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His Grace is sufficient for me!

Article from Heartlight:

VERSE:
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more
gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
-- 2 Corinthians 12:9

THOUGHT:
When I pray, I often catch myself simply wanting God to do what
I want, not necessarily what is best or most expedient for those
around me or for the good of the Kingdom. I don't like to hear that
God told Paul that he had asked enough about deliverance from his
problem. Instead, Paul needed to learn that God's gracious strength
and mercy were enough to sustain him even in trial. While I know I
need to learn this same lesson, it is daunting. I want God to keep
things nice and tidy for me. But then I remember I am a follower of
Christ. If I am to become like my Savior, then I have to let go of
my requirements on God's answers and open up to God's work to
redeem others through me, no matter the personal cost. Only then
can I truly know that his grace is sufficient for me!

PRAYER:
Patient and loving Shepherd, guard my heart from discouragement
in tough times and guard it from arrogance in good times. I know
that without you I have nothing that is permanent. Thanks for
giving me a permanent, steadfast hope of heaven with you, because
of your grace and strength shared with me. In the name of Jesus I
pray. Amen.

A place called Grace

Just tot I'll pen down some tots that came to my mind..... I've been reminded that whatever we do.. esp as we serve God.... we should always focus on fulfilling God's agenda and not our own. Started me thinking... I wonder to myself whether have I been fulfilling God's agenda or my agenda in my service.... I guess I set out to hopefully fulfil God's agenda..... but sometimes... personal desires and agenda would creep in... e.g. I feel happy when I know that ppl r helped thru me.... and so I want to be of help to others.... is this personal agenda or fulfilling God's agenda? hahah... I think this was something that David and I spoke abt!! haha... I guess if I end up feeling unhappy if ppl dnt come to me for help... then that wld mean that I set out to fulfil my agenda... but personally, I think I'm jus glad as long as that person is taken care off... : ) I think most imptly I must keep myself focused and always remind myself that I'm merely His instrument, used by Him to do His work. The result is dependent on Him not me. If I set out to fulfil God's agenda He will empower me to bear fruit for him. If I set out to fulfil my own agenda.. I'll be using my own strength and the outcome will not be what God wants. Ok hope I'm making sense here... but anyway, I'm glad I'm reminded to always keep my focus on Him and seek to fulfil God's agenda in my life.

Been wanting to write something about Grace as well.... This has been a recurring theme for me since Dec when I started to read this book Andrew gave me a year ago... :P "What's so amazing about grace" its quite a good book and it has helped me to understand God's grace better. And when I was listening to this song by Philip, Craig and Dean: A place called grace...on the bus ride in NZ.. I almost cried....... I am jus so grateful for God to have revealed His grace to me and allowing me a taste of His goodness and grace. When I was younger, grace was more like a concept… time and time again I hear of God’s grace and sending His Son to die for my sins.. but for a long time God’s grace remains as a concept that I know but have not tasted personally.. I know its there and I know God is gracious.. but I guess at tat time it jus didn’t occur to me that I really need it… or it was that applicable to me. But God is good. He knows that I needed this personal encounter with Him so that I can truly understand his grace … The grace that I’ve heard off since young. I dono how to explain how I came to this realisation… But I guess God works in wondrous ways.. the simplest way to put it is .. I fell…. I turn my back away from him… I erred …. Maybe I was spiritually blind …. But it all seems like its part of God’s plan…. Whn I finally realise my mistake when God awaken me…. There’s nothing else I can do but to run back to him in repentance… and like wat the book says… with true repentance God will show us His grace. And the grace of God is indeed sweet!! Every time I’m reminded of what happened….. I cant help but thank God for his grace towards me and for allowing me to experience it and taste and see for myself. Its really amazing and no words can describe unless u experience it urself…

I believe for many of us who grew up as Christians since young… u may feel the same way as me …. Knowing God and His grace as a concept and not really experiencing it… afterall we do not have a dramatic testimony of conversion and stories of dramatic transformation of our life… In the past I used to feel that I’m missing out something cos I dnt hv such an experience. But God makes it happen for me in His own way .. and I’m so thankful :D

Yesterday’s BSF highlighted that…. With grace there is transformed lives… so true yah… cos’ my life was indeed transformed…. Because I’ve finally tasted His grace…. "What can I do.. but thank You… what can I do but give my life to You…but thank You and Praise You… " Help me Lord to make my life and everything I do a hallelujah to you Lord.

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A Place Called Grace – Phillips, Craig and Dean

So many years I heard it told
The story of compassion
A prodigal son who left the fold
And found no satisfaction
On my knees, Lord, I cried out to You“I’m so alone
But if there’s room in Your house for one more
I’m ready to come back home?
I know there is a place
Where arms of compassion welcome me home
Sweet mercy falls like rain
I know there’s a place called grace
So many days I’ve trusted grace
Yet I have to wonder
How many times my human strength
Has kept me from surrender
The more I learn just to lean on the cross
The more I see
When I fall, I will fall to the place
Where mercy reaches me
If it seems that my courage is strong
There’s just one reason
He’s my rock when my faith is all gone
He holds me in His arms
Gives me strength to carry on

What a week!!

