How To Change The World

Do you have big dreams to change the world but wondered how you could do it? Scared because getting out of your comfort zone was already so hard? Maybe you questioned God if he made a mistake in placing you where you are at? 

I sat at church service one morning asking God, "Are you sure God that I am in the right place you want me to be? Are you sure I didn't make a mistake for choosing this ministry?" I wanted to change the world and make a difference, but I could not even seem to have the courage to be bold and share God's word in my own little college ministry that I was serving. I felt uncomfortable with the people in my ministry and I did not seem to "fit in" with them. I told God that I didn't think this was the right place for me because it just did not feel comfortable. But that was when God revealed to me his truth: 

Staying comfortable does not mean that you are at the right place. 

He opened my eyes to those missionaries who go out to countries in poverty, serving others out of their comfort zone. God reminded me of one of my church members who was moving to China as a missionary. He said, "Do you think that he "fits in" with the villagers in China? Do you think that the environment he is in is comfortable?" From there I realized that if I only wanted to be at comfortable places, I would never be able to be used by God in the way that he wanted to use me.

Do not focus on the comfort of the people or environment that God has called you into, instead focus on your purpose from God. We can depend on God to help us overcome our insecurities and succeed at what he has called us to do. Do not depend on the comfort of this world, but on the comfort of God. God's comfort is enough to get you outside your comfort zone. 

God does not only use you in your comfort zone, but he also uses those uncomfortable places where only you can make the impact that he has planned for. Although I hesitated on continuing my ministry that day, I am glad I still obeyed God and served my college ministry. That night I had the opportunity to pray for a young girl and at the end of that prayer we both found God in the midst of everything. Because of my courage to step out of my comfort zone, I was able to help that young girl. If I had decided that staying uncomfortable wasn't the place for me, I would never had that chance to change someone's life that God had planned for me to do. 

I have been seeking for ways to change the world, when little did I know that I already had the power to change the world- it starts from where I am now. To change the world starts from getting out of your comfort zone. It is ok to feel uncomfortable because God never said our mission from God would be a comfortable one. Satan wants us to stay comfortable because our comfort zone will never allow us to accomplish life changing miracles. If we never go out of our comfort zone, we will never be able to accomplish the great plans that God has prepared for us. He has prepared an amazing plan for all of us, but he is just waiting for us to walk outside our comfort zone.

The story of Jonah is a great example of how going out of your comfort zone brings a great reward. Jonah denied God's calling for him to go to Nineveh because of how dangerous and evil the people were. Nineveh was definitely a place where the people and environment was uncomfortable for him. However, at the end Jonah agreed to preach to Nineveh which ended up saving the city. Jonah 3:10 says, "...they turned from their evil ways, God relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened" It took Jonah one choice of going out of his comfort zone to save a whole city from destruction. 

I now have changed my definition of what my comfort zone is: My comfort zone is anywhere where God is with me. As long as God is with you, he will help you accomplish anything, like what he did for Jonah. No matter how dangerous or uncomfortable your calling is from God, trust him that his comfort alone is enough. Psalms 121:7 says, "The Lord will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life." 

If your dreams are to change the world, I challenge you to start from where God has placed you now. Don't wait for that big opportunity- start from now and those little opportunities will lead you to greater ones. Even simply reaching out to a stranger that's our of your comfort zone is a great place to start. We tend to only reach out to people who are close to us, without realizing that we have so many opportunities to share God's word to strangers outside our comfort zone. There are more strangers out there than people who we know, which means more opportunities.

Make use of every opportunity that God brings to you. Colossians 4:5 says, "Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity." Don't limit yourself to only your comfort zone because God has greater plans that you can only reach from going out of your comfort zone. Trust God and remember that anywhere with God should be your comfort zone. So remember, you can change the world from just a leap of faith. 

The Perfect Life

Have you ever had those days where things just didn't go the way you planned? You planned everything out so specifically and perfectly, yet nothing came out the way you wanted? It can be so easy to let those unplanned circumstances take control of your day and lead it to ruins. As life continues to be imperfect, do you find yourself more unproductive?

