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In today's Gospel Our Lord tells us how a seed grows when it is sown in the ground. The seed will grow independently whether the sower is awake or asleep.God's seed of grace will grow in our souls in the same way if we do not put up barriers or obstacles in its way. It's God who gives the growth. God always gives us His grace to help us to be faithful.
We must never become discouraged at our apparent failures; we will frequently have to start again and again with our good resolutions.
God may indeed permit our failures in order to help us to trust Him more.
Nothing is impossible for God.
3 comments:
"God may permit our failures" - but surely God doesn't 'interfere' with our choices, we have free will. I would welcome a further explanation of that comment, please.
I accept that we can learn from our failures and mistakes and that learning can bring us closer to God - but God 'permitting' these failures in the first place? Such a level of intervention seems difficult to reconcile with the freedom - including the freedom to make mistakes - that we tend to associate with God.
Thank you Flick, it's because God has given us free will that we sometimes make the wrong choices which lead to failure.
I would say that if God were to intervene and prevent failure then that would be denying us the free will that He has given us.
I see. I think in fact we are
interpreting the word permitting in different ways. I read 'permitting' to mean that God decided we should make that mistake - you I think mean that God is allowing us to make our choices and therefore mistakes.
I readily agree that should God intervene and prevent failure (or allow it which I thought you meant in your original blog) then we are denied our free will. I also think that our mistakes and learning from them, give us a greater understanding of the sinful human state which is ours and therefore bring us to the realisation that we are dependent on God if we are to become as He wants us to be. We cannot do it alone - thank goodness 'nothing is impossible for God'.
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