Author: Nicole Obligacion

Will This Bring Me Closer To You?

I always tell my siblings how much our pomeranian, Copper, likes me. Whenever I get the chance to bond with him, he stays beside me and licks me continuously! Also, 99% of the time, he comes to me when I ask him to. But, my all-time favorite moment with him happens during our walks at the park. Whenever he’s more than a meter away, he would look back at me, see me squat on the ground, run towards me, and pounce his tiny bear-like body on my legs. Afterwards, he would sit under me like a baby penguin sits under its parent.

Most of the time, his clinginess is adorable. But, there are moments when I just want him to stay still or stay at a distance from me. For example, yesterday, I brought him to the groomers so he could have his overdue haircut. Instead of sitting on the passenger’s seat, he jumped to me and attempted to sit on my lap for the whole ride. I knew I could get in trouble for this because it was a distraction while I was driving. So, I did my best to softly push him to sit still on the chair beside me.

After his grooming, I picked him up and drove back home. Again, he wouldn’t stop going near me. So, I thought of a compromise. I allowed him to sit on my left leg as I leaned it on the driver’s door. This made him feel at ease and I was still able to turn the wheel without him blocking me. However, in the future, I would need a better plan.

Nonetheless, I do enjoy hanging out with Copper. Even if there are other spaces on my bed, whenever he’s on it, he positions his body beside mine. Whenever I lay down on the floor, he would go out of his “cave” (a.k.a. the space below my bed) and sit beside me. It warms my heart to know that he trusts me and chooses to be close to me.

This scenario reminded me of how the Lord is pleased when I choose to draw near to Him too. It says in Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Also, contrary to how I sometimes feel towards Copper’s clinginess, the Lord will never push us away when we seek Him. In fact, James 4:8 shows us that God will draw near to us when we draw near to Him.

In a way, this was a timely reminder for me because I have been dealing with a lot of major decisions lately. But by God’s grace, He has been helping me process my concerns with His Word, godly counsel, and prayer. Also, as I was pouring my heart out on my journal last night, I found myself writing these down:

“When faced with a difficult decision, Nicole, ask yourself this question: ‘Will this decision bring me closer to Jesus or farther away from Him?’”

“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. Because your love is BETTER than life, my lips will glorify you.” -Psalm 63:1,3

Can I honestly say these verses from my heart?

Do I enjoy God’s presence in my life?

Does my heart yearn for him, thirst for Him, run to him, trust him, and abide in Him and His word in every season of my life?

Do I like what God likes? Do I hate what He hates?

Do I pursue what He wants me to prioritize now?

Do I seek and love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength?

Or do I give him my leftover minutes in a day? And linger in my doubt, laziness, distractions, pride, worry, and desire for treasures that will fade away?

If I think about choosing a decision, no matter how big or small, that will take me or others farther away from the Lord, I would immediately need to have my heart and motives checked and renewed by Him. Because it just wouldn’t make sense. WHAT OR WHO COULD BE BETTER THAN JESUS?

NOTHING! NO ONE!

Copper chooses to be as close to me as possible all the time. If my dog can do that to me, how much more should I have the desire and will to draw closer to Jesus? It boils down to making a choice… and choosing Him every single time will only be by His grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit in me.

Thursday Tune #37: I Am by Influence Music

A colleague asked if I could pray for her this afternoon. She was struggling with a number of concerns and her anxieties were already piling up. My heart ached because I knew that battling with anxieties isn’t an easy thing to do. In fact, in the recent days, I’ve had my own share too! Sometimes, I wish that there was an off button for worries and anxieties in life. Can’t I just erase them from my mind the moment I have them?

Two days ago, I struggled with it so much that I spent the whole day at work going through my tasks with a blank look on my face. It was as if my default mode was set to being melancholic. I was filling my mind with so many “What If’s” and this hindered me from intentionally laying my concerns before the Lord. Instead of having faith, I was nurturing fear in my heart. Instead of trusting in God’s sovereignty and love for me, I was trying to solve things on my own wisdom and strength.

