Passing the tests

If you ask me wheter I like to take tests or not my answer will be "yes, I do like to take tests" I don't know why but I just loved to study and I loved being a college student. To me, I can measure my knowledge on how much I've learned through taking tests. However, I did not like it when God gives me tests. I Hated it more than anything. But it was when I didn't really know the purpose of it, the reasons why God gave me tests.

In January 2012, God gave me the hardest test in my life. That was when I had to make the biggest decision, and that was when God tested my faith. At that time I just graduated from college and I had all my plans lined up, but not a single one worked out. I began to get so depressed, frustrated, worried..I felt like my world just turned up side down. I prayed and prayed and asking God what should I do? should I do this or should I do that? but God seemed silent. I didn't feel any peace, I felt so lost and I honestly thought that God has abandoned me. Until one day, I went to church and God spoke to me through a guy named John Maxwell, through his message he said "If you have a problem, you are a candidate for a miracle from God, all miracles in the bible began with problems " the moment I heard that message I knew that God loves me so much that He wants to show me how big He is and He wants to show me that miracles will happen through my problems. God wants to show me that I can always count on Him and that through my problems I can see His glory shine in my life. Since then my thoughts began to change, now I understand...how can I see the good if I never experience the bad? How do I know my ability to endure pains if I never experience any pain? God was really testing my faith by remained silent. Just like when you are taking a test at school, your teacher will be silent while you are taking the test, but that does not mean that your teacher is not there watching you. That is the way God is when He gives us a test, just because He seems silent that does not mean that He is not there. He wants to know if we truly believe that He is still there even when I cannot feel Him or "hear" Him anymore. During that time, I felt like Faith was all I have and I have to walk by faith and not by sight. There is a quote that says "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase". James 1:3- for you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. When you are facing a test that God gives you, find out the purpose of it, and you will know how to pass it. For example: when everyone around you is getting so annoying maybe this is the way God test your ability to forgive, to overcome evil with good. The more you understand the purpose of the test the faster you will pass the test. Stay strong! your test will become your test-imony, your mess will become your mess-age (Max Lucado)

After I passed the test that God gave me, I can feel that my faith has grown stronger than ever. Everytime God gives me a test; I try to understand the purpose and keep asking God to bring things to light so I can see the purpose behind it. Remember! just because God seems silent that does not mean that He is not there and that does not mean that He can't hear you. Everytime you pass a test, your faith and your relationship with God will rise up to a higher level.

Seeking + Obeying God = Fearless

Fear is my biggest enemy, I feel so intimidated by just about everything especially my future. But I just found out that if you are afraid of your future, that simply means that you do not have faith in God. I like to plan things and when something happens and it is not consistent with my plans; I started to fear. The truth is God is the one who has the authority to plan my life and He is the only one who can change it. In other words, yes you have the permission to plan your life but you do not have the permission to depend on it and there is no need to be dissapointed when your plans start to change because when God changes your plans that means that He is re-directing you. God knows exactly where you will be 10 years from now, you don't have to worry about tomorrow because God is there and He will be there when tomorrow comes. The question is what do I have to do while I am in the process of walking toward my future? what do I have to do to overcome my fear about my future? the answer is SEEK GOD & OBEY HIM. These 2 things cannot be separated. Seek God means that you always spend time with God, He has to be the priority in your life (Matthew 6:33). Pray..pray..pray..and pray! To me personally, I can only feel so close to God when I pray, just reading my bible is not enough, I have to pray, then I can hear God's voice and feel His presence. Prayer is also important in order for you to take your stand against your enemy the one who gives you fear ( Ephesians 6:10-11, 18). To Obey God means that you have to be discipline, you must obey His rules. Walk away from things that will make you feel guilty or dirty. Remember! Seek and Obey cannot be separated. Think about it...how can you seek God yet you do things that are unholy, or how can you obey God but you don't seek Him. For example: you pray and read your bible yet you mess around with your boyfriend or girlfriend, using drugs, get drunk, and all that. Or you do all the right things but you don't even have time to pray, to read your bible, God is not your priority but something else is maybe your job, your partner, or your education. Both of these have to walk together because they complete each other. From my experience, when I seek God and obey Him; I feel so peaceful and this are the keys to overcome my fears, simply by just seek God and Obey Him. When you do these 2 things correctly you are living in righteousness. Believe me or not, when you are walking in the middle of the storm, you will feel safe and peaceful because you know that you are walking and live in righteousness it is 100% guarantee that God will fight for you. You do not have to worry when life doesn't go the way you planned because God wants you to see that you deserve more something bigger that you can imagine. Have faith in God's ability (1 John 5:14-15) and live in righteousness . If you do these, you can get ready to say goodbye to fear and welcoming peacefulness.

