#32 Lightness of being Surrendered life (18 Jan 2014)
Dear....
It is always interesting how being cooped up in the confines of an airplane brings one clarity of thought. "Be still and know I am God," indeed God speaks to the desirous when we rest in His presence.
"Letting go and letting God," this thought I have been mulling upon these past three weeks.Like many who read the Bible and strive to live a Christ like life, we will have a sense of what this meant, albeit incomplete and often, unable to be truly at peace for we struggle with its application.
Every new morning, as I gear up to face what life will throw at me, I draw strength from my quiet time with our omnipresent God. I remind myself of these truths
- that every breath I draw is by His grace.
- that He is Sovereign
- I am an imperfect and finite being, living in a fallen world, and arrayed overwhelmingly against me are the principalities and angelic(no doubt fallen) powers.
Without God, I am a goner.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6
An inconvenient truth, that most of us choose to deny, by the way we conduct our lives.
It is no small wonder our lives are troubled, and we are deluded to hanker after oasis of relief that turned out to be mirages of Satan's concoctions.
We cannot live on our own strength or understanding nor that of others.
Christ is the spring of life.
Our good Lord called me into new ministry ground back in Dec 2011 when I was on vacation in Munich. I thought I needed two more years to build up my provisions, but in His prescient manner, He told me in clear terms, via a verse in the book of Psalms that I have enough for His grace is suffice!
I figured that I needed to start my own little firm to ensure the freedom to run my work on Godly principles. Instead, our good Lord brought me back into the ambit of corporate life, albeit an unique proposition.
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
Jude 1:24
God not just lays the paths for us, He will guide us and divinely intervene when we start to deviate. But our relationship with God is unlike that of a passenger on a travelator, where we stand pat till the destination is reached. The end is clear, to be made ready for eternity with our Lord. And the route to Christlikeness is set, for we will be steadily transformed unto Christlikeness. But to be able to move forward, we have to be determined to be in His presence, and be willing to respond, with no qualms, regardless of all circumstances, as the Spirit of God leads, guides, corrects and empowers.
But what is exactly the response that God requires?
The Bible leaves no room for doubt on this question
- to seek God with our all, to acknowledge Him in all things and to love our neighbors as much as ourselves
- to be holy for God is holy
- to love justice, be merciful and live a life of humility
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1
There is nothing in the Bible that indicates that we must be academically brilliant, be a corporate success or achieve the things the world values as criterion that God desires.
God wants us to give Him our all now, with what He has blessed us with, and not what we think we should have, His way, not ours.
But to not give thought to and prepare for the future, does that not make us irresponsible like the proverbial grasshopper? But is it not even more irresponsible to delude ourselves on our ability to predict even the next second?
God wants us to be like the industrious ant, but His way not ours. The ants set aside provisions, for they followed the seasons, and are not the seasons determined by God?
Swimming upstream, it was a privilege for me to see the salmons in Alaska display God's handiwork in motion. Like all who are called to the faith, and who are willing to obey God's call, to be His lamp in the darkness of our world, sacrifice is imperative.
But before one conjure up images of heroic proportions that the communists regimes are adept at, though this self glorification is unique to all in the human race, sacrifice in "Godspeak," is the determination on our part to move from self to total dependency upon the grace of God. At this juncture, I do pray that this understanding as well as the closing thoughts are truly from our Lord, for if it is, it will not just speak to you, but multiply forth.
I often worry about how things will turn out? But in truth, My concern should be how I will turn out now. That is, have I truly lived a life that seeks to please God today, not tomorrow, for tomorrow might never come?
Do I please God by great achievements at work, in Church or in whatever I think will be what He is measuring me by?
The grace of our God is sufficient for the day. Tomorrow's troubles will take care of itself.
God wants us to focus on Him now. But like all, the disobedient us tend to extrapolate into the future and the end result is a whole specter of perceived fears encapsulating our very being.
And when small successes pops up, in all our pride, we grab it!
Lord,we are so prone to be fearful when we face opposition, yet so often we want to take credit for every little success. Help us see that You are the One Who blesses and builds Your church."
( Daily Bread Jan 13, 2014)
A heart that is focussed on God does not mean living a life of a slouch. But rather, it means our willingness to wait upon our Lord, and in abiding in Him, we revert to God's intended relationship of God dependency, rather than self driven self interest mode that Adam chose when he in all disobedience, he and Eve ate of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.
I often worry about the success of this ministry that God has placed me in. But in truth,as God has clearly convicted me of in the 4 months ( in first half 2012) of dithering as I struggled to want to obey His clear call to step out of my comfort zone, it was more about my pride.
But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
2 Corinthians 6:4
As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
2 Corinthians 6:10
The past 15 months have been a humbling yet wonderful process, for as God continues to shift me from a perceived position of my own strength to learning to depend fully upon Him.
He must increase, I must decrease.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
I am still a work in progress, as all of us will be till Christ returns or He brings us home.
In spite of my jittery faith, God remains faithful and as shared in my meanderings these past 15 months, it has been a wonderful journey that God has provided. A journey of impacting peoples' lives that in ways that I will never experience if I had stayed in my old ministry grounds. And on a personal level, a deepening of the roots of my knowing our Abba Father, a privilege that He has granted me.
But this walk of victory on the wings of our great God will be even more impactful if I truly learn to live in total submission to His will today, it is my resistance that is depriving me of the fullness of God's empowerment.
Rest in our Lord every moment. He has already shown us the fruits of the Spirit, which must gird our every thought and action. He will lead us today, and tomorrow as well when tomorrow becomes today. It is never about conclusions,but only about obedience.
Have a blessed today, today.
God blesses
Eng Hieang
18 Jan 2014
What today means?
Conflicts and selfishness underlines human relationships. Is it because of the need to prepare for an unpredictable tomorrow? Is the present Japan China spat just about past acrimonies or more about securing future provisions.
Is your whole countenance troubled because of concerns over tomorrow?
To give is to receive.
When we submit our life to God now, we will overcome, for concerns for tomorrow is no longer the tool available for the devil to have a grip upon us.
Sent from my iPad
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