Spiritual Solutions

You are God’s precious creation. Yet many people have feelings of inferiority, feelings of inadequacy, and a sense of unworthiness. If you have ever had a feeling of inferiority or unworthiness, then let me tell you this, you are not alone. Everyone at some time has these feelings and most persons have this as a plaguing thing that just goes on all the time, a secret fear that people will see what he or she is really like.

There is a need for an attitude of self-appreciation. There is a need for an attitude of self-acceptance, a need to know that you are worthy. It is important to know that if you are worthy to draw breath, you are worthy of the divine flow of life. You are worthy of continuous love. You are worthy of all the forgiveness that life can give.

So, hold your head up high, be open and receptive to the constant flow of God life within you. The divine flow in you is always eager and ready and willing to pour forth in you with the sufficiency of all your needs, and all you have to do is to accept it. You are a child of the Universe, worthy to receive your good.

Many years ago, when I was in the British Royal Navy and serving on a cruiser in the East Indies, as we sailed the Indian Ocean I would look up at the night sky and marvel at the stars which in that deep velvet darkness looked like huge brilliant jewels in the vastness of the Universe.

It’s a sight that has stayed in my mind and prompts me to recall one of the most profound insights of all time that came to the Psalmist:

“When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hand; thou hast put all things under his feet.” (Ps. 8:3-6)

Certainly, on the daily, human level, much of this is not true. Some of the time, we are the victim of our circumstances. But there is that of us which is greater than circumstances. There is that in us that stands taller than littleness. There is that which is stronger than our weakness, wiser than our folly, better than our deeds, and holier than our creeds.

The inner world of the self is immeasurable. There is more to you than a body, more than a personality. There is a whole of you that transcends all the parts and cannot be seen by adding them all together. There is always something more. You are better than you think you are!

There is a need for the all-important attitude of faith; faith in yourself, faith in the cosmic flow of life in, through, and as you. Happiness consists in living life from within out, knowing that you are good enough right where you are. You are God’s precious creation!

And remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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You have a healing power deep within your soul!

You are a child of God, a child of the Universe, an individualized expression of the Most High. In God you live and move and have your being; in the Universe you live and move and have your being. God dwells within you; the Universe dwells within you. The whole Universe walks with you; you do not walk the path of your life alone. The Universe is dynamically involved in you; its dynamic flow is always expressing as you. Thus you are always in touch with the flow of healing power.

Once you capture the idea that you are a whole creature, a child of the Universe, the very expression of the Universal stream of life, you will not be satisfied until you find improvement in health. As one example of this dynamic connection, Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, after a medical verdict that she only had a few months to live from terminal tuberculosis, got in touch with the flow of healing life and went on to live a full life for more than forty years.

It has been said that God is a circle whose center is everywhere. Know that God is a circle that is centered in you. All the attributes of the Infinite are in focus as you, flowing forth through you. You are in this flow right now. Indeed, you are this flow at the point where you are. Thus you are a child of the Universe, a Son or Daughter of God.

Meditate on this tremendous insight. It means that you are created in the image-likeness of an infinite idea. No matter what other influences may have left their mark on you from the outside, there is that of you that is begotten only of God, which is forever the divine flow from the inside.

You can be healed. You can be healed because you are whole! You have a healing power deep within your soul. Appearances may limit your judgment and your faith but the fundamental Truth remains: you are a child of the Universe, and spiritually you can never be cut off from the stream of life, what Solomon (Song of Sol. 4:15) and Jesus called “living water” and “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:10, 14)

Early in the morning, take a few moments to “wait on the Lord,” to get yourself plugged in as it were. You can even do this while you are still in bed, before you get involved in the day’s activities. The current of life is within you as always, but you need to consciously get your thoughts on the right side. First, focusing in on your breath, affirm for yourself, “With every breath I breathe, I breathe the breath of God, and I am healed.”

Then you can also affirm something like this: “I am in the flow of life itself, and I move easily with the flow. I am free from tension, stress, and strain and I go forward in the flow, unhurried and unworried. I am radiantly and enthusiastically alive.” Finally, affirm, “I am a child of the Universe, established eternally in the healing stream of life. I am strengthened, renewed, restored, and made whole in every way.”

