To trust in God is equal to saying, "I
don't like this. But I will let God do this anyway, for I trust him to
be good eventually."
We say, "Thy will be done" and secretly
hope that it is our will that will be done. The essence of trusting God
lies in accepting what we do not like, and letting it shape us into the
people that God wants us to be,
Don't be anxious about anything. But pray
about everything that frightens you. Thank God for being near you. He
won't let you be harmed by anyone or anything. He is the guardian and
the protector of your soul. Believe in the one to whom you have
entrusted your precious life. Trust in God today. Believe that he will
guide you to a safe place. And boldly affirm your confidence in this
manner, "If God is for me, who can be against me? Who can prevail over
me? The Lord will not permit his child to suffer more than he or she can
bear. The devil may hassle me for a while, but God will save me in the
end. I belong to God, and that fact will never change."
Find out why you are scared, and what you
are scared of. And place it before God. But know God in advance. Be
still and know that he is God. There is no force in this world or out of
it that can stand against God. If you believe like this, nothing can
shake you. But you will be tested severely and many attempts will be
made to shake you. You may even stumble and fall, but with God you will
rise again. And in the end, you will remain standing, provided you wear
the armour of God.
God is with you. Learn to speak the words
of God. Learn Psalm 91 by heart and speak it to yourself. It is what I
did when I came under an anxiety attack in 2010. It saved me. That's why
I am still here. So put your trust in God. Say like King David, "A
thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand, but it will
not come near me." God will cover you with his feathers, and under his
wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and
rampart. Believe and speak the words of God over your life.
Know that God is with you, and he is
beside you even now. Whatever fear is troubling you, know that God is
greater than anything that threatens you. Greater is God in you than the
devil in this world. Believe that and say that. And you will find a new
strength enter your mind and body, when you confidently affirm the
greatness of God. Keep saying to yourself, "God is great. He will never
leave me or forsake me. I am his. No one can pluck me out of his hand."
Ask God to give you a faith from above. Desire God desperately. And he
will not fail to respond to you.
To say nothing, to spare the venom, and to let the offender go - these are the lessons that I have learned in my years with God.
Thankfulness does not just satisfy God. It
also satisfies human beings, who have much to endure in this life.
Gratitude is what keeps us sensible in difficult times. And it is what
keeps us going, when we would have otherwise given up and admitted
defeat.
Thanklessness and ungratefulness may be
more natural to human beings than thankfulness and gratefulness. But God
clearly prefers the thankful and the grateful. In fact, the Creator
expects human beings to be thankful in all circumstances. What that
means is that humans are required to be thankful even in dire
situations. In hard times humans should find something to be thankful
about. They have to do something extraordinarily out of character to
satisfy their God.
Even as you suffer in life, be thankful
for the joy that still remains with you. Always be thankful regardless
of the circumstances. Find something to be grateful for. Consciously
attempt at being grateful always. Even when you are tempted to complain
about the bad in your life, speak glowingly of the good that you still
observe around you.
To enjoy life, we need to laugh more at
ourselves, at how petty and ridiculous we are. We need to see the
lighter side of our terrible lives, and feel grateful for what we cannot
endure.
Following your heart is the best use of your time. But beware, your heart can utterly deceive you.
I don't think much about the end of the
world. End time prophecy is riddled with embarrassing mistakes, and I
want to stay out of that area. But I do think about the end of life,
which will happen to all of us. I think sometimes about my death, but I
don't dwell on it. I think about life right now, about the good I can
do, and how to make the best use of my time.
Life is rarely what we want. It is mostly
what we do not want. If we could like what we do not want, we would be
masters at living well.
Be happy where you are, even if you don't
like it. Some things in life are hard to appreciate. But we should
accept them with gratitude.This attitude will preserve us till the end.
If our ultimate aim is not pleasing God, we will find out that pleasing ourselves will not satisfy us in the end.
If you could worship God without speaking
the truth, your worship would amount to nothing. But if you could speak
the truth without worshipping God, your truth will still stand.
