Does faith come from God or from your mind?

[Elena321]

For example I pray to God that my illness doesn’t get any worse and then I try to believe that God will make it it doesn’t,but then straight away it gets worse and I get despair and feel no one is listening.
Maybe God doesn’t answer my prayers because I’m in mortal sin or maybe it’s because I don’t know how to pray correctly.
Eg:I say the words “through your son Jesus Christ” because I’ve been taught those words but I don’t understand/say it understanding the meaning of those words.

Also is faith and trust the same?

 

[GEddie]

For example I pray to God that my illness doesn’t get any worse and then I try to believe that God will make it it doesn’t,but then straight away it gets worse and I get despair and feel no one is listening.
Maybe God doesn’t answer my prayers because I’m in mortal sin or maybe it’s because I don’t know how to pray correctly.
Eg:I say the words “through your son Jesus Christ” because I’ve been taught those words but I don’t understand/say it understanding the meaning of those words.

Also is faith and trust the same?

To address your question, faith is a spiritual gift of God, but it must be lived out within your mind (and life).

Faith and trust are, as words, much the same.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Crown_of_Stars]

For example I pray to God that my illness doesn’t get any worse and then I try to believe that God will make it it doesn’t,but then straight away it gets worse and I get despair and feel no one is listening.
Maybe God doesn’t answer my prayers because I’m in mortal sin or maybe it’s because I don’t know how to pray correctly.
Eg:I say the words “through your son Jesus Christ” because I’ve been taught those words but I don’t understand/say it understanding the meaning of those words.

Also is faith and trust the same?

You are not alone. I’ve often felt the same way. Even saints have. You just need to keep faithful, even when you don’t feel like it. Also, like you, I end my prayers and personal petitions by saying “through your Son,” and I also say “If it’s Your will.” Also, there is no right or wrong way to pray. Even if you didn’t pray through Jesus, He would still hear you. There are no “rules” to praying. Only just to say or ask from your heart, and to be sure that what you’re asking for is pleasing to Him.

 

[BrassAnkles]

You are not alone. I’ve often felt the same way. Even saints have. You just need to keep faithful, even when you don’t feel like it. Also, like you, I end my prayers and personal petitions by saying “through your Son,” and I also say “If it’s Your will.” Also, there is no right or wrong way to pray. Even if you didn’t pray through Jesus, He would still hear you. There are no “rules” to praying. Only just to say or ask from your heart, and to be sure that what you’re asking for is pleasing to Him.

 

[Elena321]

You are not alone. I’ve often felt the same way. Even saints have. You just need to keep faithful, even when you don’t feel like it. Also, like you, I end my prayers and personal petitions by saying “through your Son,” and I also say “If it’s Your will.” Also, there is no right or wrong way to pray. Even if you didn’t pray through Jesus, He would still hear you. There are no “rules” to praying. Only just to say or ask from your heart, and to be sure that what you’re asking for is pleasing to Him.

I don’t know if what I’m asking is pleasing to him as I pray for healing but I don’t trust to pray “your will be done” as I don’t trust God and believe that his will/catholic teaching is for me to suffer and not healing.
I once even had a Catholic doctor (who couldn’t help my illness) tell me that my purpose/path was to “suffer like the saints”
This caused me much despair and upset because I don’t want this.

 

[BrassAnkles]

I don’t know if what I’m asking is pleasing to him as I pray for healing but I don’t trust to pray “your will be done” as I don’t trust God and believe that his will/catholic teaching is for me to suffer and not healing.
I once even had a Catholic doctor (who couldn’t help my illness) tell me that my purpose/path was to “suffer like the saints”
This caused me much despair and upset because I don’t want this.

I use the Word of God to discern what I should do.

Regarding suffering, crosses come in all varieties. Until they are relieved we should be do our best to carry them and be thankful for the blessings in our life.

I am not inferring God wants you to have this cross for the rest of your life, not at all, after all He spent a lot of time in His ministry healing and commanded us to heal in Christ’s name. Therefore, in the name of Christ I ask the Lord to heal you my sister and fill you with hope in place of despair, in Christ’s name, Amen.

 

[nuntym]

+JMJ+

Fr. Henri Nouwen wrote the following while he was in the depths of depression; it has helped me much, not only with coping, but even in finding joy and gratitude from pain:

Your pain, deep as it is, is connected with specific circumstances. You do not suffer in the abstract. You suffer because someone hurts you at a specific time and in a specific place. Your feelings of rejection, abandonment, and uselessness are rooted in the most concrete events. In this way all suffering is unique. This is eminently true of the suffering of Jesus. His disciples left him, Pilate condemned him, Roman soldiers tortured and crucified him.

