The Act Of Asking

Matthew 7:7 (NIV)
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."


This verse is so familiar to me that sometimes I take it for granted.
"Alam naman na ni God yung kailangan ko eh, bakit kailangan ko pa hingiin sa Kanya?" (God already knows what I need, why do I still need to ask Him?) This was my question. If God is all-knowing, why do I still need to ask Him before He gives me what I need? Is He that busy that I need to write a "blessing" request to heaven just to have my "blessing" be released along with the other gazillion requests all over the world?

Then it dawned on me: God wants to talk to me. He's eager to listen.

Ako pala yung masyadong busy. Ako pala yung hindi alam ang gusto ko talaga. (It's me who's too busy. It's me who do not really know what I want.)

The Act of Asking is communication with God. When we approach Him with all our requests, it means we talk to Him and that is what He wants. Going in a deeper relationship with God entails CONSTANT communication with Him. Just like any other relationship, communication makes it stronger.

I feel so blessed having a Father who's eager to listen to me, whom I can approach with ANYTHING. Doesn't everyone of us want that? Someone who would listen to us. We already have Him, we just have to realize that.

God is listening to you, you just need to speak up.
A.S.K.
Ask. Seek. Knock.


Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

I Have Fallen, Do I Have Hope?

"I'm a failure."

"I used to be the best, but now, I'm a nobody."

"No one appreciates me anymore."

"I wish I could turn back time."



Have you ever seen yourself in those kinds of situations? Have you ever told those lines to yourself?

No one is perfect. We all make mistakes.

The problem lies not on our fall but on not getting up again.

Proverbs 22:29 (NIV)
for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.



"seven times"... No, I have not fallen just seven times, I have fallen hundreds of times. As I was asking God what "seven times" mean, I came to realize it means seven days. Meaning, we may fall EVERYDAY yet we still have hope because we are righteous. Wait, am I really righteous?

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.


Jesus traded his perfection for us to be righteous in God's sight. Our righteousness does not come from the good things we do but from what Jesus did on the cross.

The only hope I have whenever I fall is what Jesus did. I can still approach God and pray to Him. I can still be with fellow believers because they are the ones who can help me as well go back on the right track.

Easier said than done right? Yeah. Humans are judgmental by nature, and of course, we always think about what other people will think. And that's where the battle begins. Is your relationship with God more important than what other people will think of you?

At the end of the day, getting back up is a decision you have to make for yourself. No one can decide for you. But when you do decide to get back up, God is there willing to help you up. Your godly friends are there to help you up. The good thing about being at our worst is that there's no other way but up.

"Habang may buhay, may pag-asa."

The Day I Got Bored Of Reading The Bible

I've had those days when I choose to do other "fun" things like watching movies, eating, and playing mobile games than reading my Bible. What's wrong with that?

People look up to me as a spiritual leader. And as a leader, I should be setting an example, right? But why am I sharing this weakness of mine to you? Why am I exposing myself to the world that I am not perfect?

We all have high standards when it comes to leaders. For me, a leader is perfect until they prove otherwise. I have high expectations from leaders, don't you? But what if a leader fails? Does it make him or her become less of a leader?

Going back to what i was saying, there were days that I don't feel like reading my Bible. Praying is no problem for me as i talk to God all the time, especially on my alone time or when I'm commuting. But it's really a struggle for me to stick to reading the bible using devotionals. Ironic isn't it? Not really.

Have you ever had a friend who loves to talk all the time? I am like that to God. I talk to Him through prayers. All my thanksgiving, my requests, my anxieties, my problems, my hurts... I share them to God. But sometimes I don't read my Bible where God's response and instructions are written. 

I'm known by my friends as a listener. During conversations, I let other people talk more often. But when it comes to my relationship with God, I'm very talkative. I don't know if it's because I'm a woman or it's my selfishness that hinders me from allowing God to talk to me through His Word sometimes.

But God is faithful. During those times I was not able to read my Bible, He uses a tweet, a Facebook status, a text message, a friend's testimony, and all other stuff to remind me of His response. I thank God for surrounding me with godly friends who are brave enough to correct me when I become so stubborn. 

Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12 NLT)

As Christians, we are in a battle. That's why we need to fight for our faith. We need to flee from temptations of "fun" things which lead to destruction in the end. It's not easy, but by God's grace, we are victorious already.

So, have you read your Bible today? :)

The Hardship of a Favorite

A lot of people envy the family's "apple of the eye" and the class' "teacher's pet".

