You are not alone, God is very close to you.

Good morning, happy Monday, and blessings.

Reading the Gospel for today, John ‪10: 11-18‬, I came out with these two questions: How good sheep get lost? Why some believers have a harder time trusting God for great things to happen? It’s not because of “backsliding” or sin, or unbelief but it is because they have over and over again faced this fork in the road and chosen the wrong path. The crossroads between what God wants and what we want. I’m not picking on certain believers, but this applies to all of us, myself included.

There are times when God moves mightily and then there are other times where it feels like He took a vacation in the Caribbean right when we needed Her the most. How we respond in each of those situations will determine how our heart reacts the next time there is a need for prayer. We can either look to our own strength or the strength of others to help and guide us or we can put our trust and obedience in God. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ask for help in times of need, but I am encouraging you to look inside yourself and see who your faith is in. Is it in a person, a group, a thing or even yourself instead of God? Jesus once told a parable about building a house either on sand or on the rock (Matthew 7:24-27) and the same principle applies to us here.

If your foundation is built on God and His rightful place in not just the universe as a whole but your own heart, then you with withstand the storms of life. If however you have set yourself above God in your thoughts, actions, prayers or in any other way you will either find your house toppled over or you will slowly sink down in the sand until there is nothing left of you for anyone else to see.

A great test to see where your heart comes in this question: Do you even bother to pray in your daily lives when there isn’t even a crisis? This matter is critical, and not just because of some religious obligation but because of relationship. Without relationship we are just treating God like a vending machine that is supposed to spit out whatever we ask for as long as we drop in a few quarters or our contributions. When we think and act like this God is no longer God in our hearts, but merely our servant.

Our help and redemption though come from Jesus who said “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep…” Jesus is the one who can come and move those logs and obstacles from our lives, well as long as we are on His path and not some dark forest trail we ran off into. Jesus through his love and compassion sees us as these loveable, stubborn, and helpless sheep and He offers us the opportunity to join His flock and to be under His protection

The Parable of the Lost Sheep is the first of the three parables that Jesus narrated with an intention to explain loss and redemption. If you feel God is simply too far away from you and that there is no way He would ever take you back – again, this is what the word of God is telling you right now: “The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting …” (Psalm 100:5)

Blessings,

Padre Luis+