Fear Is The Core Problem To Our Negative Actions
Fear is the core problem of all human beings. People do a lot of things to cope up with fear. For people who are addicted to alcoholic beverages, it is the fear of accepting the truth about himself. For people who are bad tempered, it is a way of gaining their self-control over situations beyond their control. He’d rather suffer the pain of conflicts than the pain of uncertainty and self-loss. There are reasons why people do such things.
There are so many things that we fear about:
-Fear of uncertainty
-Fear of being rejected
-Fear of loneliness
-Fear of pain
For people who experience this, they have different ways of quelling with their fear. As long as their methods are effective in serving their purpose, people are not going to change.
So how do we change to be better persons? We have to learn to dispel our ultimate fears with a new pattern. It is a new habit of loving ourselves, accepting ourselves, and valuing ourselves. When we have no more fear, or all we have is little fear, the old habits slowly go away. That’s because there’s no more use for them.
Many people are confused with how God appeared to be in the Old Testament, being quite different from what Jesus appeared to be in the New Testament. If we recall vividly, it was God who sent His only Son to us, and allowed Him to suffer under our hands, so that we may be saved. That is how much God loves us. There actually has no difference between the Old Testament God and the present God. He is and forever will be, a loving God. He may have ways of catching our attention that might puzzle us beyond our reasoning, but His ways are different from ours, and His ways always result in everything good, unlike our ways.
So if God can love us unconditionally and has sent His only Son to dwell among the worst of us and be with us, don’t you think you should love yourself that way too? Do not fear for something that you shouldn’t fear about. As long as God is with you, everything will turn out fine.
Learn to love and accept yourself and do not brand yourself as anything. For parents, please refrain from constantly branding your child as such, because it will leave a deep scar on your kids. Always look at the positive side of your kids rather than the negative side. Look deep into your child’s hearts to see their goodness, and appreciate them for that.
Learn to love yourself, and you will be overflowing with God’s love that the love you feel will be overflowing through your interaction with others.
What Do We Ask For?
Matthew 7:7-12
“Find out what you want and find a way to ask for it” is a line taken from the movie, “How Do You Know.” It speaks true for everything, even in our relationship with the Lord. Jesus tells us that if we want to be happy: Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened. Why is it that there are a lot of unanswered prayers?
The problem is we don’t know what to ask for, because we don’t know what we want. We buy whitening lotions because we think it makes us fairer and more beautiful, but what is really the reason behind this? We take up medicine because that’s what our parents want for us, but is that what we really want? When we ask for the wrong things, we often end up unhappy.
When we knock and ask for things, as long as the things that we ask for is of God’s desire, we can be sure that it will be given. Things that we ask for which are not of value to us and harmful to us will never be given, for God loves us just the way we are. There is no need for superficial needs to make our lives complete. All we need is God’s desire for us. We are best at peace and happy when our hearts belong to Him and not to others or the things of this world.
This Lent, aside from fasting and abstinence, it would be a great time to look deeply into ourselves. Are we living our lives to please others, live up to other people’s desire for us, or are we desiring for God’s desire for us?
Signs?
Luke 11:29-32
Historically, we have always leaned heavily on accepted ways of thinking based on the past, instead of exploring new options, and as always, we ask for signs or affirmations of all sort before we are fully convinced on taking on a new path. During Moses‘ time, Moses was made to produce a miracle by the Israelites, in order for them to believe that he was really taking instructions from God. However, in Jesus time, He was not accepted because the people had been accustomed to the Law of Moses. Jesus, too, had to prove Himself through His resurrection that God existed and that He was really the Son of God. We have this human nature to want signs from heaven to guide our daily living, and reassure us that what we are doing is the right thing. For many, an answered prayer is a sign.
Jesus Himself told the Jews that the only sign that the unbelievers will get is the sign from Jonah. If you recall Jonah’s story, he was tasked to warn the people of great but terrible things to come if they did not repent and change their ways, the things that he was asked to mention would come to pass. He was the bearer of bad news.
After all the signs have been revealed to us, do we continue asking for signs? The only sign you will need is Jesus. He is the ultimate sign. Let us not allow our stubbornness to diminish our faith in God, nor let unfulfilled prayers affect our faith as well. Asking for signs shows our lack of faith, complacency, and unwillingness to change.
God answers our prayers in His time, and His time is not of ours. If we stay faithful to Him, then we won’t even be asking for any sign from Him. He reveals Himself to those who follow Him.
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