View Replies

Forum

Prayer Email archive:
(02/10/2002) The Alpha and Omega


Hello prayer warriors, 1. Prayer note: The Alpha and Omega [Ecclesiastes 9:11] I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. Solomon made a discovery about life which is encapsulated in this one verse. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance HAPPENS to THEM ALL. No one is excluded from time and chance. Does that mean or success or failure is driven by mere time and chance or what people would call luck? Does that mean that no one has control of life? I used to think that I had lost control of my life and that I cannot determine my success or failure no matter how hard I try. There are too many elements that I cannot control. If any of you remember, in one of my previous emails, I mentioned that I went on a prayer retreat and was contemplating on my life when I heard God speak to me clearly that my life is in His control and everything that had happened in my life was still under His control. That was one of the most overwhelming experience to know that even though my life is out of my control, it is in God's. However, this verse may seem to contradict that. I've never really pondered on this verse before until recently when my pastor expounded on this verse. The Hebrew words that were used were: eet waapega' yiqreh 'et-kulaam time and chance happen .. them all 'et is untranslatable. The Brown Driver and Briggs Hebrew Lexicon describes it as a sign (marker) of the definite direct object, not translated in English. That is until a revelation came much later to John in the book of revelation. 'et in Hebrew represents alif ta which is the first alphabet and the last alphabet in the Hebrew Language. In John's revelation, we received another name of God: [Revelation 1:8] I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Alpha and Omega represents the first and last alphabet of the Greek language. The New Testament was written in Greek. What was previously untranslatable now has new meaning. In other words, Jesus has control of time and chance. What does this revelation mean to any of us? Well, to me, I feel secure and safe because it confirms again that my life is in His hands. In times of distress, in times of waiting, I know that in the midst of uncertainty, there is a certainty and that is that God is still in control. I know that I am safe and that all things work together for good for me. I know that there are absolutes in the Bible which I can rely on and that God wants the best for me in my life. Not the bad or even the good, but the best. I look back in my life now and I do see God's hands there every step of the way. Even when I am wayward, He was there bringing me back and turning events around for good. We are not subservient to time and chance but if we allow Him, it is Jesus that is in control of our destiny. Please don't take this to mean that we can now shake our legs and not work because things will fall on our lap, our walk with God is always participative. We can choose, like Absalom, to give up on the good things that God has planned for us, or like Joseph, to pursue the things of God. But we know that God is the Lord of time and chance and He will take care of us and give us the best in life. 2. New prayer requests: i. Direction in my life....Prayer for my x-husband http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2040 ii. Renewed Faith and Walk with God -- guest http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2043 iii. salvation and healing -- guest http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2044 iv. Prayer for a friend -- lisa101 http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2045 v. Pray for obedience and a thankful heart -- guest http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2046 vi. loss of a newborn -- nitenrz http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2047 vii. Workin on a New Believer -- m parham http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2048 3. Number of prayer warriors: 1211 We welcome krparent, tylermax13, 070602, daisy, matt81381, psalm150, babydoll, varvegas, rowan, dasackey, gift_to_gab, cherrobjr, larobb, i_love_god, jb4god, leandro, diana, incisor, esther, jreyn, joyfulnoise3, 4176, lindcoop, carlab, elena12, faithfulservant0, twiggy0376, coljoy, jerlinjo, buckeyefuson, resty, juju, full_of_grace, tawnya, mmills, godservant, ncolon, jeb54, alan, st francis st ju, blythebulkin, blythecovey, stanfort, steelers, madeleine, goodoctor, jadcountrygirl, darien, haha, lenznerg, homemade, kylerigg, joel adell, dyanna, chosenchild2000, lou and light into our prayer group. Note: It takes only one second to click below and vote for the site, but it will bring more people to our site daily. You only need to click once below: http://mydevotion.com/mailvote.asp in Christ, Wai Hun
Sunday, February 10, 2002 10:32:01 PM waihun

Please vote for us. This will encourage others to visit the site.