"For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord.  Plans for peace and not disaster.  Plans to give you a future full of hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

What is God's peace plan for your life?  How do we find peace inside of us?  Maybe we've reached a point in our lives where peace is our heart's desire, and we long for a place where we don't have to try so hard to achieve it.  A place where peace just comes naturally.  A place where inner peace becomes a new way of life for us.

God has a plan for each one of us, and this is where we find our peace - in Him.  It's a peace that no one else can give us.  "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid".  (John 14:27)  It's the peace of Christ.   We cannot find the peace we're looking for apart from Him for a good reason - He is The Prince of Peace.  Jesus gives us the peace that He Himself is.  He alone provides a calming spirit for us, the unshakeable steadiness and stillness in the storm that nothing can disturb.  His Love provides the mercy needed to free us from sin which is the single greatest obstacle to peace. 

Only God can fill a soul the way it craves to be filled.  The world will leave us empty.  It can't give us what our souls want, and it's not supposed to.  It never was.  The world was created for us, we weren't created for the world.  We were created for God.  We were made for eternity with Him.  We exist, because He called us into being.  Everything our hearts long for comes from Him.

We can find peace through prayer.  In prayer we can simply talk to God as a friend and give Him the time that is needed to develop this friendship, even if it's just a few moments a day.  Through prayer we can come to know our Creator, yes actually know Him, personally.  And peace is a natural byproduct of knowing God - who is Peace Himself.  We no longer have to desperately try to find it.  We just need to let go of our pride and say yes to God's grace.

We can't find inner peace by being good, by working hard, or doing the right things.  The peace God wants for us is a gift - His gift - to us.  Jesus says, "MY peace I leave you."  We can't earn it and we don't deserve it, but we can receive it.  Through prayer we admit we need God and give Him permission to give us this gift.  When we accept it, it will permeate every area of our lives as we try to live according to God's Holy Will. 

Our past has proven that we haven't been able to do it ourselves.  Control has not brought us peace.  Resistance to God's will has not brought us peace.  Manipulating God's teachings to suit our own way of life has not brought us peace.  God brings us peace.  It is only through a relationship with Him that real and lasting peace can develop.  He reveals again and again in scripture His desire to be close with us, His desire for us to know Him.  It's important for us to take that simple step of faith, the act of coming to prayer faithfully each day, and peace will grow within us, and then around us.   

So let's pray in a New Way Today!  Let's pray for inner peace, to let go of pride.  Let's pray to receive the gift of peace - for free - and stop trying to be worthy of it.  Let's pray to know God in a personal way.  This is where we will find the peace our hearts long for and the plan God has for us.  It's never too late to find your peace plan.  It's there.  The answer is Jesus.  Peace comes when we let God in.  Let's be open to this change within us. 

Our Creator alone, can fill the heart He has made.  We can stop looking everywhere else now.

May God Bless you and everyone near and dear to you in a New Way, Today!

This Father's Day, June 15, 2014, I would like to take some time to honor our Heavenly Father.  God The Father often gets misunderstood as mean, inflexible and punishing, when really He is a tender, loving and merciful Father who we can be ourselves with in prayer.  One who won't reject us.  One who accepts us just as we are while at the same time encourages us to change and grow.  A Father who longs to have a relationship with His children. 

God made us on purpose.  He had a reason.  A good one.  We might be quick to think it was for a self-serving reason.  It's hard to imagine that God's reason could be He simply wanted us to know the Love that He is, and share in His eternal happiness.  With no ulterior motive, and with no need to create us, He made us so that we can know and experience His eternal bliss.

God's nature is Love.  His natural state is one of a "giver."  God wanted to spread His Love, and after creating the earth and all creatures in it, He decided to take creation to the next level by making something in His own image and likeness, something higher than the animals, something more than the sea or the mountains.  Something different.  Something holy.  Something that could choose between right and wrong, and be able to recognize His Goodness.  Something that could choose Love and share in His divine life.  And He did.  He made us.  With reason and an intellect He made us.  With a heart, soul, and will, and the ability to choose to do His Will, He made us.  With one breath, God brought us into being.  The work of His hands.  No one is an exception.  He is The Father of All mankind.

He had a plan in mind for all of creation to share in His Glory and be eternally happy.  We were made by Him, for Him.  We were made to share in His infinite Love.  We were created to be free, and with that freedom use it to choose Him.  He had to make us free, after all, if He didn't we would be robots.  We would be loving Him simply because He programmed us to - and that's not real.  Instead, He gives us a choice to accept His Love or reject it.  And we chose to reject it.

As a result there were some heavy duty natural consequences of that decision - sin and death.  Why?  Because sin and death is the opposite of love and life.  Through the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we chose the opposite of God, and He respected that decision.  Now, the possibility of eternal separation from God exists for each one of us should we continue to reject Him.  After all, He is a God of pure freedom, giving us this choice.  But through His Son, Jesus Christ, God gives us another chance, another opportunity, to chose love and life.

After the sin of Adam and Eve, God - in His Goodness - immediately sets into motion the plan to save us.  Our human nature was incapable of correcting this wrong.  Divine nature would have to do it.  God Himself comes to earth and takes upon Himself all the sins that would have destroyed us.  He bears our pain and suffers the consequences of sin - even though He is sinless.  The uncreated God becomes man, and fixes everything.  He restores human nature by allowing us once again to share in His Divine nature in the person of Jesus Christ who took on our humanity.  And we still reject Him.

Regardless of our sinful nature, God The Father continues to reach out to His children, inviting us back, encouraging us to have an actual relationship with Him through prayer.  He's probably wondering what it would take to convince us He loves us.  He's tried everything, and we continue to fail to believe in His Goodness. 

Sometimes we might mistake the natural consequences of sin resulting from The Fall of Adam and Eve as God sending us pain and suffering.  We forget His original intention.  God made us to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him and to be Happy with Him on earth and in Heaven.  God is timeless.  He doesn't change.  Therefore His intention remains.  And He invites us still to choose Him.  It's up to us.  And as far as the consequences of sin, that which causes all of us to suffer at times, God helps us endure these trials and gives us the source of strength to carry us through - The Cross that guides us and saves us.

So how do we know all this about God The Father?  How do we know He is loving and kind and merciful?  How do we know our Creator is Good and wants relationship with His creatures?  We know the nature of God The Father because Jesus not only told us, but showed Him to us.  Jesus Himself is The Father's Love.  As we read in the gospel of John ...

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.  From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work."  (John 14:6-10)

If you really want to know if God is good or mean, look at Jesus.  Look at the life Christ lived on earth, and all the good works, miracles, healings, words of inspiration and life, teaching with authority, showing us firsthand how to love one another.  Jesus is not mean, and He tells us very clearly that The Father is in Him.  The Father Himself comes to us in the form of His Son, and once again reveals His Love for us.

Today is also The Feast of The Most Holy Trinity, where God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit - one God in three divine persons, is honored by us.  It's a perfect day to reflect on what a Good God we have.  It's a perfect day to open our hearts in prayer to God's Fatherly love, guidance, protection and goodness. 

No one knows us better than our Maker.  The one who made us, understands us.  He Loves us.  Love is His nature.  God Himself is Love and we come from Him.  Love created us into His own image and likeness.  He is the same God now that He was when He created us, and He has the same intention still.  To give us the opportunity to share in His Divine Love and have a close intimate relationship with His children. 

We have eternal value and a God-given reason for our lives.  Many of us may not know what it's like to have a loving Father.  To have a Father who cares about the details of our lives, who understands our pain, who is always there for us, who never leaves.  Our broken and sinful nature causes all fathers to be imperfect like the rest of us.  So it may take time to develop a relationship with God in this way.  But let's be open to the truth.  Let's not allow our own experiences to limit God's presence in our lives.  Let's not reject Him anymore.

We have a God with a heart!  We find our Heavenly Father within us, in our hearts.  Our heart is the essence of who we are.  God's heart is the essence of who He is also.  God created this "place" for us to meet Him directly.  Within the human heart, creature and Creator come together.  God is the one who made our hearts and He knows better than anyone else what it needs.  It needs Him.

If Jesus had only one thing to say to us when He walked this earth over two thousand years ago, I would bet my life that it would be a resounding and clear message of "THE FATHER LOVES YOU!"  Jesus is helping us to get it already.  The Father is Good and we need only look to His Son to see it. 

If we had only one thing to say to The Father today it would be - Thank You!  Thank you for creating us, for giving us life and the opportunity to live eternally in Heaven with You.  Thank you for sending your Son into the world to save us.  Thank you for pouring out your Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we can get to know you now even while on earth.  Thank you for loving us as no earthly father ever could.  Thank you for being patient with us always and for understanding our human frailty.  Please increase in us the grace to know you, so that as we get to know you we will then naturally love you, serve you and be Happy with you forever.

