Trust

Finding Peace In Your Crazy-Busy World

March 24, 2024 by Vicki Griffin - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

We live in a topsy-turvy, fast-paced world. It’s easy in the rush of crammed, hectic schedules to neglect life’s most important priorities. There is more to life than increasing its speed.((Mahathma Gandhi)) Our lives can easily become so busy…but oh, so barren. God has a special four-part “peace plan” to guide, strengthen, and inspire you with hope and energy. Let’s explore these vital elements of stress protection, physical and mental health, and spiritual vitality. Daily applying these four principles will help you flourish instead of flounder as you face life’s challenges and demands.

1. A Lifestyle that Promotes Peace

Lifestyle is a major factor that affects mental, physical, social, and spiritual health. Lifestyle choices matter, especially the ones we repeat every day. They have a profound effect on brain function, which is the seat of your thinking, emotions, and decisions. “Many of the fundamental tools for the care and feeding of the brain are everyday matters. Physical and mental exercise, proper nutrition, and adequate sleep will help anyone gain cognitive clarity and emotional stability.”((Ratey, J. User’s Guide to the Brain, p. 356. Vintage Books, 2002.)) Power up your lunch and supper with crunchy, colorful fresh vegetable salads, greens, and beans. Try healthy vegetarian entrees instead of fatty meats and fried food. You won’t crave snacks with this delicious, high-fiber fare. Want real brain energy and body vigor? Water is the beverage of choice between meals instead of soda and coffee!

2. Attitudes that Produce Peace

Your mind, brain, and body are in constant communication through many different systems. Your thoughts and attitudes have a powerful effect on the rest of your body, especially your immune, nervous, and digestive systems. We can literally think ourselves into a frenzy, but God promises His peace, “perfect peace” to the one whose mind is centered upon Him (Isaiah 26:3). He invites us to trust Him with every circumstance of our life. A thankful attitude is associated with better physical and mental health, and even a longer life. “A contented mind, a cheerful spirit, is health to the body and strength to the soul.”((Ellen G. White, Counsels on Health (Mountain View, California: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1949), 344.))This is an attitudinal discipline that focuses on God’s truth and solutions rather than fear, circumstances, and unreliable emotions.

A woman looking into a mirror with a positive smile

3. Spiritual Principles that Secure Peace

“Spiritual well-being is at the center of a healthy lifestyle.”((Am J Crit Care 1995;4(1):77-81.))To meet our deepest longings, God has provided spiritual principles that bring true life satisfaction. This does not come with wealth, fame, popularity, or even perfect health. It comes through making peace with God—in entering into a saving relationship with Him. Studies confirm that “Religious commitment may play a beneficial role in preventing mental and physical illness, improving how people cope with mental and physical illness, and facilitating recovery.”((Arch Fam Med 1998;7(2):118-24.))Our natural hearts are not drawn to God, but we need Him. We are drawn to God because of our need—and God’s healing love which draws us. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). God’s love is the foundation of a relationship with Him and healthy relationships with each other. We connect with God through prayer and learning about Him in His life-giving Word, the Bible. “In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answer me” (Psalm 86:7).

4. Faith that Preserves Peace

Faith is more than positive thinking—it is connecting with the living God who seeks to restore all that sin has broken and taken away. Jesus never promised an absence of problems. Jesus said: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Faith is the conviction that God will guide you and give you power through both good times and bad. Faith says, “Either make the problem smaller, or me bigger!” God has a plan and He cares for you in a very personal way. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

God’s Peace Plan can be Yours. Hulda Crooks experienced God’s peace plan in her lifestyle, attitude, trust in God, and faith. She was a sickly, sedentary, overweight woman for many years. She became a vegetarian, which improved her mental and physical health. But when she experienced the loss of her husband and son, she fell into depression. Hulda began walking which not only relieved her depression—it also eliminated more of her physical maladies, including constant fatigue.

