“WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED?” JESUS LOOKED AT THEM AND SAID,“FOR MEN THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE, BUT FOR GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.” MT 19:23-30
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Prayer Prompt before reading MT 19:23-30: Come, Holy Spirit, teach me how to pray, interpret the Scriptures for me so that I may know the Truth about who God the Father and Son are so that I may know who I am.
Jesus reminds us that it is easy to get distracted by our possessions. We cannot take anything with us when we die. Jesus is saying it is difficult for one who has many possessions to enter the Kingdom of God unless they renounce their possessions. The main point is that possessions and human power can never come before Jesus and mean nothing in the next life.
Jesus teaches us to become poor in spirit. Part of our conversion experience is to recognize God is big and we are small. Ash Wednesday is a yearly reminder of this. We need God, He does not need us. Humility is the greatest weapon against Satan.
Jesus answers Peter by saying their is a reward for giving up possessions or not allowing them to control our lives, eternal life, the heart’s greatest desire. Jesus says it does not matter when we detach ourselves from allowing our possessions or a possession to rule our life, early in life or later, He is always waiting with open arms.
This cannot be planned obviously. If we make a decision to renounce our possessions later in life and live how we want now, God knows all and He is the Just Judge. It is those who do not know about Jesus or find Him until later in life.
I believe today’s most difficult challenge is our cell phones and game systems. These possessions become time vampires and major distractions to prayer and our destination, heaven. Unless we are using them to help us reach heaven because there are many good apps and websites that direct us and inspire us to do good and be holy.
Finally, it is impossible for any human to enter heaven. Only God’s grace (his very life in us) makes us holy.
God’s grace has many avenues:
- The sacraments
- Works of mercy
- Intentional prayer
- Devotion to the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph
- Adoration
- Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
- Consecration to Jesus’s Sacred Heart through Mary
- Devotion to the rosary
- Be a missionary in your home
- Evangelizing
- Fiat-your complete yes to God like Mary
- Stations of the Cross
- Stopping at 3PM on Fridays and spending time consoling Jesus’s suffering heart on the cross where His Divine Mercy flows abundantly
- Offering your suffering up in repair of your sin or the sins of others Seek out these avenues of grace so the impossible will become possible for your soul and your friendship with Jesus will become so strong that heaven and earth will meet in you.
Today’s challenge: Spend the entire day without your cell phone or playing video games. Can you take this with you when you die? God gave you the power to be in control of the possession not the possession to be in control of you. Take control of your possessions with discipline and self-control. Make Christ the center of your life.
Be a servant, be a saint today!
#Christian YOLO
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