RANDOM THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS, by Deacon Sam
May 10, 2022

Our goal as Christians is to say “Yes“ to God. “Amen.“ “So Be It“. God prepares a celebration of life for us and asks for an R.S.V.P. He wants a response to His promises and gifts to us. We have to act – we have to show up. Faith is a simple “Yes“ to God. In the grace of God, His promises come to pass. We go to God whatever our circumstances. God gives us what we need to carry out our life’s work – our response to Him is “Yes God.“ God says honor Me and give Me glory by your life – put Me first. Show up and be a part of what I do in you and through you. Yes God! Yes God!

When Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, He left us the church. Peter was the first to recognize just who Jesus was - the Son of the living God. Peter had a personal experience of who Jesus was and it opened his eyes. We, like St. Peter, need to have a personal experience of Jesus – we should know who Jesus is. Ask yourself: “Who is Jesus to you?“ We all experience Jesus in different ways but, hopefully we all come to the same conclusion that Jesus is our God, our Savior, the One who gives us life and brings us to everlasting life.

Judgment at our death will be based on what we have done or not done for others, especially the vulnerable, the poor and the lonely. Christian morality has a religious dimension – love of others is inseparable from love of God. By loving and serving others we cannot help but love God.

The Bible is the story of imperfect people who feel their brokenness and turn to God. Do you hunger for God? Do you thirst for holiness? In our hearts we want to be with Him, long for Him and acknowledge His presence with our life. Say “Jesus I love you“ every day. Hopefully Jesus will tell each of us personally one day, “My dear friend, I love you more“.

God wants us to go from glory to glory instead of from struggle to struggle. We can find joy in our trials. Our trials were not meant to decrease us but to produce perseverance in us. The joy of the Lord is our strength. We look for God in times of difficulty and have  faith that His presence is a gift that lives in us. When facing difficulty, we can experience this as joy or pain. It can be a trial which God uses to bring something good out of us. Look for the good in struggle; look for the good in us; mine the gold that is in us. Do we take our difficulties to God or do we try to manage things on our own? God is always there with us and for us. God looks at how we grow in our struggles - what did we learn from them? Did we find God in ourselves and in our struggles? The God of all hope fills us with joy. A life with no hope, no faith and no joy is sad. The true test of our faith is found in the trials of our life. Ask God for help in carrying our personal crosses.

Things are not always as they seem. What we may think is true may not be. Our outward actions may not be as important as what is in our heart. Our humble response to God Who gives us everything is very important. We need to be humble and not try to one-up the other person. We are all sinners who need to ask God for forgiveness. What is my story - my strength, my weaknesses, my desires? We can’t know Jesus without knowing ourselves. We have busy lives, but we can make some time each week to read from Scripture. It is important to be mindful and focus on the present time with ourselves and others. We can practice gratitude for all that we have and ask for God‘s help when we need it. Getting feedback from others helps us to grow, keeps us humble, and helps increase the love of Christ in us.

Countless refugees today seek to escape poverty, oppression and war. God works in our world to create new possibilities – God’s creation activities continue in many spheres and on many levels. God is with us as a source of light, creativity and perseverance. Jesus‘s miracles are signs that offer an insight into how God acts and what the mission of Jesus is. Jesus comes to bring us life. His miracles give us a map about how we can find God. As people of faith, we are encouraged to see our life transformed into the life of the Spirit as our physical powers ebb. Choose life and hold fast to God by keeping a life of friendship to God. As we nurture our relationship with God, our life becomes a life of love, compassion and service to those in need and to God.

“Commitment is doing what you said you would do, after the feeling you said it in has passed.” Saint Camillus

I don’t know who wrote this but I think it is well worth remembering:

In Happy Moments Praise God. 
In Difficult Moments Seek God.
In Quiet Moments Worship God. 
In Painful Moments Trust God. 
For every Moment Thank God.