How to Keep Faith When Unsure of What the Future Holds

May 21, 2011 is fast coming up. Some people say that this date is Judgment Day and October 21, 2011 is the end of the world. Some are sure that this is indeed the date of the end of the world. They have put up a website to inform people about this. Others are sure that this is not yet the end of the world. They just go on living expecting that this is not true. Still others are unsure of what the truth is, whether the world will end this October 21 or not.

Nothing Is Sure

The truth is that we are unsure of what the future holds. The high school graduate is not sure whether she is able to go into college. The college student is not sure whether she can finish her studies. The college graduate is not sure whether she can get a good job. The worker is not sure whether she will stay in her job, be promoted, or be dismissed from employment.

The father is not use of what will happen to his children. The doctor is not sure whether his patient will get well. The lawyer is not sure whether he will win his case in court.

We are never absolutely sure that tomorrow we will still be living. Those who were buried in the landslide these past months in different areas of the world never thought that that was their last night on earth.

Some of us have seen the video circulated in the Internet of a man who was walking and was suddenly overrun by a car. That man never thought that that was his end.

So we can never be absolutely sure of what will happen to us. That is why we have so many fortune tellers and they are getting a fortune by telling or pretending to tell us the future.

Maybe someone you love very much in your family is suffering intense pain due to cancer and its treatment and you do not know what her future is, whether she will recover, or get worse, or slip into eternity. And you are really worried. How do you keep faith in this situation?

Or maybe you have left your work because you felt that God called you to a distinct work in his ministry. Now you are unsure whether that was a wise decision or was it imprudent of you to leave a stable job to follow God's call. How do you keep faith?

How To Keep Faith When Unsure of the Future

Our question now is: How to keep faith when unsure of what the future holds?

And the answer can be: We keep faith by keeping close to him who knows the future. I like that sentence we learned in our Sunday School: I do not know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.

You see, for God there is no past, present or future. This is difficult for us to understand but it is absolutely true. Past, present and future are indications of time. What happened is past. What is happening is present. What will happen is future. But for God the past, present and future are all present, because he does not live in time but in eternity, outside of our time frame. Maybe an illustration can help to clarify this.

Consider a line as a progress in time. To your left is the past, the center of the line represents the present, and the segment of the line to your right is the future. Now put a dot four inches or so above the center of this line. This dot represents God's view of the past, present, and future. He looks at all this at the same time, the present time. To him all these segments of time are present at once.

Since this is true, then we know that God is sure of everything that happens in our life, whether it is in our past, our present or our future. He knows it from beginning to end and beyond.

Ask God What the Future Holds

If we keep close to him and ask him he will tell us what our future holds. And by faith we know that this is always for our best and for the best of those we love. Many of us Christians remember Romans 8:28, that all things work together for good for them who love God. There are similar passages in other religions, comforting us to trust always in God.

It is easy to say this but I realize that it is most difficult to accept or behave with this acceptance. What the form of that best will be we do not really know. Maybe it is best that our beloved member in the family go, so that she does not have to prolong her suffering. Maybe it is best for you to suffer financial difficulties as you obey the Lord's calling so that you put your complete trust in him and in nothing or no one else. Whatever it is, God knows what is best for you. He is totally sure of it.

You keep faith in this situation of uncertainty by keeping close to the Creator and sustainer of all life, the Lord of all that is happening on earth and everywhere else. Since he surely knows what will happen, you can ask him what the future holds for you. But do not expect an explicit answer as you would from a telephone conversation. God answers in many ways. Many times he will answer by leading you one step at a time. He will not tell you everything that will happen in your life or in the life of your loved one. But he will surely show you every step you need to take.

This is because he is a God who is passionately in love with us, so passionately that he gave up his life for us through inconceivable suffering. And he wants to have constant fellowship and communication with us.

The problem is that most do not realize this. Many call on God only when they think they need God's help. In the meantime they go on living thinking that they can manage on their own or that God wants them to behave this way, to manage things on their own.

Be Always in a Conversational Mode with God

But if we are always in a conversational mode with God, he will always be in conversational mode with us until the time comes when we can hear him constantly in our hearts. When this happens we no longer need to ask, How do we keep faith? because he himself will keep us in his faith.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How to React If Told You Are Praying the Wrong Way

There are a hundred and one reasons why you can be told by somebody that you are praying the wrong way.

