Joseph's Example

The life of Joseph only takes up a small portion in the bible (Genesis 30-50), and yet, it consist of the essence of how we should be leading our lives.

During his younger days, he had many things going against him. First, his brothers din really like him, they had wanted to kill him, but decided to sell him away as a slave. Just when things got better, he was framed and thrown to jail and got stuck there for many years.

I can imagine, many people would have been so bitter if they face the same situations. Yet this is one guy who bloomed where he was planted. Instead of complaining and feeling sorry for himself, he does his best in every situation he's in. Where he was sold to as a slave, he was eventually trusted by his master who put him second in charge in the household. Though he was framed and thrown to jail, he became the overall in charge there. Finally, he became the ruler in the land where he was sold as slave.

I couldn't help feeling so amazed, how he had turned his situations around. The life of Joseph is so inspiring..............

I will trust and not be afraid, knowing that His plan is always the best.

Listening Room

I'm on the book of Proverbs right now. During my listening room, one particular verse caught my attention and spoke to me in a special way.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.
Proverbs 1:3


This is how my Life Application Bible Interprets the verse:
There are different ways to fail to commit whatever we do to the Lord. Some people commit their work only superficially. They say the project is being done for the Lord, but in reality they are doing it for themselves. Others give God temporary control of their interest, only to take control back the moment things stop going the way they expect. Still others commit a task fully to the Lord, but put forth no effort themselves, and then they wonder why they do not succeed. We must maintain a delicate balance: trusting God as if everything depended on him, while working as of everything depended on us.




Interestingly, this seems to be the theme for my day. I started the day with this thought, and ended the day, chancing upon this verse.


I was just thinking, so often, we treat God like He's a genie in a bottle, asking for things to go our way.

Lately, I have made some personal discovery. I realized that I can live my life in fullness only when I surrender my all in all. Whatever we think is best for us may not really be the best for us. When I tell God, whatever I do, all I want is just to glorify Him, to worship Him by putting in my best efforts.................. I get amazing results. It's hard to explain this, one has got to experience it to understand this feeling of freedom. This feels like getting a pair of wings.

Bloom Where You Are Planted

It is not our circumstances that make our lives good, it's our attitude towards life that makes circumstances good.

If we have the wrong attitude, things will always go wrong, no matter where we are. It's so important to take things with the right spirit, and grow from whatever that comes along the way. I mean, everyone will be a good person if all things in life are so perfect and rosy. It's adversity that shows us who we really are, what we're made of.

If we hold the right attitude, we'll prosper wherever we are. Just look at Joseph and Daniel.

Choices

One thing caught my attention in particular when I watched the latest Spiderman movie. He ended the movie with the following statement, and I thought it was really meaningful:

"We always have choices. It's our choices that make us who we are. We can choose to do what is right."

That is so true. Every moment, we are presented with choices about how we gonna perceive things, and how we're gonna let events influence our lives. Our choices craft us to become who we are eventually. That's why, every moment of choice is an opportunity to either become someone better or worse.

Happy Birthday Cousin

Cousin J and me grew up playing together, but I never know when is his birthday. I mean, I know it's roughly a couple of months after mine, but never sure when it really is. And yah, mean me, I've never bothered to ask :P

Thanks to Friendster, now I finally know the exact date, hee

For the first time since we're kids, I wished him happy birthday, hahahaha, by posting a comment in Friendster.

Me: Happy birthday cousin, actually I never really know when's your actual birthday until now, feel guilty


His reply was quite funny:

=) from ur cousin j

heh heh,

tat's a long overdue well wishes then my dear cousin, haha.

thanks for the tot, gee must be very concentrated since this many yrs though.

cheers,
J

There is little wonder why the scripture says:

"Whatever you do, work at it with your whole heart, not unto men, but do it unto God............"


When we do things to please men, it cripples us and stops us from moving ahead with the power we should. Thing is, people have very different measures for deciding what is good. And what someone else decides as good may not be really so. Things can be subjective at times.

Once this thing is out of the way, life gets a lot easier. God is our partner, every step we take, do your best and He'll show you what's next.

When you have an excellent spirit, it shows up in the quality of your work, and the attitude with which you do it.