DAILY HOMILIES #repentance

Like the children of Israel who called out to God in prayer when they were suffering in the hands of the Egyptians, the key to fighting sin is prayer. Jesus said: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8). If asking has to do with praying, seeking has to do with making efforts. Yes, God is interested in the efforts you are making

Wash the inside of your cup. Believe that you can do without sin. Make efforts like the men who brought their paralytic friend to Jesus through the roof. Let Jesus see your faith and He would reward you with grace to overcome temptation. Don’t look down on yourself.

Dear friend, come back to God today. He will not only give you another chance, He would make you His shining star. There is just no limit to what God can accomplish through you.

To say baptism is a gate is to imply that it leads somewhere. Baptism is just the beginning. Jesus did not remain where he was after baptism, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he fasted and prayed forty days and nights. He was no longer the same person afterward.

Repentance brings healing. Repentance is saying “No” to the devil so as to allow God to come into your life and where God is, sickness, disease, stagnation, demonic possession etc. cannot remain

“If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30) Enter this New Year as a man/woman of great faith. Believe that you serve a God who knows how to provide, how to create dry roads in the midst of rivers, how to make ways where there seems to be no way. Expect the best.

Do not be so glued to social media, spend time with real human beings, mend broken fences, forgive past hurts, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let us not be like stubborn sheep refusing to follow the shepherd back to the fold. No matter how sweet sin is, it is never sweeter than righteousness.

If you can succeed in making a person repent, renounce his former ways, and start living righteously, then I tell you there would be a lot of dancing in heaven because of you just as a man would dance when he finds a lost sheep.

One of the easiest way to forgive is to consider the fact that the person(s) I am angry with still has some good potentials. I only need to overlook the bad side and pay some attention to the good that person(s) is able to do.

The more I repent and leave my sins behind, the brighter my future will be. Who knows what calamities I could have attracted to myself due to my sins?

As we celebrate the feast of St. Matthew today, we not only reflect on lessons to be learnt from the manner of his call, we also reflect on the fact that God has called each of us as well through the various gifts and talents he bestowed upon us.