We remember Patrick today. Here’s what Patrick said about himself in his Confession.

“ I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not  know the true God. I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people as we deserved because we had turned away from God, we did not keep his commandments, and did not obey our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. . . .

“But after I reached Ireland I had to tend the sheep every day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more the love of God and my fear of him and faith increased. My spirit was moved so that in a day I said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number. I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.”

Imagine being sixteen and being hauled away to a foreign country as a slave. What would that do to your faith?

Patrick’s words make me wonder about how adversity affect people’s faith. For some people, hardship grinds away at their faith like a carborundum wheel. For other people, like Patrick, it becomes a stimulant for increased devotion.

The only advice I give is to keep praying. And you no longer feel like praying, pray about that.

Read Psalm 41:10 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne