God recently reminded me of a small prayer topic I had two years ago. Well, it was something that I thought was something small, but looking back, God taught me so much through this simple question I had for him.
Flashback to two years ago:
I knew my name was Grace and I knew that God's grace was important, but I didn't really understand what it meant. There's the famous song "Amazing Grace," written about God's amazing grace. I heard of people talk about God's grace throughout my life. Despite all this, I didn't really understand what grace meant or what having grace meant.
From then on, God began to teach me about His heart and His grace for people. As I began to accept His grace over my life, I learned (I'm still learning) to show grace to people. Showing grace is accepting people despite their weaknesses and faults. It's continuing to love despite how difficult it is. Receiving grace is getting what I don't deserve at all. God is full of grace. God knows all my faults, mistakes, and weaknesses. Yet, he welcomes me into his presence. Despite my impurities, He loves me.
Today I finished writing up a homework assignment I have been working on for a very long time on Microsoft Word. For some reason, the document itself wasn't saving although I kept pressing "save as" and gave it several different names. I even opened up a new document and copied and pasted the document on it. After several attempts, I assumed that at least one copy should have been saved. So I closed all the documents and pressed "don't save" for all the documents. (You can probably sense where this story is going.) Then I opened the document and...realized it only saved the a copy I had of it from yesterday. I couldn't even open a file from "recently saved" because for some reason it didn't save! In that moment, I asked God, "God please show me grace." Then I remembered I had just copied the whole document using command + C. So I opened another Word document and pressed command + V. Then what I had been working on for a few hours came up. Phew. Thank God!
And God keeps showing His grace over my life.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Here
I am exactly where God wants me to be.
God has been reassuring me this past week that He placed me where I am at this time for a reason. Sometimes in the midst of difficulties, I forget that God wants the best for me. He doesn't give me everything that I want because it isn't the best for me at this time. In times of difficulties and discomforts, I question if I am supposed to be where I am. Yet, again and again, God keeps blessing me without me doing anything. And this is His Grace over my life. It has nothing to do with what I do, but it has everything to do with what He does. I did nothing that made me deserve to be saved by God.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9
One thing that was difficult for me adjusting to college was the realization that I cannot spend as much time with my friends as I wanted to. I randomly see a lot of people throughout my day, but unless I make the conscious effort to meet up with them, it's hard to really spend time with them. I also think I had a hard time just being alone, but now it's like the norm. Through this, God has been teaching me to just lean on Him. He's all that I need. Everyone has their own schedules and businesses to get through. The only one who can help me in all circumstances is God. The past month, I've been just clueless, trying to figure out a lot of things in college - how to study, how to manage my classes, finding time to relax, etc. When I was clueless, all I could do was to cry out to God, knowing that He heard my prayers.
And He did hear my prayers! God is Sovereign and so faithful.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing." - Psalm 23:1
As Jesus, our shepherd, we lack nothing. No strength, wisdom, or knowledge. In Him, we can find our strength, wisdom, knowledge, etc.
God has been reassuring me this past week that He placed me where I am at this time for a reason. Sometimes in the midst of difficulties, I forget that God wants the best for me. He doesn't give me everything that I want because it isn't the best for me at this time. In times of difficulties and discomforts, I question if I am supposed to be where I am. Yet, again and again, God keeps blessing me without me doing anything. And this is His Grace over my life. It has nothing to do with what I do, but it has everything to do with what He does. I did nothing that made me deserve to be saved by God.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9
One thing that was difficult for me adjusting to college was the realization that I cannot spend as much time with my friends as I wanted to. I randomly see a lot of people throughout my day, but unless I make the conscious effort to meet up with them, it's hard to really spend time with them. I also think I had a hard time just being alone, but now it's like the norm. Through this, God has been teaching me to just lean on Him. He's all that I need. Everyone has their own schedules and businesses to get through. The only one who can help me in all circumstances is God. The past month, I've been just clueless, trying to figure out a lot of things in college - how to study, how to manage my classes, finding time to relax, etc. When I was clueless, all I could do was to cry out to God, knowing that He heard my prayers.
And He did hear my prayers! God is Sovereign and so faithful.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing." - Psalm 23:1
As Jesus, our shepherd, we lack nothing. No strength, wisdom, or knowledge. In Him, we can find our strength, wisdom, knowledge, etc.
"In Your presence I lack nothing,
You're all I want and you are here with me."
(The NIV 2011 version reminds me of "Taste and See")
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Break Every Chain
We've been studying the book of John for the past month of Sunday Worship Services and wow, it's so good!
"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of light." - John 8:12
"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'" - John 8:31
Later on, Jesus says "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
Listening to these verses just sounds really good. These are verses that I've heard countless number of times while growing up. Of course, Jesus is the light of the world! And of course the truth will set me free. But then I thought about it. What do I need to be set free from? When Jesus died on the cross for my sins, he took care of it all, but God has been revealing to me that there are things that I subconsciously was holding onto. For my gems100 class, we watched this Ted Talk on false memory and it really reveals how the enemy can implant lies in you! The line that caught my attention from the talk was when she said that your memory is like Wikipedia. You can go back and change it and others can go back and change it as well. It's really interesting if you want to listen to it.
God is continually changing me, but there's a part of me that holds onto who I was before. I realized that by holding onto these lies, it prevents me from being able to see who I am now and who God is making me to be. I didn't realize how much of my past mentality affects my actions today, but I think it really does. For example, I just have this mentality that I am really shy and timid, but that was how I used to be, not who I am now. And this really does affect the way I approach people or greet someone new. Jesus said "the truth will set you free" and by truth, meaning himself. Jesus has the power to break all these holds the enemy has over us!
"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of light." - John 8:12
"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'" - John 8:31
Later on, Jesus says "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
Listening to these verses just sounds really good. These are verses that I've heard countless number of times while growing up. Of course, Jesus is the light of the world! And of course the truth will set me free. But then I thought about it. What do I need to be set free from? When Jesus died on the cross for my sins, he took care of it all, but God has been revealing to me that there are things that I subconsciously was holding onto. For my gems100 class, we watched this Ted Talk on false memory and it really reveals how the enemy can implant lies in you! The line that caught my attention from the talk was when she said that your memory is like Wikipedia. You can go back and change it and others can go back and change it as well. It's really interesting if you want to listen to it.
Sometimes I think that if it's God's will, God will easily just hand it to you. But then, this is not true. I'm learning that even if it's God's will, he wants us to work hard for it because by working hard for it, we will learn to value what he has given us. Although this is only the beginning of a long journey of school, I am trying to work really hard. But I need to lean on Him because I cannot do this on my own! I pray that this will all be for God's glory.
In YDJ we are covering different topics each week with the theme "What does a Christian look like?". Two weeks ago, Fred led the discussion on the Holy Spirit and I learned that the Holy Spirit is a person. I want to have a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit because through His power, Jesus rose from the dead! How amazing is that? We have the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead living in us. This perspective changes everything.
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