Seize the Kairos! - Formula for a Satisfied Life

The Formula for a Satisfied Life

Proverbs 13:12 - "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

The Bible teaches us the simple, yet powerful formula for Satisfaction and Unsatisfaction in life. 

Everyone has what its called hope or longing. Hope or longing in a general term is Expectation.

According to the verse above, we can conclude that the formula for having a satisfied life in general is Expectation equals to Reality (E=R).

When "hope deferred", which means that, the reality of life does not equal to the hope (expectation) that we have, thus the Bible says that "it makes the heart sick". Heart is the source of life. When our heart sick, it means that we are in great distress.

However, when "a longing fulfilled", which means that, the reality of life equals to the expectation that we have, the Bible says that it "is a tree of life". A tree of life portrays comfort, certainty, growth, fruitful, and life, which all leads to great satisfaction.

By understanding this formula of a satisfied life from the Bible, we can learn some important things.

When we feel that we are unsatisfied with our lifes, we have 2 options. First, we change our reality by being proactive in repenting to God and ask for His help to be committed in making real changes in life, or we change our ultimate expectation about our life. 

Many of us have expectations in life built based on our dreams, goals, values, beliefs that have been in our mind for sometime. In fact, the Bible teaches us that the ways we live and think have been inherited from our ancestors. That is why the second option is to renew our minds daily with the Word of God, so that eventually, with time and process, we start to adopt the new expectation that is not from this world, but from His perspectives - the Word of God.

Because if we think about it, it is as simple as what the Word of God teaches us: the Formula of a Satisfied Life is Expectations equal Reality (E=R).

-JH-

Seize the Kairos! - Did You Get It?

Seize the Kairos! - Did You Get it?

Matthew 13 talks about the 7 parables: the Sower, the Weeds, the Mustard Seed, the Yeast, the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl, and the Net.

These parables were shared by Jesus in sequence by purpose starts from the parable of the Sower, all the way to the parable of the Net.

These parables are connected to one another to give the complete picture, explaining the essence of the Kingdom of God that only those whose eyes and ears have been touched, will be able to fully understand and grasp the significance of these secrets of the Kingdom of God.  "But blesses are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear" ( Mat 13:16)

These parables seems pretty straight forward, however, the Bible strongly remind us, "...many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. " (Mat 13:17)

How come the teachings (the essence of the Kingdom of God) implied from the parables were not being able to be grasp, even by prophets and righteous men? Prophets and righteous men means that these are the people that live for Christ and in fact, shows commitment to live righteous for Him, but at the end, they are not able to truly grasp the essence of the Kingdom of God.

The above dilemma showed that we have to be very serious about our commitment and our faith to Jesus. Many might have shown great level of commitments, but in the end, they still can not see the essence of the Kingdom of God. It means that we have to really ask God to truly search our hearts, to help us understand what we need to do, what we need to change from our ways of thoughts and life. Because committed itself is not enough. We have to be truly prepared to really give up everything and live for Jesus and His Kingdom only (Mat 13: 44-46).

Can we truly say that we love Jesus wholeheartedly when everything in our life is being stripped down? Let's Be Ready and Be Prepared for 2015. It is no longer about us and our needs...but It is about Jesus and His Kingdom. Let us have the mentality of Job, when everything else fails us and we no longer have any reason to trust Jesus, we would still love Him wholeheartedly. And when we have this kind of intimacy level, the essence of the Kingdom of God will be embedded in our life and we will thoroughly understand the death and the rise of Christ. 

-JH-