, but God gives you spiritual food. The thing that we were created for, the thing that our soul yearns for. I was also reminded of the devil's temptation of Jesus.
"If you were the son of God, turn this stone to bread"
"Man shall not live on bread alone but on the Word of the Lord"
I could hear it in contemporary terms.
"If God really that good, then He will give you all the money, the popularity, the looks, the life..."
"You can't live on the worldly things. They will never satisfy, only the Lord will"
Then I probed some more, I said what about me? What does God want me to do? Well He did not say anything explict but all I could feel was,
At the end of the day,
What matters?
When all things fade away,
What will not?
It is about,
touching souls
changing lives
things that have an everlasting impact
just like Him.
Innocence
7:32 PM
