The New Year...it's finally feeling good again...
Well, it’s been 10 days into the New Year already and the only thing I’ve mentioned about it has been how I’ve spent New Year’s Eve. So right now, as I post my first post of 2009, I hope to share more about the New Year thus far, yea I know it’s been just 10 days but still I’ve got a lot to say about these 10 days.
Firstly, just as the New Year’s Day kicked off the start of the New Year, my feelings kinda changed from being all excited about the New Year to total misery in the matter of New Year’s eve and the moment at 12 midnight when we just counted down to 2009, to the next morning. Basically, I woke up on New Year’s Day feeling the most horrible. Seriously, it’s not that I wasn’t glad the New Year had arrived and not like I was out to spoil or ruin the atmosphere. It’s not even like I didn’t know how to appreciate a New Year or I wasn’t looking forward to the New Year, but somehow, I was just feeling so terrible. I guess, most of it wasn’t exactly that bad, it was just a matter of being confused by mixed emotions that I was feeling. And, I was trying hard to understand how I was actually feeling and what was on my mind that made me previously, the day before so happy and excited about the New Year, it’s like I was finding a reason why I was so glad for the arrival of the New Year and I just didn’t get why I was feeling so down for absolutely no reason.
In essence, my feelings led me to believe I was unhappy then, just coz I couldn’t find the reason I had previously the day before to be happy and excited about the New Year, though deep inside I knew I was extremely happy about the New Year. Thus, I wasn’t able to really enjoy that joyous feeling because I never really rmb a reason. Truth is, we don’t need a reason to be joyful, the Bible even says that we should be joyful always…in all circumstances, and to rejoice always…Somehow, it just didn’t get to me though. Now, on New Year’s Eve, I was in a reflective mood, and the feelings I had were that of nostalgia and I was like reminiscing about the year gone by, I mean there were so many wonderful events last year personally and even in the world, yet of course there were many of the worst stuff that happened this year too, they probably outweigh the number of good things. And, I felt like last year, I wasn’t fully able to take in the complete experience and I kinda miss the opportunities I had last year which I wasn’t able to capitalise on, like the potential was there the whole of last year but I didn’t make use of much of it. Also, there were many sad things about last year. But, God really helped me through last year and I‘ve grown so much in such a short year that was last year, with all the ups and downs I faced last year.
Nonetheless, more of what I was feeling was that I had many things to be grateful for in the year 2008, and in fact there were some really awesome moments last year that makes it all worthwhile even if there were many more things to be unhappy with. My only regrets are that I didn’t make the friends I would have liked to and I didn’t take part in school activities as much as I would have liked, perhaps also maybe working a little harder at school and having more courage to do the things I wanna do with my life were some regrets, but at the end of the day, I know God uses everything for good even the bad stuff, so overall, I’m glad about last year and no I don’t regret anything. But, yet in looking forward to 2009 with all the messages of hope for the next year, I was genuinely feeling hopeful and excited by what is to come this year. And, as I watched the countdown on TV, going like…3, 2, 1…Happy New Year…!!! My heart raced, and like we were all cheering, fireworks were really awesome and I was in such a celebratory mood, well, everyone was sort of at least…I was so thrilled about the arrival of the New Year…I mean unbelievable…
But, strangely as I got up the next morning, I didn’t feel the slightest bit of it anymore, I was wondering, where was all the hype about the New Year? And, to make matters worst, I was feeling unhappy for no reason or you could say I couldn’t find the reason to be happy. But, on hindsight, I think I now know why I was happy, it was because, having learned so much about life last year, and even up till now, I was feeling upbeat and optimistic about the prospects for 2009, and I was hoping to really live life the way it should be lived this 2009 and to finally be courageous and really take all the opportunities that come my way in 2009, so as to fully utilise the potential of 2009 in terms of my life. With that settled, the fact that I’ve sorta found the reason, is the reason that now I’m back to feeling great about 2009 again, and I’m happy and excited about what’s to come. I know this year’s gonna be awesome for me, with God in the driving seat and my life surrendered to God’s will and purpose for my life, I now that this year I will have life and have it in full.
