>>738317
Start with oneself, by putting away all sin and by practicing virtue. You'd be surprised how well you sleep with a (relatively) clear conscience and by knowing you are not at all a hypocrite in the sight of God.
This article is pertinent and a great read:
>There are three words we commonly use together, and they mean almost the same thing, but not quite: hope, trust and confidence. Hope is the assured desire that we shall obtain some future good thing. Trust is the reliance we have on someone that what we hope for we shall obtain. Without trust there can be no hope. We hope to get things, ah yes, but only because we trust someone to give us those things. Confidence is the result of hope and trust. It is the peace of heart that comes from the security which is the result of having an assured hope and a firm trust. We can have confidence only if we first trust, and trusting have hope. When then we speak of having confidence or of confidence being so necessary, we of course mean a confidence that comes from trusting in God. And therefore, hoping we shall obtain from Him what He promised to give us: confidence in God. It is remarkable how easily people look elsewhere to get that security of soul which is confidence, then in the one place where alone their confidence will not be betrayed, namely relying on the promises of God. We live on promises. Our lives are built on hope. A hopeless life is a despairing life. And then, it is just a matter of time when the person will die, and as we now know in our country often by his own hands. The trouble is that unless we are careful we shall depend on the wrong persons to keep their promises, and on the wrong objects to fulfill our hopes. Just as there are no unbelievers in the world, literally none except in mental institutions. Everyone believes, but not everyone believes in God. So there is no one who does not trust. So there is no one who does not trust, the trouble is that not every one trusts in God.
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>What we think determines what we are. We become what are minds make us. Therefore, think thoughts of confidence. Favor thoughts of trust. Encourage only thoughts that give you courage. And we are masters and mistresses of our own minds. In fact, I cannot think of a more important use that we are to make of our freedom than to freely watch our thoughts. Is it any wonder we are, or can be in such trouble? We can not allow all kinds of negativisms, all kinds of fears and phobias to find haven in our minds and expect to have confidence in God. We will become victims of the specters of our own mind. God, we are to tell ourselves, loves us. And if there is one kind of thought that we should favor on our minds as often as possible it is the thought of God’s love. How can anyone distrust God when he looks at the crucifix, and sees how much God loves us? Or when he looks at the tabernacle and sees to what length God’s love has made Him one of us, and then devised a means of remaining in our midsts, and when we receive Him to become literally part of us. Favor every kind of thought that gives your courage. Discard every kind of thought that discourages.
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>Keep telling yourself that there is no such thing as chance in the world. God, we must keep reminding ourselves, is behind everything. He is within everything; He is beneath everything as we casually say, “happens” in our lives. That is not true. Nothing happens in our lives. NOTHING! Be sure that all things work together unto good, as St. Paul tells us, provided we love God and have the wisdom to see no matter what befalls us it is somehow planned by the all loving providence of God. We make a lot of mistakes. Others make mistakes, but God never does. Yet, and this perhaps is the acid test of confidence in God, to believe in Him so totally that we are sure, don’t waver be sure, that He uses our mistakes and those of others somehow not only for our good, but mysteriously for our greater good. He uses even our sins and the sins of others to work out the designs of His providence. If we have any doubt about that and we should not, all we have to do is remind ourselves of what happened, unquotes “on Calvary”. The cluster of crimes that finally brought Jesus to His death yet God planned from all eternity to use men’s sins: treachery, cowardliness, betrayal, envy, pride, ambition. He used human crime to bring about the redemption of the world. Keep telling yourself, God is behind everything. The latest pain you have experienced, the most recent injustice, God is behind everything.
http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Virtues/Virtues_007.htm