Facing the Future with Prayer

Last week I attended a talk on facing the future with hope, faith and love and I loved the bullet points that were given because they are practical steps to help us during this 2019.  Every beginning of a new year brings with it a fresh start to change old habits and to grow.  While many of us make plans to better ourselves physically – I think equally important is to better ourselves from within.  In fact, changing ourselves even in the physical sense requires an inner reevaluation of our habits if we want to make long,lasting changes. Per our speaker facing the future with confidence requires seven simple steps.

1. Pray unceasingly.
2. Love Fiercely.
3. Suffer Well.
4. Trust God Always.
5. Forgive Everyone.
6. Serve Others.
7. Simplify your Life.

I think all of the seven steps are self-explanatory, but I really like to have them written down as visual reminders of a plan of action to follow.  At least for me, I can at times lose my bearings when things are not going as planned, my thoughts get jumbled in a mess of negativity and when I can no longer tolerate the turmoil in my mind I always seek God to drench me in His truth.  That’s why prayer is so important, because when things seem bleak - in prayer,God gives us hope.  He invites us to suffer well, to suffer in hope and with faith that He will come to our assistance.  This past week was one of great emotional turmoil for me and I felt myself edging towards the pier of sadness wanting to jump into the pool of self-pity; but, I ran to God when I couldn’t handle it any longer and replaced the lies in my mind with His truth.  Sometimes prayer can be just that, going to Him with a mind so away from Him and asking God to bring you back to Him. To bring you to a place where our faith gives us hope - even in the bleakest of moments, I like to repeat, "I, will trust in You."

Our speaker said that the answer to any problem always requires two steps: pray more and love more- everything else stems from that.  I like that philosophy because it’s easy to remember- though quite difficult to put to action.  However, when we stand in God’s truth it’s possible to do anything because He gave us the Spirit to be able to do things that seem quite impossible.  I still fall short most days, and lose my centering – but it’s good to have a plan of action – one where the focus is God.  On negative days, I constantly need to remind myself to put my thoughts on check – to fight the lies with holy thoughts because from thoughts our actions stem. So, when I am feeling like I have lost my peace- I usually pick up a religious book, write my thoughts in a prayer journal or pray a novena.  I find ways to distract my mind from the lies floating inside or I challenge the lies with God’s truth...  I mostly spoke on prayer today, but in future posts I will explore the rest of the tips on living with faith, hope and love this 2019.   

Steps taken from John La Briola.