When Your Thoughts Lie

Turn to any page of the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska and you find spiritual gems. Like this one:

 

I trust in Your words because You are Truth and Life. In spite of everything, Jesus, I trust in You in the face of every interior sentiment which sets itself against hope (24).


Do you ever find yourself thinking things will never get better? Do you ever wake up at night worrying about the future? Do you always seem to dwell on your past mistakes?

If you struggle to find peace in your life, meditate on the above passage from St. Faustina. In it, she explains an important truth, which if we put into practice, would help us all live more peacefully. Any time St. Faustina thought of something that set itself against hope, she turned away from it and remembered to trust in Christ. In other words, St. Faustina learned to recognize the difference between interior sentiments sent by God and those sent by the evil one.

God wants us to have hope. When we hope, we confidently expect that He will come through on all His promises - that He will meet all our needs; that He will never abandon us; that He's forgotten all our past sins and will take care of us in the future.

Though we know we have nothing to fear, sometimes our minds seem to have a mind of their own. Thoughts come into our heads unprovoked - thoughts that make us sad and cause us to question God's goodness.

Of course, things don't always go as planned. Tragedy happens. Loved ones leave us. We make mistakes. But no matter what we're going through, no matter how we feel, we always have the truth to rely on.

And the truth is that God is good and that He is working right now on our behalf to deliver us from whatever trial we might be facing. We just have to try our best to turn away from evil thoughts and turn back toward God, in whom we trust.

Jesus says to us: You can't always count on your own reasoning. Your mind often lies to you. Only I know the full truth. So don't rely on your own changing thoughts. Trust in Me and in My love for you.

My prayer: Jesus, when I take seriously the thoughts I have that discourage me, I struggle. When I feel sad, nervous, or hopeless, please remind me what I need to do - turn to You in trust and believe that You have everything under control.

View the previous Discovering the Diary.

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