Tag: #faith

JESUS & PAUL TEACH US TO GROW IN LOVE EVEN IN THE MIDST OF REJECTION

Rejection.  It is something we all must go through. It is a part of life and a cross we all must carry from time to time. Jesus had to endure it regularly until it finally reached the intensity of His crucifixion.

St. Paul also dealt with it on a regular basis. In his second letter to the Corinthians, he points out that it is clear to him that Christ is the one who was actually writing the letter. Paul was just a vessel. Of his letter, he said it was, “written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, and not on stone tablets, but on the human hearts.”  (2Cor 3:2-3).  Those words remind us of St. Paul also saying, “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2:20).  Christ  is writing, teaching, suffering and being rejected because He is united to St. Paul. Understanding that can cause our hearts to be stirred up for God when we read that through St. Paul God wrote, “WE have opened our hearts wide. It is not WE who have closed our hearts to you; it is you who have closed your hearts to US. I speak now as though you were my children; show US the same feelings that we have for you. Open your hearts wide.” (2Cor 6:11-13). After citing all the ways they ( God and Paul) had been rejected, they are pleading for the people to love them. Why?  Because they want what’s best for the Corinthians both here and in eternity.

We can learn much by how Jesus and Paul handled rejection.

FIRST LESSON

They were honest with their feelings. Paul wrote about the great sadness he felt. In His life Jesus wept, loved, showed fear and righteous anger. God gave us our feelings for a reason. A great deal of information can be gained by taking the time to recognize them.  We shouldn’t push them aside and attempt to ignore or bury them. The longer we delay, the more they can fester, thus making it harder to heal.  We shouldn’t be quick to act upon our feelings, but we should always be quick to pray about and discern them.  If we bury our feelings, we can never grow in knowing the true authentic self that can come about from discerning them and, as Paul teaches us, from learning about the heart of Jesus.  The more we know Jesus, the more we will always grow in knowing our true, authentic self.

SECOND LESSON

After they looked at their feelings, Jesus and Paul took the focus off self and placed it on the people that rejected them. Jesus focused on us. Paul focused on the Corinthians.  Continuing to focus on self can only bring negative consequences. Feelings such as anger and resentment can grow if we feed our sorrowful heart. By taking the focus off self and onto the other, we can grow in love and mercy. As we try to understand the heart of the one who has wounded us, our hearts begin to soften and thus, we keep the door open to God. This is only possible in prayer. In union with God, who is the only one who can see the heart, our hearts can soften.  “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1Samuel 16:7).  Softening our hearts towards someone who has rejected us may seem too difficult to try, but with God, all things are possible.  The alternative is a closed heart that grows in negative feelings and, thus, closes itself off from hearing God in all areas of their lives.  Is anything really worth that? 

THIRD LESSON

The closer we are to someone, the greater the hurt if we are rejected, but we never lose by loving. God is love. Experiencing great love is experiencing a great union with the one who is love. We should never regret love and if we are rejected and put our focus on the perpetrator of the rejection and not on ourselves, the love can still grow. It is now a deeper love that can grow towards the perpetrator and towards all people in general because it has now taken on a great sacrifice of finding mercy in spite of the pain. We can certainly see this happened with Jesus. We can see it with Paul as well.  In spite of his many rejections, Paul is known as the Apostle of Love. 

Once we deal with the circumstances of our specific rejection, we can focus on three constant truths that we should, in fact, always keep in mind. 

LESSON ONE 

We know we are always loved. Jesus came knowing He would be put to death, but it was worth it to Him because it was the means to make us part of His family. He loved us and that means that no matter what rejection we may have to endure, we are a part of God’s loving family.

LESSON TWO

God never leaves us. Others can leave, but nothing can separate us from God’s love.  “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39). St. Paul knew that in all that happened, he was not alone. He would never be rejected by God. They were together as one. He knew God’s promise was solid.  “I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

LESSON THREE

The Holy Trinity loves us so much that They chose to live inside of us always! In that constant companionship we are always given what we need to accomplish God’s will. We know that we “can do all things through Christ who strengthens” us (Phil 4:13). To be able to follow our paths knowing God will accomplish all that is needed through us and that He will never leave us is a great comfort. It only becomes scary and overwhelming when we think we are on our own.  Paul knew this truth and we must know it as well.

Rejection is inevitable. It is what we do with it that can make a tremendous heartache a gift of greater love. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18). I hope that the next time you feel rejected, you will consider how Jesus and Paul together dealt with it and hold onto the truth that we are loved so much that God made us a part of His family, never leaves us and because of that constant union, that we can accomplish all things… including the rejection of our neighbors.

Prayerful Reflections

Spend some time reflecting on all the bolded segments and scripture passages.  With each prayerful reflection, talk to God.  Give Him your heart.  Then sit in silence and allow Him to give you His.   

EVERY MOMENT WE ARE ON A JOURNEY THAT HELPS US GROW IN FAITH, HOPE & LOVE

All of life is a journey. We go from here to there.  We start with nothing and end up with something.  

The journey can be a quick trip or a long one.  It can be something big like developing a cure, coming up with an invention, raising children or getting married.  It can be ordinary like making dinner, cleaning the dishes, creating something out of nothing, learning something new, helping a friend, etc.  The one thing all journeys have in common is that we can grow in faith, hope and love through them as we travel moment by moment and day by day to complete them.

