Quote of the Week: February 17th, 2013
Salvation of the World Depends On Me. Do as God's Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. Then consider this; which is more likely to be right? The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of yourself, confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of everything? Let not its voice direct you. Hear instead a certain Voice, which tells you of a function given you by your Creator Who remembers you, and urges that you now remember Him.
ACIM Lesson 186, 12
“Do as God’s Voice directs.” As simple as this statement is, we in our illusion about who we are, find this the most difficult instruction to follow. Why is this? Some claim the primary reason is that God speaks only to his messengers certain religious leaders, the pious or gifted, and perhaps some extremely “special” individuals, but certainly not to the average person. Others claim that God’s word has already been given in the form of the various religious texts and traditions of the world, all we need do is simply follow what these texts say. Yet the inherent problem with this is our inability to agree on which text is the “right” one to follow, and even if we could agree on one text, we would still have great difficulty interpreting and applying its “rules” correctly to the various situations we encounter. So if we cannot hear God’s Voice or agree on what His Word says or means, how could we possibly do as it directs?
Another reason some claim for not doing what God’s Voice directs, is that even though we may hear God’s Voice, sometimes, and more often than not, we have doubts that it is indeed His Voice, and therefore neither trust nor comply with what it says. Yet, even when we hear and acknowledge God’s Voice within us, we still ignore its directives because they seems so impossible, outrageous, illogical, and at times, even dangerous to our apparent five-senses-understanding of things. The foundation for all these and similar arguments is simply doubt, and therefore the single remedy for all of them is simply trust!
Doubt implies a lack of knowledge, for when knowledge is present, doubt disappears. We doubt many things, but our ultimate doubt lies in our understanding about who/what God is; what our relationship to Him is; and what our function and purpose is. This is where trust comes in, because what we do know and have no doubt about is that: We did not create ourselves. Therefore Someone or Something must have created us, and that Someone or Something is the One we refer to as our Creator, God, Allah, Brahman, and by thousands of other names. Furthermore, only that One really knows our true nature, who we really are, and what our function and purpose is. Trust is the only thing that allows us to “lean not unto our own (limited) understandings...,” but to depend on His communications to us, for only that will guarantee a solution that is complete in every way, for everyone, and for all time. God’s communications, unlike ours, are infallible and He communicates to all His children all the time, so the only question is who among His children is listening to His communications, and more importantly who among these actually trusts enough to follow through and carry out His directives.
Certainly developing trust is a fairly easy task, even though it does require a bit of faith in the beginning, it is something we do all the time. We trust that the floor will be there when we roll out of bed; we trust that the water will flow from the faucet when we open it; we trust that our car will start when we turn the key, etc. We trust all the time, and even in these simple cases when things don’t work exactly the way we expect, we trust that there is something we can do or someone we can turn to for help to remedy the situation, because we understand inherently that there is more than one way to accomplish things in our five-senses world.
Trust in God is developed in a similar manner, by trusting first in the little suggestions He gives us all the time, like turn right here; pick this apple as opposed to that one; avoid this situation or face that one, etc.. Then as we grow in trust it becomes easier to forgive this person, overlook that little hurt, or to address these same situations with kindness and humility, understanding that we are all children of God, developing our godliness as best we can. And as our trust grows further, we can achieve the highest trust, to truly forgive everyone everything, knowing that all is well and wisely set by God Himself. Indeed, this is how we can completely reverse of our belief system, from one that is centered around our five-senses, to one that is God-centered.
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