Angels are among us.

The archangel Raphael is the angel God sent to make come true the prayers of two faithful people. In the book of Tobit, the despairing Tobit prayed to God to take away all his troubles. He used to be a rich and pious man who feared the Lord and obeyed the Mosaic Law.

Meanwhile, a woman plagued with a demon that keeps her from having a husband prayed that God rescue her from this curse. Her name was Sarah and she had had seven husbands. All of which died before the marriage took place. The demon killed them all.

Then God sent Raphael as a companion to the young Tobias. He was Tobit's only son. He introduced himself as a close relative of the family and accepted Tobit's offer to pay him wages for being a reliable companion to his son. The angel helped Tobias succeed in his mission but all the while the boy did not know that he was an angel sent by God.

Raphael and Tobias on their journey to Rages in Media to get Tobit's money. Raphael tells Tobias to catch the big fish and keep the gall bladder, heart and liver. He could use it for medicine.

When God sends strangers in our lives, they are like angels who would help us to accomplish the purpose that God has designed for us to do in the world. Just as Tobit agreed to pay Azarias to become a reliable companion to his son by bringing him back safely home from a trip, God also sends people to work as angels in our lives.We do not need spiritual eyes to recognize them. We just have to look around. They are everywhere.

Lesson from Saint Augustine

Sometimes we really do not know the extent of our weakness nor the power of our strength. Sometimes we think we can do more than we can actually do and then God must show us that we are still too weak to accomplish what we propose. Or we may despair of ourselves and then God must show us that we have the inner strength to endure. If we are in the first group, we must be given a lesson of humility. If we are in the second, we must be rescued from despair.

(Sermon 208B, Saint Augustine).

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When strong winds rock your boat, remember Jesus is sleeping at the stern.

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If you say there is a loving God, then why does he keep breaking people’s hearts?” That is the most thought – provoking question I have ever encountered. It came as a text message from a friend. This message did not come originally from that friend. But he forwarded it to me from another common friend. We were so worried about this friend when we received this message. She seemed to be falling down in her faith.

We all can identify with the statement above. There are certain times in our lives when we feel like there is no God. It is difficult for us to believe in a loving God because of the many trials and tribulations we encounter everyday. We are always worried. We do not know what the future holds for us. Everything is so dark ahead. We could not see where we are going and we become afraid.

As I pondered on the situation and searched the bible for the right passage to encourage that friend of mine, I fell into the pages of the gospel in Mark. It was about a time when the disciples were with Jesus in the middle of the sea. It was a cold dark night and the winds were blowing hard on the boat. It must have been a terrible storm. Water was filling up the boat that it was about to sink. The disciples were very afraid. So they called on Jesus who was sleeping peacefully with his head on a pillow at the back of the boat.

Here’s an excerpt of that passage in the gospel according to Mark:

^35-38Late that day he said to them, "Let's go across to the other side." They took him in the boat  as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat,   threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him saying, "Teacher, is it nothing to you that we're going down?"

^39-40Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!" The   wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?" 

Can you imagine the look on Jesus’ face when he uttered those words to his disciples? Can you hear the frustration in his voice? How many miracles does he have to perform to make them believe? After everything that he had done for them, the disciples still does not have faith that he is the Son of God, the promised Savior. Isn’t that very frustrating?

This situation still is true for us today. When things are going well, it is easy to praise God. But when we are faced with so many problems, we tend to forget the goodness of our God. We become blinded by the circumstances and we become afraid. We become so worried about the storm that we forget that we have Jesus, the Son of the Living God at the back of our boat sleeping peacefully with his head on a pillow.

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[1] Mark 4: 35 – 40. The Message. Bible Gateway

I challenge myself to pray for God's direction in life using the bible.

A brother once taught me to pray for God's direction in my career with the words in the bible. At the time, I still did not know how to do it. I have never done that before. So the brother suggested two scripture verses to start with. 

Here are the two(2) verses in the Amplified Bible version:

Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you", says the Lord, "thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome".

Isaiah 55:8-9 - "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways", says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."

Now I challenge myself to practice what that brother taught me - to pray for God's direction in whatever things I want to do using the bible as my guide. I have met failure after failure in my career. My life is filled with setbacks because I never really listened to God's will when I pray.