The Strength of God

A thing that is hard to accomplish sets our will on the strength, which is of God, knowing that by faith, we shall carry it through.

The Strength of God | Gabriel Vanslette | Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

DON'T EVEN THINK TO SOW THE SEED.

People often sow a seed in conversations. I'll give you an example,

The other day, at the Doctors', who I thought was a nurse, took a minute to allow me to commiserate the ills of a selfish community, the conversation ended with the good doctor saying, And don't think friends are there in times of need. I interrupted and quipped DON'T EVEN THINK TO SOW THE SEED. I remember her smiling.

The writer urges you never to forget that what is sown in the mind produces its harvest in the mind of the spirit.

Even as we know that what goes up must come down, what we sow in the mind produces its harvest in the mind of the spirit.

Remember that what is sown in the mind produces its harvest in the mind of the spirit.

Mangrove seedling (Rhizophora sp.), Cairns' Beach, Australia | Guillaume Blanchard | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic

The ways of the ONE ESSENCE are wonderful.

The ways of the ONE ESSENCE are wonderful, and, most of all, wonderful is His understanding of our needs and the desires within.

Monad

You are greater than you know.

You are greater than you know.

Buzz Aldrin's bootprint from the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon on 20 July 1969 | NASA

Speak to the God within

Speak to the God within, and that Divinity will show itself stronger than all the world beside.

Rock formations and the Dedo de Deus (God's Finger) peak in the background, at the Serra dos Órgãos, National Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Carlos Perez Couto | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

The Call of God

Don't underestimate the goodness that is within; remember there is God there—beneath the trivial, petty, careless guise—there is God there, and that which is of God waits for the voice to call.

Cemitério da Consolação, São Paulo, User  Wilfredor from Wikimedia Commons

As A Man Thinketh

As a Man Thinketh

No one has ever sown the seed of one good thought in the mind of another that has not produced a beauty of a definite kind in their own.

Eleanor Roosevelt holding a poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,  Lake Success, New York, November 1949 | FDR Presidential Library & Museum | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Plenteous Harvest

The Harvest is Plentiful

Never think that your effort and care and watchfulness have produced only poor results. That is wrong. Effort and care and watchfulness produce the highest and the best results, and if those results are hidden from you now, yet in God's time, you will see and rejoice at the plenteousness of the harvest so generously provided by the Father.

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) | Harvest at Arles in the Provence, Arles, June 1888 | Israel Museum 

The Garden in the Wilderness

We are toilers in life's garden, and the mere fact that it is a garden, and not a wilderness, should give us courage and hope.

360-degree panoramic view of the Gergeti Trinity Church, Mount Kazbek, and Mount Shani in Georgia | Philipp Weigell | Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

It is but a test and I will take it in the right way.

You must realise that the very word test implies a strain—it implies a strain even to the breaking point—but because God is in command, the breaking point is never reached. At that stage, the Shepherd steps in, and, gathering His little flock into the safety of His Arms, bids them forget.

Apply this, if you can, to the details of your daily life—to those important happenings, which have a way of going wrong in spite of your best endeavours. Detach yourself sufficiently from these incidents to say—It is but a test, and I will take it in the right way.

A U.S. Air Force firefighter sprays water at the fire of a simulated C-130 Hercules plane crash during an operational readiness exercise, Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, on 23 July 2012. The exercise tests the ability of personnel to defend the base and conduct daily operations during a heightened state of readiness | Staff Sgt Craig Cisek, U.S. Air Force

The Manifestation of Spiritual Characteristics

It is impossible to give an impression of such things as faith, hope, joy, truth, sincerity, and the other qualities, which belong to the Spirit—it is impossible for us to understand how they are manifested.

What do these attributes look like in their spiritual manifestation? To us, they are characteristics; to dwellers in the Spirit Lands, they are living forces with separate individualities, colours, expression, expansion, outline—everything denotes something that exists in a definite form. 

We miss all the beauties in which we are enfolded—all that exquisite beauty of details of everything—by reason of physical sight and the restrictions of the physical mind.

—The Spirit of May Crane

Bijoy Krishna Goswami | Gosaigon | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Rest in the Thought of Unity with the Divine.

Rest in the thought of unity with the Divine. Put aside all cares, all worries, all misgivings of the future, and rest in the thought that we are as children gathered into the enveloping folds of Perfect Love, and there, we can remain, serene and confident that nothing can separate us from that which is our own.

