I took some time on 30 Dec to sit down and think about the goals I want to set out to accomplish in 2008.
I realized that it takes faith to write such a list, because you are believing that God will enable you to be able to do all these things through Him, and trust that He will send the provision you need at the right timing to accomplish these goals.
And He will. Because He has said "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find".
And here it is, my list (a total of 15 things so far, think more things will be added on to it as the year progresses - but I'm not going to write everything here cos some are private, haha)
1) An even more intimate relationship with God, a deeper understanding of who God is.
And hahaha, God is good, He knows this desire of mine and already He has gone ahead of me to equip me with all the things I need to do so. In the first quarter of the Year of Sabbath, God has already planned for us as a church to grow intimate with Him by reading a Psalm a day (A Psalm A Day Before Breakfast - "AABB", our tribe calls it, haha), to finish all 150 Psalms by May. To understand Him is to grow deep in His word. God knows I need discipline in doing my qt with Him and He knows I can and will do it if this is a goal that we are to accomplish at a corporate level. Haha. God is good.
I must testify of His faithfulness because as I did my qt when I woke up at 1pm just now, I experienced a new delight in His word!! (see bottom of post)
2) A specific direction of where I should head regarding my career upon graduation and more importantly, patience and trust in Him, as I wait on Him for His answer.
3) A band vision and name for our G12 band - The Shar3Ons? And that our cell group will grow closer than we did in 2007 because of this common vision.
4) A band vision and name for HEELSONGS. That this band will bond together tightly as we grow in Christ as a new family.
5) That God will free up enough time for me to study, commit to the 2 bands, continue serving in Young Arrows and other church commitments.
6) To serve directly in church regularly (not just choir/hospitality/prayer duties) - in a specific ministry (Gkidz?), and to rise up in Young Arrows.
7) Grow close to 3 sisters-in-Christ in cell grp - Joanna, Huiting & Yoke Yeong
8 ) To learn guitar, well enough to play for cell group by June.
9) To get better at singing, to improve my vocal techniques (a vocal teacher? hint hint reina)
10) A name for my online jewelry shop that will glorify God.
11) A deeper relationship with my elder sister, that God will use me to show her the Truth and the reality of His realness in her life, that she'll find love once again in Him after so many years, and that she'll experience God for herself.
QT just now
While meditating/chewing on the very first Psalm on this first day of the year in 2008, God showed me a new meaning in Psalm 1. Usually what I would do during QT while reading His word would be to paraphrase the things that "jump out" at me. For me, verses 2 & 3 are the crux of this psalm.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
But today, I was very motivated to move beyond just doing this. I chose to meditate on these 2 verses. Haha, I learnt from Rick Warren's "Bible Study Methods" the definition of meditation - to think over and over about a thought (or something like that). Also read somewhere in the book that one way to meditate is to put yourself in that situation described in the chapter. Since verse 2 was about a tree by the river, I imagined a tree next to a river in lush greenery and then imagined myself walking towards the tree. As I walked closer to the tree, I observed that the tree has big strong roots, rooted (sorry for the lack of vocab, hahaha) in the ground. At the metaphorical level, simply by reading the verse one would know that we are the tree, and our source of life is the river, who is God. But upon meditation, God showed me this by bringing me close to scrutinize at the roots of the tree:
1) Water enters the tree by the roots first, so the roots will receive the nutrients first. Which is important because the tree needs to develop a strong foundation before anything else can occur. In the same way, when I seek the Lord's law, His word nourishes me by first establishing my foundation in Him, before I can bear any fruit. And when I am firmly established in His word, no wind can move me, no rain can drown me.
2) The tree takes time to grow and as it grows, the roots continue to grow bigger as well, thus making the tree stable and grounded. In the same way, I need time to grow and I will bear fruit in season. My passion and obedience in doing all that is pleasing to Him and according to His will, will also take time to show fruitfulness, which is why trust and patience is a must.
And what was most exciting of all was the fact that as I found new meaning in His word, I became very fascinated by what I read and and meditated upon, that when I really desire to seek Him, He speaks to me in such clarity that I know it is Him. That the new knowledge I've gained is because of His revelation to me. And I even want to give more glory to Him because of what happened next.
Because we are doing A Psalm A Day as a church, a covenant that we've made with God, we have planned out devotional materials that will equip us in reading the 150 Psalms. When I finished meditating upon Psalm 1, I opened up the devotional material that was given to me. Lo and behold!! This was what was written about Psalm 1 - "To take delight is to be thrilled - imagine how your eyes suddenly widen, your face beams into a happy smile and your heart feels a nice fuzzy warmth. Yes that's how God wants us to feel when we approach the Word. What we like, we would think more about it, BE FASCINATED AND AMAZED BY IT: and that's the very meaning of meditation. Meditation was never meant to be a deliberate, laborious chore, it's a natural connection to what we are drawn to."
The chuckle that my throat produced. The tears that rolled down my cheeks. At the delight of knowing I found delight in His word. God is GREAT! I desire for my fascination with His word to grow even stronger tomorrow morning. But I also pray that in the next 149 days, if I don't feel like God has revealed anything to me on any of the days, I will not be discouraged but to trust that He will reveal to me in due time.
One thing I've learnt about God today - He loves to use nature to portray what He wants to tell us (albeit through the psalmist). It is not surprising though, haha, because He is after all, the Creator of nature.
*ps: I took more than one hour to write this post even though everything's already written in my journal and I just had to type it out. LOL. God never fails to multiply what my mere hands have done in obedience to His prompting.
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