Monday, October 26, 2015

The Analogy of Trusting

“Your daddy is standing in a swimming pool out a little bit from the edge. You are, let’s say, three years old and standing on the edge of the pool. Daddy holds out his arms to you and says, “Jump, I’ll catch you. I promise.” Now, how do you make your daddy look good at that moment? Answer: trust him and jump. Have faith in him and jump. That makes him look strong and wise and loving. But if you won’t jump, if you shake your head and run away from the edge, you make your daddy look bad. It looks like you are saying, “he can’t catch me” or “he won’t catch me” or “it’s not a good idea to do what he tells me to do.” And all three of those make your dad look bad.

But you don’t want to make God look bad. So you trust him. Then you make him look good–which he really is. And that is what we mean when we say, “Faith glorifies God” or “Faith gives God glory.” It makes him look as good as he really is. So trusting God is really important.

And the harder it seems for him to fulfill his promise, the better he looks when you trust him. Suppose that you are at the deep end of a pool by the diving board. You are four years old and can’t swim, and your daddy is at the other end of the pool. Suddenly a big, mean dog crawls under the fence and shows his teeth and growls at you and starts coming toward you to bite you. You crawl up on the diving board and walk toward the end to get away from him. The dog puts his front paws up on the diving board. Just then, your daddy sees what’s happening and calls out, “Johnny, jump in the water. I’ll get you.”

Now, you have never jumped from one meter high and you can’t swim and your daddy is not underneath you and this water is way over your head. How do you make your daddy look good in that moment? You jump. And almost as soon as you hit the water, you feel his hands under your arms and he treads water holding you safely while someone chases the dog away. Then he takes you to the side of the pool.

We give glory to God when we trust him to do what he has promised to do–especially when all human possibilities are exhausted. Faith glorifies God. That is why God planned for faith to be the way we are justified.” 

― John Piper

Reading this whole words, I get goosebumps all over my heart and soul. Imagine that even a small act of trusting Him over anything else, you're giving glory, all glory to Him. Too often we think that we need a huge sacrifice, a huge kind of act to give Him glory.... but even TRUSTING does give Him all glory. This is well said.

Keep trusting, again and again. God takes pleasure in our trusting to Him :) 

Thursday, October 22, 2015

No measurement of beauty

There is no measurement of beauty, no exact tools to define your worth.
The first moment God created woman, He said she was all good, without any measurement. Without any scale. Without any make up. Without fancy wardrobe.
She was already good, the way she was. Too good, as He had put beauty in everything she was.

God loves creating beautiful things, and He creates beauty in each woman.
He creates beauty in you. Just the way you are.
And you don't need to try hard to protect your beauty,
either with strict diet,
or heavy make up tools
either with fancy clothes,
or beautiful heels.
either with all your thoughts, worries, and securities that you have been preaching to feed your soul these days, just because you want to measure your beauty and to keep your beauty safely.

Stop doing and start trusting.

God has the beauty within you, and God protects your beauty Himself.
Why?
Because your beauty belongs to God.
Your worth is found in Him,
and it should be returned for His glory. it is not yours.

I have His kind of beauty inside of my soul
And His beauty is forever secure in me
I will trust Him and not my foods
I will trust Him and not my thoughts,
not even my scale
not my own definition and measurement
I will trust Him and nothing else
And I will use this beauty so others can see,
how beautiful my God is. 

Sunday, July 26, 2015

There is grace....

I've never felt a moment when I do really, desperately need the one essential thing He always have for me... His grace. These past times, I had always known that I need grace, in everything I do, I know I'm gonna need it when I get problems, and in times of troubles, simply when I ask, He gives. But that's it. As for me, there is no more about grace other than this cliché thing.

Now,
There is this truth: You'll never know where you stand til you realize that you are not standing anymore. you are falling. and the pain feels real. it hurts like it was never before. and these days, it comes to me like I'm drowning. in the sea of nowhere, and I just knew I'm not standing; even before I realize I've been falling, and drowning so deep.

Before this happened, I've always thought that I'm completely okay, there is nothing wrong with me. Sometimes I have problems but it's all feel okay, and I just thought God is here. Period. But then... the moment I know I've been falling so hard, I know He is still here, standing; but I'm not there with Him.

I've been walking all alone without Him. that's why grace feels cliché in my heart. even my soul cannot grasp what it means to experience grace.

finally all I know is this: I'M DROWNING AND I AM IN CONSTANT NEED OF GRACE.

This literally happened once all i feel was emptiness. loneliness . sickness. tiredness. hopelessness. I was depressed. I didn't have any reason to feel good and enough about myself. Didn't have any to be proud of. everything was missing. I lost my pride, my stand, and myself. I've been thinking I've lost His grace the moment I wasn't standing with Him anymore, the moment I felt completely okay with myself.

I am in constant need of grace.
But He shows me; that grace isn't there only in my times of troubles or needs. grace is here, inside of me, and everywhere, and every moment... and I never lose it.

There is grace in everything I do.
There is grace in whatever I eat,
grace in whatever I wear,
grace in my walking,
grace in my running,
grace in my speaking,
grace in my struggling
There is even grace in my smile,
and grace in my eyes, in my hopeless tears.
There is grace in my love towards myself,
and my love towards others.

