When approached to share about A-Psalm-A-Day, I was quite reluctant initially because of the amount of things I knew I had to complete piling up. And, even though I have been faithfully reading a psalm a day, I know something wasn’t really right about the way I did it. As the Lord revealed later on to me, this was because, instead of coming before God each morning, and saying “God, I want to learn something from you through this”, I often rushed through the psalm for that day, eager to finish so I could get my day started.
Even though this is the Year of Sabbath, it has been a year in which I have to learn to cope with many things, especially in school. But yet, it is not about my studies.
In my first semester last year at University, I joined my school’s Business Faculty Club as the director of Corporate and Alumni Relations. This was what I asked the Lord for, and by God’s favour, He granted it.
A month into the New Year however, these past two weeks grew increasingly harder because of an upcoming event we had to organise. Because of the event, I have to work with the Business School alumni and I felt they often put me down critically. This was a first for me because previously, my teachers and mentors have always been the ones affirming me of my abilities and talents. God used this incident to break my heart and all my pride. Through this process, I finally understood what the phase “the end of man is often the beginning of God” meant. Last Saturday, after having to cope with serving in Young Arrows, volunteering with a Youth Congress project and my Alumni school event, I felt I had reached the end of myself.
Overwhelmed, I cried out to God… God highlighted to me Psalms 20, a word that he had released to me prior to this incident. It was during service 2 weeks ago, that I asked the LORD if he remembered me. And Pastor Eugene released a word saying “God remembers your sacrifices and burnt offerings”. At that time, I didn’t know that it was a verse for me and so I did not take much notice of it.
On that very same day, one of my friends blessed me with this same verse from Psalm 20,
“May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. “
Through the entire pride breaking incident (distress), the LORD has still protected me and indeed “saves his anointed”. God has blessed me with a committee made up of a group of selfless and endearing people, who often encourage me through this difficult season. Also, he reminded me once again, that even as He blessed me to be a Marketplace Minister in school, He will remember all my sacrifices and make my plans succeed.
He also reminded me that I have to consciously depend on His strength, and not on my own strength, which is why I was really running on ‘low fuel’ over the past 3 weeks or so. Even as I decide to commit my event to the LORD, I had a prayer meeting in school just praying for the event, and proclaiming that Jesus is the event organiser and not me.
I thank God so much for his grace and mercy through this learning journey. Indeed, the joy of the LORD shall be my strength. May He be yours too!
Jia Li.
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