Conquering Life’s Mountains. Hulda also began practicing a positive, faith-based attitude that gave her the “altitude” to stay inspired and be an inspiration to others! From aged 63 to well into her 90s, she completed 23 Mt. Whitney climbs, backpacked 212 miles of the John Muir Trail, climbed 86 Southern California peaks, and held 8 world records for seniors over the age of 80. This spunky late-bloomer caught and taught inspiration as a motivational speaker, and was affectionately known as “Grandma Whitney.” A mountain peak of Whitney is named “Crooks Peak” in her honor. God’s peace plan was fulfilled in Hulda’s life—and it can be fulfilled in yours too! Would you like to experience the fullness of Gods power, promise, and plan for your life? His peace plan is for you!

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This article was originally published on the Time to Get Ready website.

Combatting Loneliness With Courage

January 7, 2024 by Cheryl Silvera - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Are you among the millions worldwide feeling lonely right now? Know that you are not alone in this emotion. The unprecedented times that we are living in have left so many feeling lonely. I know this may seem like a small comfort right now, but I want to share some good news. Let’s explore the loneliness experience and ways to ease it, together.

First of all, what is loneliness? According to Wikipedia, “Loneliness is a complex and usually unpleasant emotional response to isolation. Loneliness typically includes anxious feelings about a lack of connection or communication with others …As such, loneliness can be felt even when surrounded by other people.”((“Epidemic.” 03 September 2020. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Ed. 29 August 2020 08:22 UTC, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Epidemic&oldid=975576774))

Loneliness is one of the greatest risk factors in maintaining good health. Would you believe that it is more dangerous than obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes per day? It increases our risk of mortality 45%.((Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, The Potential Public Health Relevance of Social Isolation and Loneliness: Prevalence, Epidemiology, and Risk Factors, Public Policy & Aging Report, Volume 27, Issue 4, 2017, Pages 127–130, https://doi.org/10.1093/ppar/prx030))

Loneliness has become a real problem for millions with little bearing on marital status, socioeconomic factors, or age. Previously, most people lived an agrarian lifestyle less likely to be associated with loneliness because is was commonly characterized by joint efforts to build, plant and harvest. Currently, our industrialized society has nearly entirely shifted to a city-based, urban consumer experience that has a “every-man-for-himself” vibe that easily can incubate loneliness.

To seek an answer to loneliness let’s consider the model of Christ outlined in the transcript of His love, the decalogue (Exodus 20:3-17), which bears the mark of social and God-connect. From the moment God placed humans on earth He gave them a guide to be in connection with each other, and with Him safely. The first four commandments refer to God and the following six gives us the blueprint of getting along with each other. God intended for humans to be in communities to combat loneliness, by communicating with each other and with Him. That is the intended construct of societies, and a great one at that!

So now I ask the question; how and why do we use courage to combat loneliness? Courage is described as bravery, confidence, grit, determination. It confronts hardship, fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, intimidation, and perhaps loneliness?

A courageous man jumping over a gap between two rocks

The Bible puts it this way, “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD” (Psalms 31:24). The word courage used in this text means to strengthen; to be strong; to cure; help; and repair.

Pointers on Courage to Combat Loneliness

1) Belonging to Christ

Have the courage to call upon Christ for help. Create a loving relationship with Him then talk to him as to a friend who is present beside you. “But when they in their trouble did turn unto the LORD God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them” (2 Chronicles 15:4).

The goal is to remain undaunted and encouraged in the Lord so you can endure this present difficulty. Remember that you are His and nothing can shake that! “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Tip: Consider joining a Bible study group. This can help you connect with God and likely believers at the same time!

2) Support

Have the courage to seek out a friend in love and ask for support. Paul did it in his plaintive pleading to Timothy; “Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee” (2 Timothy 4:11). Tip: Video chat with friends or family when you can so as to maintain a sense of connectedness, even when you cannot physically be together.

3) Purpose

Have the courage to step out of your comfort zone and help someone else. It may save your life. “They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage” (Isaiah 41:6).

But first, we must ourselves be encouraged and feel the love of God. John the beloved of Christ wrote to a cherished friend; “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 1:2). Living to share that love with others is undoubtedly the foundation of battling any difficulty, including loneliness. Tip: Find at least one person in your neighborhood to assist, briefly focusing on their needs instead of your own.

Following Christ calls for us to have courage to stand in the fullness of who we are without the dreaded emotion of loneliness. As ones cared for by God we can and should support each other through our shared experience of living through these difficult days. Stand in faith and courage as you combat loneliness today and know that we all children of God are praying and are with you. Soon, we are going home together, where we will never need to battle loneliness ever again!

