There are only two ways to live really, either by sight or by faith. Most times, we fall back on our sight and our senses and give up the confidence we are supposed to have in our God.
What if I distrust God's plans and seek to claim an inheritance for myself before time?
The Prodigal Son went to his father and asked him for his inheritance before the appointed timing.
It is a rejection of God's planned blessing for us.
We are often willful and always want to turn from Him and go our own way, mostly straightaway into sin.
The Lord has so much good in store for us. I wonder how He felt when I went off on a tangent, towards sin and relationships apart from Him. How grieved He must have been, when I had rejected the blessings He was preparing for me.
I have also been too concerned with my individual future and less with His macro purposes that all our lives are a part of. The need for holiness and preparation of the Church is more urgent.
What part may I/ we play in this?
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Another thing I wonder, now with more curiosity; how do you weave two persons into one, and two lives into one?
Why also did God not make the woman in the same way as He made man, but took Adam's rib to make a helper for him? Was God not able to form a woman from dust and breathe life into her nostrils also?
Genesis 2:7
I was telling my sister this over dinner: I think it was for us to love our wives as they were as dear as a part of our own body.
If I cannot love my long lost rib as a part of myself, I cannot move on to love others less dear to me in the fulfillment of His command to love my neighbour as myself.
Whenever I see young parents and young children, I wonder when will it be my turn. In evaluating my readiness, I am still not ready no matter how I think of myself, but I will be in time.
In helping my young friends identify a good and suitable partner to raise a family with, I give you this: if she cannot wake up when she should on a normal day basis, you better think twice. If so, you will likely be the one feeding your baby in the middle of the night all the time. While I write for a male audience, but the reverse is also very true.
Motherly traits are a rarity nowadays, because almost nobody is teaching our young women those things in this generation. Raising children is much more important than physical beauty and vanity. But similarly, few men are interested in the former now.
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In the gym today, one guy came up to me and asked me how I trained my legs (thighs). I was surprised because I was in the middle of my pull-ups and I thought he was asking me where did I get my Vibram Five Finger Shoes. Then I realized he was seeking some tips on how to strengthen his lower body.
I told him to do squats, and he then asked me what could I recommend him to strengthen his ankles.
My previous know-how in the weights room were mostly gone. I was unable to be of much help to him.
All I could tell him was that he could hang around to see because I'd be doing them in a bit.
And I did. Though not as heavy as the picture above.
Squats are important and beneficial for the whole body, because it activates most of the body's biggest muscles. Squatting heavy raises heart rate and the exertion has a huge physiological effect on metabolism and also stimulates the secretion of growth hormone. That's all I can remember.
Now I just think this way: they must be done.
Tan Kah Kee will be gone to Australia for 3 weeks. I wonder who will I be accountable to for my weekly excursions to the weights area. To myself? That would make a decent joke.
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On Friday, I had tried to capture the combined lessons learnt in the months since I came to university into the newest volume of my journal, but I realized that I could not even finish with August. There was too much in a month to even read, much less capture.
I came to university with the Lord, and reading August reminded me of how He has loved me and guarded me. I need to reflect on where I am in time, and in relation to my God and how I have been within His will and His protection. Or how I have removed myself outside of it.
He has given me brothers to fellowship with, whom we may relate with in honesty, sincerity and in truth. I have found people with whom I could be humble and broken with.
He has taught me to rest in His will and become more certain of His character.
In growing more sensitive to His Spirit, I've been taught the importance and relevance of holiness, of keeping oneself in purity, of being submissive to His will and of His goodness and faithfulness. We know it is worthwhile to retain knowledge of the Lord Romans 1:28,
It is better to have a constant diet of the Word and having spent time in prayer before moving out into the world. So many things we partake of and participate in grieve God's Spirit. What are the things we see and read and find funny, and what do we watch and think about?
Everything marked for righteousness and usefulness is under attack. The enemy aims to paralyze every spiritual man on this earth. He seeks to break off those who enjoy the connection with God's Spirit. If we like what the eyes see and do not discipline where we look, we will likely be led to sin.
Ephesians 5
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We must be careful not to slip back into being the natural man who lives by the flesh.
We are to be watchful and prayerful and not fall asleep during our watch.
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There is a need to strengthen my friends who are believers in school for if they are weaker in faith and their foundation in Christ is not strong, they will be swept away by the world.
The world loves to see Christians fall.
Our cultures have diminished and omitted Christ; they aim to make us godless, Christ-less and faithless.
This has always been the trend.
Lastly, can we believe a mere man's testimony about himself?
I had judged others with standards I myself have pretended to have met.
Sometimes I offend God by making requests and then I do not trust Him to deliver.
I have not learnt to rest in the confidence of my Lord's plans. I am fretful, not faithful.
But thankfully, I may know when the love of the Lord grows cold in my heart and go back to ask Him to pour His love by His Spirit into me.
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