Category Archives: The Forge
Includes citations from The Forge by St. Josemaria Escriva
Hope For Those Who Weep for the Lost…
Devotional Thought for This Day:
15 In Ramah a voice is heard, crying and weeping loudly. Rachel mourns for her children and refuses to be comforted, because they are dead. 16 But I, the LORD, say to dry your tears. Someday your children will come home from the enemy’s land. Then all you have done for them will be greatly rewarded. 17 So don’t lose hope. I, the LORD, have spoken.
37 Can you measure the heavens? Can you explore the depths of the earth? That’s how hard it would be for me to reject Israel forever, even though they have sinned. I, the LORD, have spoken.
Jeremiah 31:15-17, 37 (CEV)
743 If you put your mind to it, everything in your life can be offered to the Lord, can provide an opportunity to talk with your Father in Heaven, who is always keeping new illumination for you, and granting it to you.
Maybe it is a once dear friend who loved the Lord in a way that inspired others. Maybe it was a cherished mentor in the faith, a professor who taught you more than you ever realized. Maybe it is a parent, a child, a cousin, even a spouse.
Most of us have someone who has rejected God, or is struggling with His way, and so rejects the gifts of forgiveness and mercy, who rebel against God. Perhaps there is a reason, a church, a pastor or priest who has caused them pain.
WE all have a person who has wandered, even as many of us have. Our reaction is usually the same as grieving the loss of physical life, for we realize that eternity is at stake… We may not want to say it is the difference between heaven and hell, yet our heart fears that consequence.
The words of the prophet Jeremiah are so appropriate for those who watch with tears, those who attempt to wander away. The need to hear God say “dry your tears, they will come back” is real, to allow God to comfort those who worry, who deal with anxiety over those they care about.
The second part of the selection, where God reminds us of His power, and the inability of man to completely reject them is even more comforting. It tells us how much God is willing to pour into calling the people back. Despite their sin, God will continue to work in their hearts.
So then, how do we deal with the trauma we see in their lives? Josemaria’s words comforted me this morning. We talk to God about it, we spend time offering the person, and the situation, and our hearts, batter and torn, to Him. It seems counter-intuitive to offer such to God as a sacrifice, but it is the best we can do. We are His children, and our Father wants to fix what is broken in our lives. He wants to recreate, to show the craftsmanship He finds joy in…and as we give into His care those we love, whom we worry about, we can realize peace. He died for them, that they may live.
Lord, help us give you our brokenness, help us place in your care those we would see return to the joy of your salvation. For Your love for them is even deeper than ours, and You can reach them. Help us to trust You, and in Your love and work in all our lives! Amen!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Do We Make Church Boring?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
Never give up praying. And when you pray, keep alert and be thankful. 3 Be sure to pray that God will make a way for us to spread his message and explain the mystery about Christ, even though I am in jail for doing this. 4 Please pray that I will make the message as clear as possible. Col. 4:2-4 CEV
736 Your life cannot be the repetition of actions which are all the same, because the next one should be more upright, more effective, more full of love than the last. Each day should mean new light, new enthusiasm—for Him!
God designed all finite things to be eventually boring because He designed our heart with an infinite hole in its center, a hole that cannot be filled even with the whole enormous but finite universe. There is a Black Hole in our heart analogous to the physical Black Holes in intergalactic space that can suck all the matter in the universe into themselves. This spiritual black hole is the restless heart that will not and cannot rest anywhere except in God, its home.
Gracious souls are never perfectly at ease except they are in a state of nearness to Christ; for when they are away from him they lose their peace. The nearer to him, the nearer to the perfect calm of heaven; the nearer to him, the fuller the heart is, not only of peace, but of life, and vigour, and joy, for these all depend on constant intercourse with Jesus.
There is a challenge in leading worship, and in leading a church. It is all to common to get in a rut, to try to do the same pattern of worship faithfully. But as St. Josemaria points out, we can’t just be repeating everything, over and over.
