Willingness

"My grace is enough for you; my great strength is revealed in weakness." - 2nd Corinthians 12:9

I was just reading about the life of St. Thérése of Lisieux. When she was a teenager, she wanted God to make her a saint, but she struggled in trying to contain her emotions, such as stubbornness, anger, and the desire to seek attention. She made a mistake that we all make - she tried to work on her own feelings instead of giving them up to God to handle.

Tomorrow, we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. After meditating on His passion, some of us are moved to explore a closer relationship with God, but there are always doubts that pop up into our head: Can I really live a life following the Lord? Am I ready to give up certain things I know aren't good for me? Will God really listen to me? Is He really there? All of us struggle with doubts and questions, but all that God needs from us is our willingness to let Him guide us, instead of trying to do the work ourselves, as Thérése first did. Don't try to control anything or change anything yourself. As He told Paul, His grace is enough for you and in the areas you feel weak, He'll show you His strength. Where you feel you don't believe or can't continue, He'll help you through. All you need to do is tell Him with a sincere heart that you are willing to have Him work in you. That's the beauty of following the Lord - sometimes we think there is too much work involved, but then you see how He gently moves you in love to better, more peaceful places. All He looks for is a simple prayer from the heart saying that you are willing.

Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, today, I give up to You my fears, my weaknesses, and my doubts. I bring before You my desire to follow You, and with all of my heart, I would like You to work in me. Carry me when I am weak and when I doubt. In Your Name we pray. Amen.

A Contrite Heart

"Draw close to God and He will come close to you. Clean your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubters." - James 5:8

We all want to draw close to God and be better people. The great thing about our God is that the second we seek Him, He draws closer to us. I've heard people that claim to try to look for God with no success but that's hard for me to believe. It's a fact that God let's Himself be found by those who seek Him but there is always one condition - as James puts it here - clean your hands, purify your hearts. When you look for God it's because you know that things in you need change and you know that only He can help you, therefore, when approaching God, it must be with an attitude of repentance and a willingness to give up your former way of living/ thinking/ being and let God guide you. It's the only way. How else can you become a better person and see more good things come your way in life if you don't first acknowledge that God needs to shift some things around? Once you are open to this, you will see God come into your life in an undeniable way.

Today's Prayer:
Lord God, I want to be closer to You but I know that my heart needs to be humbled. Search me and bring to light things that I need to change, things that are standing in Your way. Come close to me Lord, for I just want to be close to You. In Your Name we pray, amen.

Don't Go For Just The Surface

"Yahweh says, 'Yet even now, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Rend your heart, not your garment.'" - Joel 12:12-13

We're all thinking about Lent and these sacrifices we're making but it's important that each of us understands what this time is really about. This is a call for us to realize that we need God and work on letting Him in to change our lives for the better. The fasting, the weeping, the mourning described are all outward signs of what's going on inside of us and that's why what God says here is so important. Don't let this time be only about what's on the outside, what you're doing out of routine. God doesn't want us to rend our garments, what's on the outside. He wants us to rend our hearts, seek a true conversion from within. He wants to see a real desire in you to follow Him. What you do on the outside for Lent, going through the motions, does not count for anything if the change isn't going on in your mind, heart, and soul. Don't give up soda, candy, smoking, or anything else you can think of if these Lenten sacrifices aren't practiced out of a sincere desire to seek God's will for your life.

Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, open my eyes to the things I do only in a superficial manner. Help me to put value on what You really want out of me. Help me discover what in me needs to change so that I can be a much better person in You. In Your Name we pray, amen.

