Jesus links true happiness with struggle and hardship, suffering and opposition. (The beatitudes) 

Those who set their sights merely on what this world has to offer and pursue it with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength will attain it, but that is all they will attain – and it won’t be enough to satisfy them. 

The way of perfect justice is the way of God’s will; 

in order to obey it, a physical, external compliance is not enough; 

what is required above all is the interior adherence, which is death to sin and to self-will.

Only grace, the fruit of the merits of our Savior, justifies us interiorly and makes us capable of living in justice and holiness. 

But the justification which God has freely conferred upon us will not transform our whole life and conduct, it will not become perfect justice, unless we cooperate with his grace.

F A I T H

Facing All In Trusting Him

I have put all my trust in you. I need you to teach me how to love, how to endure, how to understand. Thank you for coming to save me; make my heart like yours. 

Fight the fight of faith

For Jesus also said: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk 9:62). He who turns back condemns himself by his own will to not reaching the goal. Such a person is a weakling, a coward, a deserter; while a Christian must be strong, fearless, and persevering.

At the root of every desertion there is always a lack of faith in grace and in God’s help. It is impossible that God should abandon anyone who wishes to be faithful to him at all costs and who therefore fights without respite to conquer the temptations of selfishness and the allurements of the world. God’s fidelity infinitely surpasses that of man: “God is faithful”

Help Me

Revelation 2:4–5 (NKJV): Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 

I have left following Jesus to follow what the church says. 

I stopped listening to him and started analyzing what the church says to see what man has to say about things. 

The problem with this is Jesus has been wanting to talk to me specifically and wants me to listen to his specific instructions. 

The church gives generalities for individuals. 

Jesus wants to guide me into the plan he has for me. 

I am not to choose my own way. 

I am to listen to his plan for my life. He has a specific one. 

Only Jesus knows what it is not any man. 

What I did before:

Love him and want to be with him. 

Morning, lunch, night. 

Read his letters to me and learn to listen to what he told me. 

Write him letters sharing myself with him. My thoughts and hopes and dreams. 

Listen to music that helps me know and praise him. 

Help me Jesus. Help me know you and share myself again. I got lost following man’s ways and need to come back to you. Please God HELP ME!

God Loves Me

Meditation for the Day

A consciousness of God's presence as one who loves you makes all life different. The consciousness of God's love promotes the opening of your whole being to God. It brings wonderful relief from the cares and worries of our daily lives. Relief brings peace and peace brings contentment. Try to walk in God's love. You will have that peace which passes all understanding and a contentment that no one can take from you. Feel sure of God's unfailing love and care for you and for all His children. There is freedom and serenity in those who walk in God's love, held safe in His loving care.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may walk in God's love. I pray that, as I go, I may feel the spring of God's power in my steps and the joy of His love in my heart.

Summary of Elect

We are free to do what we desire. 

We do not determine our desires - God does. 

Behold, I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. 

The Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and cling to him

We cannot be obedient to God unless elected. 

Election encompasses free Will, He will not save us without us. 

Prayer is a means to bring to pass that which God has determined shall be; we are praying to obtain that outcome which God has ordained to be received by our prayers.

God is in charge of the plan. Our lives have already been planned and laid out, and we must just walk in it and rely on God. 

The purpose of life is deification and eternal life. As such, Divine Providence leads each person to his or her destiny. 

The doctrine of predestination teaches that everyone who is saved was chosen by God before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13)

Considering that not all men reach their supernatural end in heaven, but that many are eternally lost through their own fault, there must exist a twofold predestination: (a) one to heaven for all those who die in the state of grace; (b) one to the pains of hell for all those who depart in sin or under God's displeasure. 

 “God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end”