June 1, 2014
This is
Prosperity Sunday number 10 of 12. Today we are going to talk about “The Wonder
of Giving” from the book SPIRITUAL ECONOMICS; THE PROCESS AND PRACTICE OF TRUE PROSPERITY by Eric Butterworth.
Let’s just
stop a second. I invite you to check-in with yourself. What sort of feeling or
emotion did you have at the mention of the word of giving? Was it a clutch in
the stomach; a hard swallow, tension in your body somewhere? Maybe you felt
fear and your inner dialogue was something like this, “I hate talks about
giving. I already don’t have enough and now he gonna tell me I should give it
away…and that somehow that’s going to magically make me feel better. I wish I
had stayed home today. I hate talks about money.”
If you’ve been
paying attention to these Prosperity Talks each month and thinking about what’s
been said, then you already know that I haven’t for one moment been talking
about giving money. I haven’t been talking about sacrifice; and I certainly
haven’t been talking about some kind of “black magic” about how to fatten your
bank account.
People
generally choose to believe the uncomfortable thoughts that arise within when
the wonder of giving is talked about… and seldom does the average person want
to spend any time delving into their embedded beliefs around giving, and around
money, which is usually the “thing” automatically attached to the idea of
giving.
Today I am not
going to beat around the bush. I’m just going to tell you flat out that I want
you to give…and give generously.
Butterworth
said this, “When you discover the wonder
of giving, you will wonder how you lived so long in any other way.”
“The word
giving has become so completely identified as a pious act that it is difficult
to think of any conversation about money being anything other than a commercial
for the church; “Give now; give
generously; and let thyself be showered in Heavenly Grace. Can I get an amen?”
Gag.
The law of
giving and receiving does not work when applied as “giving to get.”
Life is not
lived from the outside-in (acquiring), but from the inside-out (giving). Unless
we understand this we miss the meaning of life.
The purpose of
life is not acquisition but unfoldment… personal development. Even in the
teaching of metaphysics there has lately been a tremendous swing toward using
spiritual law as the tool to acquire money and things. The movie, “The Secret”
is, in my opinion, coarse evidence of this; emphasizing “how to” techniques for
manifesting money and possessions and jobs and success (not to mention
jewelry). There is a whole industry around metaphysical getting: get, get, get.
Consider this:
“Giving is not an action, it is an attitude.”
Here is a beautiful story about giving. Our Charlie B. was in
the hospital after a serious motorcycle accident more than 1700 miles from home;
we had several broken bones and an elbow that had been ground down by the
pavement as his bike laid over on him. I
think it was two days after being admitted to the hospital that Charlie called
and said to me, “While I’m laid up in this hospital bed I’d like to pray for
the people who submitted prayers in our prayer box, and I’d like to pray for
the needs of the church and I’d like to pray for any needs anyone requests.”
Charlie wasn’t
worried about getting healed, about
what the doctor was going to do for him,
or what the nurses were going to do for
him, or what the aides or physical therapists were going to do for him. All Charlie was thinking
about is giving, in prayer, to those who requested it.
In my
conversations with Charlie it was clear he was focused on what he could give.
When your
awareness and experience of giving shifts from being an action, on your part or
another’s to being an attitude, I believe everything in your life will shift,
too.
Perhaps I, and Unity in general, have
done you a disservice by leaning too heavily on the idea of, “Thoughts held in
mind produce after their kind.”
“This way of holding with intensity
to a thought, be it mental argument for healing…or looking to God for material
supply…recognizing that we – ourselves – have power with such firmness of
thought to bring what we want into manifestation… is one way of obtaining
results… but it is a hard way.”
“In the matter of God as our supply…
the moment we begin to be anxious our quiet becomes the airtight valve of
tension that shuts out the very thing we
are trying to bring about, and so prevents its manifestation.”
“We need to rise above this state of
tension, to one of living trust.”
I’m not talking about sitting back, in idleness, and letting it all happen,
but sitting back in a state of trustful passivity.
Emile Cady wrote words to this effect
in one of her books, “Our job is “the what” and “the why.” The how is God’s
job” and I would add, none of our business! But we get so busy concerning ourselves
with the how… trying to make the how happen! How is not our job.
Which version of Exodus 4:14 do you
think is the one that’s in the Bible?
“The Lord will fight for you; you
need only be still” or
“The Lord will fight for you; you
need only squirm, be impatient, and try to manipulate to your liking.”
What are the conditions revealed
here? The invisible Loving Presence will fight to remove from your path the big
difficulties, which look to mortal vision to be almost insurmountable… only on
the condition that you stand still in heart and mind.
Luke 6:38 says, “Give and it will be given
you.” There must be a certain consciousness present in which the law of giving
and receiving is held, and it’s a quiet, peaceful consciousness.
What I invite you to do this week is
to quietly, passively, trust. Not trust that something will work out for you as
you set it forth, but just to live in a state of trust – without agenda –
toward something you view as small, and observe what occurs.
What God will do for you in the
smallest way, God will do for you in the largest way. There is no order of
difficulty for you and God in any matter.
This is what I invite you to write
ten times a day (There is no order of difficulty for God and me in any matter),
every day, until we meet again to talk about Spiritual Economics.
God bless you!
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