Tag Archives: lives

What Are You Striving For?

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I have long given up this thing called “race in life”  – to earn more in this world i.e. higher education, promotions, accumulation of possessions, bigger titles, etc. If it comes to a point that I acknowledge such achievement or honor, that is not for my glory but for God’s glory and to thank the people responsible in making that achievement happen.

Why give up the race in the worldly life and focus more in running the race towards the eternal life? They can become a “leech”  to our souls – the worldly things. It spurs greed, envy, and discontentment leading to an unsatisfied, unhappy and tired soul.

If I have decided to pursue my graduate study, it is not for my glory but because it is a commitment I made to my family years ago even before I got saved – a way to honor them and a responsibility that I had to fulfill as a sister and a daughter. Honoring them will honor God too.

If I decide to work, that is because I need to earn money not to get rich but to survive and serve others including my future family.

I’d rather learn how to live righteously devoid of all these worldly things than to live with them but live a corrupted life. It isn’t easy though, this thing called living life righteously. For we are in a world with its double standards where sin and corruption of the soul are everywhere. They are a black hole which consumes us if we allow ourselves to even get near it.

God never called us to live a life of fame and fortune but He called us to live otherwise. As it was written:

  “God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8

We will never have a need for God if we are getting everything according to the worldly standards. Though we get everything that this world offers but not have God as the number 1 priority in this life, we’ll still end up unhappy, discontented and unsatisfied.

For we all know that though we may have everything except God, then we really have nothing. And yes we have all that we needed in this Earthly world, now what? What will we do with all the fame, with all our money, with all our possessions, with all our titles? Do you think it will please God when we have all those? 🙂

If we are all laboriously working in preparation for our future, who are we to say what our future holds? Did not God say this:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” – Matthew 6:25

Where is our faith?

Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” – John 20:29

As it is said, “Faith is not achieved by good deeds coming from our own efforts but by trusting God that He is completely in charge with everything.”  It isn’t easy to have blind faith and yet God made it possible through the Cross. 🙂

The Spirit Lives

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Today is Friday, the end of the work week to most and the last day for the Prayer and Fasting 2015. This post is also my first entry for this year. Looks like what I have to write here will be something memorable. I hope. 😉

It’s been awhile since I wrote my last entry about my faith, if a few months back can be regarded as such. But I was prompted. Not just by anyone but by the One who lives in each and everyone of us who have been saved – the Spirit.

Thus, I begin my post.

I normally do not wake up at 5am. But I have been waking up at that time for how many consecutive days already. The tossing, turning and failed attempts to get back on hibernation mode can, I must say, add to the plentiful running thoughts in your head. I checked Instagram because I remembered I need to edit my profile. I saw something I did not like on the Newsfeed, I was tempted to judge – the mind can form in an instant the weapons of destruction. Not to them being criticized but to yourself who criticize, for a complete negative thought is nothing but already a crime.

BUT before negativity overcame me, I suddenly remembered a verse. My thoughts shifted – what book was it, what chapter, what verse, who said it, etc. I took my phone, typed the words I could remember from that verse on Google search and found myself reading verses upon verses until I stumbled upon this:

1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV

“Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”

The verse was more of an answer to my beleaguered thoughts the past days than it is to the IG post I saw and my reaction to it. It just struck me how God can use simple things and simple ways as His means to provide you the answer you have been needing thus giving you the peace that you deserve.

And this was not the first time that happened. For every time I ask questions, every time I am unsure of something, every time I crave for an explanation, I was always reverted back to the Scriptures. And what I read are the only things that pacified me. I was supposed to write there ‘satisfied’ than ‘pacified’ but to me, satisfaction can be achieved without the feeling of being pacified. Satisfaction is for the time being while to be pacified is for the long run. Satisfaction is for that immediate craving while being pacified is for that deep longing.

Sure, some writings satisfy but their ideas never last. Maybe because if they are human wisdom, they change. What the Scriptures offer is Godly wisdom written in consistency through the changing times. And something grounded is more believable than something unstable, right?

1 Corinthians 1:19 NIV

[For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”]

Indeed, there is so much a changed life can do. You thought for a moment you have it all from wisdom to riches, love in its worldly definition and power. Until came the time that you were stripped bare – you have nothing. Except now, the only thing you see is your Creator. And the only thing you have and you can be proud of is the Cross. Then you can only be happier, for you have been stripped FREE. The Spirit lives. 🙂

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( Photo credit: https://www.pinterest.com/wildbill666/for-me/)