Friday, March 30, 2012
My Stories: The Lord's Prayer
My Stories: The Lord's Prayer: Many prayers are said but not all of us, including myself, know how they should be said. However, as if by nature, my prayers were not tha...
The Lord's Prayer
Many prayers are said but not all of us, including myself, know how they should be said. However, as if by nature, my prayers were not that bad and I did not fare as badly as some of my friends. Excuse me for boasting which is not allowed in front of God.
I learnt, the first thing that our prayers must have is the acknowlegement of God. That is why, the Lord's Prayer which is a very good example, begins with ' Our Father in Heaven....'. You may proclaim Him as Lord, Jesus our Saviour, Holy Father, Holy God, to name a few.
Then, you need to continue to give Him honour and praise with other acknowledgements like,'Holy be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...' Then you will need to tell Him that you remember His will for you, as it will please Him. That is how we want to be when we come into prayer in His presence: pleasing, and in full obedience and submission
The next point is that we need to recognise that we are not perfect and we need His grace to forgive us, as evident in the following verses ' Forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, do not bring us to a test but deliver us from evil . Amen.' Then, it also says that we need to forgive, but this is one thing we always forget. We may say the prayer every day but it has become too mechanical for us to be aware of what we are saying. We are still revengeful.
When we study the Lord's prayer and its true meaning, we would realise if we really mean what we prayed, we would be better individuals. Unfortunately, many of us are self-centred even in our prayers. We pray selfishly, for example ,praying for more wealth, not remembering those who are poor and suffering. What do you think God will feel when He listens to such prayers? He will definitely be very furious but I do hear some people praying like that. It is always 'I' or 'my', never about others. When our prayers are not answered, we get angry, disappointed and soon we begin to lose our faith. God does not have to concede to what we asked for. We don't tell God what to do. We just lay our requests and problems at His feet. He will answer our prayers in His own way, usually not conceivable to those who are not true and faithful Christians. Perhaps, you may ask, 'How do you know?' 'Are you God?' or 'Are you a Messenger of God?'. Well, I would say, I can equate the situation to how a child make requests to his/her father. Wouldn't it be the same?
The child approaches the father. 'Hello, daddy. How's your day, daddy? I love you , daddy. You are the best daddy in the whole wide world. Daddy, I am sorry about yesterday. I know I have been rude. I promise I won't do it again. BUT daddy, I really need this and that. Will you help me? Okay, I can wait. Okay, I will do whatever you like me to do as long as you help me, Daddy.'
See the similarity? There's acknowledgement of the higher authority. There's respect, honour, and love as the child proclaimed his father's name. There's the same asking for forgiveness and admission of wrongdoing. The promise of good behaviour analogous to 'the forgiving of those who sinned to us'. The character of God is enacted in the character of our earthly father. Someone whom we must give reverence to. God has ordained the duty to our fathers, though some of them are grossly imperfect but there must a divine reason for whatever happens. God is using their lives and our lives for His divine purposes.
I learnt, the first thing that our prayers must have is the acknowlegement of God. That is why, the Lord's Prayer which is a very good example, begins with ' Our Father in Heaven....'. You may proclaim Him as Lord, Jesus our Saviour, Holy Father, Holy God, to name a few.
Then, you need to continue to give Him honour and praise with other acknowledgements like,'Holy be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...' Then you will need to tell Him that you remember His will for you, as it will please Him. That is how we want to be when we come into prayer in His presence: pleasing, and in full obedience and submission
The next point is that we need to recognise that we are not perfect and we need His grace to forgive us, as evident in the following verses ' Forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, do not bring us to a test but deliver us from evil . Amen.' Then, it also says that we need to forgive, but this is one thing we always forget. We may say the prayer every day but it has become too mechanical for us to be aware of what we are saying. We are still revengeful.
When we study the Lord's prayer and its true meaning, we would realise if we really mean what we prayed, we would be better individuals. Unfortunately, many of us are self-centred even in our prayers. We pray selfishly, for example ,praying for more wealth, not remembering those who are poor and suffering. What do you think God will feel when He listens to such prayers? He will definitely be very furious but I do hear some people praying like that. It is always 'I' or 'my', never about others. When our prayers are not answered, we get angry, disappointed and soon we begin to lose our faith. God does not have to concede to what we asked for. We don't tell God what to do. We just lay our requests and problems at His feet. He will answer our prayers in His own way, usually not conceivable to those who are not true and faithful Christians. Perhaps, you may ask, 'How do you know?' 'Are you God?' or 'Are you a Messenger of God?'. Well, I would say, I can equate the situation to how a child make requests to his/her father. Wouldn't it be the same?
The child approaches the father. 'Hello, daddy. How's your day, daddy? I love you , daddy. You are the best daddy in the whole wide world. Daddy, I am sorry about yesterday. I know I have been rude. I promise I won't do it again. BUT daddy, I really need this and that. Will you help me? Okay, I can wait. Okay, I will do whatever you like me to do as long as you help me, Daddy.'
See the similarity? There's acknowledgement of the higher authority. There's respect, honour, and love as the child proclaimed his father's name. There's the same asking for forgiveness and admission of wrongdoing. The promise of good behaviour analogous to 'the forgiving of those who sinned to us'. The character of God is enacted in the character of our earthly father. Someone whom we must give reverence to. God has ordained the duty to our fathers, though some of them are grossly imperfect but there must a divine reason for whatever happens. God is using their lives and our lives for His divine purposes.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
My Stories: The Much Loved Leader
My Stories: The Much Loved Leader: I used to have a very good Sunday school lady teacher who was about 64 at about that time. I admired her very much and would be very unhap...
