What is God’s Will for Me?

Many wonder what is God’s Will to one’s life is. Some take it lightly, some take it seriously and others take it frustratingly. Discerning God’s specific Will for us is not as easy as we like it to be. It takes time and a lot of prayer. Often there is a preparation stage before we find it.

So what about for those who are still in search of it? What are we suppose to do now?

We do God’s Will.

Many of us get fussed up or stuck finding the specific Will of God for our lives that we forget to do his general Will. The Will He revealed in the Scriptures and the Church. The will He revealed in Jesus. And that Will is to love God with all our being and our neighbor.

Before we get hung up finding God’s specific will in our lives, we must first strengthen our foundation. There is no use finding that God called you to be husband and a father when you are going to end up being a bad one. Before you become a good husband and father, you must first be a good Christian. Being a good Christian is the foundation of our vocation. Our relationship with God is the foundation for our relationship to others and to the world.

Until we are able to fulfill God’s general Will for us, finding our specific vocation will be very hard. In the heart of our vocation is the love of God and neighbor. The more we love the more we become like God, the more we think like Him. The more we think like Him, the more we shall understand what He wants of us.

We must put on the mind of Christ.

One of the famous quotes of St Augustine, which is also the most misinterpreted, is “Love and do what you will.” What St. Augustine is saying is that once we live in (Biblical) love, our will and God’s Will will be in harmony. And whatever we do would be part of His will since now we are sharing the same will.

So instead of getting frustrated of not knowing what God’s specific plan in your life, do the basics. His basic will. The “Will” you will find in the Bible and in the Church.

Repent. Pray. Go to Mass. Preach the Word of God. Feed the hungry. Comfort the afflicted.

Once we are good in the basics, we are now ready for the next stage.

Once our foundation is strong, then God can start building up our lives.

At the end of the day, no matter what your vocation is. It is always certain that God’s will is to

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And Love your neighbor as yourself.” - Matthew 22:38-39

Written by Daxx Bondoc

We Are More than Social Workers, We Are Catholics

“We are not social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of some people, but we must be contemplatives in the heart of the world.” This is what Mother Teresa keeps reminding the world who she and her sisters was.

Don’t get me wrong, social workers do a lot of good in the world. And God bless them. But as Catholics, we are called beyond social work. Salvation of souls comes first before “social justice” for us Christians. To reverse the priority is to fail to do both. What use is it to save the body when the soul is going to be damned in the end?

“For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” Mark 8:36

Sadly, there are a lot of Catholics that have set the Gospel aside and made “social justice” their new gospel. The more they divorce their “social justice” from the Gospel, the less and less it becomes social and just. In the end, the end justifies the means. They say that to be socially just, let us cut down the population of the world so there would “supposedly” be more resources for all (meaning them). If killing the unborn would meet that end, then that is the socially just thing to do. Another way is to pump contraception to the poor. It might be harmful for their health and mostly their soul, but who cares! It is for the good of society. It is just. Right?

When Catholics stop being Christians and just social workers, the world will be doomed and damned. Christ came to liberate us from sin first, liberation from poverty just a consequence of that. Poverty will never be remedied by some economic program… as long as sinners are running the program. Poverty will be eradicated when we start loving each other. And the will only happen when we convert our hearts to Christ.

Jesus Himself denied this temptation of to be just a social reformer.

The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" - (Mat 4:3-4)

From Bishop Fulton Sheen’s Life of Christ

Our Lord was not denying that men must be fed, or that social justice much be preached; but He was asserting that these things are not first. He was, in effect, saying to Satan, “You tempt Me to a religion which would relieve want; You want me to be a baker, instead of a Savior; to be a social reformer, instead of a Redeemer. You are tempting Me away from My Cross, suggesting that I be a cheap leader of people, filling their bellies instead of their souls. You would have me begin with security instead of ending with it; you would have Me bring outer abundance instead of inner holiness. You and your materialist followers say, ‘Man lives by bread alone,’ but I say to you, “not by bread alone.’ Bread there must be, but remember even bread gets all its power to nourish mankind from Me. Bread without me can harm man; and there is no real security apart from the Word of God. If I give bread alone, then man is no more than an animal, and dogs might as well come first to My banquet. Those who believe in Me must hold to that faith, even when they are starved and weak; even when they are imprisoned and scourged.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Do It Anyway

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

This version is credited to Mother Teresa (The version found written on the wall in Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta)

God Gives What You Are Able to Receive

Ever wonder why some of our prayers takes a long time before it get answered? Or even never answered at all?

Most of our prayers are filled with petitions. God grant us this, God grant us that and so on. And we almost always assume that our petitions are good to us or to the person we are praying for. We only see what is favorable in our petitions. And we seldom think of what other consequences could happen if our prayers or petitions get answered. We often have the idea we know better.

But do we?

Each prayer answered is a blessing from God. Each blessing from God comes with a responsibility. The responsibility to use that blessing for love’s sake. To give an irresponsible person a blessing is to waste the blessing.

We shall receive what are capable of receiving. Imagine your son asking for a car. Sounds fair enough right? But you son is only 12 years old. Even though the car is good in itself, the capacity of your son to drive that car is not yet ready. To give him the car is not only foolishly irresponsible, but life threatening. Until your son reaches a certain age of maturity, he is not capable of handling it.

