Author: Faith

One way we “listen to God” is when we pray. We pour out all of our thoughts and feelings, we ask Him what His will is for us in a certain situation(s). We bring to Him our “needs” We ask God what choices we should make.

But before we can truly hear some of God’s answers on what choices we should make, we need to truly surrender to God. Surrender is when we give ALL of ourselves, all of our wants, our needs, our feelings, our choices…everything we are to God. We let Him know that every choice in our lives belongs to Him.

We need to be willing to accept God’s answer, even if it is No or Not Yet. Not with resentment or disappointment, but with Peace. God’s Peace.

A pretty tall order! For example, are we willing to be poor, to be alone, to be sick…Surrendering to God doesn’t mean we will be any of those things, but it does mean we will be “willing” to be, if that is God’s Will for us.

Such a complete “surrender” needs prayer. Below are prayers that we can use, but we can also find or make our own:

The Surrender Novena: Let Jesus Take Care of Everything

Healing Prayer of Surrender

In order to truly hear God’s voice, we need to let God know that we will truly listen to and obey Him. And once we truly surrender to God, we will hear His Voice.

Follow Jesus & Keep Praying; Prayer Changes Things!

There is a quote from a Christian song, “before you bring your needs, bring your heart”. How true! God wants to hear our needs. All of them. Big and small. But God wants to hear more than that!

He wants to hear about the happenings of our day and how we feel about them. He wants to hear about the happy parts of our day. And a thank you doesn’t hurt either! He also wants to hear about the hard parts of our day. About our fears and worries. God wants to hear about those we love, and those we don’t. In other words, God wants to hear about it all from our perspective!

And then God wants to hear about our needs – great and small! Perhaps someone we love is sick; perhaps we are sick. Perhaps we, or someone we know, needs a job. Perhaps one of our children needs to correct the path they are on. The list is endless!

Perhaps we are concerned about the welfare of a country, or those in it. Our God created this world; He can help one country in it! Or the people in it! There is no prayer too big for God.

There is a tendancy among some to think that they should only ask God for help with “big” things. They don’t want to “bother” God. But this is simply not true. God wants to be “bothered”! So if we need help with our day, a babysitter for our child, milk for our children, help with cooking dinner or growing our garden…God loves us more than we can imagine. We can ask Him anything and because He loves us, He will help us, if it is His Will for us.

And perhaps that is the most important point. As we are finishing our prayers, we need to end them with “Thy Will Be Done”. Sometimes we pray about what we want. Of course, we do! And God is happy to hear all of our prayers! But God knows more about what is needed than we do, so sometimes God has to say “No” or “Not Yet” for our own good and/or for the good of those we love. This is where Trust comes in. We need to Trust that God Loves us and knows what is best for us in the short run and the long run.

Follow Jesus & Keep Praying; Prayer Changes Things!

Many of us pray, but we need to pray more, and with more focus. Jesus is our Savior, but He is also our best friend! He cares about everything in our lives, big and small! He cares about those we love and He Loves Us 🙂

So often, we are so busy, that we don’t really devote enough time or focus to building our prayer life. And when we fail to do so, we let fears and emotions like anger creep into our lives. God can’t work through anger.

Sadly, our churches do not teach “How to Pray” too often. And yet, prayer may be one of the most important teachings we could share. How do we pray?

I heard someone say recently, “We don’t have to be certain, we just have to begin a conversation with God”. And perhaps that is the best way.

More experienced prayors will be able to have a very long conversation with God. They will tell God about their entire day. The things that made them happy and the things that made them sad. Their hopes and dreams, both for themselves and those they love. They will ask God to help both them and those they love.

Listening. Then there is listening to God. Something very, very important, but often forgotten. Prayer is a conversation between God and us. It helps us to build our relationship with God. But part of that conversation is listening to God.

Obedience. If God tells us to do something, we need to do it. ASAP. Joseph and Mary were so good at trusting God and obeying Him-immediately. We need to do the same!

There are many who are newer to praying. Their conversation may be shorter and that is absolutely okay. But that is when set prayers are so helpful. And a great way to pray is to read the Bible. Everytime we do, we say a prayer and God smiles. We can also pray “set prayers”. A “set” prayer is a prayer such as the Our Father that Jesus taught us. Set prayers tell God that although we have run out of words and we have listened as well as we can, we would still like to keep praying! They tell God how much we love Him and that we want to be closer to Him.

Short Prayers: Often, especially as our work day progresses, we do not have time for a long conversation or set prayers. This is when short prayers are so helpful. Maybe our prayer will be a simple Thank You. Or maybe our day is going badly, so our prayer will simply be a cry for help. Perhaps we were hit with doubts, and our prayer will simply be “Please grant me faith, thank you.”. Whatever our short prayers are thoughout the day, they are really important. Because they help us to maintain our relationship with God throughout the day. They will strengthen us and steady us. And they will help our faith grow.

Follow Jesus & Keep Praying; Prayer Changes Things!

God does not want war for us, for any of us. The last war fought for a long time on U.S. soil was the Civil War. A controversial topic for many, to say the least.

But stepping away from the cause, let us think about the suffering that took place on U.S. soil. We have gone through so many other wars, WWI, WWII, the Vietnam War… and yet none of these “other” wars took place on U.S. Soil. Our women and children were not killed. Our homes were not destroyed. Our jobs were still there. We still ate and there was still water to drink. Doctors could still be found.

