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Never Yield to Despair!

Trust in God is one sure way to fight despair.

Here are certain promises that God has made which can give you a sure reason to hope when your heart is ready to worry in despair.

When people close to you forget you, forsake you or reject you!
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget I will not forget you”. “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me” —King David

When you are rejected by people you can trust in the One who came into this world which he himself created and was not recognized. He came to his own people but was rejected. You can approach him with confidence.

For Jesus Christ said, “whoever comes to me I will never drive away”. So when there is despair in your heart because of rejection especially from your loved ones, you have a refuge in Jesus. He will never fail your nor forsake you. So do not be discouraged.

When you lost opportunities in life and had wasted many years without any productive work!

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” is God’s promise to you for such a situation.

See, when locusts attack they come in battalions and even the sky is darkened because they fly together closely packed like a huge thick blanket. Nothing green remains in the area they have devoured. All is brown and barren when they leave.

So also it might have happened in your life. You might have made bad decisions, wrong choices, and engaged in projects doomed to fail. But God is able to redeem, restore, renew, revive and refresh your life. The only demand he makes is that you return to him with all your heart. Will you?

What if today you feel disheartened because you failed miserably yesterday!

It is interesting that the overwhelming impression about God that people have is of One who is ready to punish every sin, disobedience and mistake that we make. Of course, God is a Judge. And definitely there is a final judgement coming when all people in this world will be judged for the good or bad they did in their life.

But at the same time, God has given great importance to what we call Today. He gives multiple second chances for people to move in the right direction in life. “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

So if you are in a bed of despair, thinking that all is lost, why not stake your claim on God’s compassion toward you. They never fail. Moreover they are new every morning. God does not lie. He does what he says. He will still work a miracle in your life if you sincerely seek him with heartfelt tears and cries.

It doesn’t matter if nobody believes in you. God is still willing to invest in you.

Finally, what if all doors are closed! What if NO OPPORTUNITY exists!

God says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” Yes, God is capable to creating a new opportunity for you. It does not matter who or what forces are against you. “What is impossible with men is possible with God” – Jesus Christ.

So dear friend, there is a better tomorrow for you. Today is a day of God’s mercy extending to you. Like a river flowing, it floods your heart and drowns all your despair. So rise in the newness of God’s strength and unfailing love towards you. You will live to see your heart’s longings and desires come true.

May God do it for you!

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Quotations from the Bible are from the New International Version.
(Isaiah 49:15), (Psalm 27:10), (John 6:37), (Joel 2:25), (Lamentations 3:22, 23), (Isaiah 43:18, 19), (Luke 18:27)
Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

Open Up and Say “Yes” to Life!

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If You Have Failed Successfully!

He who has not failed has learned nothing at all in life. Poor is he who has always succeeded for he has never known the sweetness of victory.

It is when ashes are turned into beauty and mourning is turned into dancing; the true joy of victory comes. For real victory is bitterness transformed to sweetness by the sweat of one’s brow and tenacity of purpose. Then, every falling down becomes a lesson of discovery about oneself, one’s motivation and one’s commitment.

The real discovery of who you are comes when you confront failures. Do you give up then? Do you retreat into hiding? Do you put the blame on others? Or do you press forward? Know that it does not matter even if you do not win if you do the best you can.

This then is the criteria for judging your failures: Were you able to give your best? If you failed in spite of it, rejoice. For there is no point in comparing yourself with somebody else’s best. Because in a real sense both of you won. Only on a comparative scale your best was bettered by his best.

Going by this standard even your best victories can be termed failures if you were not able to give your best. To bring out the best you need tough challenges. So treat failures as your toughest competitors. Then you will be inspired to give your best. And then failures become success itself; each moment of struggle meshing the different parts of the process together into a meaningful whole. And it takes time. A different time for each person as each seed takes a different time to bloom.

But then the difficulty with failure lies in getting locked up in the past. So do not strive to have a romance with the ghosts of failures. Do not frame them up to cherish or treasure. Instead, gather them together and light a fire. Not a fire of anger, bitterness or self-pity; but a fire of passion to excel.

Again, the road to success seems rough and elusive at the same time because you would have defined success in terms of power, riches or fame. Though these are not wrong in themselves, an obsession with them leaves you poor. You may exercise great power but not have the devotion of your friends. You may have riches but be unable to savour the joy of holding a balloon in your hand while you take a stroll on the beach. You may have fame; but fame usually does not last longer than a soap bubble. And the tragedy is that when you have won in those terms; you have really achieved failure!

Therefore failures won’t hurt you that much if you define success in more meaningful ways. Understand success in terms of fulfilling the purpose for which you have been created. The eagle who flies high, the lion who stalks majestically, and the ant who gathers its food in summer are all examples of fulfillment of purpose. Isn’t it interesting to note that these creatures of instinct do not envy each other? They are content to play their role in life and play it well.