Alexander Cherkov, Humanity Bouquet, Ceramic | User Art202020 from Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

GOD BE OUR ANCHOR

Knit your thoughts to the things which are of God; bind yourself to that strong anchor which never gives—

The Anchor of Faith and Trust in God.

Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, Gauteng, on 13 May 2008 | South Africa The Good News www.sagoodnews.co.za South Africa The Good News

We are more precious than we can understand.

And so God's will is being done, and we—like instruments—are, in His sight, far more precious than we can understand, but that too will be made good in the happy days to come.

Ottan Thullal is a recite-and-dance art-form of Kerala, India. This is the face art of Ottan Thullal. Kerala School Kalolsavam 2017 | Shagil Kannur | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Fix your heart's desire on finding God—Finding God!

Fix your heart's desire on finding God—Finding God! If only we could realise for an instant, the possession, the power, and the sacred opportunities held out by trying to find God. 

Procession during Easter Friday in Santa Ana Guanajuato, Mexico | © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com | Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

At the Feet of the Saviour

Grasp the need—the desperate need—for humanity, as a whole, to lay self at the Feet of the Saviour, and to give itself wholly into His sacred care.

Christ the Redeemer, Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Donatas Dabravolskas | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Make a stand for the God that is within you.

Take a definite step, make a stand for the God that is within you.

Allegory of communist press censorship | Jacek Halicki | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Remember the quiet call of The Spirit.

Remember that the quiet call of The Spirit is away and beyond all the world's side. It is, as it were, a single golden coin against a mass of coppers.

Wall painting of a fragment of the figure of Saint Anne | GLAM-WIKI partnership project between the National Museum in Warsaw and Wikimedia Polska

The Voice of God

Here, on the earth side, we get the bulk, we get what seems to our physical mind overwhelmingly important and tangible and real. 

And on the other, just faith, faith within, that we have heard the Voice of God.

Sand dunes in the Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia. Older dunes are reddish and larger, newer dunes are yellow-brown.

Shorten the road of material experience.

Shorten the road of material experience. Enter into the shining path of spiritual experience. And then, on looking back, you will smile at the gifts of the world.

Чорний Олександр | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Focus your mind on God.

Focus your mind on God because if you do that you are bound to work well. The spirit within knows no second best, it only knows that which represents completeness—completeness, the finished task done to the best of your ability.

Flower of an Indian Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) | Hong Zhang (User jennyzhh2008 from Wikimedia Commons)

Build for God.

Work and effort and strain—these are the bricks of that foundation on which we can stand and call to the world. See to it that your bricks are in their right places; see to it too that in placing your own, you do not disturb those of another; see to it that the harmony between all is complete in the wish to build for God. And if the wish is there, you will find, in such a wonderful way, that you have built better than you knew.

Corvo Island in the Azores | Samuel Monteiro Domingues | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

I belong to joy—the joy which is of God!

Watch the outposts of your life; watch, and be on your guard against those subtle forces out to hinder the Spirit—sadness and depression. They come when you are feeling overweary with the strain. They come at the end of a long day. They come when the body is weakest and frailest.

Be on your guard, and watchful of the outposts, and when the first sign, or first hint, of their presence is felt, say to yourself—I belong to joy—the joy which is of God!

The Lincoln Memorial, built to honour the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln | Cathy Rowe | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Step forward into the revelation of the love of God.

Sadness is hallowed in one sense—because of what it has produced, what it has worked out in the physical mind. But once its work is done—and it was only a test sent to prove whether you were strong enough to emerge from it into joy—once its work is done, you do not belong to it.

You belong to that perfect happiness, that perfect harmony; sadness and depression and loneliness are of the shadows only. Step forward into the light of understanding—into the revelation of the love of God.

See to it then that you put on your strongest armour to fight the enemies that would approach. And if you call upon the Saviour, you will find that happiness in its most beautiful form—contentment—will enter and remain a guest until it is turned into something stronger still.

Derawar Fort is a large square fortress in Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan. The forty bastions of Derawar are visible for many miles in the Cholistan Desert. The walls have a perimeter of 1,500m and stand 30m high | Shah Tahsin | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

It is cause and effect right through.

When we think a sad thought, we are adding to the sorrow of the world. When we think a glad thought, then, instantly, we are adding to the joy of the world. When we think brave thoughts, then, unconsciously to themselves, the weak ones square their shoulders. When we think a holy thought, the Spirit of God within us rises and dominates that which is mundane.