GROWTH IN FAITH

Journeys can help us grow in faith because faith is the reason we say yes to the will of God.  Faith is the reason for our beliefs in the teachings of Jesus.   We understand that we say yes to the will of God, because we know in faith that God is our Father. Faith solidifies our gift of being His children.  How does it solidify it?  By the way we act towards Him.  In faith we look up to God just as children  look up to their parents. Just as children want to please their parents by saying yes to what the parents ask of them, we want to please our Father in Heaven and say yes to His will.    Children know the parents love them, want what’s best for them and would never hurt them.  We have that same trust in God, our Father.  When we are doing any task with this in mind, it helps us to grow in the virtue of faith. We are seeing it as the Father’s will for us. It’s not just doing the dishes.  It is a yes. It is pleasing the desires of the Father’s heart. It is glorifying Him.  Faith is why we should always pray to be in the will of God. It places us in the midst of the Father’s loving desires for us. In the yes we bring God glory, but is not just a yes for the particular task at hand.  It is a yes to having the faith that we are His children.

GROWTH IN HOPE 

Hope is always being experienced with every task. We cannot be assured, even if it is a task that we’ve done many times before, that it will be done the same way. We must remain in the dark about all we do because God is infinite and how things were done yesterday may not be how they are done today. We hope to finish the dishes by a certain time in a certain way. Then a multiple number of interruptions takes place. In the end, because our hope is in God, what we hope for comes to be, but not how we thought it would roll out.

GROWTH IN LOVE

Love is hopefully present in all we do for both God and neighbor. All we do glorifies God. We are the prayer. All we do is either for someone else directly or indirectly. Let’s take up the example of the dishes again. Even if you lived alone, cleaning the dishes is a sacrifice of love that can be offered up for others. It may not mean anything today, but maybe next week a friend stops by. How uncomfortable they may feel if there was a week of dishes piled up. So even if it seems it is only for you, going back to hope, it will one day bless someone else. Even while blessing them in the moment of their visit, we know as we offered it up as prayer at the time we were cleaning, we were making a difference.  As the Catechism says, prayer is expressed in both words and gestures (Catechism No. 2562).  When we are aware that we are united as one with God and His divinity, by our very lives, we are the prayer.

SUMMARY 

Prayer is foundational to our relationship with God.  The more we work on our relationship with Him through prayer, the closer we will be to Him and our prayer time and active time will seem to be a seamless transition.  It is the time in formal prayer that helps us see God more easily outside the time of prayer and growing in the theological virtues is no exception. Being mindful of these three theological virtues in all we do can help us to grow closer to God as they connect us directly to Him. Always being mindful that by faith we are pleasing the Father and are saying yes to being His child and also relying on the hope that what we are doing will be accomplished and matters are means to growing in both of these virtues.  Of course , the virtue of love is not left out.  God is love and we know by our faith that when we are aware that we are united to Him in everything that we do, we bring love to the world.  At the same time, it is this love that enflames our faith and hope. 

Whether we crochet or build skyscrapers, what we do at every moment always matters.  It would not be God’s will for us to do what pleases Him moment by moment and then not have it matter.  While some things may seem trivial to use as a means to grow in faith, hope and love, it is in being mindful of these little moments that we can have constant practice and, therefore, more easily put ourselves in the presence of God on a regular basis.  We pause for a moment to note that by faith we are currently doing our task because we are a child of the Father.  In that pause we are made aware of our hope for its success knowing hope never disappoints (Rom 5:5).  We become conscious of our love that stirs us up and ultimately ends up energizing our faith and hope even more.  We know that we are on some sort of journey, no matter how brief or how long, no matter what type of importance we have labeled it to have.  Whatever the journey, they all  keep our theological virtue muscles strong and make us conscious of God’s presence.

PRAYERFUL REFLECTIONS TO TALK TO GOD ABOUT 

Are you spending time each day in prayer so that your relationship can grow in and outside of your prayer time?

MEDITATIONS ON FAITH

It is through faith that you are all God’s children in union with Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:26)

See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God’s children – and so, in fact, we are. (1John 3:1)

My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you? (James 2:14)

MEDITATIONS ON HOPE

I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for. (Jer 29:11)

I depend on God alone; I put my hope in him. He alone protects and saves me; he is my defender, and I shall never be defeated. My salvation and honor depend on God; he is my strong protector; he is my shelter. (Ps 62:5-7)

We have this hope as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and sure, and goes to the curtain of the heavenly temple into the inner sanctuary. (Heb 6:19)

May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom15:13)

Because we have this hope, we are very bold. (2Cor 3:12)

MEDITATIONS ON LOVE

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1John 4:7-8)

This love I speak of means that we must live in obedience to God‘s commands. The command, as you have all heard from the beginning, is that you must all live in love. (2John 2:6)

My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action. (1John 3:18)

LOVE IS HOW PEOPLE WILL KNOW JESUS

“And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have loved one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.“ John 13:34-35

So often we get hung up on what we need to do for God. At times we may even feel guilty because we think others are doing more than us, but in truth we are basing it on the gifts they have, not the gifts we have. There are also times that people urge us to be like them and practice the gifts they use.  In their excitement, they want us to experience what they experience.  Their hearts are sincere, but their gifts aren’t necessarily our gifts.  An introvert, for example, may be made to feel like they are doing very little because they aren’t out preaching to all they meet. In truth their shyness prevents them as well as having no time because they are taking care of an elderly parent.  They aren’t seeing that preaching is not their gift, while loving the elderly parent is.  They discount the gift they have been given of loving the elderly and how they are using it.  God didn’t say people would know Him by any one gift. He said people would know Him by our love. Why? Because “God is love” (1John 4:9) and all our many different gifts are both a means to bring God’s love to others and of loving Him and our neighbor.  

God’s love is known because He loves through us. We are incapable of loving. At times we are made to feel we have to do more, but Jesus never lied and He said people would know Him by our love. How that happens is not up to us. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. Our gifts aren’t what gets us to Heaven. Using them as a means of giving God‘s love and by that loving Him and our neighbor is how we get there.  

