Category: Humility

Reflect or Absorb: an Important Distinction

The Light needs you as a reflecting point, and you need the light in order to reflect.

Meditation Thought: ” ‘…I have built …by my mighty power …for the glory of my majesty’ …Even as the words were on the King’s lips, a voice came from heaven, ‘This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you …until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.'” (Daniel 4:32-32)

There is no firm foundation save the foundation of God who is Love: Creative Love. Trust nothing but God – but God is everywhere. Therefore when you are seeking God that you may find Him whom you can trust, you have but a short search. Your search is only the distance from your mind to your faith: from the desire to act upon God’s will, to the trust that you are acting upon God’s will, to the knowledge that you are acting upon God’s will.

Cannot He who created all re-create all? He who sought to create in love – and respect for individuality – remains lovingly re-creative in response to that individuality seeking to become a lovelier expression of Himself.

It is for this reason that neither Nebuchadnezzar, nor you could seek to create glory for yourselves: you cannot create light but you can reflect light, via your choice of expression of yourself as a reflector of light. You can reflect much light or reflect very little light.

The more of anything you attempt to absorb for yourself, the less of that remains on your surface to be reflected to be of aid to those who look to you – you were created to reflect the light of your Father, not to be a generator of light. If you, by your very ignorance, attempt to distort yourself so as to generate instead of reflect, you lose your ability to be what you ought to be in the process of attempting to be what you will never be able to become.

Imitate your Father by observing Him. You see Him everywhere: in all that is love, peace, harmony, forgiveness, beauty, righteousness, sacrificing, joyful. If you turn your eye toward the Light, then you shall be able to allow the Light to shine forth as reflected from your eyes: those who look at you see the Light and the reflected light reveals to them the path which they had not found without the additional light.

This is why you cannot simply absorb the Light. You must be a good reflector of the Light in order to by fully appreciative of it. The Light needs you as a reflecting point, and you need the light in order to reflect.

How to Choose When Choosing is Difficult

The knowledge that great abilities lie within you is a force that can release these to benefit many, including yourself. Go on a ‘treasure hunt’ seeking to find all of these traits and to use them for great good.

Meditation Thought: “…return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you…” (Deuteronomy 30:2,3)

“Like begets like” and if you are seeking to be like God as you express your character and your personality, you will draw God closer to you. He is your Father, but you can choose to be close to Him, to listen to Him and to obey Him, or you can go away, ignore Him and defy Him.

You know which way it best for you. You know it is the best way for all. You can choose for yourself; you cannot choose for all. But, in choosing for yourself, you affect others’ decisions – perhaps more than you know.

When choices are difficult – call upon the Power within you – the genetic inheritance of God the Father living within the spirit of His child. If you know you come from ‘good stock’ it gives you confidence in your genetic inheritance. What better ‘stock’ is possible than Creator of the universe?

When you seek to live in ways that reflect the glorious inheritance you ‘upgrade’ your own life and all who know you. Some may perceive that it is your inheritance that sparks your desirable qualities – and seek to know of their own inheritance, thus learning of their relationship to you as well as of their Father. Others may be unable to understand fully the motivations of your thoughts, your words, your deeds. But, nevertheless, they are affected by them. You are continuously tilling fields of others’ lives, either enabling them to produce good crops, or inhibiting their production, depending upon your expertise, your energy, and your attention.

Your expertise is developed in the Word, your energy is engendered by the Spirit, and your attention is prompted by Christ’s example and the results He deomonstrated.

Seek to express yourself as representative of your inheritance from the Father, not with pride in yourself, but with pride in Him, pride in being connected with Him. All can have this pride if they will.

The knowledge that great abilities lie within you is a force that can release these to benefit many, including yourself. Go on a ‘treasure hunt’ seeking to find all of these traits and to use them for great good.

Sand Art of Time

I desire to love you and care for you – allow Me this pleasure.

