Spiritual Solutions

Today, Wednesday, April 13, is the thirty-first day of Lent. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 
 
Assignment 31
 
There is no need of lack of any kind. The law of God does not take into consideration a deficiency of any kind. There is no normal natural void. There no space in God’s world that contains nothing. Nature abhors a vacuum. There is no true emptiness. The only seeming empty place is in man’s conscious mind when he is unaware of is fullness. We can only be separated from the abundance of God by the width of a thought in our mind.
 
Man has lived so long with a mixed consciousness; it is what the Scriptures call double-minded. “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8) We have been so filled with double-mindedness that we no longer know what is true and what is untrue. We have named things good and evil, clean and unclean, virtue and vice, until we are saturated in nothingness. We are bored with the things we name good and fearful of the things we call evil – when all the time there is only Spiritual Substance. 
 
Spiritual Substance is the essence of our bodies. It flows through our minds like wine. It is the unchangeable, intrinsic, whole, complete, absolute, essential, and indispensable something that exists; and because of it all that exists came to be. Out of Spiritual Substance as the activity of mind comes all material good, first as ideas and then as all things needful, such as wealth and abundance in the outer.
 
In this field active believing is the magic wand. All outer good stems from the inner push we call desire. Desire means “from the Father.” Every thought and word brings forth a reaction in Spiritual Substance.
 
Out of Spiritual Substance comes the essence that feeds our bodies. It is not the meat and bread that builds the body but the invisible essence. It is not the heat-producing calories or the energy-producing vitamin that is vital to life. It is the invisible Spiritual Substance.
 
Spiritual Substance is love in action, and without love no human being is fully alive. Its absence causes the body to lose its resiliency and the flesh to dry up. Old age is love forgotten. None need be old! Without love, children wilt and die. Spiritual Substance invisible lies back of all matter and form. Spiritual Substance cannot suffer loss, it can never be depleted. It is God! “I have meat you know not of.” (Jesus)
 
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
 
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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com
 
To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com
                                                 
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Today, Saturday, April 2, is the twenty-second day of Lent. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 
 
Assignment 22
 
We all live in a world with which we are so familiar that we know it not. How can this be? We are so cognizance of forms, of that which we see with our eyes and touch with our hands that we are completely unaware much of the time of an invisible, knowing Being, and the realization of a Presence that maintains and sustains the length, breadth, and height of any and all forms in outer manifestation.
 
When we realize or become aware of something that fills all and more especially of something that fills us individually, we move into the fourth dimension of life. The fourth dimension is a state of being in which the inner invisible essence of life is so real to us that we are never separated from it. This must be a day by day awareness that we never walk alone or move or think or act without inner guidance.
 
We at all times are capable of managing our life; we can be a King, a ruler in ourselves. This authority we must take if we are to walk the everyday path of life in sureness. We all know there is always an answer. We know that our troubles, challenges and difficulties are the most precious things in the world. They are life! They are our assignments for development, the ground in which we grow.
 
Only by day by day living can we reach our goal of accomplishment, which is the Joy of Living! Let us meet life on the path where we find it. To be in the midst of life is to fulfill life; it is the advancement of life.
 
What comes to you is not important, but how you meet it is the thing. When a storm is coming at sea everything is latched down to ride out the storm. A good skipper is one who has come through many storms.
 
Never apologize or have shame for the experiences of life. There is no self-justification or self-condemnation. Everything is fulfilled in thought and feeling. Do not accept evil, accept experience. All challenges of life are to walk through, not to break you or beat you down.
 
A problem comes again and again not that you may overcome it by force, but that you shall know the nothingness of it and the reality of yourself. Move into life, give yourself to life, and let life take you over. Don’t sit in the ashes of life. Get up and build a new fire!
 
 
 (This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
 
——————————————————————–
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com
 
To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com
 
Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.
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Today, Sunday, March 27, is the third Sunday in Lent. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 
Here is the message for the third Sunday in Lent:
 
 
Conservation
 
We need to conserve the precious substance of life. We destroy our bodies by fear, hate, condemnation, worry, or mental turmoil of any kind. Mental and emotional strain is the greatest power against us – it is our misuse of the life substance by our failing to recognize and acknowledge the Life which is God.
 
We renew and recreate our bodies, and open the doors of our mind for free flowing ideas as we conserve this sub-stance of life with awareness of God-life and to refuse false beliefs.
 