But in a war that takes place in a country, none of that remains true. Horrible suffering exists for all. There is not enough food or water. Doctors can not always be found. Electricity can be destroyed, leaving many cold or hot. People freeze to death. People starve to death. There are many who wander aimlessly, having just lost too much. Water is short. People are sick.

And fear and anger run rampant.

We need to pray that if a war ever breaks out on U.S. soil, we will keep Praying and Love each other well. We need to keep Trusting God. And above all, we need to keep our Faith in Jesus.

For Jesus is coming back soon!

Hope because Christ came and hope because He is coming back 🙂

Isn’t that what Jesus gave us: Hope. He came and made it possible for us to have a real relationship with God Now, because God IS with us 🙂

He Saved us from ourselves! And because He did, we get to go to Heaven 🙂

And He is coming back-soon! And when He gets here, so many will kneel in joy! And there will be no more fighting, no more worries and fears, only joy and peace-forever!

And that my friends, is so worth waiting for!

Have a truly Happy and Holy Christmas!

Thank You Jesus!

“You don’t need to be certain to Pray,
just start a conversation with God”

We don’t spend enough time in church learning How To Pray.  And that is so important.  Talking with our Lord and listening,  and building that friendship – it all matters so much!  

And just like on earth, building a friendship requires time.  Trust is built over time, and so it is with God.

However, although we are more than willing to put in the time, we sometimes we run out of words to say.  We’ve listened all we can and we’ve said everything we can think of, but we want to spend more time with God :).

  That is when “set” prayers like the Our Father are so helpful.  Because we can say them over and over.  And God knows that saying them is  our way of reaching out to Him when we have run out of words. We also need to say the Rosary.  Our Blessed Mother Mary has been such a great example and help for all of us and always leads us back to Jesus :).

Follow Jesus & Keep Praying; Prayer Changes Things!

Yes, Joseph knew 🙂

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ^[a] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed^[b] to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” -Matthew 1:18-21

He was so obedient to God, that when the flight to Egypt took place, He never hesitated!

“ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”

“When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, ¹⁵ and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” – Matthew 2:13-15

Joseph was hand-picked by God to be Jesus’ earthly father. That says a lot right there! It’s so hard to give Joseph the declaration He deserves. How He loved Jesus, for He loved Him beyond all! He was his little boy! How he loved Mary. Doing for her all of the things our own husbands do for us!

I always think of Joseph as a man of quiet faith, strong faith and overwhelming love. When I need to be stronger in trusting and obeying God, it’s Joseph I turn to :). Never putting Himself forward, He always made sure that Mary and Jesus had what they needed.

A carpenter from Nazereth, he spent hours teaching Jesus and loving him, and talking with him and giving Him all that He had.

Joseph made Mary’s life so much easier! From physically helping Her, to praying with Her, to holding Her when She was scared. Joseph was her earthly partner in all She did. How wonderful was He!

And He spent hours upon hours with Jesus. Teaching Him, loving Him, carrying Him. He gave Him so many hugs and smiles :). And Jesus loved Him so! No matter how difficult the circumstances, Joseph always put Jesus first and Jesus knew it! Just as Jesus knew that Joseph gave Him everything He had.

Thank You Joseph for saying Yes!

Of course, Mary knew :). And I thank God all the time that She said Yes. Because She gave so much, both to Jesus and us!

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,  to a virgin betrothed^[a] to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.   And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”  But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.   And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.   And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.   He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”-Luke 1: 26-33

As we celebrate Christmas, it’s good to remember that without Jesus there would be no Christmas. It’s good to remember why we celebrate Christmas! What we are truly grateful for the most!

That Jesus came to Save us, that Mary said Yes, and that Joseph helped them both! How awesome is that!!!

Mary, Did You Know?

Yes

“³⁹In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, ⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ⁴²and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? ⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. ⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

⁴⁶And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord, 
⁴⁷   and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, 
⁴⁸ for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 
⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name. 
⁵⁰ His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation. 
⁵¹ He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 
⁵² He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly; 
⁵³ he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty. 
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy, 
⁵⁵ according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

⁵⁶And Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home.”-Luke1:39-56

Our Blessed Mother Mary did know 🙂

The most important thing to consider before we continue the study of the theological interpretations of Revelation is that they are interpretations. Often, Christians interpret some of these passages differently. Some believe in the Rapture/Premillenialism, Mid and Post Premillenialism, A Thousand Year Reign of Christ on earth prior to His second coming and Amillenialism. All of these interpretations are hotly debated among the Christian churches.

But because they are interpretations of God’s Word, it’s important to remember that while God’s Word is infallible because it is Holy Spirit Breathed, our interpretations are man-made. Some go back hundreds, if not thousands, of years and some go back only a 150 years. They are not God’s Word, they are our interpretation of God’s Word.

And because they are our interpretation of God’s Word (in other words, man’s interpretation), they can be fallible. So whichever interpretation we believe in, we need to remember one thing, we could be wrong.

Whichever one of these actually happens, will not change the FACT that Jesus is coming back for us and that we are going to Heaven. It will not change the FACT that God is as Merciful as He is Just. And it will not change that fact that God Loves Us 🙂

Follow Jesus & Keep Praying; Prayer Changes Things!