When we look at the love of God and notice how much our Father loves us, we can ask ourselves what the Lord wants from us and in what attitude we should communicate with him.
The answer is clear: God wants us to respond to his love, and Jesus explains to us what love means: “He who loves me keeps my commandments” (Jn. 14:15).
What God appreciates and what He asks for is our trust.
This trust was disturbed by the fall of mankind. Instead of living intimately with God, the consequence of the fall was that we were hiding before God.
Already in paradise, the snake gave us a false image of God.
The serpent gave the impression that our Father did not grant us the knowledge of good and evil, and that God would withhold anything important from us (see Gen. 3:5).
Throughout the ages, the Devil has worked to give us a wrong image of God, which should take away our trust in our loving Father.
Unfortunately, one has to say that this has been achieved to a large extent. Quite differently, Jesus gives us the real image of our father.
God wants to live with us, he cares for us, he knows all our ways: Our Father wants to do everything for good and loves the world so much that he sent us his Son: God helps us to carry the burden of life, God opens the door to eternal life. He loves us as his children.
If we look into the texts of Holy Scripture with these eyes, then we see this invitation to trust God everywhere.
Our Father wants us to trust his infinite love and mercy. He wants us to seek him with everything also with the dark side of our lives, with our weaknesses, our guilt.
Of course, God wants us to leave the ways of sin, to work consistently on our weaknesses, to keep renewing and deepening our intention to serve Him.
But all of this should happen in the atmosphere of a loving spiritual family, in a familiarity with our Father and all who belong to Him. Our Father is waiting for us to surrender ourselves to Him completely, to trust Him in everything that can turn everything for our salvation.
However, this trust should not only be theoretical, it should penetrate our whole life, also as an essential security for our lives.
But it is not just that.
Trust in God glorifies our Father and is deeply in tune with the truth of our existence. God is the unconditional love. We can reject this love by misusing our freedom. But God does not stop to love us. He always invites us to repent invites us to return to the Father like the prodigal son! Those who sincerely already follow the path of Christ are invited to grow in love.
Our trust is a great gift that we can offer to God and God will like this gift.
But trust is not just one-sided. God also trusts us: He gives us his Son, he entrusts the sacraments to the Church and the treasury to spread the gospel to this world. We are invited in the most precious mission to participate in building of his kingdom on earth, though we are so limited and weak.
God entrusts us with the life of children he calls to live: God gives us knowledge about so many secrets of his creation.
And last but not least, he entrusts his love to us and even gives us the power of love over his fatherly heart.
Harpa Dei accompanies the daily scriptural interpretation or spiritual teaching of Br. Elija, their spiritual father. These meditations can be heard on the following website www.en.elijamission.net
