Holy Name 5.1.20 He Saves
Thanks be to God for making His name known to us. Before God
revealed Himself by stages people did not think God was approachable; it was
more fear than love.
In fact God wants us to approach Him. It is an extraordinary
thing to be able to enter communication with God so easily as we can; simply to
call on Him by one of His names, and there we are before Him.
When we consider what infinitely inferior creatures we are
we must be astonished at such a privilege being granted us.
We would not get that far with the VIPs of the world. We
would have to get through layers of secretaries and bodyguards to reach them!
Further to this, we have access to Almighty God even though
we have sinned against Him.
If we have offended someone, normally that would lead to a
cooling of relationship – not in God's world. He longs for the sinner to return
and be restored to life.
The feast of the Holy Name is a chance for us to express our
appreciation of God's infinite goodness, and to thank Him for arranging things
so much in our favour.
We call on His Name for mercy, for grace, for anything that
we need. We have many names for God. The Holy Name refers especially to the
name Jesus, meaning He saves; capturing the essence of God's main
stance towards us, which is one of saving us from sin, from death, from Hell
and giving us the reverse of all these things.
Everyone needs saving at different degrees. Those who think
they do not need it have become complacent, not heeding the shortness of their
lives. Those who despair of salvation need to be re-assured and encouraged to
ask for the mercy which can save them.
Anyone can call on this name. A man lying in the gutter can
still look at the stars. Anyone can say, at any time, I repent; and make a new
start.
Salvation of the soul is always the biggest thing, but we
pray for everything, that all can be restored as to how God intended when He
created the world.
We will grow in wisdom as we see that God grants some
requests and not others.
We gain insight into how He thinks, and what He most wants.
We can still ask for everything, only trusting in God to see the overall place
of each thing, and not be relying only on our own viewpoint.
We can say with certainty that miracles are more likely to
happen if more people have more faith. We pool our faith together and ask for
all manner of blessings. We can do more together than we can on our own.
The power of the Holy Name is recognized by the devil who
seeks to overturn that name – with blasphemy, obscenity, attempts to restrict
its use.
The Name is a threat to the evil spirits and they want to deprive
it of its power in any way they can.
To mock the Holy Name is like hanging by a rope over a
canyon, and then cutting the rope!
Blaspheming only makes it worse. If, on the other hand, we
speak the Holy Name with reverence, and approach with humility we have the
basis for many miracles.
We also reparate for the insults directed at the Holy Name,
which must run into billions.
Thank God for being so patient with us.
Blessed be God; Blessed be His Holy Name. Blessed be the
Name of Jesus.
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