By Andrea Goebel
God’s Way
I was kneeling in the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel at our church, praying my rosary one morning. As I finished the closing prayer, I sat back in the chair behind me. Suddenly, an overwhelming urge to gather my belongings and leave the chapel overcame me.
As I have begun to do recently, when my worry causes me to hurry, I questioned the source of these thoughts. God wouldn’t send them. So why did I feel this way?
One of the devil’s favorite tricks is to catch us off guard and prey upon our weaknesses. Because if he can distract us through those vulnerabilities, then he can derail us from following the path that God lays out for us.
My vulnerabilities are the anxious thoughts that overtake me right when I am preparing to do what God wants me to do. Sometimes, I am aware of the devil’s attacks in the moment, and I can fight them off. Other times, I don’t realize what’s happened until a snowball effect of anxious thoughts has derailed my day, and I find myself in the middle of a mess, both in my heart and my home.
Like a thief, the devil’s goal is to “steal, slaughter, and destroy” (John 10:10).
What better way for the devil to try to separate me from God than to literally make me think I have so much to do that I cannot spare five more minutes of my day to be with him?
Every time I enter the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, I feel at peace. Even though I am not consuming Jesus’s body and blood as I do at Mass, I feel a sense of communion with him just by being in his presence. He allows me to sift through my fears and give them to him. When I leave, I continue to feel his peace, and I am able to love others better because I have spent time basking in his love.
Imagine how much this angers the devil to see just one soul living for God. Imagine how frustrated he feels to witness so many of us yearning for this eternal communion. Imagine how viciously he will fight to stop us from embracing Christ’s love and sharing it with others so they, too, come to know him.
What better way to fight the devil’s lies than with God’s truth?
Psalms 46:11 says, “Be still and know that I am God!”
Whenever the devil attacks, we must remember that God is always with us. When we wait patiently for him, he will direct our steps and fight the battle for us.
That day in the chapel, after I realized the devil was attacking my thoughts, I was able to accept God’s invitation to spend more time with him. I felt content to sit in the sacred silence and listen to him speak to me, and as always, he told me what to do next.