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Posts Tagged ‘Faith’

The Spiritual Basis

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
One is on the Spiritual Basis or he is not, for there is no half-way house in this.
 
You are on the Spiritual Basis:
 
If you definitely give all power to God, in the most literal, practical, and matter-of-fact sense of the phrase.
 
If you really believe that prayer can do anything.
 
If you really believe that your happiness and well-being are vitally important in the eyes of God.
 
If you realize whatever ideas and beliefs you accept must be expressed in your surroundings, and in all your relationships and activities.
 
If you try to see the Presence of God everywhere.
 
If, in short, you understand that you are in a mental universe, that thoughts are things, and that one’s life history is fundamentally the expression of his belief about God.
 
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you (James 4:8)
 
Living on the spiritual basis is a radical departure from the way most humans live and perceive life. That upon which we mentally focus becomes the reality of our physical existence. When we draw near to God and focus on our belief in God, our world changes from the effects to the causes, form the medicine to the cure and from the carnal to the spiritual. This focus on God allows us to walk in grace, joy and peace. It opens us to God’s infinite power and creates the channel for God into our gardens. When we are one with the spirit, all things are possible and God’s love lifts and protects us. Then even when bad things come our way, we are spared our improved by them.
 
Drawing nigh,
Z gardener

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Prayer Is Always The Answer

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
Prayer is always the solution. No matter what kind of difficulty may be facing you, no matter how complicated your problem may seem – prayer can solve it. Of course you will also take whatever practical steps seem to be indicated, and if you do not know what steps to take, prayer will show you. Prayer is constantly bringing about the seemingly impossible, and there is no conceivable problem that has not at some time been solved by prayer.
 
When we remember that God really is omnipotent, untrammeled by what we call time or space or matter, or the vagaries of human nature, it is easy to see that there can be no limit to the power of prayer. You can pray about a problem and solve it at any stage, but of course, the earlier you tackle it the easier will your work be.
 
… The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16).
 
The key words above are righteous and fervent. Righteous does not mean perfect; it means being a believer who, through faith is striving for righteousness. And, as we discussed yesterday, fervent means charged with feeling; coming from the heart. When we pray in this way, our prayers will be answered even if the answer is no. And when the answer is no, be on the lookout for God’s alternative to your request. It will be coming down the road. And as my Daddy used to say, “If the bible says a train is coming down a dirt road…you better jump in the ditch because it is coming.”
 
Waiting on the train,
Z gardener

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Mental Drudgery Is Not Prayer

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
Expect more from you prayers. The power of your prayer depends upon the amount of faith that you yourself have in it. To pray in the spirit that “even if this prayer does not do any good at least it cannot do any harm,” is not, really, to pray at all.
 
Have enough faith in the love of God to believe that a short heartfelt prayer is just as good as a long one. Too long a session of prayer usually means the in your heart you really doubt the love of God, and think that a great deal of effort and toil will be necessary to move Him. Pray quietly and sincerely for a reasonable time – and then leave the matter, expecting success.
 
O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou has done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth (Isaiah 25:1).
 
The intensity of feeling is more important to a prayer than its length. When we feel our prayer and focus on communion with God, we are truly praying. If our faith is strong, the length of the prayer is irrelevant. When we believe God is going to answer our prayer, we do not need to burden God with a lengthy prayer. Not that anything is wrong with a long visit with God. In fact, the more we visit with God, the better.
 
In belief,
Stan

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Is It Selfish?

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
Is it selfish to pray for yourself? Some people think that it is, and say that you should pray only for others, but this, of course, is a foolish idea.
 
You must pray for yourself constantly. How could it be otherwise? We worship God by believing in Him, trusting Him, and loving Him wholeheartedly – and we can attain to that only through prayer. The sole object of our being here is that we may grow like him – and we can do that only through prayer.
 
The more we pray for ourselves the more power will our prayers have for any other purpose whatever; so praying for ourselves is the reverse of selfishness – it is truly glorifying God.
 
Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy … Rejoice the soul of thy servant; for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul (Psalm 86:1, 4).
 
Not only should we pray for ourselves, we should also pray for all humans. We are all children of God and not one, especially ourselves, should ever be exempted form our prayer life. Prayer is more than just asking God for what we want. It is a visitation with God, being in God’s presence and God in ours. Prayer should be as much a part of our mentality as is our comfort or our destination at the time. Prayer is as essential to our spiritual life as breath is to our physical life. We ignore either at our great peril.
 