It's sat and I'm pretty tired..... this week had been quite busy.... busy at work and busy after work..... been out the whole week and i think it has taken its effect on me physically... haha... not to mention that my mum's also nagging at me for not eating at home. :P been meeting up with different ppl throughout the week...well not that I'm complaining.... cos I really enjoy meeting ppl and talking to them... jus that I think I need to space them out a little next time :)

Works been pretty busy lately also... my boss is assigning me more and more projects... I must say they are all quite interesting,. and I'm quite happy to be involve... but too many of the good stuff can backfire too.... all the projects need time to think, plan and strategise.... and there are just too many distractions and too many mini mini things that comes up throughout the day that makes it difficult for me to sit down and think..... Lord pls help me lord.... to make full use of the time I have.. and jus give me the wisdom to know wat to do with my projects...... help me to finish all that I need to finish on time and that my bosses will find favour in the work I do... Help me to maximise the time I have in office, help me to be effective and efficient so that I do not need to work after office hours,.. and my time can be reserve for better things..things that are of eternal value.... spending time with you, with people around me.... family and friends... ppl I wanna reach out to.... ppl who are impt to me...

Met up with sangela for BS on tue.... and I'm jus so glad that she agreed to come visit my church. I was praying in my heart throughout the BS that she'll be willing to visit and attend a CG and I'm quite happy when she made the commitment to do so on her own :) Hopefully this would be a church that she feel comfortable in and grow. Pray that she can settle down in a CG cos I dnt know how long I can meet her for indiv BS.... btw, I'm also quite glad that she's been talking to her husband about God. Think one day her husband would be moved and encouraged by her, and get back on track with God once again......

Wed was more of a relaxing time.... had a good dinner.... and nice time just chatting... at least dnt have to "work" haha.... jus chill... but later on still have to discuss a little bit abt work lah....

Thurs... met up with a group of collegues... and some ex-colleagues.... its a gd time of catching up.... really thank God for blessing me with frens like them... altho it started to get abit boring when they started discussing about their wedding plans and house reno... haha.... well I had to leave early cos I needed to go to work early and do a presentation the next morning....

Fri met up with evelyn......it was jus nice.... :) catching up once again and finding out what's been happening in one another's lives. Hearing from her reminds me of myself... the struggles I went thru in the past.... well... evelyn .. I know its not easy... cos I've been there myself.... altho it maybe of a different level.... but where are u now is definitely a familiar place to me.... I'm glad u got it straighten out and had decided to work on it.... dnt let this break time pass you by without doing what u set out to do yah.... my prayers are with u... :)

Its a tiring day at the social workers day today..... been standing the whole day... but i guess its nice to be with ppl who are of the same background and kinda speak the same lingo....

anyway, someting jus prompted me to post the testimony I wrote last yr for the sermon on mentoring..... so here it is... for those who did not hear me the last time :)

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Carol became my cell leader when I was about 16. Although later on, the CG was led by another leader, we continued to stay in touch and she would make an effort to find out how am I doing. Something I’m really thankful for.

Throughout all these years, Carol had been the one who provided me with godly counsel and emotional support. She had seen me through different seasons of my life, from “O” levels, “A” levels, Uni to working life and from making life’s difficult decisions to family crisis and spiritual ups and downs.

Although Carol had always been there for me, our mentoring relationship only started formally about 3 years ago.

At that time, I was going through a dry period of my spiritual life. Coming to church and serving God became a chore to me. I wasn’t right with God and I was slipping away but no one knew because on the surface I was the good Christian who was serving God faithfully as a cell leader. But at the back of my mind, I wanted to give up and run away from God because I was tired and feeling dry, I was on the verge of backsliding and the most dangerous thing was no one knew exactly what was happening within me.

Thankfully, God impressed upon my heart that I needed to do something about my life. I knew that God was not happy with what I’m doing and I knew I had to stop pretending I was ok. It was then that I knew I needed a mentor, someone whom I am accountable to, and someone who will keep me anchored in Christ in case I stray away. I knew that was critical because as a cell leader I knew I was accountable to the lives of my cell members. Carol was a natural choice cos’ she had always been available for me and knew me well. She saw me through that dry period and helped me got back on track and the rest was history.

One of the things I treasure most about this mentoring relationship is not that it feels good to have someone who listens but because she’s there to help me see things more clearly and this sometimes would mean telling me things that I don’t really want to hear. But I know ultimately God is showing me the right way through her. Receiving free counseling from her since she is a trained social worker is a bonus.

I’m really thankful that God had blessed me with a mentor like Carol who is available for me when I needed advice and a listening ear or a little nudge to get me back on track. Someone who covers me with prayers and keeps me on her radar screen to make sure I’m ok.

I’ve really benefited from the time she had invested in me through our mentoring relationship. The availability and genuine interest in my life that she had shown me inspired me to want to do the same for my cell members because I hope I can also be available to them when they need me and God can use my life to impact theirs.