Trust (continued) and Humility (continued)

Haha, apparently i have written about trust and humility before over  http://untilthedaycomes.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/trust/ and http://untilthedaycomes.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/but-im-not-used-to-it/. Wao that’s like 2 years ago for the trust post. But now i come with more experiences hoping this would bless you as you read along.

So what has been said in the previous posts, i’ll not deliberate too much on those. But just the past few months, i think God has really been challenging me, breaking me, moulding me, lifting me up and it’s been such a growth process the past 3 months. I believe that this is a season where it might set certain courses and paths i might take later on in life and it’s really been exciting!

But very interestingly, remember i blogged about not being used to things a few posts back? Well i believe God was teaching me about humility in that period of time. Humility to me is recognizing who i am, and who God is in every single situation, be it big ones or small ones. Sometimes i fall into the trap of trusting God for the BIG stuff in my life, but forget that God is still God in the small things, which i need to make Him Lord over!

So what has trust got to do with humility? Well, it has A LOT to do with humility! And i have been learning that, and once again have learnt that just yesterday. When we say we trust someone, what does it mean? From dictionary.com, i got this definition of trust:

to rely upon or place confidence in someone or something.

Well then if we use this definition of trust, which i think most of us can agree with, we put ourselves in a position where the other person is in control and we relinquish ours; regardless of whether it is something we could have controlled or not. Cause if we were to still have control, we don’t have to rely on that someone or something, and thus we don’t exactly need to trust. Trust in any aspect, requires a giving up of control in whichever area we want to trust the person with. So in whatever extent, it makes us “vulnerable” to the person or thing that we trust. Because now the control is in his/her/its hands.

I don’t know about you, but i certainly can only trust someone that is dependable, that i know will not fail me and someone who knows what he/she is doing. Well of course this is the ideal person to trust! But truthfully speaking, only God can truly fill that place. Which is why humility is so important! When i truly know who i am, that i can’t do it on my own, and begin to realize His character, His faithfulness, can i really trust Him. If i were even to be just semi humble, or pseudo humble, i’d still want my way; Because i can’t trust Him even though in my head i know i should.

Then some might think “if only God would show me some miracles, i’d be able to trust Him!”. I used to think like that too, but He’s taught me truly, that it isn’t miracles and wonders that make us believe and trust Him. Cause prior to coming to Taiwan, i asked if God would show me how much He loved me at that point of time when i was really doubting if He loved me; by providing a sum of money for me. And prior to coming, i already got ALMOST the amount and i was already really happy. But just last week, i already got more than the amount i asked for! And i was really amazed at how God actually remembered this promise of His! So my Christmas was a really blessed one.

However, just a week after this miracle (least it was one for me), after hearing some news about my might be future plans, i was actually doubting if God truly was still in control, if He would give me the best, because it was different from what i had in mind. If miracles would really cause us to believe, why did i still have my doubts? I’d like to propose, that ultimately, our faith in Him is not primarily on the miracles (which i do believe to be very important too!), but it doesn’t take precedence over His character and how we perceive Him. The signs and wonders NEED to be based on our knowledge and experience of Him for who He is.

And the thing about God, is He doesn’t rush us to trust Him. For 2 days i was in a “i really don’t know what to do now Lord, and i don’t want to pray.. i feel angry…” But He didn’t push me, nor did He say “你這不只好歹的小 Sam!”. But He allowed me to struggle and go through my emotions. And at the end of the 2nd day, i actually came back to Him because i know that He truly is in control, just that i needed to go through my emotions, and He gives us time for that. Through this, you actually see that God also in some ways, trusts us to come back to Him. Is He in control of our wills? Well He could if He wanted to by sheer power, but He doesn’t and gives us free will, so it was still my choice in wanting to come back or not, rendering God to be “not in control” for what i will choose. So even in this He first demonstrates to us that He is humble enough, and willing to trust us even though He is the ALMIGHTY, ALL POWERFUL God. Wao, what a revelation!

I think this nicely reflects how we should trust one another too. Does it mean we trust EVERYONE wholeheartedly? No i do not think so. There are safe and unsafe people in the world; due to their past experiences and influences of course. But in people whom are trustworthy, i believe the same principle applies. Where sometimes it really might seem scary to put our heart out in the open, or to rely on that person, both of these actions being a part of trust. Of course it might mean that sometimes we still get hurt in the process because humans are not perfect like God. But we still learn to trust because this is truly the way to living a fulfilling life =)

So i hope that as we journey on this road learning who we are, and who God is, that’d we’d be able to love and trust Him, and also to love and trust people. =)

Purity

I just watched a video on some little funny skit-dialogue of two Americans (i think) speaking Singlish. Haha i must say it was pretty good! Here’s the video if you guys wanna have a good laugh =)

Anyway, after coming to Taiwan, my main conversational language has switched from English to Chinese, or for that matter, Singlish to more or less, Chinese. Though it was quite tough at first, now it has become more innate and natural for me after these 2 months of practise. =) But i’ve re-discovered something as i listen to proper chinese, something that is more or less unadulterated and pure. It’s very attractive, and there’s just something very beautiful about it. Well i’m not talking about perfect speech patterns and grammer; i’m talking about the use of one single language that makes it pure in my own definition for the purpose of this post.