What is your priority

In Luke 24:26-27, Jesus's message is clear: "You either with me or you are not. And if you are with me, you are with me all the way." Take a moment and think about all the things God has provided for you. While God provision is one aspect of His blessings in your life, we can never let these blessings, these things, take God's place in our hearts. Jesus wants us to choose Him above everything else. In the Ten Commandments, God says we aren't suppose to have any other gods before Him. In other words, God should be the top priority in our lives. Everything else is secondary. When you make Jesus the center and focus of your life, then you have your priorities in order. Putting God first means making a lot of sacrifices, bur Jesus promises that it's worth it in the long run. Look at your daily life and do a little self-examination. Who or what do you give more attention to than God? What controls your decision? What do your actions say about your real priorities? What's really getting top billing in your life? Think about the changes you need to make in order to be in it "all the way."

From: Becoming 2, christian magazine.

Just because you cannot see your future, doesn't mean God cannot see it too

We never know what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year. That is why we always ask "What am I going to do tomorrow?" or most college students will always ask "What am I suppose to do next year after I graduate from college?". Believe it or not, the more we ask these kind of questions, the more we start to feel worry about what is going to happen next. One of the things that God wants us to do is to trust Him. In Matthew 6:26-34, it says: "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and do not get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes". Sometimes it is so hard not to be worried about our future because we cannot see what's ahead of us, we feel like we are blindfolded and have no idea where we are going; however, did you know that before God created you, the first thing that He did was preparing your days in this world specifically. In Psalm 139:16, it says: your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. God sees what ahead of us, He knows what he is doing, and He wants us to stop worrying about our days. His plans are way bigger than our plans. He said: "Don't be afraid!! Look at life through my eyes, STOP letting life intimidate you, STOP running scared. TRUST ME!!

