As we are about to enter the Holy Week – the holiest time of the year, let us prepare ourselves so that we will be in the best spiritual state and have the most awakened heart to accompany our Lord Jesus to enter Jerusalem, into the darkest and most painful moment of His life.
Jesus bore the heftiest price for us with only one purpose, that is to use His suffering, death, and resurrection in exchange for our eternal life, so that we can share in the eternal joy with our Heavenly Father forever in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Our Heavenly Father, because of His longing to be with us forever, is willing to pay the price of sacrificing His only Son. God wants us to be freed from the bondage of sin and death, to regain true freedom, which is the greatest gift besides life itself and His love for us!
However, the gift of “freedom” that God has given us actually costs Him a heavy price. Because we are all bound by our own desires and the desires of the world, which influence every choice we make in our lives, we are left with very little freedom. Unfortunately, we are governed by these bondages in our intention to choose God. Ironically, the Almighty God, who has created and owns everything in the universe, cannot obtain what He most desires from the people He loves the most, that is, our will to choose Him and our love for Him.
It is because of His radical love for us that He unreservedly grants us the freedom to choose, even the freedom not to choose Him or to treat Him recklessly!
By giving us absolute freedom, God is like asking for trouble!
His radical love for us inevitably makes Him weak and vulnerable in our relationship with Him!
This is absolutely absurd! If we were steadfast in our will and were truly faithful to Him, it would make sense for Him to grant us absolute freedom. However, for us humans who betrayed Him from the beginning, giving us the gift of the freedom to choose is tantamount to allowing Himself to be subjected to us, and being enslaved by the free will that He bestowed upon us!
Seeing us choose other things but Him causes God extreme pain!
We may all have experienced the feeling of being forgotten or abandoned by the person we love the most, such as our spouse, child, or close friend. How much more so it is for God, who loves each of His children so unreservedly and radically! We can imagine how unbearable it is for Him when most of His children desert and abandon Him. The devil tries to steal our hearts from God ruthlessly and uses this most despicable means to attack God. It is precisely because we constantly choose to distance ourselves from God that the devil can continuously win this battle. What is even more tragic is that we often remain unaware of it, allowing the devil to sneakily manipulate us and hurt our Heavenly Father who loves us the most! Oh, my soul, how could you be so heartless!
Today’s Prayer
Abba Father, I am speechless when facing You and Your endless love for me! I would rather be punished by You, to be fiercely rebuked, or even to have my freedom of choice taken away. But You didn’t. You simply remain silent, allowing Yourself to be constantly hurt by my heartless choices! Why? Why? Am I really worth You doing this for me? Why?
The Collection of The “5L2F moment” Acts of Love
Fountain of Love and Life intends to collect the acts of love from the Farmers of Hearts all over the world and offer them as spiritual bouquets to our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us on the Cross.
We encourage you to respond to our invitation and share with us the fruits of your “5L2F Moments” acts of love. We will offer all the fruits of the charitable acts collected in this Lent to our Heavenly Father in the solemn mass of Easter, in return for the grace of our Lord Jesus who sacrificed His life to redeem us! Please visit lent.fll.cc/action and share with us your “5L2F Moments” acts of love.
On every Sunday during this Lent, we will post on our social media selected sharing from those who consented to have them published, so that these testimonies of how God touches us will continue to inspire and encourage others and multiply the impact of these “Five-Loaves-And-Two-Fishes Moments”. Thanks again for your sharing! God bless!
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