Daily Reflections - Feb 3, 2018

1 Kings 3: 4 - 13; Mark 6: 30 - 34.

The focus of today’s readings is the need of humility and prayer for devout service to God’s will. God is all knowing of the intention of the human heart and He advises us to follow His will in righteousness so that the devil finds no opportunity to plant a seed of conceit in our heart.The devil is persuasive to derail a person with good intentions who sincerely wants to do everything in his power to please God. It is easy for God to fill the human mind with understanding and empower the human with extraordinary abilities to perform awesome deeds. But then, God has also designed life-giving mankind the wonderful gift of ‘Free Will’. Every person has the God-given freedom to choose to do as he/she pleases.

In the book of 1Kings3:4-13, God accepts Solomon’s sacrifice for three reasons:

1. Solomon chose the place of Gibeon which is the high place that God had chosen through Moses for the tent of the Ark of the Covenant. His father David used to honour God at the high place of Gibeon. It was only after Solomon built the Temple at Jerusalem, that the Ark of the Covenant was moved into the Temple and the worship of God shifted to Jerusalem.
2. God perceived humility in Solomon’s heart. Solomon was humble to sincerely take the responsibility of leading the nation of Israel from his father David. In Power comes great responsibility and as the King of Israel, Solomon understood that he had a great responsibility to govern the people, keep them safe from their enemies and help them thrive.
3. God was pleased to continue to bless King David through his son Solomon and establish David’s dynasty. God is pleased to bless a man even after his physical death through his descendants and even for many generations. One day in heaven is equivalent to a thousand earthly years.

Our prayers must be selfless and pleasing to God. Our prayers must be aligned with God’s will and for the greater good of God’s creation. It is for that reason that God created mankind: (a) To adore, worship and honour Him in spirit and truth and (b) To love the rest of His creation as we love ourselves. God is very generous when blessing and rewarding but He wants us to choose righteousness and dedicate our hearts to goodness.

The same applies in the Gospel of Mark 6: 30-34. After returning to Jesus, the disciples were excited with how God had used them to show mercy and to bless His people Israel. They had many instances that they wanted to share with Jesus for they were still astounded. Jesus recognized their emotion and immediately understood the need to protect his disciples from the evil of conceitedness. God may choose to use anybody empowering them in a small way and even to work great miracles. And when God empowers a person, that person soon attracts a large number of people and quickly becomes famous. Such fame can tarnish our humility. Fame can bring about self-awareness of greatness and make a person proud and conceited. Once conceit is born in a human heart, that person can no longer serve God, that person begins to self-serve.

To serve God it is paramount to understanding the truth that everything is possible only through God and without God nothing is possible. To serve God one must adhere to the fact that any work of greatness is done by God through the human and the human on his own is incapable of any great deed. The human is capable of displaying goodness, but prayer protect the person from the devil is very important. The devil is ever ready to thwart that goodness by inducing some form of conceit and selfishness. We must be aware that the devil is ever ready to plant selfishness even in the tiniest form into a person who wishes to do good. That is the reason why Jesus took the disciples away to a secluded place. So that they may pray in thanksgiving and learn to pray fervently for protection from all forms of evil as they continue to spread God’s message of mercy and truth. Those whom God empowers with his gifts will always have a fan following and will always be followed because people are attracted to anything that is positive. All greatness comes from God. But we must walk the narrow path, selflessly seeking heavenly protection so that we may not perish in our own folly, but inherit eternal life.

By Bro. Maryo.