You can be healed! Remember that the healing stream is constant, not present only when you affirm that it is working. The need is not to overcome illness, but simply to open up the way whereby you get into the eternal flow of life. You have a healing power deep within your soul. You have a healing power ready to unfold, right where you are.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)

In our last newsletter and blog post, we talked about the importance of the open door and the now moment, of clearing your mind of doubt and letting God direct your steps in how you spend each precious God-given day.

In this message, by no means do I want to diminish the importance of the open door and the now moment, but I do want to focus a little bit on the need for quiet, the need for silence, and periods where you can enjoy open areas of consciousness where you sit back and relax and just know your oneness.

We are living today in a period of speed and accomplishment, and we go more places and do more things in less time than at one time would seem imaginable. Without a doubt, it is the spirit of industry and ingenuity that has made our nation great. But I think we have come to the place where we must make a decision whether the machines and technology we have created are going to master us or whether we are going to master them; in other words, to dance to a little different drummer and keep ourselves in tune with the rhythm of the universe.

Whenever you feel that you have so much to do that you can’t possibly get it all done, then that is the very time to stop and take a break. If you go forward at this point, trying to do what you believe cannot be done, it is unwise and possibly dangerous. You have lost your focus, you are out of attunement, and you are out of the rhythm of life. And when you are out of rhythm then you are susceptible to all sorts of problems, accidents or anything else.

In a study a few years ago some specialists said that they were more concerned now, when a person had fallen and broken a bone, with why the person had become out of tune with the universe that caused the person to fall than the actual break in the bone. The idea behind this is that when a person is in tune on the inside with the rhythm of life, then there is always a compensating factor whereby he or she can adjust to the conditions on the outside.

If at any time you find yourself in a hurry, the need often is to pause for a moment; just allow yourself to get still and get yourself in tune, getting the thought of hurry and its related worry out of the mind.

There is a scripture that is helpful in these times: “In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” (Isa. 30:15 KJV)

Quietness would seem to suggest something soft and easy – but it really isn’t that at all. Quietness is strength. Only the really strong person can be quiet, and only the quiet person is really strong.

One of the great problems of the industrious, ambitious person is that he tends to cram his life full of every activity conceivable, and he prides himself on never having an idle moment. His or her philosophy often is, “Keep busy, get things done, do it now.”

The emphasis on “Do it now” sometimes keeps you in a rush and a bind and in a pressure, whereas sometimes to let things wait for a little while will allow the unfoldment of the divine process. The need is to rediscover the pleasure of the pause, the pause that refreshes.

Sometimes the most urgent need in the midst of a feeling of urgency is to pause and relax. Quite often we make rush and urgency such a habit that we come to a place where honestly we cannot really tell whether we are rushing because we feel things are urgent or whether we feel things are urgent because of the habit of rush.

The reason we feel so tense about things that must be done is that we are not realizing our inward resources through which they can be done easily and well. “Wait on the Lord.” Put off doing the thing so as to dispel the tension that results from urgency, and then let the subconscious mind help you to organize your ideas and solve the problem for you. If you plunge into a thing with the thought, “I must get it done immediately,” you are cutting yourself off from the creative flow, that subconscious creative activity that does much of the work for you.

All of us need to relearn the art of pausing, and it is an art which takes practice and skill. We need to practice the art of pausing, the art of doing nothing. We need to make time and not wait to find time. In this way we can, as someone has said, “Let our souls catch up with our bodies,” and get in tune with the rhythm of the universe. And let us resolve that we won’t be rushed, that we won’t necessarily “Do it now,” for as the prophet of Ecclesiastes puts it, “For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.” (Eccles. 3:1)

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. – Psalms 118:24

Each day is God’s special gift to you. Great things can happen as you become open to its possibilities.

In the Book of Revelation we read, “Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.” (Rev. 3:8) You could say that this door represents your eternal relationship with the Infinite, a divine desire to guide you in the complete unfoldment of your inherent potential.

Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way: “There is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so is there no bar or wall in the soul where man the effect ceases and God the cause begins. The walls are taken away; we lie open on one side to the depths of spiritual nature, to the attributes of God.”

All of us experience exalted moments of inspiration, at which times we see greater possibilities for ourselves and resolve to pursue some course of betterment. But often this resolve and this course fade because we do not feel that we have enough to begin. Or perhaps we have just tried something new and are disappointed in the outcome.

If you announce, after a seeming disappointment, “Well, there go my chances of success,” then that is the level of consciousness on which you will be working for the immediate future. Is that what you want to happen? You can close your heart and mind to life this way, but life never closes its doors to you!

No matter what happens in your life, do not forget the promise of the open door. No individual has the power to shut the door to the real source of your good; nothing can stand in your way. Feel the relentless spiritual power within you seeking to lead you to the perfect fulfillment of your uniqueness.

So, how will you spend this precious God-given day?

William James once advised: “Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain.” When an urge to do or to have something comes to us, we must get into our consciousness that it is but the vanguard of a train of ideas, abilities and substance – all that is needed to make the ideal a reality, the hope a fulfillment. The important thing is to get started; to begin is often half the battle.

Goethe wrote: “Are you in earnest? Seize this very moment; whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

If we want anything for ourselves we must accept it in our heart and mind now, today. Remember that there is no future tense in the eternal now of infinite mind. There will be no future time in which to know the truth or to make a demonstration. The only demonstration there is, ever was, or ever will be is God’s . . . and that is right now! Determine for yourself that now is the time.

Print that on a card – “Now is the acceptable time!” – and place it where you will be sure to see it every day. Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, used to say that any time is a good time to start doing something about a good idea. Remember that there is nothing futuristic about your oneness with God.

Build on this realization; affirm your unity, your oneness – not as something you might have, but as the very foundation of your life right now!  Affirm your wholeness now. Affirm that you are now in your right place. Affirm that you are right now God’s perfect child and are endowed with all the potentialities to be – right now – what you desire to be.

Whatever may be the problem confronting you, the door is open to the solution to it and to a greater good which no one can keep from you. Clear your mind of doubt and let God direct your steps.

As a final thought, let me share with you this poem by Hazel Thomas Wright:

The Door is Open

Be still and know whatever may betide;
No door is closed but another opens wide;
A door that opens to a boundless view
Of blessings, rich in promise, vital, new;
Blessings more wonderful than you have known.
Dare to step through the door and claim your own!
Keep clear your inner vision, thus to see
The good awaiting you, and constant be.
Face each new venture with a joyful song;
Lift up your head and heart, be valiant, strong,
With God as your protector, friend and guide,
No door is closed but that another opens wide.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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One of the most beautiful thoughts from the writings of the mystic medieval thinkers is the thought of the seventeenth century Carmelite monk, Brother Lawrence, “The Practice of the Presence of God.” But what does it really mean? And where do you practice the presence?

The practice of the presence of God is the consciousness that you live and move and have your being in God. It is taking the time to be still, to turn from the realization of inadequacy, of confusion, of sickness, to turn from the thought of being alone in a heartless universe, to get away from the idea that God is “out there” somewhere; to instead get the realization of your oneness, to know that you exist in God – I am in God, God is in me. Then, there is no separation.

True prayer is the realization that God manifests in you and in me as a presence, and the word “presence” means present here and now. God is always with you!

Practice that presence by turning from the outer sense of separation to an inner realization of oneness, of wholeness. Feel that you are alive and alert in the presence, that you are guided and directed in the presence and that you are free and whole and fulfilled in the presence.

Practicing the presence means to let go of all tendencies to look up or to reach out for something. Just be still and know your oneness. Let yourself feel the activity of this all enveloping presence, this universal essence which we call God that is in you, expressing through you and within you, and which has no other desire for you except to heal and guide you and fulfill you. Just be still and rest in this consciousness. Then you will practice the presence.

The practice of the presence of God is the consciousness that wherever you are, God is; whatever you do, you are in the presence of God. And it is a matter of turning instantly from an experience of conflict, from a momentary sense of insecurity, to a realization of oneness, of wholeness.

Practicing the presence is a beautiful idea, but it is probably like the study of music or any other artistic endeavor – it requires a great deal of practice in terms of the discipline and diligence of experiences of prayer and meditation. To paraphrase Emerson, he says that when you have broken with the God of tradition and destroyed the God of your intellect, then God fires you with His presence. In other words, you must let go of the God of your intellect and of the God of tradition.

Take time in the quiet of your home, perhaps in the early morning hours when you have awakened or the last thing before you go to sleep at night to just get still and feel the sense that you are in the presence, that you are surrounded and enfolded in this consciousness of love and of life and of substance and of intelligence which is God. It is this consciousness that can give one the real sense of preparation for life. It will give you the realization that you can go forth in life without any real concerns or any anxieties, truly confident, truly prepared in every way for all that may come.

Determine that you will no longer practice the absence of God; get the sense that every time you deal with God “out there,” you are practicing the absence of God. Certainly, every time you say as so many people do, “How could God allow this to happen? How could God allow this good person to suffer so?” you are practicing the absence of God. You are thinking of God as something “out there.”

It is important to get the understanding of God as a presence and an activity. God doesn’t will sickness or death or confusion. God is, and as the scriptures say, “Behold, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” There is a constant support of love and light and guidance forever within you that functions just as constantly as the force of gravity if we allow it, if we work with it, if we practice it.

So take the time right now. Just be still, close your eyes and practice the presence. You don’t have to tell God that you are doing this or what you need – the Father knows what things you have need of even before you ask. God is, and God is an activity in which you live and move and have your being. It is life supporting, loving, healing, harmonizing, ever with and around you, ever expressing as you. Practice it. Be still and know it. The go forth this day knowing that you are in the presence of God, that there is no way that you can be separated and, therefore, you know that this will be a good day.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Yesterday, when I went for my morning walk as the sun was rising, I became vividly aware of the wet grass shining and sparkling like millions of diamonds as they reflected the light of the sun. And the strong, solid trunks of the trees stood like sentinels over the moment.

I was struck by the beauty of the new day and all its possibilities. The early morning sun seemed to be reflected in the smiles and greetings of the people I met along the way, and as I walked I thought about each new day as being a new dawning in each of our lives.

Are you discouraged? Is your life monotonous and humdrum? If so, you are missing a great deal; let’s do something about it. If you look upon life as a routine experience, then today will probably be just another day to you.

Try greeting the new day with a smile. Let the dawning sun be reflected into the faces and the hearts of those with whom you come in contact.

Someone has said, “Nothing on earth can smile but a human being.”

Wet grass and gems may flash reflected light and catch our awareness, but what is this compared to the flash of the eye? Flowers cannot smile; this is a charm that even the loveliest blossoms cannot claim. It is the prerogative of a human being. Love, cheerfulness, joy, these three are like lights in the window by which the heart signifies it is at home and waiting. A face that cannot smile is like a bud that cannot bloom, that dries up on the stalk.

Consider each dawning of a new day as the beginning of new life for you. Know that not a single self-imposed limitation of yesterday can prevail in your new day. The world is yours. You have power within you to conquer every situation. Everything lies before you. As the Bible says, “I have put all things under your feet.” (Ps. 8:6) You stand right now, this very moment, at the threshold of opportunity.

Believe that each morning heralds a new existence for you. Can you think of yourself as being reincarnated each night, invested with new wisdom and strength, empowered with new might to accomplish whatever you set out to do?

Think of yourself as being brought into a new world with the blessing that everything that happens to you during the day is to contribute to your highest good. Think of yourself as having a charmed life, of bearing within you the essence of divinity, the power to do all things.

Have you wanted to meet new friends? You may have thought yourself weary of your old ones. What could be finer than seeing all friends as new friends? Such they will be when you look upon them with a fresh, understanding gaze.

Possibly, by the time you have gone through this day and night has arrived, you will think you could have improved upon your living of today. If that is the case, remember that tomorrow’s dawning will arrive with another fresh opportunity. Just be sure that you do not condemn yourself for your mistakes or failures of today. At tomorrow’s daybreak, another new life will unfold before you.

Do you not rather like this philosophy of a new world dawning every day? Do you not desire to live for an eternity, in order to see what these worlds have in store for you? This is what is necessary in order to live life to the fullest – you must see life in the right perspective; you must approach each day with an uplifted heart. You may think it looks pretty much the same as it did yesterday, that today presents just as many problems, that things look just as hopeless and discouraging, that today there is no clearer path to better things than there was yesterday. If that is the case, then you need to busy yourself with right thoughts.

Dismiss yesterday in your mind as nothing but an experience that held a helpful lesson. Start today with the idea that today is new, created for your use. Let today appear to you as much finer, a better potential for grating you blessing. Try thinking of today as the very best day of your life. Then, be happy and joyful in it. Set your mind and heart on your ability to take a new hold on life.

Your life is enriched to the extent that you live in the present. The present moment is the only time recognized by the spirit within you and the Creator of the universe. You must grasp opportunities right now. You must take a new hold on yourself now; you must enjoy your present blessings now.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Live now, right now. Let this be your new outlook: only the present contains true reality; only the present offers you opportunity. Fill your mind right now, today, with new ideas, ideals, and interests. And remember this: you are greater than any experience that comes to you. You are greater than any circumstance that seems to surround you or fill your life. You have the ability to solve your problem. Live in the world of today.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

The Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Are you bogged down in the belief in sickness and impotence? Then right now bring yourself to the present moment, and become aware that you can use your God given dominion over all things. God’s spirit of life, dynamic energizing life, dwells within you. It is there, and you have only to call it forth, put it into action, and you will begin to manifest perfect health in spirit, mind, and body.

Perhaps you have allowed yourself to be handicapped by fear and indecision. The first thing to do is to take your mind off the problem and perplexities and fix your faith in God. When you place your affairs in the Father’s loving care, all anxieties cease. Worrying incapacitates us for meeting life’s crises.

Use your faith, declare your dominion now. In II Corinthians 6:2 we read, “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” And Jesus said, “Do you not say, ‘There are four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest.” (John 4:35)

Instead of having faith that sometime in the future your healing might take place, you can exercise your faith now, give thanks that your healing is already taking place and accept it now. “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Ps. 118:24)

God is ever with you. Let Him quicken your mind, put the proper tools in your hands and lead you in the right decision. Through the guidance of the indwelling power of God you will be able to say the right word and do the right thing in every situation that may confront you.

If you seem to be weighed down by some circumstance, a steadfast faith in God will help you to lift up your head and to face the situation unafraid and confident. God’s omnipotent power is yours. God’s love surrounds you. His light is within you to guide you.

Perhaps you’ve allowed yourself to be fettered by hatred, resentment or suspicion. Turn your eyes instead upon the blessings of life and the blessedness of other human beings. If you feel that you’ve been treated unfairly, misused, or abused, it‘s time to exercise forgiveness. Then put it out of your mind. The only reality in any situation is the thought we have concerning it, the way we feel about it. This is the law of life.

“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely . . . think on these things.” (Phil. 4:8) Put the unpleasant thoughts right out of your mind by thinking of God’s goodness and greatness and love. Bless the person who has seemingly injured you. Behold the Christ in him or her.

Could it be that you have neglected the power of prayer? Prayer is the open sesame to the joys and riches of the kingdom, and yet we fail to use it.

Many marvelous answers to prayer have been outlined through the spontaneous faith of persons utterly unlearned in theology, psychology or metaphysics.

Remember the woman who came to Jesus for healing, hoping to push through the crowd to touch the hem of his garment without speaking or even being blessed by him? She probably knew nothing about the working of faith, but she had the secret of prayer. She had absolute faith, the courage to act, and the simplicity to accept. She used the necessary means. She believed if she could but touch the master, the healing would follow. And, confident in that faith, she pressed on, touched him, and was healed.

Simplicity of faith is the thing that always gets an answer, sometimes in the form of immediate, even seeming miraculous results. Sometimes, it may come slowly. Sometimes we lose patience and our faith grows weak. If we become faint hearted and fall back in our faith, then we must try again. Long years of wrong thinking, of imperfect practice, have often made deep grooves in the brain. It takes effort and continued practice before change.

Don’t be discouraged. Never give up. Keep faith in the latent powers within you. Remember those who have overcome insurmountable handicaps, and keep constantly in mind that you too can overcome. And you don’t have to wait. Whether your faith is small or great it is the key to riches of which you never dreamed. Remind yourself that “now is the acceptable time.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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“Guidance” is a common word in our day. Everyone seeks some kind of guidance: guidance for children, for adolescents, for marriage relationships, for the businessperson, and so forth. Occasionally, someone might suggest the idea of spiritual or “Divine” guidance.

