Our world is evolving at an increased pace and with each new day comes technologies, discoveries and ways of thinking. St. Joseph comes with a message today to remind us that now more than ever, it is important to expand our education and learning in order to stay relevant.
People often tend to equate the Church with being stagnated and too strict in it’s ideals. The truth is that whilst the world changes, our principals and faith in the Lord remain steadfast. However delivering the word of the Lord to others is becoming a greater challenge in these modern times.
St. Joseph has been sent to let you know that it’s time to expand your mindset. For anybody who remains in the same place all year round without improving, is bound to remain stagnant and at risk of being replaced.
Sometimes going out of our comfort zones to take classes to broaden our knowledge is important for our long term growth. When Jesus tasked His disciples out into the world to spread the good news of our salvation, they too where thrust into unfamiliar territory. Yet they bore their vocation with pride and discipline, determined to see it to the end. So too should we approach new challenges with an empower mindset, for after all we have the grace of God on our side.
Build Discipline
Christ’s greatest advocates are never lazy or stagnant. We are in a constant state of learning & growth in matters of the world as well as in our spirituality. With knowledge comes power, and thus our ability to effectively display & communicate the wonderful news of God’s salvation.
Building habits that enable us to learn should be a priority and requires a level of discipline and commitment. Just as how we are reminded to constantly refresh our mindset with the word of God by reading the bible, we must also form good habits to educate ourselves in our daily lives.
Set some time every day to learn something new as well as explore God’s teachings. If you’ve always wanted to learn something, now is the time to take action. Do not give in to the devil’s snare of procrastination. Every action in pursuit of our goals give us confidence to carry on.
In life, we ought to be spiritually disciplined by ensuring that we do not willingly commit sin or even set ourselves up for the devil to use us. The truth is that our God is so loving and forgiving and we have the conviction that he will always forgive us whenever we sin. The devil may trick us into believing that we should sin since we shall be forgiven and it is easy to fall into that trap.
Saint Joseph encourages and calls for us to set specific learning goals in all areas of our lives, including our hobbies, finance, business and spiritual learning.
Broaden Your Perspectives
Why is it that world leaders and successful businessman form a habit of reading daily? By broadening their perspectives and supplementing their daily education, they ensure that they remain top of their game.
In a similar way, as leaders in Christ, we should also strive to stay at the top of our learning so that we may deliver God’s mission effectively. As we learn, remember to always apply the universal principles that our Heavenly Father has taught us.
Saint Joseph is challenging us to broaden our spiritual perspectives by reading the word of God deeply and internalizing it. We can also expand our spiritual knowledge by attending bible study with other Christians so that we get to hear their perspectives on certain scriptures while we share ours. This strengthens our faith in God and ensures we are constantly reading his work and challenging ourselves to be better.
Do Not Fear Examinations
Just as students sit for examinations in school to test their knowledge and retention levels, life is an examination room and we are the students. When we were born we were basically enrolled into the class of life and since then it has always been a series of learning as well as numerous examinations.
Like normal students, sometimes we tend to fear examinations because we are not sure whether we shall fail or pass. Other times we feel very unprepared or even too distracted to sit for examinations.
Saint Joseph is telling us that we should not fear examinations for we have the necessary tools that assist us in passing and emerging victorious. We have Jesus as our teacher and he is patient even with the slow learners. We have the bible as the course text and it is in it that we derive the knowledge to help us pass our examinations and we have the holy spirit as our study buddy to help us in areas we do not understand.
Learn From Past Failures
Looking into your life, do you regret your past actions? Many are the times we remember the past and wish that we could turn the clock back hoping that we would do things differently. Sometimes we suffer in the long-term for the decisions we made in the past and we end up hating ourselves for that. We keep claiming that we wish we knew what we know at the moment since our actions would have implied better results.
Saint Joseph is consoling us that we need to let go of the guilt of carrying our past for it consumes us like poison. Instead of fretting over the failures, we should take them as a lesson and use the knowledge we gained to expand our thinking and broaden our mindset.
If we keep thinking about the impact of our past failures, we shall never be able to enjoy the present moment as well as make better decisions. However, if we take up failure as a classroom and put into practice the lessons we learnt, then we shall be in a better position to improve our present as well as our future.
Prayer To Saint Joseph
“Dear Father in Heaven, I thank you sending your saint today to remind me of the constant need for me to expand my mindset.
I will strive to equip myself with the necessary spiritual knowledge to help me pass my earthly exam.
I know that this world finite, but your glory is eternal.
Help me to expand my knowledge that I can use my strengths to aid you in the building of your kingdom.
Guide me and grant me persistence to see my learning goals through.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.”
Amen
