Hey everyone, it's been a long time ever since I saw e blog with a new post.
I had decided to post again is because I felt that it's a time where I share God's word with everyone again. Of course, it's done with a heart of thanksgiving, there are wonderful testimonies that I have to share, because I believe that whatever He had bless us with, we should always give thanks no matter what circumstances we are facing in our lives, we should always open up our heart to His word, so that more of His miracles and works can be done in our lives. In the bible, it states that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”-James 1:17-18
I believe that the first step to waiting a miracle from Him, is to trust and have faith in Him. For it's faith in Jesus that make us children of the living God. Certain times, when we are betrayed by our friends, we know that God's will is for us to forgive, but deep down in our hearts, our spirit is filled with anger, anguish and hurt that we are unwilling to release.
Firstly, it is largely because we don't understand what is forgiveness, that's why we don't know how to forgive that resulted in us not wanting to forgive. But the word of God had said and commanded us to forgive anyone who had hurt us or criticizes us, and it not only said to forgive, but forgive immediately, or even bless that other one who had hurt you in one way or the other.
Forgiveness and trust is 2 different things, we can forgive immediately, but trust from others or your trust towards others had to be gained or earned. I always could not understand or differentiate what these 2 things mean, till I read it in a book which is used for our cell group discussion right now, "The purpose-driven life", that I fully realized the true meaning behind each word. By differentiating and understanding between the two words, forgiveness and trust will definitely be beneficial for every one of us, because there are so many things in life that we can't predict or control. Humans tend to be negative, selfish and demanding, this is an undeniable fact that both you and I can't escape from. We might not be selfish, negative, but in us there's definitely something that others can't tolerate. We are imperfect ourselves, but certain times we expect others to be perfect, isn't humans weirdoes?
We want our friends to be faithful, helpful, our parents to be understanding and loving, but think and consider for a moment, are we faithful, helpful, understanding and loving to the people around us? Have you been a good buddy to your friend, a good child to your parents? Are there times where you yourself had failed them? How do you feel? This is something that is very secret that only you yourself know, and most of times we won't want people around us to know, so that we can maintain the positive image of ourselves in their hearts.
I believe that you will want to take some time to reflect about certain things that we expects ourselves to do, some values that we will want to commit yourselves to. Certain times we want to change, but does not how to go about doing it. I had been through such situation as well and I think most of the times, people do went through it, but if today you are determined that you will want to change and make a difference, I’m sure that you will be able to do it! But do you first believe that you can? If you think you are ready, I will start sharing the differences between forgiveness and trust.
Forgiveness is to let go of any hurt that a person had inflicted on you, especially your close ones, certain times only forgiveness to others will ensure that we ourselves are release. Often, we are too busy hating others that we suppressed ourselves, inflicting much more "injuries" in our heart. If you believe Him, then let Go, then you can let God, entrust God to do even more in your life. For example, if one day you own a house and hired a famous designer to decorate your house so that it will look impressive, but when the designer starts generating ideas for your house, you comment that his design for the kitchen looks terrible, colour for the background in the living room is too dull, putting that paint in your room will destroy the whole perfect atmosphere and so on…we have first allowed and asked the designer to do up the house for us, but have we allowed him the freedom and space to let his creative juices flows. If we did not give him a chance to do it, how do we know that it will not work out? Besides, he is someone reputable for such job! Now think back again. Isn’t that the same case with our Daddy above? He is our creator, He is God and that’s why He does not make mistakes because He can’t! He is perfect, holy, and righteous! When we face circumstances in our life, there’s always a tendency for us to take life into our own hands, thinking that we know what is best for us. Since we have first make the decision to surrender our lives to Him, should not we play our part to obey and follow His instructions, to allow Him to have more room to do more great works in our lives? Unless we place that complete trust and faith in Him, or else we can’t possibly be waiting for any miracles to happen! Remember He is the one and only person that creates miracles and all good works are from Him, because He is God-that’s why He is in control of all things and make no mistakes!
However, friends, don’t be fooled!! Trusting means that you believe with all yr heart, the person that you share things with. Trust has to be earned. You can forgive someone immediately, but it doesn’t mean that you need to trust that person immediately. Allow me to give you another example. For instance, if one day you had shared something that has always been staying closest to your heart, to a best friend, but unfortunately he disclose it to another person. He even went to an extent to tell everyone that he knows. He had made you embarrassed, had made you lost all the pride, all the trust for him and let you feel humiliated-not respected as a friend. At that moment, very naturally, the first reaction will be to hate him, never want to have any ties with him anymore and you will even want to take revenge-by hitting him, pay back evil for evil. Friends, bear in mind and tell God: “Father in Heaven, your grace is sufficient for me, by your grace, I will forgive him just as you had forgiven me as a sinner and even redeemed me with your one and only son, Christ Jesus. Amen.” Remember, Jesus did not commit any sins, but He was rejected, cursed, humiliated, and shamed just because of you and me!! Now you had only been through such situations, but how about this man who did nothing wrong but was condemned, going through pains that He could be freed from. If you don’t forgive this person who had done wrong to you, God can don’t forgive you as well! We have sinned; we can’t deny the very fact that we are imperfect in many ways. We need His grace and desires to be forgiven, in the same way, that friend desire your forgiveness too!
Contrary to that, if the person continually betray your trust (which you still need to forgive every time), but remember trust works both ways. You trust the person because he had proved to you that he is worthy of that trust. You will need to work for that trust. You can’t be walking up to a stranger and tell him or her everything about your personal life. But only your close ones will know. However, when a stranger accidently bumped into you and all your files dropped onto the floor, when he apologized, you will still forgive him right? Do it in the same way!
I guess I know why sometimes we find it hard to; even I myself had times that I struggled with too. Reason is usually because we had committed ourselves to the friend and trusted them so much, but suddenly when things take a turn, we feel like we have been taken for granted and not being respected. To humans, respect is really a priority. Why people strive to earn so much money, is because they want to get respected by people. Why people go after material things like branded clothes, it is because of pride (which is because they don’t want to be looked down). Why people drive their children to get good grades, it is because they do not want to “lose face”. There are a lot a lot more examples if you take a careful notice again. But people are creatures that really desire to be respected, to be treasured and to be recognized. It also takes me a long long time to cast away all the pride to burry the hatchet with my friends. There is always thoughts that says: “it is not my fault, why must I take the first step to say sorry to them, they also have a part to play and they had hurt me too.” Guys, don’t have to escape anymore, the fact is that He desires peacemaker. Everyone love peace and want peace, but as His children, we have been entrusted the responsibility to spread the love, the joy and the peace that He had placed into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And now, it is time for us to learn to stand in the gap and draw the “lost sheep” back to the shepherd.
Read Romans 12, you will understand what I mean.
