“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. “
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. “
-Ephesians 3:14-21
I never usually write about Sunday Preachings because I feel that one’s relationship with the Lord should be personal and I have had my share of uncomfortable moments about reading blog entries about just that, but this one I just had to share. Many moments in my six years of blogging have I lashed out about the most insensitive of things and those irrelevant things that may mean nothing to other people.
So why be hesitant when it comes to writing about Him?
So earlier today, my family and I visited GCF Paranaque (as opposed to New Life Alabang) to listen to my Tito Raymund speak about his testimony. I wrote about him three sundays ago, and still his story moved me and brought me to tears that I was trying to hide all throughout the sermon. He has just gone through a triple heart bypass at age 39 and he has a story to tell.
The first thing He asked was this, “What is the most important thing to you? What is the powerful force shaping your life?”
And suddenly, for the first time ever, I didn’t answer, “my career” which I used to eversince I was in college. I wanted to be an independent woman and I wanted to be known for what I do, rather than who I was living my life for. Come to think of, I was living my life for my career and how people saw me as “someone who was doing something with my life”
And he said that if God was the one shaping your life then you’re all set. And it was funny because this was what Arvin and I were talking about last night.
“With God, you’re always at the right time, at the right place”
And since you have that belief in God and when you’re dependent on Him, you have no fear in your heart because you know who is in total control of your life. That even during challenging times and times of waiting, you can trust in Him. You can trust that He knows what He’s doing.
Tito Raymund also mentioned that during the time that he had difficulty breathing and he was waiting for his driver to come, his driver who drove slower than a turtle, came just right on time and he said, “He came on time, in God’s time. Ten minutes late and it would have been a different story.”
And that just hit me. I’m waiting on a lot of things, I’m praying for a lot of things but I have to stand firm because His timing is always perfect.
I think the best way to define Tito Raymund’s testimony is this line, “The devil meant it for evil but the Lord turned it around for good”. The devil tried to harm him and yet, since he was a faithful servant, the Lord’s hand intervened and worked and now he’s healthy, vibrant and ready to share how faithful God is. Now his biggest challenge is now being used to glorify God.
I’ve also learned that when we ask God to intervene, He usually doesn’t send thunder nor does he make furnitures move like magic or send a hark of angels to lift you up. Instead, he uses people as instruments, so never take anything for granted and be sensitive. In Tito Raymund’s case, it was in the form of a head nurse from Asian Hospital named Marge who spoke God’s words to Him after he found out that he needed a triple bypass to save His life.
These little miracles, we forget them because we always demand God for big miracles, and you know He is capable of it, but that doesn’t mean that his miracles would come down from the sky. We serve a creative God, the moment God touches someone’s heart or the moment God’s hand touches a situation, there’s no running away from it. Nothing is truly impossible with Him! NOTHING. Search for Him in the little miracles, search for His extraordinary Hand during the most ordinary of days.
God gave us the life of His only son, the least we could do is to hand over our willingness to surrender and come to think of it, I’ve tried it my way. I tried doing things my way and at the end, I always ended up frustrated and in so much pain.
Come to think of it, there’s really no harm in surrendering to Him and it’s because He knows His plan for us. Even our natural, earthly parents don’t mean us any harm what more our Heavenly Father.
And to cap this off, i’m listing down the five lessons he learned allthroughout this ordeal:
1) Know who you are as a child of God
– And know what inheritance is promised to you because you are a child of God. Believe in it. When you see yourself as God sees you, you’ll see yourself never engaging in trash or in accepting trash. Instead, you know what you deserve and what you have to give because you are a representative of who God is. Live a life worthy of God’s blessing and this doesn’t mean that you have to earn it, it just means knowing who Christ is and if you get to the core of this, you’d understand the mighty power that you have in Him because of He who lives in you and not because of you’re doing alone. And to know who you are in Christ you have to pick up that little black book that now comes in all shapes and sizes called “The Bible.”
2) Love the people around you
-Tito Raymund spoke of marriage and of course, I couldn’t relate to it. But it did remind me to love my family more and be less forgiving of their little mistakes. It also made me define my future spouse in an entirely different manner, I think the number one measure of who my future spouse should be is measured by this line, “how much does He love Christ?”
3) Every challenge is an opportunity to make Christ known.
– If this happened to a man other than a man of God who was rooted in His word, he would have broken down but instead He stood firm in Christ because he knew that his life story was going to be one for the books. One that would glorify Him and make Him known to the world. So if you’re going through something extremely challenging now, pray to Him and believe that God has the perfect story waiting for you. Take heart and be of strong courage. You’ll get there.
4) Please God, everything else is secondary.
– Seek ye first the kingdom of God and as I mentioned in a previous blog entry, everything else will follow.
5) In every challenge, thank God for giving you another day to fight it.
– We’re so blessed to be breathing at this very moment. It means the fight isn’t done yet, so don’t give up. There’s a story waiting to be told and people would want to hear it. Hold on, don’t lose heart. God knows what you’re praying for and He is lining up the right people and the right opportunities to make that dream come true, if it is in His will, but if not He has something even better. So hold on to Him, believe and speak His word. You could never go wrong.
Blessed Sunday!
