Faithfulness

11/7/2020

Step #1: Lectio / Read

Click the link below or open your Bible to the passage and read through the reading at least once, paying attention to what is happening in the text.

Luke 16:9-15

Step #2: Meditatio / Meditate

Use the following meditation to help you reflect more deeply on the Scripture (you may want to read the passage again).

“The person who is trustworthy in very small matters, is also trustworthy in great ones”

I have personally undergone a tremendous amount of change over the past several months. At the end of the school year back in May, I announced that I would not be returning to my school. My wife and I decided that we were going to move from Indiana to Nashville where my parents now live. This decision was made a long time ago, way before COVID was even a thing. So, when COVID hit it complicated things, but we still knew that Nashville was is what God was calling us to. This was confirmed when we were able to sell out house in July after only being on the market for less than a week. Surely with God blessing everything like this the future was going to continue to be this easy!

Wrong.

When we moved down to Nashville my wife was seven months pregnant and I was jobless. I did what I needed to do which was treat my job hunt like a full-time job. I would wake up and apply for jobs and research companies all day. I thought that this was going to be a maybe a month long process, and I would find a great job that God had set up just for me. Well, one month quickly became three, and I had heard nothing back from any of the companies I had applied to up to this point; my wife was going to have a baby any day and I was at a breaking point mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

That was when I realized that although somewhere in the back of my head I knew that God had a plan, I was not communicating with him, and I was neglecting my daily responsibilities. My prayer life was minimal, even though I never had more time to pray. That was when I went to confession, and rehabilitated my daily prayer life, and within the next few weeks, my daughter was born, I found the perfect job and the perfect house. If anyone of those things did not happen exactly when they did, none of them would have worked out like they did.

God made everything work perfectly. During this time God reminded me that I needed to be faithful and trustworthy to him in the small matters, like maintaining my life of daily prayer. Not that daily prayer is an unimportant thing, but it is a small thing that we do each day with great intentionally. Once I shown my faithfulness in small matters, it allowed me to place my trust and faith back in God, who repaid that by making all the really big things work for His good.

If you find yourself like me waiting for God in your life, ask yourself this: have I been faithful to him in small matters? If the answer is no, then you know where you need to start.

Step #3: Oratio / Pray

These questions are to be used to talk to God; have a conversation with the Lord about these questions and what is going on in your heart as you pray today.

What are the small areas of your life where you are being challenged right now to grow in faithfulness to God?

In what ways have you seen God's faithfulness and providence in your life?

How can you trust in God more fully, in big and small things, whether or not things work out in the end the way that you hoped that they would?

Step #4: Contemplatio / Contemplate

In this step, you listen. Stop talking, let God speak to your heart. You may repeat one of these short phrases to focus your mind on the Lord.

"You are faithful, Lord."

"Help me be faithful."

"Jesus, I trust in you."

Step #5: Actio / Act

In light of today's reading and your time spent in prayer with the Lord, what concrete action or actions will you take to let this encounter with the Lord bear fruit in you today?

As you go about your normal day - work, talking with friends, working out, whatever you do - take note of all of your moments and interactions. Do they reflect that you're a follower of Christ in reality, allowing him to be Lord of the big and small things and trusting him in those things? If not, how can you improve?

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Today's prayer was prepared by Jason Liuzzi.

If you have anything you'd like our team to pray for, please go to the page of our website called "Prayers" and let us know how we can pray for you today.

CARPE VERBUM