FROM RASCAL TO RADICAL

Service is how you live to His words, to serve. We call ourselves servants, but are we working on our lordship? Our Lord is judge based on our actions.

It is easy to say that we are Christians and we live Christlike, but the real challenge is, this is easy to say BUT hard to do. When we accept Christ in our lives, we make Him our Lord. Lord over our finances, Lord over our careers, Lord over our health, Lord over our relationships, Lord over everything. We lift and make Him to be in control of the whole thing – be control of our lives.

When I was not yet a full blown Christian, I was like this; I pray, go to church, sing with the choir and sit at the pews while listening to what the priest is saying. Before, this was my understanding of how I should spend my time with God. I don’t even know how I must study the Bible; I just open it like a crystal ball if I want to get an answer. Yes, it even came to the point that I will ask God and expect that He will answer me right then and there on whatever page my eyes first see. It seems like God of the universe is a genie that we have so many requests, not prayers even if we say it in a form of “prayer”

“Lord, why does he cannot feel that he is hurting me? Can you please change his heart so he will know that I’m hurting?”

“I’m praying for this promotion, for this job because I’ve been a good steward of your blessings and the money will really help me.”

“I’m praying for a safe flight today and I’m not yet ready if the plane crash and I’ll die.”

“Why are you being so hard to me Lord? I thought I am your child and you let me suffer this?”

Do these prayers sound familiar to you? There is nothing wrong if you pray like that, still it is a prayer. This isn’t right either. I, myself used to pray like this and the point is God wants us to call Him for help through prayers. When we have God with us, we fully entrust Him ALL. That in truth means that He is the ruler, the driver of our life while He let us seat at the backseat. But have we thought that sometimes we always give our specifics, and requests and specifically what we want to happen?

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart”

God already knows what we need because even before our birth, He knows our desires. Even before we say our prayers, our needs, He knows exactly what to provide. (Psalm 134:9 – Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely)

That’s what I’ve been missing before I get to fully understand what lordship is. We have a lot to say, ask but we are forgetting in asking permission. Say for example, you are in a classroom and the teacher is discussing something, will you just stand up and go out since you need to use the washroom? If you’re boss is not around and you want to go on leave in 3 days, will you just disappear and inform him later that you’re on leave without his knowledge? If you want to go to a party, and just go out without your parents’ knowledge, what do you think they will feel? Have we thought that with the scenarios given, we “always” ask permission because whatever their response will be, it matters to us, and yet we don’t have that same attitude towards God?

Reality is, He leads and we must follow. We call Him our LORD but what we want is what we want to get.

Lost like a little child and doesn’t know what to do in life, all seems to be blurry to me. I got the job I prayed for; I have a nice and loving family, crazy bunch of friends which keep me company most of the time. I thought that all is well; I live the life I think I like.

But there are some decisions needed to be made and this will make you question “Why?” or “Why did you give me this and yet you will take it away from me?” Have we asked ourselves why this happen to us sometimes? Probably we’re selfish or if not we are just lost, lost on how to understand what the message is all about.

Giving up something in exchange of something in return which has of lesser value is a big NO for me. You know that it was the dream that came into reality, and you deserve it. I so deserve it; blood, tears and sweat was the groundwork on how did I get into that pedestal. Come hell or high water, there is no way I’m giving this up. That’s me before, doesn’t want to let go of what I thought is “mine”. That was my frame of mind, that’s how decided I once was.

But God has His own ways of turning things around, after all He is God! I let go of what I thought was “mine”. I prayed about it; seek the counsel of godly people I know and of course taking time to read His words. Giving it up will affect so many things which is tied up to that, but when I know in my heart this is what He wants me to do. Obey what He is telling me to do.

I have so many worries, so many things running in my mind. What will happen if I will let this go? What will happen to me now? Am I that ready to let go of “mine”?

Yes, I finally let go of what I thought was “mine” and it gave me peace in my heart with the decision I’d made. Why worry if I have a BIG God who is bigger than all my problems combined? Worrying is the prime factor of fear, and when we fear our faith weakens. A lot of realization took place; I wasn’t admitting that I already have an addiction in alcohol and starting to get hooked with cigarettes because I cannot say no to my friends’ invitation. I even put the blame of my vices on other people for that matter because I’m not matured enough to take full accountability of it. I skip family gatherings because I hate the fact that my relatives are all meddlesome of my singlehood and chose to hang out with my “friends” because going out is what I wanted to do, drinking is what I want to do. I learned how to be mean to people who are trying to start a fight with me. I don’t have patience and I want to get even with them in a subtle way, as how I want to coin it.

Regardless how much you are decided to turn your back on these, still it was really hard to fight temptation. It always outmaneuvered me whenever I try to fight, always. What’s missing? What have I not been doing right? I want to quit but simply I can’t.

It’s when I let go of “mine” then the attachments fallen out naturally. I pour out everything to God, all of me. That’s when I realized that I submit to His call and do my lordship.

What I have learned when I submitted to lordship.

1) Lord has a BIG and UNFAILING love. Even if we didn’t submit ourselves to lordship yet, he gave his only son Jesus to die and free us from sins. Knowing that he is all mighty and powerful, he could have chosen whom he wants to be saved but chose everyone instead.

2) Live by His words. I always say that if you understand what His words, you will be guided. He always wants the best for us, this was clearly written if we will listen using our hearts.

3) God provides. All our needs, it will be given to us if we will seek Him first. He provides what we need, not what we want. He blesses us, but the question we need to ask ourselves is “Are we prepared to receive the blessing?” Will this turn away from the ONE who gave it? Or will it draw us away from the ONE who blesses us?

4) He is a forgiving God. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”

5) Your body is a temple of Christ. I always tell myself that I take care of my body because this is not mine, it’s His. I say to myself I don’t practice pre-marital sex because that’s my understanding of what the perspective in the Bible. Yes it says “flee immorality” but isn’t drinking is an act where it clearly shows that I am not taking care of my body?

1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”

    I understand what the verses in Romans and 1 Corinthians say about us taking care of our bodies. If we will not take care of it, then how can we live healthier to take care of our loved ones?

 

I remember a post I wrote on Facebook which gained a lot of negative and positive feedback. Yes, I was cyber bullied (through PMs) by people me. I decided not to comment, though a lot were telling me something in this context: “I was actually waiting for your comeback response because that’s how you are. You always say what you want to say” (In short, patol din ako) I opted not to, because of one reason “I’m not a lawyer of God. I am His friend (John 15:15), I am His witness”. Why would I forgive someone who didn’t do anything to hurt me? It’s saddening that it was taken in a negative way, but the whole point there is lordship. To my friends, even my priest friends (whom I was actually expecting to react right away) fully understand it. The “act” was in question not the one who was on the spotlight. Silence is a tool of evangelism and if I will give in into the negative comments, what difference will I make if I’m actually working on my lordship?

Sharing this from a post I read on how he views LORD.