I have recently been busy with a couple of projects myself, and instead of it being a source of joy, it has given me a lot of burdens that have affected different areas of my life. Whenever something failed, I blamed myself for it and categorized myself as being "unproductive". I continued to allow the burdens of the failures happening around me push me down to a point where I found myself having no more control to fix anything. I asked God, "God, I'm trying my best here, why is nothing coming out right when I did my best?" He then opened my eyes and I realized that life is never perfect, and when you depend on this so called "perfect life", things start to get messy. We start to put the blame on ourselves, accusing ourselves of being unproductive when in reality, we did do our best. I realized from my situation that I was being productive enough, but I just needed to stop depending on a perfect life and depend on my perfect God. The lesson that I learned was a simple one: 

A perfect life is not one that depends on a perfect life, but one that depends on a perfect God. 

Despite our best efforts, there will always be things in life that are our of our control. However, even when life is not going the way we planned, we still have a perfect God who will make things perfect in his time and will. Depend on God, because our strength can only do so much in this world. This life that we live in is unstable, so if we depend on a unstable life, we will find ourselves being unstable. But God is a rock who stands firm and is stable. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and his love for us will always be the same. When we depend on him, we will be able to stand firm and not stumble when we face problems. Psalm 18:2 says, "The lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." We have a God who is strong enough to hold us through this unstable life. 

So now that we know the key to a perfect life, how do we make our perfect God a part of our imperfect life? The simple answer to this question is for us to make Jesus our perfect happiness and nothing else. Once we make Jesus our perfect happiness, everything else that fails will fade away in our life because we know that Jesus is more important. Even when things don't go the way we want, we can still be happy because Jesus should be our only true happiness. 

Don't let your disappointments control your day; surrender all your burdens to the one who is best to take care of it. Nothing in life will ever be perfect so it is useless to rely on life to be perfect, but we can always rely on God to be perfect. Psalms 68:19 says, "Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens." We can sing praise and have joy because we have a God who is able to bear our burdens and all we have to do is trust in him. Know that even through your failures and disappointments, God is still with you and everything will be ok.

Allow God to paint that perfect picture of happiness in your life. We all have our own definitions of what a perfect life is, but the truth is God is our perfect life. Nehemiah 8:10 says, "..do not grieve, for the joy of the lord is your strength." Find God in your daily lives and make his joy be a part of your life. His happiness as yours will give you the strength to overcome any failure you face. I challenge all of you to seek God and allow him to dwell in your hearts. You will find a satisfying joy in your life that nothing else can compare to it. So remember, Jesus is the key to your perfect life.

Dealing with Unmet Expectations

Have you ever experienced those moments where you said to yourself, but I deserve this or shouldn't they have done this for me? It can be very easy to create expectations from people, and even to those we care about the most in our lives. We all make expectations for ourselves very easily, yet facing those unmet expectations can be hard to go through. Recently, I have been experiencing many unmet expectations with the relationships in my life. I was doing all that I could do be nice to those around me, yet their reactions did not meet the expectations I had of them. My friends did not respond to me the way I wanted, my family did not always react perfectly to the way I felt I deserved to be treated, my partner was not always there for me when I really needed him, and the list of disappointments just go on and on. I constantly told myself, why would they do this? Don't I deserve something better? 

Does all this sound familiar to you? Like you, I battled with many unmet expectations and it was just recently where I found the truth in how to deal with those disappointments. As I was sharing to God the feelings that bugged my heart I felt God tell me,

Who told you that these expectations were even right to expect in the first place?

And from there I realized that all my expectations stemmed from my own selfish ambitions. My expectations were only made to satisfy myself and not others. I felt that I deserved to be treated this way, yet God's truth opened my eyes to how Jesus himself lived. Jesus did not come to this world expecting what the world should do for him, rather he came to this world expecting himself to do what he should do for this world. 

