But i guess u won't have come here if you were in a hurry right?
Hmm, why am i able to post again? Oh...my brother is back in camp. How i miss him...
This reminds me of a somewhat famous sentence: '' You only learn to treasure the things around you after you have lost them''. Quite true, and experiencing it makes it easier to understand the gist of the sentence. This subsequently made me recall about the past...
When I was in lower sec, I always loathe my brother's presence at home; his presence meant that the only one gadget which I grew so close to was inaccessible-computer. As you can guess, my only companion was perhaps Maplestory. Everyday without fail, be it sunshine or rainy days, I will rush home and immediately on my computer. Oh fyi, I was a level 110 hermit in bootes ^^. Thats like 1+ years ago? How time flys.
Okok, back to business. And everytime my brother came back, he will 'command' me( So NS lor..haha) to off the computer. And the ironic thing is, there is 2 computers at home!! All my friends will laugh at me and say that I am 'hum'. But I know it is not right for me to go against my brother...Even so, a lost is inevitable; Hes like 3 years older than me!
Now that my brother is in NS, he has changed so much. For the better I hope =X.
Oh ya, he just bought a book called ' ANSWERS to Life's Difficult QUESTIONS' by RICK WARREN. I think it is a very captivating book, which is able to attract many readers. His other book 'The purpose-driven life' has sold 26 million copies!! Thats like 6.5 times the size of Singapore population. O.o.
The chapters in the book are:
1. How can I cope with stress?
2. How can I rebound from failure?
3. How can I defeat depression?
4. How can I live above average?
5. How can I have peace of mind?
6. How can I handle discouragement?
7. How can I overcome my problems?
8. How can I be confident in a crisis?
9. How can I ever change? ( Gonna share about this 1)
10. How did I get myself into this mess?
11. Why is this happening to me?
12. How can I overcome loneliness?
How can I ever change?
I just read this chapter this morning and i felt led to share it. Because you dont need to be a rocket scientist to understand what I am about to share. All you need to be is yourself, and be open to change. Furthermore, this chapter is the most applicable of all the chapters I have read. So seat back, relax and prepare your heart for a life-changing moment.
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What would you most like to change about yourself? If you could change one thing, what would it be? A great tragedy is a wasted life, a life that is never willing to change. Change is a necessary part of a growing life, and we need change in order to remain fresh and to keep progressing.
Most of us are interested in change. Of the fifteen recent bestsellers, ten of them were self-help books-titles such as ''Thirty Days to A New You.'' We go to seminars and read books and try diets and listen to tapes, but somehow, the new ideas just don't seem to last. Maybe we'll change for a while, but each new idea doesn't have a permanent effect. The main reason for this is that we work on the exterior, our outside behavior, instead of on our interior motives. Any lasting change must begin on the inside, and that's a work of God.
THE FOUR-STEP PROCESS
In Genesis, chapter 32, we see the process that GOd uses in changing us, in helping us become the kinds of persons we've always wanted to be. God wants to change us, and we want to change. We'll see how to change by looking at the life of Jacob, the father of Joseph. The incident recorded in this chapter was a turning point in Jacobs' life, and serves as a dramatic example of how God can change us as individuals.
Jacob was a somewhat shifty fellow. Even his name means ''cheater'' or ''schemer''. But a turning-point experience transformed him into a new person, and he became Israel, the man whom the entire nation of Israel is named after. It was such a transforming experience that he was never the same again.
In this story we have a clear expression of the four-step process that God uses to change us into the kind of people we want to be. It's a truly encouraging message. It's a message that says we don't have to stay in the rut where we are: God will help us to change, to overcome that weakness or area in our life, if we'll just let him.
How do we let him? Let's look at Genesis 32:24-30: '' Jacob was left alone, and a Man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the Man saw that He could not overpower him, He touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the Man. Then the Man replied, 'Let Me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob replied, ' I will not let You go unless You bless me.' The Man asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he answered. Then the man said, ' Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Isreal, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.' Jacob said, ' Please tell me Your name.' But He replied, 'Why do you ask my name?' Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying' It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.' ''( The work ''Peniel'' is a Hebrew Wod for ''the face of God''.)
