Daily Meditation - Thursday 17July 2008 - PRIDE SPEAKS LOUDLY

[BarbaraTherese]

Mass Readings & Meditation
Readings

Meditation

Isaiah 26:7-9,12,16-19

Have you ever wondered why it seems so much easier for the poor and downtrodden to recognize their need for God than for those who appear to be living a more successful, well-ordered life?

• Perhaps those who are well-off
• have been blessed with so much that they have lost sight of the fact
• that all they have and all they are has come to them as a gift from God.

Perhaps they have begun to think that they have achieved so much and prospered so mightily simply because of their hard work and dedication.

• Pride speaks so loudly that they cannot hear the words of the prophet Isaiah as he confessed to God:
• “It is you who have accomplished all we have done” (Isaiah 26:12).
• The truth is, no matter how successful we have been,
• without Jesus as our daily companion,
• life becomes burdensome and challenging.

Even when we are able to rein in our pride and try our best to be good, life is so much richer and more productive when we invite the Lord to be involved in every aspect of our lives.

• He knows the challenges we face when we try to live according to his values.
• He cares that life is sometimes difficult too.
• That’s why he invites us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened . . . and you will find rest for yourselves” (Matthew 11:28,29).

As a contrast to this image of rest and relief from burdens, Isaiah describes what it is like when we don’t invite the Lord into our lives.

• Using the imagery of childbirth, he says:
• “We conceived and writhed in pain. . . . Salvation we have not achieved for the earth, the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth” (Isaiah 26:18).

We may appear to be successful by worldly standards, but without the Lord, we can be at a loss in those things that really matter.

Jesus is not just a nice guy who hangs around until we need him.

• He is a necessity!
• Without him, there is no salvation.
• Without him, there is no justice.
• But when our hearts and minds are set upon him, there is true joy and peace.
  “Lord, I surrender to you all of my pride, all of the times I think I can live without you. Fill my heart with your presence and your love so that I can be a shining witness for you to others.”

 

[bullfrog543]

i disagree for me i dont pray in this idea i as disabled get to stand on my own two feet in the heat of battle. with disability pride is good thats all they have at times. however im soothed with the word of god i try not to seek his help. for he enjoys the pride of seing me stand tall. i realize one should not have pride as satan did a well inordered form of what pride can do to a person. with so much laughter among people at times god wishes his children to hold their heads up high

 

[bullfrog543]

im in a spiritual war right know raising the meek up with war wounds from here to there. in this war i act alone. in the time of need i am going to expand and then be one with god again, in this war pride rubs off of me trying to withstand the load plead of the meak. in the process i get closer to earth.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

i disagree for me i dont pray in this idea i as disabled get to stand on my own two feet in the heat of battle. with disability pride is good thats all they have at times. however im soothed with the word of god i try not to seek his help. for he enjoys the pride of seing me stand tall. i realize one should not have pride as satan did a well inordered form of what pride can do to a person. with so much laughter among people at times god wishes his children to hold their heads up high

Hello Bullfrog543…I think perhaps there is a difference between self esteem as a child of God and that sort of pride which claims and takes for oneself that which belongs to God alone…and that is the credit of winning in spiritual warfare (for one example only) which has been won through the freely granted and undeserved Grace of God …hence credit belongs to God. I think perhaps the article is speaking of the pride that takes for itself what belongs to God?

You are quite correct and I agree that we who are disabled (I suffer Bipolar Disorder) can be ridiculed by others and this can undermine our self esteem, whereas God desires that we ‘walk as tall’ as any other person at all. We merely have an illness which we did not choose and that God, for His own mysterious reasons, has permitted and permitted in us.

Blessings…Barb