Life in the Holy Spirit An Empowerment Bible Study using the readings from Catholic Daily Mass for the Season of Easter (any year) © 2003 by Terry A. Modica

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
God holds on tight!

Think of the people you know who are straying from God and/or the Church. Are you worried that they might never return? If you have prayed for them and placed them into God's hands, why worry? As Jesus points out in John 10:22-30, "My Father is greater than all ... and there is no snatching out of His hand."

God is greater, bigger and more powerful than the people you're concerned about and all their reasons for ignoring Him. There is no obstacle in their path, no demon, no misconception, no stubbornness, nor any sin that is more powerful than God. What seems like a hopeless situation is merely God using the delay to make good come out of it.

The Good Shepherd knows what the straying sheep need in order to gain more benefit from their eventual conversions. God does not want to short-cut their conversion process, even if it takes 50 years, because the short-cut would leave out very important lessons -- lessons that will give God a bigger foothold later on, lessons that will motivate them to minister to others. Why should these people be denied this just because we're worried?

When they make bad decisions that ruin God's plan for them, God simply implements a new plan, one which He developed a long time ago and therefore will somehow become better than the first plan. He's so awesome!

The best way to pray for those who are straying is to ask Our Father to make sure that none will die before turning their hearts over to Him. We can be assured that He'll honor that prayer, because of what Jesus said in this scripture. I've seen it work for my father-in-law. For years, my husband and I prayed for him to accept Christ's love, but when Alzheimer's Disease afflicted him, it seemed like he'd never be able to understand God's love.

Two weeks before Dad died, something happened. We don't know what, because he wasn't capable of talking about it, but suddenly he longed to receive the Eucharist and he found great peace. God is bigger, greater and more powerful than the mental confusion caused by Alzheimer's Disease.

We can confidently trust that the Father will answer every prayer for the conversion of others. He desires it more than we do. The Son's death on the cross killed the power of sin and reconciled sinners with the Father. Trust in God's greater power. Trust in His desire to save the people you've placed into His hands, and seek forgiveness for your sin of worrying.

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See also Holy Living: A Bible Study covering the Sermon on the Mount.

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