“But do not forget this one
thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a
thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his
promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter
3:8-9)
There is a famous quote about Christianity. I can’t remember it,
exactly, but it is something like ‘If you believe in Jesus or if you surrender
your heart to Jesus, life will be easy-peasy!’ If we hear this quote and know
that God takes care of us, we probably want to surrender our hearts to Jesus. However,
if something bad or unfortunate circumstances happen, we slip back into our old
lives as being non-believer. Therefore, we put Christianity on the test as it
depends on feelings. Yes, Christianity is doing life with God, which means that
He takes very great care of us (Deuteronomy
31:8). But that doesn’t mean that life would be piece of cake (Matthew
7:13-14). Why then surrender hearts to Jesus? It is because our lives are
going to be simpler than ever before. We may not notice this right away but as
time goes by, we begin to realise that it is true, especially if we have
started to consider Jesus as our friend (John
15:9-17) and the Spirit of God as our comforter (John
16:7-15). We are able to talk to Him anytime and He talks to us through the
Bible as it contains His Word. Douglas Harink states, “We live in the fullness
of time of God’s gracious patience—a time given to us in which to repent.”
Although having burden in life basically means living a hard life,
satisfaction can be burden as well because we have to keep find things that can
completely satisfy us. We may get headaches from finding a satisfaction. I know
this as I experienced this any times. However, if we find one in Jesus, it becomes
a true and eternal one. This is probably because Jesus Christ is the Eternally
Spiritual Being (John
7:37-39) and we are created to be in relationship with God through faith in
Jesus (Ephesians
1:3-14). Harink says that everybody needs to be woken up to true living in
Jesus Christ. I think I have been in need in waking myself up, especially finding
satisfaction in Jesus. My struggle is that I have selfishness, deeply rooted
within me. I believe I’m not addicted to television but when I become so bored,
I eventually watch T.V. Watching television is not bad but if I am bored, I can’t
go to Jesus, which is the source of eternal satisfaction. This is what I have
to work with.
Meditate on 1
John 1:5-2:2 and ask yourself two questions: ‘Is there anything I need to
be repenting about before God?’ ‘What am I lacking as a devout Christian?’
