TOTD, Jan 28-31

In Control

I read a book by Sue Augustine with the title When Your Past Is Hurting Your Present. On page 45, I saw a very interesting writing of hers:
The same thing happens to us when challenges come into our life. It’s not always necessary to have everything going our way or to be able to get rid of the problems in order to have a good life. Instead, we merely need a sense of control within the situation. Though we can’t control other people or many of the situations we encounter, our control comes from knowing and understanding there are other options available to us. It’s when we mistakenly believe we are stuck --- with no alternatives--- that our difficulties overwhelm us.

When it comes right down to it, there is only one thing God has given us complete control of in this life, and that is our power to choose. That’s enough because it’s always our choices, and not our past experiences, that determine our future. Our past can control today and tomorrow only to the degree we allow it. The past should not be a place where we dwell, but a place from which we learn all we can and then move on. What freedom we’ll have once we have come to the place where we are “ forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead”

Our own control is just a choice to decide which attitude would be our attitude when it comes to so many unavoidable challenging or difficult times in our life.
God has given us the control of choosing. Choose the right one by following our heart. And remember the biggest control goes to Him. He is in control and not ourselves. (-fon-)

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.
--- Romans 8:9

29 Jan 08

Trapped By Circumstances

When you’re too focused on your problems and those problems are too big for you to handle, you might feel that you’re trapped by circumstances. Sometimes you might even think of blaming everything: your condition, your spouse, your children, your colleagues, your country, yourself and last but not least: GOD.

According to Sue Augustine in When Your Past Is Hurting Your Present, “ When you are feeling trapped by your circumstances, start to see there are choices being offered to you each step of the way. Once you realize everything brings a choice and you don’t have to do anything, it will set you free. You are not locked in. There are alternatives…”

It’s such a soothing thing to read, especially when you’re stuck with your present situation and you seemed trapped by the circumstances.
Remember there are alternatives, you’re not in a deadlock. Our dear God will set us free when the time is right and it’s our duty as well to surrender our will because lots of things would go different with our will, but as long as it’s God’s will, I’m sure it will be the best for us.
Trust Him and Him alone. (-fon-)

Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge
--- Psalm 31:4

30 Jan 08

Unconditional Love

As a mother, right now, I can understand how our mothers love us unconditionally. Well, she might not be a perfect mother figure for us. She might be too talkative, nagging, or too quiet. For us, maybe our mom isn’t exactly what we expected.
But, doing a ‘full time mom’ job right now made me realize that our mom has been there in almost every stage of our life. Especially when we’re sick, most of babies have fever, and they’ve been looking after us patiently. Not too mention in every problem that we’re facing in our everyday life, until today.

In order to understand a little bit of God’s unconditional love, we could see it from our mother’s love for us. We’re God’s disciples and we need to remember how unconditional His love is. So unconditional it was that made Him sacrifice Himself in such a humiliating crucifixion.
Never disappoint Him by living in despair or loosing hope. His love is more than enough to see us through. His Hand will be wide enough to hug us whenever we feel humiliated or rejected. His love is pure. Even purer than any other love we could see in this world.
Enjoy His unconditional love right now. (-fon-)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
--- John 3:16

31 Jan 08

Lonely

Have you ever being in a situation where all around you is very crowded and yet you feel lonely?
I’ve been through that before.
Previously, even in the bustling road of Jakarta, I sometimes could feel the loneliness inside of me.
Then I read the bible. It said, Jesus often withdrew to lonely place and prayed.
As His disciple, then I realized, I need to follow His steps. Whenever I feel lonely, I need to pray. I need to seek the presence of God as my true friend. He’s there 24/7/365. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.
He is the one who’s able to accompany us in each moment of our life.

So, whenever you feel lonely, just pray to God. Just seek His face and you’ll feel that you’ve got a friend in Him. Just call His Name, and He’ll be there. (-fon-)

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
--- Luke 5:16