If only people would love who they are, they would also love who others are.
To make this world a better place, the people in this world need to be happy with themselves.
It is not wrong to love ourselves. In fact, it is a must. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot love others.
If I could love myself as a narcissist would, my life would be a lot easier. Rather, I am often my worst critic.
What I celebrate is not me, but God in me.
Even as I nurse my long-lasting, wounds,
and contest in this dogfight against my own terrible nature, I am able
to attend to the sufferings of others, and offer words of consolation
to them. This is nothing short of a miracle.
I try to know myself. There is probably
more darkness in me than I suspect. But I'd like to focus on the light,
and what God does in me. I try to see the better side of me, though it
is not easy.
I am not selfless. But I am not as selfish as I used to be.
Don't ask me what my religion is. Ask me
what my motivation is. My motivation is to give something in return. I
have received many good things from God. And I want to share these good
things with my fellow human beings.
Where I come from is really not important.
What I am and what I want to do for you, these are pertinent questions.
I am your friend, and I want to accompany you on this journey called
life. If I can help you, I will help you. If you can help me, I would
gladly receive your help. This is all that we need to think about.
Someone told me not to question God. But I
question him often. I tell him plainly what I think. I quarrel with him
sometimes, and disagree with him. But he quickly draws me back to him.
And I walk with him again with renewed strength.
Mistakes are painful but necessary. Don't feel ashamed of them. We cannot progress without them.
Even my own father may not have accepted
me, but I know that God accepts me just as I am. People may judge me and
reject me, but with God I do not fear judgement and rejection, for I
know that I have been made right before him by Jesus Christ.
What love does, discipline cannot know.
Jesus was both liberal and conservative.
He was more liberal than the liberals of his day, and more conservative
than the conservatives of his day.
Going to church will not not save you. But going to God will.
Doctrines will not lead us to God. A
simple heart, aware of its emptiness and desperately in need of God is
all that is required.
To have everyone come to God, we should be willing to discard every doctrine that divides us.
Some of us know God, but do not live with him. Others do not know God, but live with him without being aware of it.
On a day when blessings seem scarce count the earlier ones.
You can't solve a problem by worrying about it. But you can feel better by trusting in God for its solution.
Some people are better human beings without religion than those with it.
A crisis may be the best gift from God for a person who is struggling in faith.
We will go through crises but when we go through them with God, we come out happier.
Love is the ability to embrace all without reservation.
If you could love the one you're with and not look in longing at the one you're not with, your happiness might just last.
A liberal mind is broader than a conservative mind.
The best way to get appreciation is by appreciating others.
If you love something, you will always find time for it.
If you want a good life, then start to appreciate the life that you have now.
Do you want to love? Love yourself first.
Love what you are, and who you are. Love God who created you for a
certain purpose. And the purpose is to know the love of God who loved
you enough to put you on this planet. He loved you enough to let you see
the wonder of life. Now see that wonder, and appreciate your life. Do
what you are able to do, and do it well, and do it happily.
Love the people you have in your life
today. And love them well. This is the one task that you must fail to
do. For if you do so you will also love God.
Luck has something to do with every human
life. Luck is a combination of events that can go one way or the other.
A believer in God, who does not believe in luck, may find himself
knocked down by a vehicle on the road, which suddenly lost control and
rammed into him. Or he may perish in some other unfortunate way. There
are a few miracle stories of supernatural rescue, but these are offset
by many tragic stories of bad things happening to good people. It is my
belief that such sad events are not predetermined by God, but they
happen by chance. Unfortunate and unlucky these events seem to be.
Could God have stopped an accident from
happening? Could God have prevented a tragedy from happening? Could God
have stopped a human from carrying out his evil intention? God could
have done all this. But in my understanding, I do not see him doing
anything like this. God allowed human beings free-will. So, he lets
humans do what they want, even if human actions have criminal intent.
He lets humans make mistakes, and sometimes these mistakes have serious
consequences.
