What can I do for you?

"What can I do for You?
What can I bring to You?
What kind of song would you like me to sing?

'Cause I'll dance a dance for You
Pour out my love to You
What can I do for You beautiful king?

'Cause I... can't thank You enough.
I can't thank You enough"

Today as I'm driving home from work, my attention was caught by the first few words of this song: "A little longer" by Jenn Johnson.

"What can I do for you? What can I bring You"

If I may be completely honest, it is not very often that I thought about it. I don't know about you, but I pray daily and my prayers revolve around me, my family, my circumstances, my work, my friends, my desires, .... me myself and mine! All about me. Every now and then I'd ask God to tell me what to do, give me guidance, but at the end of the day I asked Him those questions for my own sake, really.

It is not very often that I ask Him that question.... "What can I do for you today Lord?"

Being a parent, if my 9 year old daughter comes up to me one morning and asked me that question with no strings attached, I'd be the happiest mum in the world! I'd be "Well Naomi, since you asked, could you please do the dishes, do the laundry, scrub the bathroom....." (and the list goes on!)

Or if hubby has the day off and he asks me, "What would you like me to do today hunny?" I'd be taking out the list which I have prepared earlier just incase he asked. Because everyday we know exactly what we want for ourselves, what we wish others would do for us to make our lives easier.

We get excited at the idea that those around us would ask us such question, let alone if they actually complete what we asked of them!

Having a new baby in the family means we are always ready to say YES whenever anyone asks if they could babysit! (so don't ask if you don't mean it).

We are always ready with our wish list of what to do, what to buy, what to give us, etc. As soon as somebody asks the question, we'd be ready with a list!

But apparently that's not so with our God....

This song then goes on to say:

"you... don't have to do a thing
Just simply be with me and let those things go
'Cause they can wait another minute

Wait... this moment is too sweet
Would you please stay here with Me
And love on Me a little longer ...
cause I'm in love with you"

This just goes on to say that God does not want anything of us!

He doesn't want us to do a thing! Just simply BE WITH HIM and let go of trying so hard!

Don't worry about trying to be good!
Don't worry about trying not to sin!
Don't worry about trying to read your Bible everyday!
Don't worry about trying to pray half an hour a day!
Don't worry about DOING all these things or trying hard to win His love!

BECAUSE HE ALREADY LOVES US!!!!!

Just the way we are! As bad as you are.... as sinful as you are.... as filthy as you are.... No matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, no matter who you are, NOTHING matters...

Because He just LOVES you, and just wants to be LOVED.

Simply come....
He's only a thought away....
He's only a whisper away...
He's only a prayer away....

"you... don't have to do a thing
Just simply be with me and let those things go
'Cause they can wait another minute
Would you please stay here with Me
And love on Me a little longer ...
cause I'm in love with you"

Better late than never

With the new year approaching I'd like to build a new devotional habit. I can't say I've been successful in the past. I always get distracted by the 'how'. Whether I do it online or on paper... Which app should I use... Which devotional book or plan... Etc etc. so I can ended up doing a million of preparation but then never actually do the writing. 

This year I'm starting again!! 

They said "You haven't failed until you stop trying".

Waiting Game

In a world where nearly everything is available instantly, 'waiting' is becoming harder and harder. Be it waiting at the clinic, or waiting for someone to turn up at an appointment, or waiting for a table at a restaurant, we all hate waiting.  Well, I know I do.

But the Bible teaches us that there's a time for everything:

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV
God has made everything beautiful in its time.

Everything that is good for us requires a bit of (or sometimes a lot of) waiting, and most importantly... patience and faith. 

Abraham had to wait for nearly a hundred years before he finally received his first descendant, Isaac.  That's a very long wait for someone whose promised descendants as many as the stars in the sky. 

Moses had to wait in the desert for forty years before he was able to do what he wanted to do when he was still young and strong, free his people from slavery. 

Joseph had to go through numerous tragedies in his life before he finally saw his dream came true. The dream God gave him when he was a young boy that could've easily been forgotten due to various circumstances that were exactly the opposite.

Right now I'm in a waiting season. Luckily it's not gonna be for fourty or a hundred years, and it won't involve slavery or jail (well... just a tiny bit - pretty much having to stay home everyday until then), but I'm already finding it hard!

Being so used to my independence & active lifestyle, I find it hard to sort of just sit around and wait. Even if I want to do things, I am just physically incapable right now. Even if I could, I know that I shouldn't. All I can do right now is eat, sleep and watch TV. It might sound good to some people, but trust me, it gets pretty boring after a week or so.
Plus all the pain, the soreness, the aches and the emotional roller coaster which come with being 38 weeks pregnant, right now all I want is for bub to just pop out. "Tonight would be good, honey! Com' on now you've been in there long enough."

Unfortunately (for me) it doesn't quite work out that way.  God said there's a time for everything, and He makes everything beautiful in its own time. Just like you can't force a butterfly out of its cocoon, you can't force a baby to come out early. Well, you can nowadays with medical intervention,  but you know... naturally you can't. 

So it's time to practice my patience now.
It's time to just allow nature to take its course.
It's time to let God, the mighty Creator, does His thing, perfecting the baby for his readiness to see the world and breathe this air.
It's time for me to maybe get some useful reading done, have more quiet time, do more devotionals.
It's time to maybe just 'chill' more in His presence, in the quietness and emptiness of the house. 

Whatever I do, I need to wait patiently now, and I need to learn to use these waiting time wisely and completely trust that His timing is the perfect timing.....

So if you're like me, waiting for something good to happen, whatever it may be, just trust Him.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 NIV

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:   He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.