Good Morning Garden

You think, and your thoughts materialize as experience, and thus it is, all unknown to yourself as a rule, that you are actually weaving the pattern of your own destiny, here and now, by the way in which you allow yourself to think, day by day and all day long.

Your fate is largely in your own hands. Nobody but yourself can keep you down. Neither parents, nor wives, nor husbands, nor employers, nor neighbors; nor poverty, nor ignorance, nor any power whatever can keep you out of your own when once you have learned how to think.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

What are we turning ourselves into by the way we think today? Are we becoming more gentle, peaceful, loving, kind and tolerant. Are out thoughts paving the way to success, hope, joy and glory? Do our actions today create a future that is lived out in the garden God created for us?

Thinking with discernment,
Z gardener

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There is an anecdote of the Far West that carries a wonderful lesson. It appears that a party of hunters, being called away from their camp, left the campfire unattended, with a kettle of water boiling on it.

Presently an old bear crept out of the woods, and, seeing the kettle with its lid dancing about on top, promptly seized it. The boiling water scalded him badly; but instead of dropping the kettle instantly, he proceeded to hug it tightly;this being a bear’s idea of defense. Of course, the tighter he hugged it the more it burned him; and the more it burned him the tighter he hugged it; and so on in a vicious circle to the undoing of the bear.

This illustrates perfectly the way in which many people hug their difficulties to their bosoms by constantly rehearsing them to themselves and others.

Whenever you catch yourself thinking about your grievances, say to yourself sternly: “Bear hugs kettle,” and think about God instead. You will be surprised how quickly some long-standing wounds will heal.

Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord. (Psalm 25:15).

How much energy would we save; how many mistakes would we prevent; how much happier would we be if we let go of our grievances. When faced with difficulty, think God, thank God and then let go and let God.

Letting go,
Z gardener

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Man is a mental being, and to know this is the first step on the road to freedom and prosperity, for as long as you believe yourself to be primarily physical, a superior kind of animal, you will remain in bondage; in bondage, that is to say, to your own habits of thought, for there is no other bondage.

Since you are a mental being, you will see how foolish it is for you to endeavor to improve your conditions by altering your environment while leaving your mind unchanged. To attempt this is to foredoom yourself to disappointment. Mind is cause, and experience is effect. If you do not like the experience or effect that you are getting, the obvious remedy is to alter the cause and then the effect will naturally alter too.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. (Matthew 23:26).

The first step in any action we take is mental. All else is merely a reflection of that which we think and feel. Even our very ability to perceive and experience our world emanates form the non-physical/mental/spiritual aspect of our existence. As within, so without.

First, we think,
Z gardener

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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)

Aside from the ability to resolve new problems, just think of the blessed relief this process provides from long-standing issues that nag at our daily life. Just think of the freedom from burdened thoughts, the improvements to the quality of our daily lives and the renewed joy and peace we enjoy when we limit our treatment of our problems to times of prayer. And one last thing, just think of the increased prayer time such treatment creates, as we spend more time with God in the place where no evil can harm us.

Just think!
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.

How much better we feel when unburdened by the anger caused by those who have offended us, how much our souls are quickened; our steps lightened and our hearts lifted. Its like un-hitching ourselves from a hundred pound anchor we have been dragging. Suddenly, instantly and immediately we move with ease, our souls lifted and our thoughts free to experience gratitude, joy and peace.

Un-hitched,
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.

We all carry the keys to the prisons of our resentment. Only we can put them in the locks and open the doors. No matter how justified our resentment, it still denies us our freedom. May we all swing open the doors of forgiveness today and ask God’s help to forgive all that have hurt us, and ask forgiveness from those we have hurt.

Come, sweet freedom,
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.

Brothers and sisters, today let us throw off the chains that bind us to our hurts. Let us each one fully, freely and faithfully release all our negative feelings about those who have; hurt or harmed us; said done or thought things against us; judged condemned or wished ill upon us; and especially let us forgive those we love who have hurt our feelings or disappointed us.

Free at last,
Z gardener

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Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us (Matthew 6:12).

This clause is the turning point of the Prayer. It is the strategic key. Having told us what God is, what man is, how the universe works, how we are to do our own work, what our true nourishment or supply is, and the way in which we can obtain it, he now comes to the forgiveness of sins.

The forgiveness of sins is the central problem of life. Sin is a sense of separation from God, and is the major tragedy of human experience. It is, of course, rooted in selfishness. It is essentially an attempt to gain some supposed good to which we are not entitled in justice. It is a sense of isolated, self-regarding, personal existence; whereas the Truth of Being is that all is One. Our true selves are at one with God, undivided from Him, expressing His ideas, witnessing to His nature. Because we are all one with the great Whole of which we are spiritually a part, it follows that we are one with all men.

Evil, sin, the fall of man, in fact, is essentially the attempt to negate this Truth. We try to live apart from God. We act as though we could have plans and purposes and interests separate from Him. All this, if it were true, would mean that existence is not one and harmonious, but a chaos of competition and strife. But, of course, it is not true, and therein lays the joy of life.

Forgiveness is the gateway to joy. Without forgiveness, both given and received, we deny ourselves access to one of God’s most precious spiritual gifts; joy. Freely given, forgiveness breaks the chains that shackle us to the negative emotions we allow in ourselves. Freely sought, forgiveness releases us from the bondage of guilt for those things we have done or left undone that haunts us.

Z gardener

Author’s Note: A new brother joins us in the garden today bringing us the blessings of a sweet spirit. He dispenses the truth to those with eyes to see and lifts those around him with his humor and kindness. Welcome to the garden brother.

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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 with 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.

When we loose the bonds of yesterday and break the shackles of tomorrow, we are then freed to live in the liberty of now. We are released in order to breathe the joy of life, free from past guilt and future foreboding. Our burdens of self-judgement and self-recrimination are lifted as we float unbound in the sublime present. In this state, God feeds us the bread of life and reveals pure joy, peace and grace.

Carpe Diem,
Z gardener

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The common mistake, of course, is to suppose that a formal recognition of God is sufficient, or that talking about divine things is the same as possessing them; but this is exactly on a par with supposing that looking at a tray of food, or discussing the chemical composition of sundry foodstuffs, is the same thing as actually eating a meal. It is this mistake that is responsible for the fact that people sometimes pray for a thing for years without any tangible result. If prayer is a force at all, it cannot be possible to pray without something happening. Pray regularly and quietly; remember that in all mental work, effort or strain defeats itself; then presently, the realization will come.

Another reason why the symbol of bread for the experience of the Presence of God is such a telling one, is that the act of eating food is essentially a thing that must be done for oneself. No one can assimilate food for another. In the same way, the realization of the Presence of God is a thing that no one else can have for us.

For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness (Psalm 107:9).

The relationship between God and mankind is summarized by offer and response. God created and offers mankind a wonderful world that provides for all our needs in a place of beauty and peace. It is our job to respond to that offer by living according to God’s will in harmony and joy.

Claiming the bread,
Z gardener

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