Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
Lord God, strengthen me to acknowledge and take to heart your kingship in heaven and on earth ...8/7/2015 Deuteronomy 4:32-40 & Matthew 16:24-28
By human nature I prefer to take my own seat as God, acknowledging my own power and taking to heart my own successes. Armed with such half-truths, the enemy of God woos my being to be self-serving and egocentric. ‘Taking up my cross is ridiculous, when I can be the one directing those inconvenient to me to be crucified for their sins against me,’ I say in my own self-righteousness. But it is the call of Jesus to take up not my throne but my cross, which is the assignment to love as he loved. Only by acknowledging and taking to heart God’s incomprehensible power will I have the strength to lift the challenges of my life, let alone carry them. Lord God, as I follow the King of Kings, strengthen me to acknowledge publicly and take to heart privately your kingship in heaven and on earth. Love … does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:5-7) Soli ad gloriam dei
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2 Peter 1:16-19 & Mark 9:2-10
In those dark nights of the soul, I always have a choice – to attend to my own thoughts, feelings and fears, or to be attentive to the light of Christ and consider the mystery of his being Son of God. As Son of human kind and of God, Jesus is conversant with saints and angels and with the deeper mystery of God’s love and mercy at work in all of humanity. Holy Spirit of God, when I am drowning in waves of self-pity, self-doubt, and self-centredness, help me be attentive to the deeper reality of Christ Jesus as understanding brother, as glorious Son of God, and as Healer calling me to listen. O Lord, I trust in your merciful love. My heart will rejoice in your salvation. (Psalm 13:5) Soli ad gloriam dei Numbers 13:1-14:35 & Matt 15:21-28
Lord God, help me accept the excellence of your plans, trusting in your love and mercy ... The Israelites waiting to enter into the promised land chose to rely on their fear of the unknown, rather than remember the mercy of God towards them, and trust in his grace. On the contrary, the woman waiting for her daughter to be healed, boldly trusted Jesus, even to the point of kneeling at his feet and pointing out that even one crumb of his grace had the power to save her child; her daughter was healed instantly. Jesus, too, waited in the tomb on the second day; his trust in his Father resulted in not only his own resurrection but of all humankind of faith. When I am waiting, do I give into my own fear-full understandings, or accept and trust the Lord’s grace? Lord God, help me accept the excellence of your plans, trusting in your love and mercy. O Lord, I trust in your merciful love. My heart will rejoice in your salvation. (Psalm 13:5) Soli ad gloriam dei Numbers 12:1-13 &Psalm 51 & Matthew 14:22-36
When I am confident in my own self, rather than in God, I can easily fall into fake spiritual faith that leads me into serious error. Like Miriam (and Aaron), I can think so highly of myself, that I find ways for promotion, equality and my ‘rightful’ position. “Has the Lord not spoken through [me] also?” my pride says, forgetting that it is the meek, the humble, who Jesus promises will inherit the earth. I can also be so focused on myself and my own understanding, that I, like Peter walking on the water, forget to keep my eyes fixed on the Lord, and so flounder and almost drown in my own limited understanding of the challenges of life. But when I ask, the Holy Spirit of God is more than willing to clean my heart, and put a new and right spirit within me. Christ Jesus, purify the faith in my heart. Peter cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matt 14: 30, 31) Soli ad gloriam dei Numbers 11:4-15 & Psalm 81 & Matthew 14:13-21
Each day, in many ways, God provides for our needs. Yet, we, like the Israelites, prefer to focus on what we do not have rather than on the abundance of simple gifts God our Father gives us in his deep wisdom. Jesus made this lesson abundantly clear one summer evening in Judea in his feeding of the 5000 who ‘ate and were filled’. As my trust in Christ deepens, so does my gratitude and acceptance – and my participation in the Peace of Christ and the mercy of the Lord God. Holy Spirit, help me to accept the Lord’s provision with gratitude. O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! (Psalm 81: 13) Soli ad gloriam dei |
AuthorBeverly Illauq lives in Kemptville, Ontario, where she greets each morning by seeking the Gospel Mystery of the Day - the Word of the Lord for direct and practical application to the specific challenges & joys of the day. Archives
March 2024
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