Cast Thy Burden

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved (Psalm 55:22).

We sometimes hear the expression used, “ cast the burden,” and it is useful to consider what this phrase really means. Used intelligently, it is one of the great keys to spiritual victory. To cast the burden means really to insist upon harmony and peace of mind, and to cease from worry and anxiety there and then.

If, when you are faced with trouble, whether it be old or new, you can affirm positively the harmony of being and then refuse to reopen the case, no matter how much fear may urge you to do so, you have cast your burden upon the Lord, and you will win.

One of the most difficult things we can try to do when we cast our burdens on God, is to then refuse to be imprisoned by them. That does not mean we ignore them or refuse to deal with them. it simply means we must not let them create the negative responses of fear and anxiety within us. We must still do our part to lessen and learn from our burdens. However, once we turn them over to God, we can then work on them in joy and gladness as opposed to fear and sadness. Isn’t that better?

Casting away,
Z gardener

Prayer As Treatment

Treatment is a psycho-spiritual term that means knowing the spiritual truth about any person or situation. If, like most people, you believe that appearances are realities and that they cannot be changed, then you cannot give a treatment. But if you believe that the Bible is right when it says,

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…(Proverbs 23:7).
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement (John 7:24).

Then it is in your power to change anything for the better and to heal most things. Begin every treatment (no matter how many you may give) b y saying:

I can overcome this difficulty.

Any time we want to change what is going on in our lives, we must first change they way we think about it. Any difficulty we need to overcome, any challenge we face or any circumstance that we need to change must first be resolved within us. That change begins with the recognition and acceptance of the truth regarding that which we want to change. That does not mean the way it looks, feels, tastes or smells. It does not mean what we want or what we want the truth to be. It does means the real truth about it. So, we must first seek the truth and then decide to follow that truth. That is change from within first.

When that occurs, the universe will yield to it and God will ensure our success in changing it for our best good. And, remember this, that which is for our best good, is not always that which we want or which feels good at the moment. That is why we must have the faith to stay on the path of truth wherever it leads and however it feels at the time. If we do this, we can be absolutely sure that we will arrive at the place God intended us to be, and that we will find everything we need there to live in the Eden God created for us.

As within, so without,
Z gardener

How to Destroy Your Health

Get emotional and excited over every trifling occurrence, especially if it is no concern of yours.

Eat and drink indiscriminately. Your stomach is only a sink, anyway, and being made of cast iron, will stand anything.

Cut down your sleep. This is an excellent way to undermine the nervous system.

Never relax. That would give the body a chance to recuperate. Avoid all exercise. Exercise pr omotes circulation.

Read as much as you can about diseases and ailments. Your public library will carry many suitable books.

Discuss your own ailments at great length and, if you have had an operation, give dramatic little lectures about it at every opportunity.

Take good care of your dog, and your horse,a nd your automobile, but neglect your body. The Bible says that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and to go against the Bible is always a good shortcut to trouble.

…If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt put none of these diseases upon thee
…for I am the Lord that healeth thee (Exodus 15:26).

While much time is devoted in these morning thoughts to our spiritual health, we can not ignore our physical health, which in most cases flow from our mental states. What we do to and for our bodies is how we treat the temple of God here below. Negative emotional states not only impair our spiritual health, they also trigger the release of harmful chemicals that damage our bodies. Anger, hate, frustration, anxiety, resignation, self -deprecation, self-recrimination and all forms of negative thoughts, feeds poison into our system and harms our health.

What we put into our bodies or deny our bodies also effects its health. When we put too many bad things and too few good things in our bodies, we pollute it and diminish the functions of our minds, bodies and spirits. If our minds are dulled, our bodies compromised and our spirits dimmed by what we consume or fail to consume, then our ability to manifest God’s will is diminished. If we are filled with negative thoughts and feelings, then our ability to understand and obey God’s will is blocked.

On the other hand, when we give our mind, body and spirits what they need while denying those things which harm us, we unblock to
the channels through which God’s spirit, will and wisdom flow. When those channels are opened and maintained by a healthy lifestyle, then God’s spirit flows into our lives lifting us, comforting us and strengthening us to achieve God’s will. Then, we may enter our Eden and then all our needs will be met. Then, we will know the peace that surpasses all understanding. Then we will sleep like babies. Then, will run and not be faint.

When we care properly for this temple God gave us, then it will take care of us and it will be occupied by God in us through the Holy Spirit. Then we will enter our Gardens.

