Faith

Found this very nice acronym on Faith: Forsaking All I Trust Him.

I realized that faith was most of what I could hold on to, after I entered into university life that was full of uncertainty. Whenever things go out of my control, and I can't get anything done on my own, the only reason I could go to sleep at night peacefully was in believing God will sort things out, and then I pray and let go, and fall asleep. It is just like this quote:

Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. And lo, no one was there. ~Author Unknown

I am a very impatient person. I like to see things out and done. I don't like to wait and slowly toil to get results. I guess God is really putting me through a training these four years to wait in patience.

Somehow I don't believe in the saying: Have faith in yourself, and you will succeed. I guess it's true to some extent - where you have the capability, faith does boost determination and confidence. But sometimes you are not the only deciding factor of your 'success'; environmental circumstances have a large part to play too, and they are out of your control. You can trust in things, you can trust your life in people; but they may still fail you, intentionally or otherwise.

Rather I believe in having faith in a definite assurance, which the eyes of the flesh cannot see, but comes with reason. I believe in having faith in He who never fails me, and most of all, never fails Himself. I believe in having faith in facts, not (probable) empty hopes. Faith is not believing that God can, but knowing that He will.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

I pray for a bigger faith for a higher purpose. I pray that I not only use faith to hold on to One I believe could solve my problems, but more than that; I will hold on to His promise that His will will be done (this is different from my will, which is always wanting my own problems solved and things to get fine and happy quickly).

And I thank God for in this year's walk in faith, I am not alone, but greatly encouraged by others :)

The Letter of the Law vs. The Spirit of the Law

Romans 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Going through Romans in Bible Study has been a great experience. I found out much regarding the power of salvation over sin that I never really realized I could tap into.

But then I was reminded again today, by this verse, and by a sister that it is futile if we grasp all the principles of salvation and what God could do through us, if we fail to love.

I pray that my heart will always be tender for the lost and not have its senses hardened by the businesses and busyness of life. For the Spirit of the Law is love.

I pray that Bible Study would be life-transforming for me, and I pray that the Spirit open my eyes and see the need to love each day. And I pray that through the power of my salvation that has already won over sin, I have daily victory over my flesh and go out of my comfort zone to love, and to share His heartbeat for people.

And I thank God for Anna's little encouragement and reminder on Facebook to seek God even in absorbers and kinetic reactors :) For He is indeed everywhere.

Falling Leaves Return to Roots :)

Came across this song just now when randomly following a Wang Lee Hom playlist. It's quite an old song by now but it still sounds nice :) I like the nice autumn feeling it gives. I played it before last year for CME during Mid-Autumn festival and it was a nice song to play (although it was in A flat major which was the horrible part). I was lazy to listen to it too many times and did not follow the improvisation exactly though. Still I'm pretty sure the important parts were there. :p And ohhh I did powerpoint slides for the performance, which was the only time CME performed with powerpoint slides ^_^

Wabbit year was pretty peaceful with minimal outings and visits from a very antisocial me. :p But I got A LOT of piano time which was great as I have hardly touched the piano at RH at all, and this is going to be my final semester with a piano around :(.

Give Thanks

It is amazing that how God wants me to learn how to give thanks to Him in this particularly difficult week.

When I accepted Annie's Thanksgiving Challenge, I thought it would not be a hard thing to do. The next day I was hit by bouts of headache and fever. It was not too bad, but it wrecked my whole mood, and my whole ability to study, which is quite crucial now as I still couldn't get my Design Project simulation running.

Today the fever subsided but the natural phenomenon that happens once a month to ladies (before a certain age), deterred my ability to stand for long hours and made me very uncomfortable throughout today's career fair. Thankfully I more or less managed to note all the booths I wanted to see.

Yet I won't say this week is at rock-bottom stage because many, many nice things happened; and people were really understanding about my physical state and kept asking me to rest more. Jon did all he could to make me get better. Tirza has been urging me to sleep more (I slept A LOT yesterday + today!) The dinner Andrew cooked was beyond awesome too. And the 3 in 1 birthday celebration was worth staying up for :)

I know in the future there are most certainly worse days than this, but the more things turn downhill, the more we must learn to give thanks. Because if this is what God has mapped out, it can be nothing else but the best.