6 January, Friday — Blessed to know

Friday before Epiphany Sunday

1 Jn 5:5-13
Mk 1:6-11

Who can overcome the world? Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

It is almost one week into 2023. Maybe some of us are still in a reflective disposition where we look back at 2022 and we survived! No matter the hardships, the challenges, and the fears, we completed one journey around the sun. We overcame 2022!

As we look back, I hope we can find God journeying with us back in 2022. I’m pretty sure He’ll also be with us in 2023. And with our belief in Jesus Christ, we will be able to overcome anything.

How blessed are we to have this gift of faith! It reminds me of Romans 10:14: ‘…they will not ask help unless they believe in him, and they will not believe in him unless they have heard of him.’ God has orchestrated for each one of us to come to know him so that we can believe him, and we will then ask for his help in faith.

Nowadays, there are many people who tell everyone that they are spiritual, but they are not religious. That they believe in a higher being, they believe in an unknown god. And even with this faith in an unknown god, they can overcome challenges, and stay at peace.

It’s a lot better for us. As St Paul said in Acts 17:23 ‘…we worship a God we know. We do not worship an unknown God.’ Precisely because we know who God is, and how God is that we can trust Him more fully. We trust our friends more than we trust strangers because we know their hearts. We have the knowledge of their good intentions for us. We know our God, that’s why we can trust Him more.

We know that ‘He so loved the world, that He gave His only Son.’ (John 3:16)

We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful, for he cannot disown his own self. (2 Timothy 2:13)

We know how often God longs to gather us, ‘…as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.’ (Matthew 23:37)

How blessed are we that we know our God, and because of this knowledge, we can fully believe Him. Brothers and sisters, let us look forward to 2023 knowing we can always ask God for help.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Stephanie Villa)

Prayer: Lord, this year, please deepen my knowledge of you so that I can believe in you more.  

Thanksgiving: Thank you, God, for journeying with me in 2022. Thank you for (please enumerate at least 3 of the things you’re grateful for).