Out of all people who exist, Jesus deserves the best treatment. However, Jesus did not come here expecting others to treat him like a king, instead, he came here expecting himself to serve others. He expected himself to live a self-less life and give love without expecting anything back. Matthew 20:28 says, "Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."Jesus came to this world to set us a perfect example of how we should live. My hope is that we all face our lives with an attitude just like Jesus- an attitude of what can I do for others. 

Instead of setting expectations on what others should do for us, let us set our expectations to what we should do for others.  See life not from how much we deserve to get, but on how much we should give. The foundation of our expectations should come from God and to serve others. Jesus gave his own life for our own ransom sowe owe it to Jesus for the salvation he gave to us. But because he loves us, he does not expect anything back from us. God wants us to be like Jesus; to serve others only because of love and with no expectations tied to it. Even if we are treated in a way we don't deserve to be treated, react like Jesus and simply serve because he expects us to give a self-less love. Serve not because we deserve it, but serve because we want to show God's love.  

Jesus heard the cries of those who were in need. He healed the blind, spoke life to others, and dedicated his life in serving others. His response to others was always "What do you want me to do for you?" (Matthew 20:32). Jesus spent his whole life serving others to simply show his love. Even until this day, Jesus will always be there for you with open arms. Let's be like Jesus and have an attitude in our relationships to others with "What do you want me to do for you?"

I encourage you all today to ask Jesus to open your eyes to the things you cannot see; to see the expectations that do not stem from what God wants in us. 1 Peter 1:24-25 says. "All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever." This verse shows us that we cannot expect anything from people. Even the good and beautiful things that people have will eventually fall and fail, but God will never fail or fall. God never intended for us to depend our expectations on people because people are unstable; we are like the grass that withers and the flowers that fall. Our best will never be good enough for others, but God's best stands perfect and still. 

Set your expectations to God and only God. Give god your unmet expectations and replace it with a heart that focuses on serving others. Let God be responsible for the expectations that you have for him, and let yourself be responsible with the expectations that you have in this world.  When you do this, you will find yourself satisfied, making your unmet expectations met. God has the ability to take away all your unmet expectations with his faithful promises. So remember, we do not have to deal with unmet expectations. 

The Race: Will you Win or Lose?

Has anyone ever told you that God has a great plan for you? Plans to prosper you and not to harm you? As what Jeremiah 29:12 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." So if what this verse says is true, why is it that not everyone experiences his great plan? You might even be asking yourself the question: why am I not receiving the promises of God? Am I the exception to God's word? 

Well, the good news is no one is an exception to God's word. God's word is true in no matter what circumstance you will face in life. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." Everything that is said in the bible is meant to be a part of our life. It says in this verse that scripture is God-breathed- it is like oxygen to our lungs. Scripture is called God-breathed because it brings life to our souls. Like oxygen, we need scripture daily and cannot survive without it. It cleanses our body and souls, and is pleasant to consume. 

So now that we know that God's word is true and is needed in our lives, why does scripture not apply to everyone's life? You might even see Christians who love God, yet the fruit of their lives do not portray the promises of God. The answer is because our life is a race and a chase.  We live a 2 way chase:

1) Our chase towards God and the plan that he has for us which is the finish line

2) Satan's chase towards us to slow us down from reaching that finish line 

Like any race, the only way to win it is to run. Run to that finish line and do not let anything slow down. Run with boldness in Christ, speed to resist temptations, and faith to endure the race. The reason why many people do not reach the great plans that God has for them is because they let satan win the chase towards them, and they lose their chase towards God. 

Hebrews 12:1 says, "..let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Not many people realize that our life is a race. But in this verse, God has already settled out a race for us to run. The bible refers our life as a race many times. We must run the race of life or we will lose. God does have great plans for us, but if we just sit around and not run the race, our competitor Satan will catch up to us and slow us down. Once he slows us down, he will try to keep us down so that we will never reach that finish line of God's great plan for us. Although God is powerful and almighty, you still have the power to take his favor away from you because he gives you the choice to live in freedom. He gives you the choice to make your own choices, and even the power to allow Satan to block the plans that God has for you. 

