the sinner seek devotion.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Matthew 16:24-25

We are prepared to serve the Lord only by sacrifice. We are fit for the work of God only when we have wept over it, prayed about it, and then we are enabled by Him to tackle the job that needs to be done. May God give to us hearts that bleed, eyes that are wide open to see, minds that are clear to interpret God’s purposes, wills that are obedient, and a determination that is utterly unflinching as we set about the tasks He would have us do.

Alan Redpath

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.

Luke 7:47

The optimist says, the cup is half full. The pessimist says, the cup is half empty. The child of God says; My cup runneth over.

Anonymous

Recently, I’ve been sitting down more frequently to ponder about how my future’s gonna be like. You know, much like planning the ‘where’ and ‘how’ to get there. By the time I got done with all my worrying, I realised I left something out of the entire equation.

I left God out.

I think it’s so true of human nature (or maybe it’s just me…) to have control. I think we’ve this intrinsic, primitive need to seize control of what we don’t have, to conquer and to dominate. To keep things simple, we just want to have a say in the way things happen. Well, reasonably, we might not always have it our way (unless you’re at burger king lol) But we’d always find ways to make sure our opinions are aired. Be it through public discussions, secret blog entries, or enslaving the people around you to your own opinions. I’m sure people who’ve done some form of project work can identify (ie. militant group leaders, authoritative, dictatorship-style)

I’m not sure if this makes any sense, but from what I’ve observed from my surroundings, I reckon there are some truths that humans indeed are dominant creatures, or at least creatures that crave dominance. The next time you’re out, just pay a little attention to the way people behave. Look at the way people stand on escalators, how they stretch out their arms to hold both sides of the handrails, watch the way people sit on chairs and put their arms around the empty chair next to them and at the same time putting one leg over the other. These may just be harmless idiosyncracies of individuals, but I’m not dismissing the possibility of physical manifestation of one’s personality.

In planning my next move, I’ve left out the One who made it possible for me to even have the ability to plan. When we look at our future and we balance our choices with the amount of uncertainties we might face, we find ourselves scrambling to find a steady ground to gather our thoughts. The future’s scary, after all, no one can predict exactly what’s gonna take place tomorrow. I mean, no one really expected those supposedly and historically-proven financial institutes to crumble. I think Mr Buffet puts it aptly,

“If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians”

The beckoning question is hence: why aren’t you putting your investment where there are guranteed returns? I say, put it in God’s kingdom, put it in the lives that matter. Don’t worry about where the future may lead, leavelive your principle sumlife (woah ho, pun) with God. Let me work, and let God worry.

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”

Proverbs 16:9

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 19:21

God, help me differentiate the necessary concerns from the unnecessary worries.