Judging To Conclusions

"Jesus stayed in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival and many believed in His Name when they saw the miraculous signs He performed. But Jesus did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all of them. He had no need of evidence about anyone for He Himself knew what there was in each one." - John 2:23-25

A lot of times what we say or do is interpreted by others as meaning something we really didn't intend it to. And how many times do we judge what someone does, take something the wrong way, and get angry about it? This is jumping to conclusions, or actually judging to conclusions, and Jesus warns us serveral times in the gospels not to do it. What is in our hearts is only known to ourselves and most importantly, to God. In Jerusalem, Jesus didn't trust anyone that wanted to spend time with Him or invite Him over because He knew exactly what their intentions were and what was in their hearts. Unlike us, who need to see proof of someone's intentions or evidence in order to really know them, Jesus didn't need any to know the people. Imagine if Jesus weren't God and misjudged all of the people in Jersusalem, thinking they had bad intentions. Imagine all the people that would be unfairly judged on account of an uneducated assumption. We have people misjudge us and we misjudge people. We don't know better and we hardly know what we feel ourselves sometimes, so what right do we have to judge what another person says or does? Thank God that He knows us even when others judge us unfairly. He still knows the truth in our hearts. Jesus says that by the same measure we measure others, we will be measured. We all sincerely need to reevaluate how we measure people and give them all a lot of slack so that God doesn't judge us according to how we judge others.

Today's Prayer:
God, I am only human and make mistakes in judging Your people. Forgive me and teach me how to better my understanding of others instead of assuming I know what they really feel or think. And help me be strong those times I am unfairly judged. Defend me Lord against those who misjudged my words and my actions. In Your Name we pray, amen.

Words

"From the same mouth come both blessing and curse. Brothers, this should not be the case. Can both fresh and salt water gush from the same source?" - James 3:10-11

I was just praying and God let me feel that a great way to tell the heart of a person is by the things that come out of their mouths. Just in the same way that fresh water can't gush out of the same place as salt water, good things can't gush out of the mouth of a wicked person. Yes, people can fool us and be hypocrites, but this is a personal test for each of you - think about the things you speak about. Who do you talk about? When you speak to others, do you speak to encourage or do you speak to put down? Do you use your words to help others or do you use them to manipulate for your own advantage? Do you use your words for deceit or for truth? Or sometimes, speech isn't even necessary, do you lend a voice when someone needs to hear a kind word? Or do you keep your silence and not help? Whatever you choose to say or not say, especially the things that blurt out when you're angry or surprised, are all a true reflection of who you really are, what's really in your heart. You may try to hide this from others, but God sees who you really are and His is the only opinion that matters.

We all have things we need to change and work on. First, we need to realize that speech is a gift God gave us to build and encourage those in need of kind words, not to hurt anyone else or bring ourselves up. Then, we ask God to help us work on those issues we have inside so that both our heart and our words can be pure.

Today's Prayer:
My Lord Jesus, search me and reveal to me where I am lacking. Show me if my words have offended people and how I can correct that and correct my own heart. Help me, too, to forgive those who have hurt me with their words and understand that their hearts are wounded as well. In Your Name we pray, amen.

When You're Off the Path

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts. See if my steps have gone astray, and lead me in your eternal way." - Psalm 139:23-24

Are there ever moments when you look at yourself and don't like who you have become? Do you ever yearn to go back to a time when you were more innocent and life was simpler? A time when you were stronger and had more passion for life and God. I've been feeling like that lately and the Lord just put this verse in my heart tonight. As we all know, life has its ups and downs and somehow we always tend to look at ourselves in the past and think of how much happier we were then than we are now… but the truth is that God knows how to bring our lives full circle. He always restores us and makes life more fuller when we ask. He prepares us in moments we've been weak to be stronger in the future. I know that I can't discount anything I may be feeling now because it is all part of God's plan for me, although I might not see how it fits, but He certainly makes no mistakes. Therefore, wherever we are right now is ok with God, as lost and confused as we may feel, as long as we take the time to ask Him to search us and show us the right path to follow.

Today's Prayer:
Lord, help me to fully accept Your love for me. I know that I am probably harder on myself than You are on me, but I would love to follow Your will completely and need Your direction. Help us to listen to Your voice and let ourselves be guided by You. In Your Name we pray, amen.