There’s reason to be happy this year no matter what the world tells us about a year of gloom, for my security lies in Jesus Christ and I know that God will do something great with my life this year. Perhaps, last year, I tried to take too many things into my own hands that and also didn’t dare to take initiatives to make things happen in my life, that’s why I didn’t get the best out of the year, or maybe it was just part of God’s plan, whatever it is, this year, I’m giving it all to Christ and asking Him to lead me to do the things He wants me to do, so that I can have a good and fruitful 2009. That is my reason to be happy about the year…and as this new week has gone by I must say I’ve become super happy now, and I can again feel God’s presence and the joy that comes from above…which I’ll share about later on…
Next, just before the New Year, on one of the days, between Christmas and the New Year, after reading the book, God’s Answers to Life’s Difficult Questions, I decided to while watching my sis and bro swim in the pool, to read the other book my mum gave me for Christmas, called Soul Cravings. There are basically three sections in the book, Intimacy (in other words, LOVE), Destiny and Meaning…these are the three main things that our soul craves. And, this book sets out to show through real life sharing from the author, how our soul craves for these three things in life, which lead to only one thing or to be more grammatically correct, to one person that we seek and that is God. The truth is, no matter what we seek out in life, what we are actually seeking for is Christ, coz only in Christ can all our soul’s cravings be met, after all God is our creator.
So, I began reading it, well, the section on Intimacy (Love). I can’t exactly rmb the stories in this section, and furthermore I browsed through most of the stories, just getting the idea of each chapter, so I won’t really go into the details of the book, but instead, I’ll give my reflections and thoughts, coz the several pages I’ve read really made an impact on me and I began to question my own life…I mean the ideas I got were that we all want to be loved and crave for love, and that we both need love and need to love. Most importantly, the book suggests as it’s true that since God is Love and we need love, ALL WE NEED IS GOD. But, this book in fact got me into deep thought, not just coz it was a rather abstract book, also that it forced me to question my own life. I began to wonder whether I actually know what LOVE means. Many questions came to my head…have I actually craved love? ...Have I loved before? What is love? Do I love others as I love myself? How much do I really love others? Have I been loved by others before? How much do I love the Lord? Is love really all that matters? ...the list goes on and on… This really concerned me as I fear that if I have not loved before, have I really been living out the life that I should be as a member of the body of Christ? I must say that contributed to my unhappy feeling that I had just as the New Year began like I mentioned above together with the confusion of how I was feeling about the New Year, which of course now I’m over already.
But, I guess this issue of love was addressed to a small extent over the course of these 7 days, where I was initially pretty down with everything seemingly just not working out great and it kinda made me realise again what I once was very passionately convicted about that relationships, i.e. love is the only thing that matters, and as my heart was stirred up by the realisation of the need for love and need to love ever more than before, I picked up some pointers from the PDL about what love is all about. Most importantly, I sought God to help me to understand the true meaning of love and to fill me with the desire to love others and God, Himself, and to truly love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Not to forget, the Bible provided a clear definition of love as in 1 Corinthians 13 for me. Basically, on a personal note, I believe that clearly I have craved love before, I mean, just my wish to have friends and to be part of my classmates which still is not exactly the case, shows that in my search for acceptance and a place to belong, I was in that sense craving for love.
As for whether I have truly loved before, well I think in a worldly sense I have, i.e. a crush…perhaps. But, an others’ centred love, a true love…I can’t be very sure, I mean, an unconditional, sacrificial love is hard to come by these days…I guess, only God is able to have a perfect love. But, not just that, I mean, I’m really not sure if I have loved others around me in terms of like concern and compassion for others, as an obligation definitely I have, still, to love others because you really do, I fear that I have not. I mean, once I mentioned that I treated everyone as friends, maybe not explicitly, but in my heart. But, I really don’t thing there has been anything substantial that I have done to express love for others. One question I keep asking myself is do I really love others? ...I know that I like the company of others and it is so rewarding to help others…is that really love for others? How do you know if you love others? ...I guess, as humans we naturally love ourselves, but we need to learn to love others and to love God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength. This clearly is impossible for anyone coz we are imperfect, but nothing is impossible with God, so I guess we can ask God to give us a desire to love others and to love God fully. And, I guess, we can also make the concerted and effort and make the choice to love others.
