Sunday, December 21, 2008
A quick one. Will expand on it when I have the time.
1. God is always in control.
No matter how bad things can be or seems to be be, He is always in control. And since we know that He loves us, the fact that He is in control means that things will turn out right at the end of the day. It may not turn out the perfect way that we wanted it but it will be fine. So there is no need to excessively worry about certain things.
2. Our identity is in Him and Him and alone
To realize that at the end of the day tha we are indeed in the world but not of the world thast our worldly possessions (be it material or emotional) does not define who we are. We are simply, the children of God, any other labels do not matter and should not even be sought. It really doesn't matter we get straight As or straight fails because at the end of the day our grades do not determine who we are. Neither does how we dress, how much money we have etc. To the basics, we are simply God's created, meant to love him and adore Him. Period.
3. God sustains us throughout everything
It may seem extremely abstract to say that God sustains us throughout everything, but if anyone has been through it I guess he/she will agree with me. At the end of the day, He is the constant companion and the unfailing friend. When all else fails, He never does. Some people complain why God allowed certain things to happen but as long as can take comfort in that no matter what happens, He will be our best friend who will be with us through thick and thin, I guess, a lot of things feel better. Afterall when all else fails, He will be there. And we can be sure that He will be there, I think that's more than good enough.
4. We have no rights
While this echos of a familar national day song, it's one thing about Christianity that is relatively hard to grasp about. It's hard to give up your rights to, for example, other people treating you nicely. It is also hard to give up your rights to using your money as well. We hold such stuff so personally to us that when God tries to take anything way, we whine like brats. But then again, God gave us these things. So of course He has the right to take them away. Those things are never ours, they are His to begin with.
On the other hand, emotional rights, like how we get really angry when people make use of us, cheat us or betray us is also reflective of how we are holding on to some rights. We expect people to treat us with a certain standard, but in fact, we don't deserve any (as much as those people don't either). We are all fallen creatures, sinned various times against God and if God himself hasn't punished us yet (but instead sent His son to die and atone for our sins), I don't think flithy creatures like us have the right to go around demanding people to be nice to us. And on further thinking, honestly, God's surpassing love should be enough for us.
5. We are flithy people but God loves us.
This point has two parts. A) We are flithy and sinful. It is again hard to come to terms with the fact that we are probably as horrendous as a murderer in God's eyes. For it had been said that sin is sin, there is no such thing as big sin or small sin . They are all displeasing in God's eyes. It takes courage to look at how you have fallen short of everything and admit that really, there are a lot of things that you have done wrong. But of course, just stopping there makes us a depressing bunch of people but I guess the main reason why God points us to our weakenesses sometimes is to remind us that, although we are so horrible and so weak, He still loves us. And at the end of the day, we realize that, all we can do is simply praise and worship Him. To always rememeber that He was the one who saved us from the dark abyss although we were not worthy to be saved. And thus says the bible, we loved because He first loved us.
Till then, Ja!
Innocence
11:18 AM
