God & Me - Week 1: Tuesday

1 Corinthians 10:12-14

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Commentary

St. Augustine of Hippo
Those who want to obey God, but can’t, already possess a good will, although it is small and weak. But they are able to obey when they obtain a strong and robust will…God works in us so that we can have the will to obey. Once we have this will, God works to perfect us. The apostle Paul says “I am confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Therefore, God operates without us so that we can will to obey, but when we act on our will, He cooperates with us.

Questions

• What word or phrase really stood out to me that I should consider memorizing? 

• What do these readings tell me about who God is and His role in my spiritual warfare? 

• What is a temptation I am currently struggling with? Do I have the will to fight the temptation?

God & Me - Week 1: Monday

Psalm 120 LXX  / Psalm 121 MT

I lift up my eyes to the mountains– From where my help shall come? My help shall come from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.

Commentary

Fr. Patrick Reardon
The thoughts in Psalm 120 are clearly those to which the believing mind will cleave, especially in times of trial, when spiritual help is most needed. Whether as participle or finite verb, references to God’s “guarding” me appear six times in this psalm’s eight verses. God’s protection of me is complete (“. . . shall guard you from every evil”), because He “neither sleeps nor slumbers.” This thoroughness of God’s protection is emphasized by the twin polarities of sun by day/moon by night and coming in/going out. 

For all that, the protection that God provides for me is not a merely individual blessing. This is not a psalm about “God and me.” I may pray this psalm and lay claim to its blessings, rather, by reason of my adherence to His Chosen People, the Church. I am a sheep of His flock. My personal confidence in God’s guardianship stands within a context determined by His covenant interventions in human history. The Lord is the Guardian of my soul because He is “the Guardian of Israel.” I may trust in Him, because He has made me too a child of Abraham.

Questions

• What word or phrase really stood out to me that I should consider memorizing? 

• What do these readings tell me about who God is and His role in my spiritual warfare? 

• What are the things I’m personally battling in my life? (ie: sin, hopelessness, negativity, overeating, underrating, etc.)