When your heart is troubled...

... go where it is safe. Go where everything is good and true. Go home to God, the kingdom of heaven, your only true home.

How?

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise:"

Yes, start by doing something that is oh so simple but oh so powerful: count your blessings.

Why?

Because this directive from Psalms is literally true. Giving God thanks is a powerful step into coming home to Him. It opens the door of your thought to Him. It shifts your perspectives off of your trouble and onto His truth. And a wise minister once said: "Take your thoughts off your circumstances and keep them on the Lord."

Gratitude changes your point of view so you can see how close God is to you. Counting your blessings wakes you up to not just the cup half full, but the cup that's running over. It shows you that God is already present in your life. It draws your thoughts and heart nearer to Him. And the Bible promises: "Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you."

So do it. Count your blessings. And be honest about it. Honor every good and Godlike thing in your life. And you'll find yourself entering into that place - that state of consciousness - where it is always safe, where you are always welcomed, where you really live: God's kingdom, God's presence.

Let your spiritual sense, your intuition, your gratitude, guide you, open doors, let in fresh views of your life, shift your perspective, awaken you. Express your yearning with hopefulness - with the expectancy that your intuitions about God's goodness are actually true (because they are). Be faithful to your expectancy. Don't mock it. Don't discount your blessings. Rejoice in them. Feel that rejoicing. Allow it inspire your prayer with a spiritual - instead of doctrinal - understanding of what faithfulness means.

As you do, you start to realize that your prayer (your shift in perspective) is bearing fruit: You snap out of it. You start to wake up. You start to know and recognize that God, good, really is already present and active in your life, right here where you are. Love is here. Spirit is here. Life is here!

You start to accept that, in His eyes, you're already whole and holy, that you are able to live your authentic likeness to God, that you are already safe in His presence, at home with Him. In fact, you start to sense that the only true state of being you have, ever did have, or ever will have, is blessed, is good - like God - because God actually did make you in His image and likeness.

How is this possible?

Because God's is really the only presence, the only power, and the only glory forever - because God is already here with you (as counting your blessings has begun to show you), and because God is all the power there is, because He is all the Life, Truth, Love there is, because God is over all - including you - and is, well, just All.

So give thanks, come in, and rejoice to be home. Gratitude has opened the door and this place, this home, this kingdom of heavenly consciousness, is where you're always safe with God.