Thus, I realise that regardless of whether at this point I love others the way I should or not…what I need to do is from here on is to pray for the desire to love God and Man, and to make the choice to do so. And, I guess as we try to love others even if we don’t feel like it at first, we will learn to love others for that is what God created us to do, and the feeling gained from loving others will definitely leave us hungry for more. One other thing is that, I probably should try to be a more open, upbeat, joyful and fun person, the true side of me that people don’t see. I mean, I realise that people usually think of me as a serious person and perhaps always bitter and complaining, something I really am not, it’s only just the impression I give I guess. That has been a factor in the whole friendship issue. Anw, so this way, I can attract others i.e. make friends and have more opportunities to love others, and that would also take away my loneliness and craving for love…which I used to feel. Well, but it’s strange that perhaps the reason for my loneliness was probably coz I haven’t been loving others, as when we be friends to others and love others, then, in return we get friendship.
But, I know perhaps that isn’t all there is to it, like my other circumstances and stuff, at least I realise that I’m not exactly doing all I can, coz I could love others more than I actually am right now. Just that now, I think I’m probably not feeling like I miss everyone, coz I’ve been numbed to that feeling of loneliness but I realise that I really cannot go on like this, I’ve got to meet up with others. And, LIFE IS ALL ABOUT LOVE…so how can I give up on love, coz I’d be giving up on life. I should find ways to be with others and express love to others. I guess, it also doesn’t matter whether anyone loves me or not, at least I know God loves me perfectly and to really be loved I guess, I have to not desire to be loved but to love others first and that will eventually come with it. Maybe, this is just the other thing I needed to know about the whole loneliness issue, on top of what I’ve read about from the book, God’s Answers to Life’s Difficult Questions.
It’s amazing how God makes everything work out, I’d long been praying for an answer to not just questions in life but answer to the loneliness issue, and it’s like first, it appeared like everyone had deserted me and I was like rejected by everyone, and like no one cared for me, like I was completely alone and a failure in loving others, but this made me realise how important love actually is and it made me turn to God’s amazing love. Now, He led me to read to books that has taught me so much on loving others and coping with this loneliness issue, and it has just shown me what I need to do to love others and that I need to love others, and love will be returned. Even if love isn’t returned, I guess, in life it is more important to love others than for others to love us…maybe that’s what love is, to love others and not expect any returns for love. I mean, Jesus died on the cross for us with His great love for us, even when we didn’t deserve it.
But, I guess, the basis for love is that God is love. I was like then, why do we say God is love, I realised that it is not that God is an actual meaning of the word love, but it means that God epitomises what love is, that is why we say God is love. And, that suggests that THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW WHAT TRUE LOVE IS AND TO TRULY LEARN TO LOVE OTHERS, WE MUST KNOW GOD, BY HAVING A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. And, we should love God for He first loved us and He even sent His son to die for us. Also, we should love others as Jesus died for every one of us, God is love, God loves us and we are all part of the body of Christ.
Now then, here are the things that were mentioned in the PDL about love and fellowship with God and Man. Firstly, God wants to be our best friend and wants to have a relationship with Him. We need to have a relationship with God through constant conversation and continual meditation. And, we are as close to God as you choose to be. Next, we need to develop our friendship with God by being honest, to trust in Him, to care about what He cares about and to desire friendship with God more than anything else. We should show authenticity and trust that God uses everything for good and not be angry or bitter at the circumstances that God puts in our lives, for bitterness is the greatest barrier to friendship with God. We must remember that God always acts in our best interest. Furthermore, as Christians we want to follow Christ out of gratitude for all he has done for us and the closer we follow him the deeper our friendship. Love is not passive but it acts, it causes us to respond to Jesus call to love help others, share resources, keep our lives clean, offer forgiveness and to bring others to Christ, just simple acts of worship brings a smile to God’s face. And, in a relationship with God, we value what God values, and we are to love also the people that God loves, meaning we should love one another. Finally, we have to desire to be friends with God more than anything in the world. We are as close as we choose to be, so if we truly desire to be close to God, we can make the choice to and anw there’s better thing. And, pain is the fuel of passion awakening us from spiritual lethargy; problems are a wake up call for us to be in closer fellowship with God. Lastly, to sum it all up a relationship with God is what matters most. And, I realise that truly, as I have sought to be closer to God and more passionate for His name, many times pain has been the fuel of it.
