Daily Meditation - Monday 19th.May2008 - THE TWOFOLD DIMENSION OF OUR HUMAN NATURE

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BarbaraTherese

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James 3:13-18
Psalm 19:8-10, 15
Mark 9:14-29

Meditation
HERE
Susie was almost late for a job interview where punctuality was a must. As she pulled into the parking lot, she could see it was filled. Panicking, she prayed, “Lord, please help me find a parking spot.” As she rounded the corner, right in front of her was an empty space. She immediately prayed,*** “That’s okay, Lord; I found one myself.***”


We may chuckle at this story, but it raises a good question:
  • Why are we so quick to look for natural solutions and slow to look for the supernatural answers?
  • Could it be a lack of trust in God?
  • We read self-help books to cope with the challenges in life.
  • We go to friends for advice on how to handle troublesome situations.
  • We automatically call a doctor when a loved one gets sick.
But we don’t think naturally about taking our challenges to Jesus, either for his intervention or for his help in persevering.

Isn’t this what happened to Jesus’ disciples when they were unable to heal the young man possessed with demons?
  • It seems that they were relying on their own abilities instead of God’s power.
  • Jesus told them that they were unsuccessful because “this kind can only come out through prayer” (Mark 9:29)—
  • something they hadn’t done.
There are many reasons why we should pray,
but one of the most important reasons
is that
we are not merely natural people.
  • Created in the image and likeness of God, we have a spiritual dimension as well.
  • We need to be in touch with that spiritual dimension of who we are in order to fulfill our whole person and to know the kind of peace and contentment that we all long for.
  • Through prayer we can touch the Holy Spirit and his power in our lives, so that we are not left living as “mere mortals.”
Do you believe that
God’s Spirit can be a part of your life?
  • Do you believe that you can experience his power to heal you,
  • to lift you up,
  • and to make you his instrument in this world?
Seek Jesus in all parts of your life,
and watch for the transformation
that follows!

“Jesus, help me in my unbelief.
Open my eyes that I may see you more clearly.
Open my heart
that I may love you more faithfully.
Lord, I want to be yours alone!”
 
Who needs money?

In today’s Psalm, we have this verse:
More to be desired are they [the precepts of the LORD] than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
God’s precepts / law / commandments - are to be desired more than gold - and also so much sweeter than honey.

In Matthew 6:19-21 we find:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
There is the comment that you never see a funeral hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer. “You can’t take it with you!!”. When I die, it won’t matter if I had millions of dollars (or Euros or Yen or whatever currency) - or thousands of solid Gold Bricks - but that I had the precepts of the Lord in my heart - and I believed in God and the atoning work of Jesus Christ!!!

:signofcross: Heavenly Father, let us treasure your word, your precepts, your law and commandments!!! Amen
 
Money of itself is not an evil do you think, BW?🙂 Money can be used for so many good and important purposes in our world. We can indeed use money for God’s purposes. It is the accumulation of worldly wealth for its own sake and our own selfish purposes and drives that is the evil.

The person, for example, who works hard and strives to increase worldly wealth in order to care for his/her family and see they are well educated and provided for is quite a positive matter, and in fact may be a duty under God undertaken for love of God and family and His Call to the married state and the raising of children.

If, as an example, I could see a way to increase my financial position and with the end view of helping to alleviate the problem of poverty in our world for example, then I think to strive to be able to make money becomes a good purpose. My prime focus and concern is not so much to make money as to alleviate poverty.

“Man judges by appearances, but The Lord knows the heart”
Heavenly Father, let us treasure your word, your precepts, your law and commandments!!! Amen
…Alleluia Amen!👍

Blessings and my regards…Barb:)
 
Everything
My everything, our God, I give to You—every breath, each cell, all that I ever am, have or do.
Now I ask for Your everything—whatever You wish to give to me and to others through me.
Please nurture and grant this everything growth, blossom and fruit. Then that everything I do give to You—in time and eternity.
Trishie
 
Everything
My everything, our God, I give to You—every breath, each cell, all that I ever am, have or do.
Now I ask for Your everything—whatever You wish to give to me and to others through me.
Please nurture and grant this everything growth, blossom and fruit. Then that everything I do give to You—in time and eternity.
Trishie
…B e a u t i f u l …A w e s o m e…
…and Alleluia Amen…
**
**
**
**
…and welcome to CAF fellow Aussie:)
 
BarbaraTherese, yes isn’t it a joy being an Aussie. There’s always a little subterranean giggle at ourselves as not taking ourselves too seriously, even though we’re very serious about some things. I love coming from a land whose original name was “Terra Australis du Sanctus Spiritus” if I’ve got it spelt right, anyway, “southland of the Holy Spirit”.

Thanks so much for your gentle responses to my prayers, but they already all exist, around a 100,000 words of them, “A handful of wildflowers” The “wildflowers” came one by one, unsought. I never meant to write a book, (which ended up with around 20 chapters, “Love God” “Love others” etc.) I’ve had faith the prayer/meditations came from the Holy Spirit, and go back to them time and time again, and they speak just as clearly for me, for others. Only I’ve never really known what to do with them, how and if to share them as sometimes, as one priest said “It says what I always thought but couldn’t put into words.” I call them “a handful of wildflowers” because in a way they’re like those little loving efforts of my young boys when they brought me handfuls of dandelions or clover flowers as gift of love to “Mummy”. Now I share them sometimes, on this forum, where it gives me great joy to pray for my sisters and brothers as a Prayer Warrior.

You seem pretty deep, from what you post. God bless you in everything, Trishie
 
The two prayers of yours I have read, Trishie, were awesome. I am going to print them and paste them into my prayer book which largely are prayers I may come across that I would like to keep. They really are beautiful.

Australians do indeed have what seems to be cultural - an ability to laugh at themselves and not take ourselves too seriously as well as a general ability to sight the funny/ridiculous. However we can also be very serious minded indeed…especially where Australian Rules football is concerned:D

With your prayers and meditations, have you thought perhaps of putting them into a Blog open to the public?..and do keep posting them into CAF. There are those who comment, and then there are those who may read but never comment. I think the internet has absolutely wonderful potential on many fronts, including evangelizing.

As for “thinking deep”, I was educated by Dominicans with a “Veritas” motto, meaning “Truth” in Latin and we were always encouraged to think anything right through to its natural and logical conclusion and I think it has stuck. Not that I am always right for sure and I always claim my right to be human…I make mistakes and am error prone and this came home to me through my education by nuns too. There is that ancient saying by one of the philosophers whose name escapes a dreadful memory “think wrongly if you will but on all occasions think for yourself” - not that I can entirely agree with the statement while it does hold an element of an important truth…I think so anyway…and when I say “I think” it is claiming and stating my right to be human:D

Blessings and my regards…Barb:)
 
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