“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,

you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.“

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,

you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

Jesus, at the Last Supper, speaks about our spiritual unity with Him. Through baptism we share in His redemptive death and in His new life, which is inseparably linked with His glorious resurrection. Yet baptism alone is not enough. For God’s life to remain within us – and even more, to grow in us – faith is needed, faith in the word of Jesus. This faith is accompanied by acts of humility and by trials of fidelity. In this context, we need to recall the essence of the parable of the vine and the branches. From the vine flows the life-giving sap into the branches – that is, the same Spirit who dwells in Jesus Christ also works in us, the baptized, as long as we remain united with Jesus through faith. Jesus repeatedly emphasizes that without Him we can do nothing, and He gives His branches this promise: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” The condition for anything to work for our true good – not only temporal but also eternal – is that we remain united with Jesus through faith. His word helps us to maintain this unity; we are called to abide in His word. We are not only to hear it, but to live it!

Sometimes we have too much work and no time for prayer. But if we take it into account, then if we have at least some time for prayer, we try to make the most of it. However, we must think of God in work as well: “Lord, this is for You.” Simply, we need to rely on God in everything we do. Unless we stop, we run astray. But if we stop, God gives us the light for our work, for what to do. All things of the Lord and all divine inspirations are born on knees. If we do not pray, we get nothing.

He who prays has power because God works through him. It is a fight with the realm of darkness.

If we pray in earnest and give our problems to God, He really solves them. We do not seek advice from fortune-tellers who are inspired by the devil. It is not good to seek advice from them because their advice is the devil’s lie.

That is why we pray 7 times a day: “Shema, Israel, you shall love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. Lord Jesus, I love You with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my strength. Now I lose my soul for Your sake and the Gospel’s.”

When we will pray so this week, let us realize at least once what we are saying. Be aware that Jesus hears you. And when you say to Him: “I love You”, let it really be with all your heart. “I lose my soul” – this is a concrete act of love. Love does not lie in emotions. Pure love is the sign of the will – I want to love even if I do not feel that I give Jesus the first place in my life.

“… by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises,

that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature,

having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.“

… by which have been given to us exceedingly great

and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers

of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is

in the world through lust.

Our life is short; in essence, it is only a time of testing, during which our eternity is decided. That eternity will be either happy or unhappy forever. An unhappy future – eternal ruin – awaits those who, in proud unbelief, reject the salvation in Jesus Christ. In Him, God has given us the greatest gift: that through Him we may receive a new nature! We must therefore put aside that nature which is infected by original sin and in which our human spirit is, as it were, clothed. Through this, our inner being has been darkened – our intellect struggles to recognize truth, our will tends toward evil, and our heart is filled with a perverted desire that unites with the spirit of the world, driving humanity toward temporal and eternal destruction. How can we escape this destruction? We must, through faith, accept the Saviour, Jesus Christ. Then the following applies to us: “To those who did accept Him He gave power to become children of God. They were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (cf. Jn 1:12) Thus, by accepting Christ, we already now – though original sin still remains within us – receive the divine nature.

Victory begins with the name of Jesus on our lips but cannot be achieved until the nature of Jesus Christ is in our hearts. The question is: And how can this happen and through whom? Jesus possesses two natures: one divine and the other human, and these two are united without division or separation. He assumed a human nature through the Virgin Mary, through her obedience of faith, through her “yes” to God! How did it happen? Through the Holy Spirit. And this is the answer for us too: The nature of Jesus can be rooted in us through Mary and through the Holy Spirit. We should not only receive the Holy Spirit like the Apostles on the day of Pentecost but we should also be guided by the Holy Spirit, walk in the Holy Spirit, i.e. our minds should be guided by Him so that we may have the mind of Jesus. The Holy Scripture commands: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Phi 2:5) So the Holy Spirit will inspire us and make us think in the same way Jesus does. But we need a sound foundation, which is the foundation of humility and faith in relation to God, and this foundation is not stable in the old Eve’s heart.

“So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly,

I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’

and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done,

he will have whatever he says.“

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.

For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain,

‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt

in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done,

he will have whatever he says.

What is human faith and what is God’s faith?

Human faith is necessary in everyday life. We have to believe people’s testimonies about Antarctica, for example, even though we have never been there ourselves. We believe that there is snow there, even though we have never seen it. This is natural faith, which can be proven materially.

What is faith in God or God’s faith? It is faith that is bound to the promises God has given us. It is faith in God’s omnipotence. By His almighty power, God created everything that exists; He created this world and cares for it. He created it for a purpose. We believe in God the Creator. We also believe in God the Saviour; we believe that the Son of God became man and died for our sins, and we also believe God’s word. Furthermore, in order to have God’s faith that works miracles, we need to receive grace so that God will show us that He wants to be glorified in this situation and that He requires us to stand in faith and not doubt. Everyone will face a test of faith, so we must overcome the doubt in our hearts. God’s faith is a gift that we must ask for.

“The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.“

“The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”

A group of people once asked Jesus how they could do the work of God. Jesus replied, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” (Jn 6:29) God desires belief and faith from us, for “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6).

The word of life we now repeat during our prayer stops also tells us that if we believe in the One whom the Father has sent, that is, Jesus, in a specific situation or problem, God responds to our faith by acting.

The following verses give a deeper insight into this truth related to faith.

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,

that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him,

for He cares for you.“

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,

that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him,

for He cares for you.

The Apostle Peter encourages us to humble ourselves before God. What does it bring? Above all, it brings us the light of knowledge that God gives us. Otherwise, without us even knowing, this light of knowledge is blocked by the self-centredness of our sin-infected nature, which Scripture calls the old self. Humility is truth. It liberates us from our own sense of self-importance, pride and unwillingness to admit our weaknesses and mistakes. This selfish sense of self-importance prevents God from working through us. Yet it is through humility that we would gain the greatest benefit, both spiritually and otherwise, not only for others but mainly for ourselves. Scripture says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Humbling ourselves before God, from whom we derive our existence, all that is good in us and all our good works, is not humiliating. It is merely an acknowledgement of reality, that is, of the truth about ourselves. We develop this attitude of humility in interior prayer beneath Christ’s cross. Without true prayer, we will spend our lives in illusion.

“You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.“

You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’, and rightly so,

for that is what I am.

Jesus Himself says to you: ‘You call Me your Teacher and Lord,’ and He adds: ‘and that is what I am.’

In this short Bible study, we will examine some quotes from Scripture and consider whether Jesus truly is my Lord. If He is not, and if my ego is my god, then I must pray: Jesus, be truly my Lord! Let us call out to Jesus from the depths of our hearts. Only then can we confess with the repentant Thomas: ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus, be truly my Lord and God!

Jesus Christ is Saviour and Lord. Of all the titles of Jesus, the title ‘Lord’ became by far the most commonly used, wide-spread and important. It would hardly be going too far to say that the word ‘Lord’ became a synonym for the name of ‘Jesus’.

Even an unbelieving person, when suddenly confronted by a difficult situation, subconsciously cries out like a small child: “Mummy!” We can have recourse to Mary as our Mother. Jesus gave her to us as our Mother. Eve is the mother of the human race. Mary became our spiritual Mother. The task of a mother is not only to give birth to or receive children, but to feed and rear them. Mary accompanied Jesus on His Way of the Cross. None of the people knew Him so intimately, none was in so deep unity with Him as His Mother. And Jesus gave His Mother to us, His children. We have the same Mother: you and I and Jesus.

Turning to her in life situations is not like turning to God, but to someone who is older and more experienced – like turning to mother. We are inexperienced children in our spiritual life. We should have recourse to her especially when we are overwhelmed by worries and weaknesses so much that we are unable to turn directly to Jesus. This is mainly when we are subject to various temptations and are like drunk: we say “no” to sin but actually in our innermost being we agree with sin and our soul is in confusion.