Isaiah

Putting God First in Exams

/ Henry Jiang / 4 Comments

Too often I feel like I am digging into the content that will be (or hopefully) tested in exams. The allnighters we pull, the stress we are being put through, sometimes I question myself, if I were concentrating and looking into God, will I be wasting some precious last minute studying time?

Quantum physics is definitely not my favourite, especially when the class has come to a consensus that the professor has done a horrible job teaching and also a horrible job administering the course. These horrible instructions has taken me to a point where I am honestly worrying about failing this course. As a Christian, what do I do?

Every time I took a break from studying, I took time to pray to God for His assistance. A song that comes to my mind when I am in trouble is R. Kelly’s “I look to you” sung by Whitney Houston.

I look to you.
I look to you.
After all my strength is gone,
In you I can be strong

Who else do I look to during these really harsh situations. The Bible tells us:

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. — Isaiah 40:30-31 (NIV 1984)

I kept on praying and praising God, rejoicing at His challenge He provided me, though honestly I was completely exhausted and felt physically down, I kept in mind this is a great trial for my faith, and to testify that I put my faith in Him. Then the exam came. I opened the exam booklet. Cr**… SOOO hard…

I did the questions I knew off my mind and I kept on praying. Amazingly, I was able to derive two questions I was not expecting I could do perfectly, because I know what goal I have to reach at the end of the question. I put my faith in Him until the very end of the exam when the papers were collected. Something as simple as that, God will answer. Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, are you turning to Christ even in the process of a huge burden or trial? If you do, you may witness Him working in you and working with you on your struggles!

God Bless!

Lost

/ Henry Jiang / Leave a comment

When things turn for the worse, we often find ourselves lost physically and spiritually. Our self-dependent vision of the world deceives our foresight and forces us to take it upon ourselves. When we find ourselves in situations like this, we need to remember that we need to be committed to the Lord, as it is written:

For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.  2 Chronicles 16:9

In times of destitute, many of us reach a point where it feels like we don’t time for anything. We want alone time for ourselves. Even knowing James 1:2-4, we often try to solve the problem by ourselves, and as a result, it may turn into so-called stress-relieving methods such as eating, drinking, gaming, taking drugs. Doing anything that is not sinful to a proper extent is alright but overdoing things such as over-eating, drinking alcohol until you are completely insane, gaming like crazy is a form of idolatry as you are allowing it to take over your life. After doing things that are not giving glory to God’s name, you would feel a sense of emptiness. Why? This is because the sole purpose of the creation of human beings is to bring Glory to God (Isaiah 43:7). Moreover, the Bible commands us to do everything for God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). Failing to live for your purpose of life will thus bring you the feeling of emptiness when doing things that are useless.

Reading the Book of Ecclesiastes can be very depressing as it talks about how worthless our temporary life on the earth is, but we are reminded constantly in the New Testament of the everlasting eternal life we are to spend with God in heaven. Christ has commanded us to carry the cross with him (Luke 14:27, Matthew 16:24-26). Imagine what Jesus went through, how He was wrongly crucified though He lived a sinless life, the pain and suffering He went through to carry the cross. In addition, think of Jesus’ disciples and other Christians that were tortured and martyred for their faith. Now look back at yourselves. I challenge you, my lovely brothers and sisters, to compare the largest challenges you are currently experiencing with the experiences listed above.

Blindness

/ Henry Jiang / Leave a comment

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I usually don’t call myself blind, until I have to go searching for my glasses. -3.25 and -3.50, my vision is not that bad compared to some of my friends but I can hardly see anything without my glasses. I realized that more when it took me around 15 minutes to search for my glasses. However, even if you had perfect 20/20 vision, how much can you see? How far can you see?

Right after I found my glasses, I was thinking to myself about my limited vision. However, God Almighty can see anything, the Holy Spirit is present everywhere in the world he and he can see everywhere, even inside you (Psalm 139). Moreover, He can do anything He wishes to.

Now if this was a person on earth, what do you think he would do? He can rob all your money, mess around with your life, make you his slave, mess around with your life. Now don’t worry, my brothers and sisters because our God is nothing like that. Although our sole purpose of our lives is to bring Glory to His name (Isaiah 43:7), He is a good God and He loves us. He is a fair God too and cannot tolerate any sin (wrongdoings) in our lives and every wrongdoing we commit is subject to punishment and eternal damnation. However, He loves us so much that keeping His fairness, God the Father sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins so that we do not need to suffer eternal damnation as that has been already taken care of. What more can you ask for?

Looking back at myself on a note I posted 2 years ago during Christmas, I see that I am not as blind as before. Through the journey God is leading me through, I can see more and more with my growing faith and cultivated heart through Scripture, Prayer and Worship. If you open your eyes and heart to God, He will provide you with more and more to see and admire in awe.

Therefore, I challenge you brothers and sisters to look into yourself. What can you see? How much can you see? And what are things that you could see but probably missed out on?