One Simple Prayer

My Pursuit Of Happiness

 

Everything can change with one simple prayer. I’ve always been a seeker and on a mission to live the most happy, successful, and fulfilling life. A constant tug and calling in my spirit to want to be the best I can at what I’m most passionate about, to make a powerful impact and positive difference in this world, and to continue growing and learning what will best help me achieve such a mission. It was not until a few years ago, however, that I came to understand and accept that what I was originally exposed to and blessed to know of as a child, was exactly what I was searching for all along. 

 

When I was younger, I began meditating consistently in middle school after picking up a book on meditation, began studying Buddhism and other spiritual practices, attended various Vipassana silent meditation retreats, became obsessed with listening to and reading personal growth and development audios and literature, practiced yoga, attended breath work classes, ventured into various New Age practices, studied whatever Law of Attraction information I could get my hands on, dabbled in medicinal “guided journeys”, and also heavily researched certain facets of the occult like Freemasonry in hopes of just wanting to learn how to live what I thought might help me live a most successful and fulfilling life. While on my quest to best achieve my dreams in this world, I came to a crossroad out of much frustration, confusion, overthinking and many worldly twists and turns, where my ongoing search for what I hoped would best help me live “the most victorious life”, no longer seemed right or effective. My spirit was thirsty and I could feel how it was not being fully quenched by what I had been pursuing throughout the years of my seeking. Although I felt off and also had several unintentional encounters with darkness from some of the practices I participated in, on the flip side, I also felt very close to what I was looking for. The red flag warnings were getting louder and more intense, while I was also more hungry and desperate for the truth than I had ever been before. 

 

After experiencing a particular dark and heavy warning check in my spirit when highly considering joining Freemasonry, I knew God was telling me to turn around and run the other way. I then began praying a simple prayer that would change everything in my life. A prayer of surrender, where I was no longer asking for what would make me feel the happiest or help me become the most successful with what I thought I wanted in this world, but instead a simple prayer for truth. A prayer asking the highest of the high, the creator of all creation, the source of true love and what is best, true and most right, “For the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God”. Although I was raised Catholic, and blessed to have known of Jesus from attending church on Sundays as a kid, was familiar with certain Bible stories and the teachings of Christ shared by my loving parents and grandmother, I had never read the Word of God fully for myself. Thankfully, Jesus was always imprinted in my heart and mind throughout my journey, but I was not in the Word of God. When I began praying my new prayer for truth, I soon found myself thinking about the Bible more and how I’d been wanting to “get to it” for some time. If I had been reading all of these other books that often shared certain biblical principles, why not go to the source? For me the Bible was just another book on the shelf until I decided to join a bible study with the intention of really digging in and going all in or nothing. I came to a place where I was open and willing for the Creator of the universe to come into my heart and show me the highest truth despite what I wanted and felt.

As I started reading the Bible, I began to do my best to put into practice what I was reading. Even if I didn’t fully understand why. When reading the old and new testament in fellowship with others who also had a hunger to want to know more about God’s Word, and how to have an ever growing relationship with Christ and what that might look like, and also plugging into a church that taught from the entire Bible, while positioning myself around others with greater faith, I then began to experience the presence of God. An overwhelming love that I had never felt before. Something much greater than what I experienced during the peaks of my past meditations. Much different than any pleasurable high from any musical performance in front of hundreds and thousands of people. Different from any enjoyable substance or sexual experience I had encountered before. Something that made me tear up, not out of sadness, but from a tremendous sense of joy, gratitude, love, goodness and knowingness that I couldn’t explain, but knew was true. I felt at home as God began to work on my heart and in my life from glory to glory. From conviction to conviction. Revealing where I did not have freedom in my life and showing me a way to live in new true freedom. My spirit was no longer feeling like something was missing or unfinished. 

 

As I’ve been learning more about the Bible and meditating on God’s Word, my life has been transforming and continues to immensely. Bondage being revealed and called to the surface of my heart that I began learning how to break free from through prayer, fellowship, and by God’s grace, mercy and power. Learning what God says in His Word about what His truth revealed to me, and leaning on His strength and the power of the Holy Spirit to receive complete freedom from the things I had always struggled to work through or never seemed to be able to get through on my own. I had been leaning on my own strength and understanding, but Matthew 7:7-8 says: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” I am now truly living with a new peace that is ever evolving as I continue to stay in the gospel. A much different peace that I had experienced before I decided to repent and give my life to Christ and accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I now know that I no longer need to seek and have found the truth. My spirit knows it with a knowingness I have never felt before, and God continues to demonstrate His truth, blessings and miracles in my life in countless ways. God freed me from my exhausting searching, He pulled me out of the darkness when I unknowingly opened up doors to the enemy and was attacked, He freed me from my addiction to pornography, and He has always been my provider and good shepherd. I’ve been blessed to marry my ride or die, we got baptized together, and God continues to bless us and allow us to be a blessing to others.

I learned that the truth does not hide in the darkness. It’s not some puzzle needed to be solved. It is out in the open and available to everyone. Jesus had always been with me and had never left me, and had welcomed me back with open arms after one simple prayer asking for the way the truth and the life. God’s invitation for us to know and experience His true love and plans for our lives, simply require us to say yes to God, and give Him our free will choice to welcome Him into our heart to have a relationship with Him to allow the truth to set us free. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11. Thank you for reading and God bless you. Rock and roll⚡️   

Rich  Los Angeles, CA