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This article was originally published on the Time to Get Ready website.

Give up Illusions and Dreams

December 31, 2023 by Dr. Cesar Vasconcellos de Souza - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Today we are going to examine the consequences of our illusions. Often, we find it difficult to accept reality because of our aspirations. Even if we have healthy and ethical desires, we don’t always achieve many of them in this life. In addition, we often have to give up pursuing these desires, even if they are good ones, for various reasons. It is not without reason that Jesus Christ said that those who want to follow him and serve him must die to self, take up their cross, lose their lives, and this, one day at a time.

Jesus explained:

Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 16:25

Losing your life can mean giving up the pursuit of some dream, so that God’s will be done in your life, and this is not easy for anyone. However, in surrendering our desire, when you understand what God really wants from you, it becomes possible to liberate our self to pursue a life of service that gives meaning to our existence.

Much of the anxiety, sadness, anger, and frustration at unfulfilled desires can be alleviated when we die to self, to our desires, leaving the consequences in the hands of the Creator of the universe. It is a paradox that you die in order to live. Nature teaches us that the seed needs to be buried in the earth in order to grow into a mature plant that produces fruit.

Many of our mental sufferings can be rooted in illusions, desires, and attachments. God never requires anything from us without giving us something better in return, even if it involves a loss of material goods, fame, or social power. Living on illusions and desires can hold us back. Giving up our own desires for God’s sake brings relief. This doesn’t mean that we’ll be left empty-handed and have a sad or mediocre life. On the contrary, we become enthusiastic when we surrender to God. Did you know that the meaning of the word enthusiasm is to be full of God? Enthusiasm means being filled with God.

Jesus’ recommendation in the Gospels, in this context of our dreams and personal desires, is to die to self, to live with joy and unselfish attitudes produced by the influence of the Holy Spirit. People who are very controlling live in the illusion of control. This produces a lot of stress because so many things are beyond our control. But thinking we do, we continue in the illusion, wearing ourselves out needlessly.

For example, we can’t control people’s attitudes, what they think, what they feel, what they do. People will do what they want, not what we want, because we have no control over them. The more you try to control someone, the more tension and stress will arise within yourself and in that relationship that you actuate, craving control.

The most corrupt people live under the illusion that acquiring material goods in an illicit way will make them happy. It is an illusion to seek happiness in deceit and fraud. It is impossible to obtain inner peace in this way. You can even acquire considerable social and economic power, but I’ve treated numerous famous, wealthy people who have become depressed, addicted to drugs, suffering from difficult to treat insomnia, exaggerated fears, excessive anxiety, and some have even committed suicide, because they lived in the illusion of happiness based on material wealth, fame and social power.

When we see that control is an illusion, we can finally let go and surrender to God and let Him control our lives. This is the path to relief, serenity and mental health. And it’s not a passive attitude of doing nothing and crossing our arms. There will be plenty to be done, just now under the influence of God’s Spirit and no longer under the control of a complicated self.

Some of us, sincerely and unconsciously, try to fill a sense of loneliness and emptiness that we feel even with many people around us, through the illusion of solving it with something outside of ourselves, be it material wealth or a romantic passion, for example. It’s not uncommon for people to become compulsive shoppers, addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, passion, the acquisition of social, economic and political power, addicted to food, to gambling, in an unconscious attempt, most of the time, to fill this mental void.

However, there is only one effective way for our lives to have meaning, producing serenity and noble purpose: it is the search for spiritual strength, the daily victory over our character defects, and the search for an attitude of service without conflicts of interest. Think about it and avoid looking in places, in people, in philosophies, ideologies, and objects to find peace and meaning in life, which is only found in goodness, justice, and truth.

Helping a man getting out of the car with a walker

The way out of our deep emotional pain, emptiness, and spiritual need does not lie in economic power, in the illusion of control over others and reality, or in drugs. It doesn’t lie in acquiring fame or any kind of power, except spiritual power, which is obtained as Jesus Christ said, by surrendering everything to Him, dying to self, losing your life in gratitude and love for what He has done, and does for those who believe in Him and surrender to Jesus unconditionally.

Give up the illusion of control; place that burden on God, the Creator of the universe. Let Him fulfill your dreams in the way, manner, and time that He sees fit. You can’t have mental maturity without spiritual health. Pray to God, the Creator of the universe, open your heart to Him, and search the Holy Scriptures for the truth, for the way God indicates how you can have goodness, justice and truth within you, which is a healing process, a miraculous divine therapy that comes to us from above. We can’t produce this in ourselves. May God help us to surrender to Him one day at a time, in the faith that by doing so, He will take over our lives, and then we will have enthusiasm, being filled with God.

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A Secret for Boosting Your Self Esteem

May 21, 2023 by Dr. Cesar Vasconcellos de Souza - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Do you like yourself? Is it possible to like ourselves, even if we have character defects, as we all do? Is there any difference between how society conceptualizes self-esteem and how God our creator defines it?

I came across a good article by the journalist Emanuelle Sales, entitled: The Different Way God Treats Self-Esteem.

In addition to being a journalist, she is the creator of a blog and author of books such as: “Mirror, Mirror, Now the Mirror is God”, as well as the book “Image and Likeness” and “Daughter of the King”. I now bring you insights from her text and my own thoughts on the subject of self-esteem. Between 2005 and 2007 I studied and worked in a Lifestyle Center in Wildwood, GA, when I changed my concept of self-esteem, living with a couple of scientists, Dr. Bernell Baldwin, Ph.D. in Neurophysiology from George Washington University, and his wife, author Marjorie Baldwin, a physician specializing in the digestive tract and nutrition. Both had been professors at Loma Linda University School of Medicine in California.

I often had lunch with them in the cafeteria of that institution, where I learned, among other things, a new concept about self-esteem. As Christian scientists, they based their ideas about self-esteem on biblical teachings. And one of them commented to me about how he can have self-esteem if we look at our spiritual contamination.

I kept thinking about this as I began to understand that I would need to change my concept of self-esteem. But what is self-esteem anyways? One of the definitions may be: Self-esteem means a value we give to ourselves and has to do with our ability to love ourselves. Self-esteem relates to self-respect, self-acceptance, and self-knowledge.

A person can have good or bad self-esteem. You can have high, low or normal self-esteem. When you keep putting yourself down, disrespecting yourself, and rejecting yourself, then your self-esteem is low. On the other hand, exalting oneself is not synonymous with good self-esteem. It can be the result of insecurity, pride, or arrogance.

Part of developing good self-esteem is self-understanding. When we improve our self-awareness, we can become more humble, because we see that we have strengths and weaknesses and that we are not better than anyone else. Emanuelle cites in her article a survey conducted by photographers Viola Gaskell and Alisson Luntz, who asked the following question: What makes you feel beautiful? They asked the question to people passing through the streets of Seattle and New York. The survey was part of a project called: What Makes Me Feel Beautiful? created for Ebay’s fashion and style blog.

The two photographers heard testimonials such as people saying: The only thing that makes me feel beautiful is my body and my heels. A girl always feels beautiful with her curves and high heels. Another person said: my smile, my skin. Those are some of my favorite things about myself.

One person commented on what makes her feel beautiful, saying: Getting all dressed up like I am now! I’m just going out for a walk with some friends, so I put on this dress and this jewelry, which I love. It definitely makes me feel beautiful.

An interesting comment came from someone else who said, in a more spiritual way: I think your beauty is your posture, you know? A person can be very beautiful, but when he opens his mouth he can kill all his beauty.

One person commented: My self-esteem is much better when I’m painted and made up, I feel prettier with well-designed makeup and beautiful high heels.

A woman with a face mask, hair treatment and sunglasses, trying to lift her self esteem

It’s funny how people generally link self-esteem solely to what they can see in the mirror. And when you grow old? And the skin is not silky anymore, what now? And the age wrinkles appear? Will plastic surgery fix everything? If you build your self-esteem based solely on your image, this parallels what Jesus said about the danger and imprudence of building a castle on sand.

The journalist Emmanuelle went on to write that a woman is likely to feel more powerful and confident, standing in beautiful high heels, using careful make-up, wearing expensive designer clothes, and exhaling the smell of an imported perfume. And a man is likely to feel confident, wearing a suit custom-made by an elite tailor, wearing a gold watch, putting on designer shoes, and having spent some good money to trim his beard.

