A Reflection on Thinking

There are many things in life that influence us, such as relationships, media, social media, your parents, your country/government and so on. Today we are going to look at how our thinking/thoughts influence ourselves as a person. We are going to explore how it influences our actions, words which in turn influences our relationships, careers and the way we respond to other people/the world. Remember - you can't (or it is extremely difficult to) change another person's action, but you can change the way you respond to their actions.

If you think a certain way, you will believe certain things, and you will view life a certain way. For example, if you think mango is the best fruit in the world, and you believe there is no other fruit superior to mango, then you will be hesitant and stubborn to try other fruits. If you think

We often tell you about Bible and life lessons, and maybe it goes in one ear and out the other, or maybe you accept and you don't reflect on the lessons and think about how it applies to your life - you never fully absorb it and let it shape your thoughts and ultimately your identity.

Let's say you play soccer. Now we all know the goal of soccer is to be the team that gets the most goals into the net. Now let's say you have strong kicks and can run fast, but you consistently miss goals. Now in your head you might think that you suck because you never score (and again this is the whole point of the game). And when people try to reassure you that you are not bad, you feel anxious and your thoughts and mind start to spin every time you talk to someone about it. You can't see how others see you, and you can't empathize your teammates' stresses (like maybe they are stressed about not being able to run fast or kick properly). Now then this cycle goes on. You and your teammates are not on good terms, this decreases team morale, and you are not working together as a team anymore. Your team, this once supportive group has become an enemy in your mind, and can't ever seem to say what you need to hear or be the supportive team you need them to be. Your thoughts have led you to your downfall (if this was a Shakespeare play) - your intrusive thoughts have taken over your relationships and have stolen your peace and joy. Every single person has had to go through a vicious negative mindset. This example may sound silly, but sports is actually both a mental and physical sport. When Tiger Woods, famous and very skilled golf player, when he started golfing, you know how his dad trained him? He yelled insults at him. Tiger was annoyed and mad, but his dad explained that there are going to be people looking down on you constantly and it is up to you to rise up and above. A coach at a TedTalk event talked about how he always looks for the most calm players - players who could keep their cool when there was 1 minute left on the clock and the game was tied. Players who had to consistently fight even though the odds were stacked high against them. He said there was no point in taking in players who were great at running, kicking or athletic, etc. if they could not perform well under pressure. There will always be pressure at games.

To be in this negative and vicious cycle is actually very comfortable. You can be negative all you and you have a reason why. People may take pity on you and be extra nice to you. You can do whatever you want because you have a reason - you feel helpless, worthless and unloveable.

So how do you get out of this vicious cycle?

Take sometime for yourself. Watch TV, read a book and meditate on God's word (pray and read and reflect on the Bible). Think about your thoughts. Challenge them. Talk to people in the church community such as your family, pastors, your leaders or even your friends here. This is the devil in your head. Remember James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Your thoughts are not real and they are not facts. God is real, and God meticulously created you to be the way you are and He also says you are enough. To say you are helpless, worthless and unloveable is saying that God is a liar, and He is not God. And I think we all agree that God will be very upset and very saddened to hear that, no? His own child doesn't see their own beauty and above all they do not see God or the beauty He has made in the world.

This is definitely easier said than done. But again, why are we at youth, why do we have a relationship with God? This is an ongoing process, an ongoing relationship. Relationships/friendships don't end unless you stop putting in effort (or one dies). But remember God has overcome death.

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Romans 8:38-39 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

1 John 3:1 "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

Take time to meditate on God's word (read the Bible in depth) and talk to God. Christianity is not just about coming to church and remembering Jesus died for our sins. It's about having a relationship with God - spend time with him. God is with you wherever you are - the question is will you meet Him?

Just Do It

What do you think of the quote - "DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY." Let's discuss.

Now I want you to brainstorm your favourite activities. Is it playing soccer? Or is it playing video games, reading books or watching a movie?

Now I want you to brainstorm activities that you do not like to do. Maybe it's chores like washing the dishes, or maybe it's doing homework or sleeping early. Let's discuss!

Now I want you to think about activities that are good for you. Maybe it's going to school on time, going to piano lessons, exercising and so on. Do you notice how the some of the activities that you don't like to do are the ones that are good for you?

Today we are going to look at the story of Hannah - does anyone know who Hannah is? Yes, she is the mother of Samuel, one of the greatest prophets in the Bible. Let's read 1 Samuel.

There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord.4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. 10 In her deep anguishHannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

What words would you use to describe Hannah? What words would you use to describe Peninnah? I think we can all agree that Hannah is faithful and kind, and Peninnah is a bully.

I want to focus on verses 6 and 7.

Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.

I admire Hannah. I think all of us have experience with bullying (and if you were a bully, I hope you have learned and turned from your ways), but I am so in awe of how she would just continuously go to church and go seek God and just keep on going honestly. How many of us when the going gets tough, we crawl into our beds and cry? That's me. And I am not saying you shouldn't cry - Hannah cried. What I want us to do is to be like Hannah - continue on. Take a quick breather, but continue to face the darkness. Cry out to God because He hears us and loves us. It's ok to be upset, scared and shy - but we have to keep going and turning to the Lord. Do you think Hannah wanted to go to temple (their version of church back in the day) when all she did was get bullied at church? UM, NO!!!

