HOW OUR GOD IS LIKE TO ME

I just felt like sharing about how God is like to me through my years of walking with Him. God is so patient with me, long suffering. He does not give up on me even when I am so disappointed or angry with Him at times. He still lovingly picked me up every time I fell into the pits. He loves me so much that His heart pained during the times He saw me crying my guts out. Oh how He longed to breakthrough all of heaven to reach out to me in those times.

He is faithful to His promise and He never fails to remind me that His word is true and will surely come to pass. How many times did He tell me that He is not a man that will lie, a son of man who will change His mind? He cannot lie. Even though He cannot show me everything He was doing in my life, He kept reminding me that once He promised me something, it will manifest in due time.

I also realized that His plan is far greater than I imagined. He is a sovereign God. He sees my end from my beginning. His plans are much further than we can imagine. We may be thinking about the next 1-3 years but He is planning the next 10-20 years of our lives. Isn't God amazing? So many times we missed what He is doing in our lives and accuse Him of being slow to bring the promises to pass.

It is not Him who is slow...it is us. We are often not as ready as we thought we are. He is slowing down to keep pace with us. He is merciful to lead us one step at a time, one shift at a time. He knows we cannot take it if He brings us from A to Z straight away. It's amazing when you look back, how He brings all the pieces of the puzzle together.

God is so full of encouragement, He never fails to encourage me in any and every discouragement that I faced. He always has a way to cheer me up and bring me out from my pit. His words of encouragement are consistent. Most of the times He showed me that the issue that bothered me wasn't even about the obvious one bothering me! It was something else and He uncovered the issue for me and addressed it.

He is loving, compassionate and full of goodness. He shows Himself as my Daddy God who always acts on my behalf. He rebukes the devourer for my sake. When the enemy comes on too strong and I cannot take it, He will always intervene and tell the devil to back off, it's enough! He is always so kind to me, always ready to defend me. He longs to do good to me for Jesus' sake. I feel so special in His presence. Even though the whole world doesn't know me, it's ok. I know I am the apple of His eye. I can boast that I know The Lord and He knows me.

God is trustworthy. Whenever the circumstances seem contrary to His word and the devil tries to make Him out to be a liar, He will always show Himself to be trustworthy. He would speak to me with His word and show me throughout bible history, none of His good promises failed to come to pass. He always asks me to trust Him and His word for they are truth, and most times, things came to pass exactly how He told me. Sometimes it might take place over a period of time and I had forgotten about them but He always brings me to remembrance.

Recently God is showing his powers. He is a powerful God. No one and nothing can stop Him when the fullness of time has come. When He opens the door, no man can shut it. He has shown Himself strong...stronger than I have ever seen. When I saw the healing, the signs and wonders, the speedy answers to prayers, I was convinced of His power. I also experienced what the bible says about perfect love driving out all fear. I came to that point where I am not afraid of the spiritual dark forces anymore because I know He who is in me in greater than He who is in the world.

God is eternal. He showed me that things that are unseen are eternal. Things that can be seen are temporal and subject to change. He taught me how to see the spiritual things as real, more real than the physical things. For the spiritual realm has the power to change the physical. He also taught me not to focus on the natural, not to be afraid of them for they are subject to change, they will have to eventually line up with His word. He taught me how to exercise my dominion over diseases, the physical circumstances and the dark powers.

I also learnt that God is a precise God. His timing is perfect and all things are made beautiful in its time. He may not be early but He is never late. He will always be on time. He has prepared everything so that when the promise comes, it would be perfect for our maximum enjoyment. He really has our best interests. Whenever I needed Him, He always shows up on time. 

He is a also God of reward and no debtor to man. He loves to give me surprises and good things just to bring a smile to my face. He loves to see me smile. It lights up His day. He wants me to enjoy my life, every single day of my life with Him without worrying. He wants be to be always happy, joyful, singing praises to Him and thanking Him. He wants me to live a good life, the abundant life.

God is full of wisdom. He never fails to provide good solutions to challenges and always gives me new perspectives on the issue. Like how He poured out His anointing on me to write. Sometimes when I read what I had written, it was so good that I could not believe I wrote it. It had to be God. He is a progressive God, always doing better than the last time.

ENLARGE YOUR VISION

Through the recent devotionals, God has been showing me messages like a new thing, change, shift etc. In fact, it just started appearing more frequently this month, more than 15 times. This realisation came after I was feeling so discouraged last week. I cried out to God asking Him where is the new thing He is doing, where is the fulfilment, the mega blessings that He promised. I was just so sick and tired of seeing nothing change on the surface. The enemy taunted me saying that I was stuck on this mountain year after year.

