I was quite sleepy from lack of sleep. And this morning spent some times to talk with God about all the things that bother me. So in the afternoon I went down to swim as I brought the costume already.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As I was swimming, first I was troubled with all the evil things which are happenings in the world. There were some sadness and anger within. I believe God would feel the same too. After all, he created this perfect and beautiful world, but we chose to destroy his creation with everything bad we did.<\/p>\n
But sadness and anger won’t be a strong enough force I feel. There is another thought which is the heroes of faith. How they lived their lives in the evil days and times of their lives. There’s a strong conviction that drove them to do what they did.<\/p>\n
And suddenly, I remember about Hebrews 12:1, that says Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.<\/p>\n
I thought, that’s probably the highest motivation to persevere in this broken and fallen and ugly and sinful world, without feeling down, intimidated, or hopeless. The urge is to look unto Jesus. And Jesus points us to the joy set before him, which i believe is the joy of God. The joy of pleasing God or making God pleased. The joy of seeing that God is pleased or happy.<\/p>\n
And i remember the painting of the father in the prodigal son story. The portrait somehow always evoke me. To see the laughter of that Father…<\/p>\n
And it answers or fits into Psalm 27. The Psalmist begins with his assurance in God’s protection in the midst of his presence danger and enemies. And later he utters his request and life long desire as to seek the beauty of the Lord.<\/p>\n
So, my point is the antidote for living in this world, hearing all the depressing news on how people live lives apart from God…is to focus on God. To please him and imagine his smiling face. The joy of bringing that laugh in his face and his promise to be with us as we abide in him.<\/p>\n
May he turns our mourning into dancing. Our tears into singing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was quite sleepy from lack of sleep. And this morning spent some times to talk with God about all the things that bother me. 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It is a difficult question. I only have some clues that 'Yes', God is happy \/ delight in us,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Assured"","block_context":{"text":"Assured","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/emotion\/assured\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1945,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/lessons-from-gods-word-psalm\/","url_meta":{"origin":1424,"position":1},"title":"Lessons from God’s Word (Psalm)","author":"clay","date":"July 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The last one week, I've been meditating on Psalm 106, and am very surprised with the so many lessons that I learnt. Below some of the lessons that I could remember: When our ancestors were in Egypt, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Convicted"","block_context":{"text":"Convicted","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/emotion\/convicted\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":877,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/turns-35\/","url_meta":{"origin":1424,"position":2},"title":"Turns 35!","author":"clay","date":"November 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Seventy years are given us! And some may even live to eighty. But even the best of these years are often empty and filled with pain; soon they disappear, and we are gone. \u00a0~ Psalm 90:10 So i have reached the halfway there :) And the following things came to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "1 Corinthians"","block_context":{"text":"1 Corinthians","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/bible\/1-corinthians\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":815,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/victory-over-fear\/","url_meta":{"origin":1424,"position":3},"title":"Victory over Fear","author":"clay","date":"July 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Last nite we read Psalm 23 for our family devotion. Particularly in the current situation of ongoing battle of LGBT issues, the word is relevant: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Encouraged"","block_context":{"text":"Encouraged","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/emotion\/encouraged\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1720,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/power-limit\/","url_meta":{"origin":1424,"position":4},"title":"Power & Limit","author":"clay","date":"October 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us ~ Mark 9:22 It has been lately in my mind and the devotion from Oswald Chambers today seems very apt. A lot of time I have struggle with my weaknesses and limitations. I want to do a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/virtues\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1355,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/discipline-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":1424,"position":5},"title":"Discipline (1)","author":"clay","date":"December 16, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Really glad to find out from Hebrews, that discipline doesn't bring joy in the beginning, but sorrow instead it will be quite funny to find a pleasant discipline... but yah, i really need to be disciplined so till end this year ... the hard work ... persevere and work hard","rel":"","context":"In "Hebrews"","block_context":{"text":"Hebrews","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/bible\/hebrews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}