{"id":478,"date":"2013-12-19T13:51:59","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T18:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=478"},"modified":"2014-01-02T14:09:20","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T19:09:20","slug":"the-storiestwo-faithful-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=478","title":{"rendered":"The Stories of Two Faithful Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent<\/span><\/h2>\n

Judges: 13: 2-7, 24-25a; Luke 1: 5-25<\/span><\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two women- that\u2019s what we hear about this morning.\u00a0 They had prayed all their life long, and hope was fading.\u00a0 They were childless, and in the ancient Jewish society, that was considered a disgrace as Elizabeth mentioned candidly in the Gospel.\u00a0 But their Faith was strong, so they still prayed, and both of them were rewarded for their Faith with a son. \u00a0Both of these sons, Samson and John the Baptist became great in the eyes of God and gave honor to their mothers and glory to God.\u00a0 Samson saved Israel from the Philistines; and John the Baptist heralded the way for Jesus.\u00a0 These two testaments to Faith are a great example for us all.\u00a0 We, too, need to keep Faith and never give up on prayer.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am pretty sure there is something in your life that you have been praying for and it just seems as if your prayers are not answered- a child, like the women in today\u2019s readings; a healing for an illness; the repair of a relationship; for someone to get out from under an addiction; some relief to a hardship- a new job, a little financial breathing room; the fulfillment of some dream- an accomplishment like a degree or a talent that you want to bear fruit.\u00a0 And yet, whatever it is, it just doesn\u2019t seem to happen despite your prayers.\u00a0 But know that God always answers your prayers in your best interests.\u00a0 The answers are yes, no, and not right now.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes is something we all like to hear- but again, God knows best when \u201cyes right now\u201d is really the best for us.\u00a0 \u201cNo\u201d is a really difficult answer, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 But there are reasons for \u201cno\u201d; just like there are reasons we say \u201cno\u201d to our Children.\u00a0 God has plans for us that we cannot foresee.\u00a0 Sometimes we only understand as time goes by that our prayers really were answered, but in a different way, and that things turned out better God\u2019s way.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then there is \u201cNot right now\u201d, but in God\u2019s time.\u00a0 That\u2019s a tough answer, too.\u00a0 And it is the one God gave these two women for most of their lives.\u00a0 But then, all of a sudden, their prayers were answered and their dreams came true.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This, after all, is the message of the Advent season.\u00a0 After waiting through the \u201cnot right now\u201d period for so long, Israel\u2019s prayer was answered.\u00a0 The Jewish people longed and prayed for the coming of the promised Messiah.\u00a0 They prayed for it for thousands of years- thousands of years!\u00a0 God answered their prayer as \u201cnot right now\u201d for those thousands of years.\u00a0 But then, all of a sudden, He sent his Son, the Messiah.\u00a0 It was an answer they didn\u2019t expect, because they were looking for a King, not a helpless baby and so, it wasn\u2019t foreseen as the most wonderful answer to their prayers.\u00a0 But God answered their prayer by sending His only Son into the world as one of us to show us the way and to give us everlasting life.\u00a0 We can see now how marvelous that answer to their prayers was.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we celebrate Christmas each year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In less than a week, God comes again in that unexpected way as a helpless child.\u00a0 But if we take him inside, and listen to him, doing the will God has for us, our prayers will be answered, and just like John the Baptist and Samson great things will happen for us. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent Judges: 13: 2-7, 24-25a; Luke 1: 5-25 Dc. Larry Brockman \u00a0 Two women- that\u2019s what we hear about this morning.\u00a0 They had prayed all their life long, and hope was fading.\u00a0 They were childless, and in the ancient Jewish society, that was considered a disgrace as Elizabeth mentioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[265],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=478"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}