Dear souls who read this, when you wake up feeling the cares of the world in your heart, tempting you to despair, PRAY…… Another way of saying this is to trust that your feelings are not the ultimate reality, and turn in faith to God. Even if you can only cry out, “God if you are there, please help me,” – trust He will. His love and unending desire for us to be One with Him is beyond our comprehension, and immeasurably more than a human parent longs for an absent child to get in touch. We were made to be One with God, all our cares and needs given to Him. I believe that the longing in our hearts, or sense of being unfulfilled, is a mirror of God’s longing for us, as we long for ‘something’ that is beyond our grasp. And yet He is with us in all our will for good.
Beyond all rational understanding, His image is in us, the Spiritual being in our soul, rooted in Love and unity with Him and all. Most of our division is man made, worldly, and comes from a desire for power. All our unhappiness stems from this division. So we need to pray for unity with God, and in our selves, (loving our true Selves) in order that we can rightly love our neighbour.
Oh dear readers, this may seem like ‘theory’ but if we are walking day by day with division within us, and between us, the practical day to day things are not necessarily done in love. We may be doing things to please someone else, maybe expecting some reward from them for ourselves, or because we think we ‘ought’ to do it. But if there is no Love, or grace of God, then these things become ‘dead’ works, bring disappointment, and do not build or bring life to our souls. Nor do they enable us to experience the ‘living spring’ we are promised. In the end we feel resentment, not blessing. We are not living in truth with our neighbour.
I am guilty of doing things within the community because ‘they need doing’, which may be seen as a virtue, as I ‘die to self’. But I realise that two wrongs don’t make a right. God did not make me to be half-hearted and He wants me to love and serve with all He has made me. There is in fact a verse in the Old Testament which talks about getting up from the doormat position!!** So I must ensure that my soul and spirit are being fed by His Spirit, through a balance of prayer, study of the Word, acts of kindness and grace according to the gifts and opportunities He provides. And I must check out the use of mind, body and soul, that all are alive in Him and His love.
Only through prayer can a right way be found, so there is a mutuality of giving which sustains all people in the unity of God’s love. We do need to ‘walk humbly with God’ but this means living for His purposes and by the grace He gives, not denying it because others want you to do the things they do not want to do for themselves. We all need grace to carry the cross of Love into the world, in which Christ makes all things new and life-giving and enables us to be ‘responsible’ – ie able to respond in wisdom and love.
Dearest reader, Love unites, builds, enables – but only provides according to need. The love you give another may be to teach them how to do their washing up, cleaning, taking the rubbish out, finding new ways to edit text or print things out – not necessarily in doing these things for others leaving no time for other fruitful work. We all need to beware of the Martha in us (male and female) who gets immediate satisfaction from ‘being useful’ but actually denies the other the grace to learn something new. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to His word. This is what brings us to harmony and the Love of God.
Lord may we all learn to listen deep within to Your calling on our lives, and while accepting the ongoing tasks of life, may You bless us to fulfil Your purpose for our lives in Love and Harmony with others, that truly our Soul will magnify You. Amen
**If anyone knows this verse, I would love to find it again…I know it was Old Testament, but cannot recall the book. It must be the essence of the meaning as I do not find it in the concordance under ‘doormat’ ….!