Good Morning Garden

Never look back. Always go right ahead. Even if you are quaking, go right ahead. Jesus said the man who puts his hand to the plow and then turns back, is not worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. He also said: Remember Lot’s wife (Luke 17:32).

No matter how unattractive or how dangerous the road ahead may be, it is better than the road back. The road ahead may be veiled from sight – but you must teach yourself to regard the unknown as friendly. Remember that God is always on the road ahead.

…cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee (Psalm 143:8).

We all have done things we regret and would change if we could. The best way to address such feelings is to shape and inform our future actions by our past experiences. When we live in the present and look forward to those things we can do today and tomorrow, we take control of our present lives and shape our futures. Further, when our thoughts, words and deeds reflect God’s will in our lives, we ensure today’s joy and tomorrow’s promise. While we may not know where God’s road may lead us, we can know with certainty that it will be the right place when we arrive.

On God’s road,

Z gardener

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Nothing is really worth worrying about. Nothing is really worth getting angry or hurt or bitter about. Positively nothing is worth losing your peace of mind over.

These important truths follow logically upon the following fact: you are going to live forever – somewhere. This means that there is plenty of time to get things right again if they have gone wrong. No matter what mistake you may have made, enough prayer will overtake it and cancel it. If those you love seem to be acting foolishly, you can help them with prayer to be wiser, and, meanwhile, if they suffer, it means that kindly nature is teaching them a lesson that they need to learn.

But suppose something awful should happen? Well, what then? Suppose you lost everything and landed in the poorhouse. What then? Think what a wonderful demonstration you could make there, and you would probably learn several valuable lessons there, and, anyway, it would be quite interesting. Suppose the whole universe blew up. What then? When the dust settles, God will still be in business and you will be alive somewhere, ready to carry on.

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved (Psalm 55:22).

Worry is emotional rust. It eats away at our spiritual structure and weakens our faith with doubt and fear. Especially, we should not worry about things that haven’t happened, and if bad things do happen, worry is not the response that will rise to the challenge. While it is co mforting to know that we will exist for eternity, living happily in the here and now is our daily duty to ourselves, our God and those around us. By turning our attention to God and seeking the divine will in our lives, we ensure that the here and now is filled with joy and gladness. We can also rest assured that tomorrow and all the tomorrow’s will be reflections of God’s power in our lives. Then our spiritual structure will be sound and our faith secured.

Faithfully,

Z gardener

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Perhaps the second best prayer ever written is the Scotsman’s Prayer – “Lord give us a good conceit of ourselves.” You cannot have too much respect for yourself. You cannot have too much confidence in yourself. You cannot claim too much for yourself. But remember that you must realize these things as being the expression of God in you and not independent qualities of your own. You must also accept them as being true for every other human being.

Nothing but failure can come of self-depreciation. Of course, it is true that some people can get the malady called “swelled head” – and this ends in a fall – but the realization of one’s divine selfhood never gives swelled head. It gives wisdom, balance, poise, and steady progress. Think, talk, live your divine, glorious selfhood, and it will demonstrate itself in your life.

I have said, Ye are Gods; and all of you are children of the most High (Psalm 82:6).

How many of us truly believe what is written above? Do we really think that we are expressions of God’s consciousness in the physical world? Are we really the temples of God’s presence here in the physical realm? When accept the answer to these questions, we will then have true self-respect and we will then feel true value and meaning in our lives.

As mere animals feeding our cravings and seeking our own comfort, we are but the sum all we have consumed and discarded. As the living breathing manifestation of God’s will in the physical realm, we are infinitely valuable, good and worthy.

Being the temple,

Z gardener

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God has no office hours. There is never a time when God is unavailable. Day or night, summer or winter, God is always present; always ready to heal, to comfort, to inspire. It is not possible that you could turn to God in prayer without receiving help.

The one thing required of you is that you shall turn to Him wholeheartedly, and that you shall expect Him to act. The greater the emergency, the easier will it be to demonstrate. The most powerful of all prayers is simply “Be still, and know that I am God.”

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose hearts is perfect toward him. (2 Chronicles 16:9).

