I remember specific moments long ago when I would draw close to God and within a short period of time, everything seemed to be against me. More problems appeared to arise than to go away. More arguments occurred and I could only imagine, at that time, that it was devil trying to put a wedge between myself and God. I would fight to some degree, but sooner or later, I would fail and feel condemned and guilty and I would eventually distance myself from God. Having done that...things often improved...to some degree at least.

concept that you can somehow do this on your own, or that there is something you must do to fix it. The greatest of all things to do is to be willing to change." ALIGN=RIGHT HSPACE=10 VSPACE=10 GALLERYIMG="no" CLASS="iborder1">The thing that always upset me was how God could let such bad things occur when I was trying so hard to improve my life. I could only imagine a Zeus-like God, enjoying himself as I battled with impossible wagers he and satan had made with my life. I could only imagine that Old Testament version of an angry, jealous, bitter and vengeful God was true. Where was Jesus anyway? I kind of thought his purpose was to put God in a half-nelson for a few thousand years so that God would stop being so cruel to people on earth.

Have you been in that place where you feel hopeless after having cried out? Have you quit trying some time afterwards because things appeared too difficult to pursue? Are you tired of not getting past your problems? Would you like to actually succeed at improving your life?

When you ask God to intervene in your life, consider first truth in that you really don't have to ask. He already wants so much to be invited into your life and he's not waiting to be asked...he's waiting to be allowed. Your free will brings him in or moves him out. By asking, you are really just opening yourself and inviting him in. The act of asking is really more an action of you dropping barriers that are keeping him out.

No matter what you ask God for, help with finances, help with relationships, help with an illness...no matter what...the answer is always same...."That is not your real problem. While you remain open to me and willing to change, I will help you with your real problem and then all these other problems will go away."

The problem with our requests is that we are not seeing things clearly enough in this world to know what best things to ask for are. It's like we are driving down a wintery highway at night, window all covered with ice, and snow is falling fast and furious. The fear of this experience can grip our hearts and make trip a terrible one. This is how our lives really are. We are totally blinded about what is really around us and we are only seeing a few inches ahead at any time, and even then, it's foggy, stormy and very fearful.

On other hand, God is above storm and Holy Spirit sees things exactly as they are and he knows exactly what thing is best to occur to get you through storm. His role is to do everything and anything that will draw you towards light. He knows your heart, he knows what you are capable of and he knows exactly how to help you.

Perfect love casts out all fear. Love and peace are one in same in that one cannot exist without other and one is always product of other. Peace and love abolish fear and their presence makes all things possible.

Fear is anti-belief that something good can arise from your situation. Fear is stumbling block that makes you so sure your world is one of torment that you don't see good that is there for you. If fear is in your heart, you can only communicate to others through fear and then fear is likely to be only thing returned to you.

The fears in our lives are often so deeply rooted that we will go to such extremes to hold onto them, even though these same things are destroying our lives. By identifying yourself as a tough person, by acknowledging and embracing that you are a sickly person, and by denying there are things in your life to improve, you are embracing fears and accepting their effects as who you are. Fear, being result of darkness or lack of light, is terrified of truth because it knows that truth will simply make it vanish. When light is turned on in a darkened room, darkness doesn't leave...it ceases to exist.

If you identify yourself with these darker thoughts, you will find yourself not wanting to hear truth because it tears at core of who you think you are and creates a misperception that you will lose yourself if you open yourself to truth. The reality is that you are not what fear has taught you that you are and there is nothing to lose, only your freedom to gain. Fear strangles and limits. Truth caresses and grows.

Anything that teaches through fear or uses fear in any way, is not from God. This truth is so simple, yet it unhinges most of what we have been taught. Any religion you pursue, any teaching you listen to and any concepts or ideas you hear can be looked upon with that truth. If something does not agree with this truth, it is in error in some way. It's best for you to know that God does not teach nor command through fear, sacrifice, temptation and suffering. The concept of an actual loving and peaceful God nullifies much of what was written about judgmental, paranoid, vengeful and ill tempered God of Bible and many other books. Knowing truth that God is an actual loving and peaceful being, helps you to more easily identify and focus on those few things that are truthfully written about him.

Peace is absence of fear. Fear cannot motivate you to find peace. When you find yourself working hard to find peace, you can get blinded to fact that its your own busyness and efforts that ensure you won't find it. Peace is total lack of any effort or work because it is always there and has never left. Peace is pure tranquility, stillness, gentleness and quietness and is total absence of work, tiredness and effort. If you are working or using effort to find peace, you are ensuring you never will because peace is total opposite of work and effort you are using to find it. By learning to stop and by learning to set aside man-made concepts of working to reach peace, you will learn and see that peace exits as it always has existed and it is patiently waiting for you to stop and just allow it to enter your way of life.

Peace and love is final result of our journey back to God. There is not one among us who will not achieve this. There is not one person you know or have heard about that will not eventually return to God after having allowed light to enter and having dispelled all fear. Total forgiveness is result of removing fear. Unconditional love is result of removing all fear. Total knowledge and awareness of God is result of removing all fear.

Discovering your peace is a wonderful thing. It's a holy thing and a treasured thing because it is really only state of being that God acknowledges that truly exists. Holding onto your peace is often an entirely other thing. Often we let slightest change in our environment or smallest of words, totally obscure peace from our lives. Many of us can testify to having had most wonderful day, morning or moment and then see all our peace and contentment disappear moment we allow something in world to affect us.

No effort is necessary in finding peace or holding onto peace, because peace is always patiently waiting there for us. One other hand, consistent and sincere effort is necessary in handing over all thoughts and ideas that we allow to obscure our peace. You worked hard to build these obstacles to peace and so there may be some effort in removing them. As with God and love, peace never leaves, we just put things in its way. After obscuring our peace, we say it has left us, but it hasn't...we have simply obscured it. Eliminate unpeaceful thoughts and peace is right there where it always has been.

Let's follow some of my thoughts and see how this works. I will walk you through a moment where I perceived a problem in my life. My thoughts are shown like this:

I have become upset about way somebody has treated me. In doing so, I no longer feel at peace.

When I realize I am no longer at peace, I remind myself about many of truths I have discovered. Some things I often remember are: