Your Plans, Your Way

I find that sometimes I want things to go my way. That I have to make them happen. "Maybe they're part of God's will", is what I tell myself. I justify my actions through that reasoning. Truth is, we don't know God's will so why would we try to guess what it is when we know that we'll never understand His plans for us? And if what you're trying to make happen is part of God's will, then if you don't try, it'll happen in the end anyway because God will lead you in the way you should go. This is a very frustrating thing to keep in mind because we want things to happen according to our agendas that we don't care about what's on God's agenda.

Proverbs 16: 1-3
People may make plans in their minds,
but only the LORD can make them come true. 
You may believe you are doing right,
but the LORD will judge your reasons.
Depend on the LORD in whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.

I find that the reason why we're so weak in letting God "take the wheel" is because we don't have enough trust in Him. We aren't dependent enough. We think that we can fix our problems ourselves and are scared of where God might take us when He fixes them for us. Sometimes even, it's because we're too selfish to want to stop sinning, or even give up our own plans for the LORD. We find comfort where we are although we ignore the pain, suffering, guilt and regret that come with our decision. We also tend to struggle with peace when we depend on our own plans. We get frustrated easily because so many things get in the way of our plans.

Isaiah 26: 3
You, LORD, give true peace 
to those who depend on you,
because they trust you.

There are those two words again: depend, and trust. When you depend on the LORD fully and have enough faith, your plans will succeed, as says Proverbs 16: 3. Now you might be thinking, "Wait a minute Anny, didn't you just tell me not to be so dependent on my plans?" And I did, but when you make God the LORD of your life, then your plans will be His plans. Do you see where I'm going?

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Before I go on talking about this verse, let's break it up. What does it mean to delight yourself? It means to enjoy Him and to enjoy doing what He called you to do. To enjoy serving Him. So if you enjoy serving Him, then all your desires will come true. Let me use an analogy to help you understand what that looks like.

You just got into a relationship with the love of your life. You enjoy doing what they enjoy and you love to make them happy. You start wanting to do the things that they like to do because you just love them so much and love pleasing them. You don't care about what you used to want, now you want what they want.

This analogy may not be the best, but it kind of outlines the relationship situation that you would be in if you delighted yourself in the LORD. His desires become your desires. So they do come true in the end.

So in order to have this awesome type of relationship with your God, you need not to worry about your plans, your future, or your past. You need to work on understanding the Scriptures and what God wants from you. You need to study who God is. You can't go into a relationship without knowing who the other person really is. Finally, you need to live out what you are called  to live out. You need to do what's commanded of you in the Bible. This is very hard because there's a lot of pressure from the world to hide your Christian life, but when you start to grow your relationship with God, it'll be much easier to do what He wants you to do. Eventually, what you desire will match what God desires of you.

Continue reading →

The Story of the German Artist

Today at church, the teen Sunday school teacher told us an interesting story. This is what I can remember of it:

There was this German man who used to fight on the German army in WW2. He escaped the battle and ran away to another country. While he was there, he took up the job as a floor sweeper at a particular church. He worked this job his whole life. He never said a word, he just did his job. He would observe the people around him and their lives. All he did his whole life was sweep and observe. One day there was this really amazing evangelist, named Peter who came up to him and asked him a series of questions. “Where did you come from?” “What do you like to do?” “Tell me about your family” So the German man answered these questions and said that he used to be a painter in Germany. The evangelist was surprised. So he asked the man to paint his portrait. At first he was reluctant, but after much begging, he agreed. But he made the evangelist promise that he won’t look at it until it is completely finished. So Peter sat week after week as the painter painted his portrait. This took very long and many weeks had passed. Peter asked day after day if the painter was finished. He replied, “Almost, it’s just not quite finished”. So one day, as the painter was painting the evangelist, the evangelist’s wife was standing in the doorway and the painter didn’t see her. She saw the painting and shrieked. “This painting is horrible!!” The evangelist was confused. He asked to see the painting. The German painter replied, “Sure, but it’s still not finished”. When the evangelist saw the painting, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The painting looked terrible! He asked the painter why he had painted him that way. The painter replied, “all my life, I have been observing people and how they live. How they act everyday and what they do. I realized that it was the truth of God that made them as they are. So as I observed the people I wondered what they would be like without God, and this is what I see.” He finished motioning to the painting. 

                                                            (This is not the painting)

Continue reading →

Give All Of You

This is what “Worship” is:

• you coming before God in humility
• sacrifice of all that you are and have
• giving God ALL the glory
• mentioning of God’s attributes

The pre-requisite to worship is:

• we are in the holy place of God when we worship so we must have “Redemption”

Psalm 24:4:

Only those with clean hands and pure

hearts, 

who have not worshiped idols,

who have not made promises in the 

name of a false god.

When you worship, you are forgetting yourself and putting your focus on the LORD and what He has done, and you are also praising Him for all that He is. So what is forgetting yourself and giving your soul fully to God?

