"And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." - Lk 1, 45
Yes!! This!! Each of our lives is blessed to its greatest possible abundance when we believe that there will be a fulfillment of what the Lord has spoken to us! This is a true Advent: to spend these weeks longing for God's presence, asking and allowing the Holy Spirit to help us believe what we have not quite been able to fully believe on our own:
- That we can do what God is calling us to do, because God empowers us (see last item)
- That we can count on God o fulfill his promise to provide for our needs
- That God's desire for us to do what he is calling us to do is not rooted in some despotic wish to control our lives and deprive us of joy, but instead in a deep love for us and a desire to maximize the blessings he pours out in and through our lives
- That the things we choose in God's stead are a vaporous mirage
- That adoring, praising, and worshiping the Savior leads us to all of the "more practical" ways of living out the Gospel in our lives
- That holiness and sacrificial love are not burdens, but the great gift which is our only means of participating in the life and presence of God
- That the Holy Spirit indeed dwells in us, sanctifying us and drawing us ever deeper into the love of the Triune God
May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. - 1 Thes 5, 23-24
It is not us doing this, though we must participate in the process. I don't primarily sanctify myself or keep myself sound and blameless, though I must cooperate in both these things. But having given my fiat, I will trust - and ask - God's Spirit to be at work in me to fulfill what he has spoken.
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