Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Consider the little branch that falls off the vine, it can no longer live. It will no longer produce any fruit.  Let’s now consider our lives and ask ourselves are we living this close to Jesus or have we detached from Him? Do we remain close to Jesus in every experience asking Him for His wisdom and guidance?…or Do we only call upon God when trouble comes our way?

Now that I know that I belong to Jesus, I feel Jesus is always with me. I consult with Him on everything and I know that through joys and sorrows, He’s there for me and with me. This sense of His presence has even changed how I think. And when I reflect on the times in my life when I sinned and offended God, I realize it was because I had not yet fallen in love with Jesus. I got lost in the temptations of the world. I was a disconnected branch. I was not yet embracing my Bridegroom, Christ Jesus.

The following excerpt is
From the Book: The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation, from the Works of St. Alphonsus Liguori

“Men fall into sin because they lose sight of the presence of God. ‘The cause of all evil,’ says St. Teresa, ‘lies in the fact that we do not think of the presence of God, but imagine Him far away from us.’ A man who loses sight of the presence of God will easily become prey to sinful and sensual desires and have no strength to resist them. On the other hand, by the thought of God’s ever vigilant eye upon them, the Saints have had strength to resist and overcome all the attacks of the evil one. It was this thought that gave the chaste Susanna courage to spurn the wicked advances of the men who tried to seduce her and even threatened her with death. ‘It is better for me,” she said, ‘to fall into your hands without doing evil, than to sin in the sight of the Lord’” Daniel 13:23

“For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15

We often imagine God far from us.  We look up into the blue sky and imagine Him in heaven, sitting on His throne, but consider this TRUTH:

GOD IS IN YOUR HOUSE!

GOD DRIVES WITH YOU IN YOUR CAR!

GOD IS WITH YOU IN EVERY MOMENT!

If we were aware of His divine presence in every moment of our life, how would our life change?

If we knew for sure that God was sitting right next to us, how would that change our words, our choices, our plans, our willingness to forgive and our desire to please Him?

Being ONE with God, Loving God and Fidelity to God requires that we desire to please Him.

In fact, I would say that the very key to fidelity to God is Holy Desire – a desire to please the Holy One who gives us life and promises eternity to all who will come to Him for forgiveness.

But how is holy desire for God ignited?

For me, holy desire, was born at the foot of the Cross of Jesus. As I contemplated the Passion of Christ I realized how much Jesus loves us and that love changed my heart and it changed my life and it keeps changing me every day as I think about Jesus dying for our salvation.

“He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” 1 Corinthians 6:17

“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

I encourage you to stop daily to remember Jesus dying for you.  Look into His eyes full of love for you and me and all souls and let His love ignite a desire to be all His.

It is easy to be full of ‘self-love’.  This kind of love motivates us to pursue what makes us ‘feel good’.  This is not the love that Jesus gives us.  The love that Jesus motivates is ‘selfless-love’.  This love will inspire you to ‘be good’ and ‘do good’.  This will make you ‘feel good’ filling your soul with joy and peace as we become  ONE with God, living for Him and serving Him.

Let Holy Desire be born at the foot of the Cross of Jesus.  Please join Christians all over the world that are stopping daily to remember the Passion of Christ and to pray for all souls to be saved by God’s infinite love!  We stop at 3pm, the Time Jesus died for us, to remember the greatest love the world has ever known and will ever know, the love of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, True God, True Man.  Let Jesus be ONE with you and discover the true meaning of life and the true meaning of love.  Put 3pm (in your local time zone, or any time zone that works for you) on your daily calendar and honour Jesus by remembering His infinite love and sacrifice and pray for all souls, pray that Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to change the world with His power, one soul at a time.

I love you Jesus!  Please fill me with Your love and help me, heal me, use me in your plan of salvation!