He Chose Me to Be by Mother Angelica
"Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received Him from God. You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the glory of God. (1 Cor. 6:19) We have a tendency to think our body is our own and we can do as we please with it. But this is not so. We were created by God—created as weak human beings—part animal, part spiritual. Our dignity as human beings was degraded by pride and rebellion in the beginning by our first parents Adam and Eve and then by our own wrong choices. God's love for us devised a way to raise us above our degradation—above our own nature, and set us apart as beings He could rightfully call "sons." He sent His own Son to take our flesh upon Himself—live and die as one of us and then rise from the dead so we would be delivered from our slavery to sin. What a price was paid for one so fragile in nature, so vacillating in will, so prone to evil. The Great King looks for a peasant to raise up to the dignity of a Prince. Each one of us is a kind of Cinderella, who is beckoned by the King to live a new life. The choice is ours, but the prize is His—He has already a right to everything we are, everything we possess. He has only good to give us. Why do we so often prefer what harms us? Is the right to choose good and evil more precious to us than peace, happiness and joy? Would we rather be miserable and misuse our freedom to choose rather than be humble and admit God Knows what is best for us? What price He paid to save us and what price we pay when we do our own will? No, we do not have a right to do as we please with our life or anyone else's. Our life belongs to God and that God is powerful enough to maintain it, good enough to sustain it and provident enough to care for all its needs.
Monday, June 8, 2009
He Chose Me to Be
Week 2 Assignment! Keep Focused! :-)
God Is Doing a New Thing: Week 2 Assignment! Keep Focused! :-): "If we develop an ability to focus on Him, praise Him, pray to Him, we will find that those things that lure us to food when we aren't physically hungry will fade! Honestly! Not only that, but a lot of other challenges in our lives will fall into their rightful place. It is the 'Seek first His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well' principle again!"
Our challenges will fade because He will provide for our needs. He will either remove the challenges completly, or He will provide us with enough grace to endure it...either way it is a win-win situation. So...why don't we (I) utilize this font of grace more often? I want to bring it ALL to Him...nothing is too big or too small for my Heavenly Father. I can tell right away when I begin to lose focus...my anxiety goes sky high, a bunch of things just seem to go way out of control and get to overwhelming proportions. This was never God's intent for my life.
There is a misconception by some that God created us and then left us alone to fend for ourselves. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
He loves ME...
His is an active love that has motivated all that He has done since the beginning of time. When He paints the evening sunset, it is because He loves you. When a child embraces you, it is because He loves you. When the birds sing, the sun rises, the flowers waft a heavenly scent, it is all because He loves you.
He was inspired to initiate relationships with human beings from the beginning of creation because it is in His character to love. He woos you and draws you, placing in you a desire to draw near to Him. That desire is kindled by His love for you. His word reminds us that we love Him only because He first loved us. ---Thin Within p18
TW Day 2
He desires you to know Him--to be in relationship with Him, and to be absolutely authentic before Him.
Ok...in order to know Him, we have come before Him and listen (be still and know that I am God). In order to be in relationship with Him, we need to come to Him frequently and again 'listen'...like any other relationship it requires give and take. Ofcourse 'listening' is not merely 'hearing' but soaking it all in and acting on what we are hearing. Then there is the authenticity stuff...ooo...that's a little harder for me. I'm thinking that it may be a bit harder for many of us...remember how Adam and Even 'hid' once they discovered they were 'naked'. There are many ways of hiding and 'nakedness' is not simply an absence of clothes. We need to come fully before the Lord without any pretence and without any thing else that may block our way.
Oh Lord, may I be fully authentic before You today...wipe away anything that is not from You.
Abbey-Roads: Deus caritas est.
Abbey-Roads: Deus caritas est.: "Who can separate us from the Love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus! And so it is that between them there is but a single life, a single love ... The Love between the Father and the Son... The Holy Spirit."
Holy Experience: Soul ADD
Holy Experience: Soul ADD: "Lord, when I pay attention to everyday graces...
I'm spending my life in God-worship. Could there be a better investment?
Cause me today to pay attention to Your gifts.... a cure for Soul ADD."
Yes...spending our life in God-worship is exactly what we were created for. Oh Lord, let it be.
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