It is halfway of the year 2017 already… not a surprise, but I still can’t believe how fast time flies…
I come to think to the earliest days in 2017, in which I chose the word “THRIVE” as my “word of the year”, a practice that I’ve been doing for the last 3 years (my word of the year in 2015 was “BELIEVE”, and “FAITH” was for in 2016).
And here I am feeling a bit down and running of hope… and make me thinking in which way I have “thrive”?
Things are not getting “easier” this year… problems and conflicts arise (even more!), disappointments lurking very often, “my faith” is also getting volatile than it’d ever been…
Of course, setting aside the gloomy weather and my weary heart at the moment, there are so many things that I am thankful for this year. But yeah, back to the word “thrive” – I don’t think I am “flourishing, growing vigorously, growing well”, just yet.
I feel it is so hard to let that first bud coming out, let alone blossoming into a beautiful flower.
But then again, sitting here alone by myself make me thinking even deeper… maybe…. God is putting me at the best soil and surroundings for me to thrive…? Maybe, this is just what I need… Through the hard conditions, the heavy rains, the storms, the scorching heat.
James 1:2-4
2 Count it all joy, my brothers,[b] when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
I haven’t been able to see all of these trials as “joy”… Maybe I still don’t understand what’s “steadfastness” for in my life… I still have hard times to accept that God’s wills for me not to be happy, but to be holy… Maybe I don’t want that “perfect and complete” (according to His ways/view)… Just maybe.
Lord,
You know my every thoughts and my every struggles.
Please assure me that I am not alone,
every time the world clouding my mind heavily.
Lord,
Show me and give me the understanding of Your perfect love,
and let it be my greatest comfort, assurance, and joy in my life.
Help me, Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 55:6, 8-9
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
My Thoughts... My Life... 