Don't let Satan Win!

Have you ever wonder if you are really forgiven?  It took me a while to understand weather or not I felt like God really forgave me for my sins.  I then realized i really wasn't wondering if God forgave me, it was more if I forgave myself or the person that I may have harmed forgave me.  I kept wondering why I didn't allow myself to forgive myself or maybe even wondered why the person that I harmed couldn't forgive me.  God had forgiven me already, but I still felt awful.  That was Satan.  It was Satan that kept making me feel that way.  It was Satan that made me feel like I wasn't forgiven.  It was Satan that was hovering over the person I harmed and making that person not able to forgive me.  But I was truly, honestly deep down inside sorry for my sin.  We have to understand that Satan is real and he tries everything for you or I to feel awful, because if we were happy we would be praising God.  Satan doesn't want our Father to win.  I am sure he is clinching his teeth as I type this blog.  He's mad because I am spreading his secrets.  Well Satan, you loose and my God wins.  

One of the greatest things that I love about the Catholic Faith is confession.  You laugh?  It's so true!  I love confession.  I am so thankful that we have it.  People who are not Catholic always ask me why I feel the need to confess to a Priest when I can go straight to God.  I tell them that I do go straight to God and when I go to confession and Hear that I am resolved of my sins makes me feel deep down inside that I am acutely forgiven and it's coming straight from God.  To hear those words are truly amazing.  YOU.  ARE.  RESOLVED.  OF.  YOUR.  SINS.  It's then that God works through the Priest, hears your cry, hears your sorriness,  sees you pain and forgives you.  There were times that I would ask God to forgive me while not going to confession, and I felt different from when I was in confession.  Something seemed to have been missing.  It was this:

James 5:16 

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

So don't let Satan win!  Learn to forgive, and be forgiven.  

Hey!  Do me a favor and spread this blog around!  I need followers! :) Thanks in advance, E     

Do you pray wrong?

Have you ever wondered why your prayers may not be answered?  I had to realize sometime unanswered prayers are a blessing.  The last couple of weeks I have sat down and thought about my life.  I was thanking God for the answered and not answered prayers.  I have to say that I have been so blessed.  I had a running list of things I asked God for and didn't receive.  I now thank him for those unanswered prayers. I may have been young, stubborn, or maybe selfish at the time but I can honestly say that I am so happy that He gave me the gift of something else. I used to pray to ask God for things that I wanted.  One day I went to confession and explained to the priest that I was really frustrated and felt like God wasn't listening to me.  I told him that my prayers were not being answered for certain things like a great job that I interviewed for or the perfect house that I wanted.  He told me that I was praying wrong.  I never believed that someone could ever pray wrong until he told me this: (PAY ATTENTION TO MY NEXT SENTENCE)    Stop praying for what you want for yourself and start praying for what God wants for you. Is this how you pray?  Try it.  You will be amazed.  I tried it and I can't tell you how amazing it feels to receive a blessing that I know God wanted me to have.   I leave you with this, one of my favorite verses: Jeremiah 33:3 New International Version (NIV) 3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

Have you seen Jesus?

Have you ever wondered how many times you have ran into Jesus and didn’t even know?  This has been very heavy on my mind for about a week now.  The thought popped up when I was driving and I saw a man on the side of the road pushing his basket.  I don’t know why he was so heavy on my mind but I felt guilty that I didn’t stop and give him some food or something.  Then I wondered if maybe that was Jesus and didn’t even know.  May sound funny at first but it’s so true.  How many times have you ever ran into a situation like that, seen someone crying or upset, sick, or even having trouble?  Did you take the time to help that person that you didn’t even know?  That could have been Jesus.  As I was praying the other night I then thought about the day I would meet him.  I thought about how if maybe he would ask me if I took care of his people.  Did I cloth the naked and feed the hungry?  I can just hear him say, “Did you know that was me?”  Would my heart drop because I didn’t or would it beat with excitement because I took care of him? 

Matthew 25 35‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ 41“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44“Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a   stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45“Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46“These will go away into eternal   punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” The last time in this verse is very important.  “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life”  If I do nothing for the thirsty, the poor, the naked, the sick, and the lonely I will not have Eternal life with my Lord.  Just writing this made my hurt heart.  So for me, I think that I need to do a better job for those that are less fortunate.  I may not have all the money in the world but I do have an amazing heart and extra hands to help the needy. I leave with this note.  You may not think you can do everything to help out others as much as you wish you could, but if you are unable for some reason say a prayer that God may open up someone’s ears to that they can hear your helping prayer.