Rapids, Banff Canada Picture Gail Prince
A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
Our Post is Inspired by The Holy Spirit.
I didn’t fully understand what contrite meant;
Contrite, “crushed,” is only the superlative of “broken”; “a contrite heart” is “a heartbroken to pieces.” In Holy Scripture, the heart is the seat of all feeling, whether joy or sorrow. A contrite heart is one in which the natural pride and self-sufficiency have been completely humbled by the consciousness of guilt. Biblestudytools.com
By letting God take over my life, I am growing in strength to fight satan. And yes I am in a constant fight, and I try to stay aware of my shortcomings, sins.
We do this by constantly thanking God for all God has, is, and will do in my, our life. By thanking God, I acknowledge to God that I can do nothing without God. This for me helps take away the pride of self-accomplishment.
I am typing this post on Monday before Ash Wednesday and already I am being attacked by satan. satan is telling me that I can’t do what I have said I want to do this Lent.
I, we, are sharing this because for too long in my life I met people who I felt were very close to God, and life must be a lot easier for them than it is for me.
That’s a true satan thought,
Why?
Envy!
But,
As you should know by now I, we, have the prayers to fight satan, which we have discussed in prior posts, and I, we, now use these prayers and stop being a punching bag, and yes I have a contrite heart for all the sins I have committed.
But,
I am also filled with Joy that we are fighting back.
In the jail, I met a man who didn’t know God and didn’t realize he was a punching bag until we pointed this out to him.
I met Jim, not his real name, and Jim told me when we asked why he was in jail, which by the way we very seldom did, Holy Spirit working in my life, Jim responded it was because he was caught stealing. I, we, questioned him further only to find out he was stealing to feed his family.
O.K. that’s understandable, until we asked, “wasn’t there another choice?” The Holy Spirit prompted this question. I would have stopped with his last response.
Jim answered that his Grandmother said, “Wait for me and I will give you the money you need to buy the food.”
We will next summarize what I believe went through Jim’s mind.
satan said to Jim, “Your grandmother considers you a loser and she won’t show up and if you don’t do it now you will lose out.”
The Holy Spirit whispered to Jim, “Wait for your grandmother, she loves you.”
“Jim,” we said, “You listened to satan, and now you’re in jail.”
Jim agreed.
“STOP being a punching bag for satan! When satan talks to you, tell satan to get behind you. You’re in jail because you listened to satan and NOT to God, and you will find Joy in making the right decision.”
At the mention of Joy,
Jim then said, “He and his girlfriend saw trash in a park one day and decided to pick it up, and when they were finished they were filled with Joy.
Wow!
Jim had experienced Joy from The Holy Spirit but didn’t know where the Joy came from.
Why?
Very few people talk about the Joy of being in a relationship with God.
How about You?
Are you telling others about the Joy you’re experiencing in your life?
If not,
How sad!
Jim had experienced a Contrite Heart after we showed him why he was in jail. But Jim also experienced Joy when he did the will of the Father, as will you when you do the will of God the Father, picking up the trash in Jim’s case, by listening to the whisper of the Holy Spirit and doing your Father’s will.
A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
“The nine” We pray you will grow in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
Thirty years ago in a small faith group meeting with our pastor Fr. John Feeney, Fr. Feeney put out a challenge to us that changed my, our, life.
Fr. Feeney said, “Let’s take back Good Friday!
Have you noticed that the Jewish people at Passover, and Yom Kippur to mention two of their Holy Days, shut down all their businesses and use this time to more deeply worship God?
The Muslims shut down everything for Ramadan!
We Catholics in many cases keep our businesses open, or go into our jobs and treat the day the same as any other day on the calendar.”
I was shocked, Fr. Feeney was dead on.
I sadly remember a Good Friday, when I was in my thirties, I closed a nice piece of business, and I celebrated by saying, “This was a gooooood Friday.”
I pray you are as disgusted with my statement as I am.
Jesus on Good Friday was CRUCIFIED and died so that we could be justified, and rise after our death to be with Them in Heaven.”
No other religion says this!
Wow!
At that time I had really never thought about this.
I am not required to go to Mass on Good Friday, it’s not a Holy Day of Obligation, I am required to fast on this day,
Big deal!
Jesus my Brother offered His life so I may be justified, and I have to fast.
Jesus DIED!
Don’t ever forget two million Muslims deny Jesus died.
That’s how awful death to the nonchristian world is, as well it should be, because they don’t have a clear understanding of what is going to happen after their death.
I pray the above words will demonstrate to you how casually I had taken this very special day up until that small faith group meeting.
And change I did!
That Good Friday we closed down the business, and I explained to my employee, who I paid, and our clients, earlier that week, why we would be closed and then proceeded to plan a special service which I, we, would do that first Good Friday. I, we, would spend the day with God thanking my Father, my Brother, and Holy Spirit for all they did.
That night, when I finally went to bed I was filled with sadness at how cavalier I had treated this very special day up until now, sadness for what Jesus went through because of my sins, but Joy for the fact that I, we, had positively worshiped a God of Outrageous Love.
I was thinking about sharing what we did,
but the Holy Spirit said NO!
“Let the reader, if they are moved by what Fr. Feeney suggested, plan what they want to do to honor and thank a Father, Brother, and Holy Spirit, who on that very first Good Friday dramatically demonstrated the extent of their Outrageous love for you.”
