(Journal) What God Has Taught Me The Past Year and a Half

I've compiled a list of things I learned from July of 2022 to Jan of 2024 to refer back to every once in a while. I believe that these lessons are not an accident but instilled in me by God during the hardest time of my life.

• You will always find Jesus in the lowest of places.

• God can't stand you trying to earn validation, acknowledgement and love from other human beings who are living in opposition to God. So meet and be friends with those who first and foremost love God and those that love and accept you as who you are - a humble servant of God who tries his best not to follow the worldly ways. Trying to earn validation from the worldly people will only backfire and make you hate yourself because they detest or find your holy ways boring and futile, often only worshipping materialistic things that ultimately perish away. Don't let the world and its people devalue you and all that God has given you and how you've lived your life. Know that some of them will later come to realize that what they had worshipped their entire lives is in fact detestable and futile.

• A real man is able to trust others without doubts. Don't put to the test the loyalty of your partner, family or friends. Just live life and carry yourself the way you deem right in God's eyes and stay firmly grounded in spite of how others act. Any injustices or anyone trying to take advantage of you, leave them to God as he will handle them. Be at peace and not always on your tip toes ready to react or fight against anyone and everyone.

• Being able to quickly make decisions and effectively plan things in advance is beneficial. It not only allows you to demonstrate leadership but it also gives you a sense of peace along with those around you. When you have solid plans, people will follow you, respect you, trust you and love you. Practice constantly planning your next moves and conveying your plans to others effectively as well. Again, failing to plan is a plan to fail.

• Pride is the quickest way to destruction. The moment you become the God of your life, you will soon find yourself living life to fulfill your immediate desires, leading to a dark, sinful, void and meaningless life. It is after you lose everything that you will come back to Christ like the prodigal son in the Bible. So always be humble, giving all credits to God and God alone.

• God can speak to us in many different ways. He doesn't tend to come out of the clouds and shout our names to give us instructions. He speaks through other powerful means like the Bible, through praise songs, through people, and even through allowing certain circumstances to transpire in our lives. The God I know and have experienced is a SLOW, GRADUAL GOD. He never gave answers right away and he always made me wait a lot longer than I had wanted to. But, because of this, the lessons I learned stuck with me longer. If God popped up in front of me in whatever shape or form, I may initially come to believe him, but a short while later I will likely begin to doubt that perhaps what I had seen was all just in my head. Meaning, what is earned fast can also disappear fast. So, don't fall into the trap of asking God for immediate answers or even to show himself for your faith. Know that true faith is that which builds up slowly but persistently.

• "Be still and know that I am God" I didn't hear him in an audible voice, but I did clearly feel him placing this in my heart as I was singing praise songs on Sunday Jan 28, 2024. I instantly came to tears. Then I felt a great a sense of peace knowing that God is with me no matter what I am going through. I came to peace knowing that he is the God of the Universe who has created everything there is.

• Battle the devil that always plants worst-case scenarios in your heart. It brings worries, and doubts for no reason and hinders you from your relationship with God. This has a great toll on your mental health and it also negatively affects your relationship with those around you. Also, be mindful that perhaps your excess spare time is exposing you to these negative thoughts. Get out there, join a church community, read the Bible, workout, play sports, do something productive. (edited till here July 22, 2025)

• Give others the benefit of the doubt. This sort of ties with the above point where you may assume your friends or partner may be engaging in the worst-case scenarios like cheating, gambling, doing drugs and what not. If you happen to have this toxic way of thinking, practice conjuring up the best scenarios your friends or partner might engage in like they are thinking of you, working hard in their job, working out, picking out gifts for you, having a genuinely good time with their friends, and more. This way, you are giving them the benefit of the doubt and you will also be at peace.

• Do not put everyone on a pedestal. This is what David Goggins once said as well. Even he had a time where he thought everyone else was better than him. But Goggins soon realized with experience and meeting people that everyone was f'ed up in some way. They all have had dark times and have insecurities and weaknesses. So as long as you are working hard towards a goal and giving it all to become the better and best version of yourself, you don't need to compare yourself with others and feel inferior because you know you are on the right track. With your hard and dedicated work, your strenghts and weaknesses will become clear and you will feel confident and comfortable in your skin. If people don't appreciate you as the version you are proud of right now, know that these are not the people for you. Don't chase after people who have no capacity to appreciate your personality, strengths and weaknesses. God will surely bring people who will appreciate you for who you are and who you strive to be. I felt this greatly with myself as well because I very much believe that God has given me lots of blessings, lots of talents and skills to work with. God is telling me that there is no reason for me to feel inferior, in fact I should have confidence because God has given me so much and God is within me and I in him.

