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Archive for the ‘Higher Power’ Category

THIS BRAND NEW YEAR

Posted in changes, faith, Higher Power, tagged , , on January 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

“But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Pet. 3:13)

 
It’s good to have new beginnings, despite the tendency of humanity to resist change. Yesterday’s future becomes today’s present and by tomorrow will be in the past. We can often become too invested in time. We may find ourselves wishing to hang on to the past or possibly regretting things that happened there. Because the future is an unknown quantity, thoughts of it can sometimes cause undue suffering.

 

The year that just passed will never come again, but we can benefit from lessons we have learned while living through it. The past will never come again, but we carry it with us; our experiences in the past become part of the perspective with which we face each new day.
Only the present is real and eternal. With each passing year, we can work toward becoming more aware of how great a gift the present is for us. We have a new, fresh year before us. What we do with it is up to us.”

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This was taken from “Talks with our Creator” for January 2nd and as I read it over again just now (on January 11, 2015) I thought that all of this is true but that following through on it is terribly hard.   Staying in the present moment is, and always will be, hard work.  Personally, I find I manage it well at times but at other times I fall well short of the goal.  My usual tendency is to then berate myself because I know the right things to do but am unable to always do them.

Perhaps this is what makes us human.  We are not perfect, and we were not made that way.  Hopefully, it can become our goal to strive to be the best Self we are capable of being, one day at a time.  From my point of view, if we believe there is a Higher Power that can aid us with this struggle, we are well ahead of the game.  I pray that all will find strength in faith, and will come to believe that anything is possible as long as we keep living and trying.  Happy 2015!

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THOUGHTS ABOUT FAITH

Posted in acceptance, faith, Higher Power, tagged , , on December 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Christmas Day is only a few days away, and my mind is very focused on holiday concerns, but there is something that keeps returning to me so perhaps I need to write about it.  I found a statement about a month ago attributed to Tagore Rabindranath which said, “Faith is the bird who feels the dawn and sings when the world is dark and still.”  

Why does this grab me and not want to let me go?  I have faith.  I am able to believe in things I can’t actually see with my own eyes.  Perhaps I want the kind of faith that bird has — the sense (intuition, intelligence, extrasensory perception), to not be afraid because I know there is certainty, absolute certainly, somewhere in this world.

I tell others that I truly believe that, while on the surface of life things are often troublesome, upsetting, sometimes actually evil, underneath it all there is a power in the universe where all is always well.  I do believe that, I think.  And yet —- I do not have the faith that bird has when it sings to the dawn that has not yet come.  That bird trusts.  It knows, it truly and certainly knows, that the dawn will come, so it sings.  That dawn may break on clouds, or storms, or gentle rains, or glorious sunshine — it doesn’t matter to the bird.  It sings anyway.  I want to be able to do that.

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Does this connect to Christmas?  Who knows!  I have spent years trying to figure out why my mind works the way it does to no avail.  It is what it is, and it does what it does, and my life percolates along so much better when I simply accept that whatever the current reality is, it is the best reality for me at the time.  Christmas is always a mixed blessing.  I will see some loved ones and will not get to see others.  I will be happy, but also unhappy.  Life will go on, until it doesn’t.

I have always wanted miracles.  Possibly the great miracles are in those things that just happen every day.  The sun rises and sets (whether we get to see it or not).  The dawn comes, and that bird will sing before the dawn even gets here.  It knows the dawn will break so it sings.  It is programmed to sing.  As a human being, I do not have that same programming, so I question things.  I think about them.  Still, I muddle through, and I hope that one day I will finally realize that my muddling is

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Practicing God’s Presence

Posted in faith, Higher Power, tagged , , on September 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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Many of us would admit that we strive to follow God’s will.  But how do we know what it is?  I have struggled quite a bit with trying to find answers to this question, and I have concluded that we may never know for sure what is or isn’t the will of God.  We just have to let our conscience be our guide.

I think (and hope) that my conscience has grown over the years.  My life experience has changed it.  For many years, I believed in God, but had no real relationship with Him or Her.  Today, I honestly do try to practice the presence of God on a daily basis.  The more God becomes a friend — someone I can talk to about anything at all that is on my mind — the more able my conscience is to act in my behalf.