We will be judged by our love.  It may be through directly preaching His word if that is how one is called to love, but it also may be through giving someone a drink of water, working in a nursing home, making a family dinner, painting a portrait, making someone laugh, planting a garden, repairing a car, etc.  The gift may be given to one or it may be the instrument that brings people together to form a  community.  Whether for one or many, they are always meant to be shared and so on some level, they always entail sacrifice.  Our efforts may seem successful or they may seem to be going nowhere.  That highlights the mercy of God.  He doesn’t even ask that we be successful in using our gifts. He just asked that we be faithful to our love for Him and neighbor so He is known.

The world needs the gifts you have because what you have is a means of giving God and His love to to others and, at the same time, it is a means of showing our love for God.  Love is the reason for everything.

POINTS TO PRAYERFULLY PONDER DURING THE WEEK

Meditate on John 13:34-35 as cited above.

Meditate on  1John 4:9 as cited above.

Meditate on Matt 25:31-40

Meditate on 1John 3:16-18

What are your gifts and how do you use them as a means of giving God’s love to others?

CONTEMPLATIVE IN ACTION

During the week try and stay in the present moment so you can better be in the presence of God.  Notice how He may be further guiding you along the way based on what you discovered in your prayer time. 

BECOMING AWARE OF THE EXPRESSION IF GOD’S LOVE -PART 2

Let’s continue to reflect on becoming aware of the expressions of God’s love that we started on the last post.

Third Way God Expresses His Love – We are Never Alone

There are times in our lives when we all feel lonely because we are alone. For some, that loneliness can make us feel unloved, but that is not true.  We must always find alone time to pray so we can experience God.  It is in the times of prayer that we slowly grow in our intimate relationship with God.  It is in building this relationship that eventually helps us to fully know that we are never alone.  Intercessory prayer can be a source of God’s love pouring out to others.  This type of love can bring us comfort knowing that others are praying for us as well.  In the Communion of Saints, we are never alone.  Resting in that reality can be of great comfort as it is an experience of God’s love.  

Still, even in praying and knowing we are not alone, active hours can be difficult at times.  Even in those times, we can pay attention to how God expresses His love to and through us. We can ask Him to give us a spark of hope that can come from us being more aware of how He loves through us. For example, we may be alone, but the simple acts of watering the flowers or feeding our pets can put us in the presence of God‘s love and how He expresses it to them through us. Those acts are expressions of caring and nurturing.  As we look upon the flowers and smile at their beauty that is dependent on us watering them and the pets whose health depends on us feeding them, we can experience God‘s love even when alone. It is being expressed through us. Grab it. Notice it. Does God care more about the flowers or our pets than us? No. Notice the care in the nurturing. It’s for them, but it’s also there for us if we take the time to notice it.  

Fourth Way God Expresses His Love – When We Receive It From Others

If we are all expressions of God’s love, at times we receive it not as it is coming through our hands, but by receiving it from others. 

Sometimes our pride makes it difficult to receive. It is far easier to give the cup of water than it is to be weak and vulnerable and in need of receiving it. In those moments we should let our guard down and receive it. At the same time, we should never be upset that someone loves differently than us. That can make us feel that love is missing when, in reality, it is not.

On the contrary , we should rejoice that we can experience God in a way that is different than how we express and, therefore, experience Him.  So often we try and control how someone loves instead of receiving it from a God who has an infinite number of ways to express it.  

To be loved in the same exact way we love is nice, but we can grow in a greater union with God when we are aware that His expressions of love are as vast as the number of His children. 

Of course, there are times when we easily receive God‘s love, but are in such a hurry that we don’t pause to take notice. The smile, the compliment we brush off, the directions given when we can’t find something, the grocery attendant who takes our cart for us or the person who takes away our dirty plate are all expressions of God’s love for us. 

We also take for granted the people that choose to use their gifts to help because we only see it as their job.  All people like doctors, store clerks, garbage collectors, truck drivers… They are all there as helpers and we would do well to consider that the help they give is an expression of God’s love for us.

Summing It All Up

We can all console God’s heart by becoming noticers of the expressions of God’s love. It seems so many hate these days. Who will receive God’s love that is being thrown on the ground by those who let hate consume them? God needs to be love. He needs to express it.  We all have free will. We all have the ability to say no to the love and to infect the world with hate. When we say yes, however, we inject it with love. 

Say yes to giving love and receiving it from others because it is God’s love that needs to be expressed and He longs for us to both give and receive it with gratitude.  We should all take the time to be noticers so we can fully embrace God‘s love. We can comfort His heart that is so deeply wounded when others shun it. Notice how He expresses it through others. Notice how He expresses it through you. Love Him back by noticing, by embracing it, by receiving it with an open heart and letting it flow through you with that giving heart. By doing this, we can console God’s heart that is so deeply wounded by the lack of love. We can grow in our relationship with Him and we can be the prayer of love knowing that love conquers all.   

“Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8).  Hate and judgment block our ability to see God.  They come at such a high cost.  By choosing to always look for and acknowledge love, we choose to see God, to love Him and to console Him.  While others who do not choose love will see the world differently than us, we know we are far better off.  It is through the lens of love that we can have a pure heart and see God even now while we are still on Earth.   

Remember only God is love so do all you can to be the powerful prayer of love. When we say yes to it, we send a spark of love into the world and by that we can set the world on fire with the love of God.  He is longing for us to do this as He has so much love to give. Be the vessel that says yes to giving it and yes to receiving it.  Say yes to being the expression of God’s love!

