May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
1 Kings Chapter 19,
Verse 3-4
3Elijah was afraid and fled for his life, going to
Beer-sheba of Judah. He left his servant there 4 and went a day’s journey into the wilderness, until he came to a
solitary broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death: “Enough, LORD!
Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”
Depression is real for saints as it is for sinners; as you power
through it you may come to realize that depression is really just anger directed at yourself.
Tired Of Life[1]
I. The wish for death, the weariness of life, is a
phenomenon extremely common, and common because it arises from a
multitude of causes; but those causes all run up into this, that, as Scripture
expresses it, ‘man is born to sorrow, as the sparks fly upward.’ Rebuke this
feeling as you will, you must deal with it as a fact, and as an experience of
human life. The sense of failure, the conviction that the evils around us are
stronger than we can grapple with, the apparent non-atonement for the
intolerable wrong—there are hours when, under the incidents of these trials,
even the noblest Christian finds it hard to keep his faith strong and his hope
unclouded. Take any man who has spoken words of burning faithfulness, or done
deeds of high courage in a mean and lying world, and the chances are that his
life’s story was clouded by failure or closed in martyrdom.
II. In this chapter we have God’s own gracious way of dealing with this sad but far from uncommon despondency.—Elijah had fled into the wilderness, flung himself down under a juniper tree, and requested that he might die. How gently and with what Divine compassion did God deal with his despair! He spread for Elijah a table in the wilderness, and helped him forward on his way; only then, when his bodily powers had been renewed, when his faith had been strengthened, does the question come, ‘What doest thou here, Elijah?’ The vision and the still small voice may have brought home to the heart of Elijah one reason at least why he had failed. He had tried taunts and violence in the cause of God; he had seized heaven’s sword of retribution, and made it red with human blood. He had not learned that violence is hateful to God; he had to be taught that Elijah’s spirit is very different from Christ’s Spirit. And when God has taught him this lesson, He then gives him His message and His consolation. The message is, ‘Go, do My work again’; the consolation is, ‘Things are not so bad as to human eyes they seem.’
III. Those who suffer from despondency, should (1) look well to see whether the causes of their failure and their sorrow are not removable; (2) embrace the truth that when they have honestly done their best, then the success or the failure of their work is not in their own hands. Work is man’s; results are God’s. Dean Farrar.
Give me the ability to see as Christ sees
As gentiles who are
God-fearing we must accept our salvation by living the Shema Israel daily
seeking to love Him with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. This morning
as I said the Shema Israel I thought Lord I don’t understand how to love you
with my whole soul but I decided to say the prayer looking in the mirror at
myself. I then said, “Hear O Israel that the Lord our God is one, and you
shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, (I touched my heart) and
with your whole mind, (I touched the side of my temple) with your whole soul (I
instinctively touched my eyes; which are the windows of the soul) and flexed my
arms and said with my whole strength. It was then that I realized what
the Lord had revealed to me. My eyes: with my eyes I see things as a
child of God, or as a selfish clot. With my eyes I see the good in the world or
I see things that I want. With my eyes I see another human as a beloved or as
an object to be used. Yes, indeed with my eyes my soul does exist and I will
now love the Lord my God with my whole eyes which are the windows of the soul.
Apostle to the Lepers[2]
Father Damien, formally
Joseph de Veuster, ss.cc. and St. Damien of Molokai (January 3, 1840 - April
15, 1889), was a missionary of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus
and Mary who is revered primarily by Hawaii residents and Christians for having
dedicated his life in service to the lepers of Molokai in the Kingdom of
Hawaii. Father Damien is the spiritual patron of lepers, outcasts, and those
with HIV/AIDS, and of the State of Hawaii.
In Father Damien, the Church proposes an example to all those who find sense
for their life in the Gospel and who wish to bring the Good News to the poor of
our time. Patron: Lepers. Things to Do:
·
Be
adventurous and prepare a Hawaiian luau in honor of Bl. Damien.
Full Moon
Today according to the
almanac is a Full Flower Moon; bring flowers to all the women in your life.
Christ always brought His mother Lilies of the Valley.
Daily Devotions/Prayers
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