“Have confidence and serenity! Nothing happens without my will, and even what I allow to happen is subject to my guidance” (Inner Word).
If we want to deepen our relationship with the Heavenly Father and thus grow in our spiritual life, we must also learn to properly integrate the difficulties and obstacles that come our way in following Christ.
It is easy for us to understand God’s direct guidance, to accept it with love and thus to follow His ways with confidence and serenity. The wisdom of God, who knows us in our depths, knows what He has planned for whom, and guides each one according to His plan.
But it is more difficult for us to maintain confidence and serenity in the face of the things and circumstances that God allows. Adversities and crosses of all kinds, spiritual battles, rejections for the Lord’s sake, and many other tribulations are not so easy for us to overcome and do not in themselves give us serenity and confidence. In a way, all these sufferings are alien to life as God originally intended it and as it will be in eternity, together with Him.
It is therefore necessary to make a special act of trust in order to remove the negative dynamics of tribulations and to recognise God’s loving guidance even in them. We will receive the grace to do this if we turn to the Lord in faith and cling to His Word, which is abundantly available in Sacred Scripture. Indeed, the Bible repeatedly exhorts us to persevere in tribulations, especially those that come upon us for the Lord’s sake. Jesus even tells us to rejoice and be glad when we suffer persecution for His sake, for our reward will be great in heaven (Mt 5:12).
The key to receiving consolation and not losing confidence in the face of God’s permissions is to fix our eyes on Him and to increase our inner confidence and certainty that the Lord will use all things for the good of those who love Him (cf. Rom 8:28). We can rely on this certainty!