It is hard to make God a priority in your life, at least it is for me.  But I try.  When I manage to achieve awareness of God working in my life, it goes much more smoothly.  And the great thing is that I can always reconnect when life’s irrelevancies have taken over my mind for a time.  Is your conscience improving day by day?

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KNOWING GOD’S WILL

Posted in Higher Power, reflection, spirituality, Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Not my will, but thine, be done. (Luke 22:42)

 

 

 

Use this phrase as a mantra for your meditation today. Relax, breath deeply, and allow these words to sink deeply into your consciousness.  Can you honestly say that you are in full agreement with them? Are you completely willing to follow God’s will?

It is true that we do not always know with certainty if we are following the will of God. However, if we are honest, we know that many of the things we choose to do would not be what God would have us do. When we deliberately antagonize a family member or a coworker in order to pick a fight, we know God would wish us to respond in a different manner. We know, that is, if we have taken the time to think before we speak. This is not something human beings do with sufficient regularity.

For the most part, if our thoughts are loving thoughts, we will speak and act in a way that is loving and caring. Why do we allow anything but loving thoughts to enter our minds? Because we are “not God,” we are human beings with human responses. When we interact with others, we frequently find that our ego is conflicting with that of another. When this happens (and it always will), our thoughts will then determine what we do

None of us will likely ever be able to hold loving thoughts all the time.But we can make significant improvements if we simply become conscious of how and what we think. Today, allow yourself to monitor your thought processes. Be aware of how often your thoughts are unkind, perhaps even downright nasty. When we become aware of our thoughts, we will naturally begin to shift them so that they are more in line with God’s will. God has told us we should love one another.

Taken from “Talks with our Creator” for December 15th

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MARCHING ORDERS FROM GOD

Posted in faith, Higher Power, reflection, tagged , , on August 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Incline thy ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. (Ps. 86:1)

 

 

 

Today, begin your meditation time by going to one of your favorite spot and spend several quiet minutes there. Don’t try to stop your thoughts, but don’t allow your mind to focus on any of them. Note them briefly and let them go until the next thought appears.

 

Whenever we pray, we no doubt wish there was a way for us to hear God’s response to us. Our prayers always receive a response, but not always as quickly or in the direction we would like. We are all poor and needy at times, and our prayers, our connection to our Creator, make us aware once again of the tremendous source of power that is always available to us.

 

I have often remarked to others that I wish God would send me a written list of instructions for what I need to do that day. Or I have wished that I would actually hear a voice in my head, telling me what to do. Lately, however, I have begun to believe that it is better the way it is. I need to be a part of the “marching orders.”

 

If I simply got written instructions, I would only be following orders, not making choices of my own. When I am forced to make choices, when I must decide for myself what God would will for me, I learn from the process.  God may direct us and our thinking, but we also need to learn to think for ourselves. As we listen for answers today, let us tune into God and show a willingness to follow good orderly direction.

 

Taken from “Talks with our Creator” for November 18th

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POWER FAILURES

Posted in acceptance, Higher Power, reflection, trust, tagged , , on July 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

Contemplate today on power—where we get it, how we use it, its benefits, and its drawbacks. Don’t limit yourselves but think about any power source.  Whenever the weather gets really stormy, I tend to think about power failures in the sense of losing electricity. I suspect it might be related to childhood fears of the dark. Periodically, we hear about massive power failures in major cities. Empathy may then take me to places I would really rather not go. I am able to viscerally imagine myself under the earth in a steaming subway car in the dark. All I can do is pray that those without power will think to call upon the one source of power that never fails.

Sometimes in the past, we’ve heard horrible stories of looting and crime during power outages. Yet we also usually hear of people calmly waiting for help to come—and perhaps more importantly, knowing that help would come. They know that something is watching over them.  In some countries, the demands for electric power have gone beyond t he infrastructure set up to properly provide it. In many high-rise office buildings, it is impossible to open windows, so it makes one wonder what would happen should electricity not be readily available for long periods of time.

The Bible naturally has multiple references to power. Power comes from many sources; Mother Nature has enormous power. We ourselves have an underused power source in the Holy Spirit. Let us remain responsible in our use of power and consider ways to expand it to the benefit of all.

Taken from “Talks with our Creator” for August 9th

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