KEEP ON GOING

We need to exercise a great deal of perseverance in order to carry out God's will for us. I guess it can be compared to those people who wanted to get fit and lose weight. We've seen a lot of people get thin and get fat. They just continue to fight this battle of the bulge by trying to keep the weight off but back on after a while. I was just reading this article in Reader’s Digest about losing weight and generally, it has a recommendation to eat the fats and exercise less. We just don’t know what to believe anymore. I guess, the hardest part is not in losing weight but in keeping it off. Only a few people managed to keep the weight off for good. Their secret lies in the fact that to maintain a physically fit body means committing to a healthy regimen not for a certain period of time but for life. The same is true with maintaining a healthy relationship with God. Doing the will of God is not like a fair weather thing or something we do when the going is good but when it goes bad we forget about it. It doesn't work that way for when the going gets really tough that is when we should keep on going. As the 1st reading today tells us only those who do not draw back and perish will possess life. Amen. Hallelujah!

Hebrews 10:32-39
...You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised. 37 “For, after just a brief moment, he who is to come shall come; he shall not delay. 38 But my just one shall live by faith, and if he draws back I take no pleasure in him.” 39 We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life.

No matter how tough things may become for us we only have to shrug it off and step up. Just like the story of the donkey that fell into a pit. When the people decided that it would be too much trouble for them to get him out of there they just decided to bury it down there. Every time people would throw dirt and sand into the pit instead of wallowing up into self pity and despair what it did was shrug it off and step up. Before the donkey knew it was out of the pit. The same thing should be our attitude towards life. When somebody throws bad things at us just shrug it off and step up. Then focus on what today’s psalm is telling and we’ll surely get out of whatever pit we’ve fallen into. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 37:3-4, 5-6, 23-24, 39-40
R: The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
3 Trust in the LORD and do good, that you may dwell in the land and enjoy security. 4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will grant you your heart’s requests. (R) 5 Commit to the LORD your way; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will make justice dawn for you like the light; bright as the noonday shall be your vindication. (R) 23 By the LORD are the steps of a man made firm, and he approves his way. 24 Though he fall, he does not lie prostrate, for the hand of the LORD sustains him. (R) 39 The salvation of the just is from the LORD: he is their refuge in time of distress. 40 And the LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.

Sometimes we have this impression that we can effect change on other people so when they don’t we succumb to despair or blame ourselves for not doing a good job. Or when people come out renewed we sometimes take the credit for it and say that it if it wasn’t for us that person would not have made it. It is simply presumptuous on our part to think this way. We may think that we know better but we can never deny that God knows best. It is definitely true what today’s sharing in Companion tells us. That’s why we really have to keep this in mind. “It is God’s work to convert people and transform their lives. As much as a preacher and teacher can convince people of the truth of the Gospel, it is still only the Holy Spirit who has the power to convict us of these truths such that we will be willing to live and die for them. Open my heart, Lord, to the truth of the Gospel so that my mind and heart would be truly formed in all that is good and perfect.” Amen. Hallelujah!

Mark 4:26-34
26 Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land 27 and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. 28 Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” 30 He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. 32 But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. 34 Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.