Jun 12, 2012
Almost every day I go to work at Customer Service. Among other things it involves helping people with their questions, taking returns and keeping items tagged and ready to be sold. There are days when Customer Service is clean and organized. There are no piles of things to do and equally wonderful all the people are pleasant and easy to help.
Inevitably however there will come that day when disorder and chaos take over . Your once clean counter is collecting a pile of returned clothing, and the small back room becomes smaller because broken coffee makers are dangerously stacked. And guess what that same chaos has hit the rest of the store. No one can seem to keep up, so all your carts are full and there is no where else stick the stuff people keep returning. In addition to that bundle of “fun,” all those once happy customers have turned into angry people who are dissatisfied with the store.
To me it is like a mirror image of life. One day there is unity among family and friends, your health, job and house are all in tip top shape and your breathing easy. Then much like the chaos that erupts in the store you find out you have some painful health condition, your car brakes down, and there is drama and discord among you and your friends.
James 1:2 -4 says
“Dear bothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, let it be an opportunity for great joy. For when your faith is tested your endurance will have a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is full developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything “
James says “when” not “if.” We are assured that troubles will come and our faith will be tested. However we are also told that these are opportunities. Life here on earth as a believer was not meant to be some easy, pleasurable experience. We will face trials and pain.
Now our struggles here may not seem as massive as that of someone else, but they are our struggles. The enemy knows how to drag us down and make us useless, but more so our Heavenly Father knows how to use those same things for good. So next time troubles come your way, be joyful! and thank God for allowing you be refined. Then endure by the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of God’s Word and get ready to grow.
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Jun 12, 2012
I have many discouraging thoughts at times. What keeps me hanging in there is that Jesus is my ultimate example. Knowing His love for me and having faith in His sovereignty.
Jesus used scripture when satan was temping Him, we also need to do the same.
“However, I consider my life nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Acts 20:28
It doesn’t matter how old or young we are, we will either be an encouragement or discouragement to the people in our lives. We rub off on others, so we need to be careful with the choices we make and how we live our lives because are all accountable for our actions. We can make it more difficult for others if we live our lives in selfish ways. The decisions we make really do affect others especially through us justifying our own thoughts and actions. Often we don’t feel the need to try to be careful in those areas because the other person doesn’t seem to care. This is how Satan gets a foothold.
I have been encouraged to spend more time with the Lord. Even though I don’t understand everything, I ask God that He would give me more knowledge for what He wants me to know and do. He wants us to grow in our faith as we rely on Him and His promises, even though it doesn’t always make sense.
What is so great about our God is that He knows our heart and when we are trying! He doesn’t condemn us, but rather desires a relationship with us so He can guide us. When we spend time with Him we will know more of who we are. We see life and others from His point of view. We can only know more of the truth in life when we spend time alone with Him and are obedient!
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Jun 11, 2012
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6
I was at Gospel For Asia for a week of interviews. I was confident I was ready to be on staff. Thursday morning I was praying, and God said “Wait.” “Wait? For what? I’ve been waiting for over six months already.”
I went into my last interview with David and he asked me how I felt. I answered “I feel like God is telling me to wait a little longer to get some more life skills.” This answer was not easy. In fact, the whole day I cried about it. I felt like God had abandoned me though, in reality He was a lot closer than I felt at the time.
When I got home, my parents were getting all over me for my decision, just as upset as I felt.
The next couple of weeks were tough. Satan kept on taunting me for the decision, even though my parents came to realize I had made the right decision. I honestly did not feel that way at the time.
During this time God had to keep on reminding that He is in control not me. There were a couple of verses that kept on popping up at the time. The first one was Philippians 3:12-13, where Paul writes about pressing on and keeping our eyes on Jesus despite our difficulties. The other one was Philippians 4, where Paul writes about bringing our prayers to God.
Almost immediately I started looking for jobs. I applied for one job, and I got a rejection letter.
The second job I applied for at a nursing home to do food service. I got an interview for this job.
I was in church this past Sunday, and the pastor did a sermon on Ezekiel 37:1-14 about the valley of dry bones. He talked about how when things seem hopeless God comes and renews us by His spirit. The past two weeks I had felt like a bunch of dry bones walking around. I didn’t know what God wanted me to do next and nothing seemed to be happening.
On Wednesday of this past week, I got a call from the employer from the nursing home I applied for. She wanted to know if I had a third reference, since she couldn’t get a hold of my references. I gave her a name and she said she would call me back after getting a hold of the reference. That same afternoon, I got a phone call asking me to do a drug test the next morning, which I agreed to do.
A few hours after the drug test, I got a phone call. I didn’t get it till around 4:20 when my mom came home because I was in the pool.
I called back once I got it, and found out I was hired for the job at the nursing home.
It is amazing how God has been working this past month. God has taught me so much about contentment and what it means to seek Him.
