Obedience to Our Divine Creator

As human beings, we are gifted with God with various faculties that allow us to rise above all other creatures on earth. Alongside with this giftedness, we are also called to be obedient to do His will and follow His commandments. As each day passes by, we are also exposed to life’s complicated ways and somehow along the way, some if not many of them would eventually influence our behaviour towards life and humanity.

At times, we tend to neglect our basic responsibility that to be obedient to our Creator and instead, we follow what our instincts tell us to do. We choose to be far away from His embrace. Notwithstanding His unending kindness to each one of us, we embrace what then is temporal and completely unnecessary in life. We savour them, enjoy them, up to the extent of allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by them thus creating a deep vacuum in our relationship with God.

On the other hand, owning then the intellect and the will could therefore allow us to rule over all these temporal and worldly affairs. We only have to will it and convince ourselves that there is no other way more essential in life than His way up there. Thus, may we learn to accept our limitations and convince ourselves to be consistently obedient to the will of our Heavenly Father. 

The Trait of Extending Gratitude

“Jesus Heals Ten Lepers” – Source: http://biblehub.com/luke/17-15.htm

“….14 When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests. ” And as they were going, they were cleansed. 15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan….”

 

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Can you count the times that you have received blessings from God? Have you returned to Him and say, ” O God I thank you for this good health….progressive business, abundant blessings etc.” Are you able to pause for a moment any time during the day to express your gratitude to God for every kindness that He showered to you?

The blessings that you and me acquire from God come in so many forms. Each waking day reminds us so soon how great our God is. The very fact that we are able to wake up each day is a complete manifestation of His love for us. But how do you welcome every single day in your life? Is it with a gratifying heart ready to embrace such goodness and to return the favour to Him even just by saying, “thank you o Lord for this wonderful day”

The paradox of life at times catch our sense of being ungracious to Him that instead of thanking, we therefore murmur to Him our insensitivity. We merely recognise what is devoid from us while others enjoy them accordingly resulting to our being unhappy of our state of life. Consequently, we fail to appreciate our own goodness and our own blessings. We are only able to see what is lacking in us. “I don’t have a nice car….my family is not rich unlike my neighbour….my son is unintelligent…my dog is sickly….I have no job…etc.”

We only reach out to God to voice out our deficiencies and we never become contented of who we are, what we have and where we are. Such ungrateful hearts keep us away from Him. However, if we learn to embrace our own limitations and in them, we recognise that we need others-our families, neighbours, friends, teachers, etc. we therefore allow ourselves to humbly believe that God is everything in our life. That without that intimate relationship with Him, our life on earth becomes futile. As a result, let us practice humility in life and constantly express to Him above our gratitude for every single gift, blessing, day, person, etc that He endows us everyday. 

Share A Heart

While hearing the celebration of the Holy Eucharist yesterday at CBD Melbourne, one representative of Catholic Care shared with the assembly and ask for generous hearts to donate to their projects. He shares one story of a young cancer patient who struggled much of her life due to her illness. And thanks God that there are generous hearts to share with her some support so that she can provide means to free herself from her agony.

“CatholicCare is a social services agency working on behalf of the Catholic Church in Melbourne and Geelong to build on the vision of ‘life to the full’ for families, individuals and communities in all their diversity, but in particular those who are marginalised in society as a result of poverty, disadvantage and other barriers to social inclusion. Our core work is targeted towards families, communities and individuals whose basic needs are not met; or who are suffering and in need of assistance.” – Source: http://www.cssa.org.au/memberservices/agency/52/#.VB9N71blf1o

Thus, may the hearts of those generous people be touched by the journey of all our brothers and sisters who are struggling to meet needs in life. Those who are suffering from poverty, illnesses, discomfort, discriminations etc.- they need assistance especially financial ones. Let your blessings be shared with these people and God will also provide abundance to you and your loved ones. 

PSALM 145: An Inspiration

 “Every day I will bless you. I will praise your name forever. Great is the Lord and worthy of high praise. God’s grandeur is beyond understanding. One generation praises your deeds to the next and proclaims your mighty works. ”

The wonder of God’s love and kindness is beyond any generation. He has been showering mankind with such kindness that no one could ever destroy His love for humanity. Even though at many times we falter in our faith in Him but still He never abandon us especially during those rough times in our life.

May we also keep on reminding ourselves of such great love. That on times of adversities and problems, may we always gain strength from Him and all the examples of good deeds by His Loving Son who unconditionally sacrificed Himself for our own sake.

And as we start another week tomorrow we will also extend this goodness to all the people that we will meet disregarding any differences in culture, race, colour etc. in the process for after all, we are all brothers and sisters in His kingdom.

Have Faith In Jesus

 

As I returned home from hearing the celebration of the Holy Eucharist today, I was struck by the homily of the priest regarding one’s putting his own faith on Jesus even though, he at that time, appeared just like one of them- a human being yet one of the Divine Persons.

However, when we try to read from the Bible, we could find so many stories of Jesus manifesting Himself as a Divine Healer and a Trusted Friend. On this modern world of today, how do people nowadays perceive Jesus in their life? Do they also believe in His miracles and saving act on mankind in spite of His being non existent nowadays?

These are but a few of those questions that perhaps have been kept deep inside our hearts. Yet in the midst of the noise of this modern world, I always maintain that inner peace so as to allow Jesus to touch my life manifested through the various blessings that I continuously receive from Him.

Hence, I always say my prayers of gratitude to Jesus for allowing me to have those inspiring moment since they also usher a clearing light on my heart. After all, it is Jesus whom I consider as my best and personal friend.