Here are some important questions to help you evaluate your prayers and your spiritual life.
- How would your life be different if you knew for certain that your prayers were being heard, and you could connect directly with God?
- Do you feel that God is with you?
- How can you listen to God and receive guidance?
- Have you ever felt divinely guided?
- How much distance is there between you and divine Love? And how can you close the gap?
If you’re like me, you want to live with the confidence that your prayers are being heard and that, as a result, you are receiving divine guidance, care, healing, and love.
Here’s how you can begin to close the gap between you and God.
Come closer to God and get more acquainted
It takes effort to increase your spirituality. Just as it takes effort to know and love a person who’s become a good friend, when you make the effort, you learn a lot about your friend. And you gain a lot of love.
What do you know about God?
There are many assumptions made about God. Some are not true. One assumption is that God doesn’t know you or care about you or is too far away from you to matter. Therefore, your relationship with God has to be on faith.
Not true. Divine Spirit is with you at all times. It never left you. And it never stops loving you. Please make those assumptions. They are true.
God loves and cares about you. You can take this into your heart.
Listen for divine guidance.
Here’s another assumption about God, that you can’t get closer to divine Love or know exactly how to interact successfully. Just as you and a good friend have a relationship, you can have an intimate relationship with God. Here’s how to start.
Ask divine Love for help about something that needs immediate attention. An example may be, “Where are my keys?” Or, “Should I go to the grocery before work and try to beat the traffic or wait until this weekend?” Or, “How can I get closer to my loved one?”
These types of questions are fairly quick to answer. In fact, you may think that you don’t even need God for the answers. However, this is where you start to learn about how prayers are answered and also about how all this works where you can live closer to God. These questions deserve divine guidance.
If you have had some trial runs by asking for small guidances and have had the presence of mind to notice how and when you received answers, this is your preparation for the big questions in life, such as,
- What can I do about my marriage?
- How can I find someone to love me and who will receive my love?
- What can I do about my debt?
- How can I be happy?
The small trial runs develop your spiritual foundation. How?
- You notice that you did find your keys and perhaps they were in your pocket all along. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you invited God and used a spiritual practice to lean on. The question is, “When you found your keys in your pocket, did you link this with having asked for guidance?” When does the answer qualify as a divine answer to your prayer? Finding your keys and other such simple ways to draw close to God for help is the way it works when it’s time to go to the ER and you need to call in the big guns.
- You make an effort to come close to God. Through your effort, you learn that it activated something that helped you. When you become accustomed to how it feels to lean on God and how it feels to sense that the answer was from your turning to God, you will have crossed an enormous barrier and stepped into your spiritual life. For sure.
How I called in the Big Guns, praying for immediate help.
Last summer, I was riding my bike on a wilderness trail. When I hit the gravel, I lost control and flew off the bike landing on my hands and knees. I felt immediate pain in my right arm. My husband helped me up and he took the bikes, loaded up the car, and, although I was crying in pain, I knew that my next steps would be important.
My question for God was, “Do I go to the ER?” Or, “Do I go home?” I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t tell if my wrist was broken. I saw blood on my legs, and they hurt, but it was my wrist that was in the most pain.
We sat there with the car idled as I listened for the answer. However, I was traumatized so it was hard to calm myself enough to hear what God was telling me.
My immediate guidance was, “I don’t know yet what I’m being guided to do. Let’s go home and I’ll access from there.”
Driving home, I continued to turn to God, simply drawing near, knowing that I was being guided even though I wasn’t yet sure what the guidance was. Many fearful thoughts crowded my mind as I was listening. In the few minutes it took to drive home, I became aware that my wrist was probably broken.
By that time, we had arrived home. Feeling shaken, I sat in the chair and was calm enough to receive the guidance, “Call 911.”
This was the right call. This was the guidance, and I was sure of it. I’ve listened for guidance for over 40 years and I know the feeling when I am guided. This is what I live by.
In spite of the pain, trauma, and nervousness about going to the ER and what that would entail, I knew this was my right course of action. This was my highest spiritual wisdom acting in my behalf.
The lovely thing that occurs when you invite in divine Love is that it begins working in your behalf. On most occasions, we have to make the effort and ask. It’s extremely helpful if you do this on a regular basis so that you understand how it works.
What followed was the fastest trip to a trauma center attended by the most loving, efficient firemen medics imaginable. I was handled with such care. Greeted by nurses, a doctor was by my side within minutes. I couldn’t believe how fast he arrived. Within half an hour all x-rays were made and even a cat scan. I was connected with an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in wrists and arms. I could hardly believe the blessings for my care!
I had to have surgery, but it went beautifully, and I continued to pray, as I always do, both before and after. Today, my wrist is strong and I have full use it.
I could fill volumes of books sharing how both small and large prayers have been answered in my life over these decades, ever since I decided that this was the way I wanted and needed to live my life, close to God.
As a result, I live with the feeling that I am not alone, and that God is always here with me to help and love me. I know that. Just as I know that God is always with you to offer help and love.
