2/13/24 - RANDOM THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS, by Deacon Sam
- Jesus - He is God. I am not.
Jesus is calm, speaks tenderly, is loving, gentle and patient with us. We have the freedom not to be perfect. We should not feel like we are constantly disappointing the people around us. Rather than dwell on and obsess over the sins we commit, remember God’s message of love and forgiveness. Give yourself permission to be human and not to be perfect. Give Jesus the permission to give you His grace and His mercy.
- Where has God gone when we have bad moments? Jesus says,” Come to Me” no matter what is going on in your life. When God closes a door He always opens a window. Sometimes we have to move the handle to have God come through the door. Scripture is always about a personal message. Read a passage and put your name into it.
- “Come to Me, Sam (Peter, Barbara, Joni, Tom, etc.) - I call you by name. I crown you with steadfast love. I am here for you. I am with you always.” Let us all recognize the Lord Who walks with us on our journey through life.
- God says that He will never forget us or leave us orphans. Sometimes we fail to look at what is in front of us and look rather to passing glories. God gives us everything we need but often our eyes and hearts are closed. Jesus keeps us all in the palm of His hand. He does not make a mistake. He does not make junk. We are all made in God's image and likeness – we are each most important to God.
- Tolstoy said that if there is no God then nothing matters. But there is a God who became one of us, suffered and died so that everything we do matters, so that we could have life with Him forever. God is here; He is present to us. We do not need to distance ourselves from Him. God is a gift-giver – we should notice His gifts, acknowledge God the giver of gifts and give Him thanks. If we are always waiting for something to happen in our lives, we may very well miss all the good things that are happening in our life now.
- Jesus entered into this world as a family. Jesus, Mary and Joseph were united in faith and love. Hopefully we always keep our love for our family members. When a quarrel arises, forgive each other. If we don't, we lack peace. We can't really have peace with God unless we have peace with our families. We may not have "perfect "families but we can love as God's family. Some of our greatest joys and pain come to us in family life. The story of the Bible is very much the story of familial brokenness and into this brokenness God stepped in. We are made for love – we can love as God wants us to love.
- When God reveals Himself to us, what is our response? Indifference? Ignoring God? Our response to Him of worship is the most important thing in the world. Do we give to God our best? Do we put our heart into our giving? Only God can fill the void in our lives. We may think we search for God but He searches for us first. He knows where we are and He leads us to Himself. Jesus speaks to us and tries to get our attention. He calls us to a journey of finding Him. I think we all really want to connect our lives to Hope and to leave this world a better place than it was when we entered it. It matters not how far away we may have gone from God but only that we are on the right path and have taken the first step to Him. This Lent may we give ourselves to God and lead others to Him.
“Here is a rule for everyday life: Do not do anything you cannot offer to God.” St. John Vianney
“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear sighs and sorrows. This is what love looks like.” St. Augustine
“We shall steer safely through every storm as long as our heart is right, our intentions fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God.” St. Francis de Sales