Keeping well the temple,
Z gardener

How To Be Unhappy

Sit down quietly where you are not likely to be disturbed. Relax the body – and begin to think about yourself. Every time your thoughts wander to something higher, bring it back gently but relentlessly.

Think about the past. Think over all the mistakes you have made, going right back to childhood. Think over all the opportunities you have missed and the time you have wasted. Especially think of all the occasions upon which you have been badly treated.

Think about your body and wonder if your age or your job or the climate isn’t beginning to tell. See if you cannot discover a pain or an ache somewhere.

Think about finances and if they are going well now, insist that this is probably too good to last.

In any case, think about yourself, that is the main point, and if you will keep this up faithfully for fifteen or twenty minutes, there can be no doubt about the result.

Seest a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope for a fool than him (Proverbs 26:12)

Singer Bono of the rock band U2 sings “Now your stuck in a moment, and you can’t get out of it”. That unhappy situation describes many of us who are captured by past mistakes, current weakness or despair regarding the future. While there are many ways to get stuck in a moment, the way out is always clear. The path begins with honesty about that which drags us down. The past mistakes, the current failures that, along with fear and trepidation about the future, are things about which we must make an honest accounting. Then, we must accept forgiveness for these things and put them behind us. Finally, we must turn away from ourselves as the problem and as the solution. We alone can not overcome that which plagues us or turn away from that moment in which we are stuck.

When we focus on God as our source of forgiveness, help and guidance, then we are on the right path guided by the Holy Spirit. Then we must turn our attention to all our blessings and to doing that which God would have us do. Then we can envision, enter and live in the Eden that God gave us here. The fact is gentle spirits, that we can not do this alone or on our own. “For we have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.”

So, when we get up off that couch, quit kicking ourselves and thinking about what we did wrong and how we are destined to mess things up again, then we are moving in the right direction. If we then turn to God and follow his will instead of our own,”we will be lifted up as on wings of eagles, we will run and not be faint”, “we will be able to do all things through Christ who strengthens us”. This is how to begin down the path of happiness.

Finding the path daily,
Z gardener

Open Your Mind

Have you an open mind? Is the window of your soul open for fresh air and the sunshine of Truth to come in, or is it closed and shuttered by mental laziness or the emotional congestion that we call prejudice?

None of us knows how many fine things we have missed through being self-satisfied and cocksure. No one can be considered really intelligent who does not have a readiness to examine new ideas with an open mind.

The history of scientific discovery shows that almost every new step was opposed by the very people who should have welcomed it.

Harvey was denounced for claiming that the blood circulated through the body; Galileo was persecuted for saying that the earth went round the sun; Pasteur was branded a quack for advancing the germ theory of disease; Jenner was threatened with the police for pioneering vaccination. The finality of the atom, which was a scientific dogma in the child hood of most of us, has been completely discarded.

Probably the only incorrigible fool is the man who says that anything is impossible, or that there is any limit to the conquests that divine Intelligence working in mankind can achieve.

The Lord is able to give thee much more than this (2 Chronicles 25:9).

With all our intelligence and with all that we can perceive through it and our senses, we still only grasp or experience a small fraction of existence. What we know and feel is dwarfed by what we don’t know and can’t taste, touch, smell or see. How can we as humans be so foolish as to think we “know” anything with such certainty as to obviate any other possibility. Yet, every day many of people strut through this world fully convinced that they know it all or at least enough to say what is or is not possible. Many of us are so sure about such things that we will persecute those who think or feel differently. That is how innocent people get burned at the stake as witches.

When we truly humble ourselves and accept the reality that humans are at the beginning of our knowledge journey, then we are on the path to true knowledge and understanding. When we strip away our preconceived notions, drain ourselves of the self-centered human spirit, we will begin to have true understanding. This open-mindedness is the first step on the path to the greater truths that can only be revealed by our belief and trust in God.

Open to truth,

Stan

Turn Within

Don’t wait about for God to act dramatically—because He probably won’t. When people expect a dramatic miracle from the outside, they are really hoping to change conditions without changing themselves; to get something for nothing, in fact, and that would be a violation of cosmic law.

Don’t wait for God to tell you what to do from the outside—He won’t.

And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

With God’s help, we are capable of becoming new persons, reborn and and reformed. This happens within. When we turn to God and become this new person, then the external world will change dr amatically, completely and beneficially. Seek first to become the new person God intended us to be, then watch the universe yield to your new persona. As within, so without.

Working inside,
Z gardener

Spotlights

To recognize failure intelligently is the first step toward building success.

Recognize success with thanksgiving, and build more success on that..

You can have anything in life that you really want, but you must be prepared to take the responsibilities that go with it.

