FIGHT!

This year, I've participated again in our church's prayer and fasting week. Our main topic for 2014 is to fight the good fight of faith. It focuses on the verses that chronicled the components of the armor and weapon that every Christian must wear--the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of spirit.

As we concluded the prayer and fasting, I've got a new-found appreciation for the Word. I find the last piece of our battle suit to be the most powerful above all: the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. I justify that conclusion with this simple thought that I had during the prayer and fasting: all the other pieces are from the Word!

I've already encountered these verses (Ephesians 6:10-17) on one of my personal bible reading sessions. I can't recall exactly when that was, but I remember being in awe of the Word--of how specific it can actually get and how beautifully written it actually is. I was just new with my faith then, and almost everything in the Bible either leaves me with a smile on my face or tears in my eyes. Up to this day, the Word still does that to me.

It's almost next to impossible not to be moved and be struck by God's word. If you aren't, then you haven't fully understood what you've just read. You haven't dug your Bible so deep that you got lost in the midst of God's glorious wonders. You haven't appreciated your Lord and Savior yet.

Without knowing the Word, we won't even know what we'll need to protect, how to be ready for the battle, and why we have to put this armor on all the time. Ultimately, it is only through seeking God can we equip ourselves to fight the enemy. And that is to be done through studying the Word. The Bible is our ultimate guide and most reliable resource in order to have a deeper understanding of God's true nature, His power above all, and His beautiful promises to us.

The word of God are so many things to us: it is our foundation, our daily bread, our life map, our virtue manual, our life coach, our companion, our weapon. It is our friend and companion. It is God Himself (John 1:1). By that alone, you can not not feel closer to our greatest Lover while reading His word. You are reading Him.

But you can't just read Him--you need to understand Him! Plant the Word deep into your heart as you read it and meditate on its message. Seek help if you're having difficulties interpreting it. It is a true delight to one's heart once he got to decipher God's messages of love for him, I tell you. It's one of the most intimate 'bonding time' that you could ever have with our Father. With praying, we let Him hear our hearts... but with reading His word, we let Him speak to our hearts.

Truly knowing the Word means truly knowing God. And truly knowing God means being truly ready to face and crush the enemy. Anytime, anywhere.

Let's get it on!

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Did you pray and fast for this year, too? Share with me your experiences and reflections! You may also share your faith goals to me and I'd gladly pray for you and with you.

Special thanks to Victory for organizing our prayer and fasting week very well!

I want what He wants!

When we pray for something, we have that confidence that God hears us and will surely answer our pleas. If one does not have that, why would one pray in the first place?

A great professor of mine once told our class, "God has only three ways to answer our prayers." He then picked up a chalk and scribbled three words on the board: Yes, No, and Wait. I haven't realized it before, but he was right. And I haven't fully understood the latter two answers until God actually answered me with those.

Planting our faith firmly on our Savior, Jesus Christ, we all conclude our prayers with 'in Jesus' name, amen!', 'through Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, amen!', and the like. We do this because we know that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6, 1 Timothy 2:5). And with the strong sense of favor that we have from Him, in our hearts and in mind, we are confident that God would answer us positively. And yet, if God does that, would He still be God at all? If you're own plans and longings shall be granted to you each time you'd ask, everyone will be out of control and ask God everything as if He's a vending machine--you put some bill on it (prayers) and you expect to have in return the exact thing that you chose (answers). But God does not work that way! According to 1 John 5:14,

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."

We are encouraged to present all our requests to God by praying (Philippians 4:6), but we must not forget that His plans are better than ours. Actually, they are the best of the best! And our human intellect will never, ever come up with the brilliant ideas that God has in store for us on our own; not even close! With this in mind, we should not feel bitter about 'unanswered prayers'. Actually, no such thing exists! It's that that we may be ignoring His answers because we're too busy waiting for what we want.

I haven't been able to update this blog, and with all the things that has happened to me in between my last post and this, I can say that God truly wanted me to embrace and accept this as a fact: I am not gonna get everything that I want because He's already planned out when will He give me everything that I need that are immensely beyond what I asked for.