Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Just about a week before Christmas, I got a text message from our church pastor, Ps. Renny.  In her text she informed that her Christmas topic would be based on the above scripture verse and she wondered if I would prayerfully consider sharing one of the four aspects (titles) from the verse to reflect my walk with the Lord this year.

So “prayerfully” I “considered” and a day later, after I had gotten Pr. YP to stand in for me for the English to Chinese simultaneous interpretation for the service on the day, I got back to Ps. Renny saying it would be my honour to give a 3-minute testimony on Christmas Day.

I’m sharing here with you my testimony, and hope you will be encouraged.  May the Lord’s peace be with us all!

******

Shalom, brothers and sisters.

2016 has been a trying year for us with so many happenings, globally and nationally — war, violence, conflicts, injustice and diseases.

Throughout the year, many of you probably have been like me — praying for God’s peace so that we can survive in the harsh reality.  His peace allows me to simply rest in Him and trust that He’s in control.

On a personal level, this year has also been an exceptionally challenging year at work.  I’m a hotelier by profession and I manage a medium-sized 3 star hotel in town.  Running a hotel we face many challenges behind the scene that are not visible to the guests, and our main challenge this year has been our air-conditioning system.

I was just sharing with Ps. Renny and a couple of sisters recently that this year seemed to have breezed through and I wondered what I had achieved as I found myself almost constantly being buried under tonnes of technical challenges at work.  All that have weighed me down and at times, I could hardly breathe.

In such circumstances most will probably pray for wisdom and favours but for me, what I seek most is peace from our Lord Jesus.  Every time when I pray for peace, I surrender all to the Lord, believe and trust in Him, and His peace just falls upon me, without fail.

With the peace in me, I become calm and there’s rest in my heart.  It’s not the absence of problems, it’s calmness in the storm!  I’m at peace inside out and I’m cool as a cucumber! With that, I listen to others better, I analyse the situations better, I manage better, I make better decisions and I’m in control instead of being victimised by the circumstances!  My team is already stressed out and they don’t need a manager who’s panicky and running around like a headless chicken!

The divine peace from our Prince of Peace allows me to remain calm, have the ability to cope and to focus on Him instead of the problems.  His peace sustains me and this peace that lies within me keeps me settled.

I am going to leave you with one of my favourite scripture verses – in John 14:27, where Jesus has promised —
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Blessed Christmas to all, thank you.