God is ready the moment you are.

You really do not know John Smith; you only know the idea that you form of John Smith.

One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Ephesians 4:6)

All of the truths expressed above point to one great truth. It is how we think that determines everything else in our lives. How we think is what we are. The way we think of others is what they are to us. Recognizing success and failure, giving thanks, assuming responsibilities and all that we know, starts and ends as thoughts and feelings. When we fully understand this truth and incorporate it into our lives, God stands ready to shape the universe to accommodate us. What a wonderful world then unfolds as God manifests himself in power and glory through our thoughts, words and deeds. Then the gates of Eden are opened to us again as the wall between us and God disappears. Then each day we can live in that garden as we think God, thank God and praise God.

In z garden,

Z gardener

You Set the Clock

There is nothing in the universe that you cannot do or be if you are mentally ready. People speak of golden opportunities but what we call opportunity is really our own mental readiness. Napoleon said, “Opportunities? I make opportunities”; and while this would be merely a vainglorious boast for one who is not on the spiritual basis, yet when you do understand the Truth of Being, it is simply a statement of fact. The Romans could have had the telephone; the Greeks could have had the cinema; the Babylonians could have had the automobile—had they been mentally ready. The laws of nature were the same in those ages as in ours, the same materials were in the ground—but the minds of the Ancients were not ready for those things, and so they had to go without them.

Supply the necessary mental condition, and the demand, the opportunity, or the occasion, will present itself automatically.

Whenever you are ready you will find that everything else is ready too.

Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is (Mark 13:33).

This is what the bible means when it says the old person will die and a new person will be born. When we make the mental and spiritual changes necessary to follow the will of God, we are creating a new mentality and a new way of living. As in most tasks, all the hardest work is in the preparation.

Let’s say we want to sell our house but it is too run down to present an opportunity for the sale. Just as a painter must repair, scrape, sand and prime an old house before applying the new outer coat, so we must remove the flaking and deteriorated outer shell in order to find the good wood underneath. Then when we strip sand off our old ways, remove and replace the useless and deteriorated habits and structures of our lives and seal the renewed structure with our faith, we can then apply the new outer coat that radiates beauty, protects our new selves20and prepares us to benefit from every opportunity that our new life presents to us.

Being ready,

Z gardener

Confusion of Duties

It cannot be your duty to do anything that is beyond your reach or your strength at the moment.

It cannot be your duty to do anything that sacrifices your own integrity or your own spiritual development.

It cannot be right to be hurried, or sad, or discouraged, or angry, or resentful, or antagonistic, under any circumstances.

If you have not time for prayer and meditation, you will have lots of time for sickness and trouble.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this the the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

The real question is “what is truly beyond our strength and reach”. There is much beyond our reach and strength when we act as mere humans without being attuned to God. But when we are following God’s will in thought, word and deed, all things become possible. Then the message above fully applies. It simply means that when we follow God’s way, we can accomplish all that is good for us without all the negative circumstances listed above. It reaffirms that if we are too hurried to pray, too weak to maintain our integrity or too negative in our reactions to the world, then we will make time for sickness and trouble. It is with God’s help and guidance that we overcome the pressures of the world and find peace, joy and wellness in our lives. If we respect and obey God, we will know our duty clearly and will be given that which we need to discharge our duties faithfully and fully in a way that is loving and joyful.

On joy duty,

Z gardener

Holy Cows

Most people have certain sections of their lives where, for various reasons (mostly unknown to themselves), they do not wish to make any change. These places are set aside and surrounded with an aura of spurious sanctity like the sacred cows of the East, which are considered too holy to be touched. But if you really mean business about regenerating your soul and body, there must positively be no sacred cows in your life.

Nothing is truly sacred but your own Indwelling Christ and the process of His awakening.

…Awake thou that sleeepest, and arise from the dead, and christ shall give thee light (Ephesians 5:14).

If there is a part of our lives that we refuse to change, regardless of20how many problems it causes us, then chances are that this is the area that needs changing the most. This sacred cow could be nurturing resentment from an old injustice, hatred that seems justified, personal coping behaviors that damage our lives or health, guilt from past wrongs that trap us in a cycle that seems to repeat itself or just stubbornness about accepting the true impacts of our refusal to let go of these sacred cows. Regardless of their nature, justification or perceived benefits, refusal to let go of these activities will block us from communion with God and from the rebirth promised to those who “let go and let God”. The good news is that God will give us everything we need to free these sacred cows and by so doing, free ourselves from the yoke they place on our necks.

Freeing cows,

Z gardener