There’s an inspirational prayer that’s been around a long time: “Lord help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that You and I together can’t handle.”

For those of us who feel like we are barely making it through, that little prayer can be useful — particularly when we are getting really bogged down.

To boost its potential effectiveness, let’s reflect on three important parts of this prayer.

“Lord help me to remember ...”

Most of us have had times when we felt God was close by, and those can assist our faith after the feeling itself is gone. But we have to remember those happy occasions rightly.

When we feel overwhelmed or depressed, past moments when we felt close to God could begin to mock rather than comfort us. We might start to think we were deluded. If physical pain is part of our challenge, it can erase such memories altogether.

Saints including Mother Teresa and St. Therese were left feeling empty of the joy and closeness to God. But they both remembered their past intimacy with God and chose to believe in Him and in the truth of those encounters. Such trials of emptiness have the potential to greatly increase our faith. When all goes dry, we are in a sense being promoted to embrace a deeper connection with God — one that does not depend on temporary feelings and which will sustain us through trials.

St. John of the Cross points to such hidden helps as actually safer and better for our faith than feelings of comfort. But we have to work with the process and beg the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts.
“... to happen to me today ...”

The word “today” tells us to focus and not project our daily struggles into the future. In Matthew 6:34, Jesus tells us to put such limits on our thoughts. We can learn to let God worry about the future, while He helps us through one day at a time.

Limiting our concerns to one 24-hour period can bridle any tendencies we may have toward expanding our problems into unsurmountable mountains. I can testify that anxiety levels go ballistic when we allow the day’s cross to grow out past that day.

It is far better to practice accepting responsibility for “today” and to remind God that tomorrow and beyond are in His hands — and to remind ourselves that He can, and will, be there for us.

“... that You and I together ...”

A trusting connection with God is not automatic.

Hopefully, we have had moments of insight into His work. Those are lovely instances of grace, but like the comfy feelings of closeness there may come a time when God won’t give us such insights, allowing us to be tempted to give ourselves or others or “luck” more credit than is due.

There also may be times when God’s guidance in our lives feels to us more like He is meddling, and we become frustrated with Him for interfering. Or we might expect God to help in a certain way, only to be left without our expectations being met. Fair or not, we may find ourselves devastated by God.

In the Gospel of Luke, Mary and Zechariah show us the right and the wrong way to question God. Zechariah stated his question with disbelief. Mary asked how an amazing pregnancy would come about – with full trust that God had a plan.

We can follow Mary’s lead when we feel the need to confront God with our frustrations and disappointments. “Please tell me what you were thinking!” is a good start. So is reminding Him (and ourselves) that we are working with a limited view of things and could greatly benefit from His mighty help and heavenly insights.

Calling out or even screaming — either in our hearts or out loud — that He has to do something to help because we can’t make things better, works well in times of high stress and little control.

God is our partner in life. He loves us completely. But we have to learn to trust Him with everything, one day at a time.

This little prayer can help.