DAILY HOMILIES #faith

If you truly desire to rid yourself of your sins, you need to improve your relationship with Jesus, that is, spend more time with Jesus – deepen your prayer life. Occupy your mind with the things of God; read books, and seek to know God better. Pray for an increase in faith that God may open your eyes to see why sin is evil, and that God may strengthen your desire to live above sin.

Life is hard. Nothing good comes easy. Bad things happen without warning. Life will always give you reasons to complain. Problems are never exhausted. But how are we to stay alive and win? Faith! Believe and keep believing. Prayer works. God cares.

The Centurion’s action teaches us an important lesson in caring for our workers. The Centurion was in charge of a hundred soldiers yet he found time to come looking for Jesus because of one servant; not even his son or a soldier. How lucky this servant was to have had such a good master. Can those working for me say the same about me?

The sea of glass mingled with fire represents the torture, pains, hardships, sacrifices, sweat, tears, and blood of Christians who were being slaughtered under the reign of Emperor Diocletian (the beast). John was assuring his readers of eventual redemption and glory if only they remained steadfast in the faith.

Faith is what will keep you going despite the failures you encounter along the way. Edison believed in his vision and even when he failed over and over again, he just wouldn’t stop. This is the kind of faith we need to have in God – a faith that continues to believe regardless of whatever failures or disappointments we encounter.

A good leader inspires the best in people but a bad one destroys every atom of morality in them. This is why leaders; especially spiritual leaders will suffer a greater punishment than others if they are bad shepherds. A lot of young people in our society today aspire for leadership but the painful truth is that having been scandalized, they dream of taking up leadership positions not to serve the people, but to amass as much of the commonwealth as possible.

After killing John the Baptist for preaching the truth, Herod was hungry again for the head of Jesus. What did Jesus do to Herod? Believe it or not, your goodness is a threat to certain persons and if they cannot bring you down by destroying your name and reputation, they would try to attack you physically. St. Paul tells us that in this battle, we must be fully dressed for action and our attire should consist of the following:

HEAVEN HAS NO BRANCHES. Heaven is one place, there are no separate departments in heaven, there are no branches in heaven, and there is no such thing as Catholic Heaven, Pentecostal Heaven, or Redeemed Heaven. It is the same Jesus Christ that we serve; there is no Catholic Jesus as separate from Pentecostal Jesus.

Jesus did not perform a sign there and then for this crowd because that would be vain glory. As a minister, do I perform miracles or give testimonies to exult myself or for the genuine good of the people?

Due to Elisha’s refusal to accept the gifts, Naaman received two miracles; the miracle of the skin and the miracle of the soul (conversion, wholeness). This is what God desires of us, that we worship in spirit and truth. Even if you have nothing to offer, no money to put in an envelope, know that the thanksgiving God is interested in is your repentance from sin.

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10). Fear not. Pray with faith.

Only one thing is needed: Faith. Mary has chosen the good portion; to sit at Jesus’ feet in prayer and adoration, to listen carefully to Jesus’ words by meditating on the Bible, to trust deeply that in the midst of the chaos, we can afford to sit still with Jesus.