Do you wake up every day thanking God for what He has given to you? Or do you wake up feeling sorry for yourself and not appreciating what God has given to you?
A lot of times I woke up feeling sorry for myself and not thanking God and appreciating what I already have. I felt like I've been praying to God constantly but yet he still hasn't answered any of my prayers. Little did I know, God has his own timing on everything that He does.
I have been on a 40 day corporate fasting with my church and one thing I have been fasting and praying for is financial break trough. I have always prayed for it, even before the fasting, but during this fasting I continued to ask God for the doors to be opened. I had faith and believed that God will open the way.
As it says in Matthew 7:7-8 :
Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
It was just a couple months ago that my dad started a new job and he said it has been kind of rough on him. The only way I could think to help is through prayer, so I prayed for him everyday that he will stay strong and that God will open up the doors for him. A couple of weeks ago I asked my dad again about his work. I asked him how he was doing and to my surprise he said that he loves it and he just recently got a raise and a bonus at the same time! Now, if God didn't do that then who did? Who am I kidding? Of course it was God! As I mentioned earlier, God has his own timing for everything, including answering prayers. And the best part is that his timing is NEVER late!
The next time you wake up in the morning, you should thank God for everything that you have and for everything that He has done. If you still feel like there's something that you need, then just do as it says in Matthew 7:7-8 - ASK and it will be given to you. It's as simple as that, asking :) be blessed!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Fighting Forgiveness
Today I came across this daily devotional, which I think best describes how to forgive someone in the simplest way :
But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too. Mark 11:25 (NLT)
It might be one of the hardest things to not only say, but mean. It is a phrase that destroys your pride and rips into your ego. Yet, something this dramatic and profound can be exchanged in two simple words. "I’m sorry."
The flip side is not much easier. To forgive can be just as daunting and trying. When someone has hurt you or wronged you, it is hard to accept that two simple words can fix it. However, is it all that much easier to bottle up your feelings and hold everything inside?
Let’s face it. When we have pain or cause pain, it is more than just words that get in the way. It is our feelings and emotions. The more time that goes by, the more entrenched the memory becomes, until it consumes everything in you to the point that you are to terrified to ask, or too scared to give in.
Take a moment, right now, to think of the people you need to forgive. Then take a few minutes to think of who you need to seek forgiveness from. No matter how hard it may be, or how long ago it might have happened, it is never too late to do something about it. A simple "I forgive you" or an "I’m sorry" could go a long ways to fix something that was once unfixable. While it may not solve everything, it sure is a good start.
Now, after reading that, I'd like to share my personal experience of trying to forgive my dad. Some of you might not know about my life, but about 5 years ago is when I felt my whole world was falling apart. My parents had been fighting a lot and finally my mom moved out of the house and filed for divorce. To blame the whole entire thing on my dad would probably not be right, but for some reason I always had in mind that it was his fault. I finally moved down here to Seattle a couple months after that all happened and I held a very deep grudge against my dad. I always felt mad at him and blamed him for the things that happened with my family. After a few months in Seattle, I started going to church every week and I guess you can say that I started finding God again (I have been a Christian all my life, but when my parents started fighting all the time, the whole family stopped going to church and we were all far from God at that point). Moving down to Seattle was probably one of my ways to run away from all my family problems. I thought that it would be easier for me to run, even though I didn't know where I was really going. But after a while, running gets tiring. You only have so much energy to keep running on your own. This is when I realized that there's something holding me back. Every time I was in church and was getting prayed for, everyone would tell me that I need to forgive my dad in order to let God in my life. You have no idea how much I wanted to forgive him, but you also have no idea how hard it was for those words to come out of my mouth and actually mean it. All I could think of at the time was the pain that he caused me and my family and at that time I just started breaking out in tears telling God that I was tired of feeling this way. That was the day, that everything was released. I forgave my dad and I couldn't feel any happier, a big weight on my shoulder was just lifted and I felt that I could live my life the way that I wanted. I had a BIG God that was bigger than all of this. So remember, forgiving is one way to open up the doors to better things. As it said in the devotional, it might not solve everything, but it is a good start. Have a blessed day! :)
But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too. Mark 11:25 (NLT)
It might be one of the hardest things to not only say, but mean. It is a phrase that destroys your pride and rips into your ego. Yet, something this dramatic and profound can be exchanged in two simple words. "I’m sorry."
The flip side is not much easier. To forgive can be just as daunting and trying. When someone has hurt you or wronged you, it is hard to accept that two simple words can fix it. However, is it all that much easier to bottle up your feelings and hold everything inside?
Let’s face it. When we have pain or cause pain, it is more than just words that get in the way. It is our feelings and emotions. The more time that goes by, the more entrenched the memory becomes, until it consumes everything in you to the point that you are to terrified to ask, or too scared to give in.
Take a moment, right now, to think of the people you need to forgive. Then take a few minutes to think of who you need to seek forgiveness from. No matter how hard it may be, or how long ago it might have happened, it is never too late to do something about it. A simple "I forgive you" or an "I’m sorry" could go a long ways to fix something that was once unfixable. While it may not solve everything, it sure is a good start.
Now, after reading that, I'd like to share my personal experience of trying to forgive my dad. Some of you might not know about my life, but about 5 years ago is when I felt my whole world was falling apart. My parents had been fighting a lot and finally my mom moved out of the house and filed for divorce. To blame the whole entire thing on my dad would probably not be right, but for some reason I always had in mind that it was his fault. I finally moved down here to Seattle a couple months after that all happened and I held a very deep grudge against my dad. I always felt mad at him and blamed him for the things that happened with my family. After a few months in Seattle, I started going to church every week and I guess you can say that I started finding God again (I have been a Christian all my life, but when my parents started fighting all the time, the whole family stopped going to church and we were all far from God at that point). Moving down to Seattle was probably one of my ways to run away from all my family problems. I thought that it would be easier for me to run, even though I didn't know where I was really going. But after a while, running gets tiring. You only have so much energy to keep running on your own. This is when I realized that there's something holding me back. Every time I was in church and was getting prayed for, everyone would tell me that I need to forgive my dad in order to let God in my life. You have no idea how much I wanted to forgive him, but you also have no idea how hard it was for those words to come out of my mouth and actually mean it. All I could think of at the time was the pain that he caused me and my family and at that time I just started breaking out in tears telling God that I was tired of feeling this way. That was the day, that everything was released. I forgave my dad and I couldn't feel any happier, a big weight on my shoulder was just lifted and I felt that I could live my life the way that I wanted. I had a BIG God that was bigger than all of this. So remember, forgiving is one way to open up the doors to better things. As it said in the devotional, it might not solve everything, but it is a good start. Have a blessed day! :)
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