Faith in God, a simple and hard truth

I learnt today that having faith and trusting God is the simplest yet most difficult thing to do because it sounds too unbelievably simple for such a complex thing to be handed and put to God.

Example: in the way we live our life, complexity in the way we are faced with problems... Can I simply trust God, and believe that he will provide?

I guess the more simple we hope to be, the harder the challenge to simplify!

When should i Test God

I started this morning with Isaiah 7, and in v.12 I learnt that there are times in our lives that we ought to test God.

Considering the fact that Jesus, during the dessert-days, said that we shall not test God, I'd think twice these days about seeing myself testing God.

Yet the old testament is filled with different people testing God isn't it? From Moses and the burning bush, Elijah and the prophets of baal, and Gideon with the dew, I guess there are many more examples as well.

Question is, when is testing God valid?
I'd like to think that when an element of faith is at stake, and where faith is to be increased, testing God may seem quite scary. Scary not because of the result, but how my responses should be with those results.
On the other extreme, we may be testing God daily in our lives...
Eg. When waiting for public transport, we'd say: God please, 1 taxi or get the bus here soon. I'll promise to be holy and do my quiet time longer tomorrow. Or things like our jobs or praying for health...

I will think through what test do I want God to prove to me, for the increment of my faith...soon!

Getting to know God deeper

I realized how lacking in depth my relationship with God has been. Being stagnant in knowledge of God's character really doesn't help...

I see my faith dwindling away as imaginations and emotions start taking over reasons and belief. Perhaps it's time to re-discover new characteristics about God which I have overlooked.

I was taught by a visiting preacher that the book of psalms was written from man to God, depicting the passion and emotions of the people in those days towards God. Therefore, I'd safely assume that the prophets would be the book that God would be saying to the people! If I read and meditate on the book of the prophets, I guess I would then be able to know God's heart and character better!

I'd be starting with Isaiah.. Then Minor prophets...

Forgiveness, then reconcilliation. Next, resolution

An incident occurred a while back about how a friend reacted with another friend's response to an event. While both of them were striving to do what is right, and none of them sees themselves in the wrong, I guess the goal wouldn't be to point out who is right or wrong. Not to figure out who is more wrong either.

Wouldn't it be wiser to look at whether I can be more Christlike-thus be more merciful?

Because the goal isn't to be more right, rather to be more Christlike. That's why we strive to do what is right in the 1st place!

So we may have forgiveness.. Reconciliation may take place; but resolution... None whatsoever. Will life necessarily always turn out to be better when resolution happens? I guess it depends...

Lesson learnt! :)

Lesson about God: Precision

Precision in Details, with sense.

Exodus 25, 26
it's pretty amazing to see how God gave exact details to the things he'd like to see it done. I wonder if the people back then would make mistakes, careless or sloppy, in the process of building the things as required. How would they be 'punished' or expected to fix the mistakes?

Having thought all these, if we human beings are created in the image of God, wouldn't it make perfect sense that we are designed to do things with precision. When we like certain food for eg. We'll like it done in a certain way, served a certain manner and presented in a certain way..

The problem in us, is drawing the limit (in being sensical) and the actions we take when realizing that our requirements don't go as planned.

Knowing it's a human problem with a godly design, I realize the need to be precise, as part of the design, yet understand the human limitations in consistency. I have yet to come to terms with laziness though. Is it the bi-product of our productivity and efficiency? Because laziness do have a direct impact with the desire to being precise...

Learning to Tread on the Grey Areas of our Lives

I learnt last-night that everyone has grey areas in their lives that requires an answer to. For me, grey areas in my life will be:
1) If working in my workplace is ordained by God and it's a marketplace ministry involvement, then, how do I balance responsibilities against church related ministries?
2) Is life too complicated for me?
3) Who and how do I define my best friends?
4) Am I really working too hard?
5) How many kids should I have in future?
6) How much money should I keep in my bank account? When will it be enough?

Many at times, when logic doesn't come in direct interpretation, the only way I can get answers from will be through feelings. God doesn't give us feelings for no-reasons right?

But I learnt that apart from the look of people having it all 'well' on the outside, many of 'these' questions still lingers in their minds without any answers. For some, it's put aside and ignored, for some, they face head-on in search for answers.

Well, I believe and learnt we can still exists without having all the questions in our life answered. For some of which we aren't suppose to know, answering usually lead to more deep/'requires-much-thinking' kind of answers.

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Learnt something about the Patriach of the Jews today:

Father Abraham!

Few of Noah's descendants served God. Out of all the peoples on earth, God called Abram. Like all the biblical heroes, Abram sinned. Yet because of his faith, God would declare him righteous. Abram strove to obey God.

Truly, this shows how important it is to:
1) Obey God
2) Have Faith

when everything fails, just do this 2, things may continue to go wrong, but in God's eyes, I believe you'll be walking on water..

Learning to be strong and fighting against satan's weapons

Tonight I observed and discovered something about my relationship with my girl-friend.

There seems to be times which each of us are down and we stood by for one another with cheerful attitude and being positive.

Last night, was one of it. I encountered mixed feelings. On one hand I do feel that giving may sometimes mean 'un-appreciatedness' or 'being taken advantage' or even harboring unfair feelings.

I believe that's the price of love. I learnt last-night that those were opportunities for me to be strong and provide support. I never realized that 'joy' is also a form of support.

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I also learnt today about being envious with the world. The devil really have means and ways to tempt christians, even with methods from within, to shaken one's convictions and beliefs through influences of modernization in society and cultural beliefs.

Should the church be influenced by cultural and social developments, which in-turn create an impact on our beliefs as a Christian? Is it really necessary to adapt, or do we have to conform.

The weapons of satan, against christians today, I learnt, is in the subtleness of what we see, hear and do, which affects us from within. You may not believe me if you're struggling with things that is visible. But to those who are fighting against what's inside our heart, it's so easy to fall into:
1) bitterness
2) conceit/jealousy
3) greed
4) pride

I guess my prayers have recently been answered. New lessons in my life will now change into my battle plans against these newly acquired-faith testing damages that is to come.