First Tuesday of Lent

From all their distress God rescues the just. Glorify the LORD with me, let us together extol his name. I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 

When we have questions for the Lord, He does give us the answers we need. They might not be the ones we want or given to us in the way we sought, but He does provide them for us if we are willing to listen. Sometimes the answers will come in prayer. Sometimes they will come from other people. Sometimes they will come in opportunities or setbacks. However, no matter what happens God will rescue us from all our distress and deliver us from all our fears. We just have to have the openness and patience to listen to Him through the Holy Spirit and our consciences.

Do we seek God’s input into our lives? Do we take time out of each day to listen to Him? How can we be more open to the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

O Lord, answer our pleas and deliver us from all distress.

Amen.

Third Monday of Lent

"Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean." But Naaman went away angry, saying, "I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?" With this, he turned about in anger and left.

When we receive a response from God that doesn’t match our expectations, we can rebel against it. Like Naaman, we can be angry when our prayers are answered in an unexpected way. We might have grand visions of what our lives should be like going forward, but then our lives go in a different direction and we wonder, “Why me? Why this way?” However, part of being a child of God and a follower of Christ is trusting that no matter where God leads us we shall be better off. God knows our strengths and weaknesses better than we do and so He knows what we can handle and what we cannot. He knows if we are ready for certain successes. He knows when we need a setback to remind us we are not perfect. He knows what we need and gives it to us. He knows what we want and will withhold it if it isn’t good for us or if we aren’t ready to receive it. The key is to remember God has only our best interests at heart and as long as we trust in His Wisdom above our own, then we shall have peace even when our prayers and expectations are not meet in the way we wanted them to be.

What prayers and expectations do I currently have? Am I willing and ready to allow God to answer these hopes in His way? How can come to a more perfect trust in God?

O Lord, give us the grace to allow you to answer our prayers in your own way and time.

Amen.

Thirty-Second Saturday of Ordinary Time

“There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being.  And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being,  because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’” The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.  Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Persistence pays off, especially in our spiritual lives. Just like the widow, we shouldn’t give up on our desire for a fair judgment in regards to our hopes and our dreams. Sometimes God might not answer us in the way we desired Him to, but He will answer us and His judgment will be just and exactly what we need at the time. When we pray for answers or help from God sometimes we can grow impatient and wonder why He isn’t answering us, but perhaps we are missing His clues and walking past the answers right beneath our noses. Or maybe He is giving us an answer that we just don’t want to accept and so we ignore His judgment and cling to someone or something that keeps us blinded to what is right in our lives. It is up to us to be persistent in our prayer life, but God will be the ultimate arbiter of the answers we receive and as long as we accept them when they come, we will grow in faith and wisdom.

Are we persistent in our spiritual lives? Do we trust that God will answer our prayers to our benefit, even when those answers go against our initial desires? Will Jesus find faith in our hearts when he comes again?

O Lord, render a just decision for me in all that I pray for.

Amen.