Seek first His kingdom and righteousness

To seek first the Kingdom of His righteousness, and just as God's word promised, everything that we needed will be given unto us. 

In all honestly, as much as I am willing to live this one and only life fully for Him, I am also feeling fearful of what is ahead of me. Sometimes my biggest struggle is not where I should go or what I should do, but it's being more like you. 

I could no longer serve both God and money. My young adult life revolved around feeling secure with my job, finances, future marriage, my parents' expectation of me living the Singaporean dream, and my personal enjoyment. Well, these are not bad things and a part of me wants some sort of control and answers to my future. Taking that huge step of faith to forgo my career is foolishness in the eyes of the world, but I was determined in my heart that He is true, and He is really the Lord of my life. I was drawn by His love and what He has done in my life, the gift of salvation, hope for the future and me as His beloved. There is no turning back. 

Faith enables us to grow and be more like Christ, whatever the cost. The end goal isn't for me to be remembered, I am an untitled nobody. But it is Christ to be remembered, and people who have not heard the good news to put their hope in Him. 

Remember how the Lord you God led you all the way in the wilderness, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord

Deu 8:2-5 . 

There is absolutely nothing wrong to make practical decisions about our careers and finances, but are we missing out on God's purposes for us? It's hard to keep our primary purpose in view when we get so swamped with secondary things. In all honestly, no one or nothing beyond God and His word could change my mind upon what I've decided to do. I have one desire now, to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy, youth, and strength into it. If we've already put our trust in Him for salvation, so why not do it as far as our life is concerned? If there's nothing true to this eternal life we might as well lose everything and throw our present life away with our life hereafter, indulge and waste it away. But if there is something to it, then everything else the Lord says must hold true likewise. 

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father is this: To visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

James 1:27 

God is eager to call others to Himself, especially those who have no knowledge of Him. We just need to sow seeds, ideas and love on people. I believe we just need pure hearts and pure hands for people to be curious and take the initiative to start asking questions. 

Lord, what is Your dream for the nations? Do I see what He sees? 

God has never forsaken me and has never let me down. He sees the value in each of us, and I know I desire to dedicate this one and only life to Him. To go to the far ends for Christ, I would have to go so low. In order to obtain His dreams, am I willing to be expendable?

Even with trials and suffering, He is still good and faithful, and what He has done on the cross is enough for me to stay committed to Him, even if any other blessings do not come my way. Struggles are real, but that doesn't change who God is. It doesn't change His character and love for us. We could look at difficulties through the love of Christ, instead of looking for his love through those difficulties. He loves tenaciously, not just the youths I work with, but me too!

Mercy without wisdom does not do any good. We learn to love extravagantly, show grace exponentially, discipline graciously, and intercede passionately. From this I believe we will see a transformation that only God can bring. 

Lord, You can afford Your plans and You will arm me for battle. Help me to have more faith. Let it be a daily surrender of more of You and less of me. Let my life testify the very hope and life of Jesus. 

One great discomfort I am learning to surrender before Him is what my obedience to God costs other people. 

If we obey God, sometimes it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is a real struggle. If we are in love with God, following Him will be a delight. But to those who do not understand, our obedience does cost a great deal. If we obey God, it will mean that other people’s plans are upset and we might invite ridicule. However, If we were to obey, we must let the cost be paid, trusting that as we do His work, He will care for those who have suffered the consequences of our obedience, and leave all the consequences with Him.

Below are the words of Elliot Soh, who was called home to the Lord on Sept 28, 2019 at the age of 25 after a 9 months battle with stage 4 sarcoma. His last words below have resonated so much with me...

full article --> https://thir.st/blog/25-year-old-elliot-soh-cancer/

What is life all about and what does it mean? 

Is it all about the journey of living the good life (in our own perspective) or aiming towards having one? Is it only about having meaningful experiences while going through hardship? 

Or about us satisfying our needs and wants?

There is also the problem of death that restricts life from being lived to the fullest. 

You can have everything in the world from riches to good health to fame and many great relationships. But death will rob you of all that someday, and it won’t matter how much you had at the end.

To Christians, my desire is for you to continue prioritising gospel work over all other worldly things, and doing that involves commitment to faithful Bible teaching to shape our mindsets and to continue standing firm in our faith in Jesus. We have the full assurance of faith and instead of focusing on our worldly pleasures, we should be reaching out to people who need to hear the gospel so that they can be saved too. 

On the Saturday morning of his final day, my parents and I rushed to the hospital at 6am after Ernest, who had been staying over, told us that Elliot was getting a bit more confused and that his oxygen saturation was dropping.

A few times he opened his eyes really wide and said some things that sounded like “accept, accept” and later on “share, share”. But we knew Elliot’s heart even if we couldn’t hear him clearly. Even till his last breath, he had one mission, and he was focused. 

To make Christ known. He gave it his all. 

Jim Elliot: “The will of God is always a bigger thing than we bargain for, but we must believe that whatever it involves, it is good, acceptable and perfect.”