So today, let us pray for ourselves and all those other children of God. And being the Lenten season, our prayers for ourselves should always include awareness of our shortcomings and repentance of them. Lastly, be sure to include the willingness to bury the old self and rise anew with the risen Christ at Easter.
 
Lord, have mercy on us all,
Z  gardener

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What Is Seeking The Kingdom?

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

 
  Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).
 
The principle that Jesus expressed in these words is the basic law that underlies all answer to prayer. Many people know this in theory but are confused about putting it into practice. They think, “I will ignore this problem and think about God instead.” Here there is a subtle mistake, because they are really thinking of their problem as existing in one place, of God as existing in another, and of themselves as going in thought from the first place to the second place. This, of course, is by implication to reaffirm the existence of the problem in its own place, and such a belief will not heal.
 
What we have to do is to seek the Kingdom in the very place where the trouble seems to be. We have to know that in Truth and reality it is not there, because God is there. When we succeed in doing this, the difficulty disappears.
This may sound like a distinction without a difference, but that is not so. By seeking the Kingdom of God where the trouble is, we affirm that God is king over all and not subject to being separated into a different place. The reason is simple; God is not limited by time or space. In the same way our secular lives are indivisible from our spiritual lives. So when we experience a problem in the secular world we should look for God’s presence in the midst of this problem wherein it is overcome.
 
Seeking God in all things,
Z gardener

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A Treatment Is An Operation

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The word treatment is usually applied to a prayer that is made for some specific purpose, as distinct from a general prayer, which is really a visit with God. You must remember that a treatment is a definite practical action, having a definite object and a definite beginning and end. It is in fact a surgical operation on the soul.

 

             Let us suppose that you decide to heal a certain difficulty by prayer. You know that your difficulty must be caused by some negative thought charged with fear and located in the subconscious mind. You therefore turn to God, and remind yourself of His goodness, His limitless power, and His care for you. As you work the fear will begin to dissolve, and the awareness of the Truth corrects the erroneous beliefs themselves.

 

 Thank God for the healing that you believe will come – and then keep your thought off the matter until you feel led, after an interval, to treat again.

 

 He sent his word, and healed them … (Psalm 107:20).

 

 In common vernacular this is called curing the disease rather than treating the symptoms. The focus of our prayer needs to be on the cause; which is the subconscious thought charged with fear, not the manifestation, not the actual difficulty itself. This is the exact opposite of how we normally react. We tend to focus on the headache instead of its cause. If instead, we focus our thoughts on God’s goodness, power and love for us, then we begin to remove the cancerous fear that is causing our subconscious difficulty. Then, the manifestation of the problem begins to disappear or may even become to be seen as a blessing.

 

 When we follow this method of prayer, the path to joy is reopened in our minds and spirits, wherein our physical selves will always follow. Then we will be healed and fear of free.

 

Fearlessly,

 

Stan

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God Works With Joy

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
            Don’t pray or meditate as a duty. Realize that prayer is a visit with God and should be joyous.
 
Neither must you pursue your secular activities as necessary duties to be gotten over, that you may return to your prayer. In the light of Truth, there are no secular activities.
 
You must have regular recreation or you will become stale. Recreation, also, is to be enjoyed – as an expression of God – and not as a task to prepare yourself to pray better. An understanding joy in living is the highest prayer of all.
 
…in thy presence is fullness of joy… (Psalm 16:11).
 
Just think about that; joy is the highest form of prayer and communion with God. Anything that separates us from joy therefore blocks our communion with God. Yes, we get hurt, get sick and ultimately die. Yes, we get thrown bad deals and unbearable pain from senseless tragedies. And, yes, we get down, grumpy, frustrated, angry and can feel alienated, ashamed or unworthy. Yet through all the travails of human existence, we are consistently instructed by our faith to be glad and joyful in life.
 
One gateway to that joyful life  is through gratitude. We are to “be grateful in all things”. That is a tall order. But a grateful heart combined with daily forgiveness for those who hurt us, provides us a compass to find our path to joy, regardless. So, when we pray, recreate, work and live, let us be ever-mindful of our blessings and forgiving of others so that we may walk in the fullness of joy, surrounded by the garden created just for us.
 
Gratefully,
Stan

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Don’t Hurry The Chicken

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

A city child was spending his vacation on a farm. They showed him a hen sitting on a nest of eggs, and told him that some day a little chicken would come out of each egg. Their child was delighted at this dramatic idea, and every morning he went around expecting to see the miracle.
 
