Pause
It’s been a while that I haven’t updated my blog. The whole June has been a hectic one. From Hokkaido to Vancouver and flying to Bangkok this Thursday, all these travellings has put me to an unsettled state of mind. I learnt a lot from the MDRT Annual Meetings, gained so much from the trip in Hokkaido and experienced a lot from The Village. Yet, it is just too overwhelming. I feel like I am being drained to the level that I can no longer give. And as I feel mentally tired, temptation sneaks into my life. Instead of turning to God, I focus on digging into reasoning my tiredness. I think I was tired. And that thinking makes me even more tired. Whenever I feel tired at night, I would be easily exposed to temptations of spending long hours browsing Facebook and ending up feeling not enough. Then I realised I need a PAUSE!
Watch Out
To have the will to change is easy. Everyone wants to change. Yet it is hard to persist in the stage of changing. It is a continual battle against our old pattern of life. Having the will to change is never enough when our body is weak. The failure to change follows after the good intention to change always makes us feel guilty and weak. And that guilt is what our enemy tries to make use of so as to separate us from God. ‘The secret to temptation: Don’t fight it. Just refocus. Whatever you resist persists.’ Instead of analysing where all those temptations come from, figuring ways to fight against them, God asked us to refocus on his promises. Psalm 119:6, “Thinking about your commands will keep me from doing some foolish thing”. It’s been a while that I haven’t updated my blog. I have been easily tempted to ‘write this blog later’. And then all the ‘write this blog later’ piles up. It’s been a whole month since I wrote my last blog post. There is a great calling for me to persist and restart this again as I know how people could be encouraged by reading my blog. This is one of the ways that I could glorify God. And this is also a way that I love my neighbours.
My #1 Spiritual Gift- Pastoring
This morning, I redo my spiritual gifts test (http://www.spiritualgiftstest.com). The test result stays quite the same as my last result. This is a way that I learn how God wants to use me as his sheep. I am very thankful that Appa always uses creative ways to renew my heart, to rethink my faith, to reflect my spiritual journey. Another new journey begins as my care group kicked off, may strength and your goodness be with me so that I would bring the Good News to more people.
The spiritual gift of pastor or pastor/shepherd is one that carries many different responsibilities. This gift is closely related to the spiritual gifts of leadership and teaching. The Greek word for pastor is Poimen and simply means shepherd or overseer.
In the Biblical context, shepherds had several different responsibilities to their sheep and ultimately, to the owner of the sheep. They kept a lookout for predators and protected the sheep from attackers. They cared for wounded and sick sheep, nursing them back to health. They rescued them if they became lost or trapped. They spent enormous amounts of time with them guiding them to the places of nourishment and rest. The result was a trust and relationship that kept the sheep following the shepherd. The sheep were attuned to the shepherd’s voice to the point that even if they were temporarily mixed with another herd, at the call of the shepherd they would separate and follow him.
LOL- Love Our Lord & Laugh Out Loud
“Everything seems right again & all the broken pieces have been put together forming a whole new beautiful picture of me through Christ,” I said to Pastor A when we met. Meeting with Pastore A makes me rethink my faith a lot. I realised how much I have been trying to control the situation. But it leads me to nowhere. It is when we least prepared that we experience God’s power. I still remembered when my sisters and I were planning for the care group, we struggled a lot in choosing the name. We have come up with GLOW- God lights our way. But the name is taken. I was quite upset about it. And God comes up with a better name! My sister L suggested to use LOL- Love Our Lord and it also means to ‘Laugh Out Loud’. This is so meaningful! And it reminds us of God whenever we type ‘LOL’ in WhatsApp. LOL is so blessed by God that everything’s been going so smooth! We settled at the right place with the right persons and at the right timing! God is at work. Love it!
An ordinary girl walks with an extraordinary God. 