Deacon Hui Zhen - 16 April 2015
Apart From God, We Have No Good Thing
It’s plain truth that everyone has needs or desire. While we don’t find ourselves lacking of money to buy the bare necessities, lacking of place to sleep, or lacking of clothes to wear; sometimes we do feel the need to have something else: - we desire to be happy in life, in our work, in our family and among our friends. Sometimes it just doesn't come to us, and we’re troubled by them instead - we want to be freed of troubles and challenges, because they cause us a lot of inconveniences, making us having to do something outside of our comfort zone, or potentially shortchange us. Sometimes we wish certain things never happen, so that we can go ahead with our planned schedules, but it just aren’t like this in real life - and it is also true that we desire to love and be loved by people — but sometimes, when facing this real issue of the heart affair, we do not know if we should heed it, or reject it. we sense that we need it, but we do not know if it is correct to need it - sometimes, we desire to be understood by others - especially our family, our good friends and our co-workers, especially when we do or haven't done certain things - some people, and i believe a lot of people who are serving God, desire to serve God and bear fruits of their serving, so that they can be encouraged to go on. - we need to quit doing certain bad habits - it could be smoking, it could be drinking, gaming, or some sorts of bad habits, but sometimes knowing this need is good, we still can’t bring ourselves into doing it. Sometimes, having certain desires met, for eg, you’ve gotten the recognition.. you thought you need it, but while you’re happy for a shortwhile, very quickly, you realise that you are trapped in another cycle of struggling to keep up with that need… and eventually, finding ourselves losing all our joy and in a discontented state. And have you ever asked yourself, your heartfelt need today (whether is the desire to be recognised by your bosses & colleagues, the desire to have a spouse, the list goes on…) is it truly what you need today?
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Sufferings in the Presence of Divine Relationship
What really torments a Christian during sufferings? There are countless answers to this question. Yet, the most direct and underlying reason behind this torment is a Christian’s “sense of abandonment”. It simply feels like, “NO ONE is on my side anymore. No one can understand or can help me. Even God has forsaken me because of my sins and mistakes. I am left alone to face the frightening consequences.” Truly, when we accept such deceptive voices into our spirit, every twinge of pain seems punitive and endless. We will try to make sense of everything except the love of God.
In the Bible, even the blameless Job could not make any sense of his sufferings. Therefore, God, in one of His greatest revelations, has given us <Romans 8>. This glorious chapter in the Bible seeks to address the sense of abandonment that children of God may experience during pain and sufferings. So yield your mind not to what you feel, but to the truth especially such times.
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