QT Revelation 051009, Randoms

My lifestyle has changed since July till now. And I really wanna thank God for the work He is doing in my life. Since July, I did something drastic, I told myself, Im gonna go work early to pray. And true enough, till now, every single day, I just cant wait to pray in my secret place in my workplace.

And then I told myself, I will pray more, and true enough. Just recently, about a month ago, not only do I have my early workplace prayer alone, I pray when I wake up, then go to work I pray again.

And then I told myself, I wanna be strong in the word. And now, just recently also, same time as I started my 'wake up' prayer, Ive been reading the word almost every single day. But in this area, I still have areas to improve, that is sleeping earlier and waking up earlier, cus sometimes I wake up late and I procrastinate, end up, I only prayed without reading the word.

Its like you send smses to God, and God replies through the word, but you're lazy to check the Word for His replies. Maybe thats how some people handle real life SMSes! HAHAHA. Always never reply, sometimes just click, open, never read, close.

See..it all makes sense, the way we treat God is the way we treat people. LOL.

I wanna start a new habit, that is to have my 'end-day' prayer. Sean once told me, prayer is like input and output. You gotta pray at the start of the day and thank God at the end of the day. Its like a pipe, if you have all the input, but no output, we become 'faulty'.

Ive prayed before I slept now and then, but its always so tiring and I admit I doze off sometimes. But this is one area I wanna get right. Thank God for morning prayer, thank God for TWO morning prayers in fact, thank God for the Word, but to make it complete. This is one area I must be fervent in, next is to fast at least once every week.

3 verses stood out today during my morning devotion:

James 2:8-10 (NIV)

8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right.

9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

Those are really strong words. In some translations, it says it is a sin to show partiality. Treating an unchurched one way and your cg members another way, treating your friends one way and neglecting the weaker ones, etc.

Not only are you being partial, you are being a double-minded person, unstable in all their ways.

James 4:17 (NLT)

17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

Another powerful verse. The sin of omission. Sin is not just doing what is wrong, Sin is also failing to do what is right.

There is a saying:

People perish not because of what they did wrong, but what they failed to do right.

Sometimes, a trial isnt always a training ground for 'preventive measures', it can also be a training ground for 'ensuring measures'. More than just helping us to overcome a situation, sometimes God need us to wake up our idea, face reality and do something about it.

Many times we can think, we can ponder, we can hope and pray all we want, and yet not do anything about it. When the disciples were on the boat in the midst of the storm, Jesus was sleeping. Why? Is it because He doesnt care? No. He just expects us to step out, take authority and calm the storms. If not whats the use of empowering us?

When someone is sick, all we do is "awww hope you are alright", its not wrong. But we can always do more, be there for the person, lend a helping hand, laying hands and pray for him, visiting him, etc. Show some initiative.

Jesus is not an awwsome God, but an awesome God!

In everything, there is always something we can do.

Lastly..James 5:16 (GNT)

16 So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect.

We always know this verse for the second part, on the effective fervent prayer, but the first part is accountability. Its so easy to share our testimonies and our blessings, but so hard to share our problems and our sins to each other.

But thats how it is, sin grows in the dark, the longer we keep things to ourselves, the stronger the hold it has over our life. But when exposed to Light, it loses its power.

The devil loves to control our lives because he knows no one will know.

Most of the time, especially during conflicts, he can spark all the wrong emotions and thoughts, people end up quarelling, getting angry, etc. And yet Satan is able to silently hide in the shadows while he sees the two destroy each other.

And people start blaming the other party, not realizing that the evil one is THE evil one, and not the opposing party.

Be sensitive, be discerning, be accountable.

-Today is my shooting, pray for protection cus the last time I injured my finger while pulling the trigger over 50 times, blister, blood, etc :S I have a bit of a trigger-phobia lol. =/