{"id":40867,"date":"2013-07-24T01:10:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T06:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=40867"},"modified":"2013-07-24T09:47:09","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T14:47:09","slug":"prayer-and-self-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/07\/prayer-and-self-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer and Self Confidence: An Interior Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does it mean to be humble? What kind of self-denial (Lk 9:23) does that entail? Is the desire for humility contrary to that of self-confidence? Is one good and the other beautiful? I\u2019d like these thoughts to continue in the Comment section.<\/p>\n

Does prayer nurture my humility?<\/b> It would seem so – that the more I come to know and love God, the more I come to know and love that I am not<\/i> God. What does this knowledge do to me? Does this knowledge annihilate me in the presence of \u201cI AM WHO AM\u201d (Ex 3:11, 14)? The answer is implicitly no. It is a loving<\/i> knowledge, not terrifying or destructive knowledge. \u00a0Love is giving yourself to another, yes. \u00a0Love is also \u201creceiving one-hundred fold\u201d (Mk 10:28-31) what you have given away – not in quantity but in quality\u2026 that is, grace, and virtue.<\/p>\n

The presence of God should not annihilate us but fulfill us. Is this not Love? Love does not destroy me by taking something from me. Love enlivens me and \u201csprings up into life everlasting\u201d (Jn 4:14) within me. With this in mind- as it more deeply resonates with you- it merits a note: Humility is truth. The truth resonates from within\u2026<\/p>\n

\"all

all life is from Life<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

So then, what is the truth about you and me?<\/b> I am made out of nothing (which solicits dependence and reveals the lie of self-sufficiency) into something\u2026 not something, but into someone, not some one<\/i>, but son<\/i>, daughter. What logically follows with sonship? Sonship brings inheritance, adoption, nurture, family, worth, value, self-surrender<\/i> and abandonment to God. And what comes from that? Life- the full life, the supernatural and Divine life.<\/p>\n

We can say this life; this sacred family bond gives self-confidence. The fact that we are redeemed inspires and nurtures in us life and self-confidence. Humility then, I venture to say, brings joy and peace. We recognize the truth about ourselves. We recognize that we are not<\/i> self-sufficient. We recognize our \u201cborn-again\u201d likeness is likened to the Divine, is sacred and worthy. This is not pride. To be prideful<\/b> is to believe I can be something apart from<\/i> God. Ironically, apart from God, I am nothing – the sin is self-defeating, self-annihilating. Humility<\/b> is recognizing this fact, that I am created out of nothing. Here\u2019s the full story: created out of nothing, into something.<\/p>\n

The presence of God, my encounter of God in prayer, does not annihilate me. Prayer reveals these truths and therefore is a \u201cschool of life;\u201d here I learn how to live in this Great Reality.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

What do you think? Is this an interior delusion? Is it a redeemed view of our worth and a better description of humility? Is it kind of true but needs some work? Let me know. Let\u2019s reflect together and contribute to one another\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does it mean to be humble? What kind of self-denial (Lk 9:23) does that entail? Is the desire for humility contrary to that of self-confidence? Is one good and the other beautiful? I\u2019d like these thoughts to continue in the Comment section. Does prayer nurture my humility? It would seem so – that the… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[90,91],"tags":[1427,55,50,1884,193,74,267,859,598],"class_list":{"0":"post-40867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-faith-blog","7":"category-young-adult","8":"tag-youngadult","9":"tag-catholic-2","10":"tag-faith","11":"tag-interior","12":"tag-love","13":"tag-prayer","14":"tag-reflection","15":"tag-spirituality","16":"tag-theology","17":"entry","18":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":312059,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/sunday-says-podcast-october-23-2016-mass-readings-reflections\/","url_meta":{"origin":40867,"position":0},"title":"Sunday Says Podcast – October 23, 2016 Mass Readings and Reflections","author":"Steve Scott","date":"October 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time Sunday October 23, 2016 Lectionary: 150 (NAB Translation) Reading 1 Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 This week\u2019s first reading is on from the book of the Book of Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus), part of the great wisdom literature in the Old Testament.\u00a0 This book was written\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ACNM"","block_context":{"text":"ACNM","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"SundaySaysPodcast-logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/SundaySaysPodcast-logo-300x231.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":271524,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2016\/07\/make-dreams-holy\/","url_meta":{"origin":40867,"position":1},"title":"How To Make Your Dreams Holy","author":"Josue","date":"July 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you ever lament the consistent or occasional impurity of a dream? At some point in our life, we learn what triggers nighttime temptations. For some it is the Facebook scroll through that one person\u2019s profile. For another it might be flirting through text or phone conversations or Snapchat. For\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":526283,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/making-the-root-of-holy-wisdom-our-own\/","url_meta":{"origin":40867,"position":2},"title":"Making the Root of Holy Wisdom Our Own","author":"Rachel","date":"November 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\"...and he shall find her sitting by his gate.\" You know those moments when you've been thinking about or reading about something, and then it happens to come up at Sunday mass? When the readings or the homily are about exactly what's been on your mind\/heart? 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