As for love for one another, it says that we are formed for God’s family and that God is love, so he treasures relationships. Therefore, we are to have relationships with other believers and that lasts forever. Life is all about love and since God is love, the most important lesson He wants us to learn is to love. In fact, it states that our love for each other is the greatest witness to the world. And, to enjoy God’s family we need to be in fellowship to learn how to love. Life without love is really worthless that’s why all the commandments are relating to love. Life is all about love and that’s why our purpose in life is also to love. Love lasts forever and we will be evaluated by our love at the end of our lives by God. The best expression of love is time and we should love now before it’s too late. We are not meant to be alone, but we are to have a place to belong and that is in the body of Christ, and life is meant to be shared.
So, my thoughts about love are regarding our need to learn to love, our need for love and how important love is in our lives. And, the words from the book about love are relating to the place that should love take in our lives and what love entails. It is about why we should love others and God, how we should love others and God, and getting the desire to love others and God. But, a few things still remain to be addressed. Firstly, why do we need and crave love. Well, I guess, God created us to love us, that is what we were created for, to have love for God and Man. Therefore, there is an innate need for love, just like we have eternity set in our hearts. And, I guess love is just the foundation for everything. As for why love I all that matters, I guess, that is because love is the only thing that will last forever, nothing else will, not our riches and what not. And, there is one other kind of love and that is the one in terms of companionship. Like, our love may be imperfect but when someone finds true love he/she can know if it’s true love if it is not based on a reason, for true love is unconditional, but the most important thing is whether it is God’s will.
Finally, as for where I am at in terms of love, I would say that I really got much to learn on loving others. And, I need to truly not be fooled by my feelings but to realise what true love really is. Also, whether or not I still crave love, I know that deep inside I’m still lonely with few friends and I crave love like everyone does, coz that is what life is about, and so I need to learn to love others and make friends, to be able to really love others more and have friends and people who care about me too, just as it works both ways. I really need to ask God to help me love others they way He showed us how to. So, I just really feel like the world is really lacking in love but we really need to love one another. It then dawned on me that my motivation to love is to be the change I wanna see in the world and even in my life for that matter, and it made me realise that life is really sad when no one cares that’s why there is a need for love. This year, I really hope to love others and to feel the need for love again…
Now then, this is the definition of love…
Firstly, just as the New Year’s Day kicked off the start of the New Year, my feelings kinda changed from being all excited about the New Year to total misery in the matter of New Year’s eve and the moment at 12 midnight when we just counted down to 2009, to the next morning. Basically, I woke up on New Year’s Day feeling the most horrible. Seriously, it’s not that I wasn’t glad the New Year had arrived and not like I was out to spoil or ruin the atmosphere. It’s not even like I didn’t know how to appreciate a New Year or I wasn’t looking forward to the New Year, but somehow, I was just feeling so terrible. I guess, most of it wasn’t exactly that bad, it was just a matter of being confused by mixed emotions that I was feeling. And, I was trying hard to understand how I was actually feeling and what was on my mind that made me previously, the day before so happy and excited about the New Year, it’s like I was finding a reason why I was so glad for the arrival of the New Year and I just didn’t get why I was feeling so down for absolutely no reason.
In essence, my feelings led me to believe I was unhappy then, just coz I couldn’t find the reason I had previously the day before to be happy and excited about the New Year, though deep inside I knew I was extremely happy about the New Year. Thus, I wasn’t able to really enjoy that joyous feeling because I never really rmb a reason. Truth is, we don’t need a reason to be joyful, the Bible even says that we should be joyful always…in all circumstances, and to rejoice always…Somehow, it just didn’t get to me though. Now, on New Year’s Eve, I was in a reflective mood, and the feelings I had were that of nostalgia and I was like reminiscing about the year gone by, I mean there were so many wonderful events last year personally and even in the world, yet of course there were many of the worst stuff that happened this year too, they probably outweigh the number of good things. And, I felt like last year, I wasn’t fully able to take in the complete experience and I kinda miss the opportunities I had last year which I wasn’t able to capitalise on, like the potential was there the whole of last year but I didn’t make use of much of it. Also, there were many sad things about last year. But, God really helped me through last year and I‘ve grown so much in such a short year that was last year, with all the ups and downs I faced last year.
