The Prayer of the Day (Collect) for this Sunday begins, “O God of all that is just and good, nourish in us every virtue and bring to completion every good Intent…”  “Bring to completion every good intent.”  When I scan back over my life, I encounter too many times when I had a good intent to do something and then it all evaporated into the ethereal.

True, God is just and good.  But I don’t want his justice against my failed intentions.  I want his justice, In Christ, which comes out of his never-failing goodness.  In Christ and in His goodness, God feeds my intents with the virtue of follow through.  God leads me to “grow in grace and bring forth the fruit of good works.”  Intent maybe the start of a good work, but it is not the same as action.  All this happens “through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You, God, and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.”