I am beginning to see how horrid people can get... and it is difficult to hold back when you feel like you are being attacked for no just cause.

Proverbs 19:11
"The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger,
and his glory is to overlook a transgression."

Slow to anger
over the years i have struggled hard with resisting the urge to justify myself when i am told that i have done wrong. but as the Lord teaches me i am learning... to let my first response always be prayer, followed by reflection and self-examination, of admission of the areas in which i have done wrong, and, as Proverbs 19:11 says, to be slow to anger.

Glory
this verse tells us that it is YOUR GLORY if you are able to overlook a transgression. this is by far the most difficult thing to ever understand. if someone does something against you, it would be most satisfying to retaliate and see that person suffer the due punishment for his or her misdeeds. but this verse encourages as to overlook transgressions, not retaliate in kind.

as i think about the Lord Jesus, He was the perfect example of One who overlooked millions of transgressions that were committed against him. and yet, He kept silent despite His oppression and affliction. He demonstrated such great love and grace in the face of those that hated Him without cause, persecuted Him endlessly, and finally condemned Him to death on the cross.

when i look at it from this point of view, it becomes easier to practise what is said in Colossians 4:6
"let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may be able to answer each one."

praying for much strength and grace... :)

it has been a wonderful week of ministry, learning and growth at youth conference 2009, "freed!".

"to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they might receive the forgiveness of their sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me." -Acts 26:18

the series of night messages based on this one single verse impacted my heart greatly. i took time to reflect on a couple of things:

1. am i spiritually blind?
2. am i walking in spiritual darkness?
3. how am i fighting the spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6), am i doing enough?
4. how should i ask the Lord for forgiveness?
5. how shall i go abt asking the Lord for sanctification and the wonderful inheritance He has promised?

Pastor also shared with us at morning devotions what it means to be an overcomer. just today, hours after breaking camp, i had a rather unpleasant exchange with person X. and as i reflected on my response to his/her accusations, the Lord convicted me of one thing - that even if i was right, even if i was justified in speaking out against the accusations she was spewing out at me, i am called to exercise patience, self-control and exude grace in the midst of this world. to walk as LIGHT in the midst of a dark world.

as i spent time in prayer and reading the Word, for the first time in my life, i found myself being driven to write a note of apology for my retaliation to person X. a complete stranger by my standards. i have no doubt that this grace i chose to extend is not of myself but is an extension of God's own grace, a holy intervention, possible only by the Holy Spirit's leading.

2 Corinthians 3:3-5 says

"clearly you are an epistle of Christ, administered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stones but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

and we have such trust through Christ toward God.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God."

when the Lord called me to be His, He called me to freedom. but this freedom from the influence of sin, self, satan and the world cannot be found without discipline in my walk with the Lord and the leading of the Spirit that convicts me of my sins.

this week i am immensely thankful for the lessons i have learnt.. i am also thankful for the lesson i learnt in the course of these past 2 hrs due to the above-mentioned unpleasant exchange with a neighbour. i have also begun to understand so much more the depths of God's forgiveness.

the Lord, the Rock of my Salvation. He stands by me in the tough times, He keeps watch over me in the good times.. truly, He is a great and wonderful God. :)