Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Power, Love, Sound Mind


Photo: Sunset along Amalfi Coast

Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

A sound mind has self-control, discipline, calm, balance. God gives us the "spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind." Never fear! Through Christ, we can do all things because He strengthens us. His love perfects us. His might carries us through all trials and tribulations. He never fails and His promises are real.

I had created a semblance of a sanctuary for depressed hopefuls. At least that was how I justified much of my down moments. It was not really a foolproof ploy to convince myself that I was not responsible; but the circumstances, the others around me, the weather, the day-to-day stuff just sounded right and felt even more right at the time. I used to lament over that, till I got tired of myself. I opened doors to the adversary of our mind, heart, body and soul. I did not know how to fight then. I was strong in the Lord, or so I thought, but I really wasn't. My walk with God was like the immeasurable, uncontrollable heaving of the tides: I walk when I walk, when I thought I should walk, when I needed to walk, when I had to walk. There was no consistency, nor the urge to be consistent. I went with flow. I was not sowing when I should be a sower. No wonder I was weak when the storms came. No wonder I easily drowned over the bits and pieces of daily agonies. No wonder I had no harvest to show for. Because I had nothing to reap!

What changed then? Knowing who is in control changed that. Knowing His promises changed that. God never gave us a spirit of fear! So why, in our littlest of worries, should we even interact with fear? Fear of not being able to go through? Fear of not being able to get up? Fear of not being like everybody else who are able? It doesn't matter now how that fear looked like. God changed that for me. I embraced His Love and His Promises, for they are real.
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1 comment:

quietstream said...

Beautiful :)Continue writing for God's glory!

10:08 PM

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basically Yours

Convivially, I should attend to all the comments and e-mails that I get when I tell everyone my most private thoughts and, oh, my weaknesses even. But there is a small chance that a lot of people will bump into my own quiet place.

Simply, I don't advertise it, I don't really share it with just anyone, I don't even tell my immediate family about it. I don't even talk about what I really do on a day-to-day basis, or what, quote-unquote, achievements in the bubble-world out there I snag, or how much I do for this and that which, ideal-worldly, merits accolade and, yes, some kind of vertical trophy or something thicker than a cardboard to stuff into some Office Depot certificate frame.

So what is the purpose of this? At first it was just my way of exercise: a sort-of platform to air out what bogs my head when I think, or when I want to say something to someone close but couldn't because it's not appropos at the time or that it's simply immature to even utter, or when I feel like the flow is within me and I want God to be in the know like I am in the know of what's going on in my head, or just to be in the same page with God, because as we all know we aren't always in the same page with the Almighty. It is my own quiet place to be me - suddenly, internally, vocally, artistically, whimsically, stupidly, spiritually - from all adverbial vantage points thesaurus has already, previously factored as a word.

Besides I just am done with the ex-crap, for lack of a better noun, that came with my in-and-ex-baggage I now refer to as pride. It was the stupidity of pride and the ingenuity of embellished prejudice that prevent one's lowest self to be thrown in the air and left to be picked up by a Power stronger and higher than itself. Holding tight to a configuration of self, or the idea of self, is plain stupid in my spiffed-up notion of wisdom, which happens to be the kind that originated from my Maker.

See, I am nobody special to a lot of human beings, but I am special especially to my Maker. This alone, now, gives me peace. He knows what I am doing at all times. I don't really have to announce to Him what my heart's desires are, because He knows me inside and out. But when I blog here, when I use this platform to cry out to Him, it's as if He is right there, ready with His keyboard, ready to respond and comment, or not respond and comment, ready to understand everything I say, ready to forgive me for the foibles that I say in-between-the-lines, ready to decipher the in-between-the-lines before they even come out of here. He is ready for me at all times. He always says, I'm basically yours, my love.

Many times I ask myself: Why do I bother or not bother? Why is it that I am compelled from the deepest recesses of my heart to talk to Him? I don't even seem to exist for any other reason, but to exist for Him. But there is where I could be wrong: He made me for something and that something is so close to me now, just as far as I could stretch my arm. I could smell the purpose. I could even feel the static that creates a whizzing noise when the thin spark implodes. It is here, my purpose. Tapping on my heart, it is here. I am to do what I am supposed to do.

You know what I say to my Maker? Now I say, I am basically Yours, my Maker! Do with me what You will for me to do.

--June 11, 2008, Year of New Beginnings