In the words of Simon and Garfunkel, “When your lonely; feeling small. When tears are in your eyes, I’ll dry them all”. God is always there to be with us, to heal us and to comfort us. One can not be small or alone when filled with God’s spirit and power. To be filled, we must accept and believe that God is with us and acting on our behalf in all things. Then, “like a bridge over troubled waters.” God will bear us up, take our hands and lead us beside the still waters to the Eden he made for us. There, he will “lay us down” in green pastures by the still waters and will restore our souls. There, goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. There, we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Being still,

Z gardener

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He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears (Proverbs 26:17).

If, when those around you are talking negatively about something or someone, you chip in with your contribution, you are taking a strange dog by the ears – so look out! If you get emotionally entangled in what is not your affair, through indignation, self-righteousness, hatred, or otherwise, you have seized the dog again – and he will bite. And even to think negatively concerning such matters in the secret chamber of your own heart, will bring you proportionate and natural punishment.

It is always right to think rightly about any person or situation, and if you do this many opportunities will come to you to help people practically, without any breach of law, and without coming near the dangerous dog.

How many dog bites have we endured because we failed to heed this proverb’s wisdom? This is not to say that we should deny help to those around us. It simply means we should be sure that such strife is actually our business. When we have rightly determined that it is our dog, then we ensure that our actions and motives emanate from love and manifest themselves in right behavior. If our thoughts and actions condemn, judge, hurt or tear down, then we can be assured to be bitten by the strife which we adopted. When our desire is to help, our actions will lift up, heal and nurture the object of our attention. Love is the antidote to strife.

Petting the right dog,

Stan

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When you make a cake, you know that whatever you put into your mixing bowl will appear in the cake itself, and, on the other hand, that unless a particular substance does go into the mixing bowl, it cannot appear in the finished article.

The thoughts and beliefs that fill our minds ultimately appear in the cake of experience, and to realize this is to save oneself a lot of trouble. No one puts kerosene in the mixing bowl because no one wants it in the cake, for everyone knows that, if it does enter the bowl, in the cake it will be.

…They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same (Job 4:8).

The truth of this is summed up in the statement “as within, so without”. Each thought and emotion we allow in ourselves manifest themselves in our lives. When we feel fear, doubt, anger or hurt, if we replace those thoughts and feeling with thoughts of God, they will subside. If we continue to do so, they will stop. When experiencing any negative thought or feeling always think, “God is with us, God is guiding us and God is filling us with and surrounding us with his peace, joy and love”. The more we practice this, the better it works. When perfected, it will relieve us of all habits that allow negativity within and its expression without.

Z gardener

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It is your duty to God to run your life on intelligent lines. God gives us all as much intelligence as we can possibly need, but, unfortunately, in most cases we use very little of it.

Ask yourself today if you are really conducting your life intelligently. Are you eating and drinking intelligently? Do you select your reading intelligently? Do you spend your money intelligently? Do you consider intelligently the things that you hear, or do you just accept them uncritically? Do you exercise intelligence in carrying out your daily work? Do you seek to approach each new problem with intelligence instead or mere emotions?

Have you intelligent plans for the future? Do you know what you would really like to do or to be, and if not wouldn’t it be only intelligent to go to work and find out and then draw up an intelligent plan for gaining your desire?

The world needs more intelligence. There is plenty of will, but because people will not use enough intelligence, mankind everywhere is in difficulties. Your intelligence is the light of God in your soul.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5)

Just think. If we do that we are probably ahead of most people. People just don’t think intelligently enough and some don’t think at all. They “just do it”. For instance, if we thought about anger and all the negative things that flow from it, we would probably be angry less. If we think instead about God’s instruction that we love our neighbor as ourselves, we would certainly be more likely to forgive those who anger us. This would enable us to turn or anger into something positive. Just think! The possibilities for positive change are endless.

Z gardener

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           In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, you will remember that God creates by “letting.” God said “let,” at every act of creation, and it was done. Now God creates by means of you if you will let him, but you must let.  Someone said, “Let go and Let God,” and this is a wonderful recipe for overcoming fear or getting out of a tight place. In any case, the rule for creation is always to let.

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