God is the substance of life, ever present! We were created of this substance; it is eternal, ever-renewing and everlasting. We waste this substance by following the sense mind. We are wasting the only substance on earth that can heal our bodies and set us free. It is the God substance we use by action of our mind that renews and recreates.
 
The recognition of God living within, always present, is the power in action “which to know aright is life eternal.” God is not the God of the dead but of the living, Jesus said. God of the living is always present awaiting our recognition.
 
Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, says, “Our youth we love so well never really dies, it merely falls asleep in the realm of the subconscious. We let go of the life idea.”
 
We must renew in us the idea of life and free the energies to renew and recreate. This is the beginning of the process that will overcome the last enemy, death. We live in the New Age, the age of restoration and revelation.
 
To our human mind these ideas seem impossible, but all things are possible with God and with man when he embraces God ideas. The human consciousness is limited and limiting. We worry and fret ourselves out of the Kingdom of God which is within us. Constant attention to the God idea within is to release and quicken the vital substance.
 
Joy and happiness, love and faith, oneness with others, expectancy, anticipation, believing in the things our heart tells us is real and true is the way of Conservation – is the way of the restoration of the physical body, it is the beginning of the journey to Easter morning.
 
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
 

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

To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

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Today, Sunday, March 20, is the second Sunday of the Lenten season. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 
Here is the message for the second Sunday in Lent:
 

Imagination
 
Man creates and brings forth in the inner realm of mind, in the same manner that a child is conceived and brought forth. Man is a creator with thought and feeling. These are the two witnesses as man and woman are the two witnesses to every human conception.
 
Our imagination in its truest form is thinking in detail with joy and happiness. Imagination is conception. The love and joy of conceiving holds firmly the new form until it is manifest. This is an individual process, an immaculate conception. When an object is formed in mind only the mind can conceive it; projected in the world of form it becomes a manifestation.
 
The creative power is constant, always at work, with or without discipline and control. We must always have imagination – one with the Spirit of Truth within. We have the power to image and to bring forth the likeness of whatever we image – good or seeming evil. All power has been given us in the choice of what we shall image.
 
Herein lies the greatness of creation, but herein also lie the forming of the unreal, the fantasies, and untrue beliefs, unsupported by Spirit. They cannot last for they are not created of Divine Substance, Truth!
 
But these impermanent figments of the mind are accepted as real by man the creator, and cause him untold suffering and actual lack both in spiritual and in material ways. We have the power to re-think, re-direct our imagination and to choose a new form, thus producing a new heaven and a new earth.
 
Ordinarily we think of imagination in relationship to things we have no hope of attaining. But anything we can connect with ourselves and accept as possible can be conceived by imagination and brought forth in the world of affairs. Do not underestimate your power as a human being, for you are moved by God!
 
Keep your imagination firmly entrenched in the pattern of God. The pattern of God is revealed by the movement of your heart. God is the Soul of man, sees Himself as man, gives Himself in man. Man in his highest expression, is God manifest on earth!
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

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Today, Saturday, March 19, is the tenth day of Lent. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 

Assignment 10
 
Are you free? You answer, “Yes, I am free. I do as I please, go wherever I desire. I live in a free country.” I ask the same question again, for I don’t believe there are very many free souls. The chains that hold us are so finely forged they are almost invisible but are strong enough that ten thousand wild horses could not break the smallest link.
 
Freedom is of the mind and soul, this is the highest and most prized freedom. Are you able to think clearly without being hampered by the feelings of others: employer, employees, loved ones, friends, members of groups, those of other religious convictions, political parties, or even the entangling web of the outer world?
 
Can you control your feelings? I do not mean hold them in by force until you are about to explode. Can you withdraw your feelings? If you can, you have freedom!
 
Freedom is the power to sustain or refuse to sustain any idea, situation, or condition. Do you feel to withdraw your feelings is a cold, calculating disinterest? It is not! It is refusing to let outer conditions and people make you a prisoner in your own daily life. No one has the power to stop you, but you have the power to let them stop you!
 
Are you one that cannot live without the approval of others? Even strangers? Then you are not free!
 
A Power has been given to you to complete every project in life. You cannot have a need, an idea, or a plan that is truly yours by feeling and desiring, that cannot be completed. The perfected good comes with the true desire just as the bush, blossom, and fruit come with the seed. But in the mind we must plant a seed of desire in the soil of believing.
 
Remember, your feelings, your desire, your inner need to bring forth are the God Power in action. People and conditions are only incidental and part of the environment through which you bring forth – much like hard clods of earth makes a strong plant.
 
There is nothing as powerful as a God idea that is ready to come through, we are told. So, be free to live, to love, and to express your own perfect self-projects.
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
——————————————————————–
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

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Today, Sunday, March 13, is the first Sunday of Lent in this time of preparation for the Easter experience.
 
 

The Altar

The Altar is the place in consciousness where we are willing to let go of personality and enter into the individuality of the God Presence within our own being. It is where we re-establish the Truth that God is all in all and establish our own place in the sight of God and man.

In Truth it is at the Altar that we reclaim our true heritage, releasing the false image we have of ourselves with its handicaps and limitations. We let go of the pressure of possessions, personal relationships, thoughts of doubt and fear.
 

The Altar has always represented God in the outer man-made temples. The Altar in the “temple (our body) not made with hands” is in our deep innermost self. Only here in the midst of our own being can we meet God and become aware of the magnitude of the power that is ours to use. God is ever present in us all . . . whoever we are . . . wherever we are . . . whatever we think about ourselves.

Let us come into the Presence of our all good, first by knowing that it is here in the midst of us and, second, by acting as if we were one with the things that are needful for life. The logic of the mind must be satisfied.

Our state of mind is the womb of our particular world – whatever we conceive and nourish comes forth in our life and affairs. The mind of man is the womb of his world. All great things from spaceships to gadgets come out of the mind of man. They are conceived as ideas, nourished forth into the outer by attention.Let us come to the Altar of our own being and open our heart and mind to the eternal good of God.

(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
——————————————————————–
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com.

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.
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“Love sails me around the house. I walk two steps on the ground and four steps in the air. It is love. It is consolation. I don’t care if it is consolation. I am not attached to consolation. I love God. Love carries me all around. I don’t want to do anything but love.

“And when the bell rings, it is like pulling teeth to make myself shift because of that love, secret love, hidden love, obscure love, down inside me and outside me, where I don’t care to talk about it. Anyway, I don’t have the time or the energy to discuss such matters. I have only time for eternity, which is to say, for love, love, love.

“Maybe Saint Teresa would have me snap out of it, but it is pure, I tell you: I am not attached to it (I hope) and it is love, and it gives me soft punches all the time in the center of my heart. Love is pushing me around the monastery, love is kicking me all around, like a gong, I tell you. Love is the only thing that makes it possible for me to continue to tick.” – Thomas Merton, from “The Sign of Jonas.”

I love the idea of love pushing me around; it’s so much better than being pushed around by the world or by what’s happening in my life at any particular time. If we could, like Thomas Merton, realize the tremendous importance of love in our ongoing in the world, how much more would we rejoice in the love process within us.

Love is a powerful solvent, melting hardness of heart, quickening appreciation of the mind, increasing the joy of our days and the ease of our passage through them. It is the “open sesame” that opens the doors to the treasures of life. Love often appears to be many things. Indeed, one of the many songs about love tells us that “love is a many-splendored thing.”  Actually, love is one essence distinguished in its various manifestations by the degree of its purity and selflessness that proceeds through the individual from the one great source in God.

In the Scriptures we read that “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (I John 4:16) The quality of love that each person must radiate to clear the path that is ongoing is proportionate to the assurance, security and faith in the omnipresence of God. Love in its highest expression is the certain knowledge of the presence of good in all things, that God is in all, through all, and over all, knowledge that without Him nothing could be made that is made.

Some happy persons have attained the assurance to an eminent degree; they are so imbued with the consciousness of God in omnipresent good that they just radiate love without effort, without even speaking or acting; they just exude this conscious awareness of love. You may pass this person in the street, and be aware of an outstanding personality who seems without words to proclaim as the Scriptures say, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deut. 33:27)

If we really love God, if we love life and ourselves and other people, then we are operating in harmony with the laws of life. Further, if we fulfill the law in this sense then our experience will be happy and fulfilling. If we are not happy, if our relations with others are not harmonious, if our world is not orderly and peaceful, it would follow that we are not as loving as we need to be in order to transform ourselves and our world.

To learn to express divine love is not always easy, but it is so very rewarding and is an accomplishment that brings tremendous satisfaction. It entails facing ourselves honestly, overcoming all the emotional reactions that fall short of the divine love such as pride, greed, resentment, jealousy, inordinate sensitivity, and of course this takes a great deal of effort. When we try to express divine love, we discover our true selves, and we find that we are free to be and to have all that makes life joyous and fulfilling.

