16 August 2016 - empty to be filled

[ Today's Readings ]

The LORD asks us to stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting him. We need to stop trusting our wisdom, our intelligence, and our riches. We should know better by now. We've seen how these things fail. We've seen how God never fails. And yet we seem no better now. He will allow our houses to collapse if we build them on sand.

They shall thrust you down to the pit, there to die
a bloodied corpse, in the heart of the sea.
Will you then say, “I am a god!”
when you face your murderers?

No amount of strength on our own is enough without the LORD's protection.

“How could one man rout a thousand,
or two men put ten thousand to flight,
Unless it was because their Rock sold them
and the LORD delivered them up?”

All of our anxiety is wasted unless we place our concerns in the LORD's hands.

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain (see Psalm 127:1).

Nothing we have or possess can help us.

Again I say to you,
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.

Nothing except God himself.

“For men this is impossible,
but for God all things are possible.”

Let us look to the example of Mary who first put her trust in this promise when it was made to her by an angel. Let us share in the trust she has, stemming not from what she is, but from knowing he who loves her.

On our own we can do nothing but with Jesus we can bear much fruit.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (see John 15:5).

In Jesus Christ the impossible is possible. In him we can do all things.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me (see Philippians 4:13).

Jesus insists that we trust in him rather than ourselves. He does so because it is worth it for us. He loves us and is able to give us more than we can ever have apart from him.

And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands
for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more,
and will inherit eternal life.

So let's not insist on making ourselves first. Let us allow ourselves to fill the last place as regard our own strength and treasure. Let us be empty so that he can fill us.

But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

We can trust that he wants to do so.

Surely, the LORD shall do justice for his people;
on his servants he shall have pity.