Recap of Part 1

Part 1 of this article covered the following:

• no one is immune from bad news
• receiving bad news is part of being human
• bad news can lead to an experience of deep inner pain
• bad news can tempt you to doubt God’s goodness
• negative emotions that can arise from receiving bad news must be acknowledged honestly if you want the Lord to heal them
• you must never run from your pain

 We learned also that when you are in pain, God can sometimes seem to have vanished off the scene

When this happens, you ask: ‘How can I find God?’

But this is the wrong question!

The right question is: ‘How can I allow God to find me?”

We learned that it’s essential that you allow God to find you in whatever experience you happen to be going through, including dealing with bad news.

We also learned the very good news: which is that finding you is exactly what God came to earth to do.

In fact, God specializes in finding you.

Finding you is God’s priority.

Finally, we learned that …

• the guaranteed provision the Lord has made to find you is a simple way of praying without using words and thoughts, known as praying with and from your heart 
• this way always works, and ALWAYS gets results, no matter what you’re facing and whether you are a beginner on the spiritual journey or an ‘old hand’ at it

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Let’s take a look now at why this prayer always works and why it can offer you such strong support when you’re dealing with bad news.

How You Benefit

Your and my natural state of mind —yes, even the minds of us Christian women —is ‘busy’.

Thanks to the mental over-stimulation caused by modern world events and faster and faster technology, we are all saddled with non-stop thoughts.

And non-stop thoughts can carry with them a mixture of non-stop emotions.

Too much of anything is stressful to our spirits, bodies, and minds.

Even too much ‘positive’ thinking can cause mental stress!

Our spirits, minds, and bodies are not created to deal with excess.

Praying with your heart offers a guaranteed antidote to this.

It restores and maintains your inner peace and joy.

It therefore benefits you mentally, physically, and spiritually.

When done regularly for a few minutes each day, it heals you gradually from ongoing mental stress and confusion.

Praying with and from your heart requires that before you begin to enter into the Lord’s presence and open up yourself to His love and rest, you make a conscious decision to let go of all words and thoughts.

The Journey from ‘Monkey Mind’ to Giving the Lord Permission to Take Over

This is how you journey from your stressful ‘monkey mind’ state to stillness and peace of mind, body, and spirit.

This is how you journey from constant thinking to peace.

This stillness and peace come when you allow the Lord some ‘space’ to love you and ‘speak’ to you for a few minutes.

This is, in fact, the way Jesus taught you and me to pray 

When you pray with your heart without words and thoughts, you start to feel more anchored, less scattered.

This is because you have been able to unite your whole self with God —firsthand and directly —for a few minutes.

In these few minutes, you have consciously offered Him a quiet space to

• love you
• live in you
• guide you

Your regular, repeated, firsthand experience of the Lord’s presence, love and peace for a few minutes each day achieves 5 important things for you.

It …

• opens you up gradually to a steady inner peace, a steady joy, and overall wellbeing

• gradually heals your negative emotions

• restores and maintains your mental, physical, and emotional health 

• lays a solid spiritual foundation for your future journey with the Lord

• allows you to discover that you are far more than your feelings/emotions

When you pray in this very simple way, you

1. get a respite from the ongoing mental churning of your thoughts and emotions

2. give the Lord the chance to communicate His love and peace directly to you without having to go through the filters of words and thoughts

3. give the Lord the chance to communicate directly to you whatever He wants you to know

4. develop a much deeper closeness to the Lord 

5. As a result of this closeness, you develop a relationship of much deeper trust in Him

6. develop the confidence to present your concerns to the Lord honestly whenever you want or need to

7. develop the confidence to ask the Lord questions 

8. develop the confidence to EXPECT Him TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS

With time, the Lord becomes your confidante, your ‘go-to’ person, and your Spiritual Guide. 

All that God Requires of You

There is no success or failure in this way of prayer!

All that God requires of you is a genuine desire to encounter Him in a deep, real, genuine, and personally fulfilling way, and just a few minutes of solitude and silence out of your day to begin on this simple path.

Jan, what if after my heart prayer I feel ‘dry’ and uninspired and that I’ve accomplished less than nothing?

You ask:

What if I feel ‘dry’ and uninspired and that I’ve accomplished less than nothing when I finish my few minutes of heart prayer? 

A very important question indeed. 

Here’s your answer: 

Please know that whether you feel over the moon or dry when you’ve finished, your prayer has nevertheless done its work. 

I can’t stress this too strongly. 

PLEASE let this fact take root:

The Lord heals you at a much deeper level than your mere human emotions!

If you keep with it, in 2 or 3 weeks you’ll begin to notice that when you miss out on these few daily minutes in God’s direct presence, you feel that something important in your life is missing. 

This is a signal that the Lord is doing a work in you and that you are benefiting. 

Keep with it!

Rest assured that in this way of praying, you have in fact opened up the whole of your being —mind, body, spirit, and emotions —to God at a level that is immeasurably deeper than your emotions.

So, even though there are times when nothing seems to be ‘happening’, PLEASE just take a tiny leap of faith. Trust the Lord and KNOW that a very great deal has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen within you.

And never judge the value of your prayer simply by your feelings!

Spiritual Guidance

This is a time when you need some form of reliable spiritual guidance. 

If you can’t find a person who is trained and experienced in spiritual guidance to accompany and guide you through this distressing chapter in your life, the Lord will use the articles on this website to guide you. 

That’s exactly what I’ve designed each article on this website to do. 

And I have the faith that the Lord will honour my intention and use the articles to guide you!

And here’s the other thing:

Even though God might also choose to use people as guides, the Holy Spirit himself is ALWAYS your ultimate Spiritual Guide.

I want you to never lose sight of this crucial fact! 

So, if you aren’t able to find a personal, trained guide right away, PLEASE DON’T PANIC.

ALSO:

Join me on NOVEMBER 19 for my first Webinar presentation:

How to Let God Find You When You Need His Help Urgently

This is not a live webinar.

But you can email me any questions you have arising out of this teaching. I promise to answer them promptly.

This helps both you and me. For you, it provides more clarity on important questions you have, and at the same time it allows me to see where you might need specific guidance.

Keep a Journal

Keeping a journal helps to anchor your thoughts and emotions.

This helps to de-stress you.

But journaling regularly through a crisis of any kind achieves something else:

It provides you with a record of how and where you are experiencing —or not experiencing (!) —God, day by day.

At the time, this might not seem like a big deal.

But never underestimate the help this will give you. 

You see, when all is said and done, journaling —with very little time and effort on your part—can document an important episode in your spiritual journey with the Lord.

You’ll discover that journaling is a great support not just in times of bad news, pain and crisis, but at ANY time in your spiritual journey!

Don’t Try to Rush Matters Along on Your Own Timetable