By Josephine Lim-Weston
Two days ago I was on a long train journey and it was packed with many passengers standing like me. I was hoping for a seat, but we had passed so many stations and still nobody stood up to disembark except a lady, who gave up her seat for a mother carrying her child. I was tired after some time holding on to the safety bar with my stretched arm. It made me feel frustrated as to why no seats available after so long. It suddenly dawned on me that instead of harbouring frustration and anger at men who don't care to offer up their seats and some even competing seats with women, I should channel my focus and energy on praying instead. So instead of being angry, I prayed for people in the carriage. I felt more peaceful and anger dissipate more and more so that I didn't realise I was even angry before.
Then a light bulb moment happened, I should have prayed for vacant seats before boarding. So I prayed that next time, when I board the train, God will provide me with seat and if not He will direct me to the soonest available seat. Yesterday I found seats immediately and today a seat was available for me by the next stop. Praise the Lord!
John 16
(Jesus said)23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
Luke 11
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
So now I realised I've missed out on God's blessings on numerous occasions as I have taken things for granted and not involved Him in my life as much as possible. For so long we have not awakened to the truth of how blessed we could have been if we have made Him central, by committing all our plans, every area of our lives, our every journey and decisions to Him. How much more blessed we could have been.
Not only we should ask from the Lord but by doing so we acknowledge that we can't do as well or as smoothly or as successfully or as fulfilling without Him.
We should also learn to ask for help and advice from one another instead of depending on our strength. Don't suffer silently. Learn to reach out as surely there will be someone whom God will send that will be willing to stop and lend you a helping hand or offering you a word of advise or even to pray alongside with you. So ask!
Life could have been simpler and less of a hassle if we have asked of God first. You'll see the difference when you ask God and involve Him in your life. The peace, joy, strength, patience, confident trust, creativity, ideas, solutions, wisdom, favour and fulfillment that come with it are priceless.
Thursday, 21 August 2014
Thursday, 14 August 2014
Drawing Close to God – Not As I Thought
By Josephine Lim-Weston
Everyday I pray that I will draw near to God and that I will know Him more and obey Him. I pray that He will rule over my life and give me a listening heart – a heart of wisdom. Still being a task oriented person, once I’m at work or working on other projects, I can be so absorbed in them that I felt I’ve side-lined God instead of ushering Him in with me. I want to draw near to Him, I pray and read His word everyday but still I felt distant like I’m not involving God as much as I should in my life.
I decided I’m going to spend some quiet time with Him to be closer to Him and let Him refresh my soul everyday but initially it worked but “the Lord” in turn helped bring to my remembrance things that I need to get done or things I could do differently or creatively. After spending a few minutes of “quiet time” I felt so good that I'd done my part to draw near to God that now I can happily get on with my tasks. Soon I treated this “quiet time” like another task to be included on my daily checklist.
Every morning and evening I will pray for me, my family and friends whom I know that need prayers because we all want God to answer our prayers and bless us. It became a routine that as if I don’t ask, I will not get. So it’s more of a prayer of fear of losing or missing out than a prayer of faith that it should be.
This morning it’s different. After many months of praying that I want to draw near to God and obey Him, I received my breakthrough on my way to work. Instead of praying for blessing on me and my loved ones as usual, I began to pray for strangers that I saw out of the window. I prayed sincerely from my heart that God will bless them and encourage them. Whatever that makes them sad, they will find hope and joy again. That they will come to know Him and that God will make them beautiful and acceptable. They will find love and peace again. I prayed for any men or women that caught my attention especially those who looked fierce, serious or distress. I just made a sincere prayer for them as the way I want others to pray for me. Deep inside me, I’ve got a knowing that something is happening in those people whom I’ve prayed for and I receive this satisfaction, joy and love all over again.
All of a sudden, I felt the closeness of God in me and with me. I felt His presence as if He delights in me for praying for others sincerely. I felt the love of God inside of me grows. Then I realised that Jesus loves people of the world by praying constantly for them, apart from spending time with them and eating with them. He even loved those who are unlovely, but His love is empowering and conquers all our imperfections and shortcomings.
By praying for others, especially strangers whom you're prompted to pray for, God's presence draws near because it brings Him great delight.
Let us pray for those who share in our needs, who are in the same situation like us that God will also answer their prayers. Pray earnestly for one another and you’ll come to realise you’re closer to God’s heart and His throne than you could possibly imagined.
By praying for others you’re touching the throne of grace and there’s a smile of delight on our Heavenly Father’s face because we are following the footstep of His beloved Son – Jesus Christ.
John 13
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Everyday I pray that I will draw near to God and that I will know Him more and obey Him. I pray that He will rule over my life and give me a listening heart – a heart of wisdom. Still being a task oriented person, once I’m at work or working on other projects, I can be so absorbed in them that I felt I’ve side-lined God instead of ushering Him in with me. I want to draw near to Him, I pray and read His word everyday but still I felt distant like I’m not involving God as much as I should in my life.
I decided I’m going to spend some quiet time with Him to be closer to Him and let Him refresh my soul everyday but initially it worked but “the Lord” in turn helped bring to my remembrance things that I need to get done or things I could do differently or creatively. After spending a few minutes of “quiet time” I felt so good that I'd done my part to draw near to God that now I can happily get on with my tasks. Soon I treated this “quiet time” like another task to be included on my daily checklist.
