The Force is with you!

The miracles of Jesus were 'natural demonstrations of divine power,' a force available to any one with correct knowledge. In Religious Science we conceive of God as personal, present and active in the governance and organization of the world and the universe. Man and the universe as a whole are spiritual rather than material in nature and that truth and good are real, whereas sin and error are illusory aspects of material existence; our small mind's mistaken thinking. Like Christian Scientists we believe that through prayer, knowing and understanding God, all things are possible for good.

Take away the idea of God and replace it with Universal Energy. Thought has energy, according to Quantum Physicists, beliefs, have the power to heal or to kill you.  Are you ready to put this into action and demonstrate the miracles of "divine power" or "mind power?"

A tall order - part of my mind responds! Yes, a high aspiration maybe but having read Christian Science healings I know it is possible. Miracles do happen by invoking a Higher Power in which we have deep conviction. If so, why are we not all getting on board with these beliefs and testing it out for ourselves, seeing proof, demonstrating healing and seeing our lives expand in joy, love and success.
The collective consciousness seems to believe that the material world is most real. Ideas of God are accepted to occupy a limited space in the rhythm of people's lives. What can we trust, ancient texts and stories? Quantum Physics, a new and far fetched theory? Or can we trust an innate knowing or sense of something greater than ourselves? 83 percent of Americans claim to belong to a religious denomination but how many actively engage this higher power in their daily life? It can be called upon, felt, known and experienced in the blink of an eye. You might as well believe in something positive as something negative. Court the presence of optimism, call on the guidance of a Higher Power, be still and know. Release doubt and worry and striving. At least experiment with patience and trusting and see what ensues. Do your own exploration. You have nothing to loose but your stress!!!

Let these words be true...

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? From the Sermon on the Mount, Mathew's Gospel

No Atheists in Foxholes

The statement "There are no atheists in foxholes" is an aphorism used to argue that in times of extreme stress or fear, such as when participating in warfare, all people will believe in or hope for a higher power.
So says Wikipedia.

For me, already far from an atheist, the challenge is to turn to that Source in times of stress and not to the mainstream thinking or material evidence. Its easy to be faithful, to meditate, to pray, to give thanks when times are good, its when they appear to have gone awry that I am amazed how fear shakes my foundations. At least initially my reaction can be despair, depression, helplessness. Its not unusual and not permanent, in the same way as all things that come to pass.
I realize in stressful times it is the opportunity to double my practices, to look at my faith and reacquaint myself with my beliefs. It is an opportunity to put into practice all the tools I have honed in good times and to remind myself I have a ready tool kit. Once the initial shock at the new circumstance wains enough, I can, from a place of calm and not panic, see more clearly the way to proceed. I am never helpless. Help is available to me everywhere I turn, my loving friends, my church, my journaling, my inner wisdom, the still small voice which I court in in silence. I simply ask for guidance and wait expectantly for the way to be revealed as I act on the inspiration that comes to me. This I am grateful for even as I am patient and trusting in the process. Impatience is distrust, so I allow the Truth to unfold in the right timing.

As John Milton poetically said "God does not need either man's work, or his own gifts: ..... They also serve, who only stand and wait."

God, or as I see it "Love, Health, Prosperity" reveal themselves in time as we attend to what is ours to do.  What is in front of you right now? Dishes in the sink, a pile of paperwork, phone calls to make, then attend to them and let God attend to the big picture. Trust in the Greater yet to be and observe its revelation in time!

Prosperity

How do you know when you are prosperous? What is the measure you use? What I can  identify when I give it thought  is a feeling of freedom, to feel unrestricted and to have choices.
Yet I can already see areas in my life where I have a feeling of freedom and choice. I put the laundry in the washing machine, I turned a dial and walked away, I wrote a blog and returned to clean clothes. There is freedom, thank God I didn't have to wash them by hand.
One thing that astounded me when I came to the US first was the supermarkets. So many choices in cough medicine!
I eat three varied meals a day. I am already flourishing, with freedoms women have rarely enjoyed before in history and still don't in many countries. I can forget how prosperous I already am.

The dictionary definition of prosperity is a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, especially in financial respects; good fortune.

 

Finances! Well when it comes to that... what number on a bank account will suffice to feel prosperous? Its a loaded question, loaded with shoulds! You should have so much for retirement, you should have savings enough to be able to live without a job for 6 months, you should bla bla bla! Its nice to have those things but some people who have them don't feel prosperous - there's the fear of loss, of stock market fluctuations, still the fear of not having enough can preside like a dark cloud over the mind.

 

Balance in all things and FAITH has to be the middle ground in this thing called prosperity. Good stewardship, trust in the infinite abundance of the source within and around us, and gratitude for what we already are and have. Our security is not in the bank account of the financial institution but in the bank account of Faith, faith and confidence in our creative selves and the universe that provides.What idea or inspiration have you been provided with lately but ignored ? Decide to take confident action today, mix in some love, faith and gratitude, and see how prosperous you feel!

Gratitude

Even if it seems we have little to be grateful for, we have a great reserve of faith to be grateful FROM! - Eric Butterworth



Today I am grateful for my friends who support me when I am most in need of an encouraging word and with whom I can share my joys and my frustrations. I am grateful for my family who are a constant in my day though they are far away, they are my rock and my center. I am grateful for my eyes so I can see colors and faces and the sky and the clouds, I am grateful for my ears to hear the voices of those I love, the caw of a crow or the laughter of a baby.

I am grateful for my legs to walk across a room, my hands to type, to sew, to paint, to comb my hair and touch textures and silk and skin. I am grateful for my arms to hug and reach for things and extend the hand of friendship. I am grateful for my home, my warm dry bed to sleep in, my chair to sit in and a lamp that allows me to read late at night. I am grateful for the comforts and conveniences of electricity and water from a faucet, mail delivery, my car, the radio.

I am grateful for my mind, curious and flexible and always learning more. I am grateful for my heart that circulates my blood and keeps me alive to experience this next moment and works hard for me every minute. I am grateful for my lungs, my organs and bones that allow me to function in the world. I am grateful I woke up this morning. I am grateful for my health and my really exceptional unexceptional life.

I realize I am fortunate beyond many in this world today, many who experience loss and ill health and poverty and mental illness, natural disasters, oppressive regimes. Someone today will die of hunger or spend the entire day searching for a clean water source. My trouble seem so little from their perspective.

Though things may not be today how you would want them to be, there is much to be grateful for. Take a moment to remember what they are.

"The grateful person is great because he has turned on all the lights within." Butterworth

Bliss sounds good today!

"My mind is a center of Divine operation. The Divine operation is always for expansion and a fuller expression, and this means the production of something beyond what has gone before, something entirely new, not included in the past experience, though proceeding out of it by an orderly sequence of growth. Therefore, since the Divine cannot change its inherent nature, it must operate in the same manner in me; consequently, in my own special world, of which I am the center, it will move forward to produce new conditions, always in advance of that have gone before." Judge Thomas Troward


This is a very powerful passage from The Dore Lectures by a formative voice of the New Thought movement, Judge Troward. He describes in his lectures the vortex of energy we create with our thoughts, which acts as a magnet for the things we keep our minds on. This describes what we currently refer to as the Law of Attraction, your level of vibration is the level at which you attract experiences to you.

At first this may strike you as a bit frightening if you know you have been letting the negativity of the present economic ideas take hold in your mind. Empowering if you have taken control of the focus of your mind and placed your attention on the infinite power and abundance of the universe. Can you picture the outward expression of these two choices? I can and I'd rather imagine the latter.

I think of the number of leaves on an oak tree, just one old oak tree or the grains of sand on a beach, numbers big or small make no difference in the universal infinite. The abundance cannot be counted.

In 1912 Genevieve Behrend took herself to England to study with Troward. This cost her a few shillings as you might imagine, $20,000 to be exact. This is what she felt she needed to follow her dream to be his student. She used the quote above as her daily mantra for six weeks and manifested all that she needed to make her dream a reality. As they say, it works if you work it and Miss Behrend really workd it. You can read her story in a little book called 'Your Invisible Power.' In Religious Science we call it "treating ( treating our minds or affirming what is Divinely True ) and moving your feet." Miss Behrend returned to America and opened schools on both coasts. Belief must be expressed in manifestation otherwise it is useless knowledge we hold on an intellectual level. Believing, we must take the steps directly before us.

"It ( the great impersonal power ) is intelligent and we are intelligent, and the two intelligences must co-operate. We must not fly in the face of the Law expecting it to do for us what it can only do through us; and we must therefore use our intelligence with the knowledge that it is acting as the instrument of a greater intelligence; and because we have this knowledge we may and should cease from all anxiety as to the final result." Behrend