Faith

It would be easy to be a student of Truth if we could always foretell our future and the type of challenges that were going to be presented to us. This would mean that we wouldn’t require any faith at all.

When presented with challenges, we wonder why would this happen to us, that one day we are filled with happiness, peace and have a secure position, and the next there’s nothing.

What we should be concerned about is not how insurmountable the problem appears to be, but how we react to a particular condition should be our concern, for this is what will determine the next step in one’s spiritual unfoldment.

If you haven’t accepted the condition as a reality, and really feel in your heart that you are worthy of better things, then you have nothing to fear. But you have a great deal to fear if you become bitter, resentful, and filled with a consciousness of lack.

Realise at all times that you have Life, or God, in the hollow of your hands, and no human being, or group of human beings, can possibly deprive you of your substance, of your supply, or of whatever good that appears to be slipping away from you.

So long as you have spiritual mastery, when mentally and emotionally you have learned to react constructively, nothing can harm you. In the seeming condition of lack you will find a tremendous amount of good, not only spiritual, but also material. The theme to work on is “In Thee O Lord do I put my trust, let me never be ashamed’.

All we have to do is constantly affirm, believe and know, that we shall not be ashamed for the faith that we have exercised in God.

God never falls short. When afraid, it is not in respect of God, nor His Knowledge or Power, but it’s regarding our own capacity of faith. Are we strong enough to weather the storm? Can we absolutely be sure of ourselves that we shall not let God down through our lack of faith?

In whatever condition, God is still there, and He is inviting us to come up higher, by and through whatever condition faces us and which is, nevertheless, none of His creating. Our souls have chosen this particular experience for their own growth.

The challenge being experienced, will give us an expanded consciousness of the presence and power, knowledge and love of God. It is an exercise in faith. It is only by, and through, this exercise that we can develop a greater degree of faith.

Think to yourself, “I’m now going to expand. There is no reason for me to panic. There is no question of failure or opposition. This unhappy condition is there to cultivate my own quality of faith, to help me grow and, as a result of that growth, to bring a higher quality of goodness, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and materially into my life”.

It doesn’t matter what the lesson is about, there is only one Presence, God, and HE is Good. Therefore, we cannot possibly lack any good quality of His. We know that we live in this very Presence of God, Who is the substance of our own faith. Experience therefore teaches us that there is a time to prepare, a time for us to sow like the farmer who prepares his ground, cultivates it, fertilises it, and then puts in his seed, after which he waters it, and then there is nothing more that he can do. He cannot make the seed grow, neither can he do one single thing more to bring it about.

We always know our own minds and hearts, how we’ve been thinking, feeling, and living. The question to ask ourselves is, which have we built up, a greater faith in God, or a greater fear of conditions? Have we so cultivated the garden of our minds that we know that we have beautiful flowers and not weeds?

Should the ground not be well prepared and coming up as weeds, we do not have to stand by, nor leave the weeds there. It can only stay there when we allow it, if we do not wish it to remain, we can plough it up and start afresh.

God gives us the power to plough over the apparent conditions of lack, sickness, unhappiness that suddenly present themselves in our minds, bodies and affairs.

It is in our reaction, our physical, mental and emotional reaction, to the conditions that will either retain them in our consciousness or eliminate them, and allow the pure Spirit of God to flood through us with His perfection.

Faith is power in action. By negative faith, which is fear, we separate ourselves from the Good.

Realise we cannot escape our good, light, love, health, harmony or supply. We can’t get away from God because we are the manifestation of that very substance that HE Is. So, according to our faith, we can fill this present condition with as much good as we desire, and any sudden bolt from the blue will mean absolutely nothing, if we react constructively through knowing that God is All there is.

What we should know is, health is within, happiness is within, success is within, and supply is within. Our complete freedom is within. That is the Truth we have to learn, the Truth that, according to our faith over days, weeks, months and years, it is now being done unto us, by ourselves, and not by any other human being.

“Christ says according to your faith it shall be done unto you”

Meditation

I affirm that sweetness comes in the place of bitterness, that abundance fills the condition of lack, that peace replaces discord, that health takes the place of dis-ease, then it so, for the faith I have, is the Faith Which is God. God is All Knowledge and All Power, expressing His fullness in this apparent void, pressing Himself into my consciousness.

Nicol C. Campbell: Good-Bad News, 2^nd ed, 1954