The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Memory can be a cruel enemy. It is not easy to forget. Good or bad is stored in our brains. The bad can dominate and obscure the good. We need to train our minds to let the good memories overcome the bad. And what better way to beat the bad than by filling our thoughts with more good. Encouragement. Inspiration. Gratitude. They help banish ugly memories, painful experiences, sad stories.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

And God Has Spoken

My confidence is in God alone and His promises.

Facing some health concerns, including hypertension, which to me is life threatening, I feel increasingly insecure. But it has not yet (and I hope it won’t) reached a point of despair or depression. And a little worried I may be, but scared I am not (yet).

Instead I just use every moment I have to hear more from God, what He would like me to do, etc. Perhaps I need a lifestyle change, like have more exercise and watch my diet, and have enough rest instead of working for extended hours.

Or maybe He’s teaching me about putting my trust in Him and stop relying on my own resources (though they were given by Him in the first place).

And indeed He has spoken along that line. This morning while on nebulizer to treat my acute bronchitis and allergic rhinitis, I opened my Daily Bread app and found that today’s devotion was about confidence. “Think about some of the things that bring you security. How would you cope if they were stripped away from you?”, asked the devotional (which I highly recommend to iPad users).

The biblical text was Psalm 52, and since I was offline I used my old Bible instead to read the chapter. And guess what, I opened the Book exactly to Psalm 52! (fastest search I’ve made, even beating Google!) My old Bible, which I have not used for ages and has been collecting dusts in my bookshelf, has not lost its power, bringing me a message that both instructs and inspires.

People who trust in their wealth and destroy others will be put to shame. God will “bring them down to everlasting ruin” (Psalm 52:5). This is both a warning and an assurance for me. I should stop trusting my own resources, and I should stop worrying about big, powerful people and governments who bully the weak, because their arrogance will end in their own destruction, and humiliation.

Indeed the verses are reassuring in the light of my health concerns and, add to that, someone stealing my laptop and wallet, a loss that translates to P25,000-30,000. That could have paid for the medicines I am now taking! But I have stopped (or avoided) fretting because what’s important now is that the incident has taught me to trust more in God. He will supply all my needs, and do whatever He thinks is appropriate to teach the thief his own lesson.

Remembering Who I Am

A thought struck me while I was on my home this evening: Long before I suffered my current heartbreaks and disappointments God had rescued me and given me a new life. It wasn’t my education, career, friendships that restored me; it was God’s love. So even though I may not have the best job, even though I have been separated from my best friend and other people from whom I had drawn encouragement and inspiration, I remain in God’s care and only He can fix my brokenness and make me whole again.

My Tabing-Ilog Family Welcomes New Year Together

Complete with disco lights and music set to Gang-nam Style, my Tabing-Ilog family had dancing, games, exchange gifts and lots of picture taking to welcome the New Year.  Here’s our proof of fun.

Framed Up

Check out these monumental shots! https://plus.google.com/116561383054562360129/posts/VNLkEESS9d3

Christmas Morning

To be sure, it’s not mourning as I celebrated Christmas with my Tabing-Ilog family. I missed celebrating it with my best friend, who’s probably too busy in her new home to drop a greeting, but the joy that the occasion, Jesus’ birth, brings kept my spirits up.

Winning the War

The moment we surrender our lives to Jesus there is freedom. We are released from the bondage of sin. But our journey will not be trouble free. There will be adversities as our choices are made more difficult by the fact that we are no longer making decisions for ourselves but for what pleases God because He is now Lord and Savior of our lives. Sometimes when our choice needs to yield to God’s we find reason to regret that we let Him into our lives. We think we were better off when we were still non-Christians. We could see whatever we wanted to see. Our boyfriend’s faith didn’t matter. Our choice of music was driven by what was artsy, cool or trendy regardless of the words spewed out by the artist. It was, by human standards, the good life, free from rules and boundaries. But Christianity changed that. We let Jesus take full control of our lives, including our choices. And because of our new points of view we are sometimes given names like fundamentalist freaks, and associated with repressive religions. We are embattled. Taunted and mocked in the media and by our peers. It’d seem that life has become anything but easy. And there is a chance we have scratched our heads to ask what we have gotten ourselves into. We are looking at a thorny and narrow path. And like the Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt we tend to grumble and look back to where we came from. If we had stayed in our Egypt Pharaoh’s men would not be hunting us down. Yet if we remember that God has repeatedly delivered us from danger we will press on. After all the battle is not ours but the Lord’s. Moses boldly declared to the Israelites when they were being chased by the Egyptians, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” We are in a war fought not by swords and spears but with words and the Spirit. The battle is fierce and tough. The enemy will not stop until he gets us back. But the Lord is on our side. He will fight for us. We need only to be still.