Taking pleasure from God more than ALDUB Part 2

How to find pleasure in God

To find pleasure means finding happiness and satisfaction.  In a difficult situation, anxiety always sets in. Fear of the unknown and sadness come hand in hand to block our sight of God.  All these are products of lack of trust in God and his power.  

The power of God the Almighty is immeasurable.    When I found myself facing a battle with illness, I cried out but never questioned His plan.  I cried out because of the pain.  I cried out because my heart was blocked with temporary darkness.  I thought that i will never feel God's love anymore.  But by  His grace and by tapping His P-O-W-E-R, I once again found my pleasure, my joy and my all.  

Prayer.  According to  St Therese of Lisieux , "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God."  Even if we question God, even if we blame him and even if we cry out loud, these are prayers.  Anything from our heart and mind that we tell God is a prayer.  When anxiety strikes in, I would pray more.  When I travel while going to work, i pray.  I guess that is what you call pray unceasingly as 1 Thesalonians 5:16-18 states Rejoice always,  pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus..  “For though we are always in the presence of God it seems to me that those who practice prayer are present in a special way, for they see that He is watching them” St. Teresa of Avila.  

Offering. "God, this is for you, because i cannot take it anymore."  These were my words when I found out I have cancer.  I offered all my sufferings to him especially going through another operation and radioactive treatment.  There are a lot of pain and discomfort, but it gets less when I offer it to God because He carries the burden with me.  

Witnessing.  Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now. (St. Teresa of Avila).  A witness is a person who sees and has knowledge of an event as in witnessing a crime.  Being a witness of Christ means we see and gain knowledge about the events of Christ's life by studying Christ's life and applying what we have learned and thereby seeing the face of God. 

As I go through this battle, i willingly and gracefully share Christ's cross and in doing so, I feel and become witness of His own sufferings.

Encouragement.  The encouragements of my brothers and sisters in the Couples for Christ community have been tremendous.  My small group of leaders (we call upper) came in the night after my confinement.  I was still having difficulty with eating and swallowing.  Guess what?  They brought a lot of food like noodles, spring rolls, soft drinks, etc.  What a way to encourage?  My eldest sister even told me to recover fast so I can eat my favorite food.  See, encouragement really works!

The best encouragement I got is every time my son would do well in school.  He sends me his picture everyday and his projects in school.  

Revamp.  Being in the Couples for Christ Handmaids of the Lord community,  I have learned to be persevering in my prayer.  Those who persevere, prevail!  I knew that in my where-is-God moment, i should be more persistent in communicating with Him through prayer. 

My recent suffering has given me more room to revamp my prayer techniques.  I literally have prayed unceasingly, trying all sorts of novenas and all kinds of healing prayer that friends would send via social media or cards.  

During my recovery from surgery, I have been doing creative praying.  One of these is coloring and drawing on my daily bible reading (bible alive and in His steps).  This helps me in memorizing and understanding the keywords of the bible verses of the day.

praying at the rooftop by the pool  

                                              

Taking pleasure from God is worth more than the excitement we get from the ALDUB love team.  While ALDUB taught us to believe in forever, God is telling us about eternity!

Taking pleasure from God more than ALDUB Part 1

The Aldub fever has infected millions of people worldwide (proven by the social media chaos, imagine 25.6 million tweets from all over the globe?).  It has been an instant phenomenon not only in the Philippines but worldwide.  Millions of people are going crazy with the Aldub love team because of the feeling that we get from watching them.

With all these excitement and pleasure about Aldub's love story, i have been wondering if it was God tangibly present on our television sets or right in front of us, how would we react?

Where is God?

I was watching on You Tube about a commentary on the Hajj stamped in Mecca,

the lump that turned out as Ca

Saudi Arabia recently that killed at least 769 pilgrims.  This Arabic-looking guy doing the commentary boldly said that there is no God because if there was a God, then there won't be any deaths in Mecca.

In moments of sufferings and anxiety, we tend to deny the existence of God, the existence of one Supreme being who created heaven and earth and everything in it.  

I never had any moment of denial of God's existence but I too got my share of hardened heart wherein my perception of a Supreme Being is overshadowed to the point of asking where is God?  

After my diagnosis of thyroid cancer, I had a moment of silence with the Lord but all i heard was, "share my suffering, share my cross."  It was difficult for me to agree.  Share your cross? Are you kidding, Lord?  This is the moment that i could not feel a single pleasure or not an iota of feeling that God is beside me.  The moment when i just felt numb.  That where-is-God moment!

Finding God?

Finding God? Yes, it's a question.  I asked because there was actually no need for me to find God.  He has been there all along, all the time.  God never left my side in those times i never felt Him.  God was there waiting to be acknowledged.  He was there when the doctors found the nodule.  He was there when I was operated.  He was there when I received the "bomb" and he was there when I was crying out to him.  All I ever needed to do was to reach out to him.  Respond back to his longing for me and find pleasure once again from Him.

To be continued...