Points to Prayerfully Reflect On and Talk to God About

What are some of the ways that you are an expression of God’s love when you are alone?  

Be mindful of the love you have received today.  How did God express His love to you through others?  Can what you have learned about God’s love and how He expresses it through others, help you with a present concern you are praying to God about?

“Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God” (Matt  5:8).  What are some ways you can be pure of heart and, therefore, better able to see God?  

So much of God’s love is rejected by others.  We see this reality in the Old Testament, New Testament and throughout history.  We see it happening today.  All of history is a drama of people rejecting and accepting God’s love. Talk to Jesus about this.  

BECOMING AN EXPRESSION OF GOD’S LOVE – Part 1

Photo courtesy of Austin Kayatin.

We are all expressions of God’s love!

That is the sentence I immediately awoke to this morning. It wasn’t an audible sentence, but one that filled my heart quickly even though it came out of nowhere.  I felt like it was an invitation given to me to so that I could learn more about what it meant so that it may be an expression that resonates deeply within my heart.  Eagerly I prayed on it and then picked up a pen so that my heart could be poured out onto the pages.  

FIRST WAY GOD EXPRESSES HIS LOVE – HE CREATED US

We are all expressions of God’s love. What a beautiful reality. 

His love for us is so deep that He could not contain it simply within His heart.  He had to create us.  Our birth is an expression of God’s love.  

There are so many times in everyone’s life when we can feel somewhat down.  Resting in the reality that we were created because we were so deeply loved can be of great comfort.  Think of a time when you were so excited about something that you just couldn’t wait to share it with others.  Now multiply that with an infinite number.  That is why God created us.  His love was so deep, He couldn’t keep us contained in His heart.  He had to create us so He could be one with us and share us with all of the other children He created out of love!! 

SEXOND WAY GOD EXPRESSES HIS LOVE – WHEN WE GIVE HIS LOVE

Now that we see how much He loves us and united to us, desires to share us, we can understand more fully why we are to love God and neighbor.  When we are doing something loving for others, we should take a pause and allow ourselves to be aware of this act of sharing because it is God expressing His love for others through us.   That awareness can help us to receive God’s love just as our neighbor is receiving it, but we have to notice.

Sometimes we are in such a hurry that we don’t even think about what we are doing for someone else. Other times we are, but our focus is totally on them, which is beautiful. 

If we take a moment, however, to let ourselves feel that love, let ourselves be mindful that we are also experiencing God‘s love as it flows through us, our union with God may grow deeper.  The simple act of comforting someone, for example, can be a reminder to us that it is God who is giving the comfort through us and when we are down, even if we are alone, He is there for us with His comforting presence too.  We now know this to be true.  We can no longer doubt it because we have experienced Him offering comfort through us. 

We cannot give love unless God first gives it to us because it is God who is love. When we are more aware of this, we will be more aware of Him and we will notice what He is doing with and through us. We will learn more about the God who loves deeply…the God who loves us dearly. 

IN SUMMARY

God is love and we can console His heart when we embrace that truth. From the very moment we were conceived in His heart, He loved us.  When we love someone and that love is not returned, our hearts break.  Given that God’s heart is pure and He is love, can you imagine how much it must hurt Him when His love is not returned?  So often people never even think of the great union we are a part of when we receive and give God’s love.  It is a priceless gift that we so often take for granted.  

Reflect on these two aspects of the expressions of God’s love and I will share part two next week.

POINTS TO PRAYERFULLY REFLECT ON AND TALK TO GOD ABOUT

Pray about the beautiful reality that God created you out of love and that united to you, He wants to share you with His other children. 

Meditate on the great union of love you are a part of because God loved you from the moment you were thought of. (Psalm 139 13-16) (Jer 1:5)

“Then I heard the Lord say, “Whom shall I send? Who will be Our messenger?”  I answered, “I will go! Send me!”  (Isaiah 6:8).  Personalize that scripture text.  How does God send you out to be His expression of love?

Be mindful of the love you give daily.  How are you an expression of God’s love to others?  What have you learned about God’s love in how He expresses it through you?  Can what you have learned about God’s love and how He expresses it through you, help you with a present concern you are praying to God about?

BUILDING ON OUR RELATIONSHIP GOD CAN MAKE EVEN THE MOST ORDINARY THINGS IN LIFE SPECIAL

Life is so much more enjoyable when we have the heart to see God with us and experiencing all of life with Him.

With a heart stirred up for God as a result of our working on our relationship with Him, we are in a better position to hear God’s voice, sense His presence and be filled with hope and joy in the ordinary and when in the midst of a storm. This week I pondered the many little things that stirred my heart that I would have missed if building on my relationship with God was not always my priority. 

WATERING FLOWERS

One morning I was watering my flowers and realized that God gives us flowers not just so we can enjoy the gift of their beauty, but that we can be given the gifts of hope, caring and nurturing. They could not survive without someone to take care of them. They need me. God “needs” me to keep their beauty alive for my enjoyment, the enjoyment of any guests and, of course, God’s enjoyment. Just like a flower grows, as I care and nurture them out of love for God and neighbor, the virtue of love grew in me.  

With love in my heart, and the desire to glorify God, I knew I could not achieve any of this without God.  With that, my hope grew as well and as I have always said, hope is a powerful prayer.  

Suddenly caring for the flowers became so much more important and God‘s presence and love for me became more apparent as well. The simple, ordinary activity of watering the plants, was no longer ordinary.  Because of my relationship, what could have been simply a chore was an affirmation of my union with God.

What chores do you take care of that are means for you to grow in hope, care, nurturing and, therefore, love?