I pray that by the grace and power of The Father's Spirit, The Spirit of Christ Himself, The Holy Spirit of God, we will come to know His immense Love for us in a New Way, Today.

Happy Father's Day Eternal Father.  We Love you too!

In Jesus' name.  Amen.

I spoke to Jesus today He said not to worry,
He's working on it now, there's really no hurry.

He said it's His way to use the gift of time well,
Although for us who are waiting it may feel like hell.  

He said His timing is perfect and your prayer not in vain,
But He too has a plan and He calls you by name.  

He said "I am ready to make your life new!"
He said He's been waiting to carry you through.  

But you keep holding on to your own prideful ways,
Thinking that He will obey you one of these days.  

He said He understands, but that's not how it works.
He said it's much deeper and works in reverse.

No, it's His plan we must follow to find our true place.
He tells us this so our time we won't waste.

He asks you to Trust Him, that He will abandon you never.
He said He is with you now and forever.

He said He knows every prayer, every tear, every breath.
I spoke to Jesus today, He said He loves you to death.


by New Way Today

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A New Way Prayer

            Dear Lord, you are the vine and the source from which all graces flow.  I ask to receive these graces and the joy you promise to your followers.  I pray that I will stay connected to you at all times. 

            Lord, I know that there is a purpose for my struggles and while I may not understand it I ask for the grace to remain faithful and united to you no matter what.  Apart from you there is no life.  Help me to appreciate my place in your plan and to carry out your will for my life joyfully.  I am completely dependent upon you for this joy and I ask to receive it now. 

            Please pour out your Holy Spirit upon me, and everyone near and dear to me, and refresh our tired souls.  Make us new in heart, mind, body and spirit.  Clear the path for us to walk with confidence in You.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

This prayer is from our latest book, "Strength For The Weary, Finding Grace in Times of Trial." 

Our Lord knows our burdens, and He doesn't expect us to carry them alone.

We worship a living God.  Jesus is not dead.  He has risen and He gives us a chance to rise with Him, to enter into eternal life by His death and resurrection.  We all have a chance to choose life or death for our souls.  Jesus is merciful and forgiving, loving and gentle, and He calls us today to choose Him, to say yes to eternal salvation and lasting happiness.

This scripture below fills us with new hope.  We are all sinners in need of a Savior.  We are all in need of God's grace, and in this scripture we see that salvation is God's gift to us and that it is "by God's grace" that we have been saved.  Here is the full scripture reading from Ephesians 2:1-10.  I hope you find it as life-giving as I have.  No matter what our past, God has a bright future planned and we can start right now, in this very moment, to begin living our lives in a New Way.

In Ephesians Chapter 2, St. Paul, who once persecuted, tortured and killed anyone who followed Christ, speaks to us as one who's eyes were opened by grace.  In these verses "From Death to Life" St. Paul writes ...

"In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins.  At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God.  Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural wishes of our own bodies and minds.  In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's anger.  But God's mercy is so abundant, and His Love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience He brought us to life with Christ.  It is by God's grace that you have been saved.  In our union with Christ Jesus He raised us up with Him to rule with Him in the heavenly world.  He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of His grace in the love He showed us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith.  It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it.  God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared us to do."

We can't earn grace.  It's a free gift.  We can only accept it, or reject it.  Jesus has won for us the grace to achieve Heaven, eternal happiness, a joy that will never fade.  Let's open our Hearts to this grace and say Yes to God.  Jesus loves us.  And He's proven it.  By His death and resurrection may we accept the Love He offers.  

Happy Mother's Day Weekend to our Heavenly Mother!  Mother Mary, we love you and we thank you for bringing Jesus into the world for us.  Thank you for saying yes to God.  Help us to say yes to God also.  We pray straight to God through Jesus, but we also know you love us with the love of your Son, and like any mother, will love and pray for your children also.  Help us to welcome Jesus into our hearts, and by His death and resurrection, we too will live forever in Heaven.

                                    
Here is a little prayer to ground us when things get hectic and feel out of control ...

