December 05, 2014
Friday of the First Week of Advent
Gospel Mt 9:27-31
“. . . According to your faith it will be done to you”
“What’s our plan for December 11 (Christmas fellowship night, a yearly activity of my prayer group)? This was a poignant question asked by my spiritual sister in the Light of Christ Community where I belong.
I had celebrated the past three Christmases with much pain and loneliness due to the absence of my better-half. God took him away from my family so abruptly in a fatal cardiac arrest. I did celebrate Christmas joyfully with other groups but not in my own home with my children. I have not yet overcome this feeling of deep sadness created by the vacuum left by the demise of our dearly beloved man at home.
But what gives me strength to take on the daily rigors of living, to transcend the pain of losing a loved one, to find comfort even in the midst of facing life’s struggles and challenges, and to continue becoming a channel of God’s comfort, encouragement and joy to others? It is FAITH. It is the kind of FAITH that God favored me with daily. When my days are rough, and things are tough, I only LOOK at GOD’S PROMISES and not on my CIRCUMSTANCES. I start my day with my heart fully surrendering to whatever HE wants to do with me and just glorifying His name in anything that will happen to me throughout the day. I live my day-to-day life in HIS loving care. I look forward to HIS promises: If I draw near to HIM, He will draw near to me; HE will hear and answer all my prayers, and HE will take care of me even in my old age (Isaiah 46:4). I have many major plans, decisions and desires that I bring to prayer daily, trusting that God in His loving care will put them everything in order, for He only knows what is best for me and my loved ones.
When some moments of desolation come to me, I run to the Lord in HIS WORD. I meditate and reflect again on the life of Abraham. God peered into the heart of Abraham after uttering this seemingly ridiculous promise that in his old age and the barrenness of his wife, Sarah, he would bear an offspring, and God did not find doubt in Abraham. He found belief. Abraham’s situation looked bleak. If Abraham had based his hope on his circumstances, he would have given up. But in hope he believed against hope – God’s promise gave him hope in his hopeless situation. He put his hope in God’s promise, not in his circumstances. He was fully convinced that God would be able to do what He had promised (Rom 4:18 -21). Abraham did not simply mentally assent to God’s promise; he staked the rest of his life on it. He took the leap of his life into the arms of God by trusting that God would do what HE said.
Lord, heal my wound of losing the better-half of my life. Let me focus on You and celebrate Your love daily. And for all my great concerns of daily living, let me hear You say to me: “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”
Reflection:
What are you going to believe today – God’s WORD or your CIRCUMSTANCES? God’s promises or your feelings? God’s bedrock pledge or your wavering emotions?
Fe Dls. Delantar
Faculty, Grade School
