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Believe in the Gospel

Today’s readings on this Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, are all about reflecting and repenting. Jesus talks about repenting our sins and believing in the gospel and gathering followers (apostles). We saw this last week when Jesus picked up some followers in Andrew and Simon Peter.

However, the gospel today is more than just gathering followers. As I mentioned, it is about repenting and believing in the gospel. Believing in the kingdom. It may even sound like St. Paul and Mark’s gospel are at odds with each other as each passage today appears to contradict each other. I will get to that more a little later.

I would like to start with the first reading today from the prophet Jonah in Chapter 3. In the scripture, God tells him to warn the people of Nineveh about pending destruction God had planned for them because of their wicked ways. Jonah proclaims the news to Nineveh and the people believed and “proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.” (Jonah 3:5) God then saw how the people repented and withdrew his promise of causing evil and repented from harming them. So in this, I believe holding on to faith and having a full prayer life is important to maintain a fulfilling existence. This in turn can help with having a perpetual belief and faith in the gospel.

In Psalm 25 today, the psalmist is repenting and asking God for guidance and security through life:

“Make known to me your ways, Lord; teach me your paths; guide me by your fidelity and teach me, for you are God my savior, for you I wait all the day long. Remember no more those sins of my youth, remember me according to your mercy, because of your goodness, Lord.” (Psalm 25: 4-5, 7)

St. Paul tells the Corinthians “time is running out,” (1 Corinthians 7:29) whereas, in Mark’s gospel, Jesus says, ‘”This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand.“‘ (Mark 1:15) How can the kingdom of God be at hand if St. Paul says the time is coming for fulfillment? I believe what St. Paul is saying, we may always have temptations and forget about the urgency of the gospel message and feel “the world in its present form is passing away,” (1 Corinthians 7:31) and that time may be running short. This, I believe, only perpetuates the need to believe in the gospel and to turn away from one’s sins to bring the gospel message to fulfillment.

In Mark’s gospel today, Jesus is referring to John the Baptist being arrested when he talks about the kingdom of God being here. For Jesus, John’s arrest meant the final moment when the old covenant was rejected, which now made room for the new covenant with Jesus. It is the good news Jesus brings in with the new covenant to bring about the new order of things. This of course comes to fulfillment with Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection.

Do not worry about present worldly things. Think about the good things, such as sharing the gospel and making “fishers of men,” (Mark 1:17) and living the spiritual life within the glory of God through Jesus in God’s kingdom.

kellym40 General

Creating and Sustaining a Life of Prayer, Part 4

This is part four of my prayer series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and have been able to take away helpful information about your own prayer life. This series was built on the foundation of learning about prayer, how to use it in your daily life, and, today, learn to create and sustain a life of prayer.

A helpful way to do that is to break down the way in which you pray. Let’s take the word PRAY and make an acronym. By doing this, it makes praying more meaningful.

The first letter in our acronym (P) stands for PRAISE. Let praise begin your prayer. Be thankful. Psalm 100:1-4 says, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name!”

For the third letter (A) we ASK. Ask God for good things. Matthew 7:7-11 tells us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for brad will give hi a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” And remember, God wants you to ask. He will answer, but remember to give thanks to God, glorify Him. (John 14:13). Whatever you ask should be consistent with His word. (John 15:7). And what you ask of the Lord, should bring you joy. (John 16:23-24).

The second letter is (R) and stands for REPENT. Be sorrowful for whatever wrong you have done, even if you don’t know if what you did was wrong. Ask God to help you see whatever wrongdoing you may have done and be sorrowful and show remorse. Repent. Ask for forgiveness. Refer to Psalm 19:12, 14, where it says, “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

The final letter (Y) represents a time to be still. It means to YIELD. This is when you pause and stop talking, and you wait, listen, and seek to hear from God. How do you practice yielding to God when you pray? Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

So use PRAY when you pray. Let it help you continue your prayer life and you may see the goodness and wonders of God. Romans 12:12 tells us, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

One of my favorite passages in the bible is from Psalm 63. In verses 1-4 it says, “O God, your are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirst for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.” This also refers to another Psalm, as in Psalm 141:1-2, “O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!”

Again, I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. I will pray that you may keep that focus to Christ Jesus and the heavenly Father. Remember also that God hears us and knows what may be in the silence of our hearts. So take comfort in knowing that, as it says in Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

Take care and God bless you!