Tag: sufferings

We are God’s earthen vessels

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday, Wk. X, Yr. I, 14 June 2019
2 Corinthians 4:7-15 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 5:27-32
Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for this Friday, for another weekend.

As the days moved on since Monday, we didn’t know how this week would move on for many of us: the pressures and stress at home, in the office and the school with all kinds of problems.

Some of us almost gave up life, Lord, because of sickness and loneliness, pains and sufferings, neglect and feelings of being misunderstood and unloved or unwelcomed.

But you were always there, Jesus, loving us, comforting us, assuring us of your presence and grace.

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the Body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:7-10

Let us continue your work Jesus. There are still plenty of things to be done this day: so many loving and acts of kindness, a lot of caring and understanding, some forgiving and asking sorry over there, with a lot of smiles and hugs to share so that those in despair may realize life is so beautiful, that it is good to be alive, that there is beauty even in our dirt and brokenness.

Every Cross is a plus sign, O Lord: afflictions and darkness, suffering and pains in life are an addition, never a minus or a subtraction! Amen.

Dominican Hills, Baguio, January 2019. Photo by author.

Lent is persecution

40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week-V, 12 April 2019
Jeremiah 20:10-13///John 10:31-42
From Google.

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?”

John 10:31-32

O dear Jesus, my Lord and my God, I could relate so much with you in this episode in your life. Lately, I have been feeling so down, wondering how could people give me in return evil deeds and pains after all the goodness I have shown them? There are still many others out there wondering the same, feeling the same.

We all feel like, you, O Jesus, asking our detractors, our very own relatives and friends, which of the good works we have done to them are they stoning us?

We all feel like Jeremiah too, your the prophet.

I hear the whisperings of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! Let us denounce him!” All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. “Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him.”

Jeremiah 20:10

In our distress, O Lord, hear our calls!

Keep us strong and faithful always to you. If life is Lent, then life is about persecutions, about sufferings. We have accepted it Lord but sometimes we cry, we get weak, we want to rest and stop because things are getting too much.

But, Lent has a spirit and character that refresh us, renew us with the thought that before all these persecutions and sufferings came our way, you were there first for us, Lord Jesus to, bear all these pains. Even dying on the Cross. Amen.

From Google.