Spiritual Grace From God

Spiritual Grace from GodWhat is that gift that is given freely, it is unearned, and it is totally and purely love. It is the spiritual grace from God. In this podcast, we will delve into the topic of grace.

The Spiritual Grace From God ~ Episode 346

Welcome to A Few Minutes with God Podcast. I’m your host, Felice Gerwitz, and today, we’re talking about a topic that is important to me, and that is the spiritual grace God pours out to those who are open to it. This grace is a gift that God is waiting to give us, but often we are too busy to notice, or if we are being honest, to care. A divine embrace is available for those who see miracles in everyday life. We’ve discussed this in other podcasts, highlighting that miracles are all around us and that we must look for them.

I know that many of you listening today are enduring hardships. For those struggling to make it through each day under the weight of financial or medical burdens, I pray that this episode brings you comfort and hope. Let’s spend these few minutes together reflecting on God’s unending love.

Spiritual Grace From God

Spiritual grace is God’s unconditional love that is unearned. In fact, it is probably truthful to say it is often undeserved. It is a gift that flows to us when we open our hearts, even just a crack, to the Lord and His providence for us. In Ephesians 2:8-9, we’re reminded, (Read on air.) This grace isn’t something we work for; it’s something we receive, often in the moments we need it most.

Let’s start with those who are open to seeing miracles in daily life. You know who you are; you are the ones who may go unnoticed, but you see the small wonders in life, and best of all, appreciate them. Think about the way a song comes on the radio, or a child’s laughter cuts through a heavy day, or what about a stranger’s kindness? These all feel like messages of love. I watched a short video about acts of kindness, and it featured a young adult girl with a bandaged leg, which appeared to be broken, and she was using crutches. She had to go down the escalator, and one man actually cut her off and walked in front of her. Another young adult, also a man, noticed her and offered to carry her on his back. I’m not sure I would have accepted; maybe I would have asked him to hold my arm as I navigated the escalator. However, she allowed him to carry her, and he did all the way down.

An act of kindness, however small, is within our ability, and it is something we can do to bless another person. If the person is puzzled or asks why you did what you did, you can answer, “Because God has blessed me.”

Being Open to God’s Presence

When we’re open to God’s presence, we see His hand in the ordinary. During a tough season, I appreciated the clouds in the sky more than ever before. We have amazing clouds where I live, and they are beautiful. The sky is huge, and yet I often hurry to one place or another, so I don’t take the time to appreciate it. Yet, one morning, I saw a rainbow. To me, it was a miracle, a reminder that beauty can emerge even when we feel broken inside. Grace helps us see these signs, and you can remind yourself, “God’s got this.” And He does!

But what about those carrying heavier burdens? To those suffering hardships, perhaps the loss of a loved one, a broken relationship, or a betrayal, God’s grace is there, too. It doesn’t always erase the pain, but it offers strength to endure. I think of Psalm 34:18 (Read on air).

Grace is like a quiet companion, sitting with you in your sorrow, reminding you that you’re not alone. We’ve all heard horrible and heartbreaking stories about people who are ill, or a sudden death in the family, or someone who is disabled and who needs help. Sometimes in these darkest moments, a church community or even strangers will rally together to help with much-needed funds. These people may realize that it is the grace of God working through others to lift them up.

God’s Sees Your Struggle

And to those struggling to get through each day—maybe because of financial strain, medical challenges, or the weight of endless responsibilities—God sees you. Your struggle is not invisible. Grace might come in the form of a moment of peace amidst the chaos, a kind word from a spouse, or a bill that is taken care of quickly through God’s providence. It’s God saying, “I’m carrying you through this.”

My mother had breast cancer in her late fifties, and I was in college at that time. I recall bombing a test, and my professor took me aside to ask what was wrong. I began to cry and told her about my mother. She hugged me and told me she would give me time to retake it. That’s grace—sustaining us when we’re too weary to stand.