Meditation Thought: “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

“Picture yourself choosing various objects laid out before you to drop into a transparent cylinder of time: the overall pattern is determined by the objects you choose. If you listen to Me, I will enable you to choose objects which will produce a pattern of glowing loveliness and beauty, a column of time giving pleasure to the world and to the Kingdom.

If you choose to ignore My wisdom and knowledge of the whole in selecting the objects, the column of time will be clouded and dark and jumbled, making no pattern of loveliness. Do not become so preoccupied with the necessity of selecting that you forget to consult Me. Walk in the Way, the Word, the Spirit to discover My selections for your ideal pattern. Trust Me – knowing that as the infant, you cannot function properly without the care of your Father. I desire to love you and care for you – allow Me this pleasure.”

Body of Membership

Christ right here!

Meditation Thought: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 6:15)

Christ is in each cell! Christ, My Lord, right here; we are one. With the yielding of my will to His will, my body is transformed into Christ living in the world today.

How can I treat His body with anything but care and love?
Would I flail Him (abuse Him mentally)?
Would I deny Him the nourishment He needs?
Would I deny Him the movement He needs for health when He is confined in a body?

I must treat Christ within me (my body) as I would treat a member of my family – providing all that is needed for His perfect health and welfare.

The Road to Friendship

Our loving Father is determined that we should remain in His chosen path for us so that we can be exposed to all of the wonderful things He has placed there for us.

Meditation Thought: “The Lord is a friend to those who fear him.” (Psalm 25:14)

I will respect the Lord and do His will, for His will is for my good. I will heed the Lord that my mind may be at peace and my heart full of joy. Blessed be the Lord! He is merciful and full of grace.

To fear the Lord, we must know of His power. To know of His power is to fear Him – but also to realize that the power is intended to be for our good. Only when we cross the will of God do we move from the positive side of His power into the negative side. When we are in the negative side, He is bathing us in the harsh chemicals of circumstance so that we might be changed and moved back to the positive side; in the positive state of being in God’s will, we are seen in focus, we are clearly outlined – no confusion or fuzziness clouds our image.

We need to fear God so that we can put forth the effort needed to submit our self-will and ego to His will and Christ’s ego or Presence within us. We need the incentive of knowing that God is more powerful than we, that He cares enough about us to guide us “on the straight and narrow” even if it sometimes hurts! Sometimes we are so aware of the confinement of the narrow way that we forget to look at the opening in front of us – the vision of all that is truly dear to us being right within that narrow way. While at times we may envy the broad road of the world where we could wander without bumping into the confines of righteousness – our loving Father is determined that we should remain in His chosen path for us so that we can be exposed to all of the wonderful things He has placed there for us – if we wander off to the broad roads of the world, we move along in time, wasting our movements and our thoughts on mundane, even evil and harmful things not planned for us by God.

Homemaking

Cleanse me, shine me, beautify me.

Meditation Thought: “ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

Oh Lord, help me to every day improve my temple to be more fitting as a place for You to dwell. Cleanse me of sin, shine me with your righteousness, beautify me with your love. Let me be a place where others are drawn to worship You, to come to learn more about You, to rejoice in You. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Take time to compare the temple you are with the temple of those who walked with Jesus. This will help you to restructure and redecorate your own temple in a manner more befitting the residence of God on earth. Jesus as man was the perfect temple: no mortal can become a perfect temple – but it is possible to yield to the Spirit within you to the point of becoming a pleasing temple, a temple based on the Ideal Temple, copying it as you come to study the Ideal Temple.

Life-Style Upgrade

But as money must be spent to change a life-style, so the Spirit must be active to change the style of life.

Meditation Thought: These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10)

The gift of the Spirit as the means of affecting every area of a life can be compared to the gift of money in the world: the money can be applied to purchase goods which can be completely life-changing as to the style of living. And so the Spirit changes the style of life, not just a minute area. But as money must be spent to change a life-style, so the Spirit must be active to change the style of life. The knowledge to activate the Spirit is easy to find: the difficulty lies in our willingness to deny our human willfulness to dictate what we will think and say and do, and instead to yield to God’s will, and especially to accept the manner of His teaching.

