How to Rest in God’s Peace

This week, I drifted from the peace of God into feelings of not being enough. I fell into the comparison trap, feeling small and inadequate. Everyone seemed more successful, more effective than me. My stomach felt tense and sad. I knew this wasn’t from God – and that I was buying a lie of the enemy.Then, while I was pondering my favorite psalm, Psalm 95, God brought me out of fear and self-doubt and back into trust. I pray that my meditation on this psalm helps you also get from anxiety to trust – from dwelling on the future or the past into the beautiful present moment of God’s eternal love.   Meditation on Psalm 95    Come let us worship the Lord   Let us not worship anyone or anything else.   and shout with joy   Find the joy in everything we are and everything we do. It’s there if we look for it!   to the rock   The unchanging, eternal God is always there for us.   who saves us   Saves us from what? From sin and the consequences of sin – eternal death in hell. That is the ultimate good news! The cause of our joy.   Let us enter with praise and thanksgiving   Enter what?    Enter this day – this situation. Enter this moment.    Let us enter every thought, word, and task with an attitude of praising God and thanking him for this person we’re seeing right now, this situation we’re living right now.   If we enter this moment with praise and thanksgiving, we will have the right attitude to interpret everything that God is allowing to happen – because we’ll remember that everything comes from him – to do us good – to save us from sin and death.   and sing joyful songs to the Lord.   This reminds us to keep joy top-of-mind at every moment, even in painful times. Why? Because pain is passing away. Joy is eternal, and it’s available to us now, if we’re open to it.    Joy and gratitude are foretastes of heaven. Self-pity, fear, blame, and complaining are foretastes of hell. Will we choose heaven or hell at this moment?   The Lord is God   The psalmist couldn’t put it more plainly. This statement encapsulates the entirety of this psalm, and the entirety of scripture. It is the entire reason for our joy and our reason to trust him.   the mighty God   Yes, we might have other gods like food, comfort, or doomscrolling – but they have no power outside of Almighty God.   The great king over all the gods.   The Almighty King, the one God, is love.   He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the highest mountains as well. He made the sea. It belongs to him. The dry land, too, for it was formed by his hands.   The psalmist handles eternal things in the first part of the psalm – that we worship the Lord in every moment and praise him with joy because he is love, because he is eternal, because he is greater than the lesser gods we bring into our lives.   The psalmist then asks us to look at the earth – what we see around us.    We can’t see God, but we can look the mountains, the ocean, and sea. Each blade of grass is the work of his hands. Everything is meant to remind us of his power and his personal care for us.   Let us bow down and worship, bending the knee before the Lord our maker. For he is our God and we are his people, the flock he shepherds.   He alone is the one to whom we look to receive everything good. And we are his people, the flock he is shepherding toward heaven.   And we don’t go through life alone – our fellow believers are members of God’s flock, his family. He protects us, guides us, holding us close. And he empowers us to be an example for others.   If today you hear his voice,    Some translations say when today you hear his voice. God is always speaking to us in our hearts, in our worship, in nature, and in our relations with other people. He speaks to us constantly of his power to save.   harden not your hearts   Our hearts can grow hard when we fail to trust God by slipping into regret of the past and worry about the future. When we “play God” by holding other people in judgment.   This hardness of heart comes from one thing: not keeping up our intimacy with God in prayer.    as they did in the wilderness,   Every life has promised-land times and desert-times. Like the Israelites, when we are in a desert time, we can feel alone, helpless, confused, and doubt ourselves. We can be tempted to doubt God, too, as they did when complained to Moses, “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness?” (Exodus 14:11).   when at Meribah and Massah, they challenged me and provoked me, although they had seen all of my works.   They provoked God by forgetting his past blessings and his promise. It’s the same for us. The main temptation in a desert-time is thinking that the desert is never going to end. And that there is no promised land after all.   Instead, the virtue of Hope overcomes that temptation. Hope reminds us of God’s promise that he is guiding us to heaven, even when we’re in pain.   One way to overcome the temptation to blame God for our pain is to remember times when God has blessed us. Remember the times when we got unexpected and undeserved gifts. Call to mind the times when we were in pain of mind or body and God brought good out of it.   Forty years I endured that generation –   St. Peter tells us that the Lord endured the rebellious Israelites, as he endures us, to give us time to turn our hearts back to him: “Consider the patience of our Lord as salvation” (2 Peter 3:15).    I said they are a people whose hearts go astray   “Going astray” means we are loving and worshiping something above God.    We worship our own plans – feeling devastated when things don’t turn out as we expect. We worship other people, feeling crushed when we don’t get the praise or recognition we think they owe us.    We become anxious and frustrated when we rely on ourselves alone to decide what to do next and how it should turn out – forgetting to ask God’s help.   The beginning of the psalm tells us that to avoid our hearts going astray, we need to make a decision to enter every moment with praise and thanksgiving. Because even when our plans go astray, our hearts can remain in God.    When we are on track with God, we believe that he is giving us exactly what we need for our salvation, no matter what it feels like at the moment.   And the only way to bring our hearts back on track is to pray. To reach out and make that connection with God, who is always reaching out to us.   and they do not know my ways,   God’s way is first of all love. God showed Martha his way when she complained that she was working too hard. Jesus reminded her that if she kept the eyes of her heart on him as she was working, she would find peace. Martha had given up God to worship her to-do list – and her heart went astray. Even though Jesus was right in the room! she lost connection with his peace.   so I swore in my anger, they shall not enter into my rest.   We can substitute the word “sorrow” for “anger.” Was Jesus angry when he asked, “How many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!” (Matthew 23:37)?    Jesus is sorrowful that we would even for a moment choose anxiety over his peace. That we would choose a foretaste of hell by worrying instead of a foretaste of heaven by trusting.    Instead, we can choose in this moment to connect our awareness with praise and thanksgiving, and see pain as fleeting and temporary. We can choose to focus on the eternal rest God offers us even now, in this moment. He offers us at each moment the peace of following his way.   The last word We heard from St. Peter earlier. He goes on to say, “Beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (2 Peter 3:17-18).    Are you floundering in your prayer life? Do you find yourself: Inconsistent in prayer? Distracted? Not sure if you’re doing it right? Schedule a free, no-obligation Clarity Call with me and we’ll look and see if and how I can help you gain the trust and peace in your life that God intends.