SITTING ON MY DECK

Time spent sitting on my deck would seem ordinary to many, but I do not see anything ordinary in it. I especially love the mornings. Right away I can see how God decided to use His creativity. This week is a blue week for Him. He added a gentle breeze as well. The birds must also enjoy it because each morning I can hear their songs of praise. 

As I sat in these concerts in the company of the flowers and gazed at the blue skies, I felt the presence of God. I was no longer on a deck. I was experiencing a piece of Heaven here on Earth.

Surrounded by God’s love, enables something ordinary to turn into something extraordinary simply because I make building on my relationship with God a daily priority.  How sad it would be to sit, feel as if I was alone and not experience God’s love.  

Is there an everyday setting that you take for granted that you can see God’s love surrounding you? 

VISITING GARDENS

My community holds garden walks once a week. I enjoy them because I truly believe God shares His gifts with us so that we can experience Him. Then, through the sharing of our gifts, we are sharing God with others. 

This is exciting because being able to share in the gifts of others is a way for us to experience God in a way that we wouldn’t normally experience Him simply because we don’t have that particular gift.  Our gifts truly unite us to both God and neighbor.

As I was walking along the path of one garden, I noticed a pot laying on its side and half of it buried in the ground.  There was also a plant growing so close to the top that it appeared as if the plant was actually growing right out of the flat lying pot. I’m not sure if these people thought of this by themselves or if they got the idea from someone else. It really doesn’t matter. The point is that someone thought outside of the box. They took an ordinary planter and used it in a way that is different than most. To me that screams of God letting you know it is Him. Instantly an ordinary object becomes different and can connect us with God, whose ideas are far beyond ours. Suddenly an outing that thousands will participate in becomes a special encounter with God. 

There is so much joy to be discovered when we take the time to work on our relationship with God every day.  

Is there something you have become aware of that is unusual and good?  Can you sense the presence of God in it?

THUNDER & LIGHTNING 

Lightning is very unsettling to me. I have an agreement with God in regards to it. If they must happen, they come at night and He doesn’t wake me. I heard this week that lightning strikes help dissolve invisible nitrogen in water which creates a natural fertilizer for plants so that they can grow. It also creates an ozone layer that keeps them safe from the sun. Thunderstorms release energy and keep the earth in electrical balance. The explanation for the thunder was too complicated for an  unscientific mind like mine, but the bottom line was that without thunder and lightning the earths electrical balance would disappear in five minutes. They don’t know what would happen without them, but it must be vital or God wouldn’t bother with it. Now while I still don’t particularly like storms, I know God is taking care of me with them firstly by what happens to the planet and secondly by making sure I sleep through them. 

Many see the power of God in these storms. I can’t help but to see God‘s love. 

I won’t be able to think of thunderstorms in the same way anymore.  I am so thankful He lifted the barrier that fear erected. It was a barrier I never really thought I had because He so willingly made sure I was always sleeping through every storm. While I was definitely experiencing His love by sleeping, I now have been given the gift of seeing an added dimension of it. 

Is there something that you fear that you can pray on and find God’s love hidden within it? 

CONCLUSION

Well I could go on about my week, but the point of me sharing this much is that…

Nothing is ordinary when you practice the presence of God. As long as we maintain a relationship with Him, we will be filled with joy, hope, peace, love, gratefulness and optimism. These are traits that help us to see God because they keep our heart open to Him. When our hearts are opened, life is so much more enjoyable!

When this relationship is not worked on these traits are often missing and, therefore, a barrier to God is facilitated. For some the barrier is seen by their joylessness, constant state of anger, despair, agitation, hate, ungratefulness  and negativity. If not checked, the barrier can grow greater and greater.  While normally we can see why a relationship with God is important by witnessing the lives of those who have one, those who do not have a relationship can also be witnesses as to why having one is vital.  In them we see what we do not want.  We do not want to be closed off from seeing God in all things.  We should always be mindful when we are exhibiting traits that are contrary to God. It is best to make looking at what traits we exhibited during the day a part of our daily examine to make sure a negative trait isn’t seeping in. Better to catch it sooner than later. That way we will be better able to experience a bit of Heaven here on earth even in the most ordinary things. 

In short, always maintain your relationship with God. The greater it grows, the more we are able to practice His presence. The more we are able to practice His presence, the happier we will be even when all those around us are upset by the storm.  In time, as we grow in this relationship, the moments when we are aware of God’s presence will also grow until there will appear to be only one moment of awareness that seamlessly extends throughout the day.

PRAYERFULLY PONDER WITH GOD

Pray on the final question posed in each of the four sections above.  Talk to God about your reflections.

Each of the scriptures below can help us in practicing the presence of God.  After you meditate on them, make sure to talk to God about what happened during your meditation.

John 15:4-5. Meditate on this scripture that focuses on our ability to bear fruit when we are united to God.  

1Thes 5:16-18. Meditate on this scripture that focuses on the positive traits that keeps us open to God.

Matt 22:37-39 Meditate on this scripture that reminds us that when we are always loving God and neighbor, we are always in God’s presence.  

4 LESSONS WE CAN LEARN ABOUT SUFFERING BEING A MEANS OF PRAYER

We all like being the prayer, but what happens when we are the prayer of suffering?  Yesterday was a perfect day for me to reflect on this.

I’ll admit it. I am the biggest baby when it comes to suffering, but it’s something we all must go through. Sometimes it’s quick and other times it seems endless. At times it has to do with our health, while other times it’s circumstances. We are on the cross of suffering or we are at the foot of someone else’s cross. No matter what way it comes, we know God has allowed it and good will come out of it for us and others. It may not feel like it at the time, but it is the undeniable truth. How do we know this? Because God allowed Jesus to suffer. Out of it, we were all saved and Jesus became the King of kings and the Lord of lords. 

