Comfortable- It’s an adjective meaning:

1. (of clothing, furniture, etc.) Producing or affording physical comfort, support, or ease: a comfortable chair; comfortable shoes.

2. Being in a state of physical or mental comfort; contented and undisturbed; at ease: to be comfortable in new shoes; I don't feel comfortable in the same room with her.

3. (of a person, situation, etc.) Producing mental comfort or ease; easy to accommodate oneself to or associate with: She's a comfortable person to be with.

4. More than adequate or sufficient: a comfortable salary.

We like to be in a comfortable state. Whether it is physical, mental or financial comfort when we are uncomfortable in any of these areas we don’t like it. We try to do what we can to gain that stability and optimum state again.

Everything in this world is uncertain but God is the only one that stay the same. Therefor His comforting hand never leaves us.

Psalm 23:1-4:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 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 your staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 119:50
My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.

2 Corinthians 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort

Let God be your comfort in the most uncertain of seasons.

-Sandra Iliev

Bogged down with fear or worry?

Does your day seem to go on forever and yet you wait for the dawn?

Does unbelief or discouragement wait at the door?

Does impossibility stand in your way?

Or you just feel alone?

Psalms 121

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip--

He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you--The Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

-Jo Voon-

C.S Lewis’ Screwtape Letters is a fictitious diary compiled by a mature demon (Screwtape) when he was teaching his young nephew, Wormwood to be a better demon.

Wormwood’s job is to keep the enemy which is newborn Christian or recent Christian convert from following Jesus wholeheartedly. Being the amateur he is, Woodworm keeps getting prodded by his uncle Screwtape on why Woodworm fails in most of his ‘assignments’.

 Screwtape’s letters points out Wormwood’s mistakes and one of them goes like this:

My dear Wormwood,

The following instruction shall help you proceed in handicapping your convert’s effectiveness in the enemy’s kingdom. One of our greatest allies is perception. It is your task, therefore, to feed the humans poor self esteem.

You must continue to encourage them to compare themselves with whoever they admire; this will eventually immobilize them. When they feel inadequate, they will no longer attempt anything for the Enemy’s kingdom because of the fear of failure. Their belief in their twisted self perception will lead them to unhealthy relationships and hinder their ability to love others.

Ultimately, their relationship with the Enemy Himself will be badly affected. They will be unsatisfied with how their Creator has created them and their intimacy with be destroyed. They will then find it difficult to trust their own Creator, pray to Him or read that detestable book!

Finally, make them focus on their weaknesses repeatedly that they begin to believe that they are indeed unimportant. If you successfully convince them that their Creator is never pleased with them, they will strive compulsively to please the Enemy through their own efforts and eventually grow weary and give up altogether. I have tried these methods so now it is time for you to master it. 

Your kind uncle,
Screwtape

James 1:16 - Don't be deceived, my dear brothers.

- Irene Soon

The thought of the day today came from the most unlikely source of all- my vacuum cleaner.
The trusty vacuum cleaner that I use is extremely heavy and as such, its design came with 2 "gears": the Neutral gear and the Turbo-charged gear. 

When vacuuming, the neutral gear makes every movement of the vacuum heavy and I need to exert much force in order to move the machine. Laborious as it might be, it feels justifiable and productive because I felt that the more effort I put into labouring, the cleaner the room would be.

However, thats just it. Its a feeling.  The moment I switch into the Turbo gear, the room gets vacuumed swiftly and effortlessly! Best part is, its just as clean if not cleaner!

This reminds me of how we are in Christ. In life, we often engage the Neutral gear and labor through life. We find it challenging to engage into the Turbo gear because that would be too easy and undeserving. We like to labor because it makes us feel in control. Yet, that is not the way God has designed us to be. 

We are designed to live life resting in Christ, through Christ. He is our Turbo gear.

Now, therefore Rest in Him, in all His promises.

Hebrews 4:11
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Elizabeth Tan

Unanswered yet, the prayer your lips have pleaded? In agony of heart these many years? Does faith begin to fail, is hope declining and those falling tears are all in vain?

Say not the Father has not heard your prayer. You shall have your answer, some time, some where.

Unanswered yet? Though when you first presented this one petition at the Father's throne? It seemed you could not wait the time of asking. So anxious was your heart to have it done. If years have passed since then, do not despair. For God will answer you some time, some where.

Unanswered yet? Do not say unanswered. Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done. The work began when your first prayer was uttered and God will finish what He has begun. Keep incense burning at the shrine of prayer and glory shall descend some time, some where.

Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered. Her feet are firmly planted on the Rock. Amid wildest storms she stands undaunted. Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock. She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer and she cries - "It shall be done, some time, some where."

James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

(F.G. Burroughs - "Mighty prevailing prayer")
-Irene Soon

As humans we can be stubborn. We like to control as much as possible. There isn’t anything wrong being ‘on top of things’ but sometimes our own timing can be a bit off in relation to God’s timing. We can get caught up in trying to control when we get married, have kids, get a new job, start or postpone studies, buy a house etc. We seem to superimpose our own timing onto something that already has a time attached to it.

