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Posts Tagged ‘Faith’

Foresight and Hindsight

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on April 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

When you have to make a decision or take a certain action, all that you can do is to do the best you know at that time, and if you do that you will have done your duty. In the light of after events it may turn out that you made a mistake, but that will not be your fault because you could not possibly do better that the best you know at the time.
Claim that the Christ is guiding you; and believe it, and the ultimate outcome will be favorable even if things seem to go wrong for a time.
And the Lord shall guide thee continually (Isaiah 58:11).
While the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, God’s plans never do. They may seem at times that they have gone very wrong. If we trust God fully and keep to his commandments, all things will work for our best good.
In this week of Easter, please remember that the light of the world appeared to be extinguished by the shame of the cross. How wrong that appearance was!
So, trust God, love freely and give joyfully. It is God’s plan for us.
In God I trust,
Z gardener

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The Consecrated Life

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on April 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
 
Of what does the consecrated life consist?
 
Your life is a consecrated one when you are ready at all times to do the will of God – when you are willing and anxious that God may be fully expressed through you, through your thoughts, words, and deeds, during every hour of the day.
 
You are not concerned with the question of results. Results belong to God.
 
Here am I; send me (Isaiah 6:8).
 
When we release the self, we open ourselves to God’s will manifesting itself through us. Our lives become sacred when God is at its center.
 
Being here to be sent,
Z gardener

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GOD’S WORK OF ART

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on April 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)           We are God’s masterpiece.
 
Over a hundred years ago, a group of fishermen were relaxing in a Scottish seaside inn. One of the men gestured widely and his arm struck the serving maid’s tea tray, sending the teapot flying into the whitewashed wall. The innkeeper surveyed the damage and sighed, “The whole wall will have to be replaced.” “Perhaps not,” offered a stranger. “Let me work with it”.
 
Having nothing to lose, the proprietor consented. The man pulled pencils, brushes, and pigment out of an art box. . . . In time an image began to emerge: a stag with a great rack of antlers. the man inscribed his signature at the bottom, paid for his meal, and left. His name: Sir Edwin Landseer, famous painter of wildlife.
 
In his hands, a mistake became a masterpiece. God’s hands do the same, over and over. He draws together the disjointed blotches in our life and renders them an expression of His love.
 

Each day Lord, give us the faith to truly believe that the mistakes we make can become miracles if we let you render them.

 

Render me,

Z gardener

 

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Praying With A Feather

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on April 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
 
Years ago many devoted preachers and Sunday School teachers were fond of telling people to “pray hard.” Well-meaning as this advice was, it was mistaken. I often tell people to pray “soft,” which of course, means gently.
 
I do this because I know that the more quietly and gently we pray, the better results we get. In prayer, as in many other activities, effort defeats itself. More than once I have said to my congregation, “Pray with a feather – not with a pickax.”
 
Always pray gently, and especially if you have a good deal of fear, or if your difficulty seems to be a very important one.
 
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee (Psalm 86:5).
 
A gentle prayer is a sign of strong faith. It is like the calm confidence of a child who quietly asks their Father for help with a project, knowing that help will come as surely as the sunrise. Granted, there are times we pray when we are not calm ourselves. In such times it is very hard to say a calm prayer. But what one will find is that when we do exert the confidence of calmness, even a chaotic environment can become peaceful when our faith conquers our fear or hurt.
 
Praying with gentleness,
Z gardener

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An Experiment

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Try this experiment today. Select one particular thing in your life that is not going well and you wish to make right. Next consider the matter in the light of your knowledge of God and of prayer. Realize that this thing cannot remain inharmonious or negative once you know the Truth about it. Realize that you are now knowing the Truth and claim that the divine Power in you is now healing the condition completely and permanently.
Then give thanks. Remember that praise and thanksgiving are the most powerful prayers of all.
The next day, repeat your thanksgiving, until the answer comes.
In between prayers you must keep your thought right concerning the problem. This is vital. All-day-long guiding of your thought cannot fail to bring your demonstration.
My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord (Psalm 104:34).
One who trains and controls their thoughts will control their universe. Our thoughts are where the existence of God and mankind intersect. Let us be sure that those thoughts are glad and joyful in recognition of a relationship with God,
Sweetly thinking,
Z gardener

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When –

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
 
            When your knees are knocking together, and you do not know which way to turn – think of God and His goodness.
 
When prosperity seems out of the question – give thanks for God’s abundance.
 
When you want peace of mind – dwell upon the Presence of God.
 
When your health is under par – speak the healing Word.
 
When you need inspiration – browse through the Bible.
 
When the situation seems to need a miracle – remember that nothing is too difficult for God, and the He is performing miracles every day.
 
I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee (Joshua 1:5).
 
Brothers and sisters when everything in the world fails you – Remember that God never will.
 
Faithfully,
Z gardener

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How Much Can God Do?

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
The Bible tells us that God can heal us, that He can deliver us from our destructions, that He lifts up the weak, that He leads and guides us. But just how much can God do? Well, God can do almost anything. That may sound strange to those who have been taught that with God all things are possible. But there are some things that God cannot do, and it is fortunate for us that this is true.
 
God is a God of love and rules by principle, and because this is so, He cannot change His nature. He cannot break divine law. He cannot bring disease, or suffering, or lack.
 
He is always the loving Father, ready to hear and answer prayer.
 
How much can God do? He can bring heaven here and now – not by breaking the law, which is impossible to God – but by fulfilling it.
 
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law (Psalm 119:18).
 
