His promises

It's been about 2 and a half months into the army alrdy... Throughout the course I had thought of a thousand and one things of what to blog... ranging from Godlessness in the army, conformity, how army pushes you to God, random army thoughts etc etc etc.

But today, I finally decided to shove all those to one side and blog about one thing - His promises.

Ok let's rollback to..... 6 months ago.

I was doing my QT one night... and that particular night, I concluded QT with one promise from God: You will pass your NAPHA test.

Ok let's see my situation then... my pull-ups CMI. my SBJ could barely pass. 2.4km run... my stitch didn't really allow me to run properly. I didn't give up though, I believed God would keep His promise, so I figured that, maybe he wants me to train! Ok i did.

1 month later, guess what? It was the final NAPHA test and I passed ALL STATIONS INCLUDING MY PULL-UPS =O Ok it was really exciting for me then cause that never really did happen in my 18 year history of living. So I was quite geared up for my 2.4 km. I went off with a good start, 2 minutes per round for 3 rounds... But guess what? My stitch appeared 50 METRES INTO THE RUN. Well, it paralyzed me (almost literally) for the 5th and 6th round, bringing my timing up to 20+ minutes...

So then, I ended up into the PTP batch.

What's this God... Didn't you tell me I would pass??

Well, honestly, I kinda forgot about that promise every now and then since PTP = fail in NAPHA or didn't take. Yes I belong to the first category. The only time I remembered that promise was around the IPPT (NAPHA equivalent in a way) dates. And it wasn't helping since the passing standard was pushed from 4 pull-ups to 6.

Guess what. I failed the all 3 IPPTs they gave.

SO. The 4th IPPT came. I wasn't in a very good condition that day. Woke up tired, lethargic, sleepy, muscles aching. Not very good, and to think I rememberd His promise once again the night before. Well, it was the final IPPT (apart from REs) and so, I put my hands together, and said, "LORD, I commit this day and this test to You"

Sit-ups and shuttle run were no problem I guess. When it came to the pull-ups, I remembered that just 2 days ago I could only do.. 4. But God gave me strength indeed. Amen to that. SOMEHOW, I managed to do an awesome 7 (which was pushed down to 6 cause the last one was a "kicking" pull-up. JUST NICE to pass)

Standing broad jump - my past IPPTs were hovering around 1-2 points. very unstable, need 2 points to pass. My first jump gave me 1 point. My second.. gave me THREE.

Hallelujah. Now, it's all down to running again! Just like my NAPHA 5 months ago... I remembered His promise, and I believed that God would keep His promise. However, the sickening thought of a stitch appearing just like 5 months ago was bugging me still. The passing mark was 12 minutes 20 seconds, my previous run with NO stitch was 12 minutes 25 seconds.

So a short prayer to commit the run to the LORD and I was off. Didn't go too bad, until halfway through, I had a stitch >_>

Many thoughts were running through my mind again:

This stitch is just gonna make me fail again
Did I really hear God wrongly? Maybe I wouldn't pass?
This is exactly like my last NAPHA where I pass everything but fail the run
Oh well, I'll just go for the re-IPPT

All these thoughts continued for the entire duration of the remaining run. Not very encouraging really, but I pressed on, giving whatever my stitch allowed me too, hoping to meet 12.20.

My final timing: 12.18

"You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed" - Joshua 23:14