It is cause and effect right through. We can build or we can destroy. We can add a link or we can break one that has already been put together by much effort. We can lift up another or we can push them one pace further down. We can be an instrument of God or we can—unwillingly though it may be—we can be used by the shadows to strike that which is Love itself.

And so joy hides its head until we recognise that we belong to the light, and not to darkness, to freedom, and not to captivity, to peace, and not to strife, to gladness, and not to sorrow.

Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari | Interact-Bulgaria (User Georgy Palpurin Share Bulgaria team for Wikimedia Commons) | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

It is a like a big school.

You know, it is like a big school—you say to one—That is your little bit, to another—That is yours. There is always the lazy child and there is always the one who will work; again, the one who can be very busy when the mood takes her and the one who thinks tomorrow will do just as well. Children in a school—only, in regard to life, it is a bigger and more important thing altogether.

We sometimes wonder that an extra burden seems to be put on one who does not appear to have sufficient strength to carry it. We all feel like that sometimes—but, in God's name, we find the strength to carry us through.

We must all remember that we are chosen stewards in the household of the King and because that post of honour is ours, then, not only will the King see to it that we have the tools with which to work, but also the strength to make that which appears so difficult, possible to accomplish.

Hidden Lake Lookout, perched just outside the North Cascades National Park in northern Washington State | Nick Archibald | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Go forward in hope.

Go forward in hope—in hope and joyful anticipation that the grey days will be turned to those of sunshiny blue.

Arthur Nathan Swimming Pool, Fairview Street, Bloemfontein | Leanri van Heerden | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Start to climb the ladder of spiritual thought.

Get down from the heights of physical thinking and start to climb the ladder of spiritual thought. See in your daily lives the opportunity, not of startling the world—for the world forgets you tomorrow—but of creating something, which will stand for all time, something which will make others say—There goes a good steward!

Comprehensive as the spheres may be, stupendous as the marvels to be unrolled before your wondering eyes, I say that only are these things there by the quietly sustained effort of those doing their daily tasks—the monotony of life transformed into the radiance of the Spirit by God.

Yes; you see now that life, the trivial round, is a bigger thing than you thought, and I want you to bear in mind always that by doing your task as well as you can, you are also seeking God—seeking God and finding Him too if the heart is kept right with Him.

The Zodiac (the Christ Messenger) Messages

A mosaic of the ESO's top images in its image archive

What is man that Thou art mindful of him?

What is man that Thou art mindful of him?

In the sight of the Father, the individual soul stands pre-eminent over everything else—and all the other things that we could think of are simply created as a background for our evolving souls.

MAN

Lord, what is man that Thou art mindful of him;

And the son of man that Thou visitest him?

Psalm, VIII, 4

Each day works out its part of the pattern.

It is a stupendous thought. It makes one pause—life, whether here, or in any other state, is not a thing to be got through and forgotten as quickly as may be; it is not a thing that is to be taken in the easiest way possible; nor is it given to us to despise or to maltreat. Each day works out its part of the pattern, each night sees the weaving in. And more than that—hourly, minutely—the spirit demands an account of the personal self for this and for that.

A quote by Sir William Osler engraved in the stone wall within the Peace Chapel of the International Peace Gardens (in Manitoba Canada and North Dakota, USA) | User Dig Deeper from Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Read between the lines.

Read between the lines. If we hear of a father who thinks so much about his children, who has created so many attractions and diversions and exercises for their minds so that they might never be dull and never seek another companion—we would say at once—what a wonderful thing to have a father's love like that! With us, all this is applicable exactly? We—all—are in that happy position of having a Father who thinks that nothing could be too beautiful, too wonderful for His children.

Frost, ice crystals, Lajoux, Jura, France | Annick Monnier | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

We shall be as One!

Be certain that God's way of answering those words—What is man? is simplicity itself. He says—Man not only belongs to Me, but is of Me, and in time to come shall be so linked to Me again, that we shall be as One!

Scene from one of the cave walls at Lascaux | Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

God looks after everything.

God looks after everything even though we sometimes feel He has forgotten our very existence.

Pilea involucrata leaves, Botanical Garden of Munich, Germany | Diego Delso (delso.photo) | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

You have to do your part.

