Peace and Prayer

Hello again everyone. I hope this sunny crisp October morning finds you all well. With Thanksgiving a few days away, I thought I might share a couple of reflections on Peace and Prayer leading you all into our holiday weekend.

We all know that what’s best for our overall health is to set our hearts at peace with God. Peace is a powerful position of life and strength. We definitely will experience peace when our minds and hearts are “at one with God’s word”.

It’s easy to let life’s daily pressures and distractions pull our thoughts away from Jesus. It doesn’t take long before our focus on our daily to do list overwhelms and stresses us out. We were not meant to live with anxiety, we were meant to live in peace. Today, keep your heart at peace by staying focused in prayer on Jesus, the Holy Spirit, our Blessed Mother Mary and God our Father in heaven.

Our faith is a gift from God, it’s not earned. Faith can’t save us if we deny that faith by the way we live. At times, we shouldn’t need to tell people we’re Christian. It should be obvious, not by how we label ourselves but by the lives we live.

Perhaps consider these 2 questions: “Is it what you do daily to live”? Or, is it “What you live daily to do”? To continue to live a life of peace, continue to Iive a life of prayer. Prayer is a friend, who introduces us to ourselves and God. Prayer helps to point out who we are and who we are capable of becoming.

I suggest we all continue to pray, to give God and Jesus our biggest problems, our worst messes and everything broken about us. Rock bottom can teach lessons that mountain tops never could.

Nothing will change a person’s life like really learning how to pray. It’s so powerful yet, surprisingly we are not good at teaching people how to talk to God. We don’t tend to show them to pray with their hearts in a deep and personal way.

So today’s food for thought to consider is this:

Perhaps if you do nothing else with your life, develop an amazing friendship with God. Become a man or woman of prayer. This friendship will probably change to way you see yourself and the world. It will most likely rearrange your priorities as love always does. Don’t be afraid to let God move from your head to knowing about Him, to your heart, in actually knowing Him. It will bring you great clarity, great joy and great peace that nobody can take away from you.

Here’s a couple of tips about prayer. God will never take away the good things happening in your life that are good for you when you surrender in prayer. When you surrender your daily life’s decisions to our Lord in prayer by asking for His advice, you will know that you discerned His advice correctly when you feel 1) clarity, 2) enthusiasm and 3) peace moving forward with your decision. If you don’t yet feel these 3 feelings, keep praying and trust in God’s timing. God’s timing in is more important than our timing.

When Saint Teresa of Avila died, an old handmade bookmark was found in her prayerbook which she used to take everywhere with her. On the bookmark Teresa had written, “Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing make you afraid. All things are passing. God alone near changes. Patience gains all things. If you have God, you will want for nothing. God alone suffices”.

Sow life to your body by staying in agreement with God by surrendering in prayer. Let His peace guard your heart so that you are prepared to live the rich life He has promised you.

A little of MJ’s “food for thought” for each of you to reflect upon this October Thanksgiving month. Some references were taken from Matthew Kelly and Joel Osteen. Have a peace filled Thanksgiving dear friends. Love MJ xoxo