But what others do not see are the hardships a "favorite" undergoes.

How would I know?

I've been a "favorite". I'm the youngest in our family and of course, the usual notion is that the youngest is the favorite. I experienced being a teacher's pet in high school because of my academic standing. People might think I was "lucky", but I did not think so. Maybe a teacher liked me but a lot of my classmates did not. I was bullied in high school. My classmates would throw my things in the trash can, vandalize my notes, and even talk bad about me behind my back. Was it my choice to be a favorite? Of course not. Did the teacher who chose me as a favorite student intended for me to be bullied? Of course not.

Sadly, it happened. I didn't really care how much the teachers liked me, I'm more concerned how my classmates would think of me...and obviously they didn't like me because I was more favored by the teachers than them.

So how did I went through high school with those bullies?

I cried. I cried a lot...but not in front of my classmates. I actually almost gave up on going to school, or at least transfer to another classroom. But I did not. Why? Because my future was more important than the situation I had back then. If I gave up on my studies, I wouldn't be able to go to college. The only revenge I could do to those bullies was to not give in to what they want. I had the courage to write to our class adviser of what they did. Our whole class was threatened that we would not graduate because of that issue and of course my classmates all blamed me for it. I did not care what they would say, I just knew that I had to stand up for what is right.

To make the long story short, we all still graduated. As a class, we had an open forum to settle everything and to open up everything to each other. I shared my bitterness toward them and they shared their bitterness toward me. We forgave each other and moved on.

It was by God's grace that we are where we are right now. It's by God's grace as well that the bitterness in my heart was taken away through forgiveness. It was not easy, but I'm continuing to move on.

One thing I learned from that experience is that it helped me understand why God did not approve of favoritism. God does not show favoritism (Romans 2:11).

If you are a parent, a teacher or a leader, please DO NOT SHOW favoritism. You may have favor over someone but don't show it. I know it is hard to do for we are mere human beings, but we can always pray to God to help us to show equality with others.

A Love Story To Share

Love...

A topic all of us can relate to.

When I was younger, I thought I was in love. I had a wrong idea of love. I thought it's something we just feel. I thought when someone is so nice to me, he loves me already.

"Love kagad? Di ba pwedeng mabait lang talaga sya?!"

We all had that "kilig" factor. It's a feeling you get when someone you admire notices you or gives you something simple yet so valuable for you. It's what you feel after spending time with that person and you get to know someone better. Kahit simpleng "good morning" na pinadala via group message galing sa "kanya", kinikilig ka na. That's the "kilig" factor.

But, there's more to love than that.

What if the "kilig" factor is gone? What if the feeling is gone? Should we end the relationship? Should we stop calling it love and just call it “crush” instead. Candy crush – it was so sweet like a candy but we had to crush it. Candy crush. Get it? (Pagbigyan nyo na ako, minsan lang ako magjoke) :p

What is true love?

If there's TRUE love, is there a FAKE love?

Have you heard of this term: lightly dark?

It doesn't make sense, right?

So is fake love.

LOVE in itself is true.

Here's my story:

I met this guy. I only heard about him when I was a little girl. I haven't actually seen him before, but people told me that this guy loves me. "Stalker ba yan?", you might ask. Well, I don't know if we can call him that but he does watch me and knows what I do even before I got to meet him.

So where did I meet him?
In a small book store through a new found friend in college.

This new friend of mine introduced him to me personally. She told me that this guy loves me. I've heard of it before but somehow, at that moment, it made me wonder why this guy loves me. Why would someone love a person like me? A person so insecure, selfish and a people-pleaser. It didn't make sense to me. The love of God didn't make sense to me.

Yes, that guy I met was God. I didn't actually see him but I somehow met him on a personal level. Then I met his Son, Jesus Christ. My friend told me that Jesus loves me as well and he even died for me just to prove that.

Hindi nakakakilig ang mamatayan. Dying on the cross was how Jesus demonstrated his love for you. Yes, you. He didn't just love and died for me, he loves you and died for you as well.

Romans 5:8 (NIV)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:10 (NIV)

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

John 3:16 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This is my love story, your love story, our love story. And this love story is written in the bible.

We do not deserve this love, but he gave it anyway. We didn't ask for his love, but he gave it anyway.

Are you willing to accept his love for you?

Do you want to experience this kind of love as well?

Would you like to have a relationship with God?

If you say yes to these questions, send me a message and I'll let you know how, in a way that my college friend showed to me as well. :)