Accidents happen not because of God but
because of humans. Human imperfection gives rise to human error. Human
error is often the cause of accidents. And when accidents happen, God
has nothing to do with them.
Let it be between God and you, and not
between God and someone and you. You can approach God directly. You can
speak to him now. You can ask him yourself. And he will answer you.
Everything is ordained by God. Every
accident is in God's plan. Every train derails, and every plane crashes,
and every ship sinks because God planned it. Every ant that is smashed
under human feet today is also predetermined. This line of reasoning is
ridiculous.
If it's not in the Bible, it's not in life. That's a severe limitation in thinking.
You
wonder why the good live short lives while the evil live up to a ripe
old age. This is what I think. None of us are good. It may seem that
some of us are better than others. As Jesus put it, "Only God is good."
Life is difficult, and unpredictable. Accidents happen: Inexplicable
events take place. The people who seem good meet with untimely deaths.
The people who seem bad go on living for an inordinately
long time. This may not exactly happen the way it appears to us. One
can be confident that bad luck affects all of us. But it does appear to
some of us that the good suffer more than the bad. The Bible states that
many are the afflictions of the righteous. Jesus Christ warned that in
this world there will be many troubles for those who put their trust in
God. I believe that there are troubles for all of us in this world. That
is the way it is. We need to accept the unpredictability and unfairness
of life and make the most of our time, whatever may be the length of
our lives.
Why
should the people of Christ show kindness to those who don't deserve
it? We were told by Jesus Christ to be a light in this dark world. We
should let our light shine so that people may know Jesus Christ who
shines through us. We love others, not because they are loveable or
lovely. We love them despite who they are. We are told to love the most
unlovable people. We are told to show kindness to
the cruellest people. We are told to do the impossible thing. We are
told to forgive the unforgivable. But why we should we do these things,
when people don't deserve our kindness and our love and our forgiveness?
We do this because we belong to Jesus Christ. And he loves and forgives
and shows kindness to the most wretched people in the world. He showed
kindness and love and forgiveness to us, when we deserved nothing but
his condemnation. If he lives in us, we should show him to others by
living like him.
God loves the world so much. It is this
love that led him to send his Son to this world to lay down his life for
the sins of humanity. Let all human beings know this love and accept it
without reservation. Let this love guide them closer to God. Let those
who have received this love also share it with everyone they meet.
Let hell not be the reason why you go to
God today. There may be a hell where unbelievers and rebellious spirits
go ultimately. But let not the fear of going to hell be the reason for
your going to God today. God is your Maker, and without him you are
incomplete. Let your search for completeness lead you to God today.
Let fear not be your motivation to believe in God. It is better to be a fearless unbeliever than a cowardly believer.
Don't hold on to the past. Let it go, even
if it was wonderful. God is doing something new in your life. Focus on
this, and accept the new opportunities and challenges that you are about
to face. Whether it is good or bad, easy or difficult, accept the new
and live it with the grace God will certainly give you.
My child, all of us go through troubles.
The children of God suffer the most. They are chosen to suffer, because
suffering is probably the greatest teacher in life. Nothing moulds us
and transforms us into the image of God like suffering. And we suffer
most, when we think that God is not with us. But this is the truth. God
never leaves or forsakes his children. It simply cannot be, though it
looks very much like that. If we would only believe in God more than we
do in what we think or feel, we would make considerable progress in this
spiritual journey.
You may not be able to relive the past,
even if you have the same people in your life. Time has passed, people
have changed, and you need to move on to something else in your life.
God will not give us everything that we
want. But he will give us everything that he wants for us, if we want it
too. There is much that we want in life, that God does not want for us.
And there is much we do not care for in this life, that God wants for
us.
How do you know that God is speaking to
you? Is he saying to you, "Don't be troubled. I'm here for you. I care
for you. And I will take care of you. I will supply all your needs. You
can count on me"? If you are hearing this, no matter who you are and
what you have done, you can be sure that God is speaking to you. For
this is what he has been saying to all of us since the day Jesus Christ
ascended into heaven to sit beside his Father. And this is what he will
continue to say to his children in the years to come, as long as he
wants to. I see no reason to doubt this fact.