The suffering of Jesus was a powerful prayer that changed everything.  

Whether we see this in our own sufferings or not, if we approach them united to Jesus and offer them as a prayer understanding that we are the prayer – the unceasing prayer – we will make a difference, too.

FIRST LESSON

In reflecting on this, the first thing we can look at is that God the Father allowed the suffering of Jesus.  We know this to be the truth. Jesus asked that His crucifixion be removed and it wasn’t. Jesus freely gave His life, but that doesn’t mean He liked it.

Being fully God and embracing our humanity, Jesus knew He would be subject to our free will before He came. He knew how it would end. He respected our free will and out of love, He came anyway allowing His crucifixion.  He freely gave His life to us from birth to death.  Nobody took it from Him.

Yesterday I was extremely sick. I’m very sensitive to how much caffeine I get on any given day. Over a two day period I increased my intake and then without realizing it, I greatly decreased it the next day.  I am always very careful about this.  How could I have messed up so badly?  God could have awoken me to the fact that I wasn’t paying attention, but He didn’t. I didn’t realize until the morning when I woke with an intense migraine, caffeine withdrawal headache. I went for coffee in hopes it would ease up and I discovered a decaf pod. That was from the afternoon the previous day.  I never had regular.  I was doomed, but God allowed it. I could be angry, but that would do no good. I chose to do my best to be united to Jesus and try my best to suffer well.  

Knowing that God doesn’t allow things to happen without a reason and that the reason is always love helps one to be better able to suffer well for the glory of God and the good of others.  

SECOND LESSON

Which brings us to the second thing we can see which is that Jesus’s suffering was a prayer that saved us all if we recognize it and say yes to receiving its fruit. That is one way that God turns things around for us.  

If we recognize our sufferings as a powerful prayer, God will use them to help others have their prayers answered and their needs met. No matter what, He always wins. 

That day I could pray very little. Thinking even hurt. The cross was my couch. I could not leave. I simply recalled from time to time that there were people who were in great need of this prayer and I offered it up. It lasted for about 12 hours. When it got bad I would ask for the grace to suffer well and I would thankfully fall asleep. 

THIRD LESSON

The next thing we can learn from Jesus and His sufferings is that God is always with us in ours.  We are never alone. If we feel alone, it is because we are so close to God that we cannot see Him as we could a person or as in those times we call God moments.  It seems dark.  We may even feel abandoned, but in reality we are experiencing a deep union.  God is love and that union is why we are able to suffer with love.  It is why Jesus could comfort the weeping women, forgive and take care of His favorite disciple and His mother.  It is why people were gathered at the foot of His cross and why people are sent our way to bring us compassion and help.

In our frail human state, we would never be able to suffer well alone. God helps us to take it with love for the good of others.  United to Him, He helps us to be the prayer.  

If He were not with me, my suffering would have had no meaning and would have been for nothing, but all God allows has a purpose and being united to Him is the only way His purpose can be fully achieved. 

FOURTH LESSON

Lastly, we can see that all sufferings, when united to God, are rewarded.  Jesus became King of kings and Lord of lords by suffering and He was able to go to the true paradise of Heaven. That is the goal of our final suffering. We suffer greatly when we see our loved ones leave. It is a great heartache, but it is a reality. We must all say goodbye to those we love one day because the reward of their final suffering is Heaven. The many sufferings that we endure daily until that time are rewarded as well if we are mindful of being the prayer, united to Jesus. We know that in some form or other, great or small, we will have to pick up our cross daily. The cross picked up well will have its rewards just as it did for Jesus. Jesus got to be with his Father as a result.   Whether we notice or not, we will be closer to God the Father and Jesus because of our sufferings. 

Every suffering Jesus endured throughout His life brought Him closer and closer to His Father until, in His last suffering, His union had reached its full completion.  

The same holds true for us, which is why it is vital to embrace every cross with love.  Each one, when embraced with love, is rewarded with a deeper union.  

Jesus was blessed with becoming the King of kings and Lord of lords because He was the prayer of suffering for us.

We may not see it, but in some way we are given a blessing because of our suffering. 

Every cross Jesus had all His life helped him draw closer to God the Father and ultimately blessed Him and guided Him along to fulfill His purpose.  If we are to put on Christ and follow Jesus, the same can then be said of our sufferings and the sacrifices we choose.

REFLECTIONS TO PRAYERFULLY PONDER

In prayer and throughout the day ponder on the fact that Jesus wanted  so badly to be with you that He came knowing in the end He would be crucified.  Ponder on the greatness of that love!

Meditate on Luke 9:23.

What crosses did you have to pick up today?  Did you ask for the grace to suffer well so that you could be an effective prayer for others?

Meditate on Phil 4:13.

Do you see the benefit of being mindful that you do not suffer alone and of. asking God to help you to suffer well?

Meditate on 2 Timothy 4:6-8. 

Prayerfully reflect on the final outcome of your life if you live knowing that you suffered well with Jesus throughout it.  How do you feel? Talk to God about it. 

Faith, Hope & Love Successfully Carry Us Through the Unexpected Interruptions in Life

As I sit on my deck in the early morning I am fully aware that I am embraced in the love of God. The sun is shining, the sky has been painted blue, the birds are chirping and there is a very slight gentle breeze. I hear the whoosh of cars driving by knowing people are out and about living their yes to God, just as I am. How they live it may be different than what I am doing, but we are all living out our yes minute by minute.

