Facing hard times in your life?

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 

(1 Samuel 16:7)

I used to be a person when comes to facing trials in life or when things do not fall into places according to plan, I will feel like the world around me has shattered and I have come towards the end of the world. But the Lord has taught me something throughout these trials, to be stronger not only mentally but also stronger in our faith so that we are  prepared to face a stronger storm in future. 

I have learnt that some of the hardest times in our lives can be the best because they prove who we are today. It proves that whether we are a kind of person that will run to God or away from Him when the going gets tough. When we run to God, we will find the comfort we need and also discover who we are, the precious child of the living God.

A good example in the bible that explains the stress and strain of suffering making one person into a strong and powerful man of faith in 1 Samuel. The same can be true to all of us, a child of God will always look at things that come to him as an opportunity to get stronger. It takes alot of exercise of faith to make us stronger. We must always put in mind that the tests and trials we are going through today will shape us into who we are tomorrow. So do you want to be a victim or a victor of trials? You can take your time to think this through.

If don't want to fall into the victim of trials in life then don't run in fear the next time suffering comes knocking on your door but brace ourselves and face it and take its arrival as an opportunity to shape us with the help of our Abba Father. Always put in mind that He is always right there to hold our hands and to pull us up whenever we fall. His love for us is incomparable with the earthly love and it's impossible that He will put us into a test that we can't carry.

When you lose someone dear to your heart...

But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God."

Ruth 1:16

I still remember during my teen years I felt like my life looks like it's over when I found out that my dad has moved on. Every evening he'll be found in the living room when I'm back from school but now things had change. I felt like I've lose my closest friend and companion, my world seems to be empty and there is no one to pull me back up when my life is full of challenges and nobody is there to hold me when I'm feeling down. 

Things eventually gets better when I welcome Jesus into my life. He is the one that is always there to always pick me up when everything around me doesn't seem right and He is always the one with arms open ready to comfort me whenever I needed someone by my side. He helps me to let go off my past and pick up myself and move on. Of course, all these did not happen overnight! It takes a few years for me to understand the love of our Abba Father and to let go off my earthly dad. 

I always like the character of Ruth. When she has lost someone she loves the most, she just got up and get going and no matter how hard the journey is, she would not walk away nor give up. Instead of staying in her comfort zone with her family, she decided to leave Moab with Naomi having her full confidence in a God she barely knew and willingness to do whatever her mother-in-law asked her to do. Her faithfulness finally gave Ruth a brand new life. A life that is way better than her previous one.

From the life of Ruth, I've learnt that when all things doesn't seem right or when your dreams have been destroyed and it makes you felt like you are in a dead end; the only way is to focus our eyes on the God who will never let us down. Of course when we are at our worst situations, we may think that following God rather that our feelings seems impossible. We have to always remember how Ruth decided to follow God even though she is uncertain about what is going to happen next. 

We may not know what is going to happen when we put our faith in God but we will definitely know that something good is coming around like how Christ has transformed my life and sets me free from the bondage. 

Are you waiting for a sign from God?

Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised-look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said."

Judges 6:36-37

After reading this particular verse, it is like a wake up call from God. Have you ever been in a situation whereby you put God into a test. It might not be something as big as saving Israel but the little things that we did  but we are unaware of it. Okay, you might not get what I'm trying to say, let me put it this way, have any of you felt like you are standing at the crossroad when God asked you to do something but you are still waiting for proof or a sign?

Like Gideon, God comes to him several times and tells him what he wants him to do. But Gideon like many of us nowadays still asked from God a sign or reassurance that what God asked him to do is really what God wants him to do. Most of the time, the action of demanding for signs come out of fear and fear is something that is not of God. As a child of God, we should not have any question that following the word of God is the right direction for our lives.

We have to always reflect on our actions so that we will not do something that put God to some kind of test like making him perform a miracle sign in front of you to prove Himself to you. In fact, the only sign we all really need is the sign of his Word. Whatever that is stated in the his Word is true and doesn't need more proof. Therefore, if God is asking us as his children to do something through his word then we have to do it immediately. I really like this quote from Hayley Dimarco, "To demand some kind of a sign first cheapens the word of God."