WE should beg
God that we be given a steadfast spirit, not
a wavering, flickering one. We have to be realistic with
our weakened,
wounded human condition that often finds us good only in
the beginning
of an endeavor but cannot hold on to that state to the
end. And so
with great humility, we should go to God asking that we
be given a
spirit that can remain faithful and true all the way to
the end.
Perhaps what
can help us in this regard is to make as our
own prayer the words of Psalm 51,10-11: “Create in me a
clean heart, O
God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Cast me not
from your
presence and take not your holy Spirit from me.” Let’s
use these words
and really mean them. These are inspired words and can
really move the
heart of God.
Of course, we
have to be humble so as to have a living
faith in these words. Our usual problem is that even if
we do not say
it openly, we actually consider biblical passages as too
mushy for us
to use. This is actually quite a wrong attitude to have.
The words in
the Bible are no ordinary words. If approached and used
properly, they
can effectively bring us to God. They teach us what to
say and how to
speak with God.
But, yes, we
need to have a steadfast spirit. That’s
simply because our human condition in this world often
finds us
unstable and unfaithful. We may be good at the beginning
and in our
intentions and words, but our good intentions often do
not last. Along
the way, we get tripped by a variety of causes—laziness,
complacency,
treachery, pride, envy, greed, etc.
We just have to
look at the case of our first parents who
enjoyed the best of things in the beginning. And yet, in
spite of all
their privileges, they managed to fall. Our case is much
worse than
theirs.
We already are
born with a certain attraction to evil, the
so-called concupiscence, and so even if we managed to be
good and
faithful for a time, even for a long time, we should not
be surprised
that at any given moment, we fall. This is the common
experience of
practically all of us.
A steadfast
spirit is what we should be begging from God
all the time. We have to be humble enough to acknowledge
and to feel
the urge of that need. Everyday, let’s try to find ways
to be
constantly aware of this need. We actually cannot afford
to take this
matter for granted.
The good thing
about this need of begging for a steadfast
spirit from God is that it would help us to always relate
things to
God, to get engaged with him. Whether these things are
good or bad,
humanly speaking, we would be led to God.
And that is the
proper state for our life to be in. Our
life would not be in its proper state and would get
exposed to all
sorts of dangers if it would not be lived with God. We
need to be
clear about this basic, completely indispensable truth
about our life.
We many times
dare to be on our own, thinking that with
our own powers and resources, we can hack all the
challenges and tests
in life. That simply is not true. We always need God. We
need him more
than we need air, water and food. It is when we are with
him that we
satisfy our innermost longing for life everlasting and
for a joy
without end.
So, let us
importune God to give us a steadfast spirit!
No comments:
Post a Comment