GOD SHALL LIFT YOU UP AGAIN

⏰Monday of the Twenty-Fifth Week of Ordinary Time 1 (25 September 2023)

📖Ezra 1:1-6; Ps 126:1-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6 (R.v.3a); Luke 8:16-18

🎤GOD SHALL LIFT YOU UP AGAIN! 

Amen!

Child of God, I may not be able to say exactly what you are going through at the moment. I may not even be able to say what will happen to you next. Yet, there is one thing that I am sure of: The Lord does not abandon his own. At the appointed time, he will surely lift you up. At that time, even your enemies will begin to work for your good.

In Jer 25:11-12, the prophet declared that the people of Israel would not remain in exile forever. When the time comes, they shall be liberated, and those who stand against them shall be punished. That became the foundation upon which the book of Ezra is built. This book, which we begin to read today, is proof that God never fails to fulfil his promise.

Again, when the Lord means to lift you up, he can send you help from uncommon places. To liberate the people of Israel from Babylon, he used the pagan king, Cyrus of Persia. So you do not really need to be worried about how your help shall come. The Lord is the master planner; he is working out everything for your good.

Nonetheless, you need not relax from pursuing righteousness because it is the manure that will dispose you to rise and attract the favour of God. Even though God is ever merciful and gives generously, it is only those who dispose themselves well that benefit from it. Notice that it is those "whose spirit God had stirred" (Ezra 1:5) that will benefit from that liberation. You can see! We must let God be in us and rework us.

Jesus tells us how to begin to allow God to come into us: We must let our light shine out for others to see and give God the glory. That light is righteousness.

May the Lord lift you up in this new work week and beyond. May he turn every stumbling block on your way to a stepping stone. And may his light in you never go dim so that you may be a source of testimony to all who encounter you. Amen

Peace be with you!

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