2 May God fill you with every good and remember his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, his faithful servants. 3 May he give you all a heart to worship him and to fulfill his will with generosity and a well-disposed spirit.
This is such a beautiful blessing my Beloved.
May God fill me with every good and remember His covent with me sealed with Your Blood. May He give me a heart to worship Him and to fulfill all He requires of me. May He give me a loving heart and a well disposed spirit in order that may return measure for measure, His glorious love for me.
1 Corinthians 9:16-18, 22-27
16 Because I cannot boast of announcing the Gospel: I am bound to do it. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! 17 If I preached voluntarily, I could expect my reward, but I have been trusted this office against my will. 18 How can I, then, deserve a reward? In announcing the Gospel, I will do it freely without making use of the rights given to me by the Gospel.
22 To the weak I made myself weak, to win the weak. So I made myself all things to all people in order to save, by all possible means, some of them. 23 This I do for the Gospel, so that I too have a share of it.
• 24 Have you not learned anything from the stadium? Many run, but only one gets the prize. Run, therefore, intending to win it, 25 as athletes who impose upon themselves a rigorous discipline.
26 So, then, I run knowing where I go. I box but not aimlessly in the air. 27 I punish my body and control it, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be rejected.
Beloved, I have been given a sacred stewardship. What I have received freely, I in turn must give freely. Just as You became one like us to save us, so too must I be prepared to identify completely with those whom I wish to share the Gospel. Discpline, self-sacrifice, giving-up, denial of empty pleasure and self-indulgence, these are all opposed to the gospel of self, preached by the culture of the day. However, if we wish to win the prize, then it is imperative to curb the flesh and refuse the lure of material excess that the world uses to tempt and distract us from the goal.
Luke 6:39-42
39 And Jesus offered this example, “Can a blind person lead another blind person? Surely both will fall into a ditch. 40 A disciple is not above the master; but when fully trained, he will be like the master. 41 So why do you pay attention to the speck in your brother’s eye while you have a log in your eye and are not conscious of it? 42 How can you say to your neighbor: ‘Friend, let me take this speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t remove the log in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbor’s eye.
Unless I myself have grasped the whole truth I cannot hope to lead anyone as both he/she and I will fall.. Fully trained though I will be like the Master. What a beautiful truth my Lord, the more I allow myself to be moulded and shaped by You, the better will I image You. Thank You for reminding me to weed out my faults and wean myself off my bad habits.
Psalm 84:3-6,12
3 My soul yearns, pines,
for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
4 Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God!
5 Happy are those who live in your house,
continually singing your praise!
6 Happy the pilgrims whom you strengthen,
to make the ascent to you.
12 For the Lord God is a sun and a shield;
he bestows favor and glory.
The Lord withholds no good thing
from those who walk in uprightness.
Beloved, do not let me get side-tracked with foolishness. May I dwell in Your house because in You alone is perfect peace and joy. Like the sparrow may I nest in You and sing Your praise the live long day in my thoughts, words and actions. Bathed in the sunshine of Your love may I reflect Your light wherever I go. Amen.
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