He stays

There are moments when you could say nothing.
No words are brave or strong enough to come out of your mouth.
But He stays, to listen to whatever He could hear from your heart-- the beat and rhythm He has well-known.

There are moments when you want to speak to no one, not even pray.
But He stays, to accompany you in the silence you wish and to wait for you to want to speak to anyone-- to Him hopefully.

There are moments when so many things run through your mind, you can't even pinpoint what bothers you most. Neither could you pour them all out for comfort.
But He stays, to offer you help. Because He knows every bit of the multitude in your head. And He-- the master of gazillion thoughts, waits for you to let Him handle yours.

There are moments when you feel no one could love you, not even yourself.
But He stays, to tell you that nothing can make Him love you less. And to remind you that you are worth loving.

There are moments when you feel like the mess you've made are far more than the right things that you did.
But He stays, to offer forgiveness daily. He stays, waiting for you to return- to welcome you in wide open arms as you repent.

There are so many other moments that occur in our lives -bleak, happy, disappointing, victorious, sad, exciting, etc.

In all these moments, He stays. For leaving us is one thing He doesn't have any idea how to do, and He can never do.

Run Towards Intimacy with Him

                It has been 3 months and a couple of days now since I was declared a college graduate. It also has been more than 3 months now that I’m the official non-working, non-studying individual in our home. It only means that I have a lot of free time nowadays, even more abundant than the busy times that I had when I was a student (sounds like it has been a long time huh? XD). So in these ocean of free times, I made up my daily routine. Of course, first in my morning schedule is my devotion.

               

My mornings with the Lord are spent not inside a room but with nature. We have an unfinished roof top in the house wherein you could seemingly touch the floppy clouds, gaze at the blue or dark sky, and listen to the birds sing. There’s one covered hall we have there with a long, old, brown table inside it. I sit on top of it and there is where I sing out, cry out and write out my heart to God. That is my secret place where I could think of Him so deeply, stay so still and hear His voice so loudly and gaze at His beauty as reflected by His creation.

                Lately, there was something that was stopping me from going there--- a crow. The moment that I went up, a crow screeched so loud and attempted to dive down towards me. In my fear of being bitten by it, I hurriedly run downstairs and never went up again. I thought that it was God telling me to retreat and simply have my devotion on my bed.

                But the next day, the same crow was screeching and scaring me. The same scenario happened and there I was downstairs, near our front door, panting and thinking. God suddenly impressed on me that not even this should stop me from having my quality time with Him. So I made up my mind to run, run as fast as I could to get to my secret place and meet Him. So that was the very thing that I did. I ran through our roof top so fast to reach the spot for my devotion. I heard the crow screeching again but it didn’t get the chance to reach me.

               

When I reached my spot, I sat comfortably at the table and sighed. “How similar this is to our journey of pursuing intimacy with our God,” I thought. Many things (a zillion to number them in this generation) will hinder us from spending time with God. It could be the undefeated, most influential distractor such as the social media or it could be work, school or any particular sin or struggle. And whatever they are, in whatever form they may be, they have this one aim- to keep you away from spending time with God. And truth is, they more often succeed than not.

                The Lord showed me a simple principle from what I experienced this morning:

                Run… FROM the things that keep you away from God and run... TO Him to keep you away from these things.

                Remember: Running takes an extra effort. It’s having to sacrifice your usual comfortable walking for one that is more tiring and active. Running from these things that keep us away from God would mean a decision to change our actions and to sacrifice some things. Maybe it could mean having a social media fast, keeping your phone away from you, turning the tv off, waking up earlier or sleeping later than usual. The thing is, as John and Stasi Eldredge wrote in their book Captivating, “To pursue intimacy with Christ, you will have to fight for it.” As you run from these distractors, and run to Him daily to keep you away from these things, God’s grace and power will make it easier for you to abandon them.

                    What are the crows in your life stopping you from reaching your secret place?