Each moment that approaches us is an unpredicted moment. We can’t know what each one will bring. We cannot know for certain how any given day will look like with 100% accuracy.  We make our plans, our neighbors make theirs and so does God so surprises and intersections happen.  Sometimes our plans are interrupted just for a moment such as the times when the passerby says hello and breaks our train of thought and other times we are interrupted for a greater length of time because of a phone call or the unexpected guest. Some unexpected moments completely change our lives due to things such as marriage proposals, pregnancy tests, the loss of a job, a health prognosis, etc.

Whether the moment that changes our path is minor or major, there is one thing that is constant. God is there and He loves us dearly. 

Each interruption holds a hidden treasure because each interruption is an invitation to find God’s love and return it to both Him and neighbor.   Each one gives us the opportunity to practice the virtues of faith, hope, and love and it is in those gifts that we are offered the opportunity to deepen our Union with God.

PRACTICING FAITH IN THE UNEXPECTED

We practice our faith by knowing God is there with us even if we can’t see Him.  Jesus, said, “I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt 28:20. 

We can easily forget this truth in the little interruptions. Without even thinking about it, we can get annoyed when we are in the middle of something and find our plans are even just slightly changed.  We focus on self and forget that for some reason, God needs our attention to shift so that we may love Him through our neighbor.  

In larger, happy interruptions, such as the marriage proposal, we can be so excited that we forget to include God, who is the cause of our joy.  We easily love the one we see, but neglect the invitation to love God.  

Some interruptions are devastating and can be very scary, but we never carry our crosses alone. Just as Jesus carried His cross on His back so that He could clearly see all the love that was around Him, we too must carry ours on our back so we can clearly see God, who is love, surrounding us. Our faith will show us that while bad things may happen, we know all things work together for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose (ROM 8:28). We may not know what will come out of any given thing, but with faith and hope we know all will be well.

PRACTICING HOPE IN THE UNEXPECTED 

We must hold onto that hope because hope never disappoints (ROM 5:4-5). When we are interrupted by good things, hope in God can make them even better. When we hope in God during the difficult times, we know He will take care of us. 

God is bigger than any statistic or diagnosis. He alone can change what we see as the odds being stacked against us. It doesn’t matter what has happened in the past for us or others.  It doesn’t matter if the situation is the same or different. God is infinite and we cannot box Him in by expecting Him to do the same thing He did once before.  Our journeys are all different. Our adventures are our own. 

Once before I talked about the annunciation moments. When we think of the annunciation, we often think of all the positive aspects of it and we forget that a young girl was just told she was handed a reason to be stoned to death and she had no proof to counter such an accusation.  Through it all, she found joy through her faith in knowing God was with her.  Her hope lied in trusting that all would be well.   God would carry the burden with her so she could focus on her baby and Elizabeth.  He would protect her and make certain all would be well. This was her hope and she knew hope never disappoints .  Her faith and hope freed her from having to worry and enabled her to love others and experience the love which was all around her.  

Even in something as bad as certain death, which we all must encounter one day, God is our hope and Heaven our destiny where we will be immersed in the center of love for all eternity.

PRACTICING LOVE IN THE UNEXPECTED

Meanwhile, in all times we can practice love. Interruptions can be seen as simple as God saying hi, as difficult calls to look to Him for strength and everything in between. No matter what the circumstance, they are always a call to love Him and since so many interruptions come our way through others, they give us an opportunity to love our neighbor and love is a powerful prayer.  

When we love, we are in union with God because God is love (1John 4:16).  When we love, we are experiencing a piece of Heaven right here on Earth.

IN SUMMARY

With faith, hope and love, we are more capable of being at peace so we can experience God.  It is in that peaceful union that we are a far more effective prayer with our very lives than we would be if we were doubting, stressing and feeling despair that ultimately make it hard to love.

Living in the peace of practicing faith, hope and love is the goal.  It may take a lifetime to achieve, but when we put our faith, hope and love in God, we can grow in these virtues and the union they bring.  

Each interruption, good, bad or otherwise, is an invitation to love as we grow in faith and  hope.  When we fall, and we will, just having the hope and knowledge that God will not disappoint us and having the faith that as His children we will daily grow even if we can’t measure any growth, can make our hearts fill up with love and joy so we can stand once again.  Faith that we are children of the Father and hope in Him, a hope that doesn’t disappoint, reassures us of this so even our falls are reasons to rejoice.  Why?  Because our faith and hope are in God and God is love!

PRAYERFUL REFLECTIONS 

Meditate prayerfully on each area above that is bolded.  Talk to God about your reflections.

Are there joyful interruptions that you have failed to make God a part of?  Can you correct that now? Pray for the grace to do just that.

Are there bigger interruptions in your life that could use the peace that can come from living them out with the heart of faith, hope and love?  Can you try and stress less about them and practice these virtues more?  Pray for the grace to do so.

In the evening reflect on how you handled the small interruptions during the day.  Have you ever considered that the better you handle the smaller interruptions, the easier it will be to handle larger ones when they come?  Pray to handle the small interruptions with a heart opened to love. 

Can you get into the practice of pausing for a brief moment to ask yourself where the invitation to love is in the interruptions life brings?  Find the love and find God.  

Can you rejoice when you fall knowing you are a child whose hope is in a Father who loves you? 

4 METHODS TO HELP KEEP OUR EYES ON GOD, NOT THE STORM OF OUR IMAGINATIONS

Imagination can be one of our greatest gifts, but it can also be used to hurt us.

The storms of life can grip us with fear. They can cause us to freeze. They can pull us in so all of our focus is on the storm. The result can be anxiety, stress and worry. Like the apostles, we tend to focus on the storm, not on who is in the boat with us.

