You are a child of God, God loves you and sent His son Jesus for you, for the forgiveness of sins
1 John 4:10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
Galatians 3:26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith
“You are a child of God” – allow this truth to settle deep within you, allow this truth to remain and grow in you. When you can’t remember, pray to God for help to remind you of this truth.
Knowing fully the truth that “You are a child of God” and that “God loves you and is for you”, let us always turn to Him and ask Him for help to recognize and live out this truth, a life of abundant grace.
Continually strive to grow in this loving relationship with God and grow in holiness. Desire to be pleasing to Him in all things, do His holy will.
We cannot do this or live this out on our own individual strength. We will always need His help and His grace every moment of every day. What we are asked to do is always pray, receive His grace and respond to His grace.
If you fall, fear not, rise back up, repent and ask for His mercy and forgiveness and strength to follow with even more desire and passion. Always return to Your loving Father who never fails His child.
As a Child of God we have a certain responsibility towards our Father, so we can remain and grow in this personal loving relationship.
- Child of God loves God with a pure heart.
1 Timothy 1:5 The aim of this instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
Psalm 51:12 A clean heart create for me, God; renew within me a steadfast spirit.
Prayer: Thank You Jesus, with Your help I desire to love You in return with a pure, clean, sincere and steadfast heart.
Reflect: What measures do I take to keep my heart pure? Do I resort to a steady prayer life?
2. Child of God desires God, seeks to know and do the will of God.
Psalm 143:10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your kind spirit guide me on ground that is level.
Prayer: Thank you Jesus, you teach me Your will and guide me for You are my God.
Reflection: Do I always seek to know God’s will in prayer and do it?
3. Child of God recognizes sin and the impact of sin in our relationship with God.
Child of God strives to resist and shun sin, which is evil and daily responds to God’s abundant grace. Child of God constantly strives to rise from sin and return to God in repentance, prayer to live a life of grace.
Knowing that sin can separate us from this close relationship with our loving God we daily seek God’s mercy and grace. Pray and ask Him to deliver us from sin and from every evil.
Sin can make our minds dull, our will weak, and thereby limit our understanding of things that pertain to God. God always gives us a way out. We have a merciful and loving God, ready to forgive all those who repent and return to Him.
By the merits of most Precious Blood of Jesus we have forgiveness of our sins.
Psalm 32:5 Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. I said, “I confess my transgression to the Lord,” and you took away the guilt of my sin.
Psalm 51:3-6 Have mercy on me, God, in accord with your merciful love;
in your abundant compassion blot out my transgressions.
Thoroughly wash away my guilt; and from my sin cleanse me.
For I know my transgressions; my sin is always before me.
Against you, you alone have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your eyes
So that you are just in your word, and without reproach in your judgment.Prayer: Lord I recognize that my sins hurt you, yet You love me and wait for me. I do not want to hurt You anymore. Please help me and strengthen my will to always resist sin and turn to You for help. Please help me live a life of grace. (You can also do an act of contrition).
Reflection: Do I do a daily reflection of how I may have offended God and rejected His grace? Do I repent of sin and turn to Him for forgiveness in prayer?
4. Child of God devoutly receives the holy sacraments of the church.
Sacrament of confession, holy sacrifice of the mass and holy Eucharist are God’s gift to us to help us live a life of grace in union with Him. Jesus longs and waits for us in each of these sacaments.
Jesus desires our hearts, our will. Approach and receive these sacraments not out of mere habit but out of pure love for Him. The measure of the graces we receive in each of these sacraments or prayer life is proportional to the longing, desire, preparation we make within our hearts.
Sometimes we go out of habit, or because someone told us to. Remember to prepare your hearts in prayer and ask for His grace in your life, be intentional. When our hearts desire and long to meet with Jesus, Jesus fills us with abundant grace and surrounds us in His love.
John 6:56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.
1 Corinthians 11:23-29 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Prayer: Thank you Jesus for giving me Your love, mercy, Holy Spirit and Your life through the sacraments of the church. Grant me the grace to desire You, Your love, Your life which flows to me through the gift of these holy sacraments of the church. Please help me to remain faithful to You till the end, only with Your grace and Your strength I can do this.
Reflection: Do I long to devoutly receive the sacraments of the church? Do I prepare my heart sincerely for these sacraments so I can receive them worthily in love? Do I go out of mere habit or love for God?
5. Child of God dedicates time to prayer.
Child of God carves out of daily, intentional, dedicated quality time to pray and continues to grow in prayer life.
Philippians 4:6 Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.
Colossians 4:2 Persevere in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving;
Sirach 51:10 – 11 I called out: Lord, you are my Father, my champion, my savior! Do not abandon me in time of trouble, in the midst of storms and dangers. I will always praise your name and remember you in prayer!
Luke 11:1 – 4 He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”Prayer: Dear Jesus, please help me to dedicate daily time to meet with You in prayer. Please help me to listen to Your word and fill me with Your love and peace. Please increase my faith and teach me to always lift my heart, mind to You and remain with You in prayer. Jesus please strengthen my will to spend time with You in prayer.
Reflection: Do I give dedicated time to prayer each day? Do I make time for Jesus in my life? Do I ask Jesus for help to make time for prayer?
6. Child of God grows in intimacy with Christ and prays for others.
Child of God gradually, steadily builds up a strong prayer life, and grows in intimacy with Christ and prays for others.
Ephesians 6:18 With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. To that end, be watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the holy ones
Prayer: Dear Jesus, please help me to grow in my relationship with You and be the center of my life. I pray for all others who need You today, please bless them and help them know You more.
Reflection: Is Jesus the center of my life? Do I pray for the needs of those around me?
7. Child of God strives to grow in self knowledge.
Strive to know thy inner self in the light of God’s truth. Always be humble and trust God to help you in your walk with the Lord. Bring your life and every area in complete submission to the Lordship and authority of Christ in prayer. Holy Trinity is always ready to help and transform you each day.
Take active part and work on cultivating a good life of faith and eradicate any habits that can steer you away from faith in Christ. Live the holy life that God desires you to live with His help. Pray and ask for help from God and receive abundant grace which flows from the sacraments of the catholic church.
Sirach 23: 1- 6 Lord, Father and Master of my life, do not abandon me to their designs, do not let me fall because of them! Who will apply the lash to my thoughts, and to my mind the rod of discipline,
That my failings may not be spared or the sins of my heart overlooked?
Otherwise my failings may increase, and my sins be multiplied;
And I fall before my adversaries, and my enemy rejoice over me?
Lord, Father and God of my life, do not give me haughty eyes;
remove evil desire from my heart. Let neither gluttony nor lust overcome me; do not give me up to shameless desires.Ephesians 5:26, 27 to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, please help me see my life through Your eyes. Show me areas I need to change, areas I need to surrender to You, any hidden faults I may not know. Please help me, mold me and deliver me from sin, habits that are not pleasing to You. Please transform me and change me and help me to be pleasing to You always. Only by Your grace and strength I can do this.
Reflection: See yourself with the compassionate eyes of Jesus. His love be your guide. Thank God for all the good things in your life. Are there any areas that need change? Submit them to the Lord in prayer. Pray for grace to do the necessary part, and remove any distractions, obstacles, blocks along the way as the Lord makes them known.
8. Child of God spends time with God’s word.
Child of God eagerly spends time daily with God’s word, listening to His voice, reflects and mediates on His word.
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Prayer: Thank you Jesus, for the gift of Your word. Your word is my guide. Thank you for speaking to me through Your word. Please teach me the truth, Your word is the truth. Please help me meditate on Your word and walk in Your truth always.
Reflection: Do I give daily time praying with the word of God, reading and meditating with God’s word?
9. Child of God repents and returns to God.
Child of God quickly rises from sin (mortal or venial), repents and returns to God in the sacrament of confession.
Mathew 3:2 saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
Luke 15:10 In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”Prayer: Thank you Jesus for Your forgiveness and Your mercy. Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner. Please hold onto me in this life always. Be my strength and help me rise if I were to fall into temptation and sin.
Reflection: Do I make use of the means God has given me in sacrament of confession to repent and return to God?
10. Child of God forgives all offenses and enemies.
Bring all your hurts, wounds and pains to Jesus in prayer. Jesus understands all your pain , all your wounds and hurts as Jesus himself suffered for our sins. Ask Jesus to touch and heal your own heart and fill it with His love and truth.
Pray that Jesus lifts you up above the situation and remove any lies that you believe and give into due to the underlying pain and hurt. In prayer, with help from Jesus, bless those who hurt you and forgive your enemies in the name of Jesus.
Pray that Jesus gives you a new heart, clean heart and steadfast spirit, His own heart. Pray that Jesus changes those around You, those who hurt You and pray that they also receive a new and transformed heart.
Reflection: Do I pray to Jesus for help to forgive? Do I surrender the situation, the people, relationships and my heart to the Lord in prayer.
Luke 17:3, 4 Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.”
Mathew 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,Luke 23: 34 [Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”]
Prayer: Dear Jesus, you know everything and nothing is hidden from You. I need Your help to forgive and let go. I can’t do this on my own. Thank You Jesus for giving me the grace to forgive all those who hurt me. Bless them Jesus. Thank you for Your peace in my heart, bless them also with Your peace. I surrender the hurts, wounds and pain over to You and receive Your love and grace. Jesus I surrender myself (the person or relationship) to You.
Reflection: Do I pray to Jesus for help to forgive? Do I surrender the situation, the people, relationships and my heart to the Lord in prayer.
Pray the Litany to Our Lady of Perpetual help for help to live as a child of God : Litany to our lady of perpetual succor:
