Daily Reflections ...

God loves us infinitely and He wants us to be with Him.  Our citizenship is in heaven!

Our sin gets in the way of our relationship with God and our sanctification.  God wants us to be holy like him, so in today’s reading Jesus is giving us a powerful teaching about cutting off things, situations, objects and mindsets that cause us to sin.

In my experience, it’s the times when I am closest to God that the temptation to sin becomes more intense.  God wants me to be in communion with him, however, my fallen nature, my proclivity to sin and the workings of the evil one act to stifle God’s plan of goodness for me, What Jesus is calling us to do today is difficult, because we become attached and addicted to things that lead us to sin.  How do we cut them off?  How can we overcome temptation?  And when we give in to these temptations, how can we overcome sin?  It is not by our own strength, or by trying REALLY hard.  It’s through God’s bountiful grace, our obedience in faith and our allegiance to Jesus.  We cannot become holy, righteous, or sanctified by our own efforts, but we can cooperate with God’s grace.  This is what Jesus calls us to do today.  Leave the old self and put on the new self.  If we are in Christ, we are new creations!

Lord, we freely cooperate with your grace.  Kindly reveal to us those things in our lives that cause us to sin so we can cut them off.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

By Dom Dougherty