Beautiful In Its Own Time

I asked for a fresh flower, yet God gives me a cactus full of spike.
I asked for a beautiful flower, yet God gives me a caterpillar.
I am saddened, protested and disappointed. How unfair!
But then, the cactus bloomed beautifully and the caterpillar turned into a beautiful butterfly.


That's God's way, beautiful in its own time.
God never gives us what we wished for. He gives us what we needed.
While we are sad, disappointed and hurt...
God is preparing the best for us.

Author: Anonymous

Indeed that's how God works, beautiful in its own time.

Give Thanks, Always!

Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. - Psalm 100 : 4

(Source: www.taintedcanvas.com)

King David taught us to keep giving thanks to God, regardless of the situation we are in. Especially, during Sunday, when we went into church. All the more we should bring thanksgiving, praise to God. Instead of going to church, and praise God with a troubled heart.

But it didn't mean "Only on Sunday, we praise God." When we pray, when we start our day, when we are doing our activities, when we end our day; in all those we should remember to always give thanks.

Even though, we might be troubled. Always give thanks! It's not an easy task to do, but I believe that God would not leave us in lurch.

For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and His faithfulness continues to each generation. - Psalm 100 : 5

I believe because He promised us. Hang on to His unfailing love and faithfulness.

Reason To Be Thankful For

I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts He has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. - 1 Corinthians 1 : 4

(Source: www.cathykennedystories.blogspot.com)

As we go through life, we start to lose our visions, our dreams, and gradually we forget how to be thankful or what to be thankful for. And as we start to face problems, we blame God, and never did once mention or remember His grace and mercy.

I was back at hometown for the weekend, after a long week of working. Of course there are so much things in mind, as my working environment get stressful and the job is demanding more and more.

But when I met up with my relatives, I know for sure that God has been good to me, always is. This kind of place, home, is always a source of strength.

Now, back to work, and I know things are going to get rough again, but I'm thankful for families.

If we learn to be thankful over small things, those small things will be the source of strength when we are in trouble. When we remember what God has done in our lives, we will believes in what He is going to do with our lives.


Be thankful for ...

Strong Root

(Source: www.igadgetszone.com)

A gardener tried to do an experiment, a simple one. He planted two similar plants at the same soil. What differentiate them is how he takes care of the plants.


He would water the first plant every afternoon, but the second plant are watered once every two days.


Now, he wanted too see how strong their roots are. So he pull out the plants and the results are clear. He managed to pull out the first plant easily, but the second plant takes longer.


Why would it happen?


Simply because the first plant is spoiled from all the water that it gets daily, and didn't bother to look for other source of waters with its root.


While the second plant didn't get all the waters it needed, therefore it have to search for the water source. The only way is to go deep into the ground with its root. That's why its root are stronger.


How God nurture us is the same as the illustration above. Imagine if God spoiled us by granting all our request and never allowed pains in our lives. Then our root will be weak, and the moment problem comes, we are uprooted.


But God definitely wouldn't do something like that, He loves to train our spiritual root. By allowing pains, problems, pressures of life or every unhappy things that happened. He hoped that we would always search for the true source and grow strong.


When problems come, stand strong!

The Honorable

It is God's will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. For you are free, yet you are God's slaves, so don't use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. - 1 Pet 2 : 15 - 16

(Source: www.tsmu.edu)

We are always given freedom to chase after what we want in live, free to do whatever we wanted to do. But remember what the author said, don't use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.

There are just some people that think, "It's okay, I will do whatever I want, be it sins or not. When the time come, I'll just repent." Imagine one day, you are suddenly gone, never repented. Where would you ended up? Ironic isn't it, while God has given us a freedom to do what we want, there a lot of things better left untouched.

Thus, it is better to live a honorable life, with integrity. Others might tell you, "If you live like that, you can't reach success." Especially in the business world, where everyone only care for their own success. But, God wants us to live a honorable life to silence those ignorant people. Those are the people who don't know what our God is capable of.

When we live a honorable life, God's blessing upon us will be so unimaginable, not even one person alive can understand. And that's when the world goes silence.

Love Your Money NOT

Don't love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, "I will never fail you. I will never abandon you." - Hebrews 13 : 5

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil... - 1 Timothy 6 : 10

(Source: www.ironicoflife.blogspot.com)

"What is your motivation in life, is it money?" When you asked someone that question, the answer you probably got is a big "NO". And they would probably say "To live a good life" or to achieve their dreams. The irony is that to achieve those dreams, people work for money, keep earning and earning, yet unsatisfied.

It's true that a lot of things need money, even the basic needs of human, needs money. We have been warned severely, don't love money! Now, nothing wrong with money, the problem lies within the priority that we set in life.

Can we be satisfied with what we have? Are we pursuing the so called "vanities" in life? I can be sure of one thing, that God wants every one of us having success in our lives, having to achieve our dreams.

What's wrong is that we are so caught up with what we are doing; we started to forget about God, less prayer time, less 'showing up' on church. And that's definitely wrong! What's even wrong is that when our focus switch from God to the 'god' of this world, money.

We all have to learn to trust God more on His providence. Because He said, "I will never fail you. I will never abandon you."

Genuine Love

Don't just pretend to love other. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. - Romans 12 : 9 -10

(Source: www.stephenbmw320i.blogspot.com)

Paul told us clearly in this verse, no pretending when you love someone. Genuine affection is how he put it. Sometimes we are just so caught up with being good to this person, to that person. Somehow, it has become a 'must do', and actually, we are just doing it out of familiarity.

And love can be shown merely through words. But true love requires action. An action that is powered by genuine affection. What is a genuine affection?

It's more than a simple "How are you?", "I like you", "I love you". While no action is shown, no genuine love is felt. It's more than helping each other; without a sincere heart, no genuine love is shown. Therefore, it is an action with sincerity, giving all that you have.

Start from people around you, began showing them a genuine affection, cares for them, honors them.

Nothing's Wrong With Getting Rich

Wealth created by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist and a deadly trap. - Proverbs 21 : 6

(Source: www.rinesinthepines.com)

Who doesn't want to get rich? Living a wealthy life, with no financial problems?

The question is, how to be rich / wealthy in a Christian's way?

It is not a post about being rich in our spiritual life, but in our finances. Being too over-spiritual is not a good thing.

Wealth is so much more attractive than any other things in this world, and as surely as God lives, He wants everyone of us to live a wealthy life. Yet, wealth can be used against us. Yes, this is also one of the devil greatest weapon. Imagine how he tempted Jesus, with physical need, divine protection, authority and wealth.

King Solomon also warns us about it in Proverbs, that wealth created by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist and a deadly trap.

Business world is a cruel world, the survival of the fittest. Yet, can Christian keeps their integrity? Getting rich without taking any shortcuts? Yes, of course there is a way. When we keep our way right, God will pour out His blessings over our businesses, family, health and every single aspects of our lives.

Since shortcuts are like traps, and everything we earned are like a vanishing mist; why must we take shortcut? For a moment of wealth, we could lose so much more. Why not keep our integrity and be sure to know that God will never shortchanged us.