Still, as long as you keep pointing to the specifics, you will miss the full meaning of your pain. You will deceive yourself into believing that if the people, circumstances, and events had been different, your pain would not exist. This might be partly true, but the deeper truth is that the situation which brought about your pain was simply the form in which you came in touch with the human condition of suffering. Your pain is the concrete way in which you participate in the pain of humanity.

Paradoxically, therefore, healing means moving from your pain to the pain. When you keep focusing on the specific circumstances of your pain, you easily become angry, resentful, and even vindictive. You are inclined to do something about the externals of your pain in order to relieve it; this explains why you often seek revenge. But real healing comes from realizing that your own particular pain is a share in humanity’s pain. That realization allows you to forgive your enemies and enter into a truly compassionate life. That is the way of Jesus, who prayed on the cross: “Father forgive them; they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23: 34). Jesus’ suffering, concrete as it was, was the suffering of all humanity. His pain was the pain.

Every time you can shift your attention away from the external situation that caused your pain and focus on the pain of humanity in which you participate, your suffering becomes easier to bear. It becomes a “light burden” and an “easy yoke” (Matthew 11: 30). Once you discover that you are called to live in solidarity with the hungry, the homeless, the prisoners, the refugees, the sick, and the dying, your very personal pain begins to be converted into the pain and you find new strength to live it. Herein lies the hope of all Christians.
*
Inner Voice of Love*, emphases from text

 

[nuntym]

+JMJ+

(continued from last post)

Still, for me what Fr Nouwen wrote was just half of what I needed; pain and suffering now has less hold on me than before, and I even can find joy and gratitude from them. But that does not tell me what to do about suffering and pain.

This second half came from Scripture:

Romans 8:35-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,

“For thy sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”*

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I quoted all the above for context, but what is important is Romans 8:37: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” What are we supposed to “more than conquer”? Suffering and pain.

What is to “more than conquer” pain and suffering? It is to do what you can to alleviate your suffering, but not let this effort of relieving pain conquer you—that is, not letting it be an obsession of yours. You conquer your suffering by not letting it rob you of the love of God and others; more than conquering it is to let the pain itself bring you closer to God and your fellow people. Letting your pain be the pain, shouldering and doing what you can to alleviate the pain you have, connects you to people, in contrast to letting yourself be ashamed, confused, and isolated by your pain.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

nuntym, that was a beautiful post.

The quotes from Roman are so good. One of my favorite verses to remember when times are difficult is 8:28: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God who are called according to his purpose.”

And the “more than conquerors” quote has pulled me through a number of situations.

To me, faith is a variation on “foolishness” when I don’t really know something for sure but I’m going to act “as if” because somehow I believe it is right.

Heb 11:1
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence** of things not seen.

So with terms like “realization” and “evidence” I’m thinking it actually manifests itself in the brain. But the origin is from something other than “sight” or “first hand knowledge” or it would be sight, not faith.**

 

[Techno2000]

For example I pray to God that my illness doesn’t get any worse and then I try to believe that God will make it it doesn’t,but then straight away it gets worse and I get despair and feel no one is listening.
Maybe God doesn’t answer my prayers because I’m in mortal sin or maybe it’s because I don’t know how to pray correctly.
Eg:I say the words “through your son Jesus Christ” because I’ve been taught those words but I don’t understand/say it understanding the meaning of those words.

Also is faith and trust the same?

catholictreasury.info/books/eternal_wisdom/ew14.php

 

[SighGuy]

Oh, my. I’m very sorry Elena. I don’t know how to encourage you to trust God. But you must. He is the only hope that we have.

Maybe you can try to spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament, in prayer.

Remember that Judas’s sin of handing over Christ was forgivable. But Judas didn’t trust God! He didn’t know, even after three years with Jesus, that Jesus loved him so dearly that even after the betrayal, He would have forgiven him. Instead, Judas doubted God’s love and because of his sorrow, took his own life! At least, this is how it appears to us.

Just try to spend time in the church, while it is quiet, praying. If you can stay near the tabernacle, do that, and pray. When you are tired of praying, maybe have a religious book to read, as well. I think you should read a lot about the saints. Try The Story of a Soul or The Complete Therese of Lisieux (which comprises Story of a Soul).

 

[Robert_Sock]

For example I pray to God that my illness doesn’t get any worse and then I try to believe that God will make it it doesn’t,but then straight away it gets worse and I get despair and feel no one is listening.
Maybe God doesn’t answer my prayers because I’m in mortal sin or maybe it’s because I don’t know how to pray correctly.
Eg:I say the words “through your son Jesus Christ” because I’ve been taught those words but I don’t understand/say it understanding the meaning of those words.

Also is faith and trust the same?

I doubt that God will necessarily answer that type of petition. If I was in your place, I would pray for things like the strength to bear the illness, and for the illness to have a positive significance, like leading me to salvation. I also pray that I may do my purgatory here in this world.

Soul searching is also important!