So how do we prepare ourselves for our prayers and petitions?

We need to be holy like Jesus is holy.

The more we become holy and virtuous, the more we able to handle God’s blessings. The more we become holy, the more we can understand what the blessing is all about. And God’s blessings are not only for us. God blesses us to bless others.

If you feel that your prayers are not getting answered, maybe you are praying for the wrong things. Or maybe you are not yet ready to have it. Until then, all you can do is to prepare yourself. Expand your heart, your soul that it would be able to handle what you are praying for.

There is no reason for God to withhold something that is for your own good.

We only get what we can handle.

And Thank God for that!

Written by Daxx Bondoc

What Faith Is and What Faith Isn't

Where does the Eucharist fit in the divine plan of salvation?

Does Our Fears Block God’s Blessings?

One of the common motives for praying to God is fear. We pray for health because we fear sickness. We pray for prosperity for we fear poverty. We pray for companionship because we fear loneliness. Whether we know it or not, most of our prayers have an element of fear in them.

I believe that there is a good sense of fear. Like the fear of a flying bullet. Some fears help us preserve our life.

But when fear takes over and makes self-preservation an obsession, fear now direct our lives.

Would you trust a person ruled by fear? Would you invest your money to a fearful businessman whose only goal is to preserve your money and not make it grow? Would you trust a fearful manager to run your business who is always afraid of making mistakes that he could not make decisions? Or would a soldier trust a coward to look over his back in the battlefield?

No?

Could it be possible that God withhold his blessings to us because of our chronic fearfulness?

Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter;so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’

His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter?Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. (Mat 25: 24-28)

The problem of being filled with fear is that we become crippled in life. Because of fear, we burry our talents and ourselves thinking that would protect us. The problem with being buried is that you cannot really do anything, not even move. Buried people are dead people.

Christianity is not for the coward. Being a Christian is a risky business. Just look where Jesus ended up. Hanging on the cross.

Life is not for the coward as well. Life demands risk. To live is to love. And loving someone is always a risk.

If God granted you your prayers, what would you do with it?

If God granted you the partner you have been praying for, would you love her? Or would you cage her because of the fear of losing her? Would she make you a loving and joyful person? Or would she make you a miserable obsessive and jealous person?

Until one learn what it means what really means to love and learn to let go of his fear of loneliness, the gift of a partner might just end up as a curse, for you and most especially for her.

If God granted your prayers for wealth, would it make you giving or greedy? Would that wealth be shared to the poor, or be locked up?

Fear is like a black hole. It sucks everything inside oneself. You are always looking out for yourself that you forget to look at others. We become obsessed with having a (false) sense of security is that we forget to live. Most especially we forget to love.

Until we overcome this kind of unhealthy fear in ourselves, we are unfit stewards of God’s Providence.

Why?

Because we stop being stewards and become thieves. We grab for ourselves what God has entrusted to us to give away.

Until we learn to deal with our fears, we will always be stuck. Buried.

And Providence might be delayed or worst, denied.

So let a bigger faith overcome our big fears.

Let us remember that there is a perfect loving God who loves us.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”- 1 John 4:18

Our fears may be many and enormous.

But God’s love is bigger.

Infinitely bigger.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Is Fear Ruling Your Life?

Fear can shape our lives. Many of our motivations are based on fear. Men have sacrificed their integrity for the fear of poverty. Those who fear oppression have become bullies.

We live in uncertain times in an uncertain world. Wars, disasters and for many the worst of them all, economic breakdown, is a present reality. Many of us feel insecure and unsecured.

But fear is not a good motivation in life. It might be, every now and then, for self-preservation but not as a rule.

One problem with fear is that it brings out our worst memories and emotions. It prevents us from thinking clearly. It leads us to protect ourselves so much that we have forgotten to go out and live. Fear is a prison where the lock is from the inside.

One way of dealing with fear is to deny it. “I am not afraid.” (But you know you are.) Self-denial can only last until you cannot deny the reality of it anymore. And it does not really deal with the root of the problem it just pretends that the root is not there.

Another way of dealing with it is controlling your environment to avoid a fearful situation. If you are afraid of poverty, be rich. If you are afraid of suffering, do whatever you can to live a comfortable life. This could work, if you have the resources to pull it off.

But what about the rest of the world who is struggling to survive?

How about those who can’t deny their present reality and don’t have the current resources to get themselves out of their fearful situation?

Will fear be king?

To those who does not trust God, Yes.

Those who does, No.

Those who trust God know that we can do all things in Christ who strengthens us. Now surviving our problems might not be a walk in the park, it might be more of a road to Calvary, but Jesus does carry the cross with us. He will also be there to resurrection us. Jesus has the final word in our problems. And there is always victory in Him.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Christ can conquer our problems, if we let Him. But we must remember that our problem was “conquered”, that there was first a battle. Victory only comes after a war.

God did not promise us that He will prevent any problems from happening to us. But He did promise that we would survive them.

The Bible is filled with “do-not-be-afraids”, because God knows we are. And He also continually reminds us that we shouldn’t.

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid." - Hebrews 13:5-6

Even if our worst fears happen to us, in Jesus we overcome them.

Christ has defeated death, could he not defeat our fears?

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Church vs. State

Christian Wisdom