So, how do we open ourselves to this grace? It starts with a simple act: turning to God. You don’t need fancy words or a perfect life. Just say, “God, I’m here. Help me see You.” It’s about trusting that He’s working, even when life feels unfair. Grace meets us in our vulnerability, in our willingness to let go of control and lean into faith.

Be Encouraged with God’s Grace

I want to encourage you today: if you’re feeling overwhelmed, look for the small miracles. If you’re hurting, let God sit with you in that pain. And if you’re barely making it through, know that His grace is enough to carry you, one step at a time. In 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, (Read on air.) Your weakness is where His strength shines.

There is so much more I can say, but I encourage you to reflect on where you’ve seen God’s grace in your life. Maybe it’s a moment you didn’t recognize until now. Hold that close, and let it remind you that you are never alone. If this episode has touched your heart, I would be grateful if you could give us a star rating on your favorite podcast app—it helps others discover this message of hope. And please, share this episode with a friend who might need to hear it. Together, we can spread the light of God’s love.

Thank you for joining me today. May you feel God’s grace surrounding you, now and always.

 

 

God’s Love For His People

Be sure to subscribe to this podcast or listen to this here – online. You can download this talk on your computer or you can listen on your phone. Share this podcast with a friend.

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God's Love For His PeopleGod’s Love for His People

Episode 1

God’s love for His people will astound and bless you — in the scriptures, He says, “Beloved let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God is revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love. Not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.” (1 Jn. 4: 7-12)

“… who remains in love remains in God and God in him.” (v. 16)

We are called into a  love relationship with God in Jesus Christ through the power and life of the Holy Spirit. We live a covenant relationship in Jesus Christ in the New Creation. Those committed to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ live in a relationship with him in the Father and the Holy Spirit.

We have been created for God

We have been created to naturally live this life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and come to completion or perfection as a human being in the dynamic of this triune relationship of love. In the book of Revelation Jesus says “Behold I make all things new”! Jesus is the source of the New Creation

By love, we become a new creation, a new man or woman in Christ. Jesus invites us into the New Covenant of Love through our Baptism in water

(The story of Dianne) — listen to the podcast for more.

God’s love for His people is unending!

The only way we can grow in love is by the power of God’s love Therefore we are called into a relationship where we are willing to embrace a process and journey of changing. Sometimes change is easy sometimes it is hard, “unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it remains just a seed, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” (Jn. 12) The story of Jimmy Cohen – a little book entitled Love of God by Charles Colson,  in a chapter entitled “Whatever Happened to Son.”

If God is love and lives in us, we need to love others. The basic call of our vocation is love. A successful and meaningful life is a life of love: giving our life away, giving our love away, and giving our death away! Our transformation and growth in divine love and human love brings spiritual happiness and also human maturity.  (The story of Alex Bombara)

Love is a gift from God, both divine and human love, a fruitful life. A fruitful life lived in the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit brings forth in our transformation generosity and gratitude. In humility we need to be patient, learn to appreciate and accept ourselves as we are, and trust in God’s merciful love to achieve all He has planned for us.

Overcoming Blocks to God’s Love

Overcoming Blocks to God's Love: This week Margret Vasquez shares that despite the fact that God loves us infinitely and intimately, sometimes the experience of it is distant. #cahtolicpodcast #catholictherapist #faith #catholicpodcast #christianpodcast #God's love #overcoming

Overcoming Blocks to God’s Love

Overcoming Blocks to God’s love is important, but God’s love is key to the spiritual life.  As we’ve discussed in the past couple of shows, He loves us infinitely and intimately and sent Jesus to reveal His love for us, to make it manifest to us in a real way we could see through the incarnation we celebrate at Christmas.  Yet, despite this fact, many times we can struggle to cling to this notion, and sometimes the experience of it is distant.

In simple terms, we can divide the blocks to God’s love into two categories: internal and external blocks.  Predominately, the external blocks tend to be associated with a lack of human maturity, and the internal ones are related to a lack of spiritual maturity.