What does a wrestling match with an angel several thousand years ago have to do with changing me today? There are some important insights in this incident which show clearly how God changes people. There are four steps that God uses to change us into the persons we want to become.
CRISIS
The first step is the crisis phase. Jacob had a long wrestling match with an angel, and the angel was really struggling, but it was a no-win situation for both of them. By daybreak Jacob was getting tired of the struggle because he saw that he could not win. It was a situation beyond his control.
The lesson we see in this is that when God wants to change us, He starts by getting our attention, by putting us in a frustrating situation that is totally beyond our control. We cannot win, and we just keep getting more tired and more tired. God uses experiences and problems and crises to get our attention. If we're experiencing a crisis right now, it's because God is getting ready to change us for the better. We never change until we get fed up with our current situation, with the status quo. We never change until we get uncomfortable and discontented and start feeling miserable. When we get miserable and uncomfortable and dissatisfied enough, we finally get motivated to let God do something in our lives.
A mother eagle will take the nest of her young and stir it up. She'll make them uncomfortable and miserable, then kick them out and force them to learn to fly-for their own good in life. God does that in our lives: He makes us uncomfortable if that's what it takes, because He knows what is best and He wants us to grow. He will allow a crisis or problem or irritation or frustration in our lives to get our attention. He needs to do this because we don't change until our fear of change is exceeded by the pain we're experiencing.
COMMITMENT
The second step in being changed by God is the commitment phase. Look what the angel and Jacob said: ''The man said, 'Let me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me' ''(v.26). Jacob was commited; he was persistent; he stayed with the situation until he worked it out. He was in a situation he didn't like-it was frustrating and it was getting him down-but he said, '' I am 100 percent commited to staying with the situation until God turns it around for good.''
Here's the lesson we get from this: After God gets our attention with a problem, He doesn't solve it immediately. He waits a little longer to see if we really mean business. Most people miss God's best for their lives because they give up too soon. They cop out. they get discouraged. When God allows a problem in their lives, instead of hanging in there and saying, ''God, I'm not going to let go of this until You bless me, until You turn it around, '' they just give up and miss God's best.
Often when people come to me for counseling I'll ask, ''Have you tried praying about the situation?''
They'll reply, ''Oh yes, I've prayed.''
''How many times?''
''Once.''
We're so conditioned to having instant everything, including instant success, that if we don't have an instant answer to our one prayer, or instant success or an instant turnaround, we say, ''Forget it, God.''
Even if we really want to change, we need to remember that we didn't get into our present mess overnight. Those attitudes and actions and habits and fears and weaknesses took years to develop, and sometimes God has to remove them layer-by-layer. Usually it takes awhile for God to change you. But don't give up. There's hope. Hang in there. Be commited to getting God's best for your life.
Psychologists tell us that it takes us six weeks of doing something every day before it becomes a habit in our lives. Now that's why a lot of people never get into the Bibles. We read the Bible for two or three days and then we miss it for a few days and then we read it for a few days. We never get past that six-week barrier and as a result we never feel comfortable with it. We've got to do it every day for at least six weeks before we start becoming comfortable with this new and good habit.
CONFESSION
The third step in being changed by God is the confession phase. The angel said to Jacob, ''What is your name?'' And he answered, ''Jacob.'' What was the purpose of the angel's question? It was to get Jacob to acknowledge his character by stating his name, which means ''cheater'' or ''schemer''. Jacob remembered the heartache he had caused by his scheming against his brother Esau, so when the angel asked, ''What are you really like? What's your character?'' Jacob admitted, '' I'm a cheater. I'm a schemer.'' He admitted his weaknesses because he was honest. When he identified himself as ''Jacob'', he was admitting his character flaws.
This is an important process in God changing us, because we never change until we honestly face and admit our faults and sins and weaknesses and mistakes. God will not go to work on our problem until we first admit that we've got a problem. We need to say, '' Lord, I'm in a mess. I've got a problem and I admit I made it.'' Then God can go to work.
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to make excuses for our problems? We become experts at blaming other people. ''It's not really my fault , you know. It's the environment I was brought up in-my parents caused it.'' Or ''The situation I'm in right now is caused by my boss at work.''
