April 11, 2025 // Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent // Memorial of Saint Stanislaus, Bishop, Martyr
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: John 10:31-42
Reflect on the Word //
I can think back and recall all too quickly the many times I’ve doubted God. Not His existence, but whether or not I should trust in His plan, if He had a plan, or if He would be present with me through what I could tell were going to be tough times ahead. Frankly, I feel like this comes up on a weekly basis in my personal prayer life. I talk to Jesus about my problems, my worries and anxieties, and most of the time all I hear back is: Trust in Me.
But why is my immediate reaction to Jesus’ invitation to trust met with instant defensiveness? Why after so many years of blessings, in seeing God’s marvelous work in my life in so many ways and manifestations, do I want to reject resting in His love and plan?
It’s as if I am picking up rocks to throw at Jesus like the Jews in today’s Gospel (see John 10:31). I’ve seen the good works Jesus has done in my own life; yet, I still want to meet Jesus with hostility when He asks me to trust. Why do I come up with excuses not to believe God wants what’s best for me?
Jesus is offering us the choice to see and believe the works He has done in our lives. They may be big moments of dramatic conversion or quiet moments of grace where we felt His presence, but they are His good, wonderful works. We can stand in the crowd with the Jews in the Gospel and decide if we want to “believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father" (John 10:38). Jesus wants to lead us to union with Him and His Father, to help us know that we are in His loving care and enfolded in His plan for us.
Our choice to believe is a risky one, but it is a risk worth taking.
Relate to the Lord // Today, recall the Lord in your life and let His faithfulness increase your trust now.
Christy Isinger is a wife and mom to five lovely, loud children and lives in northern Canada. When not homeschooling, she is a devoted reader of English literature from Jane Austen to Agatha Christie and blogs about beauty and life. She is the co-host of the Fountains of Carrots Podcast. She is the author of Blessed Conversations: The Ten Commandments. Find out more about her here.
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