Abraham attempted to do things in his own timing- instead of waiting for God to bless Him with a child with his wife Sarah; he conceives Ishmael of one of her servant. Ishmael went onto start the bloodline of those who came against God’s people. Things don’t seem to go quite right when we force the timing of it.

At the end of almost every day I reflect on the moments when He has pulled through just at the right time. There have also been times when I’ve wanted God to intervene in a situation and nothing happens. You get a bit annoyed and have a whine at first but as time passes you see the bigger plan, the bigger picture… the picture that God has been looking at all along.

God, being the God of the Universe… the one who created us… has gone ahead and already prepared and planned for us everything that we can ask or imagine. He knows us so intimately! As we seek relationship with the God who created us we can better understand the purpose behind His timing.

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.
Genesis 21:2

Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
Prov 19:21

-Sandra Iliev

In the Hebrew language, the word "heart" goes far beyond what is our standard English definition. It is not just a part of our body which pumps blood, or something which aches or gets broken when we are sad. In Hebrew, the heart is defined as the essence of a person or one's inner self. Out if the heart outflows a person's character, desires, emotions, conscience, thoughts, speech, etc.

Oftentimes, we try and fix our own, or someone else's outflow, we try not to think negative thoughts, swear, or criticize, or rid our bad habits or control our appetites, without realizing we're trying to fix the symptoms but not the cause!

The wisest man who ever lived, gave us his advise: Guard, watch over, protect your heart! Why? Because Christ wants to make His home and live in our hearts that our hearts overflow with rivers of living water!

Proverbs 4:18, 23 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day...Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

John 7:38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

-Jo Voon-

If there is any constant in life, someone said, it'll be changes. The person who said that isn't wrong, but for us Christians we have one other constant far more powerful than changes in life: we have Christ. God's words never return to Him void. He is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. He who is, was, and is to come will never change. 

Often times, we get scared out of mind when things go drastically out of our control. Five-year plan goes awry, job security becomes threatened, decisions has to be made, closed one in need of help.... and the list goes on. Its understandable that we tend to panic when we perceive ourself as losing control  because not knowing the future brings us unwanted anxiety which sends our thoughts (not necessarily good ones) racing.    

If thats you, I come bearing good news! God numbers even the very hairs of your head (Matthew 10:30) and has charged you with not a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). He assures you that you do not need to worry (Matthew 6: 25-37) because He knows of the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

Relinquish your need for control over to Him, for He knows all things.  

Jeremiah 29:11(NIV)
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Elizabeth Tan

The symptoms might go like these: constantly tired, doubtful heart, unexplainable sadness and tearful nights. Sometimes, you’ll even pray and feel that there is no physical strength left to just lift up your hands in prayer.

The solution to all that? It is just one word and I actually sneered at the answer. I just thought it takes more than that since my pride says there must be some other things I have not tried. There must be something that I have missed out on doing. Fortunately, I’m wrong.

The answer is Praise. Some people see praise as merely singing hymns and clapping hands at church. Some see it as singing loud songs but the truth is, praise is an act of obedience. It is an act where you come to God and you say you bless and honor His Name. It is you displaying a complete trust, choosing to believe that whatever God is doing in your life, He is doing it for your good and the people around you.

So whether it is just words of thanksgiving or singing a song, praise is an attitude of obedience. Weary and desperate for a breakthrough? Praise God and yield on His faithfulness; He is the only one who could give you your breakthrough.

Psalm 95:6-7
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

- Irene Soon

I have a friend who went on holiday and upon catching up with her to chat about what she got up to. I learnt that she had a great time with friends and family but spiritually, she became distant from God. She was under the misconception that God had left her because she didn’t make the best decisions and on top of that, faced persecution because of her faith. She had had begun to believe it. She felt defeated and alone.

At different times we may find ourselves sucked into the same lie. We may think that when we sin, it creates separation between us and Christ. Wrong.

A commentary I read on Romans 8:35-39 de-mistifies this beautifully:

"To begin with, God does not shelter us from the difficulties of life because we need them for our spiritual growth (Rom 5:3-5). In Rom 8:28 God assures us that the difficulties of life are working for us and not against us. God permits trials to come that we might use them for our good and His glory. We endure trials for His sake (Rom 8:36), and since we do, do you think that He will desert us? Of course not! Instead, He is closer to us when we go through the difficulties of life.

We are "more than conquerors," literally, "we are super-conquerors" through Jesus Christ! He gives us victory and more victory! We need not fear life or death, things present or things to come, because Jesus Christ loves us and gives us the victory. This is not a promise with conditions attached: "If you do this, God will do that." This security in Christ is an established fact, and we claim it for ourselves because we are in Christ Nothing can separate you from His love! Believe it - and rejoice in it!"

Romans 8:35-39
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(From The Bible Exposition Commentary. Copyright © 1989 by Chariot Victor Publishing, and imprint of Cook Communication Ministries. All rights reserved.)

-Sandra Iliev