BUT SHE STILL WENT! And I think many of us need to be like Hannah and continue to show up! Show up to your classes on time, do your homework, be kind to others - it is crucial that we do all of these things, especially when we don't want to do them.

How many of you play sports? How many of you have trained or joined a team? So for those who don't know, on a sports team, they make you do a lot of drills. And you are constantly running and you're tired, but you still have to keep running. When I did ultimate in high school and in college, the important thing we had to remember was if we wanted to win we had to keep running, especially when we are tired. Your opponent will be tired, but you gotta keep running, keep moving, and keep going. You have to play your hardest now.

Life is not a race, but it is a battle. We are in the midst of a spiritual warfare, and our enemy is Satan. He is constantly trying to bring us down, discourage us, mock us, insult us and you know what? He is good at what he does. So that's why we tell you - come to church, come to youth, get involved in a community and most importantly, build that relationship with God. God never gives you anything more than you can handle. And in your scariest and worst moments, you can cry out to God and He will hear you and help you. Remember though, God is the three O's - omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. His way of helping us will be different from what we expect. But trust God, and just do it. Show up. He will never leave you hanging.

It sucks to have to do things you do not want to do. But remember, as we saw in the example earlier, most of these things are things we should do and we know they are good for us. Here is a psychological trick that can help you accomplish what you have to do - when you think of the task, you have three seconds to get it done, or else it will be 1000x harder to do the task. You'll notice that in the first three seconds you have the most motivation and the least willpower to say no. So trying doing the things you need to do immediately. Another tip is writing down things you need to do - you are I think 85% more likely to do the task if you write it down. And don't forget to pray. Think about these things and why God wants you to do them. And then show up.

What is sin?

There are a lot of definitions surrounding the word, "sin," and I think many of you would say that "sin" means making a mistake, doing something wrong, acting against God or doing something that harms another living being. But "sin" comes from the Hebrew word, "cheit" and it actually means missing the mark. And what is the mark? God. It's to be perfect. But we all know that none of us are perfect (cue Hannah Montana's song, "Nobody's Perfect"), so that means we are all sinners (1). What happens to sinners? What is our punishment?

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 8:28

According to this verse, this means we will die. It does not matter how many good things you do to cover up your sin or if you only sinned 10 times verses John Smith who sinned 5,000 times. You still sinned, so you still have to die. And I want to also remind you - do not compare yourself to other people. Do not think you are superior to others because you better than them in situation A, but I guarantee you that you will find a situation B or C or M where you sinned and the other person didn't. You are no better than them - you are still a sinner.

So what happens now? Is there no hope?

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

This verse tells us that God loves us so much that He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to die for us so we wouldn't have to die! God wants to have a relationship with us! God's grace (grace means getting something that you don't deserve) is enough! We deserve to die, but through God's love and grace we are saved!

In Hilsong's song, "What a Beautiful Name," there's a line, "You didn't want Heaven without us/ So Jesus You brought Heaven down." Again, God wants to have a relationship with us!

My friends think I am a religious person, but I never thought of myself that way. Because Christianity is about having a relationship with God. I'm not doing good things or trying to be perfect so I can collect merits or show off - I do it because I love God. My actions and words are a result of my relationship with God. Do you think we get paid to lead youth group? We are here leading youth group, giving up our Friday evenings, preparing lessons, youth nights, hanging out with you young people because we love God. We love Jesus. We love you.

So what do you do in a relationship? You spend time with the other person. In a relationship with God, you spend time with God through prayer, reading the Bible, meditating on His word, and fellowshipping with other Christians. If you don't do these things, how can you be in a relationship with God? Set aside time each day to read the Bible, pray consistently (you can pray anytime and anywhere in the day, but I also recommend a reflective prayer in the morning when you wake up and at the end of the day before you sleep), and engage in a Christian community.

So today I want to encourage you to (re)build that relationship with God. If you have drifted far from Him, it is not too late to turn back. In fact, I have drifted away from God a couple of times. It is hard - it is a relationship after all. I'm sure we all have friends that we were close to, but then drifted away and now maybe we are hesitant to rebuild that relationship. God wants to spend time with us - will you make time for God? And remember - God will meet you wherever you are - whether you are happy, sad, stressed, mad, disappointed, or jealous, or if you just made a huge mistake or hurt someone so you're feeling guilty, hurt, scared or honestly anything - God will still want to meet you. And I encourage you to meet Him - He can give you peace and joy so that you are ready to face the day again. Sin means missing the mark, and we all have missed the mark so we are all sinners. But because of God's perfect and unending grace, we are forgiven and cleansed of our sins! We can have a relationship with this amazing creator. We can experience Him now!

I have said this many times before and I will say it again - life is a tough journey. We are all unique, so we all have different strengths and weaknesses, different talents and gifts and flaws. Therefore, we all walk through life differently. This means we also have different relationships with people and with God. You will be influenced by your friends, family, social media, and the media (such as TV shows, movies, books, etc.) The goal of youth group and going to church is so that you have a kind of support system or community that encourages you and helps you with this life journey. If you aren't involved in a Christian community, I strongly suggest that you find a church community and participate! It's life changing and it's so soul fulfilling! Don't forget to pray that God will lead you to the best church for you!

Thanks for reading/listening to our lesson! Tune in next week for another lesson! Catch you later!! :)

(1) "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23