More on Intercession of Saints (Including our Friends and Neighbors)

Yet one more reason to ask others to pray for you (specifically those who are more spiritually mature than you).

Two days ago, I wrote about the Oswald Chamber's article about the importance of the righteousness of the soul making the petition. I also quoted the verse: the prayers of a righteous man availeth much or the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.

Here's another one for today from James chapter one:

5 jIf any of you lacks wisdom, klet him ask God, lwho gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But mlet him ask in faith, nwith no doubting, for the one who doubts is like oa wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 phe is a double-minded man, qunstable in all his ways.

You will see here the the most effective prayer is one asked "in faith, with no doubting..." and the person who doubts is a "double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

So I should ask for prayer from individuals who have faith and not doubt, who are not double minded, and believe that their petitions will receive their answer from God, whether yes or no.

I also must continue to draw near to God through Christ and purify my heart and walk in his light, and raise my own praise and petitions to God as He asks me to. I am definitely not advocating for giving up self-prayer in favor of asking others to pray. But in the event that I would like my prayers to reach and extend farther, I want those with the purest hearts and the greatest faith to pray for me.

Dazzling Witness

Because I am a contemplative person, I experience a lot of internal change. Sometimes I am unable to communicate that change to other people, who may not benefit from my spiritual growth without my communication of the experience. This leaves me feeling ineffective sometimes in sharing my faith and life with others, and being "useful" as a witness of God.

In today's Utmost for His Highest, Oswald writes, "If you keep your relationship right with God, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour rivers of living water through you. And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it... God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to walk in the light as He is in the light."

This is extremely comforting and powerful. My witness is ALWAYS on, and it is God's mercy that I don't know it. Hopefully the darkened world is dazzled by the Grace of God in my life and growing thirstier and thirstier for him.

More Goals, and prayer requests

I added some more thoughts/goals/prayer requests. For one thing, I am still trying to "get" that at Confirmation I will be given tangible/literal/objective gifts of God's graces. So, I am wondering about all the little latent "inklings" I have of gifts....for art, for example. Will this seed and hint of gift sprout into something more overt and activated? Hmmm.....this is one thing I will pray for. Another, that I am specifically asking for, is that I will be able to stop biting my fingernails!!

I would love that. Whether or not this will be a manifestation of my "giftedness" at Confirmation, I will nevertheless add it to my "goal" list.

NOT MY NAILS, but similar

Goal: Let my fingernails grow and not bite them!!

My Goals, because, as I quoted before, "If you don't change, you die."

GOALS

Read through the Pulitzer Prize winning book list backwards from 2011 back to 1917.
Learn to hold a handstand for at least thirty seconds.
Volunteer somewhere on the weekends.
Get up at 5am to go to the gym, Mass, and study Scripture before work.

Asking for Intercession of those more Holy?

I have always struggled with the notion that some people’s prayers may be more effective than others. It makes me cringe inside to think that God is more willing to respond to some than to others. But there is the verse in James that says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Or more commonly translated, “The prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.” (James 5:16).  Some people will claim, “Who is more righteous than the saints in heaven?”

Some individuals I know ask for intercession from the Saints and Mary, because their prayers are pure and effective as they are righteous and alive in heaven with God. I still have a hard time believing that Mary asking something of God on my behalf is more effective than me just asking God myself, since I do have a direct line to the Father. However, I hold my opinions rather humbly these days, and have been open to hearing otherwise from God. 

This morning, I read My Utmost for His Highest, and realized that the spiritual state and quality of the individual praying does indeed matter in God’s response to the prayer. So this leads me to consider the fact that yes, of course the saints and Mary are more saintly and holy than I am because they are in heaven with God. And maybe it is true, then, that God would be more responsive to their prayers than mine, based on Oswald Chambers’ meditation for today. If this is true, then, it is a good reason to ask the intercession of the saints. Why don’t you read for yourself?

The Spiritual Search (My Utmost for His Highest)

 What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9

The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”

We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).

I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives . . .” (Matthew 7:8).

Cellular Regeneration

The pop science that I am familiar with tells us that every decade or so, the human body completes a cycle of cellular regeneration, meaning that the old cells die out and are replaced with new ones without our even knowing it. You get a whole new body, then, every so often.

If you are reading this, you should thank me right now for not posting an image of a snake shedding its skin, which it also does periodically. Instead, I will stick with a butterfly life cycle as the symbol of choice moving forward.

In the past few years, I have undergone a complete regeneration, shed completely all of my life, and have grown into a new one. The metaphors could continue:  I have metamorphosed, from a worm to a butterfly. However I think the process continues on as long as we live. Worm, cocoon, butterfly, death. Worm, cocoon, butterfly, death. Worm....continued in perpetuity until raised to new life in heaven. According to a quote from Downton Abbey, we cannot resist change. It's futile: "If we don't change we die."

I have lost a lot. God has gently asked me to give up a lot. Some has been taken from me. Some has been bloodied sacrifice. All of it was painful. But piece by piece it has all fallen away as new growth pushed out the old in preparation for the new. I do not see the future vision. I don't have the view. Only with perspective and time may I ever.

But at least I can be confident that God is calling me to growth and strength and pursuit of the Truth and Good that He has for me. I see how I am in transition into a whole new self, having let go of the old, and clinging to the new. I hope that my heart can catch up to what my mind knows is True. 

If you don't change, you die

"I was determined not to let it change me....It was absurd! If you don't change, you die."
- Matthew Crawley, Downton Abbey

Wall Art?