So anyway what has Americans speaking singlish gotta do with purity? Haha, well i’m gonna use the clip to talk about my view on purity. Well for all Singaporeans, i’m pretty sure we’re not foreign to what Singlish is. But for the readers from other countries, here’s a broad definition of what Singlish is. Singlish is a colloquial language spoken by the citizens of Singapore that includes english, chinese, malay, hokkien and any other language that fits. I think Singlish is a very comfortable language because it allows us to express in a way that is close to the heart, and fellow Singaporeans can identify with it. I think it’s nice to be able to use it in Singapore and be understood.

Well then let’s look at the youtube clip. The Sergeant speaking in Singlish is obviously not Singaporean (based on looks at least), but i must say he did quite a good job impersonating a Singaporean. But if you’re from Singapore, you’ll probably have noticed that he leaked out some of his original way of speaking cause some words and sentences didn’t sound THAT Singlish. Hahaha. From this i realized that who we are will always show. God made us to be of a certain way, all of us uniquely different from one another. And i would also think in each of our uniqueness, we are wholly His, pure and unadulterated. And this is shown through how the Sergeant wasn’t able to control all of his accent, simply because he wasn’t made to be like that. But the thing about life, is that as we grow older, we are placed into a world filled with many many influences. It can be good, it can be neutral, it can be bad. And the thing about this is that it fills our minds and hearts with so many things, that it becomes clouded. Just like how the Sergeant is able to learn Singlish, is Singlish bad? Of course not! But it just isn’t how he was brought up, and is different from his native language. So what is pure? Checking from some online webpage, It signifies that which is clean, or free from contaminating substance (cf. Danker et al., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 489) So when our hearts are clouded, it becomes impure because now it is not in a state of just being “ONE” thing, being contaminated by other things.

Well then i looked at how purity looks like, and i got reminded of pure chinese language, or pure english language, or pure whatever language. Haha, free from any “contaminating language”. It really is something that is very attractive because when i hear people converse in “pure” language, there’s just an “i wanna be like that” or “wao it’s really beautiful” feeling that wells up in me. And i think there’s a reason for it. God is a pure and Holy God. And if we are made in His image, i believe the attributes of purity is something that is also built into us, and we long for it. Take for example gold. How do we measure the carats of the gold? Isn’t it by how pure the gold is? The more pure the gold is, the more valuable it is. There’s something innate in us that makes us want to be pure too.

Is purity then what we do, or maybe does what we have done make us impure? Well i think purity stems from our heart, not from our actions. Of course through our actions we can see if our hearts are pure. But i would like to focus more on the conditions of our hearts, because we cannot erase what we have done. If purity was just about what we did/did not do, then we would be condemned forever. But i thank God that He is a God that looks at our hearts. When we have our hearts wholly devoted to Him once again, we are pure and made righteous because of our faith in Jesus who died on the cross for our redemption.

Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So there really is something about purity that attracts us, because then we can see God! Woo hoooo! Cause even if our actions seem good, and our hearts are impure, than what good is it?

I was then reading through Romans again and Paul was talking about righteousness. I think sometimes we might mix up purity and righteousness. To me purity comes from our desire to have that one person in our lives which is Jesus. Righteousness however, is something that is accorded to us. Meaning by right, we can’t “do” anything no matter how hard we try if God doesn’t want to give it to us. If righteousness was about what we did, then we’d really be in trouble! Because then it would mean that if i were to fall for even one time, i’m unrighteous and byebye to being with Jesus. But in Romans 3:21-26 to summarize it, talks that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (which is why we can’t do any good works to be made righteous), and that it is only because of His blood poured out for us that covered over the sins of the past and of present time, through faith and in His grace that we are made righteous.

Of course that’s not to say we can “will” ourselves to be pure and because we have superpowered wills. But i mean purity comes from us initiating it, asking God to help us to seek His kingdom and His righteousness. While righteousness can’t be attained by our means, we get it when God accords it to us through our faith in Jesus Christ! So in this, we can only get it by focussing not on righteousness, but in our faith in Jesus Christ.

So after talking so much, i guess i just want to say that purity comes from our hearts and will flow into our actions. What we have done is past, what we will do we don’t know. But what i do know is that His blood has covered all of these as He puts on us His white robe of righteousness, that through this too, when we find ourselves not condemened, we’re able to live with such a pure heart before Him, loving Him more and more each day with this revelation within our hearts. Peace be with you. =)