Please be careful, I am not advocating changing the church service every week, but to engage in it better every week, To be more effective and build the enthusiasm in the service. Not just an upbeat sense of enthusiasm, but an enthusiasm, a desire, a will that is focused in on being in the presence of Jesus. For in His presence, together, being cleansed by His blood, by being fed on His word, by being united together in Him, each week can be the same thing, done in a way that continually draws people closer.
This is the same for private life, as the black hole is filled with the presence of God, the only thing that can fill it. It is no different to say “never give up praying” as it would be to say, “never stop being aware of being in the presence of God” for both are the same thing.
The way to keep from getting into a rut in either your devotional life, or in church is to remember Who you are talking too, Who you are walking with, to realize what happens as you draw nearer to Him. Pray for your pastor and worship leader to help you realize that you are in God’s presence, not just in theirs! (They should be like waiters in a restaurant – you should know they were around, because of Who has been brought to your attention – but Who is brought to your attention is the focus, and the reason you are there!)
Let God fill you! Let God bring about your healing, as you realie He is forgiving and sanctifying you.
Sing, pray, listen, with the knowledge of His presence…
Church and private prayer will never be boring then… you will desire it more and more. And the day you don’t, just refocus on Jesus.
AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 89.
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
A prayer…about prayer
Devotional Thought of the Day:
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. Ephesians 6:18 (NLT2)
738 I will never share the opinion—though I respect it—of those who separate prayer from active life, as if they were incompatible. We children of God have to be contemplatives: people who, in the midst of the din of the throng, know how to find silence of soul in a lasting conversation with Our Lord, people who know how to look at him as they look at a Father, as they look at a Friend, whom they love madly.
The more I read about prayer the more I understand why people are confused by it. Presently I am taking a class on Spiritual Formation, and most of the texts approach the subject rigidly as if spiritual disciplines need the same approach that a Marin Drill Seargent would use!
I understand how that comes about, the person teaching so wants others to have the benefit of praying that they will use at means at their disposal to get people addicted to it. The disciple is not encouraged to pray, they are manipulated to do so. sometimes that is by sheer guilt, and other times by promises that scripture doesn’t make. (The most recent was sharing anecdotal evidence that linked prayer to church growth, leaving the reader to believe that their lack of prayer was the reason they didn’t have record numbers.) We may be sincere in our desire that all men pray, but sincerity does not always mean we teach it the right way!
So how can we encourage people to pray? How can we share with them the peace that comes from communing with God, even if for a few moments in the heat of the day?
I love St. Josemaria’s approach. Indeed, that was how I found his writings, looking for ways to encourage lay ministers and deacons to spend time with God, while they work so hard in secular jobs. As disciplined as the people in Opus Dei are, my experience with them is that they embrace prayer with joy, not as a duty, but as the most pleasing moments in their day. This was true when I was in Italy, and saw the church in their offices there. Our “guide”, who took time away from other work, gratefully allowed us to spend time in the sanctuary praying, as it allowed him to do the same. It was a blessing to pray in the sanctuary, rather than just at his desk!
Years later, I realized that he talked of praying at his desk as if it was so common.
How I long that we do that in our lives, to grasp at the precious moments of prayer, as we would a love note from a spouse or the hug of a child. For that is what prayer is, a moment to share in the love between God and us.
Somehow, that is the message we need to share, inviting people into the time of prayer, sharing with them the peace and comfort we find, as we meditate on God’s love, and lay our burdens on Him.
Then the verse from Paul’s writing isn’t burdensome, but a joy to see fulfilled in our lives.
Lord Jesus, help up not only learn how to pray, but how to lead others into a life of prayer, meditation, and constant communion with You, and the Father and Spirit with Whom You reign, ever One God, AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Where is God in ALL THIS? A question I hope those around me don’t need to ask…
God, who am I?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
Long ago you went to Egypt where you lived as foreigners. Then Assyria was cruel to you, 5 and now another nation has taken you prisoner for no reason at all.
Your leaders groan with pain, and day after day my own name is cursed.
6 My people, you will learn who I am and who is speaking because I am here. Is 52:4-6 CEV
2195 Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord’s Day.
447 After seeing how many people waste their lives (without a break: gab, gab, gab—and with all the consequences!), I can better appreciate how necessary and lovable silence is. And I can well understand, Lord, why you will make us account for every idle word.
The last question I want to be asked in all this COVID19 time is, “Where is God in all of this?” And the reason I don’t want it asked, is because if it is, then we, as the church, haven’t done what we are called to do. We have failed to love both God and our neighbor who asks! Let me explain…
The people in Isaiah’s day must have felt like the balls in a game of pool at the break. Assaulted by force from one direction, they were bouncing off the walls and each other. After watching the 10 tribes get taken into captivity, then being attacked themselves. Going through leader after leader, some who followed God sometimes, others who did so in name, and others who turned the entire nation away from God, they knew how the balls felt, and their tight community was shattered.
I think we are in a similar time, as we just start to adjust to getting smashed when we bounce off another wall, and then another, and crash into each other.
We are all tired… weary…broken… and at times, getting on each others’ nerves.
Our leaders, both religious and secular are struggling, groaning, and in their pain, yes, they often curse God. Or they curse those people (including themselves ) who God has created. There is little difference, for cursing God’s creation is cursing Him.
That is where the point from the Catholic Church’s catechism comes into play. These things we do, they stop people from finding the rest they need in Christ, they block people from finding the peace that gathering with fellow believers would encourage. Our complaints, our cursing, our inability to be still and silent, and know He is God prohibits others from finding the same.
If people are asking where God is, we have to ask ourselves if we are blocking their view of Him. They can’t see Him because we are in the way, with our griping, with our complaining, or protesting how we are treated, or in the way we react to those who do.
We need to find the promise at the end of Isaiah’s quote. We need to remember who God is, as He reveals himself and we see His love for us. He did this at the cross, and yet the Spirit does it each and every day.
He is here… with us,
Here is here… and will heal us.
He is here…
Slow down, stop talking – and point people to Him, and let them know the love and healing that is happening in our lives.
Let them know God is with them, show them His work done by your hands, His words said by your lips, as you go to them. Then rejoice, for they will show you His work in them as well.
Lord Jesus, help us reflect Your love into the darkness of our time, as You have in the past. Help us not to block people’s view of You, but show them Your work in their lives. Bless us, as You have promised with hearts and minds captivated by Your inexpressible peace. AMEN!
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 529.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
What it really means to be “Spiritual”
Photo by Wouter de Jong on Pexels.com
Devotional Thought of the Day:
My friends, you are spiritual. So if someone is trapped in sin, you should gently lead that person back to the right path. But watch out, and don’t be tempted yourself. 2 You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand. 3 If you think you are better than others, when you really aren’t, you are wrong. Galatians 6:1-3
Finally, there is a mind-boggling mystery about agape which we must look into. Somehow when we love we really give ourselves away. We do not just give of our time or our work or our possessions. No, we give ourselves. How can this be? How can I put myself in my own hands and hand it over to you?
430 Jesus, may I be the last in everything … and the first in love.
There are people who claim to be spiritual, not religious. I get it, organized religion is a challenging thing to be part of, and I am a pastor. (Not to mention having a role in the bureaucracy!)
I often wonder what it means to be spiritual because when I ask, the answers are more nebulous, very loosely defined. Some might even say to be like Jesus, loving everyone.
The passage above in red, from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the people of Galatia, puts some meat to the skeleton of “being spiritual.” Spirituality doesn’t turn a blind eye to sin, it gently restores the sinner. It walks with them, working to bring about their healing, revealing to them that God will forgive them.
This is spirituality, this is the point of holiness, and why it makes a dramatic impact in not just your life, but in lives. This is the greatest gift you can give someone, a gift you can give to family, neighbors, co-workers, and even your enemies.
This, of course, is easier said and done, which is where the other two readings from this morning come into play. In order to see this spirituality grow in our lives, we have to put the other person’s good before our own. We have to think of their eternal welfare as being more important than our comfort.
