MOVE BEYOND

Do we have knowledge of who truly the Lord is as spoken of in today’s 1st reading in Isaiah. The Lord tells those who are barren to raise a glad cry, and said “Enlarge the space for your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes.” This is a passage that needs to be heard whenever we pray and don’t see the fruit of our prayers. The Lord is all powerful and is a God who means what He says. When He says, I will do it, He means it. Do we really believe and take His word and what He said? If we truly know who God is then we should believe that what He has promised He is able to fulfill. Although we may have no concept of how some things are, the devil wants to play with us, until the day we breathe our last. He would taunt us with such questions as, did the Lord really hear our prayers? The saints who have moved into a deeper level or increase of faith believe this scripture. Yes we have prayed and waited long enough to the point of shedding tears but we do not fall into the path of despair just because our prayers seem unanswered. The Lord has spoken and it will be done. As in Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” But this is what the devil does, he wants to build a wall to prevent us from moving into a relationship with God. The Lord can do anything and bless us all beyond our imagination as long as we take claim of His promises and fix our attention on the love of God. Amen. Hallelujah!

Isaiah 54:1-10
1 Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear, break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor, for more numerous are the children of the deserted wife than the children of her who has a husband, says the LORD. 2 Enlarge the space for your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes. 3 For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left; your descendants shall dispossess the nations and shall people the desolate cities. 4 Fear not, you shall not be put to shame; you need not blush, for you shall not be disgraced…Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, my love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the LORD, who has mercy on you.

We sometimes think that God does not answer our prayers but He does. Let us not fall into this wrong notion, lose hope and turn into different kinds of addictions which cause so much wasted pain and suffering. This is a wicked age and our life should redeem. Only the Lord our God can bring about this redemption in our lives. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalms 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-13
R: I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
1 [2] I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear and did not let my enemies rejoice over me. 3 [4] O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world; you preserved me from among those going down into the pit...“Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me; O LORD, be my helper.” 11 [12] You changed my mourning into dancing;...

There are moments in our faith when we don’t see but do we truly believe that the word of the Lord is true. We know the words but are we convinced and do we really believe Him? It happens to each one of us, we know that the Lord has the power and we come and turn to Him with all our needs but have we reached to the point when we have increased and perfected our faith. During this period of Advent we are invited to deepen our faith. We can’t stay in the level of our 1st communion level of faith. We need to deepen our relationship with God and it must not remain that way. It is good to look at the level of our relationship with God and see if we have grown mature. We often have an excuse for ourselves. We ought to maintain that relationship with the Lord in the level of a child and yet we are called to mature in that relationship with Him. There is a need to broaden and expand our heart to a greater love. It takes effort and dedication on our part to do this. We must not sound to the Lord as an always, “I need, give me” person who is just concerned about ourselves. God will help us but we have to put our trust in Him. We ask the Lord for assistance and He responds but when we get what we want we forget Him and we don’t go back to Him. This is an immature way of interacting with the Lord. We need deepening of our relationship and to move beyond our current level of faith. There may be times when we feel that life is not fair and get tempted to play by the rules of the game that the world presents to us. We have a tendency to think that only those who can measure up to the standard of this world can survive and live. We are very wrong if we succumb to these values rather than take God’s word from today's gospel. It is just a matter of taking God's or the world's word for it. We can embrace the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in our midst. The choice is ours to make. Amen. Hallelujah!

Luke 7:24-30
…I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 (All the people who listened, including the tax collectors, and who were baptized with the baptism of John, acknowledged the righteousness of God; 30 but the Pharisees and scholars of the law, who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves.)