10 Important Things I "Discovered" as My Faith Grew

Today I was thinking that I’d share some ideas that have been very important in my walk with the Lord. But first, as a reminder to you (and to myself), I am an average Catholic woman with no training in theology. I am not an apologist (a person who offers an argument in defense of something). Even more so, I feel particularly uncomfortable with the idea of teaching others about theological things.

BUT – I do feel a tug on my heart, a nudge of the Spirit, guiding me to say something, guiding me to state the Truth. Because once God has worked in our lives, it is our obligation to share His work with others.

You’ll notice that I put the word “discovered” in quotes. None of the ideas that I have compiled are new ideas. I did not come to know these things because I figured it out on my own. God did all the work. He showed me the things He wanted me to know. He allowed me to discover some important truths through His Word in the Bible, in prayer, from our Tradition, through spiritual directors, priests and other holy men and women, and most importantly, in His presence through the Eucharist.

Maybe these ideas are things you already know, but if they are new to you (and you are just “discovering” them), maybe they will light a fire in your heart. So here is what I have learned –

Whether anyone believes in God or not, He is there. His existence does not rely on our acknowledgement of Him. Neither does He need us.

God created each of us because He wanted us to exist to share in His love.

We were created to seek Love – meaning we were created to seek God and be in relationship with Him.

Sometimes we believe the lies of the enemy that tell us that God does not care about or love us. Then, we seek love everywhere but in Him – in another person, in our spouse, our children, our best friend, our job, our team, our preacher or priest or the Pope.

In God we find our joy, fulfillment and purpose. We will not be fulfilled until we place all our hopes and desires in God.

God wants us to become who we were meant to be, so there is some truth in the “You do you” mentality of western culture. But that cannot be done apart from God. He has made each of us to be a certain way to fulfill His Will, not our own will.

When we are searching out how to become our true selves, we need to be extremely cautious. Trust in nothing of our own desires. We cannot make decisions based on our own whims and feelings – it is the easiest way for Satan to lie to us. We must bring all of our desires and feelings to God in prayer and also seek guidance from mature Christians.

God wants us to be happy for eternity, which doesn’t always translate to happiness here and now.

We are often lead astray by another lie – God loves you and wants you to be happy above all. It’s easy to believe this lie. It make us feel good, give us warm happy feelings. It makes sense that God, who is Love, would want us to be happy. And if He wants us to be happy, then of course he would want us to do the thing (whatever that thing is for you).

Usually it is the hard thing that Jesus wants for us. It is rarely the easy route he wants us to take. He wants us to struggle – because in the struggle we learn to trust and follow Him. When things are easy we forget about Him. As soon as we forget Him and believe in ourselves, we have been blown off course.

So there you have it, a short list of important lessons from my personal experience. In the future I hope to elaborate on some of these ideas. But in the meantime, what are some things that He has placed in your heart? What are the ways He is teaching you? Can you share those Truths with anyone you know? After all, as He has told us,