Nonetheless, more of what I was feeling was that I had many things to be grateful for in the year 2008, and in fact there were some really awesome moments last year that makes it all worthwhile even if there were many more things to be unhappy with. My only regrets are that I didn’t make the friends I would have liked to and I didn’t take part in school activities as much as I would have liked, perhaps also maybe working a little harder at school and having more courage to do the things I wanna do with my life were some regrets, but at the end of the day, I know God uses everything for good even the bad stuff, so overall, I’m glad about last year and no I don’t regret anything. But, yet in looking forward to 2009 with all the messages of hope for the next year, I was genuinely feeling hopeful and excited by what is to come this year. And, as I watched the countdown on TV, going like…3, 2, 1…Happy New Year…!!! My heart raced, and like we were all cheering, fireworks were really awesome and I was in such a celebratory mood, well, everyone was sort of at least…I was so thrilled about the arrival of the New Year…I mean unbelievable…
But, strangely as I got up the next morning, I didn’t feel the slightest bit of it anymore, I was wondering, where was all the hype about the New Year? And, to make matters worst, I was feeling unhappy for no reason or you could say I couldn’t find the reason to be happy. But, on hindsight, I think I now know why I was happy, it was because, having learned so much about life last year, and even up till now, I was feeling upbeat and optimistic about the prospects for 2009, and I was hoping to really live life the way it should be lived this 2009 and to finally be courageous and really take all the opportunities that come my way in 2009, so as to fully utilise the potential of 2009 in terms of my life. With that settled, the fact that I’ve sorta found the reason, is the reason that now I’m back to feeling great about 2009 again, and I’m happy and excited about what’s to come. I know this year’s gonna be awesome for me, with God in the driving seat and my life surrendered to God’s will and purpose for my life, I now that this year I will have life and have it in full.
There’s reason to be happy this year no matter what the world tells us about a year of gloom, for my security lies in Jesus Christ and I know that God will do something great with my life this year. Perhaps, last year, I tried to take too many things into my own hands that and also didn’t dare to take initiatives to make things happen in my life, that’s why I didn’t get the best out of the year, or maybe it was just part of God’s plan, whatever it is, this year, I’m giving it all to Christ and asking Him to lead me to do the things He wants me to do, so that I can have a good and fruitful 2009. That is my reason to be happy about the year…and as this new week has gone by I must say I’ve become super happy now, and I can again feel God’s presence and the joy that comes from above…which I’ll share about later on…
Next, just before the New Year, on one of the days, between Christmas and the New Year, after reading the book, God’s Answers to Life’s Difficult Questions, I decided to while watching my sis and bro swim in the pool, to read the other book my mum gave me for Christmas, called Soul Cravings. There are basically three sections in the book, Intimacy (in other words, LOVE), Destiny and Meaning…these are the three main things that our soul craves. And, this book sets out to show through real life sharing from the author, how our soul craves for these three things in life, which lead to only one thing or to be more grammatically correct, to one person that we seek and that is God. The truth is, no matter what we seek out in life, what we are actually seeking for is Christ, coz only in Christ can all our soul’s cravings be met, after all God is our creator.
So, I began reading it, well, the section on Intimacy (Love). I can’t exactly rmb the stories in this section, and furthermore I browsed through most of the stories, just getting the idea of each chapter, so I won’t really go into the details of the book, but instead, I’ll give my reflections and thoughts, coz the several pages I’ve read really made an impact on me and I began to question my own life…I mean the ideas I got were that we all want to be loved and crave for love, and that we both need love and need to love. Most importantly, the book suggests as it’s true that since God is Love and we need love, ALL WE NEED IS GOD. But, this book in fact got me into deep thought, not just coz it was a rather abstract book, also that it forced me to question my own life. I began to wonder whether I actually know what LOVE means. Many questions came to my head…have I actually craved love? ...Have I loved before? What is love? Do I love others as I love myself? How much do I really love others? Have I been loved by others before? How much do I love the Lord? Is love really all that matters? ...the list goes on and on… This really concerned me as I fear that if I have not loved before, have I really been living out the life that I should be as a member of the body of Christ? I must say that contributed to my unhappy feeling that I had just as the New Year began like I mentioned above together with the confusion of how I was feeling about the New Year, which of course now I’m over already.