But what do you feel for yourself? When you get back home, you take off your makeup, throw your expensive dress on the bed, take off your imported suit, take a shower, and stay in your natural body, without paint, without makeup, without jewelry, without perfume. Do you like what you see or not?

The Bible advises us not to build our self-esteem on external things, because they pass and will not sustain us forever. She recommends that we build the notion of value as people, in things that moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in to steal. The physician Dr. Luke narrated these words of Jesus in his Gospel like this:

Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.
Luke 12:23

Our self-respect, our self-esteem must be based on what God sees in us if we are to submit to his help through his power called grace.

A radiant woman demonstrating a healthy self esteem

Whenever Jesus was meeting a person, no matter how bad his behavior was, he looked and dealt with that person, thinking about what he could become if he surrendered to him and followed him by practicing the master’s instructions. Emmanuelle commented in her article that self-help books and self-love gurus, raise banners that collaborate to inflate the ego in search of the applause of crowds and a feeling of power. But our creator looks at us and says:

“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:6-8

In other words, we are small, mortal, limited, and we die. This comment in Isaiah is not a depreciation of life and the human person, but a statement of our limitation, smallness, and finitude. God so loved and loves people, his creatures, that God himself, Jesus Christ comes into the world to lift us up, heal us, save us, and restore our self-esteem. Your value as a person and your self-esteem needs to be based on the value that the creator gives you, and not on your outward appearance, because that will change. Think it through deeply.

We can respect ourselves, even being imperfect as we are. Along with the bad characteristics of our personality, God sees that there are potential virtues that he can develop if we want to, if we let him act in our life, and if we surrender to him and follow the beauty and simplicity of the Master Jesus Christ, as described in the Gospels.

Proper self-esteem depends on what God establishes in our character. Think about it. Leave aside this idea of constructing only your exterior. Of course, you are not going to be a relaxed person, wear poorly ironed clothes, or not have proper personal hygiene. It’s okay for you to take care of your body aesthetics, that’s healthy. It just can’t become an obsessive thing. It’s not good for your mental health if you put that external view, what you see in the mirror, as the only source of satisfaction, the only source of self-worth. Think about it, God will give you a wonderful self-esteem.

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Lessons from Pain – How to Grow in Difficult Times

April 23, 2023 by Dr. Cesar Vasconcellos de Souza - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

We all suffer in this life. Some more, others less, but no one escapes. What do you do with suffering? Let’s think together about this subject and how you can start to see your pains in a different light.

Lessons from Pain - How to Grow in Difficult Times

In this life, we all have struggles, disappointments, and suffering. I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t gone through, or who isn’t currently experiencing some kind of struggle, be it financial, family, personal, emotional, physical, or even spiritual. Of course, and unfortunately, we have trials, but thankfully, Jesus promised to set an end to our trials when he will return in his glory.

Mental health does not mean having an absolute absence of emotional pain, such as sadness, anxiety, or fear. A person with good mental health has some moments of sadness, suffers anguish, and experiences some fears within the context of situations that provoke these painful feelings. Even the most successful people, famous or not, went through or are going through trials.

When we look at most famous people, we often look at their appearance or the outside, and wonder if they suffer too, since what they report in the media, on TV shows, radio, and social media suggests that they live a wonderful life, filled with goodies. But behind the scenes of their show, there are struggles, depression, excessive anxiety, divorces, drug involvement, unhealthy sexual practices, and a lot of pain.

In the face of emotional suffering, there is a danger of using medication to deal with unpleasant feelings instead of reflecting on their meaning and understanding where they come from. A good part of the population is being medicated with psychiatric drugs.

This happens because there seems to be a lack of conscious elaboration of suffering, that is, the person avoids thinking about their pain, trying to understand: “Where does it come from? What does it mean?” and prefers taking a pill without thinking about anything else. I’m not saying you should never use psychiatric medications. However, many who want to function well in life, at work, and with their family, resort to pills, prioritizing the search for an emotional improvement, placing exaggerated and perhaps mistaken hope for a cure in pills.