                Whatever they are, remember to run FROM them, and run to God, towards intimacy with Him.

Ravenous

My being ravenous this morning was not for my dear food or sweets.

The word ravenous appeared in my journal in these sentences: “I, too, am RAVENOUS for Your word Jesus”and “I’m so RAVENOUS Lord… You gave me so much of Your message.”

The food given to me was "so much that I got to give it away; so much that I could not contain it."

So here’s to His generosity: may you too enjoy the God-breathed nourishment!

 

Meal: Isaiah 51

 

Appetizer:

The beauty in looking back

Look to where you have been rescued… You will see how He called you to bless you. (vv.1-2)

Revelation

“but My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will never be dismayed.” (v.8)

            Who said that salvation ends when we have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior? Salvation is forever, because from the day you let Him inside your heart, He will continually, eternally, save you from your problems, sins and self.

            What is it to us to know that ours is a righteous God? Righteous means blameless and someone who cannot be mistaken:it means that He is a God who can never be mistaken in everything He allows to happen in His children’s lives!

 

Main Cuisine:

When I’m tempted…

 

When I’m tempted to look at man for security and comfort,You gave me Your Word:

“I, I am He who comforts you;” (v.12)

 

When I’m tempted to soak myself into busyness and dwell on the impossibility of tasks,You gave me Your Word:

“You..have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth” (v.13)

 

When I’m tempted to “fear continually all the day” You gave me Your Word:

“I have covered you in the shadows of my hand, establishing the heavens, and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying… ‘You are my people.’ (v.16)

 

When I’m tempted to think that nothing’s happening and You seem passive about everything, You gave me Your Word:

“Your God… pleads the cause of His people” (v.22)

 

When I’m tempted to think that my situation will always be like before, You gave me Your Word:

“Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering… and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors.” (v.22)

 

Lastly, the dessert:

 

Joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy

 “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (v.11)

Eternal joy is yours, child of God!

 

Surely He will grant a ravenous soul more than what it could take or imagine!I got a good kind of earful and ‘stomachful’ with Jesus’ Words for me today.

Reader, I hope you did too! 

 

 

“Halaaaaa” Will Be Non-Existent

This, I think, would be the best way to condition myself for the upcoming busy hours: to WRITE.

Fear had been a cliché in my life. It used to be an inseparable part of me. I don’t think I would be “me” without it.

Halaaaa is the linguistic expression and declaration of my fears. “Halaaa bukas na pasahan niyan wala pa akong nagagawa.” “Halaaa pano yun ang hirap?”,“Halaaaa di ko mahanap yung report ko.” Halaaaaaaaaa.

Since I was born again, the Lord had his various ways of dealing with my fears. And every day I will have my own way of being fearful again.

As I count it, I’m a nine-year old Christian (since I personally accepted Christ when I was 10 years old) but it didn’t mean that through these years my fears have completely vanished.

But today I realized how we’ll really experience times of being fed up and dissatisfied with our unending routines.

I was too tired to live in fear of the tasks I have not yet started. I was fed up with worries’ seemingly perfect attendance in the room of my heart.

This day, through a situation in the life of Hezekiah, I was inspired to strive for fear and worries to be non-existent in my life (or this specific day to be exact).

“There will be peace and security in my days.” Isaiah 39:8

King Hezekiah said this when a bad news was told to him by Prophet Isaiah. (You can read Isaiah 39 to further understand it)

Whatever bad news or negative things that come in our way we people have tendencies to fret and may even say Halaaaaa  (like me)

But Hezekiah exemplified that: A man who has found favour in the sight of God has nothing to fear.

This and all the promises of God strengthen my faith. The world will truly throw a lot of distractions, negative thoughts and feelings at us, yet His word will implant in us the Philippians 4:8 mind: His mind.

Like Hezekiah, “there will be peace and security in my days.” Halaaaaa will be non-existent.

(Consider the modal used: will = 100% assurance because of our Prince of Peace. =])