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"....
the most important aspect of John 3:16 is "for God so loved the
world that he gave.: God is the divine givingness of the Universe.
And you are created in the image-likeness of this divine givingness.
You cannot make any sense out of life or realize the free flow of
substance in your experience until you begin to see yourself as a giver.
It may mean a complete turnaround in your approach to life, where you
think "give" instead of "get." In your
spiritual quest, you are seeking to establish yourself in a unique
relationship with the divine flow. You can never really achieve
this level of consciousness until giving becomes the main thrust of your
life. And when it does, when you discover the wonder of giving,
you become, unblushingly, and incurable giver. Meditate long on
this point, for it is one of the most important keys of the prosperity
law." - Eric
Butterworth, Spiritual Economics
This
"divine givingness" we are to achieve is not specifically
about giving to charity, or giving to a church, and so forth, Dr.
Butterworth explains, but an "attitude toward life, the basic
awareness that life is a matter of developing and unfolding from within.
It is knowing that life is not something to get but something to
express. It is the fulfilling awareness that your business is
always the express business, no matter what name your worldly vocation
may bear."
In other words,
it is our business is to express the divine nature within us, the
givingness, the creativity within us, the talents and skills that are
ours to give. And when we work in a giving consciousness, we will
have even more to give. As we know in the Science of Mind and from
the Master Mind Jesus, "give and be given to." Eric
Butterworth writes that: "If all you get out of your work is
a paycheck, you are short-changing yourself."
This "give and be
given to" can be tricky for those of us who have experienced the
teachings of traditional religious leaders. As Eric Butterworth
writes in his book: "Often the religious book or teacher will
talk out of self-interest and insist that the giving must go to the
church. The giving is a state of consciousness that may eventuate
in many different ways. But the important thing is to think, give!
Say to yourself, "I will think give today. I will think give
every day of my life." The Law is clear. It promises:
Think give, and you will get. It is a fundamental key to achieving
prosperity."
Many people tell me that they
are not satisfied with the work they are doing. Some do the work
they do because they believe it supports them financially. Other
people feel limited by their education and so they work in jobs that
they don't have any real interest in, but "that's why they call it
work" they say. But, the emotional and mental payment that is
extracted from these types of attitude will only make us tired, and
sometimes depressed. The solution for this, is to look at our work
in another way. Get a better idea of it, so to speak, for we have
convinced ourselves of something false. No matter what we are
doing, there is always an opportunity to give more "of
ourselves" in what we are doing. There are no mistakes in
Spirit and there are no mistakes in you and me ... we are where we are
because in consciousness we have been guided to it ... and there is
something for us to do before we move on ... but we won't know what it
is until we begin to do everything that we can think of ... both
mentally and physically that we can find to do.
We can never put our
consciousness "on hold" ... whatever our predominate thoughts
are, that is what we become. If we are choosing to have a
successful life, we must advance this idea of success in all that we do.
And the thing that advances our success, is giving. Whenever we
withhold our creative abilities, we block the flow of Creative Mind that
provides us with the guidance, direction and ideas that expand and
develop a greater success in our life experience. We can
"control conditions through the power of Mind" ... and we do
this by controlling our reactions to the things that we have, that we
do, and who we are.
Eric Butterworth, in his book,
"Spiritual Economics" offers a simple story with a profound
lesson: "The president of a great railroad was on an
inspection tour when he encountered a laborer in a section gang with
whom he had worked in that same work some forty years earlier. He
greeted his old friend warmly, remembering the "old days."
The tired old laborer said, "Bert, you've gone a long way from the
time we were laying tracks together." The executive said,
"No, Sam, that isn't quite correct. You were laying tracks; I
was building a railroad."
Our life is not in
fragments; work, home, recreation, family, etc. ... it just
appears that way. Life is wholeness (holy) and whatever we
"give to" any aspect of our life affects the
"whole." Life can only respond to what we "give
it" ... and nothing more. We are either laying tracks or
building a railroad. It's entirely up to us.
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev.
Dr. Henry Lee Bates
Visit Rev. Bates BLOG: Living
the Science of Mind
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