Good Morning Garden

When you are praying or “treating” about a particular thing, you should handle it, mentally, very carefully indeed. The ideal way is not to think about it at all except when you are actually praying about it. Moreover, to talk to other people about it is exceedingly likely to invite failure.

When a new problem presents itself to you, decline to consider it except in the light of Truth. I call this “putting a subject in quarantine.” Even an old long-standing problem can be “put in quarantine” today, if you mean business and will resolutely break the habit of constantly thinking over that problem.

Whenever you think about any subject, you are treating it with your thought – either for good or evil.

The lip of truth shall be established forever… (Proverbs 12:19)

If one is constantly thinking about a problem, when would one have time to think about, or work on, the solution? Each thought we have about the problem increases the power of that which bothers us. On the other hand, each moment we spend affirming God’s control over our problems and working on the solution brings us out of despair and into peace and gives us dominion over that which concerns us. One can not be thinking. “poor pitiful me” at same time one is thinking “I am a child of God, blessed beyond measure and strengthened by God’s presence and love”. So beloved, give your fears, concerns and troubles to God by giving God your praise, hope, faith and confidence. Remember, hope trumps fear, faith consumes doubt and love conquers evil.

Z gardener

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God intended us to have dominion over our lives, to be the captains of our souls.

Of course, in the ship of life, you cannot make port unless all sails are set. You must pursue the spiritual life wholeheartedly. You cannot expect to reach port if you are faithful in your prayers and meditations for a time, and then for a time you forget God.

You are the captain of your soul when you can say with Jesus,

I and my Father are one (John 10:30).
…the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (John 14:10).

It is not contradictory that we are captains of our souls with dominion over our lives, while at the same time, following the will of God. You see, we must choose to follow God’s will and let God operate through us. While it is God working through us who accomplishes the works, it is we who must decide to become one with God and pursue a spiritual life. If we are to reach our destined port, we must decide to give control to God. That is how we have dominion and control by choosing to give both to God in our lives.

Z

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Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever (Matthew 6:13).

This is a wonderful gnomic saying summing up the essential truth of the Omnipresence and the Allness of God.

We know that God is the only power, and so, when we work, it is really God working by means of us. Just as the pianist produces his music by means of, or through his fingers, so may mankind be thought of as the fingers of God. His is the Power. If, when you have anything to do, you hold the thought, “Divine Intelligence is working through me now,” you will perform the most difficult tasks.
The wondrou s change that comes over us as we gradually realize what the Omnipresence of God really means, transfigures every phase of our lives, turning sorrow into joy, age into youth, and dullness into light and life. This is the glory!

When we live as instruments of God, we will reveal God’s glory in our world. When we fully accept our true nature as children of God, the universe supports our every need. When we think, act and feel as God directs us, the power and the glory is given to God and passed on through God to us. The bible does say”Ye are Gods”. Today Father, let each of fulfill the role you gave us so that your Glory is made manifest through us.

Z gardener

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Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee…(Psalm 55:22).

The technique of forgiveness is not very difficult when you understand how. The only thing that is essential is willingness to forgive. Provided you desire to forgive the offender, the greatest part of the work is already done.

The method of forgiving is this: Get by yourself and become quiet. Repeat any prayer that appeals to you, or read a chapter of the Bible. Then quietly say, “I fully and freely forgive X (mentioning the name of the offender); I loose him and let him go. I cast the burden aside. He is free now, and I am free too. The truth of Christ has set us both free. I thank God.”

On no account repeat this act of forgiveness, because to do it a second time would be tacitly to repudiate your own work. Afterward, whenever the memory of the offender or the offense happens to come into your mind, bless the delinquent briefly and dismiss the thought. Do this, however many times the thought may come back. You will find that all bitterness and resentment have disappeared, and you are both free with the perfect freedom of the children of God. Your forgiveness is complete.

The lack of willingness or desire to forgive is often the greatest obstacle to forgiveness. Yet, when one fails to forgive, they condemn themselves to be imprisoned by that which they judge and despise. When one turns to God for help and asks God to take the burden of anger and judgement from us, then one is empowered to lay down our burden, forgive those who offend us and free both parties in the process. So, when forgiveness seems too hard, let go and let God take it. Refuse to give hurt and anger a place to grow and fester. Bless that which caused the hurt and direct your thoughts, words and deeds toward God. God will make a way for everyone to be free.

Z gardener

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If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you (Matthew 6:14).

Setting others free means setting yourself free, because resentment is really a form of attachment. It is a cosmic truth that it takes two to make a prisoner; a prisoner and a jailer. There is no such thing as being a prisoner on one’s own account. Moreover, the jailer is as much a prisoner as his charge. When you hold resentment against anyone, you are bound to that person by a mental chain. You are tied by a cosmic tie to the thing that you hate. The one person perhaps in the whole world whom you most dislike is the very one to whom you are attaching yourself by a hook that is stronger than steel. Is this what you wish? Is this the condition in which you desire to go on living?