But, I guess this issue of love was addressed to a small extent over the course of these 7 days, where I was initially pretty down with everything seemingly just not working out great and it kinda made me realise again what I once was very passionately convicted about that relationships, i.e. love is the only thing that matters, and as my heart was stirred up by the realisation of the need for love and need to love ever more than before, I picked up some pointers from the PDL about what love is all about. Most importantly, I sought God to help me to understand the true meaning of love and to fill me with the desire to love others and God, Himself, and to truly love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Not to forget, the Bible provided a clear definition of love as in 1 Corinthians 13 for me. Basically, on a personal note, I believe that clearly I have craved love before, I mean, just my wish to have friends and to be part of my classmates which still is not exactly the case, shows that in my search for acceptance and a place to belong, I was in that sense craving for love.
As for whether I have truly loved before, well I think in a worldly sense I have, i.e. a crush…perhaps. But, an others’ centred love, a true love…I can’t be very sure, I mean, an unconditional, sacrificial love is hard to come by these days…I guess, only God is able to have a perfect love. But, not just that, I mean, I’m really not sure if I have loved others around me in terms of like concern and compassion for others, as an obligation definitely I have, still, to love others because you really do, I fear that I have not. I mean, once I mentioned that I treated everyone as friends, maybe not explicitly, but in my heart. But, I really don’t thing there has been anything substantial that I have done to express love for others. One question I keep asking myself is do I really love others? ...I know that I like the company of others and it is so rewarding to help others…is that really love for others? How do you know if you love others? ...I guess, as humans we naturally love ourselves, but we need to learn to love others and to love God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength. This clearly is impossible for anyone coz we are imperfect, but nothing is impossible with God, so I guess we can ask God to give us a desire to love others and to love God fully. And, I guess, we can also make the concerted and effort and make the choice to love others.
Thus, I realise that regardless of whether at this point I love others the way I should or not…what I need to do is from here on is to pray for the desire to love God and Man, and to make the choice to do so. And, I guess as we try to love others even if we don’t feel like it at first, we will learn to love others for that is what God created us to do, and the feeling gained from loving others will definitely leave us hungry for more. One other thing is that, I probably should try to be a more open, upbeat, joyful and fun person, the true side of me that people don’t see. I mean, I realise that people usually think of me as a serious person and perhaps always bitter and complaining, something I really am not, it’s only just the impression I give I guess. That has been a factor in the whole friendship issue. Anw, so this way, I can attract others i.e. make friends and have more opportunities to love others, and that would also take away my loneliness and craving for love…which I used to feel. Well, but it’s strange that perhaps the reason for my loneliness was probably coz I haven’t been loving others, as when we be friends to others and love others, then, in return we get friendship.
But, I know perhaps that isn’t all there is to it, like my other circumstances and stuff, at least I realise that I’m not exactly doing all I can, coz I could love others more than I actually am right now. Just that now, I think I’m probably not feeling like I miss everyone, coz I’ve been numbed to that feeling of loneliness but I realise that I really cannot go on like this, I’ve got to meet up with others. And, LIFE IS ALL ABOUT LOVE…so how can I give up on love, coz I’d be giving up on life. I should find ways to be with others and express love to others. I guess, it also doesn’t matter whether anyone loves me or not, at least I know God loves me perfectly and to really be loved I guess, I have to not desire to be loved but to love others first and that will eventually come with it. Maybe, this is just the other thing I needed to know about the whole loneliness issue, on top of what I’ve read about from the book, God’s Answers to Life’s Difficult Questions.
It’s amazing how God makes everything work out, I’d long been praying for an answer to not just questions in life but answer to the loneliness issue, and it’s like first, it appeared like everyone had deserted me and I was like rejected by everyone, and like no one cared for me, like I was completely alone and a failure in loving others, but this made me realise how important love actually is and it made me turn to God’s amazing love. Now, He led me to read to books that has taught me so much on loving others and coping with this loneliness issue, and it has just shown me what I need to do to love others and that I need to love others, and love will be returned. Even if love isn’t returned, I guess, in life it is more important to love others than for others to love us…maybe that’s what love is, to love others and not expect any returns for love. I mean, Jesus died on the cross for us with His great love for us, even when we didn’t deserve it.