They do this because they need to move on with life, as they still do not know how to deal with pain in a functional and effective way through psychoeducation, which means learning to deal with emotions, especially the painful or unpleasant ones that produce and cause pain.

If you pay attention, you’ll see that some trials come to destroy your life, it’s true, but you can learn to face them as an opportunity to mature. It will help a lot to change the way you handle painful situations in your life if you change the question from “Why is this happening to me” to “What can I learn from this painful situation”?

Of course, in pain you experience sadness, anger, guilt, anxiety, and fear, because that is part of the loss, the conflict, and the approval. But as soon as possible, it’s important to change the question and start reflecting on what this difficult situation you’re going through can teach you. What can you learn from this?

I like a text written by Ellen White:

God’s power is constantly exercised to counteract the agencies of evil; He is ever at work among men, not for their destruction, but for their correction and preservation.
Ellen White, Patriarcs and Prophets, p. 694

She is saying what throughout biblical history is revealed about God’s dealing with humanity, which is a combination of justice and mercy, always predominating mercy.

Traumatic experiences, be it a traffic accident, a financial loss, a divorce, complicated marital conflicts, the death of a loved one, disappointment with someone, marital infidelity, job loss, or harassment at work, all of that we can use to strengthen us. It depends on how we look at these traumas, it depends on the support network to deal with them, on the conscious intention to learn from suffering, and on the strength to face all that can come from God, the creator of the universe.

A resilient flower growing in the crack of the street.

Trials come to everyone at different times in life; some more devastating, some less. But in all of them, we can see there is strength to face them, even if you have to temporarily go through depression or excessive anxiety in any clinical manifestation.

Life is not easy. Religions that promise an easy life, full of material prosperity and the absence of suffering, are preaching falsehood. The head of Christianity, Jesus Christ, told those who were following him and those who would follow them in the future:

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
John 16:33

Jesus said that it would be possible not to get discouraged by clinging to Him, who has overcome all the trials we have experienced or will still experience. Taking a general look at the biblical text, seeing the experiences of those characters who went through many and severe trials and surrendered themselves to God, it is neither fair nor true to say that following Jesus guarantees financial success and the absence of problems.

There are no easy answers to the problem of suffering in humanity, a topic studied by thinkers, philosophers, and psychologists. We know that there is a conflict between good and evil that affects all dimensions of society and also affects us. Suffering exists even for people who are more consecrated and who practice good spirituality.

The sufferings of today may serve to prepare us, to strengthen us for the trials that lie ahead; and they will come. The world will speak of peace and prosperity, but God says in His Word that in this end time that we are living in, there will be anguish, such as never was before, and much destruction of good morals, peace, and freedom, which is what we have already begun to see and experience.

Regardless of this, and despite this, it is possible to have peace and even inner personal joy, as long as you are not thinking and focusing on the difficulties, but changing your eyes to the promises of help that God has made in His word, clinging to Him through faith. It is possible to develop serenity in the face of conflicts, if we turn to prayer to the Lord, as long as it is sincere, persevering, conscious, thoughtful, and believing that God is listening to us and helping us.

Finding peace in the midst of conflict depends on where you place your hope. It depends on your concept of the meaning of this existence and a good understanding of the spiritual war between good and evil. It depends on what you do with your pain or what you allow it to do to you. It depends on personal psychological and spiritual resources that, if they are weak or insufficient, God will strengthen them. It depends on the family and social support you have, and especially on faith that your Creator is kind to you, who is attentive to your suffering and doing his best to preserve your mental and spiritual sanity and your physical life.

Believe that God is not distracted to be unaware of your suffering. Believe that he is even now providing solutions for you, even if it is inner peace, despite the conflicts. Reflect on that. Believe in a kind God, surrender to Him, and pray to Him. That way you can face your pain in a more positive way.

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The Power of Trust

November 27, 2022 by Dr. Cesar Vasconcellos de Souza - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Mental health has much to do with trust. Trust can release us from stress and anxiety. It is important to understand how we can build that trust.

