Certainty

I don't know much, but I am certain about one thing: God is holy, and we are meant to be holy like God. Holiness is the essential ingredient in any life that wishes to be safe in God.

With regards to our needs and God's requirements for our lives, He does not compromise on holiness. If you know you are sinning, then you must cease. He may mitigate  our sufferings out of love for us, but not entirely. There will always be some small requirement of us that God demands we meet. If we do not know what it is we need to do, we can always posit that more prayer and more penance are necessary; these must be unselfish as well. The only certainty is that God will see to it we are fit to  be in His presence. If an examination of our life proves we have spots that need more attention, common sense demands an acquiescence to His Will, regardless.

This is on top of an immense and interested love for us, so that no matter how frightening and painful life may be, it will always be possible to reach God and to know His love, if we are fixing our vision on Him, and not ourselves or anything else.

St. Padre Pio was among those saints who embodied God's Will and acquiescence to it. When necessary, he required obedience of his penitents, but once they had done what was asked, his kindness sprang out of his immense love, so that our actual expense was minimal. I take that to mean that obeying him was obedience to God. In turn, St. Padre Pio enjoyed the immensity of God's love enabling him to do the impossible, particularly as regarded ecstasies and miracles. It is clear and obvious that feeling His love and obtaining miracles were signs of His intervention in our lives, so that we may grow spiritually to become human beings worthy of Heaven. Jesus dreaded the thought of the nails piercing His hands and feet, and the lance in His side. But He endured the imposition of these events for love of us, and for all time, so that we might be available to Him, and He might be available to us. Make an effort to express your love to Him, regardless of feelings; that is, don't expect ecstasies for your reaching out to God, but also, do not let your feelings deter you from asking. That is a act of obedience which will not be used against you in your final hours.