Nothing Without Him

A Reflection on the First Reading for June 14th, 2020:
The Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

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​Deuteronomy 8.2-3, 14-16

​ Moses spoke to the people: “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

“Do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good.”
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Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

“Do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God... ”

It is truly freeing to know that everything I do is nothing without God. It can be really burdensome and tiring to try to have control and ownership over everything in your life. The Lord wants to lead you away from these burdens and provide for you.

I find that I have to constantly remind myself that the Lord wants to walk with me through all of the things in my life. I spent quite a long time feeling alone in areas of my life that I had struggled with simply because I would put God in a box. If it didn’t fall under the “churchy” or “religion” categories of my life, I was convinced that God wouldn’t care to be a part of it. But that couldn’t be further from the truth! 

For most of my life I’ve been quite a perfectionist, which can be exhausting at times. I would tell myself that I was in the stress of school alone, and that God had more important things to do than to care about my organic chemistry homework. But, like a loving parent, God cares about all of the important things in my life. It took many years for me to realize that I can surrender things like my stressful studying over to God, which has made a huge difference in my life. He wants to lead us through all of the hard times in our lives (and the good ones, too!). 

In this scripture from Deuteronomy, it is emphasized that remembering all the Lord has done and all He wishes to do is so important. It has really reminded me that I need to be mindful about keeping God at the center of all things in my life, knowing that He is with me always.

He is with us always.

He wants to be there with you through the new assignment at work. He wants to be there with you through the final exam. He wants to be there with you even on your trip to the grocery store. He is with and for us always, and it is important to remember that. 
 
Do not forget the Lord, for He wants to be with you through all things.




Megan Noye
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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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