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Here are my key takeaways and realizations:
1. I've always thought that to be God-fearing is good, but after reading the book which cited a lot of historical events in the Bible when Man greatly sinned, what God wants is for us to be close to Him. And so, if our fear of God results to being distant from him, that's not what God wants. Because even if we keep on committing sins, God never ceases to love us. God sent Christ - long before we were born - to save us from sin.
What I think we need to fear though is Hell. We were given intellect and free will - we will be held accountable for our sins. Thus, we should avoid sinning. But in times when we fail and still sin, we should be quick and sincere to ask forgiveness from God. God wants us to keep returning to Him (instead of fearing Him) - even if we fail multiple times.
2. We sometimes joke that when we do good, we earn points in heaven. But that's not how it works. Here are some excerpts from the book:
“Living a godly life isn’t about earning a place in heaven. It’s not about putting God in our debt because of the spirituality points we’ve racked up.“
"Salvation - membership in God's family - cannot be earned. It can only be received by faith (belief)."
3. God knows all our thoughts - even before we pray - so why do we even have to pray? Praying is a way we show God that we rely on Him alone. We believe He knows best. And He is Wise - God’s answers may not always be what we want and He sometimes answers in unexpected ways, but if you truly reflect by connecting the dots and looking in hindsight, His ways are always for a good reason. Important reminder - even when Christ prayed to God, He also didn't get the easiest solution (e.g. dying on the Cross) as He completely deferred to God's Will and completely put His trust in God - Thy will be done.
4. Our prayers need not always be self-focused. In the Bible, even in ancient times, a lot of prayers are aimed at blessing others or asking God’s mercy upon others.
5. Fasting means to abstain from something - it doesn’t have to be necessarily fasting from food. Fasting can be from anything or any activity that distracts us from praying or being with God e.g. phone, leisure activity. Fasting is a spiritual practice designed to help us focus on prayer. For example, if we’re fasting from food for spiritual reasons (not health reasons), when we’re hungry, we should be reminded to pray.
However, if fasting from food is practiced for health purposes (not spiritual reasons), we can fast from other pre-identified distractions. Fasting will force us to detach ourselves from worldly things, think about what really matters in life, carve out time for God and bring our minds back to God and pray.
6. Finally, what's the answer to the question - What does God want?
In the Bible, Man has turned away from God so many times - starting from Adam & Eve when they disobeyed God, the wickedness during Noah’s time, Tower of Babel … but every time, God never gave up on Man. What does God want? He wants us. He wants us to live like
Christ, to imitate Him.
1 Peter 2:20-23
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.
The thing is - the culture promoted
in modern times is to live life to gratify our own happiness. Live for
the "now". It's all about pleasure and self-gratification... and chasing after worldly life goals. We need to go back to God and what really matters.
1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or the
things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh
and the desires of the eyes and pride of life - is not from the Father
but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its
desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
What really matters? A life wherein we practice Christ's teachings. And hopefully by living Christ's teachings, we are able to inspire/influence people to also live good lives so we can bring more people closer to God.
This is very tough mission given all our sins and imperfections, but we have to remember too that we were created in the image of God and God is in us. It doesn't matter if we oftentimes fail and backslide because if we do, it doesn't surprise God as He knows all our weaknesses and shortcomings. What He wants is for us to keep on returning to Him when we sin.
And even if we find ourselves succumbing to the same sin (so guilty of this that my confession is like a template! 😭), we have to continue praying to Him and asking for His help. We should not allow fear or shame take over us or let the feeling of being unworthy to creep in - that's the work of the evil one. Even when we are in a state of sin, we should not stop praying to God - it is in fact when we need God the most. There are a lot of stories in the Bible where God forgave mercifully (whom by human standards may seem unforgivable) - among many, think about the Parable of the Prodigal Son, The Lost Sheep and in the Old Testament, the story of King David. King David committed adultery, arranged a murder, and was a lawbreaker, but he never wavered his belief in God nor worshipped any other one, and so God was merciful to him. There is no such thing as unforgivable in the eyes of God.
The most important thing is we should continue praying to God - at all times, no matter what - because God wants us. He wants us to be part of His Family. There is no excuse why we should be away from Him. God is ready to accept us and forgive us any time and every time.
