Another omer of manna!
And Moses said, 'This is the thing which the Lord commandeth, 'Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.' "... As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony, to be kept. ~Exodus 16:32, 34
So I have this page in my Bible, and I call it my "Omer of Manna," because it is a permanent account and testimony of God's faithfulness to me (and family/friends) throughout the years. There are many testimonies of God's faithfulness that I have not written down, but that's because I would too quickly fill the extra pages of my Bible! :) So I mainly write down the big things that God has just truly amazed me with His love, mercy, and faithfulness.
To give you some examples...
August 2005 - Grace Strachan became my sister in Christ!!
April 2006 - Dad received a new and stable job after searching for two years!
June 3006 - God brought me through high school and I graduated!
March 2007 - Kathy Poh was taken into glory. Her life was a huge testimony of faith to me.
August 2007 - God blessed me to be able to go to the Master's College! Major blessing!
... and so on.
Well, I have a new entry that I am going to add today!
April 2009 - God's grace and faithfulness came in the form of an acceptance letter to the Dental Hygiene program!
Thank you, Lord!
To give some people a little background, just so you can fully understand how this all was completely God that I was accepted into this competitive DH (dental hygiene) program: I have been aiming to be a dental hygienist ever since I was a junior in high school. I always wanted to be in the medical field, because I wanted to do mission work with it. I was lining up all my ducks in a row (did I mention that I can be a control freak?), and I knew just exactly how it all would happen. I knew exactly what prerequisites I was going to take, when I was going to take them, and what grades I was going to get. I figured out how long it would take me to finish before I could apply to this DH program in Reno, and even knew what my class would be (2011). And so I had everything figured out... or so I thought.
Entering into college, I really struggled with my first few science classes, especially General Chemistry and General Biology! I could not figure out what I was doing wrong! I was studying hard, knew the material inside and out, and yet did poorly on the tests. How could this possibly be? Well, God finally revealed to me my problem: I was doing it on my own, for my own pride and glory. God had to break me with these bad grades and mess up all of my little ducks that were lined up so perfectly by myself, just to show me that I had all the wrong motivations and intentions. I depended on #1 - me. Praise God that He taught me how to depend on Him for everything, including my education! God has been teaching me ever since, that no matter what plans I try and come up with on my own, His plans will always prevail.
Before, I was not committing my desires and plans to the Lord. I knew what I wanted, and I planned accordingly how I was going to get there. But then God shook my selfish little world. He showed me how I need to "commit [my] work to [Him] and [my] plans will be established" (Proverbs 16:3). After all, why else am I really doing school other than to give Him glory in everything I do?
So after that, God taught me how important it was for me to give my plans and desires to Him so that He can guide me in His plans for me. I still had a tentative goal set towards DH, but this time I was open to where ever He was going to lead. If He had a whole different degree in mind, like teaching, I was open to it, because I knew that God's plans were best and (shocker) He really does know what He's doing!
I started learning how to study as unto the Lord. My grades kept up. And it was all by the grace of God.
I finally finished all of my prerequisites this last fall in '08, and applied to the DH program at TMCC in January. This was one of the hardest lessons of trust and patience I have learned yet in these past few months of simply waiting to see what God really had in store for me. I knew that it was all in God's hands. If He wanted me in, I knew nothing could keep me out. But I also knew that if He didn't want me in, everything was going to keep me out (and to be honest, that still kind-of scared me at first!). As the months slowly passed, God continued to fill me with His blessed peace. And yet, there were times when I would go back to worrying, wondering if God really didn't want me doing DH. Questions would creep into my mind like, "What am I going to do with my life if I don't get in?" "Why is it so hard to trust that my Savior is in control?" "What if..."
Every time, His answer was, "Trust Me."
And so now I come to the conclusion. I wanted to explain the whole process God had me go through, because it is an even stronger testimony of His patience, love, kindness, mercy, care, and of His plans!
When I trusted in my own strength, He broke me down and built me back up in His own strength.
When I failed to trust Him, He continued to bless me and teach me His ways.
When I tried to take control over my own future, He taught me how He's already got it covered so that He is completely glorified.
... Then came my omer of manna - my letter of God's faithfulness.
I opened up the letter carefully. Then I read the first word in the letter that said, "Congratulations!" and then my first/immediate reply was, "Thank you, LORD!!!"
It is God that has brought me to where I am, because He wants to use me where He has placed me. It is God that has shown His faithfulness to me, and so I will give all glory to Him!
