"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"

"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.

God delivers us from that "suggestion of the serpent" that there is either something God is not giving us, that He is giving us what we don't want - or even that there is some other "god" ruling our lives called sin, disease, death.

But what about when maybe we're believing that God is holding out on something we not only want, but really need?

Or maybe that we don't need God, or that there's no such thing as God?

Or that we can find the goodness we need on our own? In fact, that we are completely on our own, wandering, naked, vulnerable, needing to be as sneaky as a snake to survive, fending for ourselves in a confusing sometimes-good/sometimes- evil world?

Or maybe that essentially, we can even find something even better than God?

But no matter how far we roam in our thoughts about God, God never abandons us. He speaks to us continuously. His voice is heard when we shut up! or when we cry out! But we can also learn to hear His voice in every intuition of goodness that we feel, every effort to love, every selfless act.

These are points of awakening. If we notice them, listen to their meaning, pay attention to them, begin to embody them, these intuitions of Good wake us up to what is actually real and valuable. We begin to see that "things" are less important than thoughts - than what is in our heart of hearts. And when we come face to face with what is in our heart, we might feel some very strong feelings, sometimes with a flood of tears. But these intutions of Good always work in our favor. They serve to wake us up. If listened to and acted on, they deliver us from the "forbidden fruit" sin, disease, and yes, even death.

That's because God wants you to live! God, Divine Love wants you to wake up! and see yourself the way He sees you: as His image and likeness! not the image and likeness of your human history! God wants you to feel His love for you so strongly that it will overflow your life and spill out to every one you meet.

There is, in fact, nothing "better" than God. In actual reality, there isn't anything other than God and His reflection, Christ and the universe. There is no "other" called sin, disease, death. These are the dark shadows of mortal thought which evaporate in the presence of the Divine Thought: that there is only ONE God and He has made you in His likeness - Good!

And God supplies all your need with everything that is spiritually real and permanent as well as humanly necessary. You are already complete in Him right here, right now. The Truth of spiritual being, the Truth of your status as His image and likeness, and the complete understanding of the fullness of the Christ, are already our actual reality.

And in the beauty of this spiritual wholeness, healthiness, holiness, we discover something wonderful:

"Truth is God's remedy for error of every kind, and Truth destroys only what is untrue."

And "God leadeth us not into temptation [to believe that wily lie] but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death"!

Why?

Because, in absolute reality: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."

Amen!

God is my All

"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever."
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love; over all, and All.

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."

God is my wealth, my health, my relationship, my purpose, my substance, my being, my All. "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." And the nature of God is Good! is Life, Truth, Love.

How wonderful it is to know that "...His arm encircles me, and mine, and all." *

So let me see what Love is being and then let me be what Love is doing! Amen!



* from "Mother's Evening Prayer" - a poem by Mary Baker Eddy

"Our Father..."

"Our Father..."

If only these two words of Jesus' prayer had survived the centuries, they still - if deeply and honestly lived and understood - would be enough to heal the world.

Think about it.

Fed and saved and satisfied!

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

Give us this day our daily Bread of Life, our daily inspiration, daily ideas from Divine Mind. And give us the grace to "eat" them - consume them, embody them, live them and so be strong enough in the Spirit to feed all need, all that world of famished affections! Bless us with this communion Bread of Life!

"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

And forgiveness is our communion wine that washes away all sense of debt and debtor, of "other-than-Love". And this wine-blood washes us clean - wakens us in His likeness - saves us as untouched by lack, by debt, by tresspassers or by tresspassing or any belief that we have ever been anywhere outside our sacred communion, our sacred oneness with Divine Love being eternally reflected as love - as Love made manifest as us!

So, in the greatest humility, let us sit down with God. Let us take His cup, receive His Bread of Life, His Wine of Soul and so embody all that Divine Love has prepared for us. In this meal, we are completely satisfied!