Why do past thoughts invade us while we pray?

Of course, each of us has our own favorite sin and/or human weakness that can invade our deep consciousness, and even though we know God has forgiven these, Satan will bring them up and attempt to redirect our thoughts, prayers, and good intentions so as to interfere with our commune with God.

Recently I wrote two articles that might be antecedents to this article.  They are “Evil Personified” and “Rejecting God when we Sin” . In both of these I spoke about the influence of Satanic tenets that constantly challenge us and our trust in a God who loves, forgives, and treats us as His adopted children.  These alone should be enough to ignore the attacks that most times in a subtle manner pop up like pop-ups on your computer.

Many times Satan will use events from our past to weaken our faith and make us question the very existence of God’s Presence, even though deep down we know that not to be true.  Nevertheless, it becomes a trial in our faith walk that must be confronted head-on and a deep trust in the Lord’s assuredness that He is with us.  At other times we may experience bizarre occurrences that do not appear to be spiritual, but in essence they are.  

Allow me to document three events that actually happened and I immediately knew they were focused on me, not because of anything special about my ministry, but realizing that any of us who are in God’s hands, seeking and employing His Will for others around us, will be almost, with certainty, attacked in order to upset the saints (those who follow Christ) and their connection to God.

The first event was several years ago when my step-son was living with us, and one night we heard a scream from the living-room where he was resting on a recliner.  Running to the room he told us a bat had flown in and bit him on the arm.  At first I was skeptical but noticed the screen on the window was open.  Perhaps he had opened it for some unknown reason, but open it was and you could see some evidence of a bite on his arm.  My thoughts went to the fact that if indeed all that he related to us was true, we were under attack.  The chances of a bat flying in through an open screen, biting someone and flying out again seems remotely odd.  I went about the entire apartment and blessed the area and him.  All I know is if this had been an isolated event then perhaps Satan’s influence was wrong.

It was a few years later, just this past summer (2017), that the next two occurrences were more plausible and are the crux of this article.  Again, let me state that I have discovered when anyone is attempting to follow the dictates Christ taught and live in a very holy attempt of being everything the Church teaches is when we may expect to experience unholy and very bizarre happenings even when they are not directly placed upon us.  These events almost always will be an indirect attack on your faith and remember; “strike the shepherd and the rest will fall!” 

Early one morning, Joan, one of my stepdaughters, called and told us of a very strange email she received from a hotel she and her husband had made reservations with, and were to leave in two days for their vacation.  The message on the computer was to confirm her cancellation for the hotel.  She immediately called the hotel and discovered someone had contacted the hotel, using her name and had all the information of her credit card and times and dates for the reservation.  Not even someone in the family wanting to play a joke would have had all the pertinent information.  Once Joan told me of the email, and corrected the reservation, I informed her everything would be fine.  I knew, once again and with accurate certainty, this was an attack from Satan, not to disrupt Joan and her husband, but to get at me to place doubt and bring up anger or some negative approach to God and my work in ministry.  This is not unheard of in the realms of the kingdom, of which we all are a very pertinent part of.  

Around the same time of the week Laura, another step-daughter called crying and in a deep depressive mood relating a most weird happening at her house.  She woke up in the morning to find hundreds of ants crawling all over her and her bed.  No where else could she find them but found an opening from outside where they possibly had entered the house.  BTW her bedroom is on the second floor.  Another attack?  Some might say by chance.  Not likely.  Coincidental.  I doubt that especially since two events within one day of each other and neither of these women are prone to absurd activities or strange behavior.  And, both are good Catholics and have a strong spiritual connection to God.  I performed a home blessing with no more strange occurrences, and Joan’s vacation went as planned.  One more note, this was another time when the power of Grace was with us and God won this battle, as would be expected. 

At least, if nothing more, this might be another story in the annuls of Satan using every possible way to weaken those of us who choose to follow Jesus Christ, His Church, and live according to God’s Law of Love and Hope.