We have stepped into the Star and into the year 2013. As Pastor Prince shared in the first service of the year, the theme for this year is 'The Key of David'. It is a year when God opens doors that no one can shut. Pastor Prince was saying two Sundays ago that some of the church members had already experienced the open doors in their lives. My first thought was 'So fast!'. God is so good to them.
Well, little did I know that God was orchestrating things behind the scenes to open this door for me. Ever since our church started worshipping at the Star on 23 Dec 2012, I have been thinking about the Star. I fell in love with the Star, this place where I call home. However, as my Sunday serving in Prayer and Healing Room is based at Marina Bay Sands (our church's satellite venue), I was not able to attend the Star regularly. I know that the church said they will look into rotating leaders so they can have a chance to serve at the Star, but in my heart, I thought...maybe not so soon.
My heart's desire and one of my three wishes this year is to be able to serve in a greater capacity at the Star. Although I did not request to be rotated to serve at the Star, secretly my prayer was if God wills, He will open a door of opportunity for me. Meanwhile, I will just be faithful to where He calls me, whether it is at Marina Bay Sands or the Star. I really did not expect God to open this door so soon. I received good news that the church is considering to move me to the Star, starting from February. My heart leapt! So fast? I am so thankful to the Lord for making this wish come true for me so soon. God is so good to me!
I am really excited about being able to attend services at the Star. All satellite locations are flowing with God's anointing when Pastor Prince preaches but there is something about being able to see the worship team and Pastor Prince 'live' on the stage. Well, all I can say is the place makes my spirit jump with joy and excitement each time I stepped into it. I don't know why...maybe my calling has got to do with that place. It is really like my Promised Land! Anyhow, I am very sure God is lovingly directing my steps and indeed He makes all things beautiful in its time! Praise Jesus!
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
'I don't understand it' file
I read a devotional from Pastor Joel recently. The title of the message is 'File It". He said that when things happen in your life that you don’t plan, do you find yourself trying to reason it all out or look for a “file” so to speak in your mind to put it in? What happens when you can’t reason it out or make sense of it all?
He offered the answer: Every one of us needs to create a file in our thinking called the “I Don’t Understand It” file. When things come up that don’t make sense, things that we can’t figure out, instead of getting frustrated or confused, put it in your “I Don’t Understand It” file and leave it alone. If we go through life trying to figure out why something bad happened or why things didn’t work out, it will cause us to become bitter and stuck in life. Part of trusting God means trusting Him when things don’t make sense because we know that His plan is always for good. We have to know that He will reveal all things in His time — even if that means in eternity.
There were certain things that happened that did not make sense in 2012 that I know I need to file away. I told the Lord: I choose today to file all these questions and disappointments away in the 'I don't understand it' file. I surrender all my past disappointments to You and still decide to trust You. Without You I am nothing. Who am I to even question Your plan and Your purposes? Yet in Your lovingkindness, You always reveals things to me to satisfy me. Thank God I have come to a place of peace and rest where all these things don't matter anymore. Why should I put my focus on things in the past when I know I cannot go back to change things? Why should I let all these unhappy things hold me back from the glorious future God has prepared in 2013?
Besides, the Lord asked me whether it makes any sense for Him to send His only begotten Son, the darling of heaven to come and die for us. Whatever Jesus had suffered before and on the cross - did it make any sense? Well, at the moment of His death, it totally did not make any sense to the disciples and for those who believed He is the Messiah. But after three days, when He resurrected from the grave and on Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit descended on the believers, it totally made sense. He had thoroughly defeated the devil and wrought victory for us all! God told me it made sense only when one could see His heart of love for us. It made sense only when we saw things in retrospect or on hindsight. Only God is the timeless One and He has the advantage of seeing things from the beginning to the end. And in the light of His great love for us, all these senseless things seemed so insignificant...there is no need to even ask 'Why, God? Why?' anymore.
Lord, I don't care why all that happened and it doesn't matter that things don't happen the way I hoped. Anyway it is not about me. It's all about Jesus. I let it all go. Today I surrender my past. I surrender my need to have all the answers and I choose to trust You. If You had wanted me to know, You would have shown it to me. But if You chose to hide from me, it must be because it is no longer important or that it is not beneficial for me. Or maybe the time was not right yet to reveal the answers to me. I don't need to put the focus on the enemy's plan and why he seemed to have succeeded...he loves attention but I am not going to give him any. I choose to give my attention to Jesus, the altogether lovely One. Only Jesus deserves all the praise and glory! And I know Jesus has already given me victory. The evil one cannot win. He is a defeated foe!
He offered the answer: Every one of us needs to create a file in our thinking called the “I Don’t Understand It” file. When things come up that don’t make sense, things that we can’t figure out, instead of getting frustrated or confused, put it in your “I Don’t Understand It” file and leave it alone. If we go through life trying to figure out why something bad happened or why things didn’t work out, it will cause us to become bitter and stuck in life. Part of trusting God means trusting Him when things don’t make sense because we know that His plan is always for good. We have to know that He will reveal all things in His time — even if that means in eternity.
There were certain things that happened that did not make sense in 2012 that I know I need to file away. I told the Lord: I choose today to file all these questions and disappointments away in the 'I don't understand it' file. I surrender all my past disappointments to You and still decide to trust You. Without You I am nothing. Who am I to even question Your plan and Your purposes? Yet in Your lovingkindness, You always reveals things to me to satisfy me. Thank God I have come to a place of peace and rest where all these things don't matter anymore. Why should I put my focus on things in the past when I know I cannot go back to change things? Why should I let all these unhappy things hold me back from the glorious future God has prepared in 2013?
Besides, the Lord asked me whether it makes any sense for Him to send His only begotten Son, the darling of heaven to come and die for us. Whatever Jesus had suffered before and on the cross - did it make any sense? Well, at the moment of His death, it totally did not make any sense to the disciples and for those who believed He is the Messiah. But after three days, when He resurrected from the grave and on Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit descended on the believers, it totally made sense. He had thoroughly defeated the devil and wrought victory for us all! God told me it made sense only when one could see His heart of love for us. It made sense only when we saw things in retrospect or on hindsight. Only God is the timeless One and He has the advantage of seeing things from the beginning to the end. And in the light of His great love for us, all these senseless things seemed so insignificant...there is no need to even ask 'Why, God? Why?' anymore.
Lord, I don't care why all that happened and it doesn't matter that things don't happen the way I hoped. Anyway it is not about me. It's all about Jesus. I let it all go. Today I surrender my past. I surrender my need to have all the answers and I choose to trust You. If You had wanted me to know, You would have shown it to me. But if You chose to hide from me, it must be because it is no longer important or that it is not beneficial for me. Or maybe the time was not right yet to reveal the answers to me. I don't need to put the focus on the enemy's plan and why he seemed to have succeeded...he loves attention but I am not going to give him any. I choose to give my attention to Jesus, the altogether lovely One. Only Jesus deserves all the praise and glory! And I know Jesus has already given me victory. The evil one cannot win. He is a defeated foe!
Stress is a killer
The best way to know if you are stressed is to ask yourself: Is my heart troubled? I believe the number one killer in the modern world is stress. It is a slow but sure killer. The physical root cause of many medical problems today is stress. Stress can cause you to age prematurely, give you rashes, cause gastric pains and lead to abnormal growths in your body. Many symptoms are brought about by psychological problems like stress. Stress is not from God. Peace is from God. In John 14:27, Jesus says 'Peace I give to you, My peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Let not your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.'
Even though I am a stay-home mum, I am not spared the stresses of life. I have experienced certain events (whether positive or negative) that caused me to be stressed. Recently the stress point was over Joshua's primary school adjustment. It was a major transition for me and our family. Every morning, I had to think of what healthy breakfast to cook for him, prepare him for school and check if he has homework. My schedule of quiet time with the Lord changed to be in the afternoons when he is in school. Thank God that the orientation was over but after that I fell sick. It was so bad that I had to take antibiotics but thank God I was still able to function in my daily chores.
Through all my stressful experiences, I was hoping to find a solution to stress. I found journaling very useful because I could record my feelings, my stress points and take it to the Lord in prayer. In writing down all these, I sometimes find the Lord encouraging me through a different perspective or causing me to see things clearly. Then I could also list down my thanksgivings and praise God for the marvelous things He has done far outweighs the negative things in my life. Writing down what God said to me also serves as a record or witness of the vision that will surely come to pass. When the evil one taunts me, I can refer to what God has said and rebuke him. But after a while I learnt that ignoring him is the best tactic. Why focus on him when I can focus on my Jesus! The altogether lovely One! The One who saves me and delivers me from my troubles!
Another thing that helps to reduce stress is by focusing on the good things. Philippians 4:8 says 'Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is virtuous, whatever is praiseworthy, meditate on such things.' For me, I found that what made me happy and joyful is to focus on the blessings, the wonderful things God has done for me. I find that if I could only focus on running my own race and not compare myself with others, I could live my life a whole lot better. Yes, I cannot control the things that happened around me but I can control my response towards them. I could focus on living to the fullest the life God gave me: spending time with God, doing things for my son, enjoying my meals, shopping for nice clothes, blogging, ministry work, enjoying family times during weekends etc.
Even though I am a stay-home mum, I am not spared the stresses of life. I have experienced certain events (whether positive or negative) that caused me to be stressed. Recently the stress point was over Joshua's primary school adjustment. It was a major transition for me and our family. Every morning, I had to think of what healthy breakfast to cook for him, prepare him for school and check if he has homework. My schedule of quiet time with the Lord changed to be in the afternoons when he is in school. Thank God that the orientation was over but after that I fell sick. It was so bad that I had to take antibiotics but thank God I was still able to function in my daily chores.
Through all my stressful experiences, I was hoping to find a solution to stress. I found journaling very useful because I could record my feelings, my stress points and take it to the Lord in prayer. In writing down all these, I sometimes find the Lord encouraging me through a different perspective or causing me to see things clearly. Then I could also list down my thanksgivings and praise God for the marvelous things He has done far outweighs the negative things in my life. Writing down what God said to me also serves as a record or witness of the vision that will surely come to pass. When the evil one taunts me, I can refer to what God has said and rebuke him. But after a while I learnt that ignoring him is the best tactic. Why focus on him when I can focus on my Jesus! The altogether lovely One! The One who saves me and delivers me from my troubles!
Another thing that helps to reduce stress is by focusing on the good things. Philippians 4:8 says 'Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is virtuous, whatever is praiseworthy, meditate on such things.' For me, I found that what made me happy and joyful is to focus on the blessings, the wonderful things God has done for me. I find that if I could only focus on running my own race and not compare myself with others, I could live my life a whole lot better. Yes, I cannot control the things that happened around me but I can control my response towards them. I could focus on living to the fullest the life God gave me: spending time with God, doing things for my son, enjoying my meals, shopping for nice clothes, blogging, ministry work, enjoying family times during weekends etc.
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