Lenten Reflection for March 1st

I recently read a story about a man who was a corporate Vice President for thirty years and was suddenly told to resign from his position. I imagine he must have been devastated and off put by this situation, likely not certain about where he would be able to go next.

He says that thanks to a mentor and friend, he was able to get work with Disney and the difference in the workplace was incredible. He was able to share and implement many ideas that would have seen him ridiculed in his past position and the staff and cast members were so supportive that his career was like a “rocket blowing past” anything he could have experienced.

He writes, “One of the biggest lessons I learned is that if ‘tragedy’ can be a blessing once, it can be a blessing twice or more and in different areas of your life…”

Another facet of the Holy Spirit’s Gift of Understanding is helping us in the midst of times where things seem to be going wrong in our lives. The best example we find in Scripture of things going wrong in one’s life would of course be Job. 

In one day, Job lost everything he had worked for and everything he held dear. One after another, four servants came up to him to tell him his oxen, donkeys, camels had all been stolen, his sheep burnt in a fire, all his servants killed and his children were crushed and killed when their house collapsed on them. He later developed painful sores all over his body. 

Despite all of this, we read, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.” (Job 1:22) In the end, Job’s firm standing on the foundation of his faith in the Lord earned him more blessings than he could have imagined. 

Saint Paul is another example to us, despite being persecuted and kept captive in the prisons, he expressed his belief in God’s goodness, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Praying for an increase of the Gift of Understanding from the Holy Spirit can help us to stand even more firmly rooted in the foundation of our Faith, and to trust in God’s divine plan for blessing us even in the midst of storms.

For our younger brothers and sisters in Christ:

Sometimes we will have bad days where there will be times when it feels like everything is going wrong. Maybe we received a poor grade on a homework assignment, lost in a game, argued with a friend, or perhaps something even more upsetting and hard to deal with like losing a loved one.

In those moments it can be easy to just feel sad and question why it’s happening. It’s in these difficult times that it’s more important than ever to remember to have faith in God’s love for you. Saint Paul was a faithful follower of Christ, he was often made fun of and worse for his faith, like being put into prison. Yet he writes this in the Bible, “We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him.” (Romans 8:28, ICB Translation) God loves you and even when things seem to be going wrong, be strong in your love for Him, knowing that God will make good out of what hardships might come.

God bless you!

Lenten Reflection for February 29th

When I was in college I had to take a few courses regarding religion and theology. I still have a few of the books on my bookshelf at home as they can be good for reference.  One of the textbooks I needed to study, however, was the most incredibly wordy and dense books on Christian Doctrine I have ever seen. 

A thick hardcover book with page after page of tiny writing, crammed together on every page. It is still absolutely overwhelming to try to look at and read. Yes, it’s still on my shelf! I will admit, I could hardly get through one chapter without my mind starting to wander and the words blurring on the pages. I just couldn’t understand what the authors were talking about, nothing made sense. Long, complex words were given definitions that contained even longer and more complicated words that weren’t given definitions. 

Much of the book didn’t make sense to me at the time, but as life went on, I read other resources, gained life experience and learned many lessons that helped me to understand the concepts the textbook was getting at. 

Sometimes reading and pondering Scripture can feel overwhelming like that textbook was for me. There are passages, verses, histories, concepts and phrases that can be difficult to comprehend. This is one area where the Gift of Understanding from the Holy Spirit can help us. 

After the crucifixion, Jesus’ disciples were dejected and in mourning for who they hoped would be the Messiah. They couldn’t see and understand the connection between what he had taught them in his lifetime with the teachings and prophecies of the Old Testament. But we read in Luke’s Gospel, before Jesus ascended into Heaven, he tells his disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures…” (Luke 24:44-45) and they recognised and understood the meaning.

The textbook I have serves its purpose for providing information, but the Holy Scriptures are far more fruitful and life-giving to our heart and soul. Let’s pray for an increase in the gift of Understanding whenever we feel overwhelmed or uncertain about opening our Bible and dwelling in the Word.

For our younger brothers and sisters in Christ:

Throughout our schooling some textbooks we need to study may make us feel confused as we don’t understand the topics or some of the words. 

When this is the case, sometimes we need to read other books on the same subject that we might understand more easily or learn through our own experiences.

The Bible can be hard to understand sometimes. It has a lot of words and some of the stories don’t make much sense. Some of the people we read about do or say things that can be confusing.

To help us with this, we can pray and ask God to give us Understanding, a Gift of the Holy Spirit.  We read in Luke’s Gospel how Jesus helped his followers to understand his teachings that had been confusing to them before.

 As we continue to learn to read the Bible, we will start to see how it works within our life each day. God bless you!

Lenten Reflection for February 28th

R. G. LeTourneau was an industrialist in the early 1900s who was incredibly successful, designing and building his own line of construction and earth-moving equipment. He was the creator of nearly 300 inventions, had hundreds of patents in his lifetime and was a multi-millionaire. 

LeTourneau was also a Christian and he dedicated his life to being a “businessman for God”.  As he succeeded financially, he was able to increase his giving to the point where he was tithing 90% of his income to the Lord’s work in missions and ministries.

He is quoted as saying, “I shovel out the money, and God shovels it back–but God has a bigger shovel.”

In reflecting on the Gift of Knowledge, I can see ways that the Fruit of the Spirit of Generosity could be a branch of the Gift. The Holy Spirit can work in us to help us acknowledge the blessings we have in life. Blessings of time, talent and treasure, whatever that looks like for each of us. This realisation can help foster gratitude in our heart, gratitude which can lead to a desire to share what we have with others and not hold back.

Saint Paul tells us in his second letter to the Corinthians, “Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:7-9)

We see from Scripture that God wants to bless us in abundance, when He does, it becomes our responsibility to decide how we choose to manage those blessings.

I think LeTourneau expressed it well when he said, “It’s not how much of my money I give to God, but how much of God’s money I keep for myself.”

For our younger brothers and sisters in Christ:

How does it make you feel when you receive a gift for your birthday or Christmas? What about a gift at other times, one you weren’t expecting because it wasn’t even a special occasion? Are you happy and excited? Thankful to the person who gave it to you? Do you feel just as excited when you are giving someone else a present and see the look of happiness on their face?

God loves to give you gifts, in the Bible we read, “...God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8) This verse is saying how He has so much to give to you that you can’t even imagine how much He wants to bless you with. This is something to be truly excited about!

There once was a very wealthy businessman who made so much money that he was able to give most of it away to people doing God’s work through churches and helping the poor. He knew that the money he worked for was a gift from God and was grateful. Because he knew it was a gift, he knew he had to act responsibly with it, and he was happy to give more away.

Let’s try to remember to be thankful to God when we receive blessings, and be mindful to also give away blessings cheerfully because we know our gifts come from our Heavenly Father!

God bless you!