Tag: control

Can you be care-free but yet careful?

by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Uncategorized

It’s been a few days now where I am without a phone and it’s tough.
It’s also quite scary to think how reliant I am on my phone.
Being on your phone takes away loads of your time and to put it simply,
it’s just not good for you. I could write a whole blog post just about
why you shouldn’t be on your phone for too long but there is sufficient material
over the web so I’m good with just skipping that part.

The part I’m going to go over is actually how I broke my phone
and why it is totally my fault.

Something that I read a while back from the Bible says:
‘ The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.’ – Proverbs 16:33.

If you are a bit clueless of what lots here let me explain:
So lots have been used for a very long time, since biblical times.
It can be literally a bunch of rocks with each item representing an outcome.
The primary reason for casting lots was to render an impartial, unbiased decision on important matters. The ancient practice of casting lots would be the same as throwing dice or flipping a coin we commonly use today. In ancient times, they used varying means to cast lots, depending on the place and local customs, such as coins, polished sticks, cards, dice, and so on. The interesting thing about lots are that a wide variety of people use lots,
it’s not as if only one culture uses it but it seems a lot of us
use it, back then and now.

You might remember the story with Jonah where he was on a boat with a few fisherman who did not believe in God. When Jonah got onto the boat the sea changed from peaceful to a giant storm. The men were doing everything they could just to hang on. One of them decided to cast lots to see who the culprit was. When they casted the lots they discovered it was in fact Jonah. This was true, seeing that Jonah was intended to go to Nineveh but didn’t listen Jonah was being directed to Nineveh but Jonah’s plan was to go into the opposite direction.

So if we look at the men who casted lots: They don’t believe in God but their lots
still showed that Jonah was causing them grief. So was it just by chance? Or is there some other sort of spirit in play determining the outcome of lots?

No, I don’t think so. I believe that it was God who showed the men that it was Jonah through the lots, even though they don’t believe in God.

This goes back to the verse that even though we can plan our future, ultimately God will determine the outcome.

This revolutionized the way I think about life. It was a mind-blowing statement for me because the way I now see things is totally different. the reason why I say this is because what if every decision in anything is up to God? What if God decides who wins the toss of a cricket match between 8 year olds? Well there is one thing for sure: He does have the power to.

You might be thinking then, ‘Well if everything is up to God then anything I do will have no meaning.’

I had a similar mentality, believing that if God is for me then I shouldn’t have to worry because God will get me out of any difficult situation. And that is true, but what I realised is you will face the consequences from a bad decision.

I started to live a care-free life. Enjoying what life throws at me. But things started to go wrong. That’s okay though right? God will get me through. I started to break things at work and at clients homes, but every time I told myself it is going to be okay. I did start to worry when I actually got warned that I need to get my act straight or I might get a written warning. That was really intense
but for some reason I brushed over it and I eventually paid the price.

After a day at the beach I was walking home with a few things in my hand, one of them being my phone. Moments later my phone falls, my first instinct was that it’s okay, I mean I have dropped my phone countless times and each time it was fine. Also it landed on my cover so no worries. But then I thought to myself
that the sound it made when hitting the ground was ridiculously loud. When I picked it up I started to worry, Usually I don’t even check to see if it’s broken but this time I checked and it didn’t look good. The screen would barely light up and as time went the screen became more and more obsolete.

Then it became real to me. I was so confused as to why everything was going wrong in my life.
I started to think of all the times it happened, am I cursed now?
I was not(thankfully). Looking back at each incident I was not careful enough, doing silly things. Each time God could have saved me from breaking each thing, but then I wouldn’t have learned.

I was living a care-free life, but I wasn’t careful.

I have now finally learned my lesson. It doesn’t mean I won’t break anything anymore, because unfortunately things happen which we do not have control over. But I will be more careful.

I hope that you are careful in what you do. Take risks because most of us don’t think that you could reap great rewards, but it also means you could lose greatly. But that is the gamble when it comes to taking
risks, but eventually you will get rather good at it and surely reap a great reward.

God’s plan for you is so much greater than any plan you could ever think of

by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Uncategorized

Sitting down and planning out your life can be tiresome. You plan your journey on how to get to your ideal destination.

Will you make it though? Will you even come close? Or better yet, if it’s a 10 year plan and half way through do you realise I don’t even want to be there anymore?

That’s the thing about life. You wish you could hit back but trying to break the system is like trying to attack your shadow, it takes a lot of your energy and in the end you probably regret even trying.

Life gives you curveballs. You fall short on occasions and there isn’t a single thing you can do about it.

I believe there is a solution however. There is one who knows your future, one who created you in your mother’s womb and who knew you before you were even conceived.

Here comes a clichè bible verse~ Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

I thought I had life figured out. I thought I had control over it but in the end you only really have control over your decisions (you don’t even have control over your stomach, i mean if you gotta go you gotta go). I always wanted to be in control, in everything. But a wild turn in my life caused me to think differently.

This wild turn was a decision. A decision to take my pride and instead of doing what’s best for me (or so I thought) I decided to listen to what God was saying. It was a yes/no decision or rather a stay/go one; but the impact it had was so much more than a simple question.

From that day on my sense of controlling began to lessen. Today there’s a very good chance that someone will ask me to do something crazy and I won’t even think about the possible ramifications, i’ll just do it ,Nike style. Ok yes, I do think about my decisions but it’s those little ones that we tend to instantly reject instead of just going with it and having a fun time. For some reason we tend to say no so often without thinking about it, we need to say yes way more often. I can honestly say though the frightening things I’ve done has been liberating and it also brought me to a place of excitement and joy, taking away the fear I once had for things.

So my conclusion is this: Yes, it is important to have goals because they challenge you to strive for better. But planning your life is going to give you a headache pretty soon. But don’t worry because God’s plan for your life is so much greater than your own. It is greater than your wildest dreams. I had a plan for what my year would look like and looking what it truly is I couldn’t have asked for a better year. It has come with a lot more hardships but the way it has stretched me has been so incredibly significant.

But I got there out of a place of obedience. I did have a plan for my year but my final decision came from the Lord’s guidance. Spend lots of time with Him and He will reveal to you what you need. It probably won’t be everything that you would want to hear but you will know the most important things. Then the rest He probably wants you to figure out or is waiting for the perfect time to tell you.

So be happy with what God has shown you, but be in pursuit for more. Perhaps He has more to tell but He is waiting for you to show up at His feet more often than you normally do. Sink deeper into His presence, His word, His love and His grace.

Sometimes all you need to do is take a leap of faith and trust that His decision is what’s best for your life and I’m sure you will live out the best life you could ever expect.