God leads... through our Choice for God!

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, Third week

March 07, 2024 - Jeremiah 7: 23-28; Lk 11: 14-23

Through the desert God leads to freedom. God leads us, certainly, no doubt about it. But have we chosen to respond to what God proposes? Jeremiah recounts to us in the first reading how the people chose not to respond to God, or chose something else in the place of the orders from God. It is not necessary to choose something against God, but very decision to choose something different from what God wants of us, would gradually take us against God. That is why, the choice is either for God or against God. 

Jesus puts that direct and clear today: one who is not with me is against me; one who does not gather with me, scatters! Our desires lead us to tendencies; our tendencies lead to convictions; our convictions lead to our choices and our choices demarcate where we stand: with God or against God. There is no neutral way about it; I am either with God or against God. 

As we just reflected upon, our convictions are fundamental to our choices. Convictions are born out of our repeated responses, following a particular pattern, to similar situations. Even sins are such, aren't they? That is why a conviction could be sinful too! What matters is not only how well founded our convictions are, but also how God-founded they are. Our convictions should be as firmly as possible founded on what God wants of us. 

When we are not guarded, when we are not careful and when we are not mindful of the convictions that we are forming within us, the evil one can easily attack, defeat and enter our lives sharing out his spoil. The Word therefore instructs us never to harden our hearts, to open our ears and our minds to the Word of God and to God's ways, that we would form the right convictions within us, and choose God above all. 

When we make a choice for God, we make a choice for all that God wants of us, all that God has planned for us, and all that God has in store for us - that is the Will of God and the Reign of God. That is the salvation, the freedom that God leads us to, through our Choice for God.