jonathanbridge1407

Remaining Faithful

October 12, 2019October 12, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Uncategorized

Your faith is only as strong as your last battle you overcame.

I submit to you, oh Lord. All of my ways. Whatever comes will come. Whatever cards I have won’t matter as long as I have you. As long as you are there to help me. I can’t do this alone. Everything I have achieved to this day was due to your goodness. Your love, Your grace.

These were the words I proclaimed last night. We were gathered at church for students that had a worship evening prepared for us. Even though they can be seen as young and inexperienced the Lord spoke that night and His Spirit flowed.

Though I felt overwhelmed with countless things, feeling like a constant failure at life at who I am and what I do I realised what was most important: My relationship with God. It’s impossible to please everyone and impossible to be perfect. We are all sinful. Everyone at some point in our lives will let us down.

But not God.

Not our Father, who is perfect. Ever-present. We can only serve God or man, but not both.

No man can serve two masters: for either he. will hate the one, and love the other; or else. he will hold to the one, and despise the other, Ye cannot serve God and mammon. – Matthew 6:24

Going back to my very first statement. We all face challenges. Sometimes they become so tough they become battles. You end up going through a process that brings you either closer to God or further away. Right now I feel at breaking point but that’s where the faith comes in. Where it truly gets tested. If I succeed in maintaining belief that this too shall pass my faith will grow.

I’m not saying that we should sit back and have hope all will end well. We need to give our side as well; but we are not alone. He can guide us through it all. Give us the wisdom to go through. He is the perfect counselor.

If you have a huge task that lies before you the first thing you need to do is have hope and pray, then the answer will come. Sometimes very quickly, other times maybe not so much, but the faith that it will all work out in the end.

Blessings to all.

Who to spend your time with

September 30, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Advice

You Are The Average Of The Five People You Spend The Most Time With.

I’m sure you have heard that saying before at least a few times.

Because it’s so true!

Your friends have a huge impact on your mindset. Imagine how inspired you would be if you were friends with Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and whoever inspiring person you could think of. There wouldn’t be a night where you wouldn’t be thinking about your future and what greatness lies ahead for you. You would be willing to take a huge leap of faith. You would do exactly what you love because your friends are doing it. They’re supporting you every step of the way.

But if your friends were not the greatest? What if they saw the world as a dark place and it’s a fight for the fittest and if you get scraps that’s fine? It’s going to affect you negatively. Your vision of life would probably also not be so great.

That’s why it is important to have positive friends.

I got to know someone through this year and we became friends but one thing I noticed about him was his negativity about life. All he would speak about would be the things that irritate him. This beautiful place that I call home was perceived dark, depressing and a place to be broken.

The friendship actually got to a point where I would start to think negatively about things that he saw as negative. It eventually came to a point that I snapped at my colleague at work because I started to see the things that irritate people instead of the things that makes him stand out and that makes him a really nice person.

Fortunately I realised what was happening before it became a problem. It made me realise the importance of who we spend our time with. It doesn’t mean I should unfriend that person; but rather speak life to him and the goodness that I can see in other people and over the places we see instead of listening to negativity.

Sorround yourself with people you admire.

But don’t let that saying constrain you. You can be the difference in your friendship group. The fresh apple in the basket (which is a stupid thing to say because the rotten apples will stay rotten, or get worse, but anyways). But what I can say is that it wouldn’t hurt to have aspiring friends.

Every good dream begins with a dreamer.

Promises from God

September 18, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Advice

Don’t you ever get a word from someone that things are going to get better? Or that the harvest is near? We always hear from others how things will get better as long as we trust God and spend time with Him, but what does He promise in the Word?

But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:33.

Now in this verse it may seem that everything we need and want will be ours but it is in fact not true. He only promises food for our bellies and clothing on our bodies.

That’s it!

In the passage God is telling us not to worry for food and clothing for that will be given to us. But that is it. No other mention of anything else.