We would choose to learn with little effort having our lessons all laid out before us, without our research any commitment on our part. But this is not the way we learn in depth, in a depth that takes the lesson learned beyond the ‘head knowledge’ and extends it to ‘heart knowledge’, making it a part of our actions as well as our mind.

It is the Spirit that keeps us researching, who leads us to new discoveries and resources. We must ask His help – and accept it and heed His instructions in order to learn the lesson, and having learned it, to make it a life-changing element in our lives.

Claim it Now

Follow Me to your new nature in Christ, reflecting the character of your Father, expressed in your unique personality and expressed where you are.

Meditation Thought: “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.  And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.” (Romans 8:16-17)

“Trust Me when you have pain – for the pain is caused by the digging out of the infection of sin that has set in your body, your mind, your spirit, your emotions. When the last of the infection is rooted out, the health of righteousness pervades and prevails.

In this world, the process is constant but when you shed the physical body for the new body, the only state of the new body is health in the Spirit, unchallenged by sin.

Yield to Me – relax whatever the moment brings forth, for I am your loving Father who desires above all that you prosper in My care and in My teaching.

Seek My will and obey Me – this is the process of being crucified with Christ, for you must go against your own sinful nature, and the battle is constant and at times very difficult, for that sinful nature can be very hard and very misleading as to its true nature.

But you are My heir, and knowing you are My heir – go with confidence to claim your inheritance: eternal life, yes – but the full life in the Spirit now:

  • sin conquered
  • soul prospering
  • body prospering
  • a mind renewed in Christ
  • emotions guilt-free and rejoicing in My blessings and works in your life and those whom you know.

I will lead if you will follow – do not turn back to sin, to self-will, to rebellion, to selfishness and pride – but follow Me to your new nature in Christ, reflecting the character of your Father, expressed in your unique personality and expressed where you are, and delighting in the doing of the works.”

Gourmet Cooking

It takes time and effort to learn to cook God’s gourmet meals – but the results are so outstanding that we can be only glad that we spent our time and effort in learning to cook in this manner.

Meditation Thought: “Let your speech at all times be gracious and pleasant, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer each one [who questions you].” (Colossians 4:6 AMP)

A good cook is accomplished because they have had experience. Just pouring ingredients together in any mixture or any proportion does not make a tasty dish, and in fact, can make on that is actually harmful or wasteful.

We can become good cooks with the ingredients God provides for us (His Word, His Spirit, our minds, our bodies, our spirit) – only if we follow His recipes and advice as to how to use and mix these ingredients. Even then, the more time and effort we spend in “cooking”, the better we will become at producing tasty, nutritious and attractive dishes for ourselves and for others. We must learn that perfect proportion and method to produce the best result for the particular dish we are preparing – for no salt can make a dish too bland to be interesting, and too much salt can make it unpalatable.

It takes time and effort to learn to cook God’s gourmet meals – but the results are so outstanding that when we are enjoying the dish, and others are enjoying it, we can be only glad that we spent our time and effort in learning to cook in this manner.

God is thinking about… You!

What are some of those thoughts the Lord is thinking about me?

Meditation Thought: “How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly!” (Psalm 139:17)

What are some of those thoughts the Lord is thinking about me constantly? Perhaps His promises give me a clue: (Insert your name into each ____)
“I love ___.
I will help ___.
I will teach ___.
I will make ___ joyful.
I will make ___ peaceful.
I will allow ___ freedom, but provide the opportunity for him/her to find the ways of love, peace and joy – therefore “making” him/her these ways if he/she is willing.
I will help ___ to find Truth, to see wide vistas instead of narrow canyons.
I will help ___ to feel needed, appreciated, accomplished, enthusiastic, grateful, willing, and loved.
I will give ___ hope and justify his/her faith in Me.”

Prayer of response:
Dear Lord,
Just as you think about me constantly, I want to think about You constantly – I ask Your guidance in helping me bridle my ego and my worldly desires that more and more this thinking makes itself apparent in my life.
Amen.