|
"Prosperity
is a way of living and thinking, and not just money or things.
Poverty is a way of living and thinking, and not just a lack of money or
things." - Eric
Butterworth, Unity Minister, author, philosopher, and lecturer
Few people have not had times in their lives when money was an issue.
Times when the money available did not meet the demand for it. And
for some this appears to be an on-going problem. Dr. Joseph Murphy
stated that "poverty is a dis-ease" ... in other words, we are
not at ease when we struggle with money or indebtedness ... our mind is
not at peace ... and when our mind is not at peace ... our emotions and
our state of mind suffers ... and sometimes we even suffer physically.
And often, there is a lot of shame involved when people are facing
financial difficulties ... but this should not be, for in Truth our
financial problems are merely due to a lack of understanding of our
relationship with God, Universal Good ... a lack of understanding that
permeates our culture. Everyone has heard the expression,
"money is the root of all evil" or "the rich get richer
and the poor get poorer" ... and how many times have we all stated,
"I can't afford it." There we have it ... simple
statements that we all have accepted not realizing how complex they can
become once they become part of our "beliefs" ... for it is
our beliefs that create our experiences and as we have accepted these
statements and others similar to them, we have unconsciously set
ourselves up for financial struggle ... for beliefs in lack and
limitation will find its channel of expression.
In order to
"transcend" financial difficulties, we must put the ego aside.
In other words, we must release all hindrances to the Mind of God
working through us ... we must release shame, blame and guilt.
No matter what happened ... we must go from where we are at. It is
that simple. I can spend all day blaming the economy ... blaming
the credit card companies ... blaming the IRS ... or whatever ... but
blame will not open my mind to the solution ... and the solution lies
within my consciousness ... freed from all thoughts, beliefs and ideas
that "limit" the Infinite as it "moves" upon the
conditions in my life. When we pray, we must do so with a relaxed
state of mind fostered by a faith and a conviction that God will
"respond" to us. We must always hold uppermost in our
minds that the nature of God is "responsiveness" ... if we do
not fully believe this then we must write it down ... read it over and
over again ... until we do ... for it is the very "Truth that will
set us free." This realization brings us to prayer with a joy
of knowing that God is with us ... if our prayers exhaust us ... then we
are praying from our ego and we might as well not do it. And if we
look at our bank account or the bills that are piled up ... we may lose
our faith and begin to doubt ... but let us remember, we already know
the facts ... what we must know is not how it is ... but we must
"know" how it is meant to be. Knowing that it is the
"Father's Good pleasure to give us the kingdom" ... we know
this is the way it is meant to be ... always and in all-ways. So
after we pray we keep ourselves in this "meant to be" state of
faith ... and even when things look as though they are "here to
stay" ... we know that they have "come to pass."
And look at the situation intelligently ... if we want to we can ...
because we couldn't want to overcome it, if we couldn't ... and this has
been the Truth for everyone. In scripture we can read where Paul
writes, "I die daily" ... in other words, we must die daily to
the old ideas that we must "make something happen" and
resurrection the Truth that "it is the Father that doeth the
work" ... then "I work" ... we must free our mind from
restrictions and limitations and allow the Infinite to work
"through" us in a Greater Way.
As we seek our solutions
through prayer we can look at the Teachings of Jesus and know that
"as within-so without" ... we must seek and find the
"state of mind" that is trusting and knowing that our
solution is at hand ... closer to us than breathing ... for God is our
solution and God resides in our consciousness. As our
consciousness is filled with the faith, conviction and steadfast resolve
to "transcend" our difficulties ... "God in the midst of
me" becomes triumphant, no matter how difficult or over-whelming
our situation may "appear" to be. Remember ... facts
change the Truth does not ... and the Truth is that our faith meets with
its affirmative response ... as we look to the Infinite and the Infinite
alone. And after we pray ... we must "align" ourselves
with the "nature of God" ... and give immediately ... even if
our giving is just to buy someone a Coke!
[Acts 17:24-28] "In Him
we live and move and have our being." We live in the Presence
... we live in God. It is the milieu of our life. We can’t get out of
it. There is nowhere to go to find God. Just "be still and know
that I AM God." [Psalms 46:10] Be still and let the Divine Flow
manifest in you and through you. This is "The Omnipresence of
God" ... in It we find our peace, our joy and our prosperity.
And
So It Is!
Maximum Love,
Rev.
Hank Bates
|
