Prayer-Soldier Newbie
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Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 9:31 pm Post subject: Which Master Do We Serve? |
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Which Master Do We Serve?
Scripture:
And Sion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you. (Isaiah 49:14-15)
Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required among the dispensers that a man be found faithful. But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by the day of man. But neither do I judge my own self. For I am not conscious to myself of anything. Yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge not before the time: until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4:1-5)
No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment [clothing]? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they?
And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous [anxious]? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God does so clothe: how much more you, O you of little faith? Be not solicitous therefore, saying: What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:24-34)
Reflection:
We have the tendency of losing touch with those with whom we do not keep some form of contact. Without interaction, those who were once close become a memory over which time washes away. The evil one would have us believe that because we do not see God, He does not see us. We are, then, tempted, in times of trouble, to believe that God has forgotten us even though He seeks to be always within our heart. It becomes easy for such thoughts to become twisted into believing that God has forgotten us or does not care about our trials and tribulations. We are tempted to believe that our prayers are simply lifted up to thin air or to an ear which is no longer there. What we should consider instead, is that in the same moment, God may be asking why we do not hear His knocking at the door of our heart.
The question, then, is not, ?Where is God,? rather, we should ask, ?Where have we allowed God within our heart?? If we search for Him there, we shall be blessed at what we find. It is not a matter of what we see with our eyes, but what we feel within. If we allow Him there, seek Him there, and reach out to Him from there; then, we will discover He is and has been with us always.
Before we lift up our expectations of God, we should consider, what are His expectations of us? From within the perceptions of our trials and tribulations, we may be tempted to believe that God will answer our petitions in ways which require no effort on our part, but if we are the stewards of His creation, then, we must expect that He has expectations of us.
The choice is before us, then, that we may serve the Master of all which is good or we may choose to serve the master of all which is evil. Should we choose the former, He will lead us to spread the blessings of His love, but as we choose the latter, we open the doors to a spreading darkness.
Though our intentions may be for the path of God, as we open the door to the ways of the world, we allow the ways of the evil one a place within us. When we do not allow the love from God to fill our hearts, what festers in the corners and eddies of our soul is the emptiness of indifference. It is within such pools from which selfishness spawns. It is through selfish desires by which evil consumes us and leads us to the ways which only serve to yield harm to those who surround us and thereby our soul.
The evil one would have us believe that we may relieve the pains driven by the world by turning to its empty wealth and fleeting pleasures. It is his desire that we fail to comprehend that all within the world shall return to dust, therefore, if our desires remain with the world, all which we do shall pass away to have served no purpose. What emptiness we believe we fill with the ways of the world shall become emptiness again.
If we believe we are unable to endure the trials of this world, where the hand of God is extended to us to lift us up, what makes us believe we will be able to endure the trials of eternity where every evil we have done is reflected back upon us and magnified manyfold in a place where the hand of the dark one holds on and traps us forever? Without the blessings of love, every transgression of our soul only adds to the burning coals heaped upon our eternal existence. Let us, then, seek to turn away from the darkness within our heart and allow it to be filled with the love of God.
As we allow Him to guide us, He will prepare us for His kingdom. As we bring His love into our moments, they shall grow. Let us turn away, then, from the master of the world and turn to the Master of all creation. Let us allow His love to fill our hearts so that it may overflow to share with all who cross our path. In those moments, our worries shall become fewer as we shall no longer seek to fill an ever expanding void, but shall begin to see the blessings which He desires will be ours both in heaven and on earth.
Questions for further reflection:
In what ways do we see that God is always with us?
In what ways may we identify His expectations of us?
In what ways may we turn from the anxiousness of the world and toward the blessings of God?
May the peace and blessings of the Lord be with you always,
Prayer Soldier
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