"And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left." ~Isaiah 30:21
So I have this page in my Bible, and I call it my "Omer of Manna," because it is a permanent account and testimony of God's faithfulness to me (and family/friends) throughout the years. There are many testimonies of God's faithfulness that I have not written down, but that's because I would too quickly fill the extra pages of my Bible! :) So I mainly write down the big things that God has just truly amazed me with His love, mercy, and faithfulness.
To give you some examples...
August 2005 - Grace Strachan became my sister in Christ!!
April 2006 - Dad received a new and stable job after searching for two years!
June 3006 - God brought me through high school and I graduated!
March 2007 - Kathy Poh was taken into glory. Her life was a huge testimony of faith to me.
August 2007 - God blessed me to be able to go to the Master's College! Major blessing!
... and so on.
Well, I have a new entry that I am going to add today!
April 2009 - God's grace and faithfulness came in the form of an acceptance letter to the Dental Hygiene program!
Thank you, Lord!
To give some people a little background, just so you can fully understand how this all was completely God that I was accepted into this competitive DH (dental hygiene) program: I have been aiming to be a dental hygienist ever since I was a junior in high school. I always wanted to be in the medical field, because I wanted to do mission work with it. I was lining up all my ducks in a row (did I mention that I can be a control freak?), and I knew just exactly how it all would happen. I knew exactly what prerequisites I was going to take, when I was going to take them, and what grades I was going to get. I figured out how long it would take me to finish before I could apply to this DH program in Reno, and even knew what my class would be (2011). And so I had everything figured out... or so I thought.
Entering into college, I really struggled with my first few science classes, especially General Chemistry and General Biology! I could not figure out what I was doing wrong! I was studying hard, knew the material inside and out, and yet did poorly on the tests. How could this possibly be? Well, God finally revealed to me my problem: I was doing it on my own, for my own pride and glory. God had to break me with these bad grades and mess up all of my little ducks that were lined up so perfectly by myself, just to show me that I had all the wrong motivations and intentions. I depended on #1 - me. Praise God that He taught me how to depend on Him for everything, including my education! God has been teaching me ever since, that no matter what plans I try and come up with on my own, His plans will always prevail.
Before, I was not committing my desires and plans to the Lord. I knew what I wanted, and I planned accordingly how I was going to get there. But then God shook my selfish little world. He showed me how I need to "commit [my] work to [Him] and [my] plans will be established" (Proverbs 16:3). After all, why else am I really doing school other than to give Him glory in everything I do?
So after that, God taught me how important it was for me to give my plans and desires to Him so that He can guide me in His plans for me. I still had a tentative goal set towards DH, but this time I was open to where ever He was going to lead. If He had a whole different degree in mind, like teaching, I was open to it, because I knew that God's plans were best and (shocker) He really does know what He's doing!
I started learning how to study as unto the Lord. My grades kept up. And it was all by the grace of God.
I finally finished all of my prerequisites this last fall in '08, and applied to the DH program at TMCC in January. This was one of the hardest lessons of trust and patience I have learned yet in these past few months of simply waiting to see what God really had in store for me. I knew that it was all in God's hands. If He wanted me in, I knew nothing could keep me out. But I also knew that if He didn't want me in, everything was going to keep me out (and to be honest, that still kind-of scared me at first!). As the months slowly passed, God continued to fill me with His blessed peace. And yet, there were times when I would go back to worrying, wondering if God really didn't want me doing DH. Questions would creep into my mind like, "What am I going to do with my life if I don't get in?" "Why is it so hard to trust that my Savior is in control?" "What if..."
Every time, His answer was, "Trust Me."
And so now I come to the conclusion. I wanted to explain the whole process God had me go through, because it is an even stronger testimony of His patience, love, kindness, mercy, care, and of His plans!
When I trusted in my own strength, He broke me down and built me back up in His own strength.
When I failed to trust Him, He continued to bless me and teach me His ways.
When I tried to take control over my own future, He taught me how He's already got it covered so that He is completely glorified.
... Then came my omer of manna - my letter of God's faithfulness.
I opened up the letter carefully. Then I read the first word in the letter that said, "Congratulations!" and then my first/immediate reply was, "Thank you, LORD!!!"
It is God that has brought me to where I am, because He wants to use me where He has placed me. It is God that has shown His faithfulness to me, and so I will give all glory to Him!
"And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left." ~Isaiah 30:21
Congratulations, Alisha!! And thanks for sharing all of that!
ReplyDeleteWow, you have a great testimony here on God’s faithfulness and love. I especially liked the part when you said, “After all, why else am I really doing school other than to give Him glory in everything I do?” That really spoke to me in perhaps some changes I should do for myself. Thanks for posting the amazing testimony and once again congratulations on your acceptance into the dental hygiene program.
ReplyDelete