Every morning and evening I will pray for me, my family and friends whom I know that need prayers because we all want God to answer our prayers and bless us. It became a routine that as if I don’t ask, I will not get. So it’s more of a prayer of fear of losing or missing out than a prayer of faith that it should be.
This morning it’s different. After many months of praying that I want to draw near to God and obey Him, I received my breakthrough on my way to work. Instead of praying for blessing on me and my loved ones as usual, I began to pray for strangers that I saw out of the window. I prayed sincerely from my heart that God will bless them and encourage them. Whatever that makes them sad, they will find hope and joy again. That they will come to know Him and that God will make them beautiful and acceptable. They will find love and peace again. I prayed for any men or women that caught my attention especially those who looked fierce, serious or distress. I just made a sincere prayer for them as the way I want others to pray for me. Deep inside me, I’ve got a knowing that something is happening in those people whom I’ve prayed for and I receive this satisfaction, joy and love all over again.
All of a sudden, I felt the closeness of God in me and with me. I felt His presence as if He delights in me for praying for others sincerely. I felt the love of God inside of me grows. Then I realised that Jesus loves people of the world by praying constantly for them, apart from spending time with them and eating with them. He even loved those who are unlovely, but His love is empowering and conquers all our imperfections and shortcomings.
By praying for others, especially strangers whom you're prompted to pray for, God's presence draws near because it brings Him great delight.
Let us pray for those who share in our needs, who are in the same situation like us that God will also answer their prayers. Pray earnestly for one another and you’ll come to realise you’re closer to God’s heart and His throne than you could possibly imagined.
By praying for others you’re touching the throne of grace and there’s a smile of delight on our Heavenly Father’s face because we are following the footstep of His beloved Son – Jesus Christ.
John 13
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Friday, 1 August 2014
Delight in His Presence
By Josephine Lim-Weston
I’ve been thinking I want to write, I want to encourage people, I want to reach out to others but all the articles I’ve drafted recently didn’t convince they’re good enough to be sent out hence I asked from the Lord what is it He wants me to write this time, as I don’t believe in writing for the sake of writing. So birth this article that personally had spoken to me and I hope speaks to you too.
Whenever I wake up in the morning the first thing I do is pray. I pray because I believe God can bless me. But I have realised that so often we want God’s blessings but not so much of taking delight of His presence. Where has our first love gone? We have become task-oriented and want to get as many things done as possible and want as many blessings as we can get from God instead of knowing and seeking the Blessor. According to John 15:4 “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me”.
Yes, our God wants to bless and is more than willing to bless us, but much more He wants us to know Him and fellowship with Him. We want to be blessed, we want to see results and most of the time we want instant results from God, but we are not taking time to seek Him, know Him and have fellowship with Him. To know Him is to love Him – “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
Without knowing God personally and understanding His grace, even though we received His blessing, it will be a temporary gratefulness on our part but if we know Him personally and have been in communion with Him, whether our prayers are answered or not, we lead a life of gratefulness towards Him for all that He has blessed us and is going to bless us with.
We will not live life panicky when trials come but we will face it with confident peace and inner joy that give us strength in time of adversity. God will give us the wisdom, peace and patience to overcome. We have that knowledge and understanding that surpass human comprehension. As it says in Philippians 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Our blessings come not depending solely on us or because we ask from God; but real blessing is attached to the source of all blessings who turns out to be Jesus - our ultimate blessing of all blessings, who gives us new life and salvation in Him.
Do you enjoy His presence? Do you spend time talking with Him and let Him minister to you? Are you hurried in reading His word? Praying, reading His word and going to church will not be a task but we’ll find it enjoyable as we delight in His presence. It becomes our life style eventually bearing good fruits through our speech and action.
Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
I’ve been thinking I want to write, I want to encourage people, I want to reach out to others but all the articles I’ve drafted recently didn’t convince they’re good enough to be sent out hence I asked from the Lord what is it He wants me to write this time, as I don’t believe in writing for the sake of writing. So birth this article that personally had spoken to me and I hope speaks to you too.
Whenever I wake up in the morning the first thing I do is pray. I pray because I believe God can bless me. But I have realised that so often we want God’s blessings but not so much of taking delight of His presence. Where has our first love gone? We have become task-oriented and want to get as many things done as possible and want as many blessings as we can get from God instead of knowing and seeking the Blessor. According to John 15:4 “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me”.
Yes, our God wants to bless and is more than willing to bless us, but much more He wants us to know Him and fellowship with Him. We want to be blessed, we want to see results and most of the time we want instant results from God, but we are not taking time to seek Him, know Him and have fellowship with Him. To know Him is to love Him – “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
Without knowing God personally and understanding His grace, even though we received His blessing, it will be a temporary gratefulness on our part but if we know Him personally and have been in communion with Him, whether our prayers are answered or not, we lead a life of gratefulness towards Him for all that He has blessed us and is going to bless us with.
We will not live life panicky when trials come but we will face it with confident peace and inner joy that give us strength in time of adversity. God will give us the wisdom, peace and patience to overcome. We have that knowledge and understanding that surpass human comprehension. As it says in Philippians 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Our blessings come not depending solely on us or because we ask from God; but real blessing is attached to the source of all blessings who turns out to be Jesus - our ultimate blessing of all blessings, who gives us new life and salvation in Him.
Do you enjoy His presence? Do you spend time talking with Him and let Him minister to you? Are you hurried in reading His word? Praying, reading His word and going to church will not be a task but we’ll find it enjoyable as we delight in His presence. It becomes our life style eventually bearing good fruits through our speech and action.
Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
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