ധ്രുവദീപ്തി //Religion- Great is His Name / by Elsy mathew

ധ്രുവദീപ്തി //Religion-  

Great is His Name / 

Elsy mathew, Bangalore 

Divine Thoughts:

 

Remember the wonderful blessings that come to you each day from the hands of a generous God, and forget the irritations that would detract from your happiness--William Arthur Ward
 

Some sailed over the ocean in ships, earning their living on the seas. They saw what the Lord can do, his wonderful acts on the seas (Psalms 107:23).

 

In an interview with the well-known journalist and author, Khushwant  Singh, Mother Teresa shared some of her early experiences of God’s providence. At the start, her organization was little known and often short of cash. “Money has never been much of a problem,” she told Singh, “God gives through his people.” She narrated how when she started her first school in the slums, she had no more than five rupees with her. But as soon as people came to know what she was doing, they brought money and things. “It’s all divine providence,” she said. On one occasion, when they had run out of rations, a lady they had never seen before left them a bag of rice. “We measured the rice with our little cup. It was exactly what we required for the day,” recalled Mother Teresa. “When I told the lady that, she broke down, and cried as she realized that God had used her as an instrument of his will.”

Jesus knows our every need long before we become aware of it and prepares us to meet those needs far beyond our expectations.

There are moments of unbelief even in the hearts of the most ardent believers. This is because we are human and have a heart which is desperately wicked. Even after reading and hearing from the eternally secured Word, we tend to drift away from believing the promises of God. Our human mind is susceptible to unbelief. The circumstances and situations push us into unbelief. Our faith is often seen to be contrary to scientific thinking. The people around us throw seeds of unbelief into our hearts. Our culture is powerful with its superstitions. We give more weight to trend and probability than to the Word of God. But our God comes back in His grace to tell us that His Word will never lose its power.  He reminds us that He will not go back on His promises. He is not a God who says one thing and does another thing. What He says He will definitely fulfill. But it seems Abraham failed to realize that God offered Himself as Abraham’s inheritance. Anything tangible that God gives is not as valuable as God Himself.

 All things that God gives other than His salvation will pass away in this world. Suffice it when God makes Himself our inheritance. The Person of God is far more than anything that we could ever desire or demand. But When God gives Himself to us as our eternal inheritance, we should be satisfied with Him and should never ask for anything more. If we are satisfied with Him, we should not allow ourselves to murmur against Him. Along with Him, God gives us all that we need to keep on loving and living for Him. The complaint by Abraham should challenge us to examine ourselves to see to it that we are content with God and all the blessings that come along with Him. He has blessed us with all the blessings of the heavenly places which ought to satisfy us. But if you complain, God would still honor your weak faith and reinforce His promises with personal reassurance. Today God wants to remind us that we are so precious to Him to the extent to which He has given Himself to us as our great inheritance. So we would lack nothing in this life and that which is to come.

When the greatest inheritance is given to us, it would include all the mundane that we need for our daily lives. Not only that, the God of Eternity also guarantees all that we need for our present life in order to serve Him and live as His witnesses here on earth. Realization of this truth ought to challenge us to live above the mundane things in life and keep desiring to possess the great inheritance of God in His character and attributes. It ought to take away all anxieties and worldly concerns from our hearts and fill us with the confidence that we have all that we need here on earth. So our concern ought to be to see how we can live each day of our lives without anxiety and fear of the unknown future and to cast all our cares on our God who is our inheritance here and now. Today let this realization reassure us to perennially depend on our God without the shadow of doubt, confusion and unbelief.

How wonderful are the good things you keep for those who honour you. Everyone knows how good you are, how securely you protect those who trust you.(Psalms 31:19)

A Sufi mystic arrived at the outskirts of a town with his disciples. They had traveled far, and were desperately in need of shelter and food. Unfortunately, the townsfolk, being of another religion, refused them hospitality. Without so much as a word of reproof, the Master sought out a large tree, spread his mat under it, and began his meditation. He prayed in low voice, “You are great, O God, for you always provide us with whatever we need.”

Overhearing this, some of the novices, who were on their first pilgrimage, turned to him and said, “Master, your prayer is not sincere. Here we are, out in the cold, exposed to wild beasts,tired, famished; we have been insulted and rejected. How can you say God provides?’ “Well,” replied the saint with kindly patience, “what we need tonight is poverty, hunger, rejection and danger. If we didn’t need it, He would not have given it. So should we not be grateful? He always takes care of our needs. Great is His Name!”

Let us then approach the Throne of Grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16).