Why should we confess our faults to God? To let Him know what's going on? No. When we tell God we've sinned, it's no big surprise go Him, because He knows what our problems are all along. We confess to Him because He wants us to say, '' You're right, God. I've got a problem. There's my error or weakness.'' It's humbling to admit our mistakes, but once we do, God gives us all His resources and all His power to help us change for the better. At that point we can start becoming the persons we've always wanted to be.
This event in Jacob's life was much more than just a wrestling match. It was an example of how God works in our own lives. It was an example of how God works in our own lives. First He brings a frustrating crisis, like the wrestling match, in which we really struggle with the situation. Finally we acknowledge, '' It's obvious that I'm not going to win. I can't get this situation under control-in my own power I'm just going to keep on blowing it.''
Then we need to continue: '' But I'm going to commit myself to sticking with the situation and letting God work it out.''
God replies, '' I'm not going to bail you out right away, because I want to see if you really mean business. You said you wanted to change, so now I'm going to allow the problem to stay just a little longer to see if you really mean business.''
If we cop out at this point we'll just get another problem of the same nature a little farther down the line. If we don't learn the lesson now, we'll have to learn it later, because God is going to teach it to us one way or the other. We can save ourselves a lot of problems by responding properly when the crisis first come along.
COOPERATION
The fourth step in being changed by God is the cooperation phase. God began changing Jacob as soon as he admitted who he was and began to cooperate with God's plan. Jacob called the place ''Peniel'', meaning ''the face of God'' (v. 30). Jacob came face to face with God. Every one of us must eventually come face to face with God, and when we do that , God can change us. God said to Jacob, ''Now we can get down to business. I want you to relax. Just cooperate and trust Me, and I will make the changes that you want made, and I will bless you.'' God didn't say, ''Jacob, try real hard and use all your willpower to become perfect.'' That doesn't work. Willpower simply does not make permanent changes in our lives. That's attacking the outward circumstance. It's the internal motivation that makes the permanent changes, and that's what God works on.
When Jacob began to cooperate, God started working, and the first thing God did was to give him a new name, a new identity. God said, '' Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel'' (v. 28). After we have had a personal encounter with God we can no longer be the same. God changed Jacob from a cheater and schemer to an Israel, a '' Prince of God''. God knew Jacob's potential; He saw beneath his exterior of trying to be a wordly wise tough guy. God saw all of Jacob's weaknesses, but He also saw beneath the surface: '' That's not the real you, Jacob. You're actually an Israel. You're a prince.'' God saw the prince in Jacob, and the former cheater began to become the man whom the entire nation of Israel was named after.
DON'T RUN, BUT STAND
There's another insight that we get from this incident in Jacob's life. He often got himself into trouble because he was a cheater, and he often reaped what he sowed. But everytime he got himself intoa mess he ran away with it. He just copped out. So God said, '' I know how to take care of that temptation-I'll put a limp in his walk.'' Never again could Jacob run away from a difficult situation. For the rest of his life he would have to stand and face his problems, not in his own strength but in God's strength. God often puts an obvious weakness in people whom he blesses, and often the weakness is some kind of physical problem. For example, Paul had his thorn.
What about you? How would you like to be permanently changed? What's the one thing you would most like to change about your life? Maybe it's a habit. Maybe it's a weakness. Maybe it's a character difficulty. Maybe it's something that's gotten you into more trouble than you could have imagined, and now the situation is beyond your control. Maybe you're in a no-won situation that bothers and bugs you and keeps you from developing the potential that God wants you to develop.
Do you want God to change it? He will, but in His own way. He will use the processes of crisis, commitment, confession and cooperation. And when He does the changing, it will be a permanent change. You won't have to worry about willpower and staying with it because you'll be cooperating with God, relaxing and trusting Him.
Maybe you've been limiting God by making excuses, blaming other people, or rationalizing. It's hard to drop your mask and say, '' God, I've got a weakness. I admit I've got a problem.'' But until you do this, things will just stay the same as they are now.
The good news is this: Beneath all those things you know about yourself that you don't like, God sees an Israel. He sees the prince or princess in your life. He sees what you can become. He sees your potential, and He wants to change you form a Jacob to an Israel. Let God do His changing!
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Ahem! Hope you are blessed as much as I am =).
-Let's change together for the better-
