Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts

Sunday, June 12, 2011

in sickness or health...

Since second year at varsity, I've fallen prone to illness a number of times. In fact, in my second year and third year, I had sinusitis about 6/7 times each year (and each time I had to take antibiotics).

I finally figured out it's the dairy that's causing many of such issues, so now Life 2.0 is going a bit better. I still get ill quite regularly though.

In short, as one of my guy friends so earnestly remarked: "It's a good thing you're not living in the wild, 'cause otherwise you'd be dead by now. Survival of the fittest, you know?"

And this constant battle with my health has taken a toll that I didn't fully realize till tonight.

As I was sitting with the usual (headache, dripping nose, dripping post nasal drip, pressure in ears : the joys of sinusitis), waiting for prayer meeting to begin, I wondered why I never brought up my health as something to pray about it. Part of it was that I'm sick so frequently, it'd be a bit of schlep, but more importantly, I realized that although I have no doubt that God has the power to assure my eternal salvation, I'm actually not convinced about His being able to bring my physical body healing. When I get better, it's not 'cause I believe God has healed me, but rather the inevitable progress of the happy little fighter cells in my body.

But no, I told myself, I know that God has enough power! Jesus so clearly demonstrated this in the gospels, where he is shown to have power over illness, death, the elements, and people and spirits.

Then I realized that there's another level of disappointment within me: I feel now as though being sick is inevitable, and it's crippled my heart to the point where I don't think God cares enough to heal my physical being: That eternal life is enough, and so I should be satisfied with that. That I can't ask for more. That even if I were to, He'd say no.

What a feeble, sad, half-God I'm serving in my head, one that is clearly at odds with the loving, omnipotent Father in the Bible.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

The many names of the Holy Trinity

I was talking to my dear friend, Princess Sarah, about a lesson that God had been patiently teaching me throughout this year (TOLD YOU I WAS A SLOW LEARNER!). However, now that I'd learnt the lesson, I was struggling to find ways of applying it and I was uncertain of the practical implications it had for my life. After listening to me for a few minutes melodramatically wailing my stupidity, she reminded me to pray to "Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our Faith!" (Hebrews 12:2)
At that moment I realized that I was again relying on my own strength and intellectual powers instead of surrendering all to Jesus!

That made me start thinking about the various titles God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit had. I'd been circling the ones I came across in my QTs for the last few months for the times I needed a quick reminder of God's amazing character. So I shall now share some quick fixes with you!

General:
- God our Saviour (1 Timothy 2:3)
- the living God (1 Timothy 2:15)
- the blessed and only Ruler (1 Timothy 6:15)
- the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15)
- the living Stone (1 Peter 2:4)
- the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 1:25)
- the faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19)
- the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4)
- the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10)

God the Father:
- the glorious Father (Ephesians 1:17)
- the Majestic Glory (2 Peter 1:17)

God the Son:
- the Word of life (1 John 1:1)
- eternal life (1 John 1:2)
- the Righteous One (1 John 2:1)
- our only Sovereign and Lord (Jude 4)

God the Spirit:
- the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1:17)
- the Spirit of glory (1 Peter 1:14)


Obviously there'll be many more I discover as I carry on reading, so I'll keep on adding to this list! And you are more than welcome to as well!