Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
For those not present, today's main theme touched on relying on God for every single aspect of our lives, not by our own strength, talents, intelligence that God Himself granted since all these are part of the general grace granted to us by Him. In the process of relying on anything/one except God, we can lose track of the object of our faith, and can end up being twisted by unbiblical logic and become proud of our own abilities and successes. I was thinking, even if our abilities does bring about temporal worldly success, they might not be necessarily good for us either.
Recently, my mum told me something I had long forgotten. It seemed that as a primary school kid, I told my mum I would get number 1 in class before exams. After exams, I got 5th in class and vomited because I did not get number 1. I even had diarrhea before the major examinations! In order to please my mum, I had tried to the best of my abilities to do my best but obviously, I was not satisfied nor happy. I was disappointed with myself because I had 'failed' myself using my own abilities.
Contrast this with IF I had relied on God and entrusting my exams to God as a kid. Even if I did not perform well, considering in view of the God we know that He NEVER fails, whatever happens is by His Will, and His Will is always good EVEN if we had tried our best and seemingly failed. This is also why Christians will and should be able to give thanks in both times of ups and downs for we know and believe that all is good.
The conclusion I came up with is this: In life, it is normal to have ups and downs, 'failures' in studies, work, relationships etc. our response to these downs could help indicate if we had relied on our own strength or on God. If by our own strength, we will be disappointed with OURSELVES. If by God, how can we ever be disappointed with God since we know Him to be good and gracious to give the best to us from His perspective even if it doesn't seem good to us? Another possible reason to be disappointed other than relying on our own strength could be that we don't trust God enough. However as yixin mentions, if we can trust God with our salvation, trusting God with everything else less than of eternal consequences should pale and be easier by comparison.
In the end, we seek to please God by trusting and relying on Him for the process of our lives from the minute of details to the biggest of all: our salvation, in order to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever with what He has willed for us in our lives. It might not be easy initially for a new beginner for example or even for a old timer Christian who struggles as the natural tendency of men is to rely on himself with what he can see, think and feel but it is the journey of every choice when we consider to rely on God that will make it become a natural habit such that we can truly say that we live, breathe and walk with Jesus. That is something I confess not to be able to lay claim to yet but something I believe all of us can and should strive towards to, not just because it is our YF's theme of the year, but because He is our God and not relying on Him is as good as not believing in Him because the original text 'believe' as written in the Bible means to be convicted to commit our trust to God, not just the mere acknowledgment of God and the salvation freely granted.
Proverbs 3:5-6
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment