Holding on to the Lord

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 10, 2020: 1 Kings 18: 20-39; Matthew 5: 17-19

Faith is holding on, it is holding on to the Lord against all odds. Hence perseverance is the capacity to hold on for a longer time, longer than your normal patience can really hold. Amidst crises of various kinds, and specially amidst some injustice that you experience for no cause of your's, the capacity to hold on, is tested more intensely.

Today we witness some spectacular events in Elijah's lifetime. This could both be a positive lesson and a negative one at that. Positive, when we think of the greatness that God reveals right in front of the eyes of everyone. Negative, when we think of the fact that people who look for these kinds of sensational happenings to prove God, or find reasons and justifications amidst sufferings like saying 'God is angry' and 'God is displeased' and all the human absurdities attributed to God! 

However, there is one formidable message that we can derive from Elijah's experience: one person's faith could save and revive the faith of an entire people... when we hold on to God, we hold our fellow persons up. So it is with us, even in our families for instance. When a person sees many in the family or all else in the family going away from God, the person's faith could prove instrumental in bring the rest of them back to God! How many today, stand testimonies to this phenomenon!

Holding on to God is not an easy thing anyway. Just because it is challenging the Lord does not go easy on that demand... he is unwaveringly stern on that call - to remain firm! It is of course, not merely calling out, 'Lord! Lord!", which means to hold on to God. But it is to keep the Word of the Lord, to live by the commands of the Lord, come what may. When we do that we hold on; if not, we fall. 

How prepared am I to hold on to the Lord?