• Satan's goal is obviously to destroy you and rip you into pieces so that you may never recover. But he doesn't make you sin big time from the get-go, instead Satan makes you do small sinful things first and contaminates your heart little by little. He works diligently like this until your heart becomes fully contaminated to a point you can't go back. So watch out for those "little" sinful things you do because that is exactly how satan gets started with you in his destruction plan for you.

• Don't let yourself get jealous of the male friends or coworkers your partner might have, because there really is no need. As a matter of fact, by becoming jealous, you are acknowledging him and giving him credit, way more than they deserve. This is not to say they are bad or weak people, but just people you don't need to envy. If you find yourself still getting jealous, imagine an average "Charlie" or "Jay" or "Edward" any other average people you came across from the past. They are generally harmless, nice people. Reminder yet again, this ties back with the point not to put everyone on a pedestal. Don't put everyone on a pedestal and give your partner the benefit of the doubt!

• For many different reasons, a real man should have some social connection and circles with whom he regularly interacts and spends time. It is also a good idea to challenge yourself to new situations and new people because this way not only are you developing good social skills, but you also grow as a person with profound life experiences which will earn you respect and honor. Also what I found in myself is that if I don't regularly engage in these activities, I have a tendency to overly rely and overly invest in my partner or friends emotionally. This can lead to obsessive behaviours and other actions that can ruin the relationship. So keep yourself busy with productive activities and continue to strive for the best as a man.

• Your life and your plans will never exactly go the way you wanted. God knows and has the perfect plan for all of us. And his plan for us is not focused on giving us success and financial freedom in this world but rather to help us develop and maintain a personal relationship with him so we can enter his kingdom. This is not to say he will not fill you at all with your needs and desires in this world, in fact he will bless you abundantly in this world as well if you continue to abide by his word. But be very careful not to use these blessings against God (it is very easy to become arrogant and prideful when you have everything) because then he will take everything away instantly. Do not profess with your mouth and heart that what God has given you is all because of your own hard work. You only came this far because of him and him only. Always keep his ways and do not lose Gos's favour.

• Peace does not come from your circumstance, but from whether you are with God or not. Peace - transcendant peace - can be found in the lowest moments or in trenches if we we are with God. But peace might not be there even in your highest moments and even if you have everything if you aren't with God. So seek first the kingdom, and everything else will be added unto you.

• God has revealed my true colours by stripping away everything from me. I was completely swayed by my circumstance, and I began to be insecure, overly sensitive, judgmental, capable of hurting loved ones with my filthy tongue, keep making the same mistakes, imagining worst-case scenarios, lying, not loving, envying and more. Then I came to confess to God how weak I was and how filthy I was and how this is the exact reason why I can never and I should never become arrogant and overly confident with who I am. Because in the end I am a human being that continues to sin. The world teaches us to be prideful, but we should instead be humble. The world teaches us to strive for stability and money, but we should instead seek the kindgom and listen to God's words. The world teaches us that our value and worth lies in our career, our promiscuity, and our status. But we should instead base our worth and value on the fact that we are created in the image of God, and thus we are inherently valuable. The world teaches that morality can be subjective, but we must understand morality is objective and actually comes from God. Do not be misled by the world, friends, what they teach and cheer for are lies.

• Someone whom you've always respected and relied upon for knowledge and experience might not actually be as wise as you think, especially if you see and talk to them again after some time and after you've grown as a person in God. This became all the more clear after I had spent a year and a half reading, listening and speaking the word of God consistently. When compared with the knowledge and wisdom of God, a person whom I thought was extremely wise and smart wasn't so after all. As a matter of fact, now I can identify major flaws and missing pieces in his life philosophy that actually leave me dumbfounded and shocked. And it makes sense because no human wisdom can come even remotely close to that of God. This is when I again realized we should never rest assured in other human beings but rather in God and Jesus Christ.

• Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. What has kept all of us from doing even stupider or foolish things than we are right now is because the words and instructions of God are guaring our hearts. Him knowing what is best for us cautions us, warns us and guides us away from the very things that can easily destroy us. These include things like promiscuity, toxic relationship, money-chasing, status-chasing, materialism, pride and more.

• God loves us and cares for us but be reminded that he doesn't need us.

• It isn't enough to simply proclaim you accept Jesus Christ as your saviour and your Lord. Yes you may have heard lots of churches say that this is all you need in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. But anyone can say they love Jesus with no actual intent to follow his ways and demonstrate it in action. However, true faith is only reflected by the very actions you take. So you must not only proclaim Jesus is Lord but you must also obey the law of Christ, which is the 27 books of the New Testament.