“You are not what others think you are. You are what God knows you are.”

“Trusting God's grace means trusting God's love for us rather than our love for God. […] Therefore our prayers should consist mainly of rousing our awareness of God's love for us rather than trying to rouse God's awareness of our love for him, like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:26-29).” - Peter Kreeft (a professor of philosophy at Boston College)

Gospel text (Mk 1: 29-39): As soon as Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, Jesus went to the home of Simon and Andrew with James and John. As Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with fever, they immediately told Him about her. Jesus went to her and taking her by the hand, raised her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening at sundown, people brought to Jesus all the sick and those who had evil spirits: the whole town was pressing around the door. Jesus healed many who had various diseases, and drove out many demons; but he did not let them speak, for they knew who he was.

Very early in the morning, before daylight, Jesus went off to a lonely place where He prayed. Simon and the others went out, too, searching for him; and when they found him they said, «Everyone is looking for you». Then Jesus answered, «Let's go to the nearby villages so that I may preach there too; for that is why I came». So Jesus set out to preach in all the synagogues throughout Galilee; he also cast out demons.

Today, we are clearly shown how Jesus split his working hours. On one hand He prayed and, on the other, He consecrated time to his mission of praying with words and deeds. Contemplation and Action. Prayer and Work. Being with God while amongst men.

Every now and then, it’s a good idea to step back from our pursuit of the Lord to get a big picture. Instead of thinking about what God wants of us, instead of questioning whether we are being faithful enough, instead of wondering if we’re missing out on something we should be doing—instead of all of these, let’s think about how relentlessly Jesus is pursuing us.

For instance, it wasn’t enough for him to remain in heaven and hope that we would turn back to him. It wasn’t enough for him to send us his word through the prophets. It wasn’t even enough for him to take on human flesh so that he could show us the way back to his Father. No, he pursued us to the very gates of hell. He rescued us from the clutches of the enemy—and it cost him his life!

This is your Savior. His love for you knows no bounds!