The prayer that pierces the clouds, that goes most directly to God, and yields quickest powerful results, is the “right prayer of desire” — not the prayer of complaint, and not the prayer for luxury — certainly — (nothing from lust): but the prayer of right true desire — because it is prayer right from the heart.
Right and true mean in accordance with His Plan for your life. The right way. The direct path, even in crisis.
The devil grants extravagance (and wears Prada).
The Lord gives what you need; he wastes nothing. This is worth repeating: God gives you what you need; the devil gives you luxury.
The Lord may well answer a complaint. He hears all cries. But they have to be sincere ones — which means real need; which means it is in accordance with His Plan for you. With God, there is no desperation.
Do you collect yourself as to how you should approach Him? Do you pray about what you should pray about? Do you pray about your mission?
And before you pray, do you set your heart right?
Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t ask for some nice things. God is very generous. No one is more so! He always outdoes us. He wants us to enjoy life.
But “right” means to pray with measure. It means to pray unselfishly. It means to avoid greed.
It is to ask in a way that is contrite and humble.
“Right” means to have balance and peace and springs from love. You will know when you glow.
There is a map for your life and mission and God is always ready to supply what we need to find our way on it — to negotiate the byways, the detours, the fast lanes on those highways; to avoid the ruts.
The great signpost on the journey of your life is joy, even in trying times.
When there is joy, God is near. It is how to “read the map” that leads to your destiny.
Happiness is great. We can be excited or happy for a period of time. But joy speaks more of a long-term state of being, of “contentment” as a passive state that’s satisfied with all that happens and has gladness and the humor of wisdom in every circumstance even when there’s no worldly security and no jolt of adrenaline (as there is when there is a “thrill”). Contentment is joy without complaint and even when not every want has been gratified.
Those who have cast out lust and materialism and fear (which comes from the flesh or the enemy) know this state, which joins peace as the gauge of God’s Presence. Seek to be relaxed and restful and at peace in every circumstance.
The devil does not give joy but rather thrills and daring and that flash-in-the-pan excitement that rides a roller-coaster.
Remember that thrills can kill and that the daredevil’s “joy” is counterfeit (and that roller-coasters are short rides to nowhere).
True joy comes when we cast out the devil in the Name of Jesus!
“Dear children, today I wish to call you to pray, pray, pray,” said a message in 1985 from Medjugorje. “In prayer you shall perceive the greatest joy, and the way out of every situation that has no exit.”
In fact, only through prayer — not politics, not business, not science — will we take the right course in life, the right actions. This is also true in our lives: prayer offers surprising answers. When we’re confronted with what seems impossible, we pray and with sudden clarity see the way out. You know how it is: Often we find ourselves in what seems like a bleak place. Often we can’t imagine how to solve a problem. Often we find ourselves in situations that seem to have no good alternative.
It could be a financial crisis. It could be a problem with one’s career. It could be a dilemma with children. It could be a pandemic.
From time to time we all feel painted into a corner.
That’s the time to pray. That’s the time to drop everything and lift the heart upward. It’s remarkable how solutions wing into our heads during prayer — answers that would otherwise allude us.
Here’s something that can change your life, or at least your attitude. It’s a simple message: with the eyes of faith, we become victors and not victims and fulfill who we really are. That’s quite a promise. No matter where you are, no matter how life has been treating you, there is always the opportunity to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and turn what seems like a situation without an exit into victory.
Joy is hope. Joy is to be fulfilled. Joy is when the cup of your life mission is filling up.
Joy is knowing where you are on the “map.”
Always choose joy over short-term “excitement,” “contentment,” or “happiness”!
It comes, does true joy, when you ask for it in the right way and your request comes from a heart that loves.
[resources: The God of Miracles]
