God puts people in our lives to help us out all the time! These people become some our greatest friends, and they help us through hard times. Do we ever take a second at the very least and think about all the amazing people God has lead you to? In the past week I have gotten to know so many awesome people. When I look back I realize that God lead me to all them for a reason, and we have helped each other out so so much!! This is how much God cares about us, he gives us the strength we need to overcome obstacles by giving us a support group of friends. Friends that care about us, and love us! Friends are God's blessing to us!
When people tell us things like oh you have such great spiritual gifts; do we ever fully believe them?? I mean yes God made each of us with a purpose and our own unique gifts. I don't think though that we realize how special our gifts are and how much they can help others with them. I mean really our lives can be the only gospel some people read, and its very true a lot of times. God gives us the unique gifts for a couple reasons. One to help others, two to be able to spread his Gospel, and grow closer to him. A lot of events happen to us during our lives, and they all happen for a reason. I went on a retreat this week and I honestly didnt want to go 100%, but I knew God wanted me there for reasons I didn't understand until now. And I'm going to be honest I have never seen God work so much in my life till this past week! We are always told oh you're going to do great things for the Lord but in reality we already are. Every time we say yes and we listen to him he is using us to help others in ways we can't imagine sometimes. God is already with us and working through we just have to open our eyes and give him the credit for what happens in our lives. Sometimes it can be stressful yes, but when we look back on our experiences and on the amazing wonderful people we have met we realize where God was taking us, and who we helped along the way. God loves us and he never puts us through things we can't handle or that we don't need. Everything that happens to us is for our own good to help us out in our journey to God and his Son. I mean even if we don't see it until we are looking back on it. If we want to be leaders for Christ first we have to be good listeners not just to Jesus but also to those around us. And we are all a family in the body of Christ. "Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten." God loves us so so much and his love is all for us!
Do you trust God? Simple question right, but there are so many ways to answer this question. I mean sometimes it is hard to trust God because I mean fear and doubt are easily apart of our daily lives. For example Matthew 14:22-33 when Jesus calls to Peter:
The Walking on the Water.
Then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how [strong] the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”
How many of us see ourselves in Peter? We say ok Jesus yeah sure take the wheel, but then something might happen or I might be something someone else mentions to us; and all of a sudden we let go of Jesus and start to doubt him. Then, when it becomes too much for us to handle on our own we run back to him. The cycle goes on and on, and we never build a full relationship of trust with Jesus. If just ask the Lord and his spirit to come and help us, heal us, whatever we need he will do it, and we can be just like Peter. Except even better because Jesus will give us the grace to hold onto him. I mean sure we will almost certainly fall into the water like Peter, but we're not perfect just yet so it's okay if we fall.
We all have a Father at some point in our lives. Now the word father can also have a very different meaning for everyone. But the one thing we need to remember is that we all have a Heavenly father. And he loves us and cares about us so much. So much that he sent his only son to earth to die on the cross for our sins. God our father cares that much about us that he would have his son pay the price for all of our sins. Ok so God is our father but what does it mean, what does it mean to be children of the one and only God? Well we have dignity worth and respect for others; that's what it means! Alright so fathers are three things right? Caregivers, providers, and protectors. God is all of those attributes to us if we let him, and ask him to be. God will always say yes to whatever we need when we ask because we are his children. So ask yourself this question: Do I believe that God loves me as his child? Why or why not?
Life throws a lot of stuff at us on a day to day basis. It gets annoying it gets bad sometimes, and of course who do we blame? God because of he is the almighty and he has control of everything, so why is he letting these things happen to me. In reality he doesn't have control of everything for one reason, we have free will. God does not and will never interfere with our free will. The choices we make are of our own fault, and our own free will. Yet through all of it God still loves us. He doesn't want us hurting ourselves and the people we love because we are making bad choices. When something happens in our lives we can't get stuck we have to keep going to keep living life. When someone leaves or someone dies we can't get stuck and live on the moment that they are gone. We have to move on we have to keep going and live life if not for us for them because they would want us to be living our lives to the fullest.
This might seem like a weird topic, but who are we living for ourselves? As in not caring about anyone else, and doing stuff for us, or are we doing stuff for others, and helping them and treating them right? We were all taught the golden rule when we were children, "Do as to others as you would have them do unto you." Yes I actually have it memorized. And sometimes it easier to be selfish because we might be having a bad day, and we need to think of ourselves and make us feel better before we can even think about anyone else. In reality helping others even if we are having a bad day will make us feel better, and put a smile on our face and someone else's face. We weren't put in this world to make a bunch of money, and have a bunch of material goods, and not do anything for anyone else. We were put here to help one another to be friends to care, and especially to comfort others. I mean really if we are just selfish our whole lives what is it going to do for us, nothing. If we are selfless and help everyone that comes into our lives what will it do for us, make us better people, and help us make lasting friendships and relationships. So why don't we give it a try maybe even just for a day, what do we have to lose? Sure we might be disappointed by some, but overall we can help others, and become a better person.
Let me tell you about someone who will help you out immensely. This is something like a deal essentially. Now usually when you get sold on a deal, there are almost always negatives. For example, if I offer you a cookie, what are the pros to accepting and eating this cookie? Well, it tastes good, and you're probably hungry right? But what are the negatives to this cookie, overall it's not good for you. The person I want to sell you comes with guarantees and absolutely no negatives. This person is God. He is loving, forgiving, caring, and he loves each and everyone on this earth. You might ask what the price is; but there is no price, only believing in him, humbling ourselves to accepting his will, and loving one another. Our reward is eternal life with him as opposed to eternal life without him. With God anything is possible, and whatever we ask we will receive. There are no limitations to the happiness that a relationship with him can bring. He wants to be our friend. Think about it this way, we all have the one friend who goes out of their way for us, and in every way (and more) that's what God is. He wants us to be happy, he wants us to be surrounded by people who build us up, not those who tear us down. Overall, he wants the absolute best for us because that's how much he loves us. We have all felt like no one cares at times, but with God he cares all the time. Sometimes we hide things from others, although we can never hide anything from God even if we try to. We have nothing to fear, and nothing to lose with God, only gaining an amazing friend.
You know we all get that feeling of sadness in our lives at one point or another. Whether we were rejected by someone, or whether we were made fun of for doing the right thing. Whatever it is that has made us sad all that is is the devil trying to get to us. He is always trying to hinder us from doing what God needs us to do, and from what God wants us to do. But why give him that kind of power of over. Why give him the ability to make us feel horrible. God doesn't want this for us. He wants us to be happy, and to be able to live out the life he has for us in the best possible way. Every time I feel sad or overwhelmed I run to God (well to the best of my ability anyway) I'll go to adoration or just sit in the chapel. I will also write in my journal because I've found that it is the best way to get everything that has happened out of my head.
In the past week I've gotten some bad news, and of course the first thing I did when I heard the bad news was I looked at the bright side of it. God gave me the ability to do that with his grace. But later on that day the reality of this news finally hit me, and I started to let the devil take over. But once I wrote it down talked about it to someone I felt so much better.
Things happen in our lives good and bad, but there is always a reason. Whether its to show us another way, or to show us who someone truly is, or even to show us God's plan vs ours. We all go through this stuff and we may think that bad things that happen are horrible, but if we asked God to show it to us from his eyes we would see the good side of it. God has made us Overcomers and with his help we can overcome anything in our path.
There are so many fake things in the world begging for attention, trying to take our focus off God, and the real important people in our life. Trying to put us in a whole we think we could never get out of. Yet the truth is all the fake in the world is the devil just doing what he does. He tries so hard to get us off task to get us to surround ourselves with fake instead of true. There's too much stuff taking our attention from what's important what's true and what's moral. God needs us for his plan, which we are all part of whether we accept it or not and whether we believe it or not. We are all connected in some way or another. Ever wonder why you feel so close to certain people? That's why because we are connected in our lives physically and yes spiritually too.
We all want attention and we all want to be popular, but being popular shouldn't be more important than having real friends. A friend of mine once said, "I'm not popular I just have good friends." And ever since she said that I have never forgotten it. Our flesh body may want material goods, and a bunch of followers on instagram or Facebook, but what does our soul want? The soul is the only thing that matters because our body our material goods decay, and go away. So why surround ourselves with fake things and fake people that will eventually not matter anymore? Why be popular when we are already loved by God? Everyone has there own answer to these questions but the important thing is that we pray to God, that he will fill us with him and his love instead of us letting ourselves be filled with the fake material things of the world.
Everyone's been asked, "how are you." And yet do we ever think that the person on the other side of the question really means it? No to most people it's just a conversation starter, or just a kind gesture to make someone think they care about them. But for certain people asking this question they really do care. But either it's just dismissed or they're to shy to say it. There is a shy person in everyone's life, and most of time they are the people who care, they are the people who are there for you. Have you ever asked someone why they care or why they're so nice to you? If you do you'll get an honest answer because they would rather tell the truth than lie to someone they care about. The devil tries to put doubts in our minds about the people who are real in our lives, and aren't just our friends for the popularity or the money. In reality God put these people in our lives to help us. He uses them to build us up. Today think of one person in your life who you believe truly cares about you and is your real friend. Then thank God for that person. And pray for that person as well, because they've probably been praying for you since the day you two met.
Have you ever gone to a pilgrimage or retreat and come home just to pick up where you left off?? Sometimes it can be hard to apply what we've learned from a pilgrimage or retreat to our daily lives. But just because its hard doesn't mean its impossible. I went to Washington D.C. about a week ago and it was the time of my life. I reunited with amazing poeple, I met amazing people, but most of all I grew I grew in my faith and by doing that my faith and trust in God increased. There were half a million people standing up and fighting for those who don't have a voice yet. Even when we were confronted by protesters we stood our ground. And that's what being a part of a faith community is all about; standing up for something you believe in and having others whether strangers or friends stand by your side. In a world that isn't so great right now God wants us to trust him to be there for each other and to stand up for what is right what is moral and what is true. God doesn't want us to keep our voices hidden, but he wants in to keep our voices heard. We've all heard it in the bible a lamp isn't ment to be under a basket its ment to be on a lamp stand. Our thoughts and beliefs aren't ment to be kept inside our heads, when faced and challenged. So by shining our light and facing the evil in the world we can renew our faith in God, and the world's faith in us christians.
You know people say oh today's teenagers don't care, and they aren't strong in any kind of faith in God. And yes this may be true for a lot of teens, but what I saw in those 4 days in D.C. showed me that there is still hope in the teenagers who are the next generation. There is hope that we will be the generation to end abortion.