Don't try to worship God. Just speak to
him, believing that he is near you. Believe that he is near you, as you
believe that the air you breathe will keep you alive. And know this.
Nothing on earth or in heaven can separate you from God.
Don't hear the condemnation of people.
Hear the approval of God. If you are trying to know God and worship him,
he will welcome you into his arms, regardless of the path that you take
to reach him. The people of God do not travel the same path to God. But
God knows who we are, and where we are, and he will reach out to us,
when we get lost.
If you are concerned about God and the things of God, it is likely that you have God in you.
When God looks at us, he does not see us
as Protestants or Catholics or anything else. He sees us as his own
children, bought by the blood of his Son Jesus Christ. And this is how
we should see ourselves.
The best kind of meeting is arranged by God. When I am with God, I don't try to meet people. People come to me, and I meet them.
Church is where believers in God are. If
only two of us are joined together in our faith in God, we are a church
most pleasing to God.
Being Catholic or Protestant is not important. Being a child of God is important. This is what you need to be every day.
The question that we need to ask today is:
"Do we know whom we worship? What does he want from us? Are we doing
what he wants us to do?" Let us not be stuck in man-made theories of
God, But let us look at Jesus Christ, and experience the love of God
that he so unforgettably conveyed to us. Then we will be transformed by
that love into the people God wants us to be.
Thanks to Wi-Fi, I can place my laptop on
my bed and type my messages. There is always something to thank God for.
The need of every day is to find that reason, and act on it.
Does
someone have to write an entire book to say that God takes his time to
transform human beings? It takes time to grow physically. It takes
even more time to grow spiritually. None of us is transformed instantly.
Some changes appear sudden. But nothing is full grown in an instant.
Change is a long, drawn out process. Some of us who are undergoing
spiritual growth feel that not much has happened
over the years. We are still prone to the same evil tendencies. We
still remain addicted to worldly lusts. But in truth, we are moving on,
even if we cannot feel it. We are moving like the earth, which moves
beyond superficial detection. We are moving forward, even if we cannot
see any progress. God is an efficient worker. He made the universe. He
can make us be like him, if we would only believe in the miracle of
time, his time. He makes all things beautiful in his time. In this we
should lay to rest all our doubts and start believing in what seems
impossible to our human minds.
You worship God in your heart. You worship
God in your mind. You worship God in you. You worship God in the people
you meet. You worship God in every created thing. When you worship God
like that you don't need to go to a church to worship him.
When you learn to be grateful for every little drop that trickles your way, you have attained a spirit of gratitude.
God does not only love us. He hurts us by
making us aware of our unworthiness. It is when we see how irredeemable
we are that we respond to his gracious love, the only thing that can
save us. God cannot embrace us before he hurts us. And we should not
recoil from the hurt, hating God even more for showing us our
hopelessness. We should return to him, trusting in his love, and
desiring it, for there is no other way out of the hell we are destined
for.
Love changes everything. Love is the
greatest motivator for change. It is undeniable. But love without hurt
may not amount to anything. When love changes us, it is aided by hurt.
We are hurt by the fact that we don't measure up. We are hurt by the
knowledge that we don't deserve the love. It is that hurt which
ultimately makes us embrace the love and be transformed by it, for
nothing else can save us so well.
Sometimes we hurt people to get them to
think radically. A big change issues out of a big impact. And one of the
biggest impacts on the human soul is a hurt.
I am what I am today because of the hurts
that I suffered in my life. People hurt me inadvertently. I absorbed
those hurts and made them my greatest motivators to reach a certain
destination.
If you always sugar-coat your words, you
may fail to make an impact on others. Euphemistic language serves a
purpose only up to a certain point. Beyond that point, you should a call
a spade a spade.
Great change can issue from great hurt. Offence can transform a person like nothing else.
The idea of using offensive words is to offend. If you are not offended by them, they have failed in their purpose.
