The title of today’s meditation is the motto of the Jesuits, which translates to
“For the Greater Glory of God.”
Peter asks us to
“prepare your minds for actions; disciplines yourselves.”
It doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun. We’re all grown ups here, and yet he asks us to act like obedient children. However, he gives us a reason as to why we need to be living holy lives.We don’t discipline ourselves just because a government or some other kind of authority figure says so. We don’t do it for any sense of personal gain. We don’t even do it just because it makes us feel good. We do it for the greater glory of God. We do it because we are saved by Christ.
As Peter says
“Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.”
How exactly do we do that, you ask? Living a holy life goes beyond just wearing a WWJD bracelet, after all. It starts with offering ourselves to God completely and totally. Military boot camps everywhere break their soldiers down in order to build them back up. In a similar way, a life in Christ starts with surrendering ourselves to God in order for Him to make us better.
It’s not going to be easy, obviously. We prefer to be the ones in control, the ones dominating other people, instead of letting anyone and anything dominating us. However, we revolve our lives around a lot of things instead of God: our schedules, our goals, our jobs, our ambitions. Or worse still, we give ourselves to people who end up using us and casting us aside when they no longer need us.
So what makes God any different? To start with, he’s the one who created us. Our hearts were designed for His love and to paraphrase St. Augustine, our hearts will always be restless until they rest in God. Second of all, he saved us from sin and death. As Peter said “You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…” Last, but not least, God loves us.
The song from the 1 Peter playlist that I want to feature today is “My Heart is Yours” by Passion featuring Kristian Stanfill. The song talks about God taking everything from us. Don’t be afraid to surrender yourselves to Him, sisters in Christ, because He will give you so much more than what you offer to Him in return.
I’m going to leave you with a prayer by St. Ignatius of Loyola. I hope that this prayer will become a part of your everyday life.
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
May we all surrender ourselves to the Lord, dearest sisters in Christ!