            Days passed and nothing happened. The eggs still looked exactly the same. Not the slightest change occurred in the appearance of things, and gradually his faith waned. At last one day he told himself bitterly that he had been deceived.
 
Next day, however, from habit he went around to the nest as usual, but without any hope; and behold, what was his joy to see a flock of little chickens running about.
 
Of course wonderful changes had been taking place all the time behind the shells, but there was nothing to show for it until the very last moment. Some of our greatest demonstrations come to us like this. In this story it was the spectator who lost faith, and so it did not matter. If the mother hen had lost her faith – well, there would have been no chickens. Give your demonstration time to hatch.
 
And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not (Galatians 6:9).
 
And, let us remember God’s words to Joshua before he was allowed to enter the promised land. “Be ye strong, and of a good courage. Turn neither to the left, or to the right. But be ye strong and of a good courage, and you will prosper whithersoevr thou goest”. If we do this, we will enter our promised land that was created as a garden for us by our loving Father.
 
By God’s strength,
Z gardener

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Your Own Brand

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

You cannot claim too much for yourself provided you claim the same thing for all other human beings. In fact, it is our duty to claim all good things and to continue claiming them until they demonstrate in our outer experience. Of course, this law works both ways and therefore you must be very careful not to claim the negative things that you do not want.

 

 On the western ranches the owner of a steer brands it with his name, “Bar A Ranch” or some such cipher. Then if it should wander into strange territory, it will always be returned to him. On the other hand, when an animal without his brand wanders into his corral, he says, “Than is not my steer,” and out it goes.

 

 Many a foolish person puts his mental brand on a steer that he does not want in the least, and is surprised when the animal stays obstinately at home. People say my rheumatism, my forgetfulness, my poverty, et cetera, branding the steers they do not want instead of turning them out of the corral.

 

 When you really want something, brand it deeply with your own name and it will be yours.

 

 … but every one … shall keep himself to his own inheritance (Numbers 36:9).

 

What we brand as ours is important. Yet, how we brand ourselves is even more critical to our welfare and drives what we brand as ours. It also determines our ultimate success. If we don’t really believe we deserve happiness and joy, it will escape us. Whether due to some past or current mistake or weakness; insecurity about our motives or goodness; or lack of self respect foisted on us by others; our negative opinion of ourselves is the foundation of our negative outlook and actions toward life and others. 

 

 That is why we must accept the truth that God loves us unconditionally. That is not to say that we should ignore, gloss over or rationalize our faults. In fact, the exact opposite is true. That is what the season of Lent gives us the opportunity to do. To look inside and identify those traits we need to bury. Yet even with these faults, God loves us and desires the best good for us. It is that unconditional love that gives us the ability and the obligation to claim the best for ourselves and those we love. So, when we claim something, let us be sure that it fulfills God’s wish that we rejoice and be glad in all things.

 

Staking a claim to joy and health,

 

Z gardener

 

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Tackling That Bugabear

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

    When what seems an especially difficult problem or a great emergency presents itself, many students of the Truth start by thinking, “This is very serious,” and then proceed to brace themselves mentally for a supreme effort; and plan to pray exceedingly “hard” in order to meet the difficulty.

 
All this is quite wrong. It simply builds up the problem into something far bigger that it was originally. The right attitude, the one that brings Victory, is to think “God can and will solve this problem.”
 
Instead of speaking the Word from the low altitude of fear and limitation, and trusting to effort to magnify the Lord, stop thinking of the problem altogether, and rise in consciousness. Having now attained a higher level – speak the Word gently from that level, and your problem will be solved.
 
For the word of God is quick, and powerful … (Hebrews 4:12).
 
The real question is “do we really believe God can and will solve this problem for our best good?” A flood of other questions may reveal our true feelings and/or can obscure the truth about God solving our problems and turning them to blessings. Questions like; “But how can this awful mess turn out well,” or “how can this be good when I don’t want it to happen,” or  “I messed this up so bad, how can it possibly turn out for my best good”. These type questions are rational, but they belie a lack of faith in God’s promise.
 
The better questions to ask are ones like, “how would I feel if I knew this was going to be for my best good,” or “Where is the blessing hidden in this pain,” or even, “What lesson am I supposed to learn from this to become better.”. Such questions as these assume God’s best good and anticipate the benefits flowing from our current problem or challenge. It is when we know that God has our best interest at heart that we can say quietly and confidently that “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
 
Looking for the blessing,
 
Z gardener

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