In this sense, failures can ultimately happen only to those who do not discover their purpose in life. As I read somewhere, the greatest tragedy in life is to stand at the end of it and see that it was wasted. It happens because one fails to discover one’s role in life. Without such a discovery aimless drifting becomes the norm. It not only leads to wasted resources and talents; but also wastage of time.

Therefore if you wish to succeed in life; marry time and fall in love with it. If you make time your best companion, it will help you succeed in life. Know that, only time spend brooding over failures is lost. Instead, be sure to streamline the best time available to forge ahead in the purpose you have identified in life. And let that purpose in life be good!

Finally, the best thing about failures is that it teaches humility. It teaches that sunshine and shadows, clouds and rain; all do have a purpose in making flowers bloom. It births a beauty; a loveliness and a fragrance that reverberates to the best in man. Thus the man who has failed and then wins, has a deep sense of sympathy towards fellowmen. He then becomes willing to lift up a man down in the ditch when he sees one; gift him with one of his best smiles and an encouraging word, and offer him the hope of sunrise beyond the lengthening shadows of lost time and opportunities!
Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
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“Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light” (Micah 7:8b/Bible).

Tips for Compering

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The Rain!

No one conveys emotions better than the rain.

Nothing else is so universal; yet so personal like the rain. There is a grandeur about the rain that has made it a compelling subject of great literature, art, movies, and music. Yet there is something that is so common about it that children love to play in the rain.

Nostalgia
Our hearts swell with joy when we think of childhood experiences of the rain. Nostalgic memories like a heavy downpour flood our emotions at that very thought. For no one misses the first wonder of the rain he felt as a child. Rain is so close to our hearts that “Mazha” (meaning rain in Malayalam) is one of the first words that we learn in childhood.

A child, as he watches the rain, soon learns that the cheeks of the clouded skies are but collected teardrops which pour down when too much to hold. So much like a child’s eyes that floods at a moment’s notice and rolls down. And clears when given a toy or a chocolate or a balloon!

Romance
Ah, then who has not felt the romance of the rain? The chilly winds, the slanting rain, the the murmur, the dark and gathering clouds, the lightning that strikes and the thunder-rolls; all have created magic like nothing else. In that respect rain has been a broad canvas on which rainbow colours of love have often been painted.

Though there are scenes in movies that show fights and also the sadness of partings while it is raining; its numbers pale in comparison with the theme of love and romance explored. For some reason that defies logic, the rain is a matter of the heart; like love is.

Therefore the absence of rain in nature as well as in human relationships creates anguish. For rain in spite of its occasional fury is a symbol of affection, care and compassion. It nourishes, refreshes, and leaves behind a sense of cleansing as it washes all the dust and debris away. No one can survive long without being an object of such tenderness in human life. Rain is therefore a symbol of hope and new beginnings in life.

Variety
Moreover, rain so perfectly mirrors our moods: the playful hide and seek of rain and sunshine (“kurukkende kalayanam” as we call it in Malayalam; meaning Fox’s Wedding), the thunderstorms and fiery lightning exposing our frightened thoughts and hiding places, the gentle rain that caresses the cheeks with its lovely dewdrops, the chillness that make us long for companionship; all are intertwined with our lives as well.

Or think of the variety of experiences rain gifts us with: a child rushes in to his home to make paper boats to float in the rushing water, another splashes into puddles of water that collects, still others make merry under the comfort of spread umbrellas or by wearing fancy raincoats, some others watch the rain from within a car with all windows up, while some find joy in walking alone in the rain and getting drenched to the skin! These are all experiences that are so much part of our life; aren’t they? It is also difficult to erase the memory of togetherness when someone had walked with a loved one in the rain!

What the Rain Said
Ah, it’s raining once again. And I think it is time to ask the Rain what message it has for us. As I ask I see its cheeks blush; but then with an openness rarely seen in today’s jealous world, the Rain spoke; hesitantly at first; but then in torrents:

“My love is like a pent-up flood that comes down to all in season. I do not ask whether you appreciate my coming or not. Yet I give of myself sacrificially and fully. I hold nothing back. It’s my hope and prayer that my arrivals bring you refreshing and my departures leave behind everything fresher and greener. And like blades of grass lift up their heads with dewdrops on them sparkling like diamonds to greet the sun emerging from behind the clouds, I am persuaded that you too will rise up from all defeats with renewed courage and resolve. I’ll be there to see you succeed, dear friend.”

The RainbowIMG_3316
So spoke the Rain. And thus spoke a prophet of long ago as words failed him when he saw the glory of God in a vision:

“Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.”

These are words of comfort; for God had promised that whenever he sees the rainbow appear in the clouds, he’ll remember us and show us mercy. Therefore let rain clouds gather; and let the rainbow appear!

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Biblical References: Ezekiel 1:28, Genesis 9:12-17.
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