If this is what it means to be spiritual, then I am all for it, but we need to pray more, and spend more time in scripture, and receive the sacrament as often as possible. We need to know the comfort of the Holy Spirit, we need to find the strength of God in our lives, to set aside all of our own self-centeredness. But it is there, in the confidence of knowing God’s presence, that this all occurs, that this all happens.
This is spirituality, to love them as Paul loved the Jewish people who would give up his life and soul to save.
It is time for this kind of spirituality to infect the world again… starting with you and me…
Lord have mercy on us all! AMEN!
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 67.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
management … and Faith
Devotional Thought of the Day:
9 And as for you employers, be as conscientious and responsible towards those who serve you as you expect them to be towards you, neither misusing the power over others that has been put in your hands, nor forgetting that you are responsible yourselves to a heavenly employer who makes no distinction between master and man. Ephesians 6:9 (Phillips NT)
727 When you have to give orders, do not humiliate anyone. Go gently. Respect the intelligence and the will of the one who is obeying.
Most people have to answer to someone. Employees have the obvious bosses and managers that oversee their work. Pastors and priests have presidents and bishops who oversee their work. CEO’s still have to answer to their boards, their investors, even their customer base. Bob Dylan once said it well, you’ve gotta serve somebody.”
Being an employee, a servant of someone is a challenge.
But so is being the manager, the boss, or older terms, the master. Whether you realize it or not, those employees depend on you. Your work has an effect on them, as does the faith that causes you to work in a manner that reveals that faith.
If you believe in God, that is great. But would your employees know that apart from you directly telling them that? Would your students, and others you supervise recognize that as well? St. Josemaria notes that your faith could become known even as you order people about. You may have to ask them to do some hard things, some distasteful things, and yet you can do that in a way that is encouraging, that lifts them up, that recognize their effort and attitude.
In short, those of us who oversee our people need to realize our responsibility to oversee them as God oversees us. With a firm hand, yet with grace, with love, with care.
Heavenly Father, help us to care and provide for those whom we are depending upon. Help us treat them as You would, revealing your love ot them through our actions and our words. We pray this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Another Day, Another Struggle, but that is why there is Hope.
Devotional Thought of the Day:
2 Our LORD, how long must I beg for your help before you listen? How long before you save us from all this violence? 3 Why do you make me watch such terrible injustice? Why do you allow violence, lawlessness, crime, and cruelty to spread everywhere? 4 Laws cannot be enforced; justice is always the loser; criminals crowd out honest people and twist the laws around. 5 Look and be amazed at what’s happening among the nations! Even if you were told, you would never believe what’s taking place now. Habakkuk 1:2-5 (CEV)
We still stumble daily and transgress because we live in the world among people who sorely vex us and give us occasion for impatience, wrath, vengeance, etc.
87 Besides, Satan is at our backs, besieging us on every side and, as we have heard, directing his attacks against all the previous petitions, so that it is not possible always to stand firm in such a ceaseless conflict.
88 Here again there is great need to call upon God and pray, “Dear Father, forgive us our debts.” Not that he does not forgive sin even without and before our prayer; and he gave us the Gospel, in which there is nothing but forgiveness, before we prayed or even thought of it. But the point here is for us to recognize and accept this forgiveness.
223 Along the way to personal sanctity we can at times get the impression that we are going backwards instead of forwards, that we are getting worse instead of better. As long as there is interior struggle this pessimistic thought is only an illusion, a deception to be rejected as false. Persevere and don’t worry. If you fight with tenacity you are making progress and are growing in sanctity.
I came across the Luther quote this morning, and it resonated with me.
We stumble and sin far too often. We want to use other people for the reason, but it is still our weakness that allows us to sin. Luther was right, it is not possible always to stand firm in such a ceaseless conflict. Every fall seems highlighted by Satan, emphasized to cause us to grow in despair, and even to doubt God’s presence and work in our lives.
My reaction to the passage from Habakkuk is that I don’t have ot look out into the world to see the brokenness he describes. He could be looking at me, prophetically. Maybe at you as well. I resonate deeply with the question of why do we have ot watch this all? Why do we have to see the sin and brokenness in the world, and then realize it is just a reflection of our own lives?