What did Jesus Christ mean when he said
that he came so that we might live a full, abundant life? Was he
primarily referring to material well-being, or spiritual well-being? If
we examine the context of the statement, Jesus was talking about the
devil, and drawing a contrast between the murderous Satan and the
life-giving Christ. So the focus of Jesus' abundant life cannot be
material prosperity, but a certain inner, spiritual well-being. God does
add the material things to us, but only when we seek his kingdom and
his righteousness above every other thing. The Christ kind of abundance
therefore is a richness in God, and not a richness in the things of this
world.
People who want religion may go for Christianity. I go for Christ, without the trappings of religion.
What is my religion? I am asked this
question often. I follow Jesus Christ. I even work for him. What does
that make me? It is anyone's guess.
To the one who said that the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would not call his children idiots, I say that
he called them worse names. He has called his chosen people a prostitute
who pays others for sex. Jesus Christ, his Son used labels such as
vipers and dogs. The Bible contains many difficult words, and often
refers to humanity in unflattering terms. God and his people come across
as particularly impolite and scathing in their interaction with people.
There is wisdom in calling a spade a
spade. Anything more or less is a distortion of truth. Jesus Christ
labelled the world an adulterous generation. He referred to non-Jews as
dogs. On other occasions he addressed the learned men of his community
as vipers. St. Paul addressed a church as "foolish Galatians". Sometimes
hard words are required to bring out the truth. When such words are
used by Jesus Christ and those who serve him, it is for the purpose of
highlighting truths, which cannot be effectively expressed using less
severe words.
A good teacher may have bad students. When you call a student an idiot, it may not reflect on the wisdom of his teacher.
We only know what has been revealed to us.
Even that we do not well. But the one who thinks he knows everything,
when he only imperfectly knows what has been partially revealed is a
pitiable idiot.
Every sanctimonious person is an idiot. Anyone who thinks he knows God well is a bigger idiot.
When you want to point out someone's folly, think about how someone else did not point out that you are an idiot.
We should love ourselves. And we should
love others as we love ourselves. This is the fitting way we glorify God
who made all of us so well.
Loving yourself is not a bad thing at all. Just don't forget to love others in the same way.
A loud, bragging faith is less appealing than a calm, self-deprecating, seeking of God.
Let the godly man look at his own despicable heart before he throws light on the lostness of a brother.
A balanced, sensible faith in God will attract more people to God than strident fanaticism.
Religious fanaticism will probably come
across as lunacy to many onlookers. It is best to temper religious
fervour with secular balance, so that faith may not appear ridiculous to
the faithless.
Ultimately we should attract the faithless
through our faith, and not repel them. Balance is what is required.
Fanaticism should be avoided at all costs.
Faith should be a balanced, beautiful experience and not an idiotic fantasy, which will repel onlookers.
Some believers denigrate their god more through their shameless fanaticism than do the most disparaging atheists.
We are all slaves to one thing or the other. Some of us are slaves to
the bottle, while some others are slaves to the syringe. Some are slaves
to sexual desire, while some others are slaves to currency. Some of us
are slaves to God, while some others are slaves to religion. Ultimately,
no one is truly free, and everyone should decide for himself who his
master should be. And we should aim to make the most of our slavery
without regret.
A holier-than-thou believer is more obnoxious than a mocking atheist.
We are all slaves to one thing or the other. Some of us are slaves to
the bottle, while some others are slaves to the syringe. Some are slaves
to sexual desire, while some others are slaves to currency. Some of us
are slaves to God, while some others are slaves to religion. Ultimately,
no one is truly free, and everyone should decide for himself who his
master should be. And we should aim to make the most of our slavery
without regret.
In life there are restrictions. There may even be a bondage or two. A
life which attempts to achieve despite suffering and to work within
restrictions is the kind of freedom that is available on earth. Such a
way of living may not always meet with success, but it is always
consistent in finding a way to do something good, without offending and
restricting others.
A free act is done with love, without expecting any reward for it, except the joy of doing it.