God is a God of peace. Yet we seem to act as if he is the God of upheaval and chaos when we focus all our attention on the storm and not Him.  The storms come in many different ways. The  one I am focusing on here is the storms from our imaginations that fill our heads with negativity.  We are all set.  We’ve worked hard and have carefully thought out our plans.  We are excited.  We are filled with hope and willingness to move forward.  We know we are in God’s will.  We have prayed and discerned.  We see the good that our decision will bring.  Then our imagination kicks in with thoughts that seem like facts.  Suddenly out of left field we are certain we can’t carry out our plan because it would be too hard.  We suddenly believe nobody would care and we would just be wasting time.  We entertain the possibility of being laughed at or ridiculed.  We become certain only bad will come from it even though we can’t even identify what that bad may be.  It’s at those times we can rest assured that it is not God leading us with thoughts such as these. He leads lovingly and in a calm manner. 

This can happen with large scale events and even with common daily circumstances.  The moment we realize this is not the voice of God, we need to shut it down. We must not entertain it. More often than not, the voice is stopping us from doing good or trying to entice us to do bad. We must, as Saint Ignatius says, act like a strong woman and say no so that the enemy will flee.  When we make this a practice with the small situations we find ourselves in, it will become a developed skill in the larger ones.

I had to pull in the reigns of my own imagination this week. I begin focusing my attention on the storm that was over powering the positivity, love and hope from God. It was causing me to doubt what I knew was of God.  It was my own imagination bullying me.  I had to choose to stop the imagination, turn my back on the “what if’s” and turned to God.  I turned my attention to Him and not the storm.  I let Him calm my storm.  

I looked for God in all they ways that were around me, trusting that within my life, He had already supplied me with the tools to fight a battle He knew was coming well before it came.  The tools I had been supplied with were:

  1. The determination to refuse to entertain the negative and demeaning thoughts. 

God‘s love for us is so intense. We need to embrace it and pay no attention to the bullying that is the voice of the enemy. If God wants us to go on a different path, He will not lead us by fear or demeaning ways. He will lead gently and lovingly. When the loud voice of the stranger tries to grab our attention, we must not engage it.  We must silence it by focusing on God’s whispers and all He is offering us to weather the storm.

  1. Observing Others

I recalled the actions of solid people in faith that I had observed over time and how they handled the attempts presented to them in hopes they would abandon God’s will.  Being in a state of heightened awareness, I also noticed people who were currently staying the course on a path they believed God called them to.  In all these people I made the following observations. 

  • They refused to listen to anyone who spoke negatively as an attempt to let their imagination entertain any negative thoughts and discourage them from what they knew they were being called to do.  They were already on the steady course and God was their focus.
  • Their path gave them purpose with passion regardless of what the naysayers said because they had already discerned they were doing God’s will.  Love for God energized them.  It was their driving force.  After much hard work, they were ready to share what they had done with their gift.  Letting their imagination entertain negativity and get discouraged was not a door they would open.  They knew the road they were on was other oriented.
  • They fought with their faith in order to stop the sudden negativity.  They trusted that God wouldn’t suddenly shift gears on them before the task given them by Him was complete.  They trusted that if God gave them something, they needed to use it and let Him worry about the results.  They trusted that if, however,  God did want them to go down a different path, He would lead gently and with love.  They knew they could recognize Him in love, not the negativity their imagination was tempted to entertain and the discouragement it would offer.

It is true that we can fall off the right path and we should not instantly shut out people as they could be helping us, but discernment in knowing God’s voice can help us to know when it looks more like bullying from others or even ourselves.  Sometimes we have to ignore the delivery.  Discernment can help us to follow hope and the love of self giving and not follow despair or a turning inward towards self love.  We can discern when they are trying to get us back on the path we originally set out on and may have fallen off of or if they are trying to pull us off the path that is good and right.  In times that it may seem confusing, it is always good to talk to a trusted friend, pastor, mentor or spiritual companion that can help you discern.

  1. Talking to God about it. 

We must pray and make God the focus in whatever way we know builds up the special relationship we have built with Him.  It is in that special relationship, that communication of love, that we recognize our Advocate and can clearly see that the other voice does not have our best interests at heart.  This is why regularly praying is essential.  We can’t wait until an imaginative storm comes to think we can know how to recognize God’s voice.

  1. Scripture 

I turned to scripture that I had used in the past that always gave me strength.  It is always good to have a list of go-to-scriptures that touch our heart and seem to have a way of giving us peace when the storms of life come.  

These methods quickly helped me find my grounding again.  Instead of embracing despair, I found hope.  Instead of fear, I found faith.  Instead of allowing my imagination to hurt me, I reminded myself that imagination is a gift to glorify God with for creative purposes, not hurting me with thoughts that are contrary to God’s loving and merciful nature.  God never brings about His will by acting contrary to His goodness.  It is in my relationship with God and paying attention to Him in the many ways He presented Himself to me that I found my heart stirred up for God.  It is a gift available to all of us and one that greatly helps when the storms come.

I hope this reflection and these points to ponder help you as much as they helped me in knowing God more personally.

Reflections for Sitting in Prayer with God.

Read and reflect on Lamentations 3.  Notice the negative imagination in verses 1-20.  I seriously doubt his flesh was torn into pieces.  Notice the contrast in verses 21-40. Notice the contrast started with the power of hope.  

How do things change in your own life when you put your hope on God and not the storm of your imagination?

Is there something on your mind that has been stirred up negatively through your imagination?  Do the thoughts seem like the nature of God or His enemy?  

What has been the result of it?  Talk to God about that.   

Practice not entertaining the bully that takes up residency in your head.  

If you know you are walking in God’s will and people seem to be trying to pull you off the path, but you are still feeling confused, talk to a trusted friend to make sure you haven’t gone astray.