WOMENS DAY: CONFIDENCE & RELIANCE

Greetings to all the wonderful women God created! Happy womens day to all! 

Read; Luke 22:32, Psalms 125:1-2

“but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭22:32‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭125:1-2‬ ‭

REFLECT

 
Oftentimes we forget how vulnerable people we are. When we face trials or testing, often we see ourselves figuring out the solutions to solve our problems, one which we sometimes have a hard time with. We stress ourselves, become worry-freaks thinking that we all can solve our problems and that solutions always relies in our heads. Truth of the matter is, most of the time we cannot do things on our own. Not all problems that we have, we can solve ourselves. 

Women in general, has list of uncounted things to tackle daily. We get stressed with sometimes the minor stuffs and often we realise that we may the bigger ones. It all sratrts with the grocery items, the household chores, the meetings with friends, the expenses and budgets, the menu for the day and etc. The list goes on, sometimes we can get caught up with the minor things then eventually becomes bigger and uneasy to handle. Then we stress and we stress some more. 

I also realised that women tend to have ideals and perceptions about certain things that can sometimes be unrealistic in nature. We have set plans and goals we want to achieve and when hiccups comes up, we rattle. Often I meet women who planned too well, that even the un-imaginable sort of lapses that may happen, has been sorted already. Women have this sense of futuristic thinking and we often live in our little “perfect world” ideals – but I believe that life in general isn’t all about that.

The result of this phenomenon, I guess,  is we become too self-reliant, we portray an image that we are more stronger than ever, we become people that can always sort things out, but the caveat is that we are limited people. We cannot solve all problems, we cannot be there at all times, we cannot find ways all the time, we can be tired sometimes and we all need help. 
***

We must all learn from Jesus, during His journey on earth as a human, he was not afraid to show his susceptibility to human sympathy & support, which sends a direct message that it is really okay to want and accept help. This is what He calls, “humility”. 

That attitude of reliance to the one you know who could better help you and admitting to yourself that you need it. Not being too proud or too simple to do things on your own even when you can’t, in settling matters on your own even if you know you cant do it. 

King Solomon writes that a wise man must desire more learning in order to be wiser. 

Children of God, must follow Jesus ways. There are so many life stresses and problems that we cannot solve on our own. We needed sympathy, encouragement and support from the only One who knows better. Before anyone else, we need to be confident and reliant to the wisdom of God’s instructions in our lives. 
As David writes in the book of Psalms, 

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forever  ‭‭

Psalms‬ ‭125:1-2‬ ‭

Our Father, the Lord of heavens and the earth, surrounds his people like a mountain. It abides and does not move, it sees all things, know all things – and He is just there always ready for support. He does not leave, if we are aware, we have a full grasp of His huge presence in our lives. 

***

So to all the sisters, mothers, wives and daugthers, happy womens day! Remember that God is in control and He loves you. Remember that it’s okay to ask help if you can’t, you will still be a superwoman – no matter what! 

What are you sowing?

READ: Hosea 8:7

“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it.” ‭‭ Hosea‬ ‭8:7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

REFLECT

This verse gives diligent reminder about our daily time expenditures – where do we spend most of our time with? Does it give us favorable results in the future? Does it give eternal value or does it even add any value to what we consider is important to us? 

Then a personal question hit me: Have I been slacking lately? My answer is, yes. I think there had been some areas of my life, which I have not really been consistent with. I realized that when I slack, I am not tackful and I tend to go around and it slows down my growth areas. I slack when I lose focus. And then, it goes on…

The moment I lose focus or I lose track on my goals, I would blindly invest my precious time on superficial and non-important things. I can easily say yes to things that are not so important, or I welcome too much agendas or activities that does not give too much of a value to my goals. Then I will begin to squander around. 

I realized that when this starts to  happen, I would always see myself overwhelmed with the truth that I have not really even move forward towards any of my goals. And that’s when I would re-track and start getting serious with my personal planning and execution. There will be times that I can ransom it but most of the time, I would miss the mark. Then I would settle for “it’s okay, Ill just try to make it better, next time”.

That’s clearly a problem. For some, we think that a little bit of this and a little bit of that can help us, truthfully, when we become too naive with our poor choices, we will never meet any of our life goals. 

Fact is, It’s not all about being a “do-gooder” but it’s about knowing the value of what we are doing. If it yields no eternal or future value, then we can admit that it’s in vain. We could definitely stop toiling for it, because not only our greatest efforts would mean to nothing, but worse is that we may be striving for a “whirlwind” that may even damage our best intentions. 

Some of the best people I know has given much value only to the things that creates good results. They spend time and effort only on the things that they see themselves growing. They master the craft, they study the goals, they invest and save, they toil and wait, they carefully watch their seasons. 

Knowing and realizing this, lately,  I developed for myself  a tracking habit, where I would intentionally review myself monthly and pen down the results month in and out. I would have an honest assessment with myself with whatever progress and slacking I am doing towards my growth goals and it’s helping me a lot in terms of knowing how achievable my targets are; personally, spiritually, physically, emotionally, financially and relationally. 

“If we sow wind, will reap a whirlwind”

RESPOND

1. How do you value your time and your goals? 

2. Do you give importance to the minor things that adds value in achieving your major dreams? 

3. What are you sowing? 

PRAYER

Dear God, help us remember to examine whatever we are doing, and that everything that we do is in line with your will. Help us become fully aware to where we spend our time with, help us recognize our choices and that our activities produces results and not empty and vain progress. Make us good stewards of time, relationships, finances, emotions and choices. Help us not neglect to give value to our spiritual growth too. In Jesus name, Amen!