17 aPray without ceasing.
18 In every thing give athanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Those two phrases, Pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks, have taken on a whole larger meaning for me in my recent studies of the Law of Attraction and "The Secret". In the movie, "The Secret" Rhonda Byrne and other masters of LOA, teach that gratitude is the single most powerful element in the successful practice of the Law of Attraction methodology. To be grateful for what we will receive, or to be grateful even for what we now have, is extolled repeatedly as the secret to gaining our desires, and vibrating in synch with that which will give us more.
I believe that true prayer is not the words that we utter, but is in fact, the feeling of gratitude we have in our heart for the laws of God enacted in our lives, for the things we have and for the processes we are involved in. To be in an attitude of prayer without ceasing, I believe we have to be in a mode of gratitude for the smallest things in our lives. It is how we begin to see the hand of God in all things, and are able to feel he is in fact unfolding marvelous things in our lives.
To pray without ceasing does not require us at all to be uttering or even thinking words, and certainly is not about asking Him for anything, but merely requires us to be mindful of His presence and His majesty in all that surrounds us. It is an attitude that sees God in the smallest of His creations, and in the brother or sister who might not even acknowledge His existence.
To give thanks in everything means that we learn to see all things, good or bad, as part of the flowing picture of life, and we begin to understand that what we see as good or bad, God sees as part of the flow of all things as one great whole. We can then understand that death, and pain and all forms of hurt are as necessary as the joy and the beauty that we see, and that without one we can never appreciate its opposite. Being grateful in all things begins to consume our thoughts and we stop having negating thoughts or accepting them for very long.
That to me is how the scriptures teach a very important principle of gratitude being so important to the attainment of all we desire. We must begin by trusting in God's plan for our happiness.
Those two phrases, Pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks, have taken on a whole larger meaning for me in my recent studies of the Law of Attraction and "The Secret". In the movie, "The Secret" Rhonda Byrne and other masters of LOA, teach that gratitude is the single most powerful element in the successful practice of the Law of Attraction methodology. To be grateful for what we will receive, or to be grateful even for what we now have, is extolled repeatedly as the secret to gaining our desires, and vibrating in synch with that which will give us more.
I believe that true prayer is not the words that we utter, but is in fact, the feeling of gratitude we have in our heart for the laws of God enacted in our lives, for the things we have and for the processes we are involved in. To be in an attitude of prayer without ceasing, I believe we have to be in a mode of gratitude for the smallest things in our lives. It is how we begin to see the hand of God in all things, and are able to feel he is in fact unfolding marvelous things in our lives.
To pray without ceasing does not require us at all to be uttering or even thinking words, and certainly is not about asking Him for anything, but merely requires us to be mindful of His presence and His majesty in all that surrounds us. It is an attitude that sees God in the smallest of His creations, and in the brother or sister who might not even acknowledge His existence.
To give thanks in everything means that we learn to see all things, good or bad, as part of the flowing picture of life, and we begin to understand that what we see as good or bad, God sees as part of the flow of all things as one great whole. We can then understand that death, and pain and all forms of hurt are as necessary as the joy and the beauty that we see, and that without one we can never appreciate its opposite. Being grateful in all things begins to consume our thoughts and we stop having negating thoughts or accepting them for very long.
That to me is how the scriptures teach a very important principle of gratitude being so important to the attainment of all we desire. We must begin by trusting in God's plan for our happiness.
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1 comment:
James, great post. I agree that the law of attraction runs through the gospel -- but only in a certain context. I believe there are a lot of elements in The Secret and the world's teachings on the law of attraction that I believe are subtle, yet destructive counterfeits.
For example, it tends toward focusing on material wealth, rather than on building the kingdom. On that note, here's a sneak peek at a forthcoming section of God's Laws of Finance:
"In our past quest for prosperity, we had immersed ourselves in typical books such as Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Positive Imaging by Norman Vincent Peale, as well as other media such as the movie The Secret. In these, as in most wealth creation books and resources, is taught a powerful principle, which is that we must envision success and wealth before we achieve them. This is often termed as the 'Law of Attraction.' We diligently applied this process as we strived to acquire material wealth.
"But when we stared at the cold wall of failure, a question hit us like a rock on our forgetful heads: How many times had we exercised visualization to build the kingdom of God? The answer, of course, was hardly ever. We weren’t bad people, but we were negligent. The desire to move God’s work forward had been present, but as an afterthought. The co-pilot of prosperity had wrested the helm from the