<body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID\x3d14792577\x26blogName\x3dPLAIN+PATH+PURITAN\x26publishMode\x3dPUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT\x26navbarType\x3dBLUE\x26layoutType\x3dCLASSIC\x26searchRoot\x3dhttps://electofgod.blogspot.com/search\x26blogLocale\x3den\x26v\x3d2\x26homepageUrl\x3dhttp://electofgod.blogspot.com/\x26vt\x3d8382812700944261936', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script>

8.17.2005

A practical, concrete example of acting from God's will


Here is a practical, concrete example of what it is to act from God's will rather than from self-will:

Feeling gratitude in place of resentment.

Gratitude especially in the face of undeserved negativity glorifies God. Resentment never glorifies God. Resentment glorifies the flesh and the world and the devil. (Seeing in yourself what you dislike in others is a big way in how you start to really see yourself and to awaken. So, in other words, you're never innocent, even when you seem the most innocent. The world acts as a mirror, use it. Everything that happens to you is your fault. Everything. Meet it all with gratitude.)

Our self-will demands to feel resentment and indignation at everything. (The juvenile use of the words 'social justice' or 'respect' and similar words and slogans justifies this demand of self-will.) To be able to replace resentment with a feeling of genuine gratitude in a difficult moment or event, or when remembering something we perceive as unpleasant, is a difficult thing to do, but it is more difficult to act from God's will rather than from self-will. How is it God's will to feel gratitude in place of resentment? See the Words of Jesus throughout the Gospels. The key is to understand why you should love your enemy (or perceived enemy). There is self-interest in it. If you make it a moralizing legality you might as well just act as the world acts. You're looking for inner command and awakening. You're looking to develop. You're looking to assault heaven and you don't get there by being tied as if by chains to the level of the world as when you indulge the emotions and reactions of the world such as resentment. You're not looking to accuse yourself or anybody else (that's what the devil and the world do).

It's a form of fasting to not indulge resentment towards another human being. You set your boundaries and contain yourself. You close up the breaches where you had formerly been being promiscuous with the world. You begin to develop yourself into a contained microcosmos, achieving by degree the full image of God. (And if 'microcosmos' is a scary word - new age! - just know Calvin uses it, and Thomas Watson even uses it in his Body of Divinity.)

There's a practical level teaching of the faith that can only be made contact with via serious, dedicated, efforts to read the Word of God complete.

All the above requires new thinking (one aspect of repentance).

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home