When Your Desires and God’s Plans Are Different

This is a hard pill to swallow, however, convenient timing as always

"Because you keep bringing him up" ugh why do you have to call me out like that?! 😭

I got what I desired when I let go and started praying for what God's will was for me, not what MY will wanted...it's really hard to let go, but beauty is born out of humility.

I’ve been wanting to be a consecrated virgin since 13 years ago when Jesus Hinself told me I would be consecrated to Him and visit the Holy Land. I did end up visiting the Holy Land 3 years ago, and I’ve been trying to convince the bishop to let me become a consecrated virgin. It’s been a hard struggle, a purgatory on earth, because I have to wait to get permission to become a consecrated virgin when Jesus Himself told me I would be one. And whenever I’m afraid this desire comes from me and not from Him, He has always sent a sign to me ( a clear spiritual or physical sign) that it is His Will. Please pray for me that I may become a consecrated virgin by April 3rd (or at least very soon). God bless you all

I think a nice, concise way to simplify it is this:
Whatever you desire, discern and strive to do, place Jesus at the center of it all. In the end, the vocation you pursue isn’t as important as its end goal; Because all we do is for the glory of God and so that we may be reunited with him.
God will be with you through it all 👍🏻

Please remember my sister in prayer who will be treated for oral cancer later this month.

I willl start my sentence with 'Unless you're Padre Pio...' from now on.

One thing I've learned about desires is that if you make it a thing, it'll take up a lot of your time and thoughts, and drive you mad even. The truest desires are the ones you can put to sleep. And, it will wake up one day more alive than ever. I used to want to be a writer. But, be it, or be it not, I let it go when I was around 20. At 30, all of a sudden I started writing, and I was able to write how I always wanted to, and I've only grown better at it now almost 40. I think that's a test a person should do when dealing with desires that seem to take up time and are not seeming like they're going to pan out. Put them to sleep. Only when they reawaken after some time had past, that shows you're on the right path. I think God wants nothing more than to fulfill our desires. "Ask, and you shall receive, seek, and you'll shall find." But God isn't going to truly answer such unless your heart is fully willing. If a desire is only alive because you keep breathing life into it, maybe it's not a true desire. But, if a desire doesn't need our will to exist or not exist, that's something else. Something only God can put into us. And I think that's when we can truly know if it came from Him.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" -Jer 17:9

This has been my experience with religious life. I felt a desire for it as a young teenager, and received unfortunate advice that "any desire for such a life must be a true vocation!". So I persisted, even though the closer it got to my date of entering, I was consumed with anxiety and dread. Eventually I decided not to, and over the years have realized that I simply had a desire for holiness, a desire for a deep prayer life- not necessarily for the life of a religious Sister.

I've finally been struck by the "this Ascension Presents video came at just the right time" that I've been seeing in comments in past videos. I've legit been praying about what he's talking about just this weekend!

“Let the Lord unfold what He wants to unfold.” Ahhhh complete trust!

Here's my experience. I met a younger woman who spoke of love being the most important thing. Not happiness because happiness can come and go, but love, because we can always love. I was immediately attracted to her person. She is a good person. To follow up on that attraction would have been disastrous. Yeah, I'm already married right. Take it to a spiritual director and work through it. What did I have in common with the woman in our everyday lives? Nothing. So what was I attracted to? I was attracted to the love she spoke about , i.e. the love of God Himself because I already know that God is Love, not us. Problem solved, disaster avoided.

Love it Fr. Mike. I have a prayer that states "Lord, please feed those desires that are in conjunction with Your will, and please remove those desires that are not in conjunction with Your will" This is because of exactly what you said...desires can lead us astray!!!

Note: when God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, that was probably the last thing that Jonah himself desired ... just sayin'.

This is why I don't think that getting to the root of a strong personal desire for something or someone (as good as it may be for that person to understand about themselves) necessarily points to God's Perfect Will for them.

Sometimes, God calls some of us to a greater sacrifice than we ourselves would ever be willing to make on our own ... just look at Our Lord as the Perfect Example ... do you think Jesus actually desired to be rejected and tortured to death by the very creatures that He Himself created, and to suffer all of the physical, emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual cruelty that He did?? I don't think so. But He did desire to accomplish His Father's Perfect Will, and (very importantly) He knew what His Father's Perfect Will was, because He was in constant communion and relationship with Him. So that would be my first and foremost desire, as that would enable me to hear God's voice, and therefore, to truly know God's Perfect Will for me.

Man! As an ex protestant and now a committed Catholic, this video is really a wake up call.
Lord! Jesus prayer at Gethsemane is a reference to this: Abba Father remove this cup from me, yet, not what I want, but what you want.

Amen

Uggggggh Padre
I needed to hear this when I was 16 years old.
Now I'm 47 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I don’t even feel like desiring anything or hoping for anything anymore. Do you, God

Our desires are not predictors of the future neither are they the voice of God. SO TRUE!
But we are to attend to our desires

I just put everything in God's hands
I say this is what I want but it's up to You where you want me.🙏