Fully Surrendered

The past week has been an unexpectedly relaxing and refreshing week for me. Thank the Lord, for this was what I truly needed, and He provided it just when I needed it most. I realised that our pleads for the Lord to work in us, to change us, and to sanctify us have certainly not fallen upon deaf ears. Yes, though it is partly due to the decisions that we make daily, praise the Lord if we are kept in the center of His perfect will, and waiting on the Lord, He prunes, He trims and He sanctifies us in His perfect timing. Only that we may not be impatient and run ahead of Him, all ye who seeks a life changed by God. Anyway, thank God for the past week which actually is my school's sabbaticals programme. Being co-trainer for one of the course, I have interestingly little responsiblity and work to do. Other than completing assignments that are due to be completed latest by Term 4, I found myself delightfully in much reflection, reading, resting and yes, prayer.

Happened to chance upon a comic a few weeks back, while digging my drawers, about Corrie Ten Boom. Thought it was rather interesting and I borrowed the book The Hiding Place from the Youth Library during Youth Meeting. I read finished the book in about two and a half-days. Haha, I actually FINISHED reading a book! It really was a rather encouraging story about how the Lord used Corrie to fulfill His purpose during WWII. And this I learn, that God's will was indeed our hiding place, our safety and our security, and no other place we could rather be but in His will! Just a side note, that submitting to the Lord's will allows us to be used by Him, even though at times we may be unconcious of it! Moreover, looking at lives of people like Corrie, the rest of the Ten Booms, even of the many great man of God, what Pastor said was so true. They indeed, no matter how great they may be, are servants of the Living God. And all glory be to God and God alone! "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord" Back to where I was, I've learnt through His Spirit's teaching, that God's will is where we ought to be, where we are found most blessed to be.

"There are no 'if's in God's wold. And no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our safety- Oh, Corrie, let us pray that we may always know it!"

To see how the Lord worked wonderfully and miraculously through her life, day after day, despite being persecuted by the Nazi's, and to know how the Lord has been proving Him "o'er and o'er" in my own life, only reiterates the fact that "Blessed is the man whose trust is in the Lord our God!"

Another two recurring themes I'v learnt while reading are the theme on "love" and on "thanksgiving". "In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God, in Christ Jesus for you." This was what the Ten Boom sisters found themselves reading while "suffering" in a Nazi concentration camp. Yet what appears to be the things they couldnt find a reason to be "thankful" for,(and they did so nonetheless), God eventually showed them the reason they ought to praise Him for. On love, how Corrie has learnt to forgive those who has trespass against her and to love not only her friends, not only those she finds on the streets, but also her enemies. "And so I learned that love is larger than the walls that shut it in"

Lastly, something also the Lord impressed upon my heart was the fact that our Father holds back knowledge that may be too heavy for us, and reveals them in His own time. Sometimes I really hope that God would reveal not only His wisdom but also His will to me, but if He withholds them from me, or when I fail to comprehend why He is dong what He is doing, would I not learn to cry "Father, carry it [this knowledge] for me!"

As I read the book by Elizabeth Elliot (one of my fav authors!) on Passion and Purity not only do I learn how to (to quote) "bring your love life under Christ's control" but in fact, challenged to bring my whole life under His control. There are numerous "nuggets of truths" sub by God's Word and Elizabeth's experience with God, too great a no for me to quote them all. But yes, the Lord has been good to reveal precious truths to me.

"let him forsake his all, take up his cross and follow Me.."

Chapter 5- Does God want Everything?

God sifted men's heart in Old testament times.

The time came when God put Abraham to the test. "Abraham," he called, and Abraham replied, "Here am I." God said, "Take your son Issac, your only son, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him as a sacrifice on one of the hills which I will show you." So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his ass.. and set out..

God was still sifting men's heart in New testament times.

... A man came up and asked him, "Master, what good must I do to gain eternal life?" .... Jesus said to him, "If you wish to go the whole way, go, sell you possessions, and give to the poor, and then you will have riches in heven; and come, follow me."