Unfortunately, that suggestion may be looked upon with distrust, simply because the term “Divine guidance” is usually related to the magical, mystical or psychic. Yet there is an almost instinctive feeling in every person that there is a “Something” beyond personal prejudices, different from the mental state of worry and concern, and that this “Something” can be reached.

But this feeling for the “Something” has often been dealt with on the level of superstition. Thus, many persons look for guidance through a sign or leading, all the way from the flipping of a coin to reading the stars or the numbers, the cards, the tea leaves or the crystal ball, and then on to Indian guides and spirit readings. This is not to put down any of these pseudo-sciences, but rather to point up the fact that involvement in them is a subtle form of self put-down.

If any person evidences, even in a brief showing, some kind of inner direction or direct knowing, it is often identified as ESP or psychic phenomenon or spirit guidance. This is to malign our potential as a spiritual being, and to deny the inherent flow of guidance within us that is just as natural as the instinct of animals. Remember this dynamic statement from the book of Job: “There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding.” So why do we refuse to accept this inner knowing?

Maybe it is that religion has not really dealt with the whole of the person. The dictionary defines “religion” as “divine revelation for human guidance.” But most religions have become exteriorly oriented, dealing with God “out there” or “up there.” We may be told in impassioned sermons that our need is “to find God.” But God is not to be found – for God is not lost. 

It is not God’s hiddenness, but our blindness that is the problem. We live in a state of ceaseless guidance, in a field of Infinite knowingness, but we are blind and deaf to the process. Emerson says, “There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word.”

To find God, to understand God, we need to expand our thoughts to the realization of the omnipresence of God and then know, in the words of former Unity minister and author Eric Butterworth, “The whole of Spirit is present at every point in space at the same time, and in its entirety.” There is no distance between us and God. There is nowhere to go to get guidance or inspiration or creativity. We are in it, all of it, all the time!

Divine guidance, or spiritual guidance or “direct knowing” is the same as getting an immediate answer to prayer in time of need. It is but another way of explaining the work of intuition. The ancient wise ones called these occurrences “illumination.” The mystics called them “showings.” Many call them “leadings.” But again we lose the real idea if we see these things as some kind of special access to the inner secrets of the Universe, or some kind of psychism or divination.

The term “Voice of God” is purely a poetic expression. It is found all through the Bible.   And it has been terribly misleading for many people. The classic instance is Moses’ experience at the burning bush. “God called to him out of the bush: ‘Moses, Moses!’” This was an experience of direct knowing. The Bible writers used highly symbolic language and overstatement, such as describing locusts as big as giants that jumped from hill to hill. So they are saying in this passage about Moses that it was a knowing so clear that it was as if God was actually talking to him.

Remember, “The Father knows even before you ask Him”; “Before they call, I will answer.” This means that God is present – always and in all ways. God knows. God knows in you, for you. Knowing is, and it is at hand. It is now. The way out (the way to escape the difficulties at hand) is at hand.

But this guidance or direct knowing comes into consciousness most easily through a mind that is uncluttered with the known. If you know about a lot of things, it is difficult to know the Truth, which is to know the Knower. A creative mind, or a mind in a creative experience, is so involved in knowing that it lets go of what others know about, even if they know about things that indicate impossibilities.

Most people have preconceived notions which they bring into their prayer time. They have a strong idea of what they want to have happen, and often, even in seeking guidance they are actually looking for “Divine approval” of something they have already determined to do. To have the mind full of preconceived notions, even images and treasure maps representing outlined goals, is to frustrate the process of direct knowing.

The important thing to remember is that wherever you are, God is. The whole of Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is present in its entirety at every point in space at the same time. Spirit is present, as presence. All-knowing is present. The answer to your dilemma is present – here and now. There is nowhere to go, nothing to reach for, and no one to contact and plead with.

Prayer is communion, oneness, a listening. “Be still and know that I am God.” When you know that I AM is God, you humble yourself to listen; you expect to be guided. In childlike faith, you know the Knower within you that is always present.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Harry Houdini, a great escape artist in the early part of the twentieth century who claimed he could escape through any locked door of a cell, vault or submerged trunk in three and a half minutes, explained some of his escape methods in his memoirs.

In one very famous incident, he was challenged to get out of a state-of-the-art bank vault in London. All his clothing was checked before he went in the vault. But it was in his contract that any time he was going to do an escape exhibit; he was able to kiss his wife goodbye because he never knew if he was going to get out again. On this particular occasion as he kissed his wife goodbye, his wife passed a little wire from her mouth to his. So when he went down into the bank vault he had a piece of watch spring in his mouth and, when everyone left him to try to get out, he took the watch spring and started to pick the lock on that vault door.

Usually he could hear the clicks as he worked on a lock but this time after working on it for one minute, he didn’t hear any clicks. He was puzzled. He kept trying, but still no clicks and time was passing quickly.

He got to two minutes and thought, “I’m going to fail this; I only have a minute and a half left. All the press is here, it’s the height of my fame and here I am; I haven’t been able to do it yet.” Usually he would do it in half the time.

It got to three minutes and he was no closer. He was sweating profusely, so he reached in his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his forehead and attempt to open the lock in the last thirty seconds. As he pulled out the handkerchief, he accidently leaned against the vault door – and it opened! It wasn’t even locked. The people who put him in there had forgotten to lock the door.

But in his mind even though the door was not locked, until he leaned against it by accident, it was locked.

When we are facing obstacles in our lives we are often in that same state of mind; we think we are locked in to a particular state of being. And yet all we have to do is keep moving forward and push on that door, and we find that it wasn’t locked at all.

Freedom is always present, but we have to be willing to push the door; we have to discover that we can move through that obstacle, through that barrier, or under it, or over it, or around it. We have to keep moving forward.

In the year 1985, twenty-five years ago, I became a naturalized citizen of the United States at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia.

We drove our car up to Monticello from Roanoke, Virginia, where we lived and worked as ministers of Unity Church of Roanoke Valley. Forty-two members of our church rented a bus to take them to the ceremony; they all had little flags to wave for this very special occasion.

In the process of applying for citizenship, taking the required tests, and then attending the naturalization ceremony, I had some trepidation; I thought after all that preparation I may not get accepted as a citizen because I had lost my green card.

On becoming a naturalized citizen you have to surrender your green card, or alien registration card, before you can become a citizen. I could not find that card anywhere; it was not in my wallet in its usual place, and I scoured the house but couldn’t find it.

I said to Kathryn, “Well, let’s just go anyway. We’ll just go up there and see what happens. They may not take me, but we’ve got to follow through on this process.” So we went up there and there were people from a great many different countries coming into citizenship. Everyone was in line, getting their papers in order. The Daughters of the American Revolution were helping process the people and I saw everyone handing in their green card.

I got up there and the person before me said, “Have you got your green card?” And I responded, “I’m sorry, but I have mislaid it or lost it somewhere.” She said, “Oh! Well, don’t worry about it; if you find it you can send it in to us.” After all that concern it was so easily resolved.

Our fears often keep us from enjoying the freedom that is naturally ours. Things happen, but we need to know that our freedom can never really be taken away from us because the true freedom is within us.

We often think that things have to be let go of in order to have freedom; we can’t have freedom if we have sickness, we can’t have freedom if we’re tied to a certain job, we can’t have freedom if we’re not getting along with our spouse, or whatever it might be. We relate freedom to escape, of escaping from something.

True freedom is not escape; true freedom is finding spiritual resources within ourselves; we can change our attitude, we can change the way we think about something, and then the situation itself can change.

Victor Frankl, the Viennese psychiatrist, talked about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. He said it was amazing in these awful and debasing conditions that the people would not surrender in their minds; they were able to think the thoughts that they wanted to think. He said it was amazing, that there were people who were kind to everyone and would give their last crust of bread to someone else, or would share a kind word or a smile, in the midst of those conditions. They determined what they were going to think; they were not going to let circumstances determine what they thought.

We too can recognize that, in any condition, we can choose the thoughts that we think and we can choose the attitudes we have. We don’t have to be controlled by circumstances or by people; we can choose what we want to think.

The freedom is where you are, not somewhere else. There is a freedom that you can have now, and that’s the freedom I believe Jesus was talking about when he said, “If you know the truth, then the truth will make you free.”

You can make your choice of how you will think about a situation, and that choice can be better or bitter; it’s up to you. The gift of choice that each of us has is a great gift of God.

