Gotta have faith? Yes.

Regarding my previous post, I thought I should clarify something first, just in case anyone gets confused, as I often forget not everyone knows the prelude to the thoughts I write.

Before one can get to servitude, one must start with faith. And to have faith, one must start with prayer. (Prayer being communication with God, in whatever form that might take... not necessarily formal prayers). It is absolutely fruitless to enter into service unless God appoints the service. We can go out and do a lot of "good" things, but God may be saying, "well that's great and all, but it isn't exactly what I had planned for you". And where we make our efforts to serve where it is not God working through us, our efforts will inevitably be fruitless, even if at first they may seem like they have brought forth fruit. So without faith, without an initial love for God, one cannot enter into a service that leads towards a complete sacrificial love.

I guess though that should have been a bit obvious as why would one want to serve to become a sacrifice for God if they didn't first.. well... WANT to become a sacrifice for God. Ha ha. So maybe my words here are unnecessary.

Though I do think it's a good point to ponder, as we often go out doing "good deeds" and do not necessarily think as to whether that is the good deed that God desires us to do. And to serve others, one must first serve God, so that one might see God in others, and serve Him there. We must do God's appointed work for us, not our own. Going back to that passage with Peter and Jesus, we can see that it is Jesus who is appointing Peter with the service before him. It is Jesus who gave Peter the keys to heaven. It was Jesus who gave Peter authority to bind and lose in heaven what he binds and looses on earth. And clearly Peter is not given an authority that supercedes God's will, but rather one that fulfills God's will. This is why the Pope cannot declare something and change God's will. But rather through the Pope, God's will for us is revealed, since that office is only one of servitude of God's appointed tasks.

in conclusion, good morning everybody!!!