Willed by God

In today's first reading, Colossians 1: 1-8, St. Paul identifies himself as "an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God."  By whose will are you who you are?  Did you consult God before choosing the career that you have chosen or before choosing your spouse or before making any decision, for that matter? Or do you act independently of God, as though you were your own being apart from God? Something to think about!

Jesus tells us in  John 5: 19-20, that He does nothing apart from His Father and that He was sent by the Father; that is, that He did not come of His own will but the Father's (cf. John 6: 57).  Neither you nor I, whether we realize it or not, are capable of doing good apart from God. And, yes, we also have been sent into the world by the will of our God. Perhaps one of the missions we have been given is to realize this truth and to act out of that truth: we are God's and it is God's will that we progress in becoming the person He intends us to become and to give the kinds of service He wants us to give.

We also dependent upon God for being freed of that which deprives us of being the person God intends us to be, as with Peter's mother-in-law who was in bed with a fever (see today's Gospel, Luke 4 38-44). Through members of her family, Jesus intervened,  rebuking the fever and it left her. She got up and ministered to her family. We have been sent here to serve others, as did Jesus, and to build up the Kingdom of our Beloved, of our God and King!

My prayer is that whatever "fever" holds us back from doing the will of God in our lives will be rebuked by Jesus, as was the fever that took hold of Peter's mother-in-law. And may the "fever" that cripples our government officials from doing good for others be rebuked by Jesus, also!

Fulfilling God's Purpose, God's Intention, God's Idea

In today’s first reading, 2 Tim1: 1-3, 6-12, we are challenged to “fan into a flame the gift of God that…[we] possess through the laying on of…[the bishop’s] hands” when we were confirmed.  God, St. Timothy tells us, “did not give us a spirit of timidity but the Spirit of power and love and self-control.” Over and above these gifts, God has saved us and called us to be holy—not because of anything we ourselves had done but for his own purpose and by his own grace.”

Each one of us possesses “the gift of God.” We possess it, that is, it is ours. But it is not ours for our own sake. It is “for God’s own purpose and by his own grace.”  The “gift of God” that has been given us is “the Spirit of power and love and self-control,” which, by the grace of God, we are empowered to fulfill the purpose for which God put us here on earth, placed us in the family that is ours and in that part of the world where a purpose of God is not yet achieved and will not be achieved unless you and I carry it out according to God’s plan and “by the grace” of God because it has been given to us to accomplish!

That is mind-bottling!  I am not here for myself. Never was! And the purpose for which I am here is God’s purpose.   I am God’s idea, so to speak. I am who I am, I am where I am, for God’s reason, God’s intention. God has a g in mind  to achieve and that goal will only be achieved if I co-operate with Go in accomplishing it.   That is true of every day of my life: one day at a time.  May I, through the grace of God, fulfill the purpose for which God has given me this day.  May I accomplish the objective that God needs fulfilled today through me.  If  I do not achieve the objective that is God’s for me today, it will remain unfulfilled. He has given that objective of His to no one else but me.