Some Wrong Ways of Praying

These wrong ways of praying include: you do not perform the required ablutions or washing of your body parts before praying; you are not facing the west when you pray; you are not using the proper prayer mat; you are merely repeating a prayer formula over and over again; you are not in the proper posture or proper clothes; your mind is not on what you pray; and so on and so forth.

So, how do you react if you are told that you are praying the wrong way?

Steps to Take to Give the Proper Reaction

First, thank the one who told you that you were praying the wrong way. This is because you can always learn something from someone who criticizes your way of praying. There is always something to learn, to improve the way you pray. And so you thank her for the benefit of learning something new to improve the way you pray.

Secondly, ask her why she thinks that you are praying the wrong way. And reflect on her answer, whatever it is. You may be praying spontaneously and she thinks that you should use an approved formula of prayer. If this is the case, ask her why she thinks that spontaneous prayer is a wrong way to pray.

I have heard spontaneous prayer whose every sentence contain the word "God", like "God, we thank you for giving us this day, God. God, we ask you to bless us, God, as we proceed in our work today, God."

Some object to this kind of spontaneous prayer as too insistent on God, as presuming that God is not ready to listen to our prayer that he has to be addressed to many times, again and again.

Thirdly, ask her what is the right way to pray. And listen to her answer because you can always profit from this answer. For example, Christians normally do not perform ritual ablutions before formal prayer. For them knowing that people of other faiths perform ablutions before prayer can impress upon them the need to be clean in body, mind and spirit when they converse with God.

Fourthly, you pray for the one who criticizes your way of praying. You pray that she too improves on her way of praying, especially that she puts her concentration on what and to whom she is praying.

Fifthly, aspire for the perfectly correct way of praying. There is such a way, the perfectly correct way of praying. This is the way of God praying in and through you. Agree with what the Bible says that we do not know what to pray and how to pray. Only God knows the perfectly right way to pray and when he prays in and through you, he prays the right way always.

Only God’s Way Is the Perfectly Correct Way

You may be surprised to read here that I say God prays in and through us. But this is because left to ourselves we really do not know how to pray. This is the reason why some holy men and women admonish us to use the formula of prayers in the sacred books like the Psalms and Sura Al-Fatiha because the words there were written by God himself. We can never go wrong if we use what he wrote.

The best way to pray is still the way God wants us to pray. You can continue to learn what this way is.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

The Effect of Saying Your Early Morning Prayers

There is a kind of water that appears only until early morning. It is formed at night when the temperature of a field drops and it disappears when the sun begins to raise the temperature in the morning.

This water is called dew. It is described as water droplets produced by condensation from the air on cool surfaces near the ground.

Early Morning Prayers Are Like the Dew

The effect of saying your early morning prayers—an hour or so before the sun appears on the horizon—is like the dew. You can get this beneficial effect only during the early hours of the morning. After this, like the dew, it vanishes into the atmosphere.

That is why if you do not pray in the early morning you will not get this dewy effect of prayer.

The Effect of Early Morning Prayers

The first benefit you get from the dew is refreshing water. It is water at its purest and coolest in the natural environment.

So also in early morning prayers the first benefit you get is a refreshing of your spirit, soul and body. Your body is rested and prepares itself for the work of the day. Your mind is also refreshed from the cares, worries and problems of the previous day. Your spirit is refreshed by the Spirit of God as he communes with you.

Water invigorates you. It gives you strength and vitality to do your work.

In the same way early morning prayers invigorate your body, soul and spirit to continue doing the mission that God has given you in life.

Great Religions Prescribe Early Morning Prayers

Almost all religions advocate early morning prayers. In Islam early morning prayer is prescribed. Early morning prayers are also performed in Hindu temples and in Buddhist monasteries. In Christian religious groups there are also early morning prayers. Some recite the Matins or the First Hour of the Christian Prayer. Unfortunately in the Catholic Church this has been renamed Office of the Readings and can be prayed anytime of the day. But the best time for it is still early morning. Of course we still have the Office of the Morning Prayer which can be said in the early morning, that is, before the sun rises.

The Example of George Whitefield

Great men and women of God who have made a lasting impact on our world have been persons who prayed very early in the morning, some of them for a long time before daybreak. It was related of George Whitefield, the great revival preacher of the 18th century, that he would frequently devote whole nights to meditation and prayer. No wonder England and the United States greatly benefited from the revival he led.

Make It a Habit

Early morning prayers refresh your whole person and give you the strength and energy to do your work during the day. Make it a habit until you say it in the land which knows no setting of the sun.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.