Today, I am here to give testament to the wonders He has worked in my life! And to speak of the complete joy I feel whenever He says something to me to let me know that He is there for me when I'm down. I didn't think that I would ever hear God speaking to me personally, but in the last weeks or so, I've been proved wrong many times and I praise God for that! For once, I don't mind being wrong! Haha. But it's true! He has proved me wrong time and time again, reaffirming my belief that Jesus is truly present in our lives, truly involved in the tiniest aspects of our day to day existence.

Two nights ago, when I was feeling extremely down, I was doing my daily reflection, reading day's little passage from Word Among Us. And when I was done with the day's reading, I decided to flip through the front articles. One particular article caught my eye so I read the entire thing. And what I read really made me see once again for myself how He speaks to each one of us, how he knows what we need. The quote that jumped out at me was from 1 Corinthians 10:13:

But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.

How comforted I felt upon reading it! It reminded me of Jesus's own 40-day trial in the desert in Matthew 4, when Jesus Himself was tested by the devil. And God did provide his Son with the strength to endure the devil's temptations, and eventually with a way out as the angels came to help him.What God's promise essentially means for us is that all our trials, all the troubles and obstacles we face in our lives - they can cause immense pain in the immediate run, but the Lord provides a way out in the end and heals our hurts, if only we allow Him to. At last year's YES camp, when Uncle B said during the praying over session something about letting something go cos it's getting stale, I realised that it could very well apply to me too. Cos at that point in time, I still hadn't completely let go of the hurt from the whole fiasco last year concerning some guy. I was still extremely bitter and bearing a grudge towards him, even though I didn't realise it. I'm sure the letting go bit could have applied to about half of the people in the room too, but what was important to me was that letting go of the past was pertinent to myself, necessary to move on in my life. And after the three days of retreat, I felt a lot lighter, emotionally. I wouldn't go so far as to say that my emotional baggage was completely left behind at the retreat, but it would seem that the 3 days spent in such close touch with Him facilitated my healing process. Of course, I'm not totally without my other troubles now. But that long-standing hurt has been healed, and God really did give me the strength to endure it. Even though at that point in time, I often felt so terrible that I would skip school on some days to just stay home and sleep under the covers so I wouldn't have to face the world. But looking back, I believe I am now a stronger person. See, God really did provide me with a way out. With added strength given to me to boot! :)

Anyway, I should be heading to bed soon cos I gotta get up early to go to work tomorrow.And while I'm in the office tomorrow, I will remember to take some time in-between work to talk to God, if only to build up my personal relationship with Him.I've really been wanting to become closer to Him, especially when I see my friends who share intimate relationships with God who seem to radiate so much joy and love. I really want to experience that too. So instead of just sitting on my bum thinking that I want to become closer to Jesus without actually doing anything, I decided that I have to do something on my part, and talking to Him and making Him a part of my daily life would be a good way to start.

Amen? AMEN! :)


*kel