I Take off the MASK!

It is a good feeling to be admired, to be noticed by people, to be heard. But more than pleasing other people and trying to meet their expectations, let us keep in mind the more important things – things like doing the right thing even when no one is looking, or of doing what is right even when people won’t or can’t immediately understand. Even when others can’t appreciate the good that we do, let us be happy in knowing that God always sees what’s in our hearts. With God, what matters is not how we appear to be, but who we really are deep within.

“Don’t look for success in fame, for it is the prayer in silence which is most dear to God.” (Read – Are You Reaching For a Dream?)

Don’t put a wall over your heart. Put instead a door, so it can welcome all the good things in and cast all the bad things out. – Jocelyn Soriano

Receive what is good, let go of what is bad and harmful. Receive joy and inspiration, let go of worry and fear. Receive love, let go of anger. For we have the power to choose what we should welcome in our lives and what we should cast out. Choose life over death. Choose light over darkness. Choose hope over despair.

For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil… I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live…” – Deuteronomy 30

How does it feel like to rest? In times when we become so busy at work or at our own homes, can we still remember how it’s like to rest and be still? In times when our hearts are troubled and afraid, can we still remember a time when our hearts are light and at peace?

Where do we go when we need peace? When we want to hear the voice of calm and healing?

When we need to rest from the noise of the world, or even from the anxieties of our own minds, may we find that secret place within our hearts where only the voice of God’s gentle whisper is present. Let’s keep that place sacred. Let’s look forward to going there again and again so we may remember what true rest is all about.

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” -Psalm 91
(Bible Quote from the Free App – God’s Promises )

“Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.” – Matthew 7:7-8

Asking for help doesn’t mean I am less capable or valuable or beautiful. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to offer to the world. Asking for help is just being human and being truthful about our human limitations. Let us learn to ask for help when we really need it. Let us give the people who love us a chance to be there for us and to make us feel how much we are really loved.

“It is a kind of pride to insist that none of our prayers should ever be petitions for our own needs: for this is only another subtle way of trying to put ourselves on the same plane as God – acting as if we had no needs, as if we were not creatures, not dependent on Him and dependent, by His will, on material things, too.” – Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

You may also want to read:
When You’re Giving More Than You’re Receiving
Being a Generous Receiver
Why Can’t We Receive Our Blessings?