Freedom of speech is needed. But it cannot mean that we can speak
anything, anytime in any way we want. We need to speak properly,
considerately and politely. We should also know when not to speak.
I am free to admire flowers today. But I am not free to pluck them. I am
free to appreciate the world today. But I am not free to impose my will
on it.
There is no such thing as unlimited freedom. All freedom is limited. The
freedom of one should be curtailed for the sake of accommodating
others.
A free human being is one who is not bound by the thinking of others.
Agreement with others in his case is not a must, but it comes only when
minds genuinely meet.
To be free is to be able to be what one is, without the fear of offending others.
Freedom is to do what one likes without hurting others or restricting their freedom.
We
have waited 2000 years. But God doesn't wait. He is out of time, and he
knows the end from the beginning without travelling through time, for
he sees them both even now lying side by side. But we who cannot see the
timelessness wonder why he is delaying his return. We come up with
reasons for his delay. However, it is better not to guess the mind of
God. He is giving us time to repent, you say.
Time is a double-edged sword. Along with the time to repent, comes the
time to do even greater evil. More people are born. More evil
proliferates. No, it is better not to guess the divine mind. God is now
reconciled to the world through the blood of his Son. And humans are no
longer in enmity with God. This is the vital fact that every God-aware
human should bear in mind. God's return happens every day as we
recognize his great love for us. Every day God returns to the
recognizing heart.
Let's remember the good that we have received from God. That's how we go
on. The troubles in our life have increased, and we are praying to God
more urgently to help us overcome our great problems. Even as we
continue to struggle in life, let us not forget that God has been good
to us. He has answered our prayers, and granted us relief many times.
May God grant us help again. May we receive grace in our time of need.
May God strengthen and prosper us in every way. Let's not give up doing
this today.
Is Jesus in a statue? Is Jesus in a
massively proportioned statue on top of a mountain? Can Jesus be found
as an infant in the hands of his mother, sculpted by a human being? Can
Jesus be touched by placing our hands on sculpted wood and rock? Are we
not guilty of worshipping God today as we did thousands of years ago?
Are we not guilty of worshipping idols when we bow before the statues of
Jesus and his mother, not to mention the plethora of his saints? Can
Christ not be found anywhere else?
Do you need to see clouds in the shapes of
horses and lions to visualise the second coming of Jesus Christ? Do you
need to hear the massive blow of a trumpet to get prepared for Jesus
who is coming to take you away with him to heaven? Do you need to see a
grand cosmic event in the sky to ratify the biblical prophecies
concerning the return of Jesus Christ? Are you nor ready to accept Jesus
now without pomp and fanfare? Are you not ready to welcome the
wretched, beggarly Jesus standing in front of you, waiting for your
help?
How does it feel to fail again and again?
How does it feel to have your weaknesses exposed again and again? How
does it feel to know the truth and be powerless to enact it in your
life? How does it feel to see the light and not be able to step out of
your darkness? How does it feel to take a few steps forward and then
take many backward?
I choose not to be critical of other
faiths, for I have not experienced them personally. I choose to look at
my own faith sympathetically, for little good may come from being
critical of it. Today, I need to rejoice in life, and in God who has
revealed himself to me through the Bible. And I should share this joy
with others, so that they too may know God as I do. And I should do this
respectfully and sensitively without offending anyone's deeply held
beliefs.
You shouldn't force yourself to believe in God. From the beginning to
the end, belief in God is a work of God. God will help you believe in
him, as he helped me to believe in him. I had no belief in God once. I
now believe in God, but my belief is not without its moments of doubt.
All believers go through those moments. But God will help you rise above
those doubts every time. You should trust him to do that. Don't panic
if you don't have belief now. Just ask God to help you believe in him.
Does it matter whether a page grows or not? I cared about such things
once, and maybe even now I fall into that error. Does it really matter
what following a page has on Facebook? All that matters is that the
thoughts and words and works that God inspires in a worker reaches
others, who are desperate for answers that will save lives. I hope I
have not let down God in that respect.
