The more I live the more I learn to be more grateful and avoid to worry too much. Every morning we can be more thankful that God gave us another day to see the beauty of being alive and well. There will be times when the devil will try to take away the joy within us. He is well-trained to do that.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. – John 10:10

He knows which button to press to make us feel bitter and sour. But imagine if a thief comes to your house every time and take out something out of your house, it will be very soon when you say, enough is enough!

Ganyan ang ginagawa sa atin ng stress at ng problema: it keeps stealing our today’s job. And one thing I learned that most of the thing we worry about never actually happens anyway. But there are many people who are trained to “professional worrier.” They say they trust God, but you can see in their actions, they are worried.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:

25 I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink, or wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing? Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren’t you worth more than birds?

Can worry make you live longer?   Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes.   But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn’t as well clothed as one of them.  God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?

Don’t worry and ask yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?”  Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these.  But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.

People are very worried nowadays as if it is always the end of the world.

But Don, “what if I fail?” my response will be: “just do your best…when you do your best, you cannot do anything more.”

God wants us to rely on Him as we are not design to solve our problems. We are only a clay but He is the Potter. Clay are weak and breakable. But we have the Potter that knows our weak points and which side we have crack. He is the only one who can mend.

Minsan nakalimutan ko ang aking bag sa bus. When i told my dad jokingly, he told me: “Don, you can lose everything, just don’t lose May (my wife).”

When I have big problems, I try to see these things and start to smile:

1. Health – I am still alive and well so I can still see the miracle of God in my life. I may have fail many many times, but God is not finish with me yet. I am a masterpiece, a work in progress.
2. Job – I still have some employers or business that still believe in my capabilities and pay for my service.
3. Friends – I have friends who stick with me through thick and thin
4. Family – I have families who truly cares and loves me
5. Privilege to teach the Word of God
6. Working overseas – while others are putting all their assets in the bank for a collateral, God put me here abroad to earn a bit more than what I could have earned in the Philippines.
7. Good things that happen to you – things could have been worse

What about you? What makes you celebrate life? You may not have the best everything but I encourage to make the best in everything you have. Thank God for the good things He has done for you even when you don’t ask. This is the day that the Lord has made. We must be glad and rejoice.

Rejoice in the Lord and be glad. —Psalm 32:11 (NIV)