POT HOLES - Writings by Deacon Dez

Trial by Fire

When you are selected by God, it’s not because of the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the job you have, or how pious you think your life is, it is because God has a plan for you.

When He calls you, your life will be turned upside down. He will toss you into the furnace of life where there will be hardships. Your soul may cling to fear as it is tested, or you may taste desperation from the realization of sin that weighs you down like an anchor.

You may be tempted to view your faith like an heirloom mantlepiece to be admired but not handled; therein is the lie! When truth speaks from faith it demands to be heard and faith becomes the blaring trumpet, a resounding lifeline that guides you through the darkness of sin when everything around you is crumbling.

Do not think, for one minute, that your problems or situation, are too unique and too complicated for the Creator of all to manage. It is in these complex, tangled webs of human crisis that God has most access to the human heart because this is where we become most vulnerable and accepting of His presence. This is where we cry out to Him from our anguish and in our desperation to free us from whatever ill is causing us distress.

You must know; you must know it to be true, that God DOES NOT live in the ‘comfort zone’; God thrives in the testing – in the crucible.

The Saints did not become Saints by living in the lap of luxury. All those uncertainties that make you toss and turn all night, the temptations that whisper to you in the darkness…, that is the ‘stuff’ that God uses to craft Warriors of Faith, to fortify His army with God-Fearing men.

Pretending that you “have it all together” …, that way of thinking is toxic, and it must stop!
You DO NOT have it all together! None of us do.

Rid yourself of the lies that weigh you down. Set yourself free from those things that are not of God; the mess, the darkness of sin, the fight that is holding you back from allowing God to work in your life.
Let Him in to heal and transform that brokenness into a True, Living Faith that will allow you to weather any storm…, a faith that will move mountains.

We may not truly understand or know what God is calling us to, but as St. Thomas Aquinas says, “God destines us for an end beyond the grasp of reason.”

~ May we live our lives worthy of His Sacrifice +

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