No man is worthy of me who cares more for father or mother than for me; no man is worthy of me who cares more for son or daughter; no man is worthy of me who does not take up his cross and walk in my footsteps. By gaining his life a man will lose it; by losing his life for my sake, he will gain it.

I count everything sheer loss, because all is outweighed by the gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I did in fact lose everything. I count it so much garbage, for the sake of gaining Christ.

Great spiritual principles. Unarguable. To all of them, my intellect gave full consent. A giant of the faith like Abraham or Paul the apostle-- of course, they had to be tested with great tests. was only a college girl (boy), trying to do well in my studies, praying for direction for my life, attracted to a very appealing man whose primary interest was in the Kingdom of God. Anything wrong with that?

"If you wish to go the whole way..." It was not to the intellect alone that the question came. My heart and my feelings were involved now, and I must give an answer. God was sifting me this time. Did I want to go the "whole way"? Yes, Lord.

"Do you want to be worthy of Me?" Yes, Lord.

"Do you want to know Christ Jesus as Lord?" Certainly, Lord.

A reflection of my thoughts penned down by Elliot in her book. It has been really challenging. The thought and challenge posed by God to me for the longest period of time was "forsake his all, take up his cross and follow Me". Was I willing to do that? I know I have been avoiding the question ever since the days they were revealed to me. What is indeed, then, my all? Oh, there is so great amount of stuff I am holding back from the Lord. "Lovest Me more than these?" So does God want everything? Yes, He does. So what are the areas of my life I'm keeping from His loving hands? Thats for me to know and for you to find out! Haha. Nonetheless, with the challenge God lovingly provides the grace and strength to "forsake my all". It takes such faith; I'm trusting the Lord to provided. Yes, it takes so much commitment; He gives the grace will need each day. So the answer it as much as I love the Lord and have yielded to His conviction to surrender, I am so depedant on Him because the moment I lose focus for but a moment, I would tightly cling back these things I need to lay upon His altar.

I feel so perfectly at peace especially when the Lord draws so near and so close. And when I come back to His church to sing, to pray and to fellowship, I feel as if I've tasted a tinge of heaven. Its.. heavenly! Haha. Its really nice to stay very close to God, (only trusting He keeps me close to Him, for I cannot do anything without Him) and Im almost so afraid there will come again when I will forsake "the fountain of living waters, and hewn [myself] cisterns- broken cisterns that can hold no water." Lord, teach me the secret of abiding in You, always.

"His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Reading on the book of 2 Peter, here is an encouragement to myself, as well as all out there who seek to live godly in Christ Jesus, tha having great and precious promises, and being partakers of the divine nature, we have escaped the corruption that is in this world! God promises, futhredown in chapter 2 of 2 Peter that "the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of tempations".

It continues in chapter 2 to show how backslidden Christians are like "a dog [that] returns to his own vomit" "For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledgeof the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment deliver to them"

I've always encouraged myself with the fact that we christians have been "called out from darkness into His marvelous light" and hence should "walk as childrens of the light". "If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation, old things have past away, behold all things have become new" Have we really allowed our flesh to be crucified with its passions and desires? (Galatians) Then let us "Walk in the Spirit, any [we] shall not satisfy the lust of our flesh".

Then, lastly in Second Peter, God talks about Him not being slack with His promise, but longsuffering and patient not willing that any should perish. And that fac that "scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying 'Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.'" But thank the Lord, "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass way with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the words that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God" heh. then, the exhortation: "Therefore beloved, looking forward to these things, be dilligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.. and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

That almost a summary of my learnings this week. It has definitely been thrilling and exciting. So much so that I cant wait to share so much more! But what about when trials and testings as they came in Job's life? Would I be able to be at peace with God when all around me is tumult? May I, may we.. truly... seek to be found submitted and surrendered to the perfect will of God in all of our lives, that we may not be moved and found faithful in the day of His coming! Amen.