The Much Loved Leader
I used to have a very good Sunday school lady teacher who was about 64 at about that time. I admired her very much and would be very unhappy if I had to miss any of her classes. She just had a wonderful way of telling the Scriptures that no other person could do. Being a teeanger at that time, I had this funny behaviour of liking certain people very much and certain people would just put me off no matter how much my mother tried to put them in my good books.
Just before retiring due to her illness, this particular Sunday school teacher would often, during her lessons, mentioned about her recent weak health though not specifically. I remember I was very unhappy about that and every time she mentioned something negative like her having sleeplessness, I would be very impatient. In actual fact, I was afraid of losing her. I had wanted her to stay forever as my Sunday school teacher. Sometimes, I would ignore her and stopped her sharing her thoughts about her bad health. I really did not want her to be sick at all.
The day when she stopped coming to teach us had me stopping Sunday school too. No amount of persuasion from my mother could bring me back. I was very stubborn. I was actually angry with God in a way. My mother thought I was being disobedient to her. Little did she realise that I was being defiant to God. I was blaming God for taking her away!
It is the same with my children now. I can see how unhappy when they hear me telling them about my bad health. I can feel how they feel. It is a sense of insecurity. Therefore, if you are not feeling that bad, it is better to keep it to yourself, and not share it with your children too much. They love you, no doubt about that but when they hear something bad about you, they will feel sad and sometimes, they do not know what to do especially when they are still young or teenagers. Be brave for them and don't be a softie, moaning over little pains. Jesus had gone through greater pains than us!
Just before retiring due to her illness, this particular Sunday school teacher would often, during her lessons, mentioned about her recent weak health though not specifically. I remember I was very unhappy about that and every time she mentioned something negative like her having sleeplessness, I would be very impatient. In actual fact, I was afraid of losing her. I had wanted her to stay forever as my Sunday school teacher. Sometimes, I would ignore her and stopped her sharing her thoughts about her bad health. I really did not want her to be sick at all.
The day when she stopped coming to teach us had me stopping Sunday school too. No amount of persuasion from my mother could bring me back. I was very stubborn. I was actually angry with God in a way. My mother thought I was being disobedient to her. Little did she realise that I was being defiant to God. I was blaming God for taking her away!
It is the same with my children now. I can see how unhappy when they hear me telling them about my bad health. I can feel how they feel. It is a sense of insecurity. Therefore, if you are not feeling that bad, it is better to keep it to yourself, and not share it with your children too much. They love you, no doubt about that but when they hear something bad about you, they will feel sad and sometimes, they do not know what to do especially when they are still young or teenagers. Be brave for them and don't be a softie, moaning over little pains. Jesus had gone through greater pains than us!
My Stories: His Ways From Time Beginning
My Stories: His Ways From Time Beginning: The countless things that have happened in our lives were often never linked to the Divine Plan of our Almighty God. We just completely fo...
His Ways From Time Beginning
The countless things that have happened in our lives were often never linked to the Divine Plan of our Almighty God. We just completely forgot about it. Fingers were waved at one another, hoping the bad thing that happened was never one's own fault but the fault of one who was meek enough to admit that he or she had something to do with it. When something good happened, very quickly there was one or a few to take credit for it or to claim a right to it.
Sometimes we even hear people blaming God for bad things that happen to them. How unwise to do that! To think that our Creator who has given us Life and put us to live in this beautiful world would at the same time let us suffer? Perhaps, they have forgotten that there is what we called the Evil Forces or some people address 'him' as S.A. TAN. This is a 'party spoiler', and the cause of all the bad things that happen to you. How is it that God, who has supreme power, cannot stop it? In actual fact, He can but He just allows it to happen. Cruel? No, it is just part of His Divine ways. It is a way of moulding our character, and most of the time, we do not see it. It is those who walk closely with Him that can spot it easily and proceed to praise Him for the challenges or trials. Those who walk closely to Him will be enlightened by His words in the Bible and will understand how He works.
Wouldn't it be good that we read and ponder over His words that is so full of wisdom so that whatever that happens to us , we just know how to react? We will not be so flustered and go around like a mad chicken blaming or hating everyone or your own self even when things go bad. I used to put myself in such a bad demeanour when things do not turn out as happy as I hope to be. Later, when God irons out things for me, which He always does finally, I felt so bad because God has always, never failing even once, been there all the time with me and for me. God is really wonderful!
Sometimes we even hear people blaming God for bad things that happen to them. How unwise to do that! To think that our Creator who has given us Life and put us to live in this beautiful world would at the same time let us suffer? Perhaps, they have forgotten that there is what we called the Evil Forces or some people address 'him' as S.A. TAN. This is a 'party spoiler', and the cause of all the bad things that happen to you. How is it that God, who has supreme power, cannot stop it? In actual fact, He can but He just allows it to happen. Cruel? No, it is just part of His Divine ways. It is a way of moulding our character, and most of the time, we do not see it. It is those who walk closely with Him that can spot it easily and proceed to praise Him for the challenges or trials. Those who walk closely to Him will be enlightened by His words in the Bible and will understand how He works.
Wouldn't it be good that we read and ponder over His words that is so full of wisdom so that whatever that happens to us , we just know how to react? We will not be so flustered and go around like a mad chicken blaming or hating everyone or your own self even when things go bad. I used to put myself in such a bad demeanour when things do not turn out as happy as I hope to be. Later, when God irons out things for me, which He always does finally, I felt so bad because God has always, never failing even once, been there all the time with me and for me. God is really wonderful!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
My Stories: As Good As Millionaires
My Stories: As Good As Millionaires: Often times when we were at a 'kopitiam' for breakfast, we were approached by a familiar middle-aged Indian man who would wave a stack of l...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)