Are you troubled, scared, and lost? Are you experiencing problem after problem, and feel like there's no hope anymore? Don't worry.
Not one sparrows falls to the ground without your Father's knowing. Even all the hairs on your head are co...
No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Mat 6:24)
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Today I receive all of God's love for me.
Today I open myself to the unbounded, limitless, overflowing abundance of God's universe.
Today I open myself to God's blessings, healings, and miracles.
Today I open myself to God's Word, so that I become more like Jesus every day.
Today I proclaim that I'm God's Beloved, I'm God's Servant, I'm God's Powerful Champion,
And because I am blessed, I am blessing the world in Jesus name. Amen.
[Novena to God's Love by Bo Sanchez]
The Extras of Life
I'm a great fan of Sherlock Holmes's stories. He's not a very religious person since he's very logical, but you see in one of his cases, he honors God by talking about His goodness. He said:
"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion. It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers" (Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Naval Treaty).
I agree with him. There's really so much goodness in our Lord. What Sherlock said about the flowers is so true. The world can survive without flowers. But think about the world without flowers. Without the lavenders, roses, and daisies in our hills and valleys, our planet in that case, would've look dull and lonely.
Same applies with music, our hair colors, and eye colors. The world can revolve without them, but they're still there. Their existence proved that our world is bursting with life and beauty, like what Sherlock said symbolizes the embellishment of life, not a condition of it, which only shows the goodness of our Lord.
The Drawback
There was this girl before me in a line at the grocery store. I've able to see the items she bought when it's already her turn to pay. And she got a lot of packs of beauty products (from whitening soap, facial creams, and hair conditioners) and instant noodles and canned foods. I look at her and she was so beautiful and her skin so glossy. But then I worry, if that's what she has been eating most of her days, I wonder what will happen to her in the future...
We're like her in many ways. We begin exercising to be healthy until all we can see are the abs. We started pursuing our careers to make life happier and meaningful, until they eventually became our world and forgot that anything else matters. We started twitting and posting to connect to our friends until we end up telling lies instead.
Dreams are there to keep us connected to life and not to be disconnected from it.After all, these dreams and desires we have are just that...extras. The problem comes when we focus too much on these extras and forgot the essentials, the main, the integral part – the foundations! Like the flower concept before, we forgot that flowers naturally withers in itself and falls to the ground.
We just forgot that and neglect the branches, the trunks, and eventually the roots while trying to sustain the flowers. For if the flowers died, new flowers can still bloom during spring and summer. But if it's the branches that died, the roots, the foundation, what else is there to be alive for?
When the foundation died, that's when life becomes so bleak and empty. That's when problems after problem happen. That's when fear and doubts tortures you every single day. That's why we see successful famous people committing suicide. And we're confused why such wealthy and famous people could end his/her life like that. They seem to have everything in the world, and they seem to be so happy about it.
The Two Foundations
I'd like to point you to one of Jesus's teachings where he preaches in a mountain before a crowd. And then after he teaches about anger, loving one's enemies, giving alms, and eternal life, he looked at the crowd lovingly and said:
"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined. When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes."(Matthew 7:24-29)
Jesus teaches us about the importance of foundation. He reminded us our priorities. Because in life, there are trials, there are problems, and that is part of life. The devil came to steal, kill and destroy right? Hence, the storm in the story Jesus has told. That's why He encourages us to build our foundation onto something solid, onto something indestructible and boundless. That foundation is God.
If we make God our first, it means God becomes the center of our universe -- the rudder, the steering wheel, the compass. Because to us, God is not just a God, who's someone to worship or praise or to offer sacrifices. He's our Savior, our Hero, our Father, and most especially our Janitor, who clean all of our mess in our family, finances, and personality, when everything we work hard for crumbles to the ground, and he's the only who remains.
This New Year make God first, cause if you don't, He'll be at the last, or worse forgotten since Jesus said: "No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Mat 6:24)
#Lord, we confess You're not really our first. But to You that's still alright. But that's when we fall and you still heal us. This new year, I'd like to make You our first. Please help us do it because we can't do it by ourselves.
Are there times that the noise of this world is more irresistible than the boring silence of prayer?You can leave your comments below.
