Spiritual Solutions

I was thinking about times when you may have been driving along, perhaps in a different neighborhood and intent upon where you’re going, perhaps not paying much attention to things around you. Then you hit one of those speed bumps – not the larger ones with all the warning signs before them, “Warning – Speed Hump Ahead – 15 miles per hour,” but the smaller ones that have no warning and are still around. I hit one myself not too long ago. And when you hit one of those things, wow, that shakes you up and wakes you up, doesn’t it?

In life we have bumps, too, don’t we? Life goes bump for all of us from time to time, we all hav unexpected things that happen to us which may be difficult, or frustrating, or even tragic. How do we handle these bumps in our life? Are we grim about them, or are we gracious in how we handle them? It makes a difference to us.

How we handle those unexpected events determines to some degree how we handle challenges throughout our lives. We develop a certain attitude. The attitude can be one of welcoming all experiences knowing you can handle it and move on through it; or you become fearful of life and what may be around the next corner.

Being cautious and fearful about life, you naturally attract to yourself things to be fearful about.

So how do you deal with these bumps in your life? Do you think and feel that you can transform such situations and handle them with grace, ease, and confidence? Do you move through them in a way that makes you stronger rather than diminishing you?

Let’s look at some answers to those questions. How do we handle those bumps in life that surely come along?

There’s a story in scripture which can give us a key. It’s the story about Joseph, who ticked off his brothers by telling them his dreams which symbolized a future when they would all bow down to him. The brothers got together and threw Joseph in a pit, and then they sold him to some Ishmaelite slave traders who took him as a slave into Egypt.

Later on, when Joseph met up with his brothers again in different circumstances, he said to them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”

I think we can do the same thing with situations which upset us, and disturb us, and throw us for a loop, and shake us up. We can say, this situation may seem to be evil, it may seem to want to take us down, to destroy us, but God meant it for good. If we take that attitude we can have a shift in our perception and we can begin to look for the good in the situation or person.

In Romans 8:28 we find Paul saying, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him . . .”

You may say, “In everything, even this mess that I’m in the middle of right now? In everything? There’s some good in this? I can find good results from this?” “Can this really be a vehicle of blessing?”

Yes, in everything – God works for good with those who love him.

Of course, you have to know, you must really believe, that there is good in everything.

Faith is a stabilizing element that sustains us. My wife, Kathryn, says it must be “unshakable faith.” She has an affirmation she uses all the time and which goes like this:

“I have unshakable faith in the perfect outworking of every situation in my life for God is in absolute control and all things are working together for my highest good.”

One of the most important things in life is the ability to recognize and utilize the good, which is always present.

You’ll remember that Jesus said, “He that is within me is greater than he that is in the world.” A challenge can be an opportunity to draw on your inner resources.

Jesus also said, “Don’t judge by appearances, but judge righteous judgment.”

What is righteous judgment? It’s looking from a God perspective, isn’t it? It was Emerson who said that “Prayer is the contemplation of life from the highest point of view.” So it’s a shifting from an outer perspective to a different point of view, to the highest point of view. When we see from a God perspective we can see the good in the situation.

There’s another key in the quote I gave you earlier. It says, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him . . .” (Romans 8:28)

“With” means to cooperate, doesn’t it? Loving God, we cooperate. Cooperation is love; it is the attitude of mind where we do not work alone. We cooperate with God, and we cooperate with people. The right use of divine love changes our whole perspective.

We are no longer the sole operator of our lives, the one who goes it alone and pulls ourselves up with our own bootstraps. We are the co-operator, we are the co-worker, we are the co-author, and we are the co-creator with God. Our lives begin to improve and change dramatically as we consciously work with God in the situation.

The spirit of love will lead you into the ways of cooperation. Then that love becomes a magnet that draws your good to you. Love is like a magnet and it always draws our highest good to us. The divine process says that we must love God, and then everything works for good.

So look for the good and look for God in every situation.

For God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven 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.

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There are many and various ways of reaching a goal, including the goal of life itself, but there is one way that is more direct than any other; and when we fail to take the direct route we often find ourselves experiencing delays, difficulties and obstacles.

First, we do at least need to have a general idea of the goal we want to reach. So, you might ask yourself, in life’s journey what is your goal? Whether we realize it or not, certainly the goal of each of us is to obtain and to express good.

The attainment and the expression of good is the goal of everyone. When we go to our prayer time, or to our breakfast table, or to our place of work or recreation, or to any other activity, we are journeying toward our goal of good. There are probably times when we get a false idea of what constitutes our good, and we might seek the appearance instead of the reality, but always greater good is the goal. It is not a selfish goal. The yearning for good is built into us, put there in the divine process of creation to draw us to the realization of good.

But what is good? Is it prosperity, or success, or health? Is it peace, or happiness, or some other desired objective? Is it freedom from illness or fear? Good includes all of these things. But the great goal of life, the desire built into us, is not for different attributes of good; it is for all good, for wholeness. As Jesus said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” (Matt. 6:33)

The great goal of all good is forever drawing you, forever lifting you, forever pulling you, forever drawing you on. And it is drawing you right now. For all good is God, the Creator and Father of all. God is the source, the pulling power, and the goal. You are continually being led to the unfoldment of your highest nature.

The goal of life is God. God is the source and the substance of all good. And there is a direct way to the realization of good. It’s the way of true prayer. It was pointed out by the ancient prophets, the Psalmist saw it, Jesus walked in it unswervingly so that he could truthfully say, “I am the way . . . Follow me.” True prayer establishes contact with the divine process we call God. It brings a realization of God’s abiding presence. Only through prayer do we reach the reality of good. Prayer inspires new ideas, brings about what we call miracles, and leads us directly to a new attitude of mind and a new richness of life. Jesus demonstrated this, as have countless others who have learned how to pray.

Time spent in quiet prayer, self-realization, or meditation each day is time spent on the direct route to your good. It makes no difference what your heart’s desire may be. Prayer will lead you to it or to something better. Whatever specific need you feel is greatest in your life, you can obtain satisfaction for it through prayer. The unrest and dissatisfaction in the world today is present because we are seeking something less than the highest and the best, and because we are following a way that is not the direct way.

Begin right now to desire all good with all your heart (“Love the Lord your god with all your heart . . .”). Don’t just desire portions of it. As author Arnold Patent has said, “You can have it all.” All that you can have is yours. Begin to believe that the activity of God in you desires you to have all good; a force within you is seeking to unfold good in your life. Meditate on the realization that all good is in God, and God is the source. See your goal as a realization of the Presence of God within you. This is true prayer. All the good that God is is being offered to you and is yours for the taking.

Keep working, keep studying, and keep using your power. But first and foremost, humbly and trustingly, seek contact with the supreme infinite flow from which all else comes. The way of union with your good, and of realization that good is yours, is the way of believing prayer; it is a quiet resting in the activity of the Presence of God, in which you live and move and have your being. It’s the most direct route to whatever good you may desire in your life.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

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

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