Humbly submit your will to God (thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Then they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him. Mk 1:14-20

Are you ready to leave everything behind and follow Christ? A disciple of Christ is asked to die to self/kill the ego and rely on Him, take up daily crosses, and fight sin/Satan living out baptismal vows. He is not only asking Andrew, Peter, James the Greater and John but you and I to follow Him. He is asking us to “Repent, and believe in the Gospel”. Repent means to change the way we see things. Jesus gives us a completely different outlook on life and stuns everyone including His Apostles by revealing an afterlife, a spiritual world. The body dies but the Spirit lives forever. Repent means to continually strive not to repeat the sin we are asking forgiveness from which requires to look at life in a completely different way. God’s way. When we go to confession, we confess our sins with repentance, ready to fight the good fight and not repeat them with the help of God’s grace. The trouble is we have our favorite sins.

I go to confession and sometimes repeat the same sins over and over. Sin is frustrating. After committing to fight sin as hard as we can, we still sin. We can’t will away our sin. We have to allow God’s grace to transform us. We are called to an intimate relationship with Him, so we don’t want to hurt Him anymore. A relationship in which we see how much He loves us and we want to love like that too. We stop sinning out of love with His grace which is His life in us.

We need a Savior because we are sinners. It is important to recognize that we are sinners so we can hold ourselves accountable and understand what we are fighting. We first need to recognize our brokenness, our sin. Christ wants to transform us through our sin. This is His mission and purpose. We are called to give Him our sin and all the guilt and struggles that go with it. This is part of the journey, this is where Christ transforms us. Christ hates the sin, but loves the sinner. Forgiveness and mercy are not an invitation to sin freely or with the idea that we can sin because God will forgive us (sin of presumption).

This is where our struggle is real and we come to know the love, compassion and mercy of our God. It is a struggle and frustrating, but it is where we learn how much Jesus loves us. The key, perseverance, never give up and fasting. Jesus teaches us to turn off the TV, cell phones, tablets, and computers and enter the desert. It is in the silence where we come to see ourselves, our sin, pray, and hear God’s voice within us. Some of us have greater passions, sin, and temptations than others.  God’s grace is enough.  He gives it to you whether you have been good or bad, whether you love Him back or not.  God’s grace with your effort equals holiness. 

Jesus is asking us to leave everything, repent, empty ourselves allowing Him to fill us up and believe in the Good News-the Gospel. He wants us to follow Him into eternal life bringing as many others as we can. Are you in? He is speaking to your heart today.

Today’s challenge: Continue to work on your sins in your life, never giving up. Come to God’s grace in all avenues He has made for us to help you repent and fall into His loving arms. Die to self and follow Christ with a compassionate heart. We must change ourselves before we can change others, repent. Allow God in and fight the good fight.

Holy Spirit, guide us!

Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO