How Did I Learn To Trust Jesus?

1 John 5:14-15 - 'And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked him for is ours.'

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LOS ANGELES, CA - 1 John 5:14-15 - 'And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked him for is ours.'

One of the biggest challenges I have had to overcome, and am still fighting with, is trusting Jesus 100%. Not 75%. Not 90%. But 100%. Because of who I am, and the world I live in, this has been difficult.

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What makes it so difficult? We are taught to be independent. To trust ourselves. Be wary of strangers. The other guy is always after you. Don't be a sucker. On. And on. And on. We are taught that we MUST be in control. Control the television with the remote. Control the volume. Control your emotions. Control your words. Control, control, control. I don't think this is odd in today's world. Today's world is a selfish world. Look out for number one.

How does one get from this rigid faithless attitude, to trusting Jesus 100%. I'm not going to lie. For me, it has been a struggle. A struggle against my inner nature. A fear of 'what will happen if I'm not in control'. I wasn't sure. It seemed ridiculous to say either 'I'll stay in my house praying, and God will get me everything I want' or 'I will control absolutely everything around me'.

I got an idea how to start trusting Jesus from Norman Vincent Peale. I read his collection of three books 'A Guide To Confident Living', 'Stay Alive All Your Life', and 'The Amazing Results Of Positive Thinking'. I'll admit, I read them several years ago, and cannot remember exactly where in the book I found this suggestion, but I will pass it on how I use what I read.

To build up faith in Jesus, you must ask him for help. I didn't start off with something like 'help me win the $100 million lottery and get me my island home by Friday'. Rather, I started off with small requests. Something like a particularly vexing problem at work. Or that decision I was having trouble making. I prayed to Jesus for help. I offered up my problem to him, and BELIEVED. I believed that he would help me. It seemed reasonable to me to trust that he would take care of something small, probably because I did not have much to lose. I prayed every day until my prayer was answered. Sometimes the answer was an outcome - something happened. Sometimes Jesus told me the answer, while I was sleeping or thinking about the problem or not thinking of the problem.

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I found that Jesus did answer my prayers, and the answer was always good in the end (though it may not have seemed so immediately). I kept repeating this process, asking for bigger and bigger things. And, guess what? Jesus always came through! Not sometimes, not usually, but always. I ask for pretty big things now, things that I have little to no control over. I ask. I pray. I wait. And the prayers are answered. Give it a try. You'll be pleasantly surprised, and your trust in Jesus will grow.

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This is a blog written by Norm LeDonne Jr, on his journey to rediscover the Catholic faih