Spiritual Solutions

Today, Wednesday, March 16, is day number seven in the Lenten season. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 
Assignment 7
 
There are many things in our world today that overwhelm us. There are situations and conditions of seemingly great evil, manifestations that we cannot understand with our human reasoning, things in our lives and relationships that haunt us with the question “why?” There are in our world today things that strike fear in our hearts and before which the strongest one trembles. Strength is to stand against the appearances of any time.
 
The Scripture reassures us that we belong to the One Power we call God and we as human beings have overcome or conquered “all such” for the power that is in us is greater than this that is in our world. (I John 4:4) It also tells us we are saved from these things “by grace.” (Eph. 2:8) If we are safe from the “things” of the world, we should find out how and be safe!
 
How do we get this grace? How do we use it? What is it? Grace means “beloved, dear.” So we must have the power because we are beloved, and dear, belonging to the One power that dwells in us.
 
Surely Jesus believed He was beloved and dear to the power within Him that He affectionately called “Father.” He also called this Power, “Our Father.” Jesus had power in the invisible far beyond modern man’s greatest achievement. We of this day and age are awed by the invisible realm of feeling and being and here in the invisible realm lies All Power!
 
In the realm of ourselves we have not found our authority. Our minds, bodies and emotions are an enigma to us. We live in the outer. We can only enter into our true being with the realization of feeling. Feeling is the Power.
 
You have been aware of your outer self for years. Have you thought of your body as feeling? Pinch your arm and you realize your body is feeling. Body and soul are merely two aspects of feeling. The body is not one substance and soul another, they are both our feelings.
 
Your response to everything in life is feeling. There is only feeling. We react to sight, hearing, touch, taste, or breath with feeling. Movement is feeling. Rest is feeling. Grace is feeling that you are beloved and dear to the power within. How do you feel?
 
 
(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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THE GRACE OF GOD

21st Day, Friday. Read Matthew 5:17-20, 38-48. “As far as the east is from the west,

So far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

Grace means good will, favor, disposition to show mercy. Therefore, we do not hold ourselves as bond servants of the law, but as recipients of the grace of God, as sons of the Most High.

The grace of God extends to all people, not alone to one sect or creed. All men are equal in favor with God.

The grace of God is greater than the laws of man. We may make certain laws and restrictions for ourselves and “his servants ye are whom ye obey.” If we are servants of the law, our obedience is unto death; if we are servants of righteousness, our obedience is unto life. To become recipients of that which the Father would bestow, we should take the element of grace into consideration; that even beyond what we ask, seek, earn, or deserve under the law, God is more than willing to give.

God, as the great creative principle of the universe, will always meet us more than half way. By becoming receptive to the “grace of God,” we receive the measure of God’s provision, which exceeds any of our imaginings.

I realize that “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”; that is, the real saving, redeeming, transforming power comes to me through the work that Jesus did in establishing for the race a new and higher consciousness in the earth. I enter into that consciousness by faith in Him and by means of the inner spirit of the law that He taught and practiced.

I affirm: “Through the grace of God I am forgiven and healed.”

Questions:

1. Define “grace.”

2. How far does the grace of God extend?

3. How may we become recipients of that which the Father would bestow?

4. How does the redeeming, transforming power come to us?

Through the grace of God I forgive, and I am forgiven.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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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.

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I remember a time when Ed Rabel, Unity Minister and a former teacher at Unity Village in the ministerial program, was teaching the students when Bill Fischer, Director of Ministerial Training, was away. Ed was taking the students for speech assignments. The top four or five students were scheduled to give their talks in front of their classes. The talk that they were to give was based upon a question: “If you had just ten minutes to speak to all the people on the earth, what would you say?”

Just think about that for a moment. What would you say if you had just ten minutes to speak to all the people on the earth? What would your message be? 

Ed Rabel said the students he heard “Blew it!” Their response to the question was to try to reach out to all the people of the earth and tell them of some great and wonderful philosophical theory. In doing this they did “blow it,” because only that which you experience is true for you. You cannot take in someone else’s knowledge; you can only gain knowledge for yourself.

So if you were speaking to everyone on earth it would have to be something that people could find for themselves, work with, and experience from within their own being. You can’t really tell anyone else how things are. You can express from the depth of your own being that which is true for you, and in that way you speak with authority about your own experience. You can share that with someone else; and you can share ways for the other person to experience for themselves. But borrowed knowledge is not true knowledge. So when you speak with borrowed knowledge you don’t really come across, you don’t really reach a person.

This is what Ed Rabel was really saying, that the students blew it in regard to that. They were trying to get across a great message of God and what they believed about God, but speaking in a way that was not necessarily based upon their own experience. It was based upon knowledge that they had taken in from borrowed sources. They were not being real.

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-six years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions or go directly to the Spiritual Solutions Blog

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Some of the highlights we learned from the Third Conversation of Brother Lawrence in his book, The Practice of the Presence of God – The Best Rule of a Holy Life, were these:

Once he had established for himself what he felt was the foundation of the spiritual life, he focused on performing all his actions for the love of God to the exclusion of all else. If sometimes he neglected his attention on God’s presence he didn’t waste much time on beating himself up about it but quickly returned to his focus.

His faith and trust in God brought a great awareness of all the blessings he experienced due to this practice, causing him to automatically turn to God for guidance in all his affairs without even having to think about it beforehand.

He didn’t have any great expertise in the formal practice of prayer and meditation; indeed it caused him some anxiety and perplexity. But if in his ordinary everyday affairs he put his attention on God with genuine and loving feelings he was confident in being guided in every aspect of his life; and he felt that no particular knowledge or skill was needed for anyone to experience this for themselves if they would only put the love of God first and foremost in all things.

Now we turn our attention to the Fourth Conversation:

He discoursed with me very frequently, and with great openness of heart, concerning his manner of going to God, whereof some part is related already.

He told me that all consists in one hearty renunciation of everything which we are sensible does not lead to God. That we might accustom ourselves to a continual conversation with Him, with freedom and in simplicity. That we need only to recognize God intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment, that we may beg His assistance for knowing His will in things doubtful, and for rightly performing those which we plainly see. He requires of us, offering them to Him before we do them, and giving Him thanks when we have done.

That in this conversation with God we are also employed in praising, adoring, and loving Him incessantly for His infinite goodness and perfection.

That without being discouraged on account of our sins, we should pray for His grace with a perfect confidence, as relying upon the infinite merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. That God never failed offering His grace at each action; that he distinctly perceived it, and never failed of it, unless when his thoughts had wandered from a sense of God’s presence, or he had forgotten to ask His assistance.

That God always gave us light in our doubts when we had no other design but to please Him.

That our sanctification did not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God’s sake which we commonly do for our own. That it was lamentable to see how many people mistook the means for the end, addicting themselves to certain works, which they performed very imperfectly, by reason of their human or selfish regards.

That the most excellent method he had found of going to God was that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing men, and (as far as we are capable) purely for the love of God.

That it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times; that we are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer.

That his prayer was nothing else but a sense of the presence of God, his soul being at tht time insensible to everything but divine love; and that when the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with God, praising and blessing Him with all his might, so that he passed his life in continual joy; yet hoped that God would give him somewhat to suffer when he should grow stronger.

That we ought, once for all, heartily to put our whole trust in God, and make a total surrender of ourselves to Him, secure that He would not deceive us.

That we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. That we should not wonder if, in the beginning, we often failed in our endeavors, but that at last we should gain a habit, which will naturally produce its acts in us, without our care, and to our exceeding great delight.

That the whole substance of religion was faith, hope, and charity, by the practice of which we become united to the will of God; that all besides is indifferent, and to be used as a means that we may arrive at our end, and be swallowed up therein, by faith and charity.

That all things are possible to him who believes, that they are less difficult to him who hopes; that they are more easy to him who loves, and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues.

That the end we ought to propose to ourselves is to become, in this life, the most perfect worshipers of God we can possibly be, as we hope to be through all eternity.

That when we enter upon the spiritual life, we should consider and examine to the bottom what we are. And then we should find ourselves worthy of all contempt, and not deserving indeed the name of Christians; subject to all kinds of misery and numberless accidents, which trouble us and cause perpetual vicissitudes in our health, in our humors, in our internal and external dispositions; in fine, persons whom God would humble by many pains and labors, as well within as without. After this we should not wonder that troubles, temptations, oppositions, and contradictions happen to us from men. We ought, on the contrary, to submit ourselves to them, and bear them as long as God pleases, as things highly advantageous to us.

That the greater perfection a soul aspires after, the more dependent it is upon divine grace.

(The particulars which follow are collected from other accounts of Brother Lawrence.)

Being questioned by one of his own society (to whom he was obliged to open himself) by what means he had attained such an habitual sense of God, he told him that, since his first coming to the monastery, he had considered God as the end of all his thoughts and desires, as the mark to which they should tend, and in which they should terminate.

That in the beginning of his novitiate he spent the hours appointed for private prayer in thinking of God, so as to convince his mind of, and to impress deeply upon his heart, the divine existence, rather by devout sentiments, and submission to the lights of faith, than by studied reasonings and elaborate meditations. That by this short and sure method he exercised himself in the knowledge and love of God, resolving to use his utmost endeavor to live in a continual sense of His presence, and, if possible, never to forget Him more.

That when he had thus is prayer filled his mind with great sentiments of that infinite Being, he went to his work appointed in the kitchen (for he was cook to the society). There having first considered severally the things his office required, and when and how each thing was to be done, he spent all the intervals of his time, as well before as after his work, in prayer.

That when he began his business, he said to God, with a filial trust in Him: O my God, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy presence; and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.

As he proceeded in his work he continued his familiar conversations with his Maker, imploring His grace, and offering to Him all his actions.

When he had finished he examined himself how he had discharged his duty; if he found well, he returned thanks to God; if otherwise, he asked pardon, and, without being discouraged, he set his mind right again, and continued his exercise of the presence of God as if he had never deviated from it. "Thus," said he, "by rising after my falls, and by frequently renewed acts of faith and love, I am come to a state wherein it would be as difficult for me not to think of God as it was at first to accustom my self to it."

As Brother Lawrence had found sucn an advantage in walking in the presence of God, it was natural for him to recommend it earnestly to others; but his example was a stronger inducement than any arguments he could propose. His very countenance was edifying, such a sweet and calm devotion appearing in it as could not but affect the beholders. And it was observed that in the greatest hurry of business in the kitchen he still preserved his recollection and heavenly-mindedness. He was never hasty, nor loitering, but did each thing in its season, with an even, uninterrupted composure and tranquillity of spirit. "The time of business," said he, "does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament."

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-six years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions or go directly to the Spiritual Solutions Blog

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

I have been asked how a person can donate to "Spiritual Solutions." Just go to Send a Love Offering and it will take you to a form you can use for your donation. Thank you – I am very grateful for your generosity!

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