Overcoming My Addiction

I am sure all of us are familiar with this awesome website that can connect us with our old friends, ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends. Some of my friends found their soul-mate through this website. It's like MAGIC huh?? Yup, this website is called Facebook. In fact, there are about 300 million active users of facebook and I was one of them. I signed up on facebook when I was still in high school. At first, I didn't really get entertained by it. It was just for fun and got me something to do when I am bored. When I started college, I began to have more and more friends. Therefore, I started to add each one of them on facebook. This is where the story begins, it turned out that facebook was not just a website that I go to whenever I am bored; in fact, I have to opened it every single day. After awhile, I didn't even realize that I became addicted to it and the worst part is, I becoming a stalker (not a creepy type of stalker tho'). I spent more time on facebook, than anything else. I woke up in the morning and found myself stalking my ex-boyfriend, or stalking this guy that I had a crush on. Every time I had a chance to open my facebook at school, then I would do it. Before I go to bed, I would stalk one of my friends or just looking at pictures and I usually stayed up until 4 or 5 in the morning facebooking. Facebook has changed my life and my personality, the reason why I said that is because I started to think more about other people's opinions more than I used to. I was terrified if someone would tag me some of my pictures and what if I looked ugly in those pictures, what if other people make such bad comments about those pictures...I began to think all of this unnecessary thoughts. I was struggling with this and I began to have a really low self-esteem. I started to compare myself with some cute girls on facebook and I was thinking, I wish I had her hair, I wish I had her big beautiful eyes, I wish I had her flawless skin, I wish I was that skinny, I wish I had those sexy legs, I wish I had her straight teeth, I wish I had her beautiful smile, and it goes on and on. There were so many times when God was trying to tell me over and over again that I am beautiful just the way I am, but I kept ignoring Him. I kept thinking, If only I had great skin, if only I had straight teeth, and if only I had long legs, if only I had a flat tummy then I will be satisfied and feel beautiful about myself. I don’t need God to make me feel beautiful. There were times, when God told me to spend more time to Him because He wants to give me confidence; He wants to teach me some things that will re-new my mind that will change the way I think about myself. Sometimes I said “Yes Lord” but most of the times I said “Thank you, but It’s okay, I can handle this myself”. When I tried to spend time with Him every 6 o’clock in the morning, I started to feel that He was right, the more I spend time with Him, the more I feel better about myself. Unfortunately, I could only spend time with Him at least for 3 months and I got bored. I kept doing this for at least more than 1 year. So, I started to pray and asked Him "why is it so hard for me to spend time with Him" and the Holly Spirit was just telling me that I spent most of my time on facebook. Everytime I woke up in the morning, I was on facebook, instead of reading my bible or praying. I did the same thing before I go to bed. I spent SO Much time on fb. I was so addicted to it. God kept reminding me the verse that says "where your treasure is there your heart will be also". One day I was praying to God, about this... and the spirit told me that "I have to give up the things that I love in order to follow God" because I have to put God as my number 1 priority, He has to be on top of my list. So, one week ago, I woke up from my nap and I didn't even think about it, I opened my facebook and deactivated it. At that moment, suddenly I felt there was this heavy burden on my shoulders that was taken away from me and I felt so FREE. I felt like a new person. I was just sitting on my bed and started to cry, because I felt this freedom. It was so awesome. Since then, I spend every minute with God. Every day is always about Him. I woke up early in the morning to pray, I've been reading christian books, I've been listening to christian music. And I pray a lot, I pray while I am driving (ps: I don't usually close my eyes lol), while I am working, everytime I had a chance to pray, then I will pray. Life is so so so much better and I feel like my relationship with Him is stronger than before. From now and then God keeps reminding me that I only have 2 choices, either I follow Him 100% or don’t follow Him at all, because there is no in between. Find something that keeps you from spending time with God and pray about it. Let Him know what is going on with you, and let Him know what’s on your mind. And ask Him to help you out. Remember, the more you spend time with God, the more you will feel better about yourself.

Let Go of Guilt

As Christians, we all know that we are not perfect. Even tho' we said that we love Jesus, still we make mistakes and do things that we shouldn't do. Sometimes it is so hard to control ourselves and to do what we are suppose to do. However, all of us who know Jesus are very lucky because we all know that our God is the God of second chances. He wants us to forgive ourselves and let go of our guilt. He does not want us to be caught up in our own guilt that will stop us from knowing that He will always there for us no matter what. There is nothing in this world that will separate us from His love. His mercy is new every day and it endures forever. He is the one who takes what is broken and rebuilds it even better than before, so do not be afraid to give your life back to Him.



Isaiah 43:18-19: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing.

Jesus Frees Us From Anxiety

Anxiety is the chief enemy of peace. Anxiety threatens our sleep and our sanity. And it's when we're anxious that we're most likely to lash out at others, ruining our peace with them and with ourselves. Jesus soothes our anxiety by offering us His peace. Our anxiety can be overcome, Paul tells us "By praying we are removing our anxieties from our heart" where they stir us and trouble us, and placing them in His hands. As we do so, God's peace will flow from heaven, soothing our spirits, even when we can't understand why we have the peace that we do. in Chirst, our hearts and minds are guarded, safe, and secure from every threat to peace.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7)

101 Things Jesus Has Done for You, by Thomas Nelson

Jesus Gives us His Guidance

Every journey needs either a roadmap or a navigator. Fortunately for us, in our journey with Jesus, we have both. To me, it feels like sometimes God is walking beside me, sometimes He walks behind me, and sometimes He walks in front of me. One thing that I know for sure is He will NEVER let me walk alone. When I have no idea where to go; He will walk in front of me so I can follow His footsteps and so I won't be afraid because I am walking on the right path. When I feel lonely and insecure along the way; He will walk beside me and He will tell me that He is right next to me. When I know where to go but not really sure about the journey ahead of me; He will walk behind me and tell me where to turn and when I should stop. Jesus hasn't left me without a guide. He watches over my every step. "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way; walk in it." (Isaiah 30:21)