But, I guess, the basis for love is that God is love. I was like then, why do we say God is love, I realised that it is not that God is an actual meaning of the word love, but it means that God epitomises what love is, that is why we say God is love. And, that suggests that THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW WHAT TRUE LOVE IS AND TO TRULY LEARN TO LOVE OTHERS, WE MUST KNOW GOD, BY HAVING A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. And, we should love God for He first loved us and He even sent His son to die for us. Also, we should love others as Jesus died for every one of us, God is love, God loves us and we are all part of the body of Christ.
Now then, here are the things that were mentioned in the PDL about love and fellowship with God and Man. Firstly, God wants to be our best friend and wants to have a relationship with Him. We need to have a relationship with God through constant conversation and continual meditation. And, we are as close to God as you choose to be. Next, we need to develop our friendship with God by being honest, to trust in Him, to care about what He cares about and to desire friendship with God more than anything else. We should show authenticity and trust that God uses everything for good and not be angry or bitter at the circumstances that God puts in our lives, for bitterness is the greatest barrier to friendship with God. We must remember that God always acts in our best interest. Furthermore, as Christians we want to follow Christ out of gratitude for all he has done for us and the closer we follow him the deeper our friendship. Love is not passive but it acts, it causes us to respond to Jesus call to love help others, share resources, keep our lives clean, offer forgiveness and to bring others to Christ, just simple acts of worship brings a smile to God’s face. And, in a relationship with God, we value what God values, and we are to love also the people that God loves, meaning we should love one another. Finally, we have to desire to be friends with God more than anything in the world. We are as close as we choose to be, so if we truly desire to be close to God, we can make the choice to and anw there’s better thing. And, pain is the fuel of passion awakening us from spiritual lethargy; problems are a wake up call for us to be in closer fellowship with God. Lastly, to sum it all up a relationship with God is what matters most. And, I realise that truly, as I have sought to be closer to God and more passionate for His name, many times pain has been the fuel of it.
As for love for one another, it says that we are formed for God’s family and that God is love, so he treasures relationships. Therefore, we are to have relationships with other believers and that lasts forever. Life is all about love and since God is love, the most important lesson He wants us to learn is to love. In fact, it states that our love for each other is the greatest witness to the world. And, to enjoy God’s family we need to be in fellowship to learn how to love. Life without love is really worthless that’s why all the commandments are relating to love. Life is all about love and that’s why our purpose in life is also to love. Love lasts forever and we will be evaluated by our love at the end of our lives by God. The best expression of love is time and we should love now before it’s too late. We are not meant to be alone, but we are to have a place to belong and that is in the body of Christ, and life is meant to be shared.
So, my thoughts about love are regarding our need to learn to love, our need for love and how important love is in our lives. And, the words from the book about love are relating to the place that should love take in our lives and what love entails. It is about why we should love others and God, how we should love others and God, and getting the desire to love others and God. But, a few things still remain to be addressed. Firstly, why do we need and crave love. Well, I guess, God created us to love us, that is what we were created for, to have love for God and Man. Therefore, there is an innate need for love, just like we have eternity set in our hearts. And, I guess love is just the foundation for everything. As for why love I all that matters, I guess, that is because love is the only thing that will last forever, nothing else will, not our riches and what not. And, there is one other kind of love and that is the one in terms of companionship. Like, our love may be imperfect but when someone finds true love he/she can know if it’s true love if it is not based on a reason, for true love is unconditional, but the most important thing is whether it is God’s will.
