Be joyful always!

Hmm, want to thank God for His love and grace to me... He prepared me beforehand the disappointment that He'd knew I'd face when seeing my results today.

Yep, you guessed it - my results weren't good, honestly. All my grades were below expectations. But praise Daddy indeed - He knows exactly my fears, my struggles and my desires - and He carries me through! Very touched, because He knows my love language - words - and yesterday, He caused me to read through not one, but TWO articles on crosswalk.com - one of them on what if you had many plans, but God suddenly ("suddenly" as from your perspective) called you to a totally different route? and the other one being dealing with disappointment - disappointment can actually be a good thing, because it cause you to look upwards.

And He gave me not one, but TWO Bible verses to steady my heart and encourage me.
The first one was during my QT today: "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." And the second one was this verse that I happened to see just before I checked my results: "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."

aMeN! So I am encouraged, simply because I know that God Himself allowed this to happen, and if in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose, and if God has let this thing happen to me, then by logical deduction, we can deduce that even in this disappointment, God is already working for my good, because He loves me and has a wonderful plan for me. aMeN! Praise God...

"Though I may not understand / All the plans You have for me / My life is in Your hands / And through the eyes of faith I can clearly see...

That His love is everlasting,
And His mercies,
They will never end!!!

God is good, all the time!
He put a song of praise
In this heart of mine
God is good, all the time!
Through the darkest night
His light will shine..."

Super-touched... that's why I'm not as disappointed as I could have been... mainly because God prepared me beforehand with the precious promise of His presence and His words of encouragement. So even in the face of this disappointment, I know that it was already foreseen by Him, even before time began, and even my poor grades, and the broken me, are all in His hands, crafted into His perfect plans. This is, from His eyes, and through the eyes of faith, only a small infinitesimal drop in the sheer magnitude of His perfect plan to redeem all humanity.

Yup, am reminded of Wenjiang's teaching on prayer during the uni district camp about the "Spiritual Armour" prayer... to take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (e.g. discouragement, negative thoughts, doubts, fears, etc...), take up the sword of the Spirit (ie. the word of God) e.g. the Bible verses that remind me to trust God's heart no matter what happen, and to pray in the Spirit... which I really need, because on my own, I can't stand, unless He helps me to stand firm.

So I've got one more semester... I've done the calculations... it is possible for me to get Honours, but I'll have to really push very hard. Honestly, feel a bit afraid, but let that draw me closer to Jesus and hold His hand even tighter as we walk together through the last semester. Even now the winter is passing, even now spring is coming. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever! :D