The principle is that you cannot escape God’s love. If you ascend to the heights of spiritual consciousness, you find the activity of God. On the other hand, if you wallow in disease and lack, you are still in the presence of God though you are not aware of it. God is omnipresent, ever at hand, in good times and bad. The truth is we cannot get away from the presence of God; we cannot live apart from God. You can’t get away from God any more than you can get away from breathing. God is within and about you as your peace, joy, and life. When you darken your thought by believing the opposite of this, obviously you can’t perceive the truth. But God doesn’t leave you when you depart from Him in thought; His presence is always present.

The most futile thing in all the world is to try to escape God’s love. Many persons find their way in life difficult because they do not accept God’s presence in love. Consequently, they do not have enough love to radiate to others, or so they think. We could never think of the loveless person as one who is conscious of God’s love in his heart. There are those of us who cannot think of God’s love because we are so engrossed in what others say and do. If we hold in mind a wrong that someone appeared to do ten years ago or even ten hours ago, certainly then we cannot very well express love. Many of us hold ourselves apart from love because of our own unpleasant memories.

So, if we would enjoy life and the many blessings that make life worthwhile then we must love. Love is a powerful solvent, melting hardness of heart, quickening appreciation of the mind, increasing the joy of our days and the ease of our passage through them. It is the “open sesame” that opens the doors to the treasures of life. As Thomas Merton said, “Love is the only thing that makes it possible for me to continue to tick.” Let it be so with each of us as, we let God’s love “push us around” and let love lead our way.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
————————————————————
Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at
www.alanrowbotham.com

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Is prosperity possible, even in a difficult economy? Absolutely! Prosperity for you deals purely with your consciousness. Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, said, “Prosperity is based on the conscious possession of the idea of God’s abundance in the back of all things.”

There is no lack in God or in the Universe. The substance of God is limitless. You are not created outside of the Universe. You are an integral part of it, a dynamic center within it. The free flow of substance within you is the continuation of the divine effort that made you. If there is lack in your life, it is not because you are out of the flow of substance, but because you have lost the consciousness of the flow.

Perhaps you may say, “But the economy of the country . . . and to add to that, my employer is erratic. I didn’t cause it, and yet it certainly affects my life.” That is the wisdom of the world that is foolishness with God. We have been conditioned to believe that our lives are shaped by what happens to us. For instance, the back corner of my car recently got damaged; for quite a while, I was really upset about it. Then I realized I wasn’t making it any better by being upset about something in the outer, and I was able to let the upset go and just arrange to have the car repaired. You see, it’s not what happens “out there,” but what we do or think about these things. Thought is the key. However, thought is not produced by circumstances. The incident is external; the reaction is our own.

The starting point in working for prosperity is to accept the responsibility for your own thoughts. Become an original thinker. Reject all “they say” and “hearsay” reports. Stop listening to all the scare talk on television and other media, the widespread negative thought about the economy. Don’t let these persons or conditions decide how you are going to think and feel. Resolve to center your thought on only those things of “God’s abundance in back of all things.”

We may talk a lot about the importance of “positive thinking.” But we need to get a realistic understanding of it. It is not just saying a lot of pleasant words about things you are really worried about. It is not uttering platitudes, mouthing affirmations, or saying, “Oh, everything will be all right.” Everything will not be all right unless you can get into the consciousness of “all-right-ness.”

It reminds me of a time early in our ministry in Roanoke, Virginia; we were meeting in a civic center at the time. At the end of each Sunday service, we would hold hands and say together Unity’s Prayer for Protection:
 The light of God surrounds us;
 The love of God enfolds us;
 The power of God protects us,
 And the presence of God watches over us;
 Wherever we are, God is.
At the end of the prayer we would always add “. . . and all is well.”
Inevitably, a particular man whose avowed intent was to prevent Unity being established in the city would pipe up: ”And all is not well!”

Positive thinking is “creative thinking,” getting your thoughts synchronized with the creative flow. Creative thinking can include humor, and in the example above once we were able to laugh within ourselves as we waited for the man’s final comment, he gave up his futile attempts to stop us from establishing Unity in the community and we never saw him again.

A problem for many persons is the influence of money on thought. Money is not the “root of all evil.” Actually, the Bible says, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Money is an important symbol of faith that promotes mutuality. But problems arise when we confuse the symbolic with the real. There is nothing bad about money, but we may imbue money with bad vibrations when we work for the symbols rather than the flow of substance.

