Lord may my hands be Your Hands to do your labor.
May my voice be Your Voice and proclaim your glory.
May my feet walk with You to guide others.
May my actions reflect Your Love to others.
Lord like St. Francis of Asissi said:
“Make an instrument of Thy Peace...”
Oh Lord, I pray:
May I be able to walk with my strength and carry my weakness.
We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Our strengths are the talents the Lord has given us. Our weaknesses are those characteristics of ourselves that we dislike or even hate. Our weaknesses can be our sins although a weakness is not necessarily a sin.
Walking with the Lord in prayer we ought to learn to walk with our strengths and carry our weaknesses. Our Strength is the Lord. He carried our sins, and He died for us on Calvary. The talents we have are gifts from the Lord and we can do wonderful things with them. They can be our strength to help us carry our weaknesses with His help.
With our strengths or talents we can brighten someone’s life. We can build the community of faith. We can help the love of God shine like a light in the darkness.
What is your weakness? Is your self-esteem low? Are your feelings easily hurt? Are you clumsy? Are you ugly? Are you living in sin? Do you sin because you are too weak to do better? Love and forgiveness is what God has for us. If we ask God for forgiveness and accept it we will grow and mature. If we become only a small reflection of God’s love for others we will always be happy.
One Corinthians 13 defines Christian Love:
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,
but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy,
it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,
they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled;
where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Unconditional love is the Love that God gives us. He knows we are weak and many times we fall to the ground with the weight of our sins but He is always ready to forgive us. Isaiah 1:18 says:
"Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD:
Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow;
Though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool."
NAB
He is the lamb unblemished and without sin as John the Baptist says in John 1:29:
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
He is the one who has the power to set us free from our insecurities as John 8:34-36 says:
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
We know that walking through life we are never alone, all we have to do is to ask as I Jn 5:14-15 says:
This is the confidence we have in approaching God:
that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us— whatever we ask—
we know that we have what we asked of him.
We know that we are to love, serve and obey God in all we do, for at the end we are going to be accountable for what we have done. As Matt 25:31-40 says
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.
32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate
the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right,
"Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance,
the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36 I needed clothes and you clothed me,
I was sick and you looked after me,
I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him,
Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you something to drink?
38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in,
or needing clothes and clothe you?
39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply,
'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one
of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Do a good deed a day with unconditional love. Just for the sake of doing good, no other reason. It is in giving that we receive. If your joy is giving joy to others, you will always be happy.
I will shine God’s love for others If I am sad I will try to make someone happy. I will pick up the phone and call someone who I know is lonely, old, sick or simply alienated. I will try to see myself as the instrument of peace that God can use to help others, and the peace and joy that only God can give will be mine. Because it is in giving that we receive. Loving others like Christ loves us we will always be happy.
The N.I.V. and N.A.B. translations of the Bible were used.
Edited and compiled by Marta Alves © 1995
2nd Edition © 1999
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