If you don’t trust, you build walls between yourself and others. These walls serve, say the suspicious, to protect against being deceived; but living in isolation impedes recovering from personal behavioral difficulties. It is true that the solution is not to trust blindly, but to discern who is trustworthy and who is not. Trusting serious, ethical and honest people never leads us to problems, but if you trust people of bad character, problems arise in your life. Many of us may have been practicing this for a long time, and therefore suffering unnecessarily.

You should not demand of yourself unshakable loyalty to someone who is not trustworthy. Trust is something to be earned, acquired. We should not blindly trust others, but to patiently wait to see if the other person has learned, and values being trusted because of following our good example. Our goal should be to discern wisely who is trustworthy and who is not.

Interestingly, Jesus Christ alerted us to how we should behave in contact with others:

Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Matthew 10:16

When we are afraid, we usually act in control, or try to control. We want to control events, destiny, people, which increases stress and frustrates us even more. When we don’t trust God, or what you believe to be a higher power, the tendency is to control. But the best way to resolve fear is to trust. Understanding and accepting that good and bad things happen in our life, whether or not we have control.

To face fear and for it to gradually disappear, you need to cultivate trust in yourself, in God – the Creator of the Universe, and trust in the support of people who like you. You can learn to trust that when things don’t work out the way you want, the Creator will have something better planned. We can trust that the Creator of the Universe will give us the right direction we need; and that whatever we need on our journey will come to us.

A man contemplating about life and the providence of his Creator

We won’t get everything we need for the journey of a lifetime today. We will receive today’s supply for today, and tomorrow for tomorrow. The manna that fell from heaven to feed the Israelite people in the desert was in the right portion for each person and for that day. Only on Friday it fell twice as much, so that it would not be harvested on Sabbath. The Creator God does not allow your burdens to be carried today to be too heavy, beyond what you can bear. Think about it! He is in control and he is the only being capable of controlling things and people in a healthy and liberating way.

Learning to trust requires cultivating patience and to wait. I saw in the news about a young man who got impatient when facing traffic that was very slow. He lost emotional self-control and fired shots at the car in front, killing an innocent young woman. His argument at the police station for having shot and killed the young woman was his impatience with the traffic. The Bible warns us of the following:

Whoever has no rule over his own spirit Is like a city broken down, without walls.
Proverbs 25:28

To live better, it is necessary to learn to wait. Have you noticed how impatient and irritated people are? Some people base their calm and patience on depending on the effect of some drug or medication. They didn’t understand, or understood but didn’t want to change, that the most important thing to deal with impatience is not the medication, but knowing how to deal well with the emotion of impatience.

One truth of life is that we can’t always have what we want when we want it. Could it be that one of the motivations of people who became multimillionaires could have been that, when they got rich, they could have whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it? Many young adults, men and women pass through burnout, because they struggle with obsession to achieve things before their time. And usually it’s the money. Years ago in Japan, young entrepreneurs died suddenly from an illness called karoshi, which is a type of sudden death from exhaustion. They wanted to reach 30 years of age as millionaires. You can burn yourself out by trying to get today what will come in a healthy way later.

Waiting is not a waste of time. Things in life only happen when we are ready. There’s no way to speed up and maintain sanity of mind. For everything there is a timing. Timing means the right thing at the right time. You are not going to stop your life by having to wait. Other things continue and you will get involved in them; in the meantime, cultivate gratitude and acceptance of what is possible. There’s a life to live while you’re waiting for what you want. Coping with frustration and impatience is important in learning to wait and trust.

Emotional healing is a process of learning to trust. Trusting God, trusting people you can trust, trusting the healthy part of yourself. Trust grows slowly! It’s just like that. We cannot trust overnight. Trust is built one day at a time.

It’s interesting that the Creator of the Universe comes to help us, and even though He’s the one who keeps us alive, He respects our decision, our defenses, our timing. The Bible says that He knocks at the door and waits. He doesn’t invade our lives. By knocking He makes an invitation, not an invasion! Some people enter without knocking, they don’t respect the boundaries. Some think that, because they are from the same family, they can invade your privacy; but they shouldn´t; don’t allow it.

God knocks and waits. In our maturity we can for one day only hear Him knocking, but later we can say: who is there? And further on, since He doesn’t give up on us and knock again, maybe we can let Him in and sit with Him and enjoy His loving presence that instructs us, teaches us to be patient, to wait and to trust.

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