Good Morning Garden

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).

Prayer without feeling and conviction is of no more value than shouting at a rock. Simply adding more words, increasing the frequency or the volume of our prayers is vanity, not faith. God knows what we need before we know to ask for it. The key to successful prayer is to ask calmly and fervently for the help we need if it is God’s will, and then accept that the answer will come and that it will be for our best good. Then, go about living in the garden with hope and confidence that God loves us and is control.

Accepting the answer,
Stan

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Read Matthew 6:16-23.

If your consciousness is right, that is, if you have a good understanding of God as the loving Source of your boundless supply, you will always be able to demonstrate whatever money or goods you may require. You cannot want for anything when once you truly realize that in divine Mind demand and supply are one. And, on the contrary, until you do realize this, you never will be really safe from want. In the long run, no one can retain what does not belong to him by right of consciousness, nor be deprived of that which is truly his by the same supreme title.

If you are looking to outer, passing, mutable things for either happiness or security, you are not putting God first. If you are putting God first in your life, you will not find yourself laboring under undue anxiety about anything, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21).

Take a minute to think about where we spend our money and what we spend it on. Are we spending our resources to support a lifestyle of big homes, fancy cars and other material things? Or, are we expending our resources on things which lift us up spiritually and help those around us. And for those of us who are investing in material things, how is it working out for us. Are we under undue anxiety each day in work we don’t enjoy, in an environment that is bad for us, in order to support a lifestyle that is not good for us or our families? For those of us who are investing our resources in things that help others, provide reasonable comfort for us and draws us closer to God, what are the fruits of those decisions. Are we having our needs, and those of others met in a life that is free of undue stress and fear?

Taking inventory,
Z gardener

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Really there are only two feelings that a human being can have, namely love and fear. It is generally supposed that the kinds of feeling we may have are legion, but this is an illusion. All other feelings, so-called, will turn out upon analysis to be either love or fear.

What about anger? Well, anger is really but fear in disguise. In chemistry we occasionally find the same substance occurring under completely different appearances. For example, black lead is exactly the same substance chemically as a diamond, different as they look. They are said to be allotropic forms of carbon. In the same way, anger, hatred, jealousy, criticism, egotism, are but allotropic forms of fear.

Joy, interest, the feeling of success and accomplishment, the appreciation of art, are allotropic forms of love. The great difference between the two feelings is that love is always creative, and fear is always destructive. It is for us to decide which of these two feelings shall hold sway in our lives.

God is love; and he that dwelleth in God, and God in Him (1 John 4:16).

When we dwell in love, all things happen for our best good. Our path is lit, our steps are guided and we are able to abide in our gardens with hope, peace and confidence. Then our feelings will reflect all of the fruits of love.

Picking fruit,
Z gardener

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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).

It may sound simplistic to express such serious concern over what could be interpreted as mere phraseology. That is where human logic and perception fail us. Except for God’s power, there is nothing more powerful than our thoughts, which become our words that manifest themselves in our actions. The Bible reminds us that our sins originate in our hearts(thoughts and feelings). Similarly, so do our mistakes, such as claiming a disease or problem. Thoughts and words are powerful things and should be used wisely and with respect for their power.

Claiming the good,
Stan

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Who has not at some time or other planted a bulb and enjoyed the pleasure of waiting for the plant to appear and develop, and ultimately produce the glorious flower itself? Notice here that you naturally plant the bulb and expect the flower – the hyacinth or the crocus – to follow. No sane person would dream of planting the flower and expecting a bulb to come up; yet in our general life many of us do just that! We expect to begin with the flower. We think that we shall have desirable states of mind or body – happiness, freedom, health – if only we can change outer conditions in some way. Yet this is really trying to plant a flower, because we are trying to put effect before cause.

The law of the universe is thought first, and then expression; and never can this law be reversed.

Let all things be done decently and in order (Corinthians 14:40).

Let us spend each day planting the seeds that will become in time the gardens we live in.

Planting,
Z gardener

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We live in the Presence of God. The Bible says, In him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). This limitless Power, which is Intelligence and Love—God—can be contacted at any time by turning to Him in thought, and allowing Him to fill our hearts. Whenever we do this He at once begins to influence our lives for peace and harmony and freedom.

A party of shipwrecked sailors were drifting in an open boat on the Atlantic Ocean. They had no water, and were suffering agonies from thirst. Another small boat came within hailing distance, and when the shipwrecked mariners cried out for water, the newcomers said, “ let down your bucket.” This sounded like cruel mockery. But when the advice was repeated several times, one of the sailors dipped the bucket overboard—and drew up clean, fresh, sparkling water!

For several days they had been sailing through fresh water and did not know it. They were out of sight of land, but off the estuary of the Amazon, which carries fresh water many miles out to sea.

Closer is he than breathing; nearer than hands and feet. —Tennyson

We often act on fear and ignorance without actually trying to determine the true nature of our challenges. Its like the child who nearly drown trying to swim, only to put down their foot to touch the bottom. When faced with a problem or threat, first take a rational look at it, truly determine the full nature of it and then put you foot down or lower your bucket. Then ask for God to help and act as if that help is immanent. God will do the rest.

Feet down,
Z gardener

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