Good Morning Garden

When you are praying for your true place, it is well to remember that the full demonstration may not come in one move, but more likely after a series of stages.

Now, If you despise these intermediate steps, and think this is a little better, but it is not really what I want, you will keep the demonstration back. Neither should you accept a small improvement as being all that you can hope to get. The scientific attitude is to see the stepping stone as stepping stone; to bless it, and give thanks for it, and to continue praying for the next step.

For precept must be upon precept line upon line, here a little, and there a little (Isaiah 28:10).

Children are not born knowing how to walk, talk and think as adults. They must take growing up one step at the time. It is the same with our spiritual growth. One step leads to the next step and it must be so. And, just as we all wanted to be “grown up” before were ready to be adults, we may want to be spiritually mature before we have gone through the growth and learning necessary to handle adult responsibilities.

Stone Stepping,
Z gardener

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We do not have to create good. We do not have to persuade God to be Love, or Life, or Truth, or Intelligence. We do not have to ask Him to remember us. We do not have to ask for any more good. God has already filled the world with infinite good, love, life, truth and intelligence. Fundamentally, evil is a false belief that there are limits to the power and availability of God’s goodness.

If we draw down the shades in every room in a house, that house will be in darkness, and is likely to become damp and unhealthy as well, no matter how brightly the sun may be shining outside. Salvation consists in raising these shades and opening the windows; then He does the rest.

…walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8).

It may be hard for us to grasp that we do not have to create the good in our lives. Because humans are creators, doers and fixers, we tend to think in terms of what we can do to create good or fix bad. In reality, what we have to do is get our “selfs” out of the role of doer and become an instrument of God’s doing, fixing and creating.

In the true light,
Z gardener

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Resignation in defeat is really a sin.

If an old problem continues to stick; pray for inspiration and intelligence. Stop struggling and thank God constantly for setting you free.

If nervous or frightened; throw the responsibility on God, and tell Him that you know you are safe in His hands.

If someone is being troublesome; see only the Presence of God where the troublesome person seems to be.

If you want to make faster progress; claim understanding and affirm that divine Love is working through you.

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you (1 Peter 5:7).

You see brothers and sisters, it is only when we see God in the midst our troubles that they no longer trouble us. We resolve our troubles when we truly realize that God is in them with a message we need to hear or is providing a door we must enter for our best good. When we accept that God has buried blessings in our burdens and know that God is using our pain to shape us and set us free; then we enter that door God has provided. We hear God’s message we need, and that message is “Welcome back to the Garden I created for you”.

Unresigned,
Z gardener

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When you give your mental assent to any idea, good or bad, you associate yourself with that idea and you incorporate it into your consciousness; to the extent that you realize it. When you read a passage of Scripture you will, if you assent to it mentally, incorporate it into your life to that extent.

This law, of course, works the other way too. If when you hear or read of some piece of injustice or cruelty, you approve it mentally by thinking that “it serves him right,” you are associating yourself with that deed, and making it a part of your own life, even though you do not speak a word. It is the mental assent that counts.

Give your assent only to Truth.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my numbers, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity. So then with the mind; I myself serve the law of God. (Romans 7:22, 23, 25).

What we think and give assent to is what we are. If we serve God in our minds first, everything else will manifest God’s power and will in our lives. Not that this is easy; in fact it is the hardest part of being a follower of God. Once we conquer our minds, the rest of our world will yield to our faith.

Planting love,
Z gardener

Author’s note: Today we are joined by five new visitors to the garden. They are all pilgrims whose path is set on serving others through Christ. Each of them is a blessing to those they touch, and we are graced by their presence here in the Good Morning Garden.

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When you apply a certain word to God, it must bear the same essential meaning as it does when you apply it to man; otherwise it has no meaning at all. When you say that God is Love or Intelligence, or that He is Just, these words must mean substantially what they mean when applied to human beings. The love of God must be essentially the same that we know as the love of the mother for her children, or the love of the artist for his creation, purified and increased to infinity, of course.

Many people say that God is Love, and at the same time maintain that He visits finite sin with eternal punishment.

The truth is that God is Love and Intelligence; and that He works with perfect wisdom and perfect justice to all, at all times, in the ordinary and correct meaning of these words.

God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is Love (1 John 4:8).
Good and upright is the Lord. (Psalm 25:8).

Many times we strive to complicate the clear and unambiguous language of the Bible to suit our personal needs. Let’s face it; much of the Bible’s most important instructions and information are absolutely clear. We just may not want to face it and apply them in our lives. That is natural, but it will not lead us to our Eden.

Truthfully,
Z gardener

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A good housekeeper sees to it that dust and dirt do not accumulate in nooks and corners and on shelves. Periodically, the house is gone over and given a through cleaning. Too often in our spiritual lives, we allow negative things to accumulate in the corners of our minds. We tackle the obvious problems as they come along, but allow the small difficulties to pile up in the corners.

