Zhenzhong 小弟's world of rainbow colours.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

11:43 PM

"In God's timing, not your timing..."

"Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you gave me I will give you a tenth."" [Genesis 28:20-22]

Quoting from Life Application bible,

Was Jacob trying to bargain with God? It is possible that he, in his ignorance of how to worship and serve God, treated God like a servant who whould perform a service for a tip. More likely, Jacob was not bargaining, but pledging his future to God. He may have been saying, in effect, "Because you have blessed me, I will follow you." Whether Jacob was bargaining or pledging, God blessed him. But God also had some difficult lessons for Jacob to learn.

Alot of time, I myself sometimes did treat God similarly... In the past, whenever I desire to do something I like which may not be really good for me(like playing games, watching tv, etc.), I would set conditions to make myself earning the right to do those things. For example, if I am playing minesweeper at my PC, I will say to myself, "If I can break my current highscore, then I deserve a relaxation of playing the PS2!"

Then, after I came to know God, I somehow continue this bad habit. Now, a possible case will be, if I made a prayer to God, I will say to God, "God, if you answer this prayer, then I will serve you more." This is obviously wrong. However, I did commit this mistake sometimes... I am also like 'bargaining' to God, even though God always listen to our prayers and will answer them in His timing if what we ask for is according to His will.

A very good example will be my module bidding incident. As I was bidding for my 6th module Science of Music on Mon, I was asking God to help me secure this module, cos it's a popular module and there weren't much vacancy left. Then when the round on Mon was closed and I didn't manage to get the module, I was quite disappointed on the inside, but I told myself, even if I didn't get the module in the end, I will still attend the lecture and tutorials for the rest of the sem. Also, I even e-mail the lecturer asking him for the permission to 'sit' in his lectures and tutorials. In my heart, I felt it's quite impossible for me to get the module... I almost gave up. But God is good, this morning when the 2nd round of bidding was open, I was amazed to discover that more vacancies are available! Thus, I tried bidding for it again. And guess what? I got the module in the end! Praise God!

I was suddenly being reminded of the story of Abraham's wife Sarai, when she had trouble believing God's promise of having a child and decided to took matters into her own hands by giving Hagar, her maidservant to Abraham.

"so she said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."" [Genesis 16:2]

I realised that I am also acting like Sarai, taking matters into my own hands.Quoting from Life Application bible,

Sometimes we too must simply wait. When we ask God for something and have to wait, we can be tempted to take matters into our own hands and interfere with God's plans.

That's why we must always remember, it's always God's timing, not your timing!

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