Thursday, July 17, 2008
Pride.
I’ve come to realize that there are times when people can mistake my straightforwardness or my “sure about something” or my confidence – as pride. Or maybe it’s just the way I put across my words or my actions. Maybe I’m just loud.
During my playing days, there was no doubt that I took a lot of pride in my abilities. But over the years, the Lord taught me & humbled me. And I honestly felt that pride was not an issue anymore – I was just a “loud” or confident person. Confident, not so much about myself; But confident because I believed that I had the Lord with me in my life - as long as I would seek Him, of course.
However in the past couple of months there have been times when I’ve found myself being highly satisfied with what I’ve done. There have been times when I felt good when being showered with accolades. Instances like being congratulated at doing a good job before & during our church camp. Even something like seeing my “model” shoot photos after coming back to Singapore made me feel good. I’ve never really looked at pictures of myself in “model” poses before & my pride got me to start thinking that, “Hey, I actually do have a pretty good body ya know”. (Talking about the church camp photos here). Yes, i do think that i have body that is somewhat "nice". But i think there is a difference between acknowledging it and allowing it get to your head and making yourself feel good. As hilarious as it sounds, the root of it was a cause for concern.
I thank God though, that he pricked my conscience and said “Hey, don’t you find that your starting to get a bit too proud about yourself & your achievements?” He brought this verse to my mind. And I thank Him that I responded to His voice instead of just neglecting Him.
1st Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”
Paul, very well knowing that he done marvelous feats & wonders for the Lord, above comparison with anybody else, acknowledged that it was only by the grace of God. That’s number one. Number two: the grace of God to Paul, did not go in vain! Paul labored in response to that grace. I asked myself, God has been so gracious to me, but Is my life a fitting response to that grace?
It was a good reminder to me once again that all I am today is really thanks to the loving nature of God who through his very own gracious & merciful ways has sustained & provided abundantly for my life. That was number one to keep me humble. Number two to keep me humble was: why be so proud of myself? Is my life responding to God as it should – if not, then there is no good reason at all for me to even be satisfied with what I’ve done. And as I examined my life, there WAS NO REASON for me to even be satisfied. Before God, his shining light exposed the darkness that was within my wretched, sinful self.
I realized too that falling back into pride was a result of not keeping close to the Lord daily. When one’s heart & mind is not filled with the principles of God, be it through his Word or through prayer or through other means, his/her mind can become “de-sensitized” to sin, thus leaving the door open for the devil to play his games with us. But I thank God that He made me realize that something was missing in my life – a daily and close relationship with Him. It was so amiss that it even affected the way I looked & carried myself for a few days!
So do pray with & for me. Thank God that He brought me to realize. Pray that I may not stop, but make the effort to respond faithfully to His grace to me in my life.
Ramble
Let him who finds glory, find it in the Lord, and not himself!
Let him who finds glory, find it in the Lord, and not his works!
Let him who finds glory, find it in the Lord, for He is the giver of life!
What glory would there be then, if life were not giveth?
So be wise, be humble, and realize…
That, But for the Lord,
All would be hopeless
All would be meaningless…
Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall”Labels: RLs
12:59 AM
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Yo Yo! Ok so here's the story...Romans set up this blog for me no matter how much i protested. I'm just too lazy to blog to be honest, and i do wonder sometimes, if my entries may attract comments that might be unfavourable. I dunno what other worse things could happen...
But nonetheless...i shan't be trepid...if the sharing on this blog could be used to provoke minds, create discussion, encourage, remind or even allow people to correct my thoughts (if valid :p) and more importantly,in all this, glorify our Lord,then i guess there certainly is no harm in blogging! So do pray that the words of my mouth (or my fingers in this instance :p) and meditations of my heart may be pleasing in the sight of the Lord :) May what i write be a testimony to the goodness of God working in & through me + plus a few/plenty of random stuff here and there related to things happening around me :p Will write more next time - gotta rush off to the airport now. A certain Chan Wei Sheng is going back to Oz.
Labels: Starting To Blog
5:39 PM