Right after I had such feelings of being stuck in a rut, the Lord came to answer me. Again He pointed out that it was such a big fat lie. Even though I hadn't seen anything change in the natural didn't mean that nothing had changed after my encounter with God. In fact, everything changed, just that I haven't seen them yet. God was indeed working powerfully behind the scene unknownst to me and very soon He unveiled those changes one by one.

In our next few years, I believe God is really going to bring us to places we have never been to. Dreams that will stretch our imagination and blow our minds. No wonder 1 Corinthians 2:9 says no eye can see, no ear can hear and no mind can conceive what the Lord has in store for us. As soon as God said it, it is considered done.

All we have to do is to believe and wait for the right timing to inherit that promise. Yes there is a right timing for dreams to come to pass. However I believe the waiting is also dependent on our readiness. Many a times we limit ourselves with our small mentality so if we didn't enlarge our vision, we could easily reject what God has in store for us because it was just too big for us to handle. We throw it back to Him.

In the past, I would think it was impossible and quickly snubbed those thoughts of grandeur. But after God proved Himself again and again, I am coming to the place where I can believe all things are possible to Him. After all I saw the reality of how all these things were already purchased by Jesus at the cross. All we have to do is to possess our inheritance. 

The key is once God has put the dream in your heart, no matter how long it has been, don't give up. Don't lose heart, don't get faint. Continue to press on, believing that He alone will bring it to pass. When He gives us a promise, it is not for us to fulfil but only God Himself can fulfil it. That takes the pressure off us. After all it is all about Jesus and none about us. All we have to do is to believe and rest, then act accordingly when the Spirit prompts us.

However there are things we can do to keep the dream alive. Firstly, don't share your dream with anyone. Some people will snub you and laugh at you. These are naysayers. Only share your dream with one who has faith to believe that all things are possible with God. Secondly, do things to prepare for your dream. Go and soak yourself in the atmosphere of greatness, whether it be looking at pictures of your dream home or sitting in luxurious hotel lobbies. You will be amazed at what those things can do to your spirit. Thirdly, don't let the mundaneness or routine in life rob you of your vision. Talk about it with people who share your dream to stir each other up once in a while.

Initially you won't be able to believe all at once that this dream could be fulfilled. But as you continue to trust the Lord and feed on His word, your faith will increase. You may think that's a far fetched or very remote idea at first. But if the dream just wouldn't go away even after a long time, you will know it is from God. Then slowly you may try to work out the practical aspect of realising the dream. Again you will be stumped at how impossible it seems in the natural. So you put the dream in your back burner again. But really, all it takes is one touch of His favour, one change of a policy, one movement of the market for God to realise your dream.

And as you wait upon Him, there will come a time, the harvest time when your spirit will get excited again. This time, you will begin to see signs of how possibly your dream could be fulfilled because of some changes you never saw before. And with that, you begin to work out the practicalities again and then you are amazed because suddenly the dream is within reach! You couldn't imagine how in the world a dream that seems so far fetched and remote could be so tangible now. It can only be the hand of God! You are only a step away from that dream and then it suddenly happens...everything became history.

PROUD TO BE A SINGAPOREAN

Our nation just celebrated our Golden Jubilee earlier this month. There was a memorable time during the National Day celebrations when videos on the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew was shown. It was an emotional moment as many cried at this sad memory of his passing. The empty chair reserved for him at the Padang made it even sadder to look at. This was the first time in 50 years that Singapore celebrated her birthday without Mr Lee Kuan Yew. We had thought that he could at least join us for our Golden Jubilee celebrations before passing on.

And last Sunday there was a National Day Rally by our Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong. It was usually an exciting time because he would be announcing many 'goodies' for Singaporeans. There would be key policy changes like housing, healthcare, family, jobs, education etc. Because this is our Golden Jubilee year, the government has prepared many goodies for us.

Some people might say it was because of the coming elections that the governing party was giving away such goodies, so that the people would vote for People's Action Party. Yes, our Election Day is announced to be on 11 Sep. And this year the governing party willl be running for elections without the late Mr Lee. It was crux time, match point. But I have confidence in this party even without Mr Lee because he has groomed and prepared the next generation leaders well.

I pray that God will raise godly leaders to govern Singapore and bring us to our next level. As I reflect on 50 years of nation building, I am truly grateful to our pioneers and our leaders for making Singaore a great nation. If I had been born elsewhere, I really don't know how my life will be as a girl. I might be denied of an opportunity in education or a fair chance in my career. Many women are still subjugated in certain countries or worse, forced into prositution. My heart goes out to these women and I pray for God to reach out to them too.

I thank God for the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the many political leaders who has sacrificed for our nation. I believe that path had not been easy for them. I thank God that we are standing on the shoulders of giants so that we can continue the legacy of our forefathers, bringing Singapore to greater heights. So that this little red dot can be a blessing, to reflect God's glory and grace.