I missed out on other things in those passages, and it took St Josemaria to see what I was missing.
It is the impression that I am going backward, not necessarily reality. It is a deception of Satan, much as he did when he took Peter’s eyes off of Jesus while he was strolling on the waves. (I just realize the winds and waves weren’t the issue to be scared of – drowning was!) St Josemaria urges us to keep struggling, don’t worry about the progress, for the struggle is proof of it.
The struggle is proof of God at work in us.
God is still doing what He promised Habakkuk – He is at work, and if we look at Him and see it, we should collapse in awe. God is at work, and even the passage from Luther notes that – we need to recognize and accept the forgiveness God already provided. He forgave us already! He took care of it!
I didn’t see that beforehand but reminded of His promise, I remember He is there. Perhaps that too is understandable, for God says, “Even if you were told, you would never believe what is taking place now…” We just have to trust Him that He is at the world, and depend on His view, for He is at work in us.
Mercifully, lovingly, compassionately comforting and healing broken sinners like you and me.
Even before we cry out, “Lord have mercy on me, a poor sinner!” God has, and our healing is beginning and guaranteed to be completed!
AMEN!
Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 432.E
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Want to Overcome Sin? Start with this…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 [By David.] With all my heart I praise the LORD, and with all that I am I praise his holy name! 2 With all my heart I praise the LORD! I will never forget how kind he has been. Psalm 103:1–2 (CEV)
We were told in the Second Commandment, “You shall not take God’s name in vain.” Thereby we are required to praise the holy name and pray or call upon it in every need. For to call upon it is nothing else than to pray.
It is just as true to say that every snowflake is a gift of God as it is true to say that every cent in a father’s inheritance is a gift to his children. It is just as true to say that every leaf on every tree is a work of art made by the divine Artist with the intention that we see it, know it, love it, and rejoice in it, as it is true to say that every word in a lover’s letter to his beloved is meant to be seen, known, loved, and enjoyed.
33 What are you so proud of?—Every impulse that moves you comes from Him. Act accordingly.
Sin is a huge issue in our lives.
We can not deny it. We can’t really hide it either.
It leaves us broken and shattered.
It leaves us avoiding people, some because we resent them because of some sin they committed against us. Some people we want to avoid because we feel so guilty, so ashamed, and being in their presence brings those feelings crashing down upon us.
As we look at the commands, there is one that sticks out to me, one that can be quickly dealt with, and as it is, we find the grace to deal with the others.
Luther talks about it, the commandment to not use God’s name in vain. Luther points out that means we sin when we should use it when we should cry out to Him for help, and do not use it. When our vanity causes the Lord’s name to be misused.
Imagine not eating because you don’t want to spend the money you have in the bank. I imagine going barefoot on a hike in the mountains because you don’t want to scuff up your new boots. There is a logic that simply doesn’t make sense to these imaginations, that still doesn’t make sense when God pleads with us to call upon Him, to cast our burdens upon Him, to let Him heal us.
You want to stop living in the dark shadows of sin? Cry out to God, call upon Him, don’t leave His name unused, for that is as wrong as using it wrongly.
What happens then, as you begin to converse with God, is that you realize how much He is doing, you start to look for how He encourages you! You see it in the care he takes with the color of a leaf, or the smile of a child, you being to see His artistry in everything, and realize that this artistry is at work in your life as well. As St. Josemaria describes we begin to understand the good things in our lives are there because the Holy Spirit is guiding and empowering us in them, providing the impulse that drives our work
That beauty, that wonder is what leads the Psalmist to praise God, to exclaim in wonder at God’s kindness, at His mercy and love. Our praise is always generated from seeing God at work in our lives. Even in the hard times, even when we have to confess our sin, or lay some burden down at His feet.
This is what happens when we stop using His name in a way that it shouldn’t be used… but call out to Him, even if that cry is as simple and profound as,
Lord have mercy one me a sinner…
He hears, and He answers… and we begin to dwell in peace.
Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 420.
