Adios to 2006 and here I come, 2007 !

Come 12am midnight tonight will be the NEW YEAR already. We are leaving the past and looking forward to the future. Many things need to be changed as we look back and see our mistakes and flaws.
Many seasons will come in our life - seasons of joy, seasons of sorrows, seasons of growth, seasons of unfruitfulness, seasons of testing, seasons of rejoicing, seasons of trouble, and seasons of peace – but whatever seasons we go through, know that God is always by your side to pull you through. We are told to be prepared in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2). Go through all the hard seasons in your life with perseverance, having our eyes fixed on Jesus all the time.

I have made a few pledges for the year 2007. Whether I will be able to fulfill all of them or not depend on my faith in working with God. I want to share a few of them with you:

1. Grow closer to God
2. Study hard and do well in SPM
3. Be a testimony wherever I go
4. Share the Gospel to as many as I can
5. Go Fishing

My personal verses for the year ahead are Jeremiah 29:11-14 and Hebrews 12:1-3. I know that there will be a lot more challenges in my life and that a certainty. I will not run away from them, instead I will go through them with God’s help. My prayer is that I will grow stronger in my relationship with God and continue to be used by Him.
To do well in my studies is a very hard thing but what I need is discipline. I’m praying that I will not only be disciplined in my devotion but also my studies because they are my priorities as a student and teenager.
I want to share my faith to as many people as possible and I pray that you people will do the same. Isn’t it inhumane and totally WRONG if you have a remedy for AIDS and you don’t want to share it to others so they might get saved too? So it’s wrong to hold the remedy for sin if you know and have it with you. So let us all be so passionate for souls next year and start telling people about Jesus Christ.

My prayer for all of you out there is that you will continue to run the race with perseverance and having your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. Do not fall out of the race but go through each and every obstacle by faith and perseverance. Go touch lives and change lives, but first lead a transformed life yourself. Be fishers of men.

Let me quickly share with you a little bit more about The Race (for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, read my previous few posts on Hebrews 12:1-3)

1 Corinthians 9:24
Do you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

God is telling us to run in such a way as to get the prize. But He does not mean that we be selfish and don’t care about our fellow brothers and sisters in the race. Paul the apostle who wrote this verse didn’t mean that this race we are running, only one of us can get the prize, no, in fact ALL can get the prize. He just used it as an example.
The main point in this verse is this: we have to run this race with DESPERATION. Like world class athletes who want to win the gold medal so desperately in the Olympics, we should be like them. We have to be desperate enough in order to finish the race. If one is not desperate to win, he might as well not come into the race. But since all of us are in it, RUN with DESPERATION.
We must also have our eyes fixed at the RIGHT prize. If we fix our eyes on wealth, we run towards discontentment. If we fix our eyes towards fame, we run towards trouble. If we seek our eyes on lust, we run towards sin. All this leads us to dead ends BUT there is one that leads us to joy.
If only we fix our eyes Jesus, we run towards joy, love, peace, contentment, comfort, shelter... and SALVATION. So we need to see to it that we have our eyes fixed on because where our eyes are on, that’s where we will go. For example, if we have our eyes on a girl you like, we would think of her day and night, we would sacrifice our time to spend time with her, we would do anything she asks, we would want to be with her forever, we would be all over her, her, her, and her alone. So if we have our eyes on Jesus, we will then be able to know we are running into His arms. So run as in ways of how desperate are you to be with Jesus. Don’t quit the race.

So for the year 2007,
LET US FIX OUR EYES ON JESUS and RUN THE RACE...

Hebrews 12:1-3
Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us RUN with perseverance the RACE marked out before us.
LET US FIX OUR EYES ON JESUS, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Running with you,
Zlwin Chew