7 Questions for reflection

I just finished reading a book based on a screenplay called "Chariots of fire" very famous movie, and while reading it i was not only encouraged but challenged in my faith. At the end of the book there were a few questions that caught my eye, and my thoughts and thought i would like to share them with you. If you want i encourage you to take a quiet time now to pray as you read them and stop every time you finish a question and think about the answer you personally would give. They are very personal questions, meaning that only you know how to answer them.
They took me to a point in which i needed to review the way in which i'm living and ask forgiveness and help from the Lord to start over again in some areas in my life.

1. How do you prepare yourself spiritually for everyday living? What kind of quiet times do you have in Bible reading and prayer? Do you meet the Lord daily, first thing in the morning? Do you take one day out of the week or month to be alone with Him?
2. How do you handle obstacles? Are you confident in knowing God is with you? Do you peacefully and gracefully believe that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it?
3. What kind of faith do you have? Does it sustains you during your trials?
4. Do you remember to thank God for your accomplishments or do you honestly believe that you attain them by your own doing? Do you thank others who have helped you during your endeavors? When was the last time you thanked your parents for their help and love?
5. How do you handle success? Do you glory in it and take the credit, or do you give glory to God? How do you give God the glory?
6. Do you allow the struggles, the testing of your faith, to teach you endurance and a greater dependence on Jesus Christ? In what way do your trials solidify your relationship with God?
7. If life is a race, and you are a runner, how could you run your race more effectively for God? What specific changes would you make in your character and in your lifestyle?



But as it is written,
"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
God has revealed to us through the Spirit."
1 Corinthians 2:9

It's good to remember what He has done!

"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!"
(Psalm 34:8)

Today i sit here in my room (one of the many places I've called "my room"), coming out from a not very nice cold, but with thankfulness in my heart towards the Lord who has been just so Good to me!
I've been going through some seasons in my life that have been quite challenging and in which I've failed most of the time in my first reaction to them. I accused myself of complaining or distrust and giving into tears and self pity, but the reality is that all of them are human reactions that somehow i had to accept. Like a friend would say, -the wisdom relies in how i let those feelings to affect my behavior and in whether i choose to dwell in them or take them at the feet of Jesus. And so at some point, i understood this and started to practice it.

This last December i turned 27, which was kind of a shock, a passive one because it was inside of me; it was just at the middle of the first semester of my third year in the Academy of Music in Jerusalem. I started asking myself so many questions, i knew i had no answer for them -why we actually do that? We should right away ask the Lord!
Before my birthday, in October, i moved to an apartment that was offered to me in Jerusalem. At the beginning i was sharing it with some friends -a couple and their baby, but then after a month they left to another place and i stayed there alone, as it was in the original plan. I don't like to be alone. In some way i thought how 'cool' it is to have 'my own' place and no one to bother me, and so i took it easy, invited two girls from school once and other friends visited me, but then the moment came when they had to leave, and then I felt again -lonely.
I told myself this would be a perfect chance for me to come closer to the Lord, and so i started to think in this way, even though most of the time i would spend it at school, when i came back home i will have a quiet time that actually didn't require a big effort since it was quiet indeed. But with the time the silence was growing inside of me and i just couldn't stand it anymore. I wasn't hearing anything, and so i thought i was failing in listening to the voice of the Lord and was very troubled. Everything of the daily life seemed to be a big deal for me and i started loosing my focus in Him, which took from me also the trust and the peace i had before. It was hard for me to pray or to read the Bible, all i wanted to do was to cry and nothing more.

Then a ray of light, or at least i thought it was...
It was offered to me to come for at least two weeks to the Moshav to take care of a dog while its family went for a Christmas trip, i was delighted with the idea of spending my birthday in this place i love so much, and not only my birthday but Christmas too.
This two weeks were very hectic, i really didn't have a lot of time to enjoy because of school, and then going back to Jerusalem after being there wasn't very easy. And so the couple that offered me this place in Jerusalem asked me how was i liking it there, i told them i was very thankful and that it was a nice place but i felt lonely. Within a week they offered me to come back to the other house i was before where they have people coming in and out every now and then, so i accepted and have been here almost a month now.
Changes are difficult but they are part of life, and i personally think that they are like the spices of life, without them the flavor of life would be very plain.

I made a prayer some months ago before all this started, and it was something like: -Lord i want to live in total dependency of you, living day by day out of your mercy for me, seeing and experiencing your mighty hand in my life in my everyday needs...- after that prayer my life started to change and to be challenged to stay firm in Him and to recognize that He is treating my life and what a privilege that is!

Yesterday, while wandering around the house after eating something to be able to have my medicine for my cold, somebody that works here in this house, asked me to tell him how come I got to Israel to study music when there are other places in the world much better to go to, and that is what i called 'the big question' and so i started telling him all the process and how it was so clear that this was the place to which the Lord was guiding me. Telling the story brings me every time to an attitude of awe and thankfulness, reminding me of His faithfulness in my life and assuring me that He has not finished with me, that there are other details that are being added to the story and there will be more till the day i shall see Him face to face. And my desire is to grow more in Him in a way that i will remember what He has done in my life, what He has done in the history of mankind, all this pointing to what is yet to come...and like that song says, -the best is yet to come!