You are a special creation of our loving God who loves us more than we can imagine. Remember there is nothing we can do to cause God not to love us. He gave us a free will to accept that love and to enter into a relationship with Him, to love and praise Him. He knows we will make mistakes, but He is a forgiving and loving God.
Scripture tells us,
For you are not pleased with sacrifices; should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it. My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn (Psalms 51:18-19 NAB).
God knows our heart, and when we fail in our relationship with God, the Lord is always forgiving once we return to Him with a contrite spirit.
God calls us into relationship with Him.
So, now the question is, “How do I join into a loving relationship with God?” We do so by making God first in our own lives. He who has a spirit of Thanksgiving is one who is always aware of and thankful for God’s innumerous blessings. Even in times of difficulty, the spirit of thanksgiving is one that understands that God has wonderful things planned for His children, beyond our imaginations. By God’s plan, those difficulties, no matter how challenging or even life threatening, are only temporary. When our work and toil is done on this earth and God is ready to bring us home to Him, will we be ready and grateful to receive His everlasting joy in heaven? Focusing on that eternal reward should help carry us through the challenges of this world to the next.
What is the focal point in our lives and in our homes? When someone walks into our home for the first time, will it be obvious to them that Jesus Christ is King of our home?
We make a faith statement by placing a crucifix or a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a prominent place in our primary living area and other areas of our home. Make Jesus number one in your life.
A good test is to ask yourself, “Other than sleeping, eating, and working, where is most of my time spent?”
Create a list of activities and discern how much time you spend on each one. Your list is not about creating guilt, but rather to create awareness. Let’s face it, you may actually be praying and including God in those activities. Maybe you help a friend or family member regularly because they need assistance. Maybe you help out as an aid at school or church or a medical facility. Maybe you sing songs of praise as you drive down the road.
When we keep in mind the two greatest commandments as Jesus defined them, then we totally have God’s call for us in mind.
1. “The Lord your God is Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength.”
2. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Being in service to others by working in the local soup kitchen, or raking the leaves for an elderly neighbor, or taking the sick to a doctor’s appointment or, finding any myriad of ways of reaching out to help someone, helps us remain focused on God.
It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal. (Pope Saint John Paul II)
Let us draw an intense focus on the Lord our God and Shine like the Son!