God knows all our needs and will provide for them in his timing. We just have to continue to seek His kingdom before anything else.
I am thankful to God, because he has given me a job I never expected to have and I’ll get to share His love with the nursing home residents.
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Apr 23, 2012
Recently I heard a message from Auntie Gisela. She is K.P. Yohannan’s wife, and every third thursday of the month we have a Gospel For Asia ladies meeting where she will share a message with us. This month’s title was “The Gospel is Good News.” It’s good news for all who receive it. Even though times will get tough, God can handle it and will dust us off again. Nothing is too impossible for God.
God knows. So why worry? I’ve had struggles with depression off and on, and until just recently I’ve had a hard time combating it and refocusing on the Lord. It finally clicked during ladies meeting, that whatever I entertain in my thoughts, or in my heart will bear fruit. So if I dwell on those thoughts and feelings of depression, it will bear fruit and make me useless in reaching the lost in Asia. So in order to protect my call, I need to not think on those things. Just like in Philippians 4, where Paul says “whatever things are true, whatever things [are] noble, whatever things [are] just, whatever things [are] pure, whatever things [are] lovely, whatever things [are] of good report, if [there is] any virtue and if [there is] anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things.” (NKJV)
So if I immediately combat all those negative thoughts that I am worth nothing, that God doesn’t care about my desires, that there’s no point in me doing what I do because it’s all worthless, with the TRUTH that the Lord clearly lays out in His word for me, for this exact purpose, then I don’t have to worry.
Yes, it is hard to do. It’s so easy to entertain those thoughts. But I will NOT allow the enemy to get a foothold on my any longer. God loves me, He sent His Son to DIE for me, He rose again conquering death so that I may have a chance to live forever in His presence, and He is continuing to renew and transform me into His image. Who can be depressed when they can understand and grasp the depth of God’s unfailing love for them?
There is joy in the Lord. A Joy that will never fail. A Joy fed from His Spirit living in me. Even in times of trial and darkness, His joy is there to shine through me. And I’m happy about that. I am content in the Lord.
Anyway… that was my quick update of where my thoughts are at the moment. Hope it was a blessing to you! Remember that God knows what’s best for you. He knew it before you were born, and He knows how best to fulfill His plan in your life. So trust Him, and don’t worry. 🙂
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Mar 12, 2012
So I just recently had a revelation. An “ah-ha!” moment, I would normally say. You know the verse Philippians 4:4 where Paul writes “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say rejoice!”
Gospel for Asia is an organization born from prayer. Literally, it started as a Tuesday night prayer meeting in our founders house, and still to this day, we are a living breathing organism grounded in the greatest gift given to believers in Christ – Prayer. We have Monday, Thursday, and Friday morning prayer before we go to our ministry areas, we have Tuesday night prayer every week, we have a Friday night all night prayer on the first Friday of every month, as departments we have prayer once, twice, or even three times a week, and of course there is personal prayer time. I’m not saying this to brag or anything, but just to make a point. With our lives grounded in prayer, you can bet that we see the effects of those prayer requests every day, sometimes immediately after we’ve prayed. I don’t know about you, but for me, this is a cause to rejoice.
Some of the answers to prayer may include, healing for brothers and sisters, people coming to know the Lord through the various ministries we have on the field, people faithfully giving to further God’s work, etc. Aren’t these amazing things?! But what about those prayer requests that we don’t get the result we had been hoping for? Say, we pray for healing for a brother or sister in Asia who was brutally beaten for professing Christ our Savior, we pray and we pray and we pray, but then that brother or sister goes to be with the Lord. How is that a good thing for the family that they left behind, or for the believers he was discipling in a distant village, or even for those who persecuted him? Doesn’t Paul say Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS?
Is the word “always” subjected to only the happy answers to prayer? Shouldn’t we also rejoice in the answers to prayer that aren’t as happy? Praise the Lord that brother is no longer suffering, but he is forever in the eternal presence of our Lord Jesus! Praise the Lord I didn’t get the raise in my paycheck, because HE knows what I need more than I could ever imagine! Praise the Lord for _______ (you fill in the blank).
Often times working in ministry I will get caught up in the numbers of the results. No matter how hard I try not to focus on the numbers, it seems to always creep into mind. Recently we have been praying for big things to happen on the web, but what happens if we don’t see that prayer answer? Or if the numbers go down? Will we still be praising the Lord for the lives transformed by the prayers and gifts given by those who were perhaps sacrificing what someone might call the “widow’s mite”? I want to say I would rejoice in this situation. I want to say I would rejoice in every situation, whether it be death, or new life, or sickness, or health. I will definitely be praying for the Lord to make this transformation in my heart and mind.
I am praying for each of you. I may not know your name, or what you look like, but I do know that God loves you more than you could ever fathom. And I pray that if you know Him, that you would grow in Him. If you don’t know Him, I pray that you will come to know and love Him just as He knows and loves you (even before you were born!).
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