That night, as I drove home, I took a deep sigh at the sight of the heavy traffic ahead of me. I only had two choices: 1) Spend the next hour grumbling on the road, or 2) Seek the Lord and listen to His Word. By God’s grace, I did the second option and I chose to listen to one of Chip Ingram’s podcasts about what to do when we are overwhelmed with anxiety. Yes, I specifically chose this topic. The main passage that Chip dwelt on was Philippians 4:6-7, which says: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

My heart was crushed while I was listening to Chip Ingram’s podcast. Even if I’ve already read these verses a lot of times before, I was still moved by how intentional and gracious the Lord is with us. He knew that we would struggle with anxiety waaaay before we did and His sovereign hand has been guiding us all along through His Word. I was encouraged to develop a lifestyle of praying Biblically and specifically, more so when I encounter anxieties and worries.

Instead of just whining about my concerns and telling them to the Lord, I am reminded to remember who He is in my life. This is because my view of God will affect how I think, feel, and respond to different situations. It will also affect the way I seek Him and pray to Him. Here are some of the characteristics of God that I am encouraged to think about tonight:

“God is greater than all of my fears combined.

God is in control and is always on time.

God deeply cares for you and me.

God is faithful and He will continue to be.

God is merciful over and over again.

God is able to do more than we can imagine.

God desires that we grow in Christlikeness

God loves us — no more, no less.”

In relation to knowing who He is in our lives, I would like to share this song that I discovered on Spotify a few weeks ago. It is called “I Am” by Influence Music. I pray that it would strengthen our hearts as we seek the Lord and His Word even as we deal with anxieties.

 

Overcoming Addictions

“Just one more episode and then, I’ll go to bed.” This was one of the lies I told myself three weeks ago, when I mindlessly binge-watched a series on Netflix. It started with a random search on a Friday night which eventually led me to staying in my room watching 40 more episodes until Sunday midnight. Before I knew it, I was hours away from waking up and preparing for Monday’s work. I have succumbed to an addiction that I didn’t want nor planned to have in the first place. Why did this happen to me? How did I overcome it?

My weekends are usually spent with family and friends or by myself inside my favorite coffee shop. When I am alone, I enjoy writing on my journal, reading the Bible and books, and doing my other hobbies. During that weekend, you could just imagine the sudden shift in my entire system after I experienced the unproductivity. Unfortunately, I saw how it negatively affected me in the ff. areas:

 

PHYSICAL

My body clock was messed up because I watched episodes until the wee hours of the morning. This made my face have that zombie glow. It was intense! I could feel and see how tired my eyes were and I could not appreciate the beauty of the sunlight and nature the next day because they were all too bright for me. Out of my desperation, I remember telling myself “NEVER BINGE-WATCH AGAIN!” However, the day after, I ended up watching two more episodes before I slept. Oh, boy.

 

EMOTIONAL

My unproductivity and lack of sleep unleashed a side of me that I did not like at all. I was more irritable, insecure, stressed, and easily discouraged. I felt weaker by the moment because of my disappointment towards myself and how I wasted a weekend. I don’t even have to describe how I responded to different people and situations last week. You can just visualize how messed up my heart was too!

 

SPIRITUAL

Out of all the aspects that got affected by my recent addiction, this was the one that broke my heart the most. More than being unproductive and feeling my body give up on me, I deliberately chose NOT to spend time with the Bible and seek God during my rest days that weekend. I know. What was I thinking, right? The message to draw near to Him was loud and clear to me, but my stubborn self still did the opposite. That weekend, I felt so helpless and trapped that I ended up continuing what I was doing because it seemed irreparable already. But, God still pursued my unfaithful heart. I remember thinking: “Nic, you’ve experienced and accepted Jesus in your life. You know how He transformed you from the inside out. Have you forgotten about this? Have you forgotten about Him?” In the next few days, by God’s grace, I slowly came back to my senses and saw the addiction and my idolatry for what they really were.

To be more specific, I did three things to overcome this specific addiction:

FIRST: I humbled myself before the Lord and sought His wisdom. I asked Him to help me see the root cause of my addiction. In my case, I realized that I was hardening my heart towards God because of certain unanswered prayers in my life.  (James 1:5)

SECOND: I became accountable to people in my life that I knew would guide and remind me of honoring God as I let go of the addiction. (James 5:16 and Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

THIRD: I deleted the Netflix app on my phone and intentionally prayed and planned for activities that I can do to replace this addiction in my life. (Psalm 24:1, Ephesians 5:15-16, Romans 12:1-2)

Ironically, I have already exceeded the 6-month mark of fasting from my social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). By God’s grace, this has helped me greatly in overcoming many concerns and in being a better steward of the resources that God has given me. But, I realized that it is important to continue abiding in the Lord and His Word if I want to persevere in this and honor Him through it. Otherwise, I will solely depend on my own feeble strength and eventually fall into more addictions in my life.

