overcome

Our Overcoming Advocate

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Jesus and the woman taken in adultery, Émile Signol via Wikimedia Commons
 
There was a time when I did not exist
   Yet you have created me;
I did not beg you for a wish
   Yet you have fulfilled it;
I did not come into the light
   Yet you have seen me;
I had not yet appeared
   And you have taken pity on me;
I had not appealed to you
   Yet you have taken care of me;
I did not raise my hand
   Yet you have looked at me;
I had not entreated you
   Yet you were merciful to me;
I had not uttered a sound
   Yet you have heard me;
I had not groaned
   Yet you have lent an ear.
With eyes that knew the future, you saw
   The crimes of my guilty self
   And yet you have fashioned me;
And now, I who have been created by you
and saved by you
and have been tended with such care,
   Let me not completely perish by the blow of sin.
      That is but the slanderer’s invention;
   Let not the fog of my stubbornness
      Triumph over the light of your forgiveness;
   Nor the hardness of my heart
       Triumph over your forbearing goodness.

Gregory of Narek, 951-1003, Armenian monk and mystical theologian

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1 John 2:1

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.

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Question

When you consider that God knew we would choose our own way instead of his, 
    yet his plan offered salvation regardless, 
    how does that knowledge help us when we sin blatantly again?

strength to overcome the temptations

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 ChristTempted / John Ritto Penniman / Wikimedia Commons
 
We thank you, Father, for those days in the desert when, 
    through prayer and fasting, 
    Jesus discovered your will for his life 
    and overcame the temptations of the Evil One.
Help us, during these days of Lent, 
    to come close to you and to listen to your voice.  
Give us strength to overcome the temptations 
    to please ourselves and live life without you.
Teach us your way.  For Jesus’ sake.
 
 
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Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,  where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
 

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to celebrate Christ’s victory

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image / GDJ / Pixabay
 
Thanks be to God, the almighty, 
    the king of the universe, for all his mercies, 
and heartfelt thanks to the Savior and Redeemer of our souls, 
    Jesus Christ, through whom we pray 
that his peace may keep us stable and unshaken
    from troubles outside and troubles within the heart.
Let me obediently sing aloud the new song, 
    because after those terrifying dark sights and stories
    I was now privileged to see and celebrate such things
    that many righteous men and martyrs of God before us
    desired to see on earth and did not see,
        and to hear and did not hear.
But they attained far better things in heaven; whereas I, 
    acknowledging that even my present lot is better than I deserve,
    have been more than amazed at the bountiful grace of its author,
    and am duly filled with wonder,
    worshipping him with my soul’s full strength.
 
Eusebius of Caesarea, c. 260- c.340, Christian historian and bishop
2000 Years of Prayer freely modified
 
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And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

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