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 20.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Easy Way to Become a Saint
Devotional Thought for your Day:
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
Ephesians 3:16-17 (NLT2)
For a saint is simply a great lover of God, and nothing elicits love more than love. “Everybody loves a lover.” Nothing makes us saints faster than being hit over the head with God’s love.
37 When you love somebody very much, you want to know everything about him. Meditate on this: Do you feel a hunger to know Christ? Because…that is the measure of your love for him.
Thus the Creed is nothing else than a response and confession of Christians based on the First Commandment.
In the old comics, a lightbulb would click on in a bubble over the head of a character who got a brilliant idea. It is a way to describe the aha moment, what they once described as being enlightened.
As a former martial artist, there is another time you see bright lights, and that is when you take a punch or a kick to the head. You become a bit light-headed, you might even see stars!
I think we need the same kind of thing spiritually, we need to be hit upside the head by the love of God. The love that makes us realize how stupid our sin is, how incredible the love of God is. He did this with Paul the apostle, spiritually hit him over the head with love, so much so it took Paul a few days and a miracle to see again.
We need to see God’s glory, and we need to realize that His glory is nothing more and nothing less than His love.
His love for you… and for me.
We have to see him, looking down from the cross, and in love saying, Father forgive them… (that means you and me) We need to see that love poured out on us as we were baptized, as His Body and Blood are given to eat and drink, as the Holy Spirit clothes us with righteousness. It is that love that makes us holy, set apart for one thing – to be loved and love. That is what makes us saints.
This is not just the quickest way, it is the only way…
Lord Jesus, confront us in our brokenness, and ensure that we know You love us! AMEN!
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 13.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 412.
Time to Stop Running and Hiding… Trust Him Instead!
Devotional thought fo the Day:
I don’t know what will happen to me in Jerusalem, but I must obey God’s Spirit and go there. 23 In every city I visit, I am told by the Holy Spirit that I will be put in jail and will be in trouble in Jerusalem. †24 But I don’t care what happens to me, as long as I finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do. And that work is to tell the good news about God’s great kindness. Acts 20:22-24 CEV
Thinking of the love of God as something nice is forgetting that the love of God is the love of God. The awesomeness of God makes the love of God equally awesome. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel, a great Jewish theologian of the twentieth century, said, “God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake.” If you do not like that (one of my students responded to that quotation, “I prefer a God I can handle”; indeed!), then you do not like the love of God, for the love of God is also an earthquake, not an uncle’s love, but a Father’s.
“To die is a good thing. How can anyone with faith, at the same time, be afraid to die? But as long as the Lord wants to keep you here on earth, it would be cowardice for you to want to die. You must live, live and suffer, and work for Love: that is your task” (1037).
I wish I had Paul’s attitude.
I think I am far more like Jonah, who faced a difficult task and chose ot be cast overboard rather than do what God had called him to do.
The is a temptation to run and hid, even if that means embracing death for the wrong reason. For while we know, we are bound to heaven, even though we know God desires us there; eventually, it is not a place to escape the pain and suffering life brings.
We can’t be cowards, abandon our lot in life, and run away. No matter how tempting it may seem.
We have been called to share in the ministry of reconciling people to God. Every single one of us has a role in this. That means we have to be so sure of God’s presence, that we can enter their darkness, that we can break through the gates of hell and endure it, in order to be there and witness God’s love shattering their darkness.
God isn’t the kindly uncle, He is the Father who expects us to take on the family work, to embrace the suffering and pain it will require. To trust Him enough to hand over to Him the things we cannot understand or handle, freeing us to love those we minister too. We need to trust Him enough to let the Holy Spirit comfort us in our distress, as is promised.
That is the key, depending on His promises.
To know that even if we are heading toward imprisonment, or martyrdom, or simply the struggle of our lives, He is with us.
He will see us through. He will be with us through it all…
Lord Jesus, help us to know You, to experience Your love so deeply, that our trust in You overrides our ignorance, our doubt, our fears. Help us embrace the life You have created in us, and called us to live. AMEN!
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 201.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge. Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
