4 Points to Navigate the High’s and Low’s of your Spiritual Life

Many at times, we struggle in our prayer life, we find ourselves swimming in an ocean of confusion without knowing the cause or the exact origin of such a situation. There are times in our lives when we want to say certain prayers or do certain things, but due to unknown reasons end up not doing it.

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like not praying because you feel far away from God, but still feel far away from God because you aren’t praying?

As funny and ridiculous as it seems, it’s a ridiculous twist yet to be understood by many. We often find ourselves in situations where we want to pray simply because we feel so high in the spirit. As much this may feel right, it is actually not the way one should build his or her prayer life, as there will surely come a time when you feel so low, which will bring about a reluctance in prayer and lead one to not praying at all.

As these situations are quite common, in this post we’ll be looking at certain practical points which can help us navigate the ups and downs of our prayer life.

First, we have to realize that irrespective of how high or low we feel, it should never dictate our relationship with God. A big question now is “how do we truly relate with God?”.

While growing up, we learnt to see God as a father, a friend, a mentor e.t.c. since that’s the case, we therefore ought to relate with him as such. For instance, relating with him as a friend simply implies that we speak to him the same way we do with our friends, tell him things knowing that he knows what we want to say, discuss our day’s experience with him, knowing that he was actually present.

We must strive to maintain this daily relationship as well as to prevent every form of laziness or distraction from distancing us from God, let us come as we are but with the right reverence and disposition. God is not a mathematical formula, He is three persons, Let us allow this to sink in; He is the king of kings who is actually serious about seeing us every day and sharing our joys and pains with us.

Second, getting ourselves a mentor or a spiritual director.

We have to be relentless in gathering information from individuals who are equipped with the knowledge and experience of prayer life. Accepting the fact that we cannot learn all on our own will give us the wiliness to seek mentors who will guide us on how to maintain and improve our prayer life.

Moreover, as Christians, we must be able to display the act of discipline in our prayer life. This can be achieved by identifying one or two things which we can do as true children of God and being consistent with them. For instance going to mass daily or multiple times every week, praying the rosary every evening, attending bible study classes or catechism classes once or twice a week, or even more, all depending on your ability and schedule according to what is prudent. Being disciplined in the spiritual exercises in our prayer life will go a long way in overcoming every form of distraction, increasing our bond with God and stabilizing us.

Finally, observing the act of researching, recording and executing the resolutions and promises you have made to God.

In order for us to successfully resolve any issue in our prayer life, we have to build up and continuously refine the plans and steps we are taking. As we consult our mentors and read edifying books and write-ups we should put the striking details into writing along with a summary of all the important information we’ve gathered from the research. This will serve as a reminder when we might have forgotten some of our gathered information and a very effective document when we go to meditative prayers. Once this is done, we have to move over to the next phase which is writing out our step-by-step procedures on how we will implement all our research in our daily life. This was the main reason we developed the Life of Purpose Planner, we recommend this planner or any other planner to be the document you use to document and refine your daily plans and meditations to help you reach prudence and peace. Finally, we must learn to showcase a fitting determination in all we wish to achieve as it will remove every form of intimidation and bring into actualization that peace which we have at heart.