There is beautiful grace in my face. and my skin. my body. my feet. my hands. and more grace inside my soul and my heart. grace in everything I am, in everything I do.
grace in who I am these past days. grace in who I am today, and in who I am tomorrow.
that I don't need to ask or to beg Him for His grace.
I'm in constant need of grace, but my life and everything in it is a grace already.
I have grace the moment I don't have anything.
I may not stand with Him these past days, but now I know His grace stands, and now grace is standing and fighting my battle of pain. And I'm gonna win. Grace will put everything back to its places, the place where I belong: His love, His arms. and His providence.


"My grace is sufficient for you..." - 2 Cor 12:9



Sunday, April 5, 2015

To love the way He loves

"Mengasihi diriku sebagaimana Dia mencintaiku adalah mengerti dan percaya bahwa apa adanya diriku sudah begitu menyukakan hati Tuhan, ngga perlu ditambah atau dikurangi.   
CintaNya buatku begitu ingin untuk menyukakan hatiNya dengan apa ada nya aku, dengan segala kekurangan dan kelebihanku. 
CintaNya buatku berhenti menuntut dan meminta lebih, karena aku tahu, aku ngga perlu meminta apapun, mengubah apapun dari diriku untuk Dia mengasihi aku. 
CintaNya buatku mengerti, betapa kasihNya selalu baru setiap hari, mengalir dari dalam setiap sel-sel darahku; terdengar begitu lembut dalam setiap detak jantung dan denyut nadiku; dan memancar keluar, sempurna, lewat apa adanya diriku yang begitu menyenangkan hatiNya :) 
CintaNya buatku melihat, betapa aku ngga akan pernah punya alasan untuk nggak mengasihi diriku; betapa apa adanya diriku ini akan selalu berhasil mengukir senyum yang manis di wajahNya."

Saturday, November 1, 2014

God's kind of beautiful

I believe everyone has their own beauty.
And I have my own, which God has added to me (as it was supposed to be) while He created me. 
and it's not the kind of beauty that all the girls probably have. 
it is not the kind of beauty that the world might have always wanted, from times to times. 


this is literally a God's kind of beauty. 

The perfectly perfect love upon me, that makes me beautiful, the way God says it has to.
All the thoughts and the love He is pouring over me, they are all overflowing. 
I have never realized it this much before, and never will I get to understand how much they are.
and how much they have been working until now, and surely forever. 
God has never stopped. and He would not stop to do it. 

He wouldn't stop to remind me how beautiful I am, how perfect I am in my imperfection. 

He would never get tired of this. 
And I know, it's His job to keep checking His to-do-list everyday if He has reminded me of this simply great thing, or whether some time He has to push Himself a little hard to remind me, to make me believe in His beauty upon me. 


There are times when I can simply believe in this kind of beauty.
But even the most calming sea will always has its own waves.
It's hard, most of the time to believe that I have my own beauty, beside all my circumstances.
and I believe this is what everyone, every girl has always been fighting for. 
But God understands. *remember His to-do-list? :)

I am not designed like the others
I don't have what they are all may have
and maybe I will not have what they'll always have.
I don't know. only God knows what I have now, what 'am going to have soon or later.

But one thing true, 

I'm glad He made me realize that I have to believe that I'm enough.
and I'm glad He teaches me to trust my belief, to trust my own beauty. 

It's not me that could make myself beautiful. It's God. 'cause it's not my kind of beautiful. The beauty that God have added to me, it's simply God's kind of beautiful. 





Monday, October 27, 2014

Strengthen

"Dan hatinya diperkuat dari hari ke hari, karna ia percaya akan janji Tuhan, karna ia menanti-nantikan Tuhan." 

 Great things come if you don't mind waiting. Psalms 27:4; "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart," 

STRENGTHEN 💪💫

"They who trust Me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things!" -John 14:12




Anchored, blessed, and strengthen in love. 


Saturday, October 25, 2014

Your beauty is a gift

Your beauty is a gift; a blessing.
Kamu adalah bukti bagaimana Tuhan memberikan kecantikanmu sebagai anugrah di dalam hati, roh, dan jiwamu. Cantikmu bukanlah sesuatu yang harus kamu perjuangkan untuk kamu mendapatkannya. Toh segala usahamu akan sia-sia, semakin kamu berusaha menjadi cantik seperti yang dunia inginkan, semakin kamu ngga pernah merasa cukup dengan diri kamu sendiri.

He pours down all His love,
into your body,
your face,
your skin,
your heart,
and your soul,
making you beautiful,
FULL AND OVERFLOWING.

Trust the beauty within you.
Makanan apapun, diet, olahraga apapun ngga boleh mendefinisikan cantiknya kamu.
Semua usahamu ngga akan bisa menambahi atau mengurangi cantiknya kamu.

Mengerti dan pahami kalau Tuhan pakai semua bagian tubuhmu, inside and outside, all the details in you, hanya untuk mengekspresikan cintaNya buat kamu. Disinilah kamu harus menemukan cantiknya kamu. Lalu kenapa kamu harus khawatir dan ngga percaya sama diri kamu sendiri? :)

As for me, it's comforting to know how He uses all of me, my soul, my heart, and even every details of my body only to reflect His graciously love. I begin trusting the beauty within me. I let God's love to be in control of my beauty.

Let God's love to be in control of your beauty, too :)
Karna cantikmu adalah anugrahKu,
cantikmu adalah tentang bagaimana aku menumpahkan seluruh kasihKu kepadamu,
dalam hatimu, rohmu, dan jiwamu.
cantikmu adalah anugrah yang ngga akan bisa hilang, ditambah, atau dikurangi. 
dan prosesKu yang menyempurnakan semuanya.