Only Our Reaction is within Our Control: God teaches us to love our enemies

In these days my dear friend, Whether we like it or not, as the book of Job teaches us, there are always going to be sad moments in our lives. Even if we are good and sinless, tough times will come. Job’s worst fears came despite his prayers and constant sacrifices. Who would have assumed that despite the goodness and holiness of Jesus, a group of people would reject him? The fact that you are good does not prevent you from being hurt by bad people.

We can never control the behaviour of others (it is a free world), we can only control how we react to them. To a large extent, we cannot control the daily occurrences of our lives but we can always control how we react towards them. We may have done everything right or made the best efforts humanly speaking, yet things turn out differently from our expectations.

Moments like these tend to provoke anger. So we need to be careful of the type of prayer we utter when you are angry. Let us avoid the error of James and John. Jesus taught us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. On the cross of Calvary, Jesus gave us an example by praying for forgiveness (not consuming fire) for those who killed him.

Again let us remember God never forces his way on anyone. By rebuking James and John, Jesus was teaching us that every human being has a right to reject the faith.

Are you feeling really down? Does it seem as if your world is collapsing on itself? Never get angry with God. No matter how bad things are for you, always have every reason to praise God.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, cleanse my heart from anger and give me the grace to watch my tongue when things do not go as I expect. Through Christ our Lord. Amen