Click Refresh When You Fall From Grace and Slip into Temptations.

This post has been few weeks overdue. It was birthed from an encounter with a friend of mine who is a loyal servant of God (Devout Christian), also a fellow student at the University of the South Pacific. He is a friend of my high school Best friend whom I consider a brother of mine, so he has become a good friend of mine too. Along with my best friend from high school, both of them continuously show great interest in my spiritual health and relationship with God and constantly invite me to attend a Christian Fellowship session which takes place every Thursday in a lecture theater and so far I have attended 2 sessions which I have enjoyed so much.

When I met him that day he was just on his way to post up posters about a Christian Fellowship event around campus and so he asked me to accompany him and help him with sticking up those posters. As an Economics student I had to have some kind of incentive in return for taking out my time and energy to help him. Being a close friend I was comfortable enough to make some kind of bargain with him and I found this as a perfect opportunity for me to have him help me out with my blog layout especially since his major lies in the field of Computing Science. I pitched him the idea and he gladly agreed and again he directed the opportunity towards doing something for God. It became something like a perfect alignment of agendas when he suggested that I should write a piece on 'Fighting Temptations' because it has been part of my new years resolution and it is also currently a Work-In-Progress. So I was very much delighted to offer my take on the subject of Temptations and the struggle to overcome it as I struggle against some of my weaknesses which is just as addictive as alcohol addiction and drug addiction. There are a lot of things out there which can be just as addictive and the struggle to fight all of them is similar and Real (with a Capital R!!).

When I was young my parents and my bible teachers gave me an outline of what immoral acts were so I know very well what I should and shouldn't be doing. Trust me I loved studying the bible and going to church when I was younger. Once my mother was preaching to me the promise of the after life and how some responsibilities involved in order for us to live in the after life. I was so excited that day and I told my mother that I will be a good kid from then on-wards and I will obey them (mum and dad) all the time because that was one of the biggest prerequisites to make it to Paradise (afterlife); to obey your parents  at all times. But then I grew up and started to test everything around me. I became curious of what the alternative to being a good kid would be. That led to a troubled and dramatic teenage years marked by bad associations, developing of bad habits, loss of good habits and bad decisions. That dark time in my life involved a lot of stress, worry, headache and tears for me, my parents and other concerned parties involved. It was just bad like very bad. But then God has always been ready to answer my prayers and he miraculously pulled me out of that dark hole that was dragging me in it.

So what now? Did God's miraculous intervention change me to become the innocent child that I was. Haha! I would be lying if I told you yes. The road to salvation did not end there, I still carried remnants of that dark time and it seemed to have continued to grow stronger within me with age. However my will to fight was always on and I told myself that every incident was the last time. It is really hard to fight temptations when things that you are struggling to overcome are being glorified and glamorized in the media. Movies, Television shows, Music, Magazine, Websites, Books and Videos portraying alcoholism, violence, drugs, partying and sex as the way to live or the inn thing to do. I wont go any further with examples and just give a simple example; 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. It's just that bad out there and we need strength, wisdom and good level of discernment on what we want to associate ourselves in this life. These things are made to look like it's the necessity to being happy.

For the past few months I have determined for myself that living in sin is just not good for me. It does not make me happy! Do I have any doubts about that, well I'll be really crazy if I ever will. What good comes out of loose morals? Nothing good, just a life of emptiness and turbulence. We are basically swayed from this direction to that direction and we don't have any meaning in our life. So through all of this I determined for myself that change had to take place. I gave so much thought on the issue of change because I have to change my whole views, perspective and beliefs about life. One thing I knew that I had to was that I needed to be more in communication with God. I prayed to God and then little by little I made few adjustments. I know that the only solution to this problem of mine and the only key to happier life was to trust in God and to believe in him. I now believe that he is the key to happier and a more meaningful life.

I make it a point now to keep God in my thoughts always and to meditate on all his blessings in my life. Nowadays my music playlist is filled with Gospel songs. My current favorite gospel artist is Smokie Norful and I have been listening to all of his songs and it is amazing how much I relate to most of his songs and it's powerful lyrics. I guess that also raises another important point that is God's timing is always perfect. When we open our hearts to him he amazes us with blessings in our life. I have also tried to be very careful with what I watch and what I read. Nowadays I choose to read positive messages shared by Joel Osteen and watch him and Oprahs Super Soul Sunday videos on You Tube.

But then the problem is sometimes we fail and we Do It Again. We do that thing again.We may have been caught off guard, at the wrong place at the wrong time and our mind shuts down and we make that one slip up where we Do It Again. It can be quite disheartening and there is this feeling that we should just let go and do what is easier to do which is to quit fighting temptations and just embrace it. Should we give up? No! No! No! Do not give up, do not let go of God's hand (this is me also shouting at myself too). Remember once we give in and throw in the towel after that slip up the devil will come running in with his big horns and his cunning ugly smile and work with in us again, taking control of us making us live that old filthy life again. Sometimes it gets worse. It's often that one slip up after a long time of going without or resisting that opens up 2 paths; whether to continue in God's path or the Devil's path. Choose God's path. Click Refresh! Click Refresh! Click the Refresh option on fighting temptations.

Quickly renew the fight, direct our attention to God immediately, read his words in the bible and meditate on them. Do everything possible in God's eyes but just Don't Give Up! Let us take that small setback as an opportunity to further strengthen our relationship with God. Remember that my life and your life is a continuous Work-In-Progress so just allow God to continually work on us.

See even Joel Osteen says so. We are still a work in progress. 

Let us continue putting our trust in God for he is the Greatest. Trust that when we give ourselves to the Lord Almighty he will takes us into incredible places in life and he will give us the contentment and happiness that we are seeking because he has promised us so.

I love this bible verse. A verse we can meditate on to renew our faith in God.