Fed by Grace

So think about how "Give us this day our daily bread" relates to "Thou shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not covet..."

When Jesus gave us this verse "Give us this day our daily bread" do you think he meant you should only ask God for whatever minimally it will take to keep you from dying? Did he mean that you could only expect bread and nothing else? Did he mean that God only rations out good in small doses? No. Consider this passage from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25 - 33):

"25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

All these things shall be added unto you - when you first seek the kingdom of God, when you let go of what you want or think you need and turn your desires over to Him, when you really first pray "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Then your every need is met.

So what does it mean then to steal or to covet?

Isn't stealing taking something that doesn't belong to you? And isn't coveting wishing you had what someone else already does? Aren't these both actions of someone who thinks their life is missing something good? something they need to make them happy or complete? And isn't stealing and coveting what happens when you don't trust God to supply your every need?

But see, right there the lie exposes itself. Did God fail you? Did He forget to make you complete or capable of happiness? Did He leave something out of your being, something that other people have but you don't and that you think you should? No. He made you right the first time. He made you in His image and likeness. So He made you perfectly.

OK so woopdeedoo, that's all nice and everything, but it sure doesn't always feel that way.

That's why the Lord's Prayer is so beautiful: it helps you to come home to God, to come back to the sanity of Divine Love's view of you: Already complete. Already loved. Already whole, and so, already holy.

So think about it: if your heart is being fed all that it needs every day, is being fed that Divine grace every day, and every day its famished affections being fed completely by Divine Love - what could you want to steal or covet? If you actually knew that all the good that God has is already yours, what you could possibly want to steal or covet anyway?

And that is exactly what Jesus is telling you here: if you feel covetous, or think you need to steal (whether money, things, or even the limelight), what would happen to you if you were to know instead that God is giving you every day, your daily bread? your daily grace? your daily everything? What if you turn that "something's missing" feeling over to God? if you trust that need completely to God? Really honestly hand it over to Him?

How did Jesus phrase it? "...what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

Exactly. How much more will your heavenly Father give you exactly what you need? And then how much more you should be asking it of Him! As you do, you will see your real desires awakened, molded and exalted. And you will wake up to see that those "things" you used to want start to look like cheap tinsle compared to what you really really need and want: fulfillment, satisfaction, completeness, joy, love, life.

But you sometimes think you need those material "things" first in order to feel those spiritual values. That's backwards. And that's precisely why coveting and stealing don't work. They are an illusion of a fix but without the substance of a fix. Why? Because they put the "things" - the symbols - first, and completely leave the real spiritual treasure these things/symbols are supposed to represent (fulfillment, satisfaction, completeness, joy, love, life) completely out of the picture.

So reverse the process. Forget the things and wake up to the spiritual gifts that God is offering you. Transform your desire from "stuff" to Spirit. Be willing to open your heart to those spiritual values first. Doing that moves your focus off yourself and what you don't have and onto God and what He has already prepared for you. This shifts your perspective off what you lack and onto God's abundance. This wakes you up to see, and accept, what God has already prepared for you.

The beauty of prayer is - when honest - that it is the way for you to lift up your famished affections, your real desires, to God. So be honest about your desires. Trust God with them. Hand them over to Him no matter what your family or other people or society think about them. It's none of their business. Prayer is always between you and God. Or actually, between God and you!

And if you trust God honestly, be ready, because God will mold and exalt you. He will hear your soul's deepest yearning and satisfy you in ways better than you could ever wish or imagine. The trinkets you used to covet or the attention you thought you had to steal will fade away as you start to see and embrace what Divine Love has already prepared for you. So look at what God is giving you. Focus on that grace. And you won't have any time for or interest in coveting or stealing. Why? Because there is nothing worth coveting or stealing compared to what God gives you.

Just ask.

Because God gives you "bread and fish" - what you really need. So why steal stones and covet serpents?

The 10 Promises and the Lord's Prayer assure you that your seemingly famished affections are already being fed by God's rich, rich grace.

Will you open your heart and accept it? What will you do? Right now, what will you do? What do you covet? What do you steal? How will you think about what you need or don't need? How will you put this into practice? Will you trust God with your famished affections? Will you accept His everpresent answer? Will you accept His daily grace?

Maybe start gently. Maybe just pray the Lord's Prayer as honestly as you can. Maybe just trust a little more and ask to see what Divine Love has prepared for you. If you do, you know it's gonna be great.

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

Let me accept Your abundant grace dear Father. You have already given it to me and everyone. It is already mine. Help me wake up to accept this gift. How empty everything else seems. How great is my need of You. Compared to Your love, what is there really worth stealing? What could I possibly covet that can compare to You?

Let me feel You feeding my famished affections. Let me feel satisfied. I offer up all my needs and wants to You because I know You will mold and exalt them so that they fulfill Your good will for me. Let me feel that beautiful Love of Yours filling me up to overflowing!

The Bible says "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." Let my prayer, my desire, be to feel your Love so alive in me that I actually wake up! So that I understand that I can - and do - live as Your likeness. This is my true state of being, right here and right now. Let me open my eyes and see that my life is already so full of Your grace and Your love that I can only want to share Your love and give it and live it as Your child, Your likeness.

Then I will be living, not only Your prayer, but also Your promise: I shall not covet or steal because every day You feed my every need with Your priceless grace, and because every day You give me the opportunity to share that love with others.

"Fed by Thy love divine we life, for Love alone is Life."*

Thank you Father-Mother God.




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* Poems, Mary Baker Eddy

The Lord's Prayer & The 10 Promises (Part 2)

You looked at how the first 5 Commandments - or Promises - are affirmed in the first 4 verses of the Lord's Prayer. Look now at how the last 5 Commandments are affirmed in the next 3 verses of the Lord's Prayer. Think about them together. See how Jesus' prayer awakens you to their promise for you.

6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness...
10. Thou shalt not covet...

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.
"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

In the next several posts, let's dive into this together.

The Lord's Prayer & The 10 Promises (Part 1)

Do you realize that the Lord's Prayer and the 10 Commandments - the 10 Promises - are complimentary?

Think about it: Moses heard God's Word as the 10 Commandments. These 10 Commandments promise you the truth about your relationship with God and about your relationship with your fellow human beings. They define you as God's image and likeness. They fulfill all the law and the prophets because they enliven you to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. In them, you are unable to be anything other than what God makes you to be. They promise you that you "shalt not" be anything but His perfect creation.

And this is also exactly what the Lord's Prayer does. In fact, you could say it is the 10 Promises in prayer form.

Look at the first 5 Commandments and the first 4 verses of the Lord's Prayer side by side:

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Our Father, which art in heaven. Our Father-Mother God, all harmonious.

To acknowledge only the One God is to have no other gods. It is to know that this One God is your only Father-Mother, all-harmonious. It is to accept that your source is Divine, your Cause is Life, your Creator is Love, and that you are His/Her perfect image and likeness, healthy, holy, and wholely good. Live this promise as your prayer.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image...
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain...
Hallowed be Thy name. Adorable One.

Hallowing the Adorable One, the Great I Am, makes it impossible to indulge in idolatry - the worship of matter - or to dishonor the name and nature of God in word or deed. God's name - God's perfect nature - is the real thing, the genuine article! You don't need to idolize people or things when you adore the Adorable One. Don't you love what you adore? And if you adore God, divine Love, would you ever even think to abuse His name or His nature? Of course not. And this is your natural state of being, as God's image and likeness.

4. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy...
Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom is come. Thou art everpresent.

What could keep the Sabbath holier than acknowledging God's kingdom, His presence and power as being with you right here and right now? What could put you at ease - make you rest - more than knowing that God's work is done, His kingdom come, and that your perfect place in it is secure? There is no effort you need to put out to make this happen. There is no labor you need to add to His already complete perfect creation. There is no work involved in opening your eyes to His everpresence. You are a complete and perfect expression of God. God "finished" you. He is present with you now, holding you, keeping you safe. Healing is the truest fulfillment of the Sabbath - acknowedging and understanding that God's work - you! - are done and and done perfectly. This is God's Sabbath promise to you: you are already whole, complete, divinely fair. Rest in that.

5. Honor thy father and thy mother...
Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

What better way to honor your father and mother than by obeying them? Than by acknowledging their authority? Why would you want to obey your parents? For at least one reason: their years of experience provides a loving protective wisdom that can guard and guide you as you mature. Like the Good Shepherd of the 23rd Psalm, their "rod and ... staff", their will, their loving desire, comforts you.

And so if you would honor your father and mother by obeying them, listening to their guidance because you know they have your best interests at heart, because they love you, so it is even more important to honor God in the same way. Listen to what God is telling you about who you are. Honor God's name and nature - because you are the image and likeness of that name and nature! So let the will of your Father-Mother God be done in your life here and now as it is in heaven.

And why not? It will only make your will, your love, your life, more like Him, more true to who you really already are, more authentic, more awake to your likeness to your Father-Mother God. Honor that heavenly likeness, that heavenly will by living your life accordingly right now right here on earth. Then you'll not only know that - as in heaven, so on earth, God really is omnipotent, supreme - you'll be demonstrating it. You'll be living it. And that's the most natural thing in the world for you to do.

So what's it like?

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

So what's it like in heaven? Isn't it paradise? Isn't it where there is no sin, no disease, no evil, no death? Isn't it where the 10 Commandments are perfectly fulfilled? Isn't it where God, divine Love, is in complete control, where only His will is done?

And so what's it like to live somewhere where only God's will is done? What's God's will like? Isn't it going to be a reflection of His character, His nature? And if so, isn't His will then perfect and good? Isn't it, well, heavenly?

And what is heaven anyway? "Have you ever pictured this heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom?" Isn't it a place where God has no opposition, where He is the only power there is, where He reigns supreme? And if so, isn't it a beautiful place to be? a harmonious, happy, healthy, holy place to be?

If so, then, yes indeed: enable us to know that just like it is in heaven, so here on earth, this same Father-Mother God All harmonious is already the only real power there is. That earth is heaven - just viewed through that cloudy perspective, that dirty mirror, that "inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down. "

And when viewed rightside up, earth is heaven. Earth is already where God is omnipotent, supreme.

Huh?? earth is heaven?

Does this shock you? Does this seem impossible? Then you need a change in perspective. You need to see the world from a more spiritual point of view. You need to wake up and see things the way Jesus did. You need to "have the Mind of Christ."

In fact, that is what Jesus is asking us to pray for in this verse: the perspective he had, the perspective of the Mind of Christ, the point of view that sees God's heavenly will being done right here where just the opposite seems to be happening, where the inverted image seems so real, where the upside down perspective seems so permanently wrongside right!

Remember: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God [...of heaven] is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy."

So as you pray this verse, you are letting "this [same] mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." You are letting Jesus' "correct view" heal your earthly perspective and transform it into one like his, one that heals, one that makes whole, one that is heavenly.

And you have every right - and opportunity - to desire this, to live in a more heavenly way right here and right now.

Why? because it is God's loving will, desire, for you.

How? because God is omnipotent, supreme on "earth" just like He is in heaven.

In fact, there is no earthly dream of a mortal life separated from the everpresent heavenly good of our Father-Mother God. You (and the whole world of those around you) really already live with God in heaven.

Don't you have to die to get there? Of course not. Why? Because "Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal, because sin is not there and man is found having no righteousness of his own, but in possession of "the mind of the Lord," as the Scripture says.

How would you feel if you had this "divine state of Mind"? if you knew you actually live in heaven right here and right now? How would you act? What would change in your life? What's your intuition telling you right now?

Heaven is your natural spiritual perspective, a divine state of Mind - put into practice and acted on. So let that Mind "be in you as it also was in Christ Jesus." Let that Mind be in you. Let it be your will. Let it move you, motivate you, inspire you, enable you, feed you, forgive you, lead you, deliver you. And you will find yourself fulfilling God's will. You will be a light pulled out from under the bushel of dark "earthy" thinking, and instead actively doing the healing holy loving will of your Father, lighting up earth as if it were Heaven (which, spiritually speaking, it already is).

So yes, enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme. Right here. Right now.

Aspects of Reflection (Part 1)

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

Isn't a mirror a good metaphor for God's will being done in earth as it is in heaven?

Think about it: a mirror creates an exact image of what is before it. Spiritually speaking then, you (as God's image and likeness) are an exact spiritual reflection of God. That means God's will - His purpose, His desire, His mandate - is mirrored in you, reflected in you, by you, as you.

Mrs. Eddy says this:

"Your mirrored reflection is your own image or likeness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours. Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God."

"...so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God." God's will done in you as it is in heaven. God's desires awakening in you as they are already truly awake in heaven. God's perfect lovely qualities active as you, as the true heavenly you, as they are in heaven.

What would this feel like? what would your life look like? How would you feel, think, act, if you understood and accepted that, by reflection, God's will is really already yours? already active as your deepest spiritual yearning? already alive as your most natural native desire to live and help others live? to love and be loved?

But what if this "mirror" is dirty? What if it's covered in sin, sickness, and death? What if there's hatred, abuse, heridity, failure, guilt, dispair scratched on its surface?

Well, that's just it: it's only on the surface of the mirror. That "dirt" never touches God or His reflection. Just as if you had toothpaste on your bathroom mirror: that toothpaste never once touches you - or your reflection. It only appears to.

So just the same, if God is intact, then you - by reflection are also intact. If the mirror (the mental state) you're seeing your reflection in is material (limited to the perceptions of the physical senses and emotions) then you're looking at yourself through a dirty mirror. You are going to think that "toothpaste" is on you. You are going to think that something is horribly wrong with you. That you have immense amounts of work to do to become whole. That there might be a long recovery from "toothpaste-itis". That maybe you are unredeemable, scarred, fatally flawed, a lost cause.

But that is never the case. That is only the view you get when you think that the toothpaste on the mirror is actually you - and not seeing that you are actually perfectly fine, and that it's just the mirror (the mental state) that needs a little spiritual Windex.

... and isn't this also exactly the case when we look at those around us? when we see them as anything less than God's own likeness?

You already know that if you change your thinking - your perspective - you begin to see things (life, love, yourself, others) differently. If you walk up the hill, you see a wider view. So likewise, if you turn away from the tooth-pastey mirror and instead start looking at yourself and the world in the mirror of Divine Science - the divine understanding of God, the divine way God sees His creation, then your "mirror" (your thinking) goes "up" - it also gets a wider perspective. It sees beyond its previous limits. You begin to see yourself more clearly, more correctly, more according to God's perspective, God's point of view of you, God's view of the whole world. If you're honest, you will begin to see that, wow, you DO look just like how God made you and all creation: whole, spiritual, holy, loved! In short, the toothpastey view gets cleaned up.

Then comes the fun part: living from that higher, that more spiritual perspective. And practicing that keeps your mirror clean and your toothpaste on your toothbrush, where it belongs.

Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God - and God's perfect will and perfect viewpoint - is omnipotent, supreme.