Finally, as for where I am at in terms of love, I would say that I really got much to learn on loving others. And, I need to truly not be fooled by my feelings but to realise what true love really is. Also, whether or not I still crave love, I know that deep inside I’m still lonely with few friends and I crave love like everyone does, coz that is what life is about, and so I need to learn to love others and make friends, to be able to really love others more and have friends and people who care about me too, just as it works both ways. I really need to ask God to help me love others they way He showed us how to. So, I just really feel like the world is really lacking in love but we really need to love one another. It then dawned on me that my motivation to love is to be the change I wanna see in the world and even in my life for that matter, and it made me realise that life is really sad when no one cares that’s why there is a need for love. This year, I really hope to love others and to feel the need for love again…
Now then, this is the definition of love…
1 Corinthians 13:4
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
But have not love,I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
And if I have a faith that can move mountains,
But have not love,
I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames.
But have not love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast,
It is not proud,
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails,
…
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But, the greatest of these is love.
This song just shows how love is all important…
So Small lyrics
Yeah, Yeah
[Verse 1]What you got if you ain't got love
the kind that you just want to give away
It's okay to open up
go ahead and let the light shine through
I know it's hard on a rainy day
you want to shut the world out and just be left alone
But don't run out on your faith
[Chorus]'Cause sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand
What you've been up there searching for
forever is in your hands
When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else seem so small
[Verse 2]It's so easy to get lost inside
a problem that seems so big at the time
it's like a river that’s so wide
it swallows you whole
While you sit around thinking about what you can't change
and worrying about all the wrong things
time's flying by
moving so fast
you better make it count 'cause you can't get it back
[Chorus]Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand
What you've been up there searching for
forever is in your hands
When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else
Seem so small
Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand
What you've been up there searching for
forever is in your hands
When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else
Oh it sure makes everything else
Seem so small
Yeah, Yeah
Finally, but crucially, this week was really amazing not just that I’ve become happy again about the New Year and come to the realisation of the need to love, but in that just as New Year began I was feeling joyless, spiritually I was at a low and I felt momentarily distant from God, however, somehow as the week wore on, I began to feel God’s presence again and it was wonderful. My heart just began to feel ever so passionate, joyful and full of praise. It is like in my down moment and distant feeling, I trusted not my feelings knowing that God is real no matter how I feel, but it allowed me truly to worship Him at a deeper level, I remember just a few days before, I was suddenly just compelled to lift my hands to the Lord and speak to Him.Moreover, just as I was learning about the need to love God and develop my relationship with God and praying for God to teach me to love Him with all my heart, it seemed like God was doing just that by testing my faith and my relationship with Him, with this period where I felt distant. So, this week was like the period where I was feeling like this but beginning to get over this period of dryness I would say. And, it is really amazing the way God works, last year during my Nov and Dec holiday I was struggling to know what to do with my life and how to do God’s will, but unbelievably as I truly surrendered to God’s will and ask Him to help me make things happen in my life, God has created so many opportunities for me this year to spend my time more meaningfully. Like, just the past week I took part in the National Challengers Chess Championships and now I’ve got a job to do, i.e. helping out at church. It’s really amazing how God can do something like this in my life, and I’m just overjoyed. Now, that is why I know this year’s going to be awesome.
Lastly, this chess tournament, I did really badly, only 2/9 points, with 1 point coming from a bye. Anw, it’s coz I having played chess for awhile so I’m really lousy now, but now I’m going to train hard and come back. But, even as I was really sad, the to tears kind of sad and disappointed about my results in this tournament, I realised that God has plan for me through all my failures. It’s like through my failures, I realised that it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day whether I do well at this and that, but that I have done my best for what the Lord wants me to do for His glory. And, it made me realise that alone I am nothing but it is Christ who gives me strength. And, I’m going to trust God though in my life I failed at so many things, He wants to bless me and I’m just going to give everything to God and I know God is faithful and will bless me as I seek to honour Him in everything I do, so I’ll not give up but work hard and anticipate God’s blessing in my life. So, I just really thank God that this week He has been so amazing in my life, and I glad to say I’m finally full of passion and joy again…just really happy…
To end, I’ve found joy again and I’ve learnt to love God and Man. Also, I’ve broken out of this period of dryness and I’m learning from my failures. I’m just really grateful to God helping me through and letting me feel His presence ever so strongly in my life again. I know this year’s going to be good as it has already started pretty well, having felt so wonderful this week after New Year’s Day where I was so down.
Thus, there’s only one thing I can say and that is Truly, THE NEW YEAR’S FINALLY FEELING GOOD AGAIN…!!!
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