Reflection for PPW

For the past two days, I’ve been thinking hard of what to write for reflection this week. I struggled to write out a good piece of reflection as I am aware that I’m already a university student, and because I’ve read books by amazing authors like Elizabeth Elliot and Max Lucado. Therefore, the more I need to produce a good reflection paper. I thought of picking a verse and reflect about it. I also thought of taking passages from book and write about it. But somehow I just couldn’t get my mind working and write out a complete sentence.

So I continue to read. As I read through this book by Elizabeth Elliot, I came across this sentence that struck me “When I start to pray, I just put myself in God’s presence. Psalm 46 urges us to be still and know that He is God”. This led me to realize that as I deal with my struggle, I did not put myself in God’s presence. I’ve set my own standard for myself to achieve. I’ve dwelt in myself. What’s worse, I’ve forgotten to just come back to God and be still.

Psalm 46:10a says God wants us to come to Him and be still, to be quiet in spirit and be at peace. Sometimes the best prayer could be just being silent before God and let God do the speaking. Let God do the lead. Know that He is in control and He is God. All He wants from us is our trust and simple obedience in Him in the midst of our struggles.

In the same way, when we feel life is a mess, things doesn’t happen the way we wanted to and we struggle to do thing in our lives, we need to ask ourselves these questions:
“Have I tried too hard to take control of the situation?”, “Have I taken away God’s position as the Director of my life?”. Every time we struggle, we face the danger of putting ourselves as the one in-charge of our troubles and our lives.

This struggle that I face may seem like a peanut, but it serves as a good reminder and good reflection of what bigger struggle that is to come in the future. It taught me the attitude and the heart that I should have in any situations. I believe that we all are growing and learning to take on more responsibilities this year and hence it will be a challenging year again for all of us. Our team will be scattered in KL, Sitiawan, Aus, Us and other places. We all might not be in contact or able to take care of each other sometimes, but always remember the ultimate Source to turn to is not anyone but God alone.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, as the year 2008 begins to unfold, let this verse “Psalm 46:10a Be still and know that I am God” be our constant reminder. It reminds us that when we do not know what to do, how to do, when to do, or where to draw strength from, then all we need to do is to come back to Him, be still in spirit and know that He is God. And if we proclaim that He is God, surely also we trust that he is the One in-charge of the universe and the Only Director of our lives. We are not at all in-charge of this life and we are not our own director.

Let’s set our hearts ready to learn simple obedience and to cooperate with the mysteries of His mighty plans this year, which in His plans surely includes also trials, hardships and surprises.

Lastly, I shall end this with Romans 15;13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.
God bless U, IPWS+C+L.