“Whoever believes in me has eternal life.”
(John 6:47)
Dear Friends ~
The month of March encompasses the season of Lent that began in February with Ash Wednesday and then for forty days
up to Easter Sunday. We are to remember the forty days Christ spent in the wilderness in prayer to His Father, fasting and being tempted by the devil, all of which was the necessary preparation for His public ministry.
Christians all over the world will be using this time for self-examination, fasting, repentance of sins with self-denial and works of charity. It is also a time for meditative prayer reflecting on the enormity of Christ’s offering of Himself as the sacrificial lamb that redeemed the world of its’ sins. He suffered the ridicule and humiliation of an unjust trial; a piercing crown of thorns placed on His head; the scourging, beating and carrying of His heavy cross through the streets to the place of His crucifixion, and then the torturous nailing of His hands and feet to that cross with the final agony of His side being opened by a spear… a dreadful, despicable death, for what… for us to gain heaven. How tremendous His love for us is what should overwhelm our thoughts as we ponder the depths of His suffering… suffering He could have walked away from at any time but didn’t all because He knew if He, The Son of God didn’t pay the debt of our sins, no one else could or would. Christ alone was the Savior sent by The Father to redeem mankind and open the gates of heaven for all who would come to believe in Him who truly was “The Way, The Truth and The Life.”
Christ’s Resurrection from the grave on that first Easter morn centuries ago, proved that faith in God is trustworthy, that faith in God is rewarded and that mortality gives way to immortality. Each life on earth will have to give Almighty God a reckoning for its existence here, because as Jesus showed, when our physical bodies die, our spiritual life rises to immortality in heaven or hell.
The nonbelievers think erroneously that life ends in the grave, but that is so horribly wrong which they will discover too late in hell for rejecting Him. Why do the poor of mind never consider the reality of Almighty God; that He is The Creator of all life and that He is entitled to judge what we did with the gift He gave us? We certainly all know we are going to die, and not as surely in old age as it used to be, but at any moment our life can be taken from us and some never thought to say: Thank You God! Whatever fasting, prayers, and suffering you can offer up to God this Lent, designate some of your sacrifice for all those stubbornly ignorant souls who will be lost to eternal damnation… or even better still… if you personally know someone on that road to hell, make it your mission this lent to reveal Christ to them; give them the time to have their questions answered, and get them to church or classes if possible… bring a soul to God and away from the devil… what a blessed Easter you all will have!
“Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me,” said Jesus Christ.
(Matthew 25:40)
I always think of these words when I wish I could send God a Thank You Gift for a prayer answered or a situation resolved by Divine Providence… 
but what can you send God except to do something for one of His poor brethren… and Lent is certainly the time of extra, give ‘til-it-hurts charity. Every community has a food bank needful of contributions, so take an extra big bag or two of groceries for those needy.
Make up some care packages for the local homeless
you drive or walk by and fill it up with toiletries, snack bars, fruit, socks, even a Bible from the Dollar Store, for they very well could use food for the soul. Think of someone in need, then you will know what to do, at the same time you will be thanking God for what He has done for you.
THE POWER OF PRAYER
Prayer is simply conversation with God, and of course there are formal prayers we recite by rote like The Our Father and our own prayers of Thanksgiving and Petition as well. We can talk to God anytime or anywhere for He is always with us, so don’t say you are too busy for we all do those mindless tasks like cleaning house or washing the car where you can do two things at one time. It is really worth the effort if you can start your day with God; some people rise early before the rest of the household and in a quiet place talk with Him and read His Word. Others will find sometime during the day or even at day’s end to talk specifically with Him and reveal their mind and heart to Him. Whatever you do, try to establish and maintain this habit of speaking with Almighty God.
Jesus taught us how to pray when he gave us The Our father, and He told us over and over again to pray: “Have faith in the Father… Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.” On another occasion: “And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.” Why on earth would God tell us repeatedly to pray to Him if He had no intention of every answering requests? He is our Heavenly Father that wants His children to talk to Him and to establish a relationship with Him.
Prayers can get a quick response, or seemingly take forever and even be answered in a completely different but better way than asked, so never give up on God. There was an incident in The Bible where Christ’s disciples tried to cure a man possessed of a demon with no luck, so the father took his son to Jesus and begged: “If thou canst do anything, help us, having compassion on us. And Jesus said to him: If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And immediately the father of the boy crying out, with tears said: I do believe, Lord: help my unbelief.” And Jesus commanded the evil spirit to come out and the son was cured. Curious at this miraculous event, the disciples ask Christ why they hadn’t been able to cure the son, and Jesus responded: “This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” So the lesson here is once again that “Nothing is impossible for God,” but some of those horrible demons we are trying to get rid of in ourselves or someone else takes a lot of prayer and fasting, so don’t give up. Remember that father’s tearful plea to Christ… “help my unbelief”… well, use those exact words with Almighty God when you feel your faith faltering. God always has our best interest in mind, so try your hardest to let Him do His Thing, in His Way and in His Time, for it surely will be what is best for you. If you never ask, there is no merit in that, but ask He said… that is the power of prayer…His power, and it is yours… for the asking!