This, I think is a nice analogy to use when explaining to someone what it looks like to NOT give your full soul and life into the hands of Christ. Then the picture of what it should look like will be very clear.

It’s like you bought a house from someone who was selling it and was moving elsewhere. Once you sign the papers, it’s yours and you could do whatever you like with the house. But the previous owner who had sold his house and no longer owns it, constantly keeps coming back. They use your kitchen, your backyard, the family room, the bedrooms, even the shower! Sometimes even, they take your furniture and put it in their own new house and replace it with their old furniture. 

God is like the person who moved in. And we are the former owners. 

You give your soul to God when He redeems you. So if you hold anything back, then you’re claiming that part of your soul is still yours, although God is the permanent owner of every single part of your soul.  You cannot worship properly if you still take control over your life. 

Continue reading →

My Psalm to the LORD

I was at a grade retreat at a Christian camp with my school and I went to a prayer workshop and read one of David’s Psalms. Then they asked us to write one of our own. I thought this was a really good idea because you can write about what you’re struggling with and how the LORD can help you through that. You can also add what the LORD has helped you through and praise Him for it. Then when you’re done writing it, you can reflect upon it everyday or whenever you’re struggling and be encouraged. You can pray it everyday or you can just use it as praise. I think it’s a great idea and encourage you to make your own Psalm!

Anny’s Psalm

After all You've done for me,

I should not hold anything back.

What I have is Yours from the start,

So I should not treasure them

as if they are my own.

At times of conflict and shallowness,

I shall remember Your sacrifice

and how undeserving I am.

How foolish am I to hold on to things in my life

when You promise to provide more?

May others laugh at

me and rebuke me for being Yours.

They hated You first,

let them hate me next.

It's hard to allow it,

but you give me strength.

LORD you are my help.

I shall rejoice for the life that I have found in you.

It is far greater and richer than any life others may seek.

O LORD teach me to surrender all to you.

And to live not for this life, but for the one to come.

Continue reading →

God's Globe

It seems like recently I’ve been writing about nature, but that's what I’ve been amazed at this past month. I have opened my eyes to the wonders of God’s creation. Now this post is about the Earth itself and how it has amazed me this past week as I was helping with my church’s VBS.

On a bright blue, clear day all you need to do is look around. 

You will see that what God saw at the beginning 

was true.

“Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass,

the herb that yields seed,

and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind,

whose seed is in itself,

on the earth;”…"

“And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:11, 12b)

When I looked around,

I saw the clouds spinning around me.
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/clouds-gif
(Do not spend too much time though looking at the beautiful clouds)

I remembered that the earth was spinning,

but we do not realize it because of gravity.
Just looking up, knowing that I am spinning
with the earth but do not feel it,
just bring shivers up my spine.
It’s an AMAZING thought.

I find that I could just walk for
hours observing the creation of God in silence.
Taking it in, listening to the little sounds
we do not take notice of daily.

When I was younger, I would do anything
to get a globe for my birthday or Christmas.
I just badly wanted one.
But as I was looking up this past week,
it looked as though we were living in a globe.
The atmosphere was like the glass, around us
and space was like the world outside of the globe.
It’s like we're living in God’s globe.

 It’s like when he shakes it, it snows.
The clouds move like gas contained in a sphere.
It’s just marvellous!
The different shades of light that move by
either slowly or quickly as the clouds move in front
of the sun.
Just all those obvious details that we miss everyday
are enough to show me how amazing and artistic
my God is.

Today, the clouds were moving quickly,
like a race around the globe.
There would be sunlight for a few seconds,
then dark shade, then sunlight.
It made my own heart race.

It reminded me how even creation
cries out to God.
When God turned His face away from His own
Son, Jesus Christ,
and poured all His wrath upon Him,
the sky was very dark.
It’s like the earth globe
reflects the mood of our God.
Isn’t that just an amazing thought?

Nothing in God’s globe is consistent
as I have observed.
Not even the plants, animals, waters, and not us.
The water is always flowing and new minerals are found
in the water each second.
The plants do not have a consistent growth.
Their growth depends on the amount of
precipitation (which is not constant),
and the sunlight.
Animals are not the same as they were 100 years ago.
This showed me just how consistent God is.
By that, I mean He IS the same yesterday,
today, and forever.

He is the only thing in this inconsistent world that never changes.
Once you realize how inconsistent everything is,
the fact that God is consistent and never changes
will seriously blow your mind.

God created the earth so that it never ends.
It’s eternal in a way.
You could keep going around it and you’ll never find the end or beginning.
It reminds me of how God does not have a beginning or end.
The more I observe God’s globe, the more it screams
out to me the name of God.
There is no way this could have been a product
of just one cell.

Please, and I am asking you, pleeeaaase look around you. 
Observe God’s globe and how it just reflects the character
and being of our creator. A masterpiece always reflects the handiwork of the artist.

Continue reading →