The idea of “demonstrating prosperity” is often equated with praying for more money. But if problems are caused by consciousness, the money problems are only postponed but never solved by having more money. Unfortunately, the term “demonstrate” often emphasizes a kind of magic working of divine law. It is best not to pray for money, but to get the awareness of “God’s abundance in back of all things.”

There are three important steps in the orderly process of abundance flowing freely through us: 1. Being, 2. Doing, and 3. Having. There is a tendency to want to reverse the three steps. We reason that if we can just get enough money, then we will be able to do something good, and then we will be somebody. The principle is: What you are in consciousness gives rise to what you can do creatively, which leads to what you will experience.

Here is a helpful test in self-understanding: If you are not as prosperous or secure as you would like to be, ask yourself “Why not?” Make a list. Don’t be too analytical. Just outline the things that seem to be keeping you from your good. Actually, these are alibis. You might spend a few days in this examination.

Then, make a new list. Point by point, restate the reasons in terms of what you think “ought to be” the case. There is always a sense of “oughtness” behind every alibi. How do you think people ought to act toward you? What qualities do you feel you ought to express? Work with these for a month. Always try to satisfy yourself as to the exact state that ought to prevail in mind, emotion, body, and affairs. This is what Eric Butterworth called your “ought-to-be-ography.”

Finally, if you feel these things ought to be true, you intuitively believe that it is the reality. So, go back and rewrite the “ought-to-be’s” in the form of “I AM” statements. These can become your prayer treatment or affirmations, and the basis for some positive thinking. Now you can see that the thought is not just what you wish were true. It is your conviction of “God’s abundance in back of all things.”

Accustom yourself to think that you are surrounded by a divine presence which wishes you good because you are expressing its life. Keep conscious that you are forever in the flow of substance. No matter how things change in the world around you or what happens too you, the flow of substance is constant. All that is required is that you keep conscious of the flow, keep open by positive thought, keep responsive in faith, and keep moving “in the directions of your dreams.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
————————————————————
Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at
www.alanrowbotham.com

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Do you yearn to have a happy and fulfilling new year? Do you desire better things? In a sense, this is proof positive that you most certainly can have that better year. “Desire, or hope,” as Emerson puts it, “is the beginning of its own fulfillment.” That is why we are told, “Before they call I will answer” (Isa. 65:24).  Your very desire to find help, even before you formulate it into a full-blown request, is God’s answer pressing itself out into visibility. As Emilie Cady says, “Desire in the heart is always God tapping at the door of your consciousness with His infinite supply.” But she adds this caveat: “A supply that is forever useless unless there is a demand for it.”

We are forever looking at the circumference of life for that which can only be found in ourselves. You may have already set New Year resolutions and outer goals for 2011. But the great need is to find our oneness, to find a sense of self-realization of inner security, of the “peace that passes all understanding.” The happy new year that we all wish for, and that we wish for one another, and hope will manifest for the world, may well depend upon the degree to which we can follow the guidance of the apostle Paul, “Awake thou that sleepeth, that Christ may shine upon you.” The key is in prayer or meditation.

It was Emerson who said, “Prayer is a study of truth; a sally of the soul into the unfound infinite.” The problem is that we have been taught that we begin with emptiness, and we go forth into the world to find fulfillment. Hence, we are always attempting to find out there that which fulfills us in here. We remember that Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matt. 7:7) But there is obviously much more than is generally realized to the word “ask.”

Without verbalizing, we ask for many things, good and not-so-good. For example, we ask for affection of family and friends simply by giving love; in other words, asking as though we fully expected our love to be requited in kind. We ask for success through our industry and our practice of personal responsibility; we ask for trouble and rejection through our doubts and slovenliness. In our trust and willingness to give aid, we are asking for friends, whereas in our fault-finding and suspicion we are asking for loneliness.

In prayer, asking deals with creating the consciousness, the mental receptivity which makes the results inevitable. You ask God for what you want by getting into the spirit. It is not something God has to do for you; it is what you must do for yourself in order to enable this divine process to do through you and as you that which it is the “ceaseless longing of the Creator to do.”

That is why Jesus would say, “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). We may offer conventional prayer for the good we desire, and at the same time be busily expecting through our doubts and fears something quite different. If only we would remind ourselves that our prayers are for the alteration of our consciousness, we would find ourselves pointed in the right direction.

Therefore when in need, we would ask God for guidance and help by placing ourselves in a position to receive; we would work toward that position in consciousness by affirming the truth, declaring that which we desire as already being real right now; give thanks that you have (rather than “will have”) the desires of your heart. As Jesus says, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mk. 11:24).

