I think one thing is true, that when we go through life we learn more about how to treasure the simpler things, to find joy in them. The very reason that it is usually the simpler things that truly is essential and necessary - like water!
Yeah how have you been in your life lately? May God continue to bless your week ahead, as you live life encouraging another and being encouraged as well by a fellow brother or sister in Christ.
I just want to thank those who have know me personally and have prayed for me over the past few weeks. It has been a real trying time for me, although things have not improved much, I am clearer about certain things even as i continue to seek God in this journey of my life. As much as "love" has been a lesson for the previous 6 years of my life, and something I'm still continuing to learn, it seems as though "faith", "trust" and "prayer" is what's in season for me in this period.
Thanks for those who have done the "simplest of acts" in my life the past few weeks, that of an sms, that of an email, that of a phone call, that of a pat on the back, that of a smile. Thanks. =) It's amazing how its God works through the most simplest of acts in our life, that it can really be something that helps so much in another person's life.
Something I learnt as I seeked God yesterday, that it is difficult to let go of certain hurts and disappointments, but until you truly learn to do so and surrender them to God, your hands will always be occupied, and your heart and mind will always be somewhere else - meaning you will live in your past, that of memories of failures, even though your life consists of far more than that. At least that rings true in my life, so true to the point that a statement came to my mind that I found difficult to mutter. That of "I choose to forgive myself."
So yeah in my life I've begun to learn to let go, to realise that truly there are many things in life I do not understand, and circumstances that strike that I have totally no control over. I will not live in blaming myself, or setting myself down for those moments of folly as in the past, but will pick up lessons from those experiences, learn to work within my current limitations, and be faithful to God my LORD, King and Heavenly Father.
So let me go about this in my life once again, "Try and try again.", and "Live life in encouragement and building another person up to truly knowing himself or herself, through a better understanding of who God is.". May the LORD continue to bless and keep each one of you ever in His presence, where you will find peace, hope and joy, Amen.
In His love,
Jon
Scriptural references:
"12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained."
-Philippians 3:12-16
"18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."
- 1 John 3:18-24
Sunday 30 September 2007
Tuesday 4 September 2007
Reflections, Day 20.
Reflections, Day 20.
Psalm 31
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Turn your ear to me,
come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge,
a strong fortress to save me.
3 Since you are my rock and my fortress,
for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
4 Free me from the trap that is set for me,
for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hands I commit my spirit;
redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.
6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols;
I trust in the LORD.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
for you saw my affliction
and knew the anguish of my soul.
8 You have not handed me over to the enemy
but have set my feet in a spacious place.
9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
my soul and my body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my enemies,
I am the utter contempt of my neighbors;
I am a dread to my friends—
those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten by them as though I were dead;
I have become like broken pottery.
13 For I hear the slander of many;
there is terror on every side;
they conspire against me
and plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my God."
15 My times are in your hands;
deliver me from my enemies
and from those who pursue me.
16 Let your face shine on your servant;
save me in your unfailing love.
17 Let me not be put to shame, O LORD,
for I have cried out to you;
but let the wicked be put to shame
and lie silent in the grave.
18 Let their lying lips be silenced,
for with pride and contempt
they speak arrogantly against the righteous.
19 How great is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you,
which you bestow in the sight of men
on those who take refuge in you.
20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them
from the intrigues of men;
in your dwelling you keep them safe
from accusing tongues.
21 Praise be to the LORD,
for he showed his wonderful love to me
when I was in a besieged city.
22 In my alarm I said,
"I am cut off from your sight!"
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help.
23 Love the LORD, all his saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful,
but the proud he pays back in full.
24 Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the LORD.
Why does a man remain silent? Or why become increasingly so? It's possible to see that he realises his speech means for nothing, which means either he knows that those who are there are not listening, else it means the words of his tongue have become far too weak to represent the realities of his life. Do you really understand people of whom you have been spending time with? Try listening a little harder. If you are a Christian, ask the LORD to guide you each time you do, and perhaps you'll realise that it is true, each man is uniquely different, and until you do, you cannot love each man as the LORD desires you to.
And yet if you are in a period of you life of that of difficulties, I pray that this psalm will be one of which you will read and ask the LORD to allow the cries of your heart to be represented through it. May we by the grace of God learn that earnest cry of which our Lord Jesus had on the day of his cruxifiction, the day he took upon the sin of the word, the day he redeemed us, the day he by the strength of whom he possessed as God-in-man, choose a path of weakness to provide for our salvation, a path that shames the ways of this world, shames what we esteem as wise, shames what we esteem as strong, shames what we esteem as beautiful.
May we cry out if we ever are in our brokenness, through the overflow of our sorrow, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the same cry that identifies us as God's children. "Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth." And may this cry truly be that which allows we to learn to trust in the LORD our God increasingly, in our lives.
In His love,
Jon
Psalm 31
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Turn your ear to me,
come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge,
a strong fortress to save me.
3 Since you are my rock and my fortress,
for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
4 Free me from the trap that is set for me,
for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hands I commit my spirit;
redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.
6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols;
I trust in the LORD.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
for you saw my affliction
and knew the anguish of my soul.
8 You have not handed me over to the enemy
but have set my feet in a spacious place.
9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
my soul and my body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my enemies,
I am the utter contempt of my neighbors;
I am a dread to my friends—
those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten by them as though I were dead;
I have become like broken pottery.
13 For I hear the slander of many;
there is terror on every side;
they conspire against me
and plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my God."
15 My times are in your hands;
deliver me from my enemies
and from those who pursue me.
16 Let your face shine on your servant;
save me in your unfailing love.
17 Let me not be put to shame, O LORD,
for I have cried out to you;
but let the wicked be put to shame
and lie silent in the grave.
18 Let their lying lips be silenced,
for with pride and contempt
they speak arrogantly against the righteous.
19 How great is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you,
which you bestow in the sight of men
on those who take refuge in you.
20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them
from the intrigues of men;
in your dwelling you keep them safe
from accusing tongues.
21 Praise be to the LORD,
for he showed his wonderful love to me
when I was in a besieged city.
22 In my alarm I said,
"I am cut off from your sight!"
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help.
23 Love the LORD, all his saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful,
but the proud he pays back in full.
24 Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the LORD.
Why does a man remain silent? Or why become increasingly so? It's possible to see that he realises his speech means for nothing, which means either he knows that those who are there are not listening, else it means the words of his tongue have become far too weak to represent the realities of his life. Do you really understand people of whom you have been spending time with? Try listening a little harder. If you are a Christian, ask the LORD to guide you each time you do, and perhaps you'll realise that it is true, each man is uniquely different, and until you do, you cannot love each man as the LORD desires you to.
And yet if you are in a period of you life of that of difficulties, I pray that this psalm will be one of which you will read and ask the LORD to allow the cries of your heart to be represented through it. May we by the grace of God learn that earnest cry of which our Lord Jesus had on the day of his cruxifiction, the day he took upon the sin of the word, the day he redeemed us, the day he by the strength of whom he possessed as God-in-man, choose a path of weakness to provide for our salvation, a path that shames the ways of this world, shames what we esteem as wise, shames what we esteem as strong, shames what we esteem as beautiful.
May we cry out if we ever are in our brokenness, through the overflow of our sorrow, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the same cry that identifies us as God's children. "Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth." And may this cry truly be that which allows we to learn to trust in the LORD our God increasingly, in our lives.
In His love,
Jon
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