You have to do your part; you must not give up—at a certain point here and there the Father's love is shown. Just do your little bit, and then, without worry, without misgiving, say to yourself—and mean it too—God is looking after me and He has thought of everything to carry me through. Yes, in daily life, with those who seek to serve the Master, this is worked out again and again.

UNITED NATIONS—FOR ALL CHILDREN A SAFE TOMORROW IF YOU DO YOUR PART | U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Heroic Women of France toiling to produce food. Are You doing Your part? | U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

God has it all worked out!

We have all been brought up against such adverse forces that we have felt with all our being—I can't go on! But in quietness, and with faith, do not take the initiative yourself—be certain that God has it all worked out and that when you feel you can do no more, then Love will lift you out of it and put you upon that safe, high hill where evil cannot touch you.

If God be on my side | Catherine Winkworth

Take it to Christ and leave it there.

Whatever may happen in your life, either in a physical way or in regard to those spiritual tests which are very hard to grapple with, take it to Christ and leave it there. Be certain that the Father, being our Father, will not forsake His children when we try so hard to do His will.

Christ taking leave of His Mother | Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Go on without fear and with perfect confidence.

Whatever our need, with those who wish to do the right thing, all has been overlooked by the Father; it has been overseen that nothing shall go wrong, and all He asks of us is to go on without fear and with perfect confidence that not only in front but keeping step with us, on either side, are His messengers.

With confidence Erik Pevernagie | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

God's Love never fails.

Be quite sure that all, all is well, and that God's Love never fails—never, whatever may happen.

Egyptian Nubian | Ahmed Emad H. | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Million Beacons of Light

Often at night, we have raised our eyes to the stars—those little symbols of God's love which reassure us in rather a pretty way that our world is not alone. In those quiet moments, if we are receptive, we can open the doors of the physical mind a little and then within us we feel this—The mightiness, the grandeur of the Mind of God. Yes, it is impossible to look at the heavens, with its million beacons of light and to remain unmoved, if we have any imagination at all.

NASA/ESA

Keep a watchful guard over your thoughts.

Keep a watchful guard over your thoughts; have faith; do your part. Only by the showing of faith can we have those good gifts of the Spirit.

Ice crystals on a barbed wire in Hausdülmen, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany | Dietmar Rabich | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Think on lines of love.

When we are able to think on lines of love—we set up directly a certain set of vibrations, not only in our own soul but in those around us, which creates the music of the spheres—music which is quite independent of instrument or note.

© Nevit Dilmen | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Hold on to the thought of Divine Love.

While the pain is borne, hold on to the thought of Divine Love, then something, something of the realisation and revelation will come of what that pain is working out.

© Nevit Dilmen |Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

God does not stand aside.

Cast from your mind that distorted thought that God stands aside and allows evil to do its worst. Gather in instead this consolation—that Christ who suffered so much Himself, out of Love dare not tear from the individual soul the treasure that pain can purchase.

Paratroopers at the Western Wall | David Rubinger

I didn't mean it exactly in the way I put it.

How often is it that the conviction comes that we have put into words that which but faintly represents what was in our mind, and we say, Oh, I didn't mean it exactly in the way I put it! but the words have gone out—they have found a lodgement in the mind of another and the first little bit of damage has been done.

Explanations of common cognitive biases, or unhelpful thinking styles. These are styles of thinking common in people with mood disorders and other psychological disorders. These biases are targeted in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and are an important part of cognitive theories of depression | User LoudLizard from Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

I wonder how God can love me!

I wonder how God can love me! 

Because you are My own!

Palykavickaja spring, a natural monument in Mahiliow district of Belarus | Mikhail Kapychka | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

The Great Spirit of Love is bound to us.

Oh, do try and gather this closer—closer to that self within, which does understand a little what Divine Love represents. Have you not said to yourselves—I wonder how God can love me! All, all who are His acknowledged children think that—and the answer comes at once—Because you are My own! That, dear children, should tell you a little, it should explain something of that wonderful tie there is between you and the Father—that unbreakable tie, which means that forever, for all that Eternity, which your mind has to leave untouched, that you are bound to Him and, what is more wonderful still, that He—the Great Spirit of Love—is bound to us. Inseverable are the links, and it is our glorious privilege to claim, not only as a gift but as a right—that care, that protection, which is our own.

Zodiac, the Christ Messenger

The Appeal to the Great Spirit | Cyrus E. Dallin, Boston, Mass. | United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division