So let’s be creative in thinking about our freedom. Let’s think about it as freedom to be, freedom to draw on those spiritual resources in the midst of whatever we are facing. When you are facing something, don’t try to escape from it, decide to be strong, decide to understand, and decide to find a way that is transcendent. You’ll move right on through the situation; and find yourself free.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Some time ago I received an email article from a friend with the title, “The Birth of the Song ‘Precious Lord’.” The article ended with the name Tommy Dorsey and appeared to infer that it was the well-known big band leader who had written the story.

The article aroused my curiosity and upon research I discovered that it was in fact Thomas Andrew Dorsey of gospel renown who wrote the story after the death of his wife, Nettie, and their newborn child in 1932. The story, sad and tragic as it is, is also a powerful and inspiring illustration of God’s grace. The article was published in the inspirational magazine Guideposts in 1987 and in the July/August 2000 edition of Hidden Wisdom magazine.

Here’s the story:

Back in 1932 I was 32 years old and a fairly new husband. My wife, Nettie, and I were living in a little apartment on Chicago’s Southside.

One hot August afternoon I had to go to St. Louis, where I was to be the featured soloist at a large revival meeting. I didn’t want to go. Nettie was in the last month of pregnancy with our first child. But a lot of people were expecting me in St. Louis. I kissed Nettie good-bye, clattered downstairs to our Model A and, in a fresh Lake Michigan breeze, chugged out of Chicago on Route 66.

However, outside the city, I discovered that in my anxiety at leaving, I had forgotten my music case. I wheeled around and headed back. I found Nettie sleeping peacefully. I hesitated by her bed; something was strongly telling me to stay. But eager to get on my way, and not wanting to disturb Nettie, I shrugged off the feeling and quietly slipped out of the room with my music.

The next night, in the steaming St. Louis heat, the crowd called on me to sing again and again. When I finally sat down, a messener boy ran up with a Western Union telegram. I ripped open the envelope. Pasted on the yellow sheet were the words: YOUR WIFE JUST DIED.

People were happily singing and clapping around me, but I could hardly keep from crying out. I rushed to a phone and called home. All I could hear on the other end was “Nettie is dead. Nettie is dead.”

When I got back, I learned that Nettie had given birth to a boy. I swung between grief and joy. Yet that night, the baby died. I buried Nettie and our little boy together, in the same casket. Then I fell apart.

For days I closeted myself. I felt that God had done me an injustice. I didn’t want to serve Him any more or write gospel songs. I just wanted to go back to that jazz world I once knew so well. But then, as I hunched alone in that dark apartment those first sad days, I thought back to the afternoon I went to St. Louis. Something kept telling me to stay with Nettie.

Was that something God? Oh, if I had paid more attention to Him that day, I would have stayed and been with Nettie when she died. From that moment on I vowed to listen more closely to Him. But still I was lost in grief.

Everyone was kind to me, especially a friend, Professor Frye, who seemed to know what I needed. On the following Saturday evening he took me up to Madam Malone’s Poro College, a neighborhood music school. It was quiet; the late evening sun crept through the curtained windows. I sat down at the piano, and my hands began to browse over the keys. Something happened to me then. I felt at peace. I felt as though I could reach out and touch God. I found myself playing a melody, one I’d never heard or played before, and the words into my head – they just seemed to fall into place:

Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand! I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.

 Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.

As the Lord gave me these words and melody, He also healed my spirit. I learned that when we are in our deepest grief, hen we feel farthest from God, this is when He is closest, and when we are most open to His restoring power. And so I go on living for God willingly and joyfully, until that day comes when He will take me and gently lead me home.

- Tommy Dorsey

The song has been translated into 32 languages and was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s favorite, the one Mahalia Jackson sang at his funeral. It was also sung by Leontyne Price at President Lyndon B. Johnson’s funeral.

Thomas Andrew Dorsey was born in Villa Rica, Georgia, on July 1, 1899. He was a blues band leader for singers including Ma Rainey, but after becoming a Christian he turned to writing gospel music, reportedly after undergoing a spiritual experience while hearing the hymn “I Do, Don’t You?” at a Baptist convention. Across the course of his lifetime he wrote more than a thousand gospel hymns, including “Say Amen,” “Somebody,” “Take My Hand” and “Peace in the Valley.” He died in Chicago on January 23, 1993.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.