The normal tendency of a weakened body and soul is to seek a corner where it can just whimper and sleep. But apparently for a child of God this is not the case.
I recently faced a week where my soul's stress level was on a pretty high scale. The burden was so heavy I could feel it translate to my body chemistry. We know stress negatively affects our bodies, but this was not a work-related stress that I could just leave after I punch out.
After 2 days of this my tonsils hurt, back ached, runny nose, cold feet. Temperature registered normal but the fever was inside my body. Praying to God and remembering His words helped, but my nature still wanted to whine and cower.
What broke through my soul's fog was God's reminder that we would be leading worship in a few days. How could I glorify Him if I was holding on to hurts that I thought I was entitled to feel? So I chose to praise. To thank Him that all was in His control and He can still work things out for good.
This is a life lesson of Praise's Power that I've proved time and again: to praise God inspite of negative circumstances glorifies Him and strengthens His children! When we genuinely praise Him with a humble heart in the midst of it all, we finally see He is the Shield and Strong Tower. In Him we can stand and see a different perspective of whatever circumstances we're in.
Fever's gone now. My situation cannot be changed overnight, but joy is still there in the morning. Glory to His name!
ACTS 16:25-26 (NIV):
" 25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose."
Nothing is more liberating than accepting I am weak.
- That my family is not perfect.
- That I wish I had not said this, or that.
- That it's hard to change me and I can't change another person.
Nothing is more important than accepting that:
- God alone can and does forgive sins. (1 John 1:9)
- God can work all things for good. (Rom. 8:28)
- Only Jesus is perfect and He perfects me. (Heb. 12:2)
- God can guard my mouth and His Spirit's fruit is self-control. (Psalm 141:3, Gal. 5:21-23)
- God changes things and makes all things new. (2 Cor. 5:17; Revelation 21:5)
YOU are God. I am not. I bow before You.
Remember when our grandpas or grandmas would still love to work hard over a certain 'project' (like gardening or lifting heavy furniture, hehe) and when we warn them, "ops, ops, dahan-dahan lang po, hindi na kayo bata"?I used to laugh when my dad or mom would say, "sinong matanda? i'm still young! i feel like i'm still 30!" Incredulous. Or so i thought.Well, lately I feel like my mind has finally caught up with the reality that my body is not as young as it used to be. I'm finally accepting that I get tired and exhausted by 6 pm, I need to catch my breath after going up 2 flights of stairs, my knees feel wobbly after walking the length of our campus grounds and I can't catch up with the energy of three-year-olds.Doc says with my family's strong history of diabetes and hypertension, this is the age to be careful. I need to exercise more consistently, eat less bread, more veggie and fruits, and learn to take things one at a time. Mga tol (batchmates, officemates, friends my age... you know who you are!) -- hope you're all taking good care of your bodies, too. More tips, anyone?
...dad said as we held hands in prayer. My brother and I were praying with him before he traveled back to Batangas. Since we started living in Sorsogon two years ago, we miss our dad a lot. Visiting is not that easy because of the 12 to 14 hours trip from the entrance of Southern Luzon (Batangas Province) to the tip (Sorsogon Province).
I was struck by what Dad said. To him, going back to the house in Batangas isn't really going home because all that's left there is a metal machine (our family printing press). This sounded so foreign coming from him; I remember while we were kids the family business was like a strong tower where we would all grow up in and eventually take over someday. It was our 'home base' regardless how many times we moved.
But God had a different blueprint in mind for us. Each of dad's kids was called to another place far away from the press. Only our firstborn remained. I know this must've hurt dad at first. (However, we do realize now that one of the reasons we're effective in the different companies or ministries we've served in is because of the unlimited hours helping in our family business.) Now, hearing him say the words above in prayer amazed me at how God has given dad a paradigm shift.
The Eternal love between dad and his children has created a new home base. Be that in Manila, Cavite, Batangas, Sorsogon City... or any part of the world.
The LORD's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.
Proverbs 3:33
