Thank God for him - he encouraged me with these two verses - I want to write them down before I forget:
1 Peter 1:6-7
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
and Romans 13:8
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
Shared with him that I had told Huaqiang that I didn't want to go for CG for two weeks, 'cos felt tired and needed a personal retreat and was very, very discouraged about some situations. But after praying and fasting the next day after telling HQ, felt God's peace and encouragement come upon me, and how God has been encouraging me this week in so many little ways, and how He has been graciously granting me a rest, a lull during these times.
So Dehua helped me see that what I'm going through now is normal - it's growing pains. He shared with me that these difficult experiences are a testing and refining of my faith, so that it may be proved genuine in the end. And he shared with me that university life, it being so much easier, is like a training exercise for the Real Thing. Whereas working life... is like a "live-firing" exercise.
Felt very encouraged, especially when he helped me see it more clearly from God's perspective.
And hee, thank God so much, I realised that I'm really responding much more differently and more sweetly than I did last time, when I faced a very similar set of problems back in the NUS ministry a few years ago. Wow. God really is so faithful. Thank God so much for His transformative grace! I can see how He's changing my heart to respond more and more sweetly with each cycle of refining that He's putting me through.
And dear Father, please help me pass well and cleanly this test that You've been putting me through and through for so many years. Hee... :P so that we can move on to newer things! :)
And am encouraged further, because even though my heart is weak (which is one reason why God has given me a lull, a period of rest and encouragement, during this difficult time of transitioning), that God is able to use even the weak-hearted to do strong things. :D
And the mustard seed of faith, the little initiative that we put in... "I planted the seed, [someone else] watered it, but God made it grow."
*******
So two important lessons that I learnt during this difficult time, which will help me grow, are:
1. Become more outward-looking
2. Appreciate all the little drops of grace that God sprinkles into my life each day.
And... the power verse that this bro shared with me:
Romans 13:8
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
He shared with me that loving one another is an on-going debt. And this debt of love, no matter how much love we pour into one another's lives and hearts, can never be fully paid off in this life. It is a continuing debt, one which we have no means to pay on our own. But! we can ask our Daddy in heaven to finance this continuing debt, to give us the love that we need to pour into others' lives.
And what a wonderful debt it is! To keep loving one another, and knowing that it'll never be enough this side of heaven. :D
This verse opened up my eyes because all along I've been thinking subconciously that I have a quota of love to fill up for each person in my life, and if I've done this and that, said this and that, written this and that, for this or that person, then I've paid off my "dues" to that person in a way.
But God corrected me, and taught me that it's not like that. It's every day. Wow...
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