Recollections of Retreat 1999 Page 7

Recollections of Retreat 1999

When Others Doubt You, Show Them The Evidence. Give Them Reasons To Believe You. Don't Walk Away.

Again it is illuminating for us to discover how Jesus handled the problem with his disciples when they were in doubt and ran away from Him. He worked patiently with them.

He showed them his wounds. He reminded them that a ghost does not have flesh. (Luke 24:39)

They were still not convinced. Jesus asked for something to eat. (Luke 24: 41-42) He did not walk away from them disgusted. He worked with them remove the doubts and suspicions.

Finally their heart opened. They suddenly got the knowledge and wisdom. (Luke 24: 45)

As we can see, this was an expensive and time-consuming step for Jesus to transform his disciples from doubters to believers. But God has patience. So, if we want to be like God, we need to have patience and willing to pay the price for it. To get another perspective of this, remember the prodigal son? He took everything and went away. The father didn't give. He knew that the son will come back one day. When he did, he received him back without any hesitation. Again, it was costly from the money and time point of view before the son can be recovered.

We need to have deep patience. If it took that much time for Jesus to do it, imagine how much time we need? Are we willing to take the sacrifice? Do we have the patience? Do we have something to show like Jesus did to remove the suspicions?

After knowledge, comes the strength. We need to wait for strength.

We are upset at all things around us. We are mad at our spouses, our children, our priests, our church, our bishops, our government, etc. And we get more and more upset as time passes by. No one really understands us. That increases our frustrations. We need to break this circle. We need to ask Jesus to forgive us. We also need to forgive others who have done anything bad to us. Remember Jesus forgave everyone who has done anything to Him. If we want to be with Him, we need to be ready to do the same (forgive) to others.

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