Overcoming External Blocks

Examples of external blocks can be things like preoccupation with worldly concerns, and lack of focus on the true purpose of this life.  We can be so consumed with coming and going to and from work and tasks of the day that we forget the goal of this life is really about our relationship with the Lord.  It can be easy to forget Him if we don’t make a concerted effort to keep Him central.  He is invisible and doesn’t often speak audibly, so it requires tuning our senses to a spiritual setting, like switching a radio from one of human transmission to spiritual transmission.  As we learn to see Him in the tasks, relationships, and gifts of the day, to hear Him in the leading of His “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-13) we grow in human maturity and become more available to the experience of Him being Personally present to us in the day-to-day.

 

Internal blocks can come from woundedness that causes us to doubt His goodness or the fact that He loves us deeply and cares for us intimately.  He wants to touch every area of our lives and our being and draw us into union with Himself.  Hurtful messages we received from painful relationships or situations can leave us doubting this or walled off in a misguided attempt at self-protection.  We may also have a lack of appreciation for God’s love.  We might assume the time where God was involved with people ended after the Acts of the Apostles or is only in the rare exception like in the lives of canonized saints.  The truth is that the Lord’s love is always present to us and He longs to bring us ever more deeply to a place of living in the full joy, and peace of that reality.

 

May the Lord give you peace!

 

God’s love for you

The 1st Commandment

Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;  you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation, but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.               Exodus 20:1-6

We are the apple of his eye

God has, in one way or another, brought us all out of slavery, just as he did the Israelites. His love for us knows no bounds. And when we put him first, he gives us unending mercy.
In chapter 32 of Deuteronomy Moses recounts all God has done and in verse 10 says,  He found them in a wilderness, a wasteland of howling desert. He shielded them, cared for them, guarded them as the apple of his eye.” 

We are his children

Not only did God give us Jesus for our salvation, we are his adopted children. John reminds us of that, ” See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” 1 John 3:1-2.

 

 

Read the 1st commandment and consider if you have things or people or activities that come before God. Do you want to change that? How could you do that?

Lenten Retreat

You can register and learn more here.

 

 

 

God’s Love For His People

Be sure to subscribe to this podcast or listen to this here – online. You can download this talk on your computer or you can listen on your phone. Share this podcast with a friend.

rsspodcast itunespodcast

God's Love For His PeopleGod’s Love for His People

Episode 1

God’s love for His people will astound and bless you — in the scriptures, He says, “Beloved let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God is revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love. Not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.” (1 Jn. 4: 7-12)

“… who remains in love remains in God and God in him.” (v. 16)

We are called into a  love relationship with God in Jesus Christ through the power and life of the Holy Spirit. We live a covenant relationship in Jesus Christ in the New Creation. Those committed to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ live in a relationship with him in the Father and the Holy Spirit.

We have been created for God

We have been created to naturally live this life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and come to completion or perfection as a human being in the dynamic of this triune relationship of love. In the book of Revelation Jesus says “Behold I make all things new”! Jesus is the source of the New Creation

By love, we become a new creation, a new man or woman in Christ. Jesus invites us into the New Covenant of Love through our Baptism in water

(The story of Dianne) — listen to the podcast for more.

God’s love for His people is unending!

The only way we can grow in love is by the power of God’s love Therefore we are called into a relationship where we are willing to embrace a process and journey of changing. Sometimes change is easy sometimes it is hard, “unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it remains just a seed, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” (Jn. 12) The story of Jimmy Cohen – a little book entitled Love of God by Charles Colson,  in a chapter entitled “Whatever Happened to Son.”

If God is love and lives in us, we need to love others. The basic call of our vocation is love. A successful and meaningful life is a life of love: giving our life away, giving our love away, and giving our death away! Our transformation and growth in divine love and human love brings spiritual happiness and also human maturity.  (The story of Alex Bombara)

Love is a gift from God, both divine and human love, a fruitful life. A fruitful life lived in the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit brings forth in our transformation generosity and gratitude. In humility we need to be patient, learn to appreciate and accept ourselves as we are, and trust in God’s merciful love to achieve all He has planned for us.