Part 5, Chapter 4
Hopefully, we are reading this on Easter, even if I posted it a day earlier.
Now we have begun our first of four checkups. In doing any checkup, there are two extremes we want to avoid. These two extremes can be easy enough to fall into. The first is that when doing these checkups, we see that there are many things that we need to work on. We start to focus on how we are not doing well with our relationship with God and that we may have even gone backwards. In this, we might be moving ourselves towards despair and lack of hope. The second extreme is to look and say we are doing really well in this examination, we start to think that we are so good, and that we are really holy. In this case, we will probably find that our pride is on the rise and that we are relying on ourselves. Both extremes will happen. So what to do?
Extreme #1 happens to us all, there is no shame. Yes, we all have things to work on and with God’s grace, they will be worked on. If we have reached this point in the book, God is working; we can’t read this far otherwise! Now, God is not giving us a spiritual two by four to hit ourselves over the head with. When people are in this situation of beating themselves up, I many times will say, “we are taking Jesus’ two by four away and He cannot die for us than. Give Him His two by four back.” God doesn’t beat us over the head, He is MERCY!!! He loves us. So if we find ourselves getting focused in this direction, ask God to be with us and trust that He is. A great prayer to pray when we are in this situation is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. "Jesus, I trust in you."
Extreme #2 happens to all of us also. We can be filled with pride because of the progress “we” have made. We cannot do anything, unless God provides the grace. And if we are doing His will, than He is providing the grace. We can only take credit on our own for our sins. Therefore, we should not have any pride. I don’t want to brag about my sin, it is bad! To deal with this as with all pride, we thank God for the way He is working in our lives. Gratitude makes us look to God who is giving us the grace that we need to grow in our love of Him. It is a gift.
In the checkup for today, we prayed for the light of the Holy Spirit to come and show us where we are at. Well, we now know. We have a starting place. We can now go forward in our relationship with God. Be not afraid, God is with US!!!!