012414 03:00PM
While there is life, there is hope. While there is time, there is opportunity. I have close to an hour before our bus leaves here in Victory Liner Cubao. I choose to write primarily on pen and paper because I'll need all of the 39% battery that my iPhone has for the trip - for me to play music, mostly, but if power allows, maybe a post or two, or maybe a podcast too.
There must be more things to consider during or aiming for to make every second count. If I invested in some good stock, I could be earning as I sit and write right now. If I had a business, it could be earning for me right now. I could be efficient by remote-controlling my computer and having it download a season or two of Everybody Loves Raymond, but then again, it'd be dishonest. Besides, the computer is off.
So it's down to this. Writing. Thinking. Pondering on praying in the back of my head so as I'm declaring, I'm receiving. That's efficiency in its finest, don't you think? There can be nothing more precisely productive than to lift every thought, every plan, everything to the Creator of All. We could speak in words we understand, or even as the Spirit leads...
Our Heavenly Father may know what we ask for before we even ask, but contrary to that line made famous, you don't say the best when you say nothing at all! As kings in Christ, we demonstrate the absolute sovereignty of His Kingdom by praying and declaring.; This is true, even when we aren't necessarily feeling the right "moods" the world insists we be in to pray.
Beloved, it isn't what we feel that matters, but what we speak and declare which determines what is overflowing from our hearts. That being said, even in the midst of failure and disappointment, even in the moments where we feel far from God's grace... Just sing a new song; There will always be a reason to give thanks to the Lord... As you are led, enter His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise!
Be of good cheer! Tell your soul, enough of being weary! Put your hope in God, who loves you so much that He saved you through His Son, Jesus Christ!
Thank God for His faithfulness, even when we were faithless. Thank God, for even when sin abounded, grace, God's grace abounds so much more!
Christ is not only our hope, He is our peace, and our assurance! In him our past is covered, our present is protected, and our future is secured!
Truly and indeed, His name is the name above all... ALL names. Be glorified, magnified, and exalted, dear Jesus!
Halleluyah!
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012414 04:00PM
It's a few minutes before our bus leaves, and I just have to say, I am thankful for the Lord's faithfulness to me, and to Pao, and to all of us.
I haven't been faithful, but again, it isn't about what I do, but what Christ has done. Oh, my soul, put your hope in Christ, and in Christ alone! For He alone saves, He alone gives life, and life abundantly!
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email me at jibee@rocketmail.com.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26