Throw It Away

"So, if your right eye causes you to sin, pull it out and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose a part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell." - Matthew 5:29

The reason the devil is so good at what he does is that he aims at the places where you are the weakest. He takes advantage of your vices, but he also tries to hurt you in the areas and relationships that are closest to your heart. A friend of mine has a friend that's been going down the wrong path. They've been friends for years, but in the world she's involving herself in and who she is becoming, he can't follow. He now battles with letting her go or getting swept along, because in these cases, the weakest one usually brings down the other. He told me that when he thinks about it, as much as it hurts to lose her, he'll have to let her go and this verse came to mind. Sometimes it is the things and people that we care most about that will cause us to sin, and when that's the case, holding on is not worth it for anything in the world if it brings harm to our souls. Just like the eye is an important part of your body, God knows those things are important to you, but in the same way that Jesus said to pull it out if it causes you to sin, so must you cut off all ties to the things that keep you from God.

Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, open our eyes and help us see the things that are causing our downfall. Help us see the things in our lives that separate us from You. And once You have shown us, help keep us strong so that we may persevere. In Your Name we pray, amen.

Sins of the Heart

"The fool dreams only of sin." - Proverbs 24:9

Paul said in the letter to the Romans that he does the evil he hates and not the good that he wants to do. Even a man like Saint Paul struggles with his tendency to sin, so we must struggle all the more. God knows this and His grace gives us strength, but we have a problem that needs serious correction if our sin comes from within. We might lose our temper or face temptation and fall, but sometimes we never planned to do these things. However, there are those that plan to sin. Examine your own conscience right now - where are your thoughts? What do you dream of? Is revenge in your heart? Are you hoping to see someone's downfall? Are you planning someone's harm? Even if you never carry these things out, you are a sinner and need to reconcile your relationship with the Lord. One might think that if one doesn't go through with these things, they don't count, but they do. God sees what's in your heart and your evil within is enough to condemn you. You are a fool if you entertain these thoughts. You have evil in your heart and you stray from the Lord who is good. It really doesn't matter who has hurt you, who has betrayed you and sparked the anger because God is just and will take care of those who have wronged you. For your part, turn to God. Cleanse your heart and be at peace with God so that He can heal you and bring you peace.

Today's Prayer:
Lord God, have mercy on those who are far from You and entertain sin in their minds. Have mercy on those that seek revenge and harbor hatred because of their pain. Let them know that Your love is so much bigger and Your mercy heals and soothes all things. In Your Name we pray, amen.

Led Into Exile

"And Yahweh says, 'When you call on me, I will listen. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.' For Yahweh says, 'I will gather you from among all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you and bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.'" - Jeremiah 29:12-14

Sometimes we get so lost when it comes to God. It feels as though we're abandoned by Him and its such a lonely and scary feeling. This is being in exile and sometimes the Lord sends us off into a place where we feel this abandonment so that we can become stronger in that place; we can learn to rise above our own problems and fears. But it is the Lord who sends us there, sometimes because He wants to strengthen our faith and other times because we need to be corrected and pass through trials to be cleansed and purified. Although we are in this foreign place in our lives, God always knows where we are. He makes sure we absorb what we need from there and then He gathers us back into His love. But here's the key to this - "when you search for me with all your heart." If you haven't taken the time to develop your faith to the point that you learn to stand on your own two feet, you will not be drawn back from exile because you are not searching with all your heart. If you have been cast off into exile because you have committed a grave sin before the eyes of the Lord and you do not recognize that sin and repent, you will not be drawn back from exile since you have yet to search with all of your heart. Searching with all of your heart is to put the Lord in first place. You're in exile - how much longer until you realize that you cannot make it on your own? Searching with all of your heart is to do away with the doubting, the selfishness, and the control of your will and surrendering it to God…only then are you really, truly searching. Don't lie to yourself and say that you do look for God, but in the back of your mind want an excuse to validate your own will and your own doubts. It doesn't work that way! If you are in exile, if you feel abandoned, you need to recognize that your one and only true source of life is the Lord. Look for that source and He will let Himself be found by you. He can only work the miracles and bring you the blessings when you let go of what's holding you back. He will listen to you. You will have God's ear and compassion when you just give up the control to Him. Just by seeking Him in this way, He brings you close again to where He is. Your fears, pains, worries, loneliness…this all disappears when He gathers you back from where He sent you. The reward is to be that close to your creator who seeks to bless you and guide you through all the scary parts of life and all the good as well.

Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I seek to surrender myself to You. Gather me back Lord, and bring me close to where I can be guided and led by You. Grant me the blessing of letting Yourself be found by me and having Your ear when I cry out to You. Let this always be the desire on my heart. In Your Name we pray, amen.

Priorities, Priorities

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." - Deuteronomy 6:4-5

We wake up in the morning, brush our teeth, take a shower, eat breakfast, go to work/ school, eat lunch, come home, eat dinner, watch tv, talk on the phone, surf the internet, go to bed. Does this sound like your typical day? What else do you fill it up with? If you have a boyfriend/ girlfriend, I'm sure you spend a lot of the day thinking about them, or talking to them. If you have a child, a lot of your time is spent tending to them, and if you go to school or are a workaholic, most of your time is spent working. You spend most of your time doing these things because they are your priorities - you have made a conscious decision to organize your time in this way according to the things you care the most about. Now, if your day has 24 hours and you filled it up with these things, how much did you give to God today?

Many of us want God to give, give, give to us, and answer our prayers immediately but a lot of times, what you get back from God is in direct proportion to what space He occupies in your life. Honestly, think about where you have God in your life right now, would you want Him to give you the same amount of importance you currently give Him? He does give you so many things because He is merciful, but this verse in Deuteronomy tells you EXACTLY how it needs to be - you need to love God with ALL your heart, with ALL your soul, and with ALL of your strength. Anything less is not good enough at all! This means that He, and only He, must occupy the first place in your life. Not your own life, not your significant other, not your family, not your job, because He is the one that gave you all these things and He can take them away. Remember that Jesus had said to only fix your eyes upon God and all else will be taken care of for you. If you decide to make Him first in your life, then as soon as you open your eyes in the morning, your first thought should be to give Him thanks for the new day. In all you do, wherever you go, you have Him in mind, constantly shooting up mini prayers throughout the day.

Make God first in your life and He will help you with all your other priorities.

Today's Prayer:
Lord, help me to love You with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my strength. You made me and deserve the most and the best of me each day. In Your Name we pray, Amen.

Put It Into Practice

"On the contrary, my word is very near you; it is already in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can put it into practice." - Deuteronomy 30:14

You know very well what God wants of you. You know the difference between right and wrong and what you should do. Therefore, you have no excuse to not do what is right; what God wants of you. You see, it is God that puts this knowledge in you and if He put it in you, He is going to give you the strength to step aside from sin and follow the right path. All you do that you know is wrong, leave it aside for God is speaking to your heart and if you choose to ignore it, you are following your own death. If the Lord Almighty is speaking to your heart and His Word is near you, listen to it and be obedient to His will as He is preparing you for His wonders.

Today's Prayer:
Lord God, help me to listen to Your Word so that I may obey. Help me to put into practice all that You ask me to do. In Your Name we pray, Amen.

Transform Me

"I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I shall remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." - Ezekiel 36:26

Maybe once we did walk with God and let ourselves stray away or maybe we never walked with Him at all and find it impossible that we ever will. Hearts of stone are those that fail to be moved under any circumstances and also those that know better, but allow sin to creep in. Since there is no good in us, in our flesh, the Lord Almighty is the only one that can create a new heart within us and melt away all the coldness we have let into our hearts and spirits. In His mercy, because we hear that small voice inside us and choose to listen to it, He will wash away our former lives and move us to be more like Him and all our acts will be of true love and compassion, and here there is no longer room for sin.

Today's Prayer:
Oh my God, have mercy on me for my heart is cold. I don't do as You please but I realize that I am nothing and I need You to come into my heart and soften it. Come into my heart My God and make me as You want me to be. I need You in my life God and I need You to transform me. In Your Name we pray, Amen.