Do you ever feel like you're floundering in prayer? Is your mind in 49 places at once when you sit down to pray? Do you wonder if He's even listening? Help is on the way! My 3-min video below gives you three things you can do when it feels like prayer isn’t working. BUT FIRST – you’re invited to my FREE 60-min workshop, “Banish Anxiety: 5 Simple Steps to Lasting Peace and Purpose.” Register here now for TONS more ways to revive your Catholic prayer life and make the connection with God you’ve always wanted.   3 things to do when prayer "isn't working"  

They say God is simple, and we’re the ones who make things complicated. While I was praying Psalm 95 this morning, something very simple occurred to me. The psalm says, “Forty years I endured that generation. I said they are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not know my ways. So I swore in my anger, they shall not enter into my rest.” Here’s the simple thing: If we are restless, we have gone out of the rest we find only in God. And we “go out” in two ways. We love other gods that make our lives complicated and stressful—we worship: Our expectations Our idea of perfection Our to-do list We ruminate about the past and fear the future. We forget that:  We find God in this moment—because God is outside of time. We can’t change the past, but we can choose to forgive others, and ourselves, as God does. The future isn’t here—and it’s God who’s in control of it, not us. God is saying through Psalm 95 that if we know His ways, if we follow the First Commandment to love Him above all other gods—that our souls will be at rest in Him.   What now? So it’s our job in our spiritual life to ask ourselves: What do we love more than God, that’s causing us stress and anxiety?  What has made us forget to take refuge in the loving and protecting love of God?  How have we let ourselves be lured outside the refuge of God’s “now” to fret about the future? How and for what have we let our hearts “go astray”?   What’s the secret? The secret to inner peace is in these two things: Plan as well as we can for the future and leave the rest to God. That includes praying every day that His will be done. Notice when we’re becoming anxious and call our minds back to a quotation or a Bible verse that reminds us that God is our all-in-all—that any pain we’re experiencing is passing away and that God’s love, mercy, protection, and care is our refuge in this moment to find our rest in Him. God gives us that simple way to reclaim this moment in Christ.   It worked for King David King David wrote this 3,000 years ago: “The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction terrified me. The cords of Sheol encircled me; the snares of death lay in wait for me. In my distress I called out: LORD! I cried out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry to him reached his ears.  “He reached down from on high and seized me; drew me out of the deep waters. He rescued me from my mighty enemy, from foes too powerful for me. They attacked me on my day of distress, but the LORD was my support. He set me free in the open; he rescued me because he loves me.” (Psalm 18:5-7;17-20)   Share a favorite verse Scroll down and leave a comment about a favorite quote or Bible verse that helps you remember the love of God.

Before we get to St. Francis de Sales, do you want to hear how YOU can overcome anxiety?If you’re a “Yes,” join me in my free 1-hour workshop, “Banish Anxiety: 5 Simple Steps to Lasting Peace and Purpose.” Register here now! You’ll discover the exact steps I and my clients use to reclaim our peace when we’re tempted by worry, impatience, self-doubt – or any trigger of anxiety. Like last week when I showed up at a meeting and felt like I totally said the wrong thing – but didn’t beat myself up later for it! You won’t believe how well this 5-step system works. Sign up for the “Banish Anxiety” workshop. OK – time for a 2-minute video where we learn St. Francis de Sales’ #1 cause of anxiety…and how we can avoid it!     Wondering how to think about ourselves less and think about God more? Join me in the “Banish Anxiety” free 1-hour workshop! Register here.

