Love and Prayer

What is a prayer? The best prayer according to me is the very same prayer taught by Jesus "Our Father who art in heaven..........." . When I say this prayer every time, I need to ask a question to myself.... Do I pray sincerely?.... it goes on to say " as I forgive those who sin against me....". Do I really forgive those who sinned against me before I sit down for my personal prayer? I may pray well in the church or in the prayer meetings, I may use excellent vocabularies to express and make my prayer appear good to everyone around me....but If I am not fully forgiving or loving sincerely,..... I don't know how that prayer is going to be presented to God....who sees my heart and even my deeper thoughts.

It is clearly said by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:1-11....that "I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or clanging bell. I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move moutains- but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned- but if I have no love, this does me no good. Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope and patients never fail. Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; but when what is perfect comes, the what is partial will disappear".

The Bible clearly says about the importance of sincere love, so that we may remain purified when we sit down for prayer and our prayers will be receivable at God's presence.

So dear friends, let us remind ourselves about the importance of loving one another..... and be forgiving to one another, so that we may experience that peace and remain holy in the sight of God. Let us be people of prayers...but before that carriers of LOVE.

Lord our God, help us to remain faithful and truthful to you and to everyone, so that we may come to you with a sincere and pure heart, acceptable to your sight. Help us to pray from within and experience your Godly love peace that You give to us freely. Strengthen our faith so that we may love you sincerely and see Jesus in everyone around us. God, bless us, guide and and be with us. Amen.

Inspiration to Pray

We the humans are born with body and soul. The human life can be completedly fullfilled by meeting the needs of both the body and soul. The body is temporary but the sould lasts for ever. We feed our body with various things....things that satisfy the body's desires...good food...exercices...holidays...comfortable weather...materials and gadgets...utilisation of technology....and everything else that satisfy the needs and desires of the body.

What do we need to do to meet our souls' satisfaction? It is very important to reflect on it to identify the needs of the soul. Through prayer and reflection, we can recognize the desires of the soul. The body always responds through instincts, but soul remain silent, unless it is intentionally enlightened. Prayer gives such an enlightnement as well as does good talks, vieos and retreats. We need to engage in prayer at least a couple of  hours a day to feed our souls.  If the desires of the body are suppressed or limited, we can concentrate on the desires of the souls. Once the soul experience that satisfaction, we will realize that the satisfaction of the body is less important. This realisation will help us to grow in spirituality and it will guide us to save our souls for eternal life.

Instruments in the hand of the Lord

Through baptism we set out on the road of being one with Jesus. He became our Lord and Master. We set our course by him and offered our lives to him.
By receiving the word afresh each day we strive to become instruments in his hand. Our greatest hope is that in all the events of the day, in the decisions we make, in the words we speak, the Lord will use us to do his work.
If this is to happen we must be attentive that our own personality, our own tastes do not get in the way.
To be an instrument in the hand of the Lord is our greatest calling, for then the work we do will be his work and the joy we bring will be his. It will be everlasting, building his kingdom within our world.
In preparing to receive his word today we are preparing to live out true vocation in life.



Courtesy of www.alivepublishing.co.uk

What If???

We all often or rarely in our lives be proud of our achievements or abilities. At least there may be few occassions when we thought that...this is done because of me... or.... I have managed to do it because I am able...or... without me it would have been impossible....I have the ability to do so.....I am qualified to do it....I have such and such degree, position or job and I am above some of you...and so on and so on. Knowingly or unknowingly we boast of ourselves, atleast we boast in our minds. This is the pride....that enters into our minds and this pride is a sin that is sawed by the devil. The devil is a deceiver and he makes the people think that to be proud of what we are is not a sin. Definitiely it is a sin as Jesus repeatedly tells us in the Bible.

When someone say or think all these boastfulness, they should stop for a minute and ask a question to themselves....WHAT IF?...What if they were not given these abilities? What if they had some mental of physical disabilities? What if they suffer from serious diseases and unable to do what they boast off? Surely God has given them these abilities and strengths to do the task they do....but we forget the fact that God has gifted us with these abilities. God provides, and man take advantage of it without saying thanks to God and be submissive to Him.

Dear friends, we need to be sorry for the times we have boasted about our own abilities. No human can alone achieve anything...unless it is being given by God. God has a definite plan for each and everyone of us. If God has given us something or gifted us with something, we have the obligation to be thankful and return to God with tenfolds. Our abilities will multiply when we do that and God will grant us more gifts so that we may utilise those God-given gifts fot the service of God and to serve the mankind.

Let us Pray to God that He may shower his abundant blessings upon us and we may ever remain faithful to Him and remain in His love and share the love of God to our neighbours by abiding in the word of God.

The Value of Life

What is life for everyone? Really it is a gift from God. Not just a gift, but a precious gift, which God has specially made uniqually for everyone. But often we do not realize the true value of life and take it for granted. Today I saw a dumb and deaf man with low intelligence, and realized the value of life God granted to me. It made me think that when so many people in the world are physically disabled, unable to do their activities of daily living, unable to communicate or interact socially, is there anything that bother me except better life and wealth? If so I am not in the right mind. I need to be thankfull to God for all the gifts He showered on me in my life. We need to realize that everyone, all the people, the healthy, disabled, illiterate, unhealthy and poor...all will be the same in the sight of God. The life after death will be the same for everyone, depend on how they live their life given in this world. The life in this world is testing period. Those of us who are working hard to pass the test will enjoy the eternal life that God is going to provide us. After all God is in control of everything. God planed for your past, present and future. Your life is in his mighty hand. All that you need to do is to be submissive to Him and constantly remain in prayer, as prayer is the way of communication with God. The name of 'Jesus' is the only name given for the salvation of mankind.

God has given us the ten commandments to abide by.......as well as the whole bible is instructions for us to follow to pass the test in this world. Through constant prayer, we can communicate with God and get the guidance from the Holy Spirit, who will help us to live a life according to the will of  God, and lead us to salvation.
Lord Jesus, thank you for being our savior, thank you for th gift of life given to us,.....help us to follow your steps...as you are the way, the truth and the life.....give us th Holy Spirit...so that we may be enlightened and be messengers of your word of love.