At some point in time each of us will be disappointed by someone we love and trust. Something we depend on will change and leave us struggling to cope. Someone will break the rules and our hearts at the same time. Even those we love and trust the most are human and will, at some time, act against our best good. That will never happen with God.
 
God is the one upon whom we can always depend, always trust and always, always acts for our best good. So, when the world has let us down, we have lost a loved one, our friends or family have cast us out or those upon whom we depend act undependably; there is One who is eternally faithful, trustworthy and who always puts us first. This One has created a garden for us and waits hopefully, lovingly and dependably there for us. His only desire for us is our best good, and this One will never waiver from that or leave us hurt and without hope. All we must do is turn to God and say, “Lord, I am here”.
 
Lord, I am here,
Z gardener

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Stake Your Claim

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
 
In the gold rush days, prospectors went out in the mountains in search of the yellow metal. Often the task was long and arduous with little to show for days of struggle and privation. But when a find was made, the prospector would stake his claim so that others would know that that particular discovery belonged to him. Of course, some claims turned out to be shallow veins of ore and worth little, while other claims eventually made their owners fabulously wealthy.
 
In metaphysics, we often speak of claiming our good, and it is one of the surest ways of bringing the good we desire into our lives. If we want health, then we have to claim every day that divine Life brings well-being to every part of our body. If we want prosperity, then we claim every day that God is the giver of every good gift, ready to supply our every need.
 
Whatever it is we wish to bring into our life, we stake our claim to it.
 
Of course, we often claim negative things for ourselves without fully realizing it. Every time we say, “My cold,” “My headache,” “My indigestion,” we are claiming those things for ourselves. What one claims for himself he will eventually bring into his life.
 
Affirm your divine kinship. All that the Father hath is ours – if we will stake our claim to it.
 
…It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).
 
How we feel about ourselves is another way to stake a claim. Do we really believe God loves us unconditionally? Or, do we think we do not merit God’s love so we can not claim it? Guess what, both are right. We can never truly earn or deserve God’s unconditional love, but we don’t have to earn it. It is a gift of God’s grace (unmerited love). Think about this way, did we do anything to deserve our parents love? No, all we did was be born.
 
God love’s us because we are his children, not because we are good. We will always stumble and veer from the path of God’s will. Yet His forgiveness is always available if we but claim it. We claim forgiveness by confessing our failures, repenting and turning away from our mistakes. However, if we ignore our mistakes, or even worse, embrace them, then we are claiming all the misfortune and harm that comes from them. If we say, I can not try to change because I am too weak, then we claim that too.
 
When we claim our kinship to God, then work to live into our inheritance as children of God, we will receive strength and grace to work our claim. We do not become perfect or deserving of God’s love, but we do fully receive God’s presence and protection in all things. We also receive the peace that surpasses understanding and are then able to see and experience the beautiful garden God made for us. And, we can then live in that garden and walk with God each day filled with gratitude, love and gladness.
 
Staking the claim,
Z gardener

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Capitalize Your Disability

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
Success consists in the overcoming of difficulties. All men and women who have made a success of any kind have done so by overcoming difficulties. There was a time when laying a telegraph line from New York to Boston presented many difficulties. Then there was a time when doing that was easy, but laying the Atlantic cable presented difficulties. Later on, marine cable laying became a routine business, but radio across the ocean presented problems that for a time were insuperable.
 
If you have a personal disability that seems to keep you from success, do not accept it as such, but capitalize on it and use it as the instrument for your success. H. G. Wells had to give up a dull underpaid job because of ill health, so he stayed at home and wrote successful books and became a world-known author instead. Edison was stone deaf and decided that this would enable him to concentrate better on his inventions. Theodore Roosevelt was a sickly child, very shortsighted and nervous. However, he worked hard to develop his body and became, as we know, a strong husky open-air man and big game hunter.
 
The owner of a fashionable dress business in London was the wife of a struggling clerk, who was stricken with tuberculosis. She had never been in business, and had no training, and found herself having to support a husband and two children. She started with nothing but good taste in clothes and a belief in prayer.
 
… To him that overcometh with I give to eat of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7).
 
Who would have ever thought that any of the examples above would “be grateful” for their disability. Yet, each would have missed their destiny without overcoming them. The question is not, “Why has God saddled me with this disability?” The true question is, “What new door can a disability open for me and God’s purpose for me?”
 
Looking for the door,
Stan

 

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When God Does Not Act

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
We all believe that the love of God is invincible. We all believe that His intelligence, His knowledge, and His power are infinite. We all believe that God cares for us to a degree beyond imagining, and that each one of us is equally precious in His sight. Yet, in many cases healing and harmony do not follow from this knowledge. Why is this?
 
In most cases it is because we have forgotten that these qualities have to be embodied in ourselves before they can appear in our lives. To know of them as existing in God is not sufficient. We must be seeking to express them in our personal lives before they can do anything for us.
 
The only way to know God is to seek to express Him in our lives.
 
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord … to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night (Psalm 92:1-2).
 
This does not mean God only answers prayers for the righteous. It does mean that we must be attuned to God and expressing God’s will and laws in our lives with our best ability to do so. We must believe the truth, accept God’s laws and make them our laws. When our thoughts, words and deeds are driven by our submission to God’s will, then we are expressing God. Then our harmony and healing will become our reality.
 
When we are one with God, we can praise God from whom all blessings flow, as they flow into our lives. Then are hearts will be “grateful for all things” as one who trusts God, even if afflicted with disharmony, ill health, etc. If we stay that course, then we will discover and live in the Eden God created for us.
 
Expressing God,
Z gardener

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