After sitting silently in adoration for 10 minutes yesterday, I began to get restless that I didn't feel very connected to God.  What was I doing wrong? Was I not paying attention? Then I realized I had fallen into a trap that I coach people how not to fall into! It just shows how we need a system to avoid from the never-ending temptations that try to pull us away from God and put the focus on ourselves.   Recovery time I reminded myself that God is always closer to us than we are to ourselves. His connection with us is never, ever a problem. The psalmist put it this way:Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, there you are.  If I take the wings of dawn and dwell beyond the sea,  Even there your hand guides me, your right hand holds me fast” (Ps. 130:7-10). And I remembered that God is not in the business of fulfilling my expectations at every moment. He is in the business of fulfilling his Divine Will. And his will is for our salvation. So he will give us in every moment exactly what we need. Scripture says: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Is. 55:9).  And God’s thoughts—his plans for us—are always more glorious than we can imagine.    It comes down to trust If warm fuzzies are not on the menu today, we can trust that he is still working powerfully in our soul to transform us into the likeness of himself. After this reality-check, I stopped feeling restless and started to feel grateful. As I thanked him and praised him for being the glorious God he is, and for looking on me with so much love and mercy, he reminded me that gratitude is a balm for any pain we feel in our body or soul.Gratitude plugs us into the eternal reality of God’s care and is a great way to find a connection with him.   A gift for you If you'd like to know the exact five-step process I and my clients use to stay on track with God and to stay connected with him and ourselves, join me in my free, live, 60-min workshop. It’s called “Banish Anxiety: 5 Simple Steps to Lasting Peace and Purpose” and you can register here.

I had confidence all wrong.  Confidence isn’t believing everyone is going to like me today because my clothes and hair are perfect. Sounds silly, right? But doesn’t our confidence too often depend on what we believe others will think of us? Well, we’re partly right.   Authentic confidence Real confidence comes from believing that God loves us more than we can imagine. That we don’t have to do a single thing to earn his love.  Confidence is believing that God loves us so much that he just wants to hang out with us. Wait—hang out?? Aren’t I supposed to be exerting myself to do his will? Yes, but stressing that we’re not doing things perfectly—that we’re never doing enough— gets in the way of resting in God’s peace.  Which, in the end, is all he really wants of us. The sweet “how to” below by an anonymous author is guaranteed to warm your heart and give you a confidence boost.   How to Hang Out with God Me: God, what do You want me to do? He: I know what I want to do, what do you want to do? Me: Well, I would like a happy marriage, well-behaved children, clean house, health, enough money… He: Okay, all good things. Me: What do You want me to do? He: Hang out with me. Me: Hang out? What do You want to do? He: Hang out. Me: What do You want to talk about? He: Let’s just hang out. Me: Now what do You want to do? He: Nothing, let’s just hang out. Me: What can I do? He: Hang out with me. Me: Then what? He: Love. Me: Then what? He: Love some more. Me: What for? He: Because I said so. Me: What good is it for? He: You’ll see. Me: I don’t feel very loving. He: I know. Me: How am I going to do it? He: Just do it. Me: Why? He: Because I told you so. Me: What else? He: That’s it. Me: What do you mean, that’s it? He: Just hang out with me. Me: It’s hard for me to hang out, I need to be doing something. He: I know. Me: So what should I do? He: Hang out with me. Me: How do I do it? He: You’re doing it right now. Me: I feel ridiculous. You just want me to hang out? He: Yeah. Me: I love You…what I know of You. He: Love you too. Me: What do You love about me? He: That you hang out with me. Me: Who wouldn’t want to hang out with you? He: You’d be surprised. Me: Surprise me. He: Well, for instance, you. You often have a million things going through your head, or you fill it up with silly fantasies or judgments or you worry too much. Me: Sorry. He: I forgive you.   “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (Jn. 15:9-11).

How do the great saints keep their inner peace? What do they do when they feel themselves start to get angry, stressed, or impatient? We heard from St. Jane de Chantal last week, now it’s the turn of another Frenchwoman.This 60-sec video is the first in a series to help you find that out. Saint of the Week: Therese of Lisieux If you’d like to be more like St. Therese to avoid anxiety and impatience, let’s chat. In helping over 10,000 Catholics get closer to God, I’ve learned that inner peace is available to everyone -- if you know the 5 simple steps to let Christ’s peace in!   Book a free Clarity Call with me at TalkWithRose.net -- to see if and how I can help you have the intimate connection with God that gives you the peace the world cannot take away. ….Here’s how St. Therese did it!   

St. Jane de Chantal (1572−1641) was a French noblewoman whose husband was killed in a hunting accident, leaving her with four children.  She went on to co-found, with St. Francis de Sales, the Visitation Order and oversaw dozens of monasteries. Jane suffered from anxiety and depression. And yet she’s a saint!  Watch the 2-minute video below to see how she did it.   …And if you could use some help overcoming the anxiety in your life, join me at my free 60-min workshop: “Banish Anxiety: 5 Simple Steps to Lasting Peace and Purpose.” Register here. You’ll discover how to: Be rooted in your true value and worth Handle the lows with unshakable hope Discern and live out your true purpose Banish chronic fear and anxiety Radiate the love of Christ Image purchased from PortraitsOfTheSaints(dot)com.