the seemingly endless horizon

Hmm, so i guess within each one of us, God has placed within us the desire for productivity, and with that, the longing for maturity. Maturity can come through many ways, some through trials and tribulations, some through encounters with God, but nonetheless, they are all through the Holy Spirit.

Not all of us have to go through heartaches to grow in maturity in God, but sadly, some of us just have to. The feeling? Horrendous, i must say. It seems like all the lactic acid is building up to the max in our muscles and at any moment, giving up seems to be the more logical thing to do than to hang on and let your muscles feel strained and fatigue. That's why some choose to throw in the towel and leave, away, away from Him forever. While others choose not to darken their spiritual eyes and vision but with the light of God, see the possible future of themselves happy and moved on to do greater things for God. Being in love feels great, having someone to spend your time with, to depend and lean on, to share your life with. Yet when we fall out of love, many of us wished we've never been in love. Like what meitong mentioned yesterday, this wouldn't even have happened if we had guarded our hearts in the first place. hmm, wrong timing wrong person i guess. I was too young both in age and in the spirit to rationally consider the consequences. I guess it's the same for her as well. The point to note here is not the mistakes we've made, but the aftermath of them, that is, growing in greater dependency on the Holy Spirit and be more sensitive to Him. That is how maturity will begin to develop. On the lighter note, with less burdens, we've got more time to serve God and greater freedom to the various things in life. What more could we ask? With that, everything else can wait. Men can wait.

For each and every one of us, we want to have friends, we want to be loved. But this desire cannot be satisfied at the expense of our dignity and moral values. As Christians, we've got to be firm in what the Word of God says, the Bible is the standard that our lives should be matched to. How we know if we've been a good servant or disciple, is when we check our lives against the Word of God. Never, ever, compromise your moral values or the standards of God according to the beliefs of man just so that you can enjoy the pleasures of sinful fellowships. In all that we do and the circumstances we face, we need to ask ourselves how would Jesus react or what would He do if He was in the same situation as us. Always be open to the Holy Spirit about the relationships that we have in our lives, so that we do not make ungodly friendships.

The life to maturity is never easy. There will be trials and testings. The Bible says that "when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." (James 1:2-4). So the word is to ENDURE. Always remember that pain is temporal, but the joy of the Lord is eternal.

In closing,

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
1 Peter 1:6-7

Stephie.