For instance, if we are faced with a problem of health or finance, we get to work on that immediately, but if, on the other hand, someone has injured us, instead of handling the incident spiritually at the time, we tuck it away and perhaps pack in a little resentment along with it. Such problems should be dealt with as they arise. If someone has injured you, forgive him now, and be done with it. Take care of the other difficulties in like manner.

Be a good housekeeper. Clean out every nook and corner, and God will make you worthy of greater accomplishments in the future.

And he said unto him, Well done, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over then cities (Luke 19:17)

We all have many hurts and injustices that have been visited on us both great and small. Daily prayer an affirmative forgiveness allows us to jettison those hurts and forgive those that have hurt us.

Unloading to live,
Z gardener

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Many people say to me, “I want to get on faster. I want more understanding.” And as a rule they go on to ask for a list of books to read or some “advanced course” that they can take.

This attitude is quite mistaken. It implies that spiritual advancement is a question of intellectual activity; of the mere accretion of knowledge. That is true in the study of mathematics, or of physics, or chemistry, but it is not true in metaphysics. Spiritual growth comes from putting into practice the knowledge we already possess. Instead of reading another book, read your favorite book once more and apply it more carefully than ever in your practical life.

Metaphysics, like music, is both a science and an art. In metaphysics it is absolutely true that you learn by doing.

“be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only”. (James 1:22).

Putting our spiritual knowledge to work in our lives may be more important than possessing spiritual knowledge itself. It is much easier to read and agree with “love thy neighbor as thyself”, than it is to show compassion to a grouchy person on your block. Or to paraphrase an old saying, turning the other cheek is much easier read than done.

Practicing the preaching,
Z gardener

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Within you is an inexhaustible source of power, if you can but contact it. That power can heal you, and it can inspire you by telling you what to do and how to do it. It can give you peace of mind, and , above all, it can give you direct knowledge of God. That power is scientific prayer. There is no problem that prayer cannot overcome and no good thing that it cannot bring into your life.

This is the message of the whole Bible. It was summed up by Jesus when he said,

…the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21).

This truth was dramatically illustrated by an incident in real life. The body of a tramp, clad in rags, was discovered near a lime kiln where he had evidently crept for warmth. After the autopsy his clothes were torn up to be put into the incinerator, and sewn into the lining of the trousers was a bank note for a large amount. Unquestionably the original owner of the suit had had it sewn in there for safety, and for some unknown reason lost track of it.

Consider the situation! This poor hobo had sat down many a time to lukewarm coffee; and all the time he was sitting on a thousand dollars. People may have plenty of money and yet be hoboes for health or happiness or spiritual experience. Riches do not become wealth until they are realized. Cash your bill at the Bank of Heaven and make it productive.

But my God shall supply all your needs. (Philippians 4:19)

Resignation blinds us to God’s power within us, and it calls on us to accept the unacceptable; even when that acceptance dooms us to apparent poverty, heartbreak or even spiritual blindness. When we resign ourselves to spiritual, mental or literal poverty, we deny the power of God within us. Then we are left blind and hopeless.

Cashing in,
Z gardener

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Volumes have been written on the secret of happiness, but I like the simple old story that has been told so often.

In the old days, there was a king who was so miserable and unhappy that he called together all of his soothsayers, magicians, and other court advisers to find a remedy. They tried all sorts of methods to rouse the king out of his deep despair; but alas, to no avail. Finally, one of them suggested that a search be made for the happiest man in the kingdom, for it was thought that if the king could put on the man’s undershirt, he would become happy too. In due course, the happiest man in the kingdom was found. But, of course, he had never even owned an undershirt. His happiness sprang from within.

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall serach for me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).

Happiness emanates from within; it is not found without. It is not a product of power, position or personal appearance.
It can’t be purchased, prohibited or produced unless we are at peace within.

Sharing happiness,
Z gardener

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People sometimes say, “I believe firmly in the spiritual teaching, and I have done so for years, but I have never been able to make it work; isn’t that strange?” And sometimes they say this with quite an air of triumph.

Such people remind me of a man who used to boast that he had an ailment that no one could heal. He had successfully defied every school of healing and had emerged triumphantly still in possession of his affliction. As it happens, his wife did heal him later on by prayer alone, but she was a patient and persevering woman. That man’s wife probably points the way to the overcoming of such illogicality. The key to success lies in just the qualities that she obviously had; patience combined with a gentle and unhurried expectation of success.

The patient whom she healed is not a rare specimen, nor is he unknown to any one of us. We are all likely to encounter him under our own hat at any moment!

I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works.(Revelation 2:19).

We don’t “make” God or spirituality “work”. God is not a trained animal that we make to do parlor tricks or whom we order to deliver our prayer requests like a pizza.

Did someone order Paradise?
Z gardener

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