                                                               A New Way Prayer

Dear Lord, in a world that is filled with such uncertainty and empty promises, where things change from one day to the next,  from one hour to the next, You alone are reliable. You alone are unchanging and always present. We can always count on You. You are good, all the time.  You never leave us on our own.  Help me to see that.  Help me to truly believe in Your presence in my life and no longer feel your absence.  Help me to stop trying to change You and instead start trying to change me.  Help me to look to You, not as a last resort, but as my first choice, in all things. Amen.
 
May God Bless you and everyone near and dear to you.      

Here is a collection of short Easter prayers that will increase our hope in the Risen Lord.

Easter Prayer:  

 Lord, the resurrection of Your Son
 has given us new life and renewed hope.
 Help us to live as new people
 in pursuit of the Christian ideal.
 Grant us wisdom to know what we must do,
 the will to want to do it,
 the courage to undertake it,
 the perseverance to continue to do it,
 and the strength to complete it.  

 (from St. Joseph's people prayer book)


"Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song."  

 Pope John Paul II

 "The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake."  

Basil C Hume
Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster

Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life  

"Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this ... ?”  

John 11:25-26  

An Easter Prayer  

Of all of God's gifts
Easter shows us our fate
 Forgiven we will rise
 And pass through Heaven's gate
This Easter remember
The sacrifice of a Son
 And through His resurrection
 Eternal life we have won  

This Easter I pray
That the love of God
Is resurrected
Reborn, renewed
Inside your heart
God Bless You!

 ~anonymous~

  Happy Easter to all of New Way Today's members!  

It's a time of new beginnings, a time of change and hope.  Visit our Amazon page to review our book, "A New You! Letting Go of the Past, Trusting God with our Future."   (read a free sample by clicking "look inside")  It's just what we need at this time in our lives to help us move forward in God's grace.  

May God Bless you and everyone near and dear to you.

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You.  Because by your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world. 

There is a great spiritual benefit to us when we reflect on the passion and death of Jesus Christ.  "The Stations of the Cross" or "The Way of the Cross" is a scriptural, meditative prayer in which we call to mind certain moments of suffering that Jesus endured.   We consider each station, perhaps reflect on a scripture passage, pray, and think about what Jesus went through for us.  We then move on to the next station and do the same.  We open our hearts to God, and allow His grace to enter as we pray.  It's a powerful prayer approach and a very peaceful experience, as we contemplate God's tremendous Love for us. 

As Good Friday approaches, it's a great time to pray this way.  If you're not familiar with the Stations of the Cross, I have listed each one below with a particular scripture that we can reflect on.  These are only my suggested scriptures, you can choose your own, or simply pray your own way.  What's more important, is that we spend this time with Jesus, reflecting on the path He walked for our salvation.

We start each station by saying, "We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You.  Because by your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world."  Let's ask God The Holy Spirit, to guide our thoughts and fill our hearts as we think about each one.

The First Station:            Jesus is condemned to death   (Mark 14:61-64) 

Second Station:              Jesus Carries His Cross  (John 19:14-16)

Third Station:                  Jesus falls the first time.  (Psalm 140:5-6) 

Fourth Station:               Jesus meets His mother.  (John 19:25-27) 

Fifth Station:                   Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross.  (Mk 15:21) 

Sixth Station:                   Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.   (Sirach 6:14) 

Seventh Station:             Jesus falls the second time.  (Isaiah 53:4-7) 

Eighth Station:              Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.  (Luke 23:27-28) and (Lam 1:12) 

Ninth Station:                  Jesus falls a third time.   (Isaiah 53:12) 

The Tenth Station:         Jesus is stripped of His clothes.  (Psalm 22:8) 

The Eleventh Station:    Jesus is nailed to the Cross.  (Luke 23:33-43 and Psalm 22:16-19) 

The Twelfth Station:      Jesus dies on the Cross.  (Lk 23:44-46) (John 19:28-30)  (Romans 5:19) 

The Thirteenth Station: The body of Jesus is taken down from the Cross  (John 19:31-34) 

The Fourteenth Station:   Jesus is laid in the tomb.  (Matt 27:59-60) 

Widely accepted as The Fifteenth Station is of course The RESURRECTION, where we celebrate Christ's victory over sin and death when Jesus rises from the grave on Easter.  

Praying in a reflective way using scripture draws us closer to Christ and opens our hearts to be changed.  Through this prayer, we can grow in our relationship with Jesus who loves us - to death.  God truly does Love us, and He has already proven it.  Let's be open to His redemptive Love in a New Way, Today.