What If God's "NO" Is Saving You?

[00:00:00]Welcome to Night Prayer with Father Matlak, your evening call to prayer.

[00:00:04]Pray with us every night right here on the podcast and in [music] your inbox.

[00:00:08]Learn more at goodcatholic.com/nightprayer.

[00:00:12]>> As we end our day, let's do so in God's presence and begin our night prayer.

[00:00:19]In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[00:00:22]>> [music] >> Jesus Christ, my God, I adore you and thank you for all the grace you have given me this day.

[00:00:30]I offer you my sleep and all the moments of this night.

[00:00:34]I place myself and all my loved ones, wherever they may be, in your sacred side and under the mantle of our Blessed Mother.

[00:00:43]Let your holy angels stand watch and keep us in [music] peace. Amen.

[00:00:49]Following on from yesterday, we meditated on how the Lord hearing our prayer is linked with his mercy.

[00:00:58]The second part of that same verse, the person prays, "Give me life, O Lord, according to your judgment." That's something that perhaps in our modern context, we don't really associate one with the other. Judgment seems like it's an exclusively negative thing, right? If we're judging someone, we're putting them down. We're dismissing them.

[00:01:22]But here, paradoxically seemingly, the person who prays says, "But your judgment's going to give me life."

[00:01:29]And so there is a positive side to judgment.

[00:01:32]When you judge something, in a sense you discriminate in the in the older sense of the term, which was you distinguish good from evil.

[00:01:41]And so anytime and every time the Lord makes a judgment, he discriminates between good and evil.

[00:01:48]And because he does that, he's able to give me life. Think of a parent that is so cautious for his children.

[00:01:56]Uh say a father prevents evil and negative influences from entering into the house.

[00:02:02]At that moment, what is that father doing?

[00:02:04]He is making a judgment that this thing is good for my family and another thing is not. This is how we have to approach the Lord and this is to enter into the providence of God trusting that this loving father is going to judge what is good for us in the long run. He's going to discriminate between good and evil and that's going to allow us to live.

[00:02:27]And this is how we behave in our lives.

[00:02:29]We do very much the same thing. So, let's look at the judgment of God and instead of immediately going to the negative interpretation, let's maybe focus on the positive. What is it that the Lord is allowing into my life?

[00:02:44]What is it that he's preventing so that I might truly live?

[00:02:51]>> Now I invite you to examine your conscience.

[00:02:55]Firstly, give thanks to God for all the benefits that you have received this day.

[00:03:10]Secondly, ask God for the grace to know your sins and to be rid of them.

[00:03:26]Thirdly, take an account of all the sins that you have committed during this day in thoughts, in words, and in deeds.

[00:03:45]Fourthly, ask pardon from the Lord for all the sins that you have committed.

[00:04:00]Finally, make a resolution with God's grace to amend your life.

[00:04:14]Finally, we end with the [music] Lord's Prayer.

[00:04:18]Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[00:04:22]Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[00:04:26]Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, >> [music] >> as we forgive those who trespass against us.

[00:04:33]And lead us not into temptation, [music] but deliver us from evil.

[00:04:37]In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[00:04:44]>> Thanks for listening today.

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[00:04:50]Night Prayer with Father Matt Lock is a production of Good Catholic, the media division of The Catholic Company.

[00:04:56]For more faith-filled podcasts and videos, [music] visit goodcatholic.com.