1 Corinthians 10 spoke to my heart two weeks ago, as God reminded me of certain principles in the Bible. These verses hit me hard: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (v. 12-13, 23, 31)

By the grace of God, during the next two weekends, I intentionally spent time with Him and His word and I slept for longer periods of time. Woohoo! It was definitely more refreshing than what I experienced three weekends ago. Although I have to be honest, at first, it really did take a lot of effort for me to dig deep in His Word again. However, I am encouraged to keep my eyes focused on God’s faithfulness and grace instead of crippling myself with thoughts of shame, regret, and disappointment towards myself. My spiritual condition might have been wounded, but, I continue to put my confidence and hope in Jesus alone. May this truth resonate in my heart — His mercies are new every morning! They are new every morning.

Thursday Tune #36: Why God by Austin French

We live in a condominium that allows dogs, which is perfect for our family because we love our Pomeranian and Schnauzer, Copper and Clue! However, taking care of dogs inside a condominium can be tiring too, especially since they need to be regularly walked outside so they can enjoy nature and do their business. On most days, I really do not mind walking them because I enjoy their company. But, there are just those tiring nights when I wish that they could just walk themselves without causing any trouble. This struggle usually gets triggered whenever it rains or the elevator in our condominium stops working… just like tonight.

Despite feeling so lazy and weak, of course, I still walked the dogs because of my love for them. Haha! I brought Clue down to the ground floor first and we walked around the garden. On our way back to the unit, I noticed how he struggled going up the wooden stairs. He didn’t struggle as much when we went up the other staircase made out of stone and cement. I guess he felt that the wooden one was more unstable.

It was cute, at first, because he was doing his best to stay still like a statue, while I was softly tugging at his leash and calling him up the stairs. But, after a few minutes, I wanted to rest already, so I attempted to lift his body one step at a time. Although, halfway through, I thought it would be better to teach him how to do it on his own. He carefully lifted one paw up, took one step, and then backed up immediately. He did this for a couple of times. Sometimes, taking two steps up and three to four steps backward. I was beside him the whole time. I even blocked the side of the stairs where it was overlooking the floor below, so that he wouldn’t be scared. But still, he kept on shaking and looking down.


“It’s okay, Clue! I’m here. You can do it. One step at a time!” “I know it looks scary, but don’t look down. Let’s go up, Clue!” This scenario went on for five minutes while I kept tapping on the wooden steps, to signal him to keep on going up. Finally, he made his way up and I told him he did a good job while his tail vigorously wagged.

As soon as I entered our place, I wondered why Clue was so afraid of heights and the seemingly unstable staircase. Maybe he had a traumatic experience before which still scares him today. How I wish Clue understood that he didn’t have to be afraid because I was with him. I was and still am able to block the scary view, protect him from falling down the stairs, give him rubs every time he takes one step, and train him to learn climbing up on his own. Doesn’t he trust me?

Somehow, this moment reminded me of what it is like to also not trust in God, especially when I go through challenging, unwanted, and painful situations in life. I saw myself in Clue while he was taking steps forward and backward, while keeping his eyes on the scary height and distance below. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew that it was one of the ways that God was using to humble me.

I remembered a song that I listened to recently which encouraged me to be real before the Lord and to trust that His presence and grace in my life are more than enough for me. It has simple lyrics but it strikes a chord in my heart as I am reminded of the ff. verses about God being our powerful Emmanuel: Psalm 23:4, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 139:7, and Matthew 28:20.

I pray that these verses and this song, “Why God” by Austin French, will encourage us to keep seeking and trusting in the Lord in whatever situation we are in. Yes, He may not always answer the Why’s that we have. But, we can rest in knowing that whatever He reveals to us is enough for His wonderful plans to be fulfilled in our lives… according to His will and for His glory alone.

“Give me a faith stronger than I have
I need to know when it hurts this bad
That You hold my heart when it breaks
And I’m not alone in this place

That’s why God I need You
Why God I run to Your arms
Over and over again

It’s why God I cling to Your love and hold on for dear life
And I find You are right by my side
Always right by my side
Even here in the why… God.”

 

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About Me

My name is Nicole Obligacion and I started this blog because I was inspired by Hebrews 10:24 and Hebrews 3:13. I love to eat, cook, bake, read the Bible, and encourage. :)

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