The
year is coming to an end! Praise, honor and glory to Him who has and continues
to lavish me with His love and faithfulness.
Over
the year, I have grown deeper and gained 5 inches to my growth with Him. Praise
God! I am grateful for the wisdom that blossomed from the disappointment, the
pain and the experiences that I have encountered this year. Indeed, without the
Lord's constant availability and presence, I would have rotted in
self-diminishing thoughts and self-pity. I have learned how grace
envelopes and strengthens. Maintaining a sensitive heart and believing constantly
that He was near, led me to be in awe of His powerful grace. Day by day, minute
by minute, I chose to trust that God would give me the strength to dismiss the
negativity that came to mind. Taking captive every thought and assaulting it
with His sword of truth, got me thus far. I have learned to see God through the
lenses of grace and to authentically understand what it means to die to self. I
have learned to hold on tightly to the truth that "I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).
I have
also come to realize that respect, convictions, and wisdom are the most needed
qualities in this world today but it is also the most easily forgotten virtues
that we tend to overlook and don't posses. To earn respect, we must exude
it. Without standards, without principles, without barriers, one should not
expect respect. It is earned through responsibility. Convictions and wisdom give you strong footing to withstand the vile attacks of the enemy. The lure of this world and
the desires of our hearts may snatch us without realizing how deeply involved
we already are. Charles Swindoll said, "Wisdom comes from
privately from God as a by-product of right decisions, godly reactions, and the
application of scriptural principles to daily circumstances."
Heart
without wisdom is destined for chaos. I'm through with permitting my heart to
take the lead on the decision-making. Wisdom (or simply, practical common
sense) need to make herself comfortable in the throne of my thoughts, my heart,
and my actions. As the Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all
things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) One must
truly discover and acknowledge the weaknesses of their own hearts.
Whatever they are, the enemy surely awaits and prowls to take over. Be on guard
and grow in the knowledge of the Lord to know how to guard your own. All heart
without a sound mind leads to rationalization. Rationalization silences
reality. Emotions cloud judgement. We know we fatten up our tendency to
rationalize when the sins are obvious yet we gloss over them. We know that we
allow the feast of rationalization to merrily continue on when we disguise our
excuses with flowery words or spiritual phrases to talk ourselves out of a bad
situation. C'mon. Let's not kid ourselves. Be real. Be honest. What do you really
want? I have learned to honestly expose an unwise option wrapped in fluffy
white sheep's clothing.
Make
level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Proverbs 4:26
The
time is ripe to leave all heedless tendencies and grow up. To leverage what I
know now and realize my design. As Paul has said, "When i was a child, I
talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I
became a man, I put childish ways behind me." (1 Corinthians 13:11)
Here's to a
beautiful redemptive 2013! Goodbye 2012! You have taught me well!