Don’t let your trust in God be that you will be blessed, because that will become your idol.

I have been a victim of this too. Trusting for something rather than being content with what I have. It is just crazy how focused we can become on something that hasn’t happened yet and will not give us fruit. If it has been promised then so be it, Your life does not need to revolve around it.

It’s a gift to be happy when you have nothing.

What we forget to realise is that we have everything regardless of what is in our homes and bank accounts. The culture we live in today says we must strive for more, always searching to receive and never actually give. It isn’t wrong to want more but one must be careful of what they want because it can rule over them rather than be a goal to look forward to.

If we are humble with the little we have then surely the same will be with the overflow of things we will possess. However, when we become greedy with the little you can surely bet we will be greedy with the abundance of things.

Sometimes we need to be humbled before we can receive what is truly installed for us.

It is always important to be happy with what you have, but also in pursuit for more. If you have a filled stomach and warm clothing tonight then you are richer than 821 million people in our world.

Breaking boundaries

September 15, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Uncategorized

We did it!

Our first excursion that my friend and I planned went according to plan.

If you read my blog “Finding the one” written about 2 weeks ago you might remember me saying one needs to challenge oneself in order to grow. I have just done that and I am going to share just a little bit of what we did.

Now this first excursion the two of us had was not in any way daunting nor for one second did we get anxious. It was rather just to get the ball rolling so to speak.

The first idea we had was to go hiking at a mountain called Lady Slipper. Sounds scary right? Probably not. The thing that made it interesting was that we were planning to do it at night. That plan then become challenging for multiple reasons so we decided to make it a simpler hike.

There is a place close to where my friend stays that is situated at the very top of our town and it had a water tower so the view would most likely be breathtaking.

We decide to go for it just before sunrise. It was a very pleasant evening with the occasional breeze.

We didn’t know if it was safe to go. We weren’t even sure how to get there and of course we didn’t know if we were allowed to go. But who cares…

Long story short we made it to the tower and we got to see the sun set leaving a beautiful array of colours over the horizon.

We did actually see a few people drive past us but strangely enough we were unnoticed. I know now we probably shouldn’t go in the person’;s property but for a view like this I’ll be willing to do it again.

Is money ruling your life?

September 4, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Uncategorized

That is honestly quite a difficult question. And I guess in some ways if you have money or at least want it then to a certain extent it is ruling your life.

The question arose a while back but I wanted to think about it myself for a while and maybe get some facts together and make a good blog post. Unfortunately I haven’t really made an effort so I guess while making this post I’ll do some investigation.

I was talking to a colleague of mine while we were working together that day and we started to talk a little bit about giving and how exactly you “should give” (Guess I can make a post about that too). He eventually stated that right now money doesn’t rule his life even though he is not a multimillionaire, in fact, he was not so well off. But he is making it.

Now whether or not that is actually true doesn’t matter. But I could honestly not say the same without a wavering doubt. I don’t even have major expenses, no sicknesses, no one that relies on my monthly income; yet I still worry about where my money goes.

And as someone who believes that God can make miracles happen I still hold onto the little that I have and have misplaced faith that He can’t give me so much more.

One thing that I can say is that money is not ruling my life, but there is not a day that goes by that I do not think about it. What has helped me though to not freak about where my money goes is budgeting. I make my own income and expenses list and over the months I have altered it to my desires. It does help when you go shopping or eat at a restaurant because then you know more or less what you can afford. Budgeting has also helped me to spend it wisely and I am now able to invest, save money for future adventures and even have some left over to store in case something goes wrong.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” – Matthew 6:21. It is impossible to serve God and mammon, meaning material wealth associated with greedy pursuit. Some believe one can have both, the money on earth and God in heaven but that is not the case. Do not exhaust yourself going for the wrong things because in the end it will not be worth the time and effort.

Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don’t want..to impress people that they don’t like. –Will Rogers

Finding “The One”

September 1, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Uncategorized

Being in love with someone means that you feel your life is complete. Whatever could happen in the future whether it is positive or negative will not affect your joy you find in that person. When you find ‘the one’ you feel complete. You feel the desire to always make them happy and if you could do something that would bring them joy you would do it.

But what if you haven’t found the one yet? What if you just haven’t met that person yet?

There was a time where I thought I found ‘the one’. She is one of the most amazing people I have ever met and she had certain qualities that you don’t normally find in people. The most incredible thing about her was that she was such an inspiring person. And that was what drew me to her.

She wasn’t ‘the one’ though.

There was nothing wrong with her I just eventually discovered that she was not the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.

So I’m back at square one. 7 billion people approximately in this world. Let’s say 3.5 is woman. So I can cross of 1 name. Great progress!

So what’s the next step? How can I find her?

After months of trying to figure it out I came to a conclusion that will probably not satisfy you but I feel content at this point of time.

There are tons of people that I could be with but I want the perfect match. You can make any marriage work but why struggle now to make it work in 5 years or rather wait for the perfect one and deal with the things that will affect the relationship before you go into the relationship and for her to do the same?

There is also something else I would like to address. Something that I have recently discovered. Rather tiring yourself out looking for someone that inspires you, why not become the inspirational person you would like to meet?

To do that you evidently need to start doing crazy things. Things that excite you but also freak you out. Things that you will never forget. It doesn’t need to be something you aren’t ready for yet but something that will scare you at least on some level. Then one day that thing you thought you never could will be something you will laugh at because it is such an easy feat.

So start daring yourself. Do crazy things. If you’ve got bad memory then just do unforgettable things.

What crazy things have you done and what are the things you are planning to do?

I am also not a hypocrite so I will also be doing things that entice me and of course bring those stories to light.

They say you are the product of the people you spend your time with. I’m sure it will be the same with the person you love. So once you become an inspiration to others you may find ‘the one’.

The Good, the Bad and the Smelly

August 21, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Story

There is something most people don’t actually know about me that is rather peculiar. That is my sense of smell. Since as long as I can remember my smell has been non-existent. I could not smell the most obvious things which in a way was rather lucky for my family has a reputation for emitting the most horrendous odours at any given time, myself included. It never really had an impact on me and there weren’t many times where I wish I could smell like a ‘normal person’.

This past week however, was a big change in my life. I honestly felt different on that day. My work took me to the mountains on that specific day (which was the first time ever actually) and my colleague asked me if I could smell the scent of the untouched nature. Now usually I take a deep breath and act in bewilderment and say something like: “Hmm, smells great” but when I took that breath I could
honestly smell the fresh air that the mountain was giving. It made the hike even more special to witness another aspect contributing to the beauty of what I was experiencing in that part of the world.

What made it even better was that I was able to smell other things over the week such as diesel, pancakes and some not so nice scents. Even now I can smell certain things that are around me that I never could.

Through this brand new experience I have learned a couple new things.

Before I was shielded from smelling anything nasty or peculiar but that also meant I would not be able to smell things that were beautiful and fresh. So to be able to smell a rose or an enticing meal of food I head to brace the fact that I might also smell someones gas or a dirty room.

And that was the choice Adam and Eve basically chose, to give up the perfect place just to be able to know what is wrong as well as what is right, to be able to see the evil as well as the good.

Being able to know the difference makes you appreciate the times where you see the most amazing things.

You will only be able to know what true love is if you have experienced the opposite (which doesn’t mean you need to find someone to break your heart, just learn from other people). You will only know how to treat others when you have experienced it on both levels.

And that is just life. I am so glad now that I have the ability to smell things regardless of whether it is a good odour or not because it is that extra beauty one can find. Our life is so intricate that there are multiple ways to appreciate life and sometimes the scent of nature is all you need to shift your emotions.

As Jon Foreman says:”The shadow proves the sunshine”, meaning that even in dark places and dark times, positive things are happening in the world.