Monday, January 30, 2023

Other Plans


The WORD today reminds me that despite our good intentions, God may have other plans for us. 

It is relatively easier to pray when we have good intentions. It is relatively easier to ask for God's blessings and favors when what we are praying for or what we are asking is good. However, these do not guarantee that God will hear our prayer. 

Good intentions do not always get a yes from God. 

In the gospel, Jesus healed a man. He set him free from a lot of evil spirits. From Legion. And not surprising, after being healed, the man wanted to come with Jesus to be with him, to thank him through his service. However, surprisingly, Jesus did not accept him but instead told him to serve God in another way - by going home and announce what God has done for him.  

God sometimes has other plans for us. But it is always better that what we initially have in mind. 

The man did what he was told. And as he did, all were amazed. God sent him to do something and equipped him. And used him mightily. He brought awareness of God to people, even if Jesus was not with him. That was definitely better than just being with Jesus as he was used as a force multiplier. 

There are times we experience the same thing. We feel God is rejecting us and our plans, even if we feel our plans and intentions are good. However, just because his plans are different from us doesn't mean we won't like it. His plans are always better than ours, and as we humbly submit and follow his plans and allow him to use us, we will realize the wisdom of his plans.  

What are the things I am praying for? How does God respond? Do I have faith in him? Or do I want him to say yes to my prayers? What is he reminding me today? 

May we be like the man, humbling ourselves before God, submitting to his plans, and doing what he asks us to do. 

Father God,
Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another chance to love and serve you. Thank you for another week. Thank you for all the blessings. Thank you for being so generous. Lord, sorry for the times I prefer my plans instead of yours. Sorry for being hard headed. Sorry for not being humble enough to submit to your will, to your plans. help me be like the man. Help me humble myself before you always. Help me be submit to your will and your plans, especially when they are not what i expect. Help me just obey, and as I do, I have faith that you will use me mightily for your kingdom. Amen. 

Blessed week!

In Christ,
-g-


Daily Readings

Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 323

Reading 1 

Brothers and sisters:
What more shall I say?
I have not time to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
of David and Samuel and the prophets,
who by faith conquered kingdoms, 
did what was righteous, obtained the promises;
they closed the mouths of lions, put out raging fires,
escaped the devouring sword;
out of weakness they were made powerful, became strong in battle,
and turned back foreign invaders.
Women received back their dead through resurrection.
Some were tortured and would not accept deliverance,
in order to obtain a better resurrection.
Others endured mockery, scourging, even chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword’s point;
they went about in skins of sheep or goats,
needy, afflicted, tormented.
The world was not worthy of them.
They wandered about in deserts and on mountains,
in caves and in crevices in the earth.

Yet all these, though approved because of their faith,
did not receive what had been promised.
God had foreseen something better for us,
so that without us they should not be made perfect.

R.    (25)  Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
How great is the goodness, O LORD,
    which you have in store for those who fear you,
And which, toward those who take refuge in you,
    you show in the sight of the children of men.
R.    Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
You hide them in the shelter of your presence
    from the plottings of men;
You screen them within your abode
    from the strife of tongues.
R.    Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Blessed be the LORD whose wondrous mercy
    he has shown me in a fortified city. 
R.    Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Once I said in my anguish,
    “I am cut off from your sight”;
Yet you heard the sound of my pleading
    when I cried out to you.
R.    Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Love the LORD, all you his faithful ones!
    The LORD keeps those who are constant,
    but more than requites those who act proudly.
R.    Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.

 

 

Alleluia 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has arisen in our midst
and God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel 

Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”
(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”)
He asked him, “What is your name?”
He  replied, “Legion is my name.  There are many of us.”
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
“Send us into the swine.  Let us enter them.”
And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened
to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
“Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.



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