{"id":7362,"date":"2021-12-28T10:56:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T00:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7362"},"modified":"2021-12-28T10:56:21","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T00:56:21","slug":"he-will-grant-your-hearts-desire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/he-will-grant-your-hearts-desire\/","title":{"rendered":"He Will Grant Your Heart’s Desire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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He Will Grant Your Heart’s Desire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from a sermon by Fr Louka Sidarous<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.<\/p>2 Cor. 9:7<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The key to a person\u2019s life is found in the heart. If each and\nevery one us opens up our hearts, we shall receive. If your intention is to receive\na blessing, then you will receive a blessing. If you touch the door of the\nchurch and someone says to you, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You reply, \u201cto receive a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you really taking a blessing? Is that what your heart is searching for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you intend to receive a blessing, you will receive it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lady with the uncontrollable flow of blood that touched the hem of Christ\u2019s garment truly wanted a blessing from the depth of her heart. In all the crowds, she just wanted to touch His garments to receive a blessing. When she reached out, she was healed immediately. Her intention came from the heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of people go in circles, searching for blessing, when\nthe key has been in their heart all along. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May God grant you according to your heart\u2019s desire. If I\nthink there is blessing from the door of the church, then when I enter, I will receive\nblessing from the door of the church. If my heart is leaning elsewhere, then\nthere is no blessing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many times we receive Holy Communion and we feel nothing. This is because our heart is elsewhere. The intention and direction of the heart is elsewhere. How many times have we thanked God for the gift of baptism and the New Man within us? Sometimes we take no notice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I beg you, always be thankful for the great blessing that is\nin our health and our new beginnings. This is not a temporal seed, but an\neternal seed that does not fade away. Our body is the temporal seed but the\nspirit within us is the eternal seed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is such a big blessing, but the only thing missing is\nthat we comprehend and give thanks for it. The New Man becomes our state of being.\nI wonder what I look like on the inside. Am I reflection of Christ? What are my\nattributes? That is my inner man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inner man should be full of love, enough love to love even my enemies. Did Christ give us the command to love out of nothing? Or did He not actively preach it to every creature, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When He says, \u201clove your enemies,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We respond, \u201chow can this be?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To which He explains, \u201cI will make you like new. I will make\nyou a new creation. I will give you a new heart. Then you will be able to love others\nthe way I do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same love of Christ can reside in us. So what do we look\nlike on the inside? After I have received the blessing of baptism and the new\nman, do I start to emulate Christ? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I describe Christ as meek, do I have a heart that is meek? If I am born of Christ, do I have the meekness of Christ within me? When I think that Christ is patient with sinners, do I have the same forgiveness in my heart? My behaviour should be a reflection of Christ. The image of Christ is imprinted in my heart from the day I was born. In turn, He is an image of Father – the first born of all creation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, Christ is the image of the beginning. We are born in the image of Christ who was from the beginning. We are born with attributes to do good things. The result of the body is death but the soul remains eternal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sit with yourself often so that you have time to contemplate\non His goodness and realise the blessing before you. During this time, we also prepare\nourselves for service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\u2019t I live like the rest of the world? No. When we are baptised in the faith, we hand our lives over to the One that prepares our soul for eternal life. The only way we can hand our lives to God is through regular repentance and preparation for the desires of the heart. For what does the heart desire more than the One that can satisfy the soul? This is the true desire of the heart. May we never allow our hearts to be deceived by any other worldly desire, and glory to His Name, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He Will Grant Your Heart’s Desire Translated from a sermon by Fr Louka Sidarous So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Cor. 9:7 The key to a person\u2019s life is found in the heart. If each and every one … Continue reading “He Will Grant Your Heart’s Desire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7364,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7362\/revisions\/7364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}