Make Rest, Not War

“Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. ” Matthew 11:28

Without rest, author and minister Wayne Muller writes, "we make war on our own bodies, pushing them beyond their limits; war on our children, because we cannot find enough time to be with them when they are hurt and afraid and need our company; war on our spirit, because we are too preoccupied to listen to the quiet voice that seeks to nourish and refresh."
Rest is a spiritual disciple. It’s something we must make room for. Yet we work so hard to make room for everything but rest. Then we wind up exhausted, irritable, and too often filled with regret. We mistakenly think we’re being excellent and efficient with our multi-tasking and our scheduled-down-to-the-minute days, but we are finite beings and we can only do so many things at a time well. Muller explains, “If we take on too much, we end up knocking things over and then spend our time cleaning up messes."

Everything God made runs in rhythms and cycles. The ocean, the solar system, the seasons, time, music, and the beating heart are just a few examples. Listen a moment to your own rhythm: Inhale… exhale. Thump-thump. Thump-thump goes your chest. Inhale… exhale. The fact is we were designed by our Creator to live in a rhythm – a pattern of alternating periods of work and rest just as He illustrated in the work of creation followed by a day of rest. Jesus urges us in today’s key verse to tune into Him and learn how to live this way. He offers us the unforced rhythms of grace God designed us for.

So why do we fight rest? Certainly our culture pushes us to accomplish more and more with our days. However, part of our problem stems from an inaccurate view of rest. All too often we view it solely as sleep, deciding as along as we get 8 hours of shut-eye, we can stay as busy as we want day-in and day-out. Soon we grow weary, even if we’re sleeping well, and begin “living for the weekend” or counting the days until our next vacation.

Once the weekend or vacation arrives, we confuse rest with leisure activity. We try to force a whole bunch of relaxing fun into a short period of time, assuming it will restore us. We cram our time for rest with shopping, playing, socializing, recreation, attending cultural events and so forth. Not that these aren’t good ways to spend our time, or that they can’t have some therapeutic, rejuvenating effect - they just aren’t going to provide real rest.
Rest is not just sleep, not just relaxation, not just a fun time, but a deep sense of hope and peace that will only abide in us to the degree that we abide in Christ and the grace He provides. Rest is not just punching out the time-clock and putting up your feet, it is resting in the fact that grace covers you, that mercy and protection are extended to you, and that your days are numbered and ordered of the Lord. That’s not something we typically find remembrance of while napping or knitting, but while tuning out the world long enough to plug into God’s amazing perspective.

How can we make for ourselves rest and not war?
By understanding we are made to live with regular rhythms of rest.
By remembering who God is – He’s mercy, He’s grace, He’s love, He’s provision, and He’s faithful consistency.
By becoming less rat-race focused and more eternity-minded.
By building into our days, regular periods of restful communion with God where we can hit the “reset button” and align with Him.

My Prayer for Today:
Dear Lord, I want to walk with You, watch You, and learn Your unforced rhythms of grace. Show me the way to take a real rest. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Powerful promise from HIM

The news from my girlfriend bout breaking-up with her boyfriend whom she dated for 3 years has struck me recently....

3 months ago, she told me they were planning to get married after completion of university. When she told me about how she and her boyfriend gone through a very serious consideration and lots prayers before starting the relationship, I was so convinced that they were meant to be together for the rest of their lifes. And now what has happened on them were totally unexpected by any of their friends, including myself. She said to me that it is a lesson of "submission" that she's learning right now.

I can imagine how she's experiencing right now, as I also went through such experience a couple years ago.....it's very tough, always full of frustration, confusion, disappointment, hopelessness and darkness in the mind. When can I see the light again? I do not know....

But I know I can depend on Him. As long as I have faith in Him, I know He has His plans and He will prepare the best for me. This faith is not illusion, rather it is as real as a solid. I tell you this based on my experience.

To my friend, I give her the following:

What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later....Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don't need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently. Romans 8:18-25

EMAS reunion @ Toronto

After 2.5 months, I met my friends from EMAS again tonight. PTL, I was so happy to see most of them again. There was a strong feeling holding us together, although we have no inter-connection in our daily lives. Again, our team leader is so kind and generous to provide his place to us to gather.

Some good sharings I had tonight with Candy, Ivy and Jeremy made me realize that it's really important to understand Him more in order to be a good servant to Him. Life would become tragical and meaningless if I don't find Him and live in Him. I lift up His name on high.

Candy, I will pray for you, as you pray for you everyday. God's promise never fails. Amen.

新的一頁

「忘記背後，努力面前的，向著標竿直跑，要得神在基督耶穌裡從上面召我來得的獎賞。」腓3:13-14

腓立比書再次使我的人生打開新的一頁。

我說再次, 是因為數年前有一位知深友曾用腓3:13-14 來 激勵我, 使我在一個旅程完結後, 有動力重新開始新的一頁。

今次腓立比書使我在邁向人生的標竿上, 打開新的一頁。我喜愛這卷書因它滿有信望愛。

如果你想找到"在任何情况下都滿有喜樂"的秘訣, 我推薦你看這卷書。

Today's special...Do not be afraid.

The Lord who created you says: "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you."
Isaiah 43:1-2 NLT

If you know the animations "Heman" and "Shelagh", you would probably remember a curse that the main character always use before gaining energy and fighting against a bad guy. The curse is something like "XXXX, give me power". After then, the main character is full of power and defeats the bad guy.

Why am I saying this? Well, the verses of Isaiah 43:1-2 reminds me about this. Isaiah 43:1-2 to me is like the curse to Heman or Shelagh, after reading it, I am full of power and courage. I am not afraid of any troubles and difficulties no more for my Lord is always with me. A successful person is not the one who has never got into troubles and difficulties, but the one who can overcome them with no fear. It sounds so unrealistic because fear is a natural feeling we have since birth. But if we have faith on HIM and trust HE is with us and protect us, we will overcome our feeling of fear and have the power to overcome any troubles and difficulties.

Any comments are welcome.

God-family

Tuesday night is badminton night. Tonight is very special because my god-brother Sunny joined us. My god-mom introduced him to others as my brother. So now the other people thought I have a real brother. Hehehe, I am so happy that my family is expanding. I have a real family including parents, sisters, sister-in-law and niece. And then a god-family (in church), including god-parents, god-brother and god-sister. Now I have another god-family and Sunny is the new member of our god-family. I love Sunny. He's been my friends for many years. We see each other very often and we have several things in common, like dinning out and our favourite food is dessert. He is one of my best friends.

Here is one of the limitations for us human. When we are losing something or someone, we always focus on what or who we will lose but never think of what or who we will gain in exchange. This is very wrong. God is fair and merciful. HE never make us suffer. Taking example of my experience of breaking up with my previous boyfriend, what I saw was losing a boyfriend and the relationship at that time. But what I did not see was more love from others and better relationship with my family and friends. Because of them I could be able to overcome a lot of difficult times. From this experience, I have felt God's mercy and love.

Family, friends and lover are all important to me and they cannot substitute to one another. Now, I have families and friends. The last one is left unknown. So if any of you know or suspect who he is, please contact me directly.

May God's mercy and love cover you every moment. Amen.

Laziness, am I?

I have not updated my blog for a month! Am I lazy? Well, as I said, my laptop was broken and I cannot go online everyday.

But because of my EMAS trip, I will start writing what's happening about this trip from now on.

Preparation: I've done very little so far. But got my visa and shots done. Everything is still under control.

Notes: I bought a book for a friend on Saturday, but now I hesitate to give it to him...should I or shoud I not?