Devotional #1

GOD IS GREATER
By KPM   “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them;
because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” – 1 John 4:4   When I was five or six years old, there was something I was afraid of. I was afraid of being locked in a store after closing. Many times, my family would be in National Book Store until closing time. The gates would come crashing down and the lights would be slowly turned off. And I remember being so afraid.

“I am afraid.”

How many times have we said that in our hearts? It doesn’t seem to matter how old we get, there is always something that we are afraid of. It might be confronting a friend about a sin issue. It might be sharing a struggle with your discipler. It might even be just the fear of sharing your faith. We stare at the problem and feel overwhelmed. “I don’t think I can do it,” we may say.

What do we look to? Who do we look to? I remember every time the National Book Store would close, I would grab on to my parents and stay beside them. I knew, even as scared as I was, that everything would be okay as long as I was with them. I always turned to them.

In the same way, when we face a difficult situation in life, we must remind ourselves who is with us. We are not alone. God is with us because we are His children. We should stop looking at the problem and start looking at our Lord. For Jesus has already overcome the world. He is greater than any problem or any struggle or any person in the world. Jesus has already overcome sin and death. Our Messiah is greater than anything the devil can throw at you. We must remember that God is with us all the time and all we have to do is follow Him and trust Him. The LORD will fight for us, He will protect us. Even in the storm, we know that He is stronger and that we can have peace when we know we are walking with Him.

So take heart, for greater is our Lord who is in you than he who is in the world. God is your refuge. May you find peace in Him as you obey His will in your life.

Fell asleep

Had such a great birthday weekend. I ended up falling asleep on the couch. Sleeping on the couch is a beautiful thing.

Sent from my Windows Phone

Walking on water or entering the promised land?

Sink or swim?  Maybe it might be time to walk on water.

Giants?  Our God is bigger than the giants in the promised land. 

This may be it already.  Definitely going to be writing a blog a day this week.  Have to.  Have to do it.  I wonder how many people actually read this blog?

Reminder

I KNOW I POSTED SOMETHING LIKE THIS BEFORE, BUT IT'S A REMINDER TO ME AND HOPEFULLY TO SOME OTHERS OUT THERE...

"There are bigger things happening here than me and you." - Peter Parker

Got reminded today that as many things that are going on in my life right now that I have to work on or focus on, they pale in comparison to all the things that my friends and sisters and brothers are going through. There are people who are hurting. Sometimes we need to be there for them and pray for them rather than worrying about what we are going through.

"Once again, you think it's all about you." - Magneto

Love God. Love others. It's not about numbers. How do you measure a year? In sunsets? In minutes? In cups of coffee? By episodes of a TV shows? By heart aches? Maybe it would be nice for a change to measure the year by the victories we experience in Christ, by remembering how He has overcome and that we can overcome through Him. But that means living for Jesus alone and following Christ completely. Even at cost.

(paraphrase cause I want to try to do it from memory)
Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

We live for Jesus. And we show people we are living for Christ by how we treat others around us.

(paraphrase again cause I want to do this from memory)
Jesus also said that, "A new command I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, so you should love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples - if you have love for one another."

Being Loyal...

So I just spend way too much money today on a haircut. You see, over the past several months, I've been trying out different barbershops because the barber we normally go to is all the way in Megamall.  So I've been trying these other places in Robinsons so it will save me time.  I honestly don't know why I saw my hair quality as a worthy exchange for not having to walk the 15min to Megamall.  Every time I try these other shops, I always end up having a less than favorable haircut.

Today, I really wanted to get a nice haircut because it's going to be my birthday and it's important that I look good.  I already have what I'm going to wear all laid out (yes, I actually have done that), and I just need the hair.  So I decided to treat myself to a haircut at a well known "salon for men".  And they told me the haircut I wanted wouldn't work, so they suggested another one.  I said, sure, they should know what they are doing after all, they are the experts.  Then they cut my hair.  It looked...okay. But the more I looked in the mirror after I paid a big amount for the haircut, the more I realized that it wasn't....working.  It was the "messy" look, which I didn't want. 

Where did I turn?  To the barber who has cut my hair since Spider-man 2 came out.  Yes.  Spider-man 2.  That's how long June has been my barber...until recently.  I went to him in Megamall and showed him my hair and he frowned seeing the mess that was made.  "June, I need you, please fix my hair."  And then he fixed it up and made it nice.  While he was cutting my hair and fixing it up, I was thinking to myself, why do I go to other guys?  Why do I try other barbers when this barber that I trust has NEVER given me a bad haircut. Ever.

In the same way, we do this with God so many times.  We grow tired of always walking the Christian life, thinking it is more exciting somewhere else.  They are having fun over there, we think, why am I still here?  God hasn't given me that exciting thing that I wanted, so I'll go there where I can get it.  Just like me thinking I could get a more exciting hair cut elsewhere.  So we leave God and stop trusting in Him because we think that we know better and someone else or something else can provide better. 

And then when the other thing fails, we don't run back to God, we keep going to other things.  When we are at our worst, paying the price of living a life apart from God (to which Lewis said that God cannot give you any goodness apart from him because it doesn't exist), that's when we run to Him again and say, "God, save me, I need you, please fix my life."  And God just shakes his head lovingly and fixes us up.  And then we wonder why we ever wandered in the first place.

Hopefully, I stay loyal to my barber now and stop going to other places, and more importantly, trust in God rather than in other things.