The faithful God makes us faithful !

23.05.2021

Sunday 23 May 2021

May the God of peace himself lead you into total holiness and may your whole being, spirit, soul and body, be kept blameless at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ ! He who calls you is faithful, he will also do it. 1 Thessalonians 5.23-24

"He will do it too" ! The only one who can sanctify us, purify us, keep us pure and blameless, is God. The apostle Paul reminds us of this in this verse of the day. The one who makes us faithful is the one who is faithful.

As we have seen, in the face of our faults, God proclaimed his fidelity. Our failures, our falls, our cowardice, in short : our sins are not sufficient reasons to keep us in infidelity. He who is faithful calls us to return to him, in truth and repentance, so that we may receive his forgiveness and the purification of our faults. When we come back to him, he restores our loyalty. The only way for us to be faithful is to trust ourselves in the faithfulness of God even in the midst of our infidelities.

"Only God's faithfulness to us remains the basis of our own faithfulness."

Have you ever been unfaithful to the Lord ? It happened to me. I made promises that I did not keep, so I returned to him in repentance, and through his faithfulness he made me stand up.

While on this dark night when Jesus is arrested, and that for the third time Peter has just denied his Master, the gaze of the Lord falls on Peter. This look upsets Peter heart. What just happened ? Through this look, Pierre became aware of his infidelity, his betrayal, his cowardice ! This awareness leads him to see himself as he is, and to repent. From that moment on, Jesus' faithfulness to Peter will be the only force capable of restoring him, and then of giving him the capacity to be faithful until death. It is because the Lord has been faithful to his unfaithful disciple that the unfaithful disciple has been enabled to be faithful even to death (John 21:19).

Only God's faithfulness to us remains the basis of our own faithfulness.

If your failures overwhelm you, if your falls weigh on you, if you suffer from your betrayals, come back to God with all your heart in repentance, and be assured that he who is faithful has the power to make you faithful. He did it for the apostle Peter, as he did for me, and thousands of other repentant sinners. He is still ready to do it for you on this day.

My prayer for today

Sorry Lord for my infidelity. By your grace, make me faithful according to your promise. Amen !

Paul Calzada

Source (The Thought of the Day)