Dec 29, 2015

 

Prayer of St. Francis (8)

Where there is doubt, faith (2)

“Never be afraid to trust

an unknown future

to a known God.”

                                     Corrie ten Boom

We are looking again at the line of the Prayer of St. Francis that invokes us to encourage others despite their (and our) lack of faith.

The quote above sums up the situation. Lack of faith is always about the future, based on a perceived dismal past. If we always see doom and gloom in the past, we will always see doom and gloom in the future. Only by seeing joy in the past can we foresee joy in the future; in fact, we need to see joy in the past in order to have faith that the future will bring more Joy (or God) into our future.

Faith is the ability to believe that joy will come into our life ever more abundantly.

God is love.

God is Joy.

God is Life.

God Is.

God is in the past, present and the future, for God is outside of time, in no-time, and exists in all three simultaneously.

The future, if we can bring our faith to see God in the past, will also contain God, the One who Loves us beyond measure. The one constant is the Love of God, always, thus we have God present with us in the past, present, and future. As St. Paul said, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) Is there any better way to express faith?

Faith in the context of this line of prayer is to bring that Joy of God into another’s life, thus increasing that Joy in our own life, for what we give away we receive; and truthfully, only by giving the Joy of God away to another do we discover the depths of the Joy of God. When one doubts life, and cannot seem to find the Love of God because they are blocking the Love that is always present, it takes another with the Love of God in their life to present that Love in truth to the doubter.

Now when we present that Love, we will usually be rejected and laughed at; for that is the nature of doubt. But by being quietly full of joy and love it will work it’s way into the soul of another, perhaps a long time in the future. Each person who presents that Love to the other chips away at the wall that is present, and no one person can claim success, but only as part of the path.

We can never tell who needs our faith, for much of the doubt exists deep in a person and is seldom seen in the outward vista. Much of the time a person does not even realize their doubt, as it appears in apathy and the ability to soak up all the entertainment of the world in the place of faith. Much of our world has a lack of deep faith that would truly make this a God-centered world; instead most rely only on themselves and what they can accumulate.

We have a necessity to be a beacon of God’s Love, the Face of God, at all times, for all of our world is in desperate need of reassurance of the Love of God.

That is our task.

“Some things have

to be believed

to be seen.”

                             Madeleine L’Engle

Questions to Ponder

Faith is the hidden deepest beliefs we have about the unknown God. How do you see God in your personal life today?

If you try to share some of your faith with another, does that strengthen your own faith in what you believe?

Meditation

“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.”

If this meditation post has been helpful, I would appreciate it if you would pass it on or share it.

I will not post anything on New Years’ Eve.

Happy New year.