So, affirm the truth, speak the word, and thus get yourself into the spirit and create the condition, the channel, the conduit, through which God’s answer can flow into manifestation. So, whatever you want, ask for it, but ask in the consciousness that creates the conditions that make the results inevitable. Ask in your emotions, in your actions, in your spirit, in affirmation and in the spoken word of truth.

To achieve what you hope and pray for, the need is not to change anything but rather to change the way in which you have been seeing things. Examine the way in which you have been accepting yourself. Suddenly realize that you are what you want to be. You are a successful, harmonious, happy whole creature.

Move forward into the New Year with confidence, with faith, and seek to live the life you have imagined. Release the potential within you, and you will find an entirely new experience. You will have a different consciousness; you will make the very most of all experiences that come, in terms of releasing your own potentiality. And it’s very likely that you will have the best year of your life.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
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Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at
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Special thanks to those of you who have sent tithes or love offerings for “Spiritual Solutions.” I am very grateful for your generosity.
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In the book, Trust in the Goodness of God, author and Unity minister Mary Kupferle says, “Your good is here now! There is a suppplying presence of good that includes light, life, peace, order, courage, faith, joy, wholeness, and well-being with you and within you now. This good is ever-present and unlimited – exactly what you need, when you need it, and where you need it. . . . Affirm for yuorself: ‘My good is here now! I have within me a reservoir of faith, patience, peace, strength, wisdom, courage, love, and happiness that is ready to uplift me and heal any difficulty of mind, soul, body, or life.’”

Yes, your good is here now. Your happiness is here now.  The “pursuit of happiness” is said to be one of your inalienable rights. Can you accept it for yourself now any without reservation?

The following article by Bradley Thompson, a best-selling self-development author, is one I heartily agree with, so I decided to share it with you since the “Word for the Week” is on happiness. Enjoy!

Do you ever catch yourself saying, `I’ll be happy when … I’ve moved house, changed jobs, fallen in love, achieved x,y,z?’
This moment is really all we have. If happiness isn’t in you now, then when will it be?

You see, happiness is a choice. It’s really that simple!

If you keep putting off your happiness until tomorrow, then consider this:

Don’t pin your right to happiness on external factors, circumstances, other people or future possibilities. Be happy now!

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that buying the latest gadget, car, or material luxuries will make you happy. They may give you fleeting moments of satisfaction but they won’t make you truly happy.

Search inside yourself. You know, there’s a lot to be happy about. You’re alive! You have choices! Embrace the natural joy within.

Don’t know how to find your happiness?

Okay, well try a laughing meditation! Take some time out, let go of the day’s thoughts. Smile, and start laughing.

Feel the laughter as if it’s a bubbling pool of joy deep inside you, and let those happy vibrations surface.

Make time for laughter each day. When you’re laughing, you’re truly in the moment. Life’s challenges simply melt away and you’re left with a feeling of lightness and a sense of well-being that money really can’t buy.

And, if you’re on a journey, aiming to achieve your life’s goals, remember this nugget of wisdom by Albert Schweitzer:

 “Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing,
you will be successful.”

So, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing right now, be happy. It really is your choice!

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Dear Friend,

Everyone is looking for happiness.

Aristotle said: “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

But how happy are YOU?

Do you still feel as though you’re SEEKING something else? As though you aren’t QUITE in the right place?

The potential for true happiness and freedom exists within you right now.

But most people don’t see it. Instead, they focus on the problematic grey clouds. They never realize the beautiful blue sky that always exists just behind them.

Have you heard of the “Happiness Now” technique? It’s said to be the only technique that helps you uncover your true happiness and freedom – in the most natural and simple way possible!

Let go of fears. Enjoy higher self-esteem. Embrace fantastic relationships. Uncover the real you. And much, much more – all when you ask yourself a few simple questions, using the simple Happiness Now technique.

You won’t believe how powerful this course is – and how it can change your life.

So, if you find yourself still “seeking” in any way, make the decision to explore this one final key.

Click on this link and enjoy Happiness Now – for yourself:

http://www.happiness.fm/?afl=43306

You’ll surprise yourself.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Affiliate disclosure: I am grateful to be of service to you and to bring you content which has spiritual value free of charge. Please note that whenever you click links in any of my emails and purchase items, in most cases (but not all) I will receive a referral commission. Your support in purchasing through these links enables me to empower more people worldwide to live more conscious lives. Thank you!

————————————————————
Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring free weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at
www.alanrowbotham.com

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