God is always ahead of you, cheering for you to catch up to him. But then there is also Satan who is chasing after you- to slow and stop you from reaching God and his plans for you. Even if you have run the race well and are almost close to that finish line, Satan will always still be behind you, chasing you until the very end. 1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be alert and of sober-mind. Your enemy the devil prowls like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Satan will never give up on chasing you, so you need to remember to not to give up on chasing God. 

When I look back at my own life, I can remember the moments when I did allow satan to take a hold of me and slow down my race towards God. You might even be in a situation right now where you have allowed Satan to slow you down, but the good news is you still have the race and it is not over until Jesus comes. Don't give up on your race because God will always be waiting for you. He wants you to reach that great plan that he has planned for you long before you were born. Isaiah 25:1 says, "..for in perfect faithfulness, you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago."

My prayer for all of you reading this is to never give up on chasing God. God will always have a great way of turning bad into good. With God, you will always have hope to turn your life around. I hope that we could all be like Timothy and say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4:7). So remember, let's win this race.  

The Strength of a Weakness

Have you ever heard of the saying you can do anything that you set your heart and mind to? That as long as your desire and will was strong enough, it would bring you through successfully? I grew up hearing this all the time, although it wasn't until recently did I really believe that my weakness had nothing to do with what I was capable of achieving. 

You might ask, well how does a weakness have a strength? I was thinking just the same thing as I sat down at my church service that night. I saw many students who were the same age as me, performing and worshipping on that stage with such boldness - a boldness that I desired to have myself. I felt so torn down, asking God, "Why would you place this desire in my heart when I don't have the capability to do it?" My weakness was my shyness, which was far greater than the desire I had in my heart to be bold in serving God's ministry. It was already hard for me to be a greeter, I couldn't imagine how I could accomplish my desire to be bold in speaking God's truth. 

I continued to ask God, "Why God would you put this desire in me when you know I have the exact weakness to hinder me away from achieving this?" What is a passion for without the ability to do it? But from this experience, I found God's voice and truth. God knows the desires you have in your heart because he put it there himself. And he knows your exact weakness because he made you. So why would God give you a desire that doesn't match up with your weakness? 

The simple truth is this: God placed a desire in your heart, but gave you a weakness so that through your weakness you could depend on him. And from depending on God, you could fulfill the desires he has placed in your heart. 

You don't need to make yourself brave, let God make you brave. It is because of God that you can be brave to accomplish the special calling he has for you. It is not because of your strength, but because of your weakness perfected in God's strength can you do all things. You can do all things that God has placed in your heart-and not because of yourself-but because you have a God who can do all things. 

God placed that desire in your heart because he knew you were the best candidate to accomplish it. God places each of us strategically in where he wants us to be. He gives us the desires for his kingdom purpose. God never makes mistakes! Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Depend on God's strength and not on your own-let God perfect your weakness in his strength. Through Christ, you can fulfill the call he has for you. 

A great example in the bible is of Peter and John. They were both ordinary men, who had the heart to follow Jesus and be his disciples. One day they ran into a man who had been lame for over 40 years. From the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter and John were able to heal the man and he walked. Acts 4:13 says, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." Peter and John were not qualified to heal this man. They were uneducated ordinary men as it says in this verse. However, their courage did not stem from their own strengths, but their courage came from Jesus alone. It wasn't because John or Peter had the strength and power to heal the man, but because they simply depended and believed in Jesus. They could not do anything through their own flesh, but only through Jesus who had the power to do it all. 

I encourage you all to follow Peter and John's boldness and courage that stemmed from God's strength alone. You do not have to be good enough, because God is already good enough. You do have the ability to accomplish the deep desires in your heart that only you and God know. With God, all things are possible. God's strength is enough. So remember, your weakness does have a strength and that is God.