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"The
Law that is within you is an activity of the Mind Principle in you.
This Mind within you is the Mind of God."
- Dr. Ernest Holmes, Your Invisible Power
As
we continue with our August lessons on Financial Prosperity, we can
begin to know that we must discipline our thoughts and feelings
concerning money. This is but just another area of our Life where
we must "put our consciousness on surveillance" as Dr. O. C.
Smith would state. One of the areas where we can truly gain
valuable insight into our "deeper" beliefs about money is in
the area of generosity. There is a Principle of Generosity and in
Truth, it reflects the measure of our "prosperity
consciousness" precisely.
In order to gain the greatest
benefit from the Principle of Generosity, we must look hard and honest
at the level of generosity that we are at. Now, we are not looking
to find ourselves right or wrong or lesser or greater ... we just want
to "go from where we are at" to reaping perhaps an even
greater benefit from this Universal Principle. After all, our
prosperity is not dependent on our Goodness ... just on Principle.
I believe generosity means more than giving to those who are good to us
or when there is a direct benefit to our generosity ... this is really
manipulation of the Law rather than the "right use" of the Law
... and often this manipulation will give us little if any true benefit.
True generosity is being open to
giving ... to be a channel, so to speak, of the Infinite Giving-ness of
God. It is to "give without taking thought" of the
measure that you give. This applies to money, time and more.
It is this giving without taking thought that hinders most of us from
reaping the benefits of the Principle of Generosity ... because, in our
human-condition most of us want "reciprocity" ... something
back! Most of us have given or continue to give out of obligation
... or for recognition ... or for support of things or people that we
believe will make our life experience better. This is a trap.
My great friend, Charles Gorgano, brought this line from scripture to my
attention this week: Psalm 118:8
"It is better to trust in the LORD than to
put confidence in man." When we look to man to
prosper us in any way or to give us a return for what we give ... we are
out of Principle. "Lord" in metaphysics means "Law
of Mind" ... in other words, everything always comes back to our
"consciousness" ... EVERYTHING. As we use the Principle
of Generosity, we must "loose from our mind" even the
expectation of a "thank you" from someone ... because even
this small expectation of reciprocity from a person takes us out of
Principle and sets us up to resent someone's lack of acknowledgment of
the gift ... remember, and this is very important ... we are but the
"channel" or "instrument" through which the Divine
has made the gift. Now, it is never out of Principle to
acknowledge a gift, to the person or channel from which we receive a
gift, for it is the nature of a person with a generous nature to do so
... we are only out of Principle when we do so out of obligation or for
appearances sake ... but, we are to "thank God" always for the
gift knowing that God and God alone is the true Source of our Good ...
through our consciousness.
No where is the
Principle of Generosity more abused than in churches. The Hebrews
tithed 10% to God and realized a gain from this practice. Churches
have taught this as a Principle when it is applied to giving to the
church ... but this is an erroneous teaching. Giving to our church
is rife with all manner of obligation, guilt, ego and manipulation.
Our giving must follow the Principle of Generosity, "freely give
and freely receive" ... obligation takes us out of Principle.
A few months back it came to my attention that a church was giving a
party to celebrate its top 50 contributors ... I was amazed at this as
it was a metaphysical church. My first thought was, how do they
know who the top contributors are? A person who earns $100,000
giving 10% of their income still has $90,000 ... but a person who earns
$20,000 who gives 10% of their income has $18,000 left ... which person
is the greater contributor ... surely, $2,000 to a person earning
$20,000 is very generous ... and if they both gave 10% then their
contribution is equal according to the Law.
As the Master
Mind Jesus stated, "even the pagans give to those who are good to
them." We must insist that our giving comes from a
"sense" of generosity and never with an expectation of
acknowledgment or direct benefit. Now, I am not stating not to
give to our churches, temples, etc. ... but we must think about why we
are giving and if we find within ourselves that it is from obligation or
a seeking of acknowledgment ... then we may as well not give at all ...
because then we are giving from what we have ... and not the Infinite
Source of our Supply that flows through our consciousness of generosity.
And
So It Is!
Letting
Love Use Me In Its Own Good Way,
Rev.
Bates
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