Gift VS Giver

Honestly speaking, I really hate to read daily devotions. Coz they somehow limit you to the amount of things God can speak to you thru the daily devotions. Amazingly, as I was spending some time with God, my bible reading and the daily devotion somehow flowed in line together.

Zechariah 7:5

Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?'

The act of fasting and praying is for the very purpose of drawing nearer to God, to be more sensitive to His promptings, to listen out for His voice. However, sometimes people do have an unconscious misconception of how it makes prayer more powerful, it somehow 'twists' God's arm for blessings like how Jacob (a.k.a. Israel) struggled with God for blessing. But that's not the point! Blessings, powerful prayers, being an overcomer. These are the results of walking even more intimately with God.

This doesn't apply to fasting and praying alone, but in every single thing that we do; study, fellowship, do sports, eat, sleep, read the bible, pray, etc. Have all these things been done for God? Or is it for our own selfish desires? Or simply an obligation that life must always go on? Do we focus so much on the Gift that we forget about the Giver behind the Gift?

Dear Oswald today took the verse from John 14:9.

John 14:9

Jesus answered:"Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

It really is a sad thing to continue what I might still be doing now for the next sixty three years to have God ask me "For the past seventy years, who is it that I've been doing these things for?" and especially if he says "Don't you know me after all these years?". I think I would just cry myself a river.

On a side note, first day of school yesterday was simply great! :) Really. Though I had to take all that stupid drowsy medicine, I managed to pay attention to 6 straight hours of lessons! Thank God for the understanding He placed in me too! The 5:30pm - 8:30pm lesson after that was tougher to get through though. Coz the lecturer was simply weird. He taught us for 3 hours on something that's seemingly neither relevant nor (according to him) coming out for exams. So what's it for? Oh wells. Great day with God yesterday and I pray that God will continue to give me my daily bread. Woots! ^^

P.S. Dear God, I'm forever grateful to You. Draw me ever closer to You.