Remember, you belong to the thing with which you are linked in thought, and at some time or other, if that tie endures, the objects of your resentment will be drawn again into your life, perhaps to work further havoc. No one can afford such a thing; and so you must cut all such ties by a clear act of forgiveness. You must loose him and let him go. By forgiveness you set yourself free; you save your soul. And because the law of love works alike for one and all, you help to save his soul too.

There is another element to the act of forgiveness. One must also forgive one’s self. Most of our anger toward, and resentment of others finds its true source in our anger and resentment toward ourselves. Whatever one has done, whatever one has failed to do, whatever one is disappointed about in one’s self must be forgiven if we are to live by God’s law. All it takes is to admit the wrong and repent of it, ask God to forgive it and commit to change it. Then one will find the grace to offer that same forgiveness to others. God’s grace flows best through an unburdened soul.

Z gardener

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And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise (Luke 6:31).

The forgiveness of others is the vestibule of Heaven. You have to get rid of all resentment and condemnation of others, and, not least, of self-condemnation and remorse. You have to forgive yourself, but you cannot forgive yourself sincerely until you have forgiven others first.

Of course, nothing in all the world is easier than to forgive people who have not hurt us very much. But what the Law of Being requires of us is that we forgive the very things that are so hard to forgive that at first it seems impossible to do it at all. But the Lord’s Prayer makes our own escape from guilt and limitation dependent upon just this very thing.

If your prayers are not being answered, search your consciousness and see if there is not some old circumstance about which you are still resentful. Search and see if you are not really holding a grudge against some individual, or some group. If so, then you have an act of forgiveness to perform, and when this is done, you will probably make your demonstration. If you cannot forgive at present, you will have to wait for your demonstration until you can, and you will have to postpone finishing your recital of the Lord’s Prayer too.

Forgiveness is not debatable. Forgiveness is not conditional. Forgiveness is not earned nor is it bought. If any of these were true, we could never be forgiven by God. Yet God does forgive all things when asked by a repentant sinner. What is required is that we forgive ourselves and others in order to receive God’s forgiveness. We also must forgive if we are to be free from that which offended us in the first place. We are the prisoners of our own anger and judgement. When we release that which hurt or angers us through forgiveness, we break the chains that bind us to our anger and hurt. When we remove the heavy yoke of judgement and condemnation, and take on the light yoke, which is obedience to God’s will, we set ourselves free to live in the Eden God created for us.

Z gardener

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As we repeat the Great Prayer intelligently, we are suddenly caught up and grasped as though in a vise, so that we must face this problem of separation from God. We must extend forgiveness to everyone.

Notice that Jesus does not say, “Forgive me my trespasses and I will try to forgive others.” He obliges us to declare that we have actually forgiven, and he makes our claim to our forgiveness to depend upon that. Who could be so insane as to endeavor to seek the Kingdom of God without desiring to be relieved of his own sense of guilt? We are trapped in the inescapable position that we cannot demand our own release before we have released our brother.

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts (Psalm 139:23) .

“As ye judge, so shall ye be judged”. However you say it, the truth remains the same. We can not be forgiven except that we forgive. We are locked and chained to our judgement and condemnation of others. It separates us from each other and from God. There can be no unity in division and no communion in separation. “Love ye one another as I have loved you.” Forgive others, love others and open the floodgates of God’s love and forgiveness.

Z gardener

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In speaking of the “bread of life,” Jesus calls it our daily bread. The reason for this is very fundamental—our contact with God must be a living one. It is our momentary attitude that governs our being.

…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).

The most futile thing in the world is to seek to live upon a past realization. The thing that means spiritual life to you is your realization of God here and now.

Be thankful for yesterday’s experience, knowing that it is with you forever in the change of consciousness that it brought about, but do not lean upon it for a single moment for the need of today. The manna in the desert is the Old Testament prototype of this daily nourishment. The people wandering in the wilderness were told that they would be supplied with manna from heaven every day but they were on no account to try to save it up for the morrow. When, notwithstanding the rule, some of them did try to live upon yesterday’s food, the result was pestilence or death.

So it is it us. The art of life is to live in the present moment, and to make that moment as perfect as we can by the realization that we are the instruments and expression of God Himself.

Living in a perfect present is the fundamental premise of the Good Morning Garden. When we separated ourselves from God in the original garden, we lost the perfect present. In Ephesians, Paul said that God had removed the wall and partition that separates us from God and the Eden created for us. When we truly realize God’s immediate presence within us and we express that realization through out thoughts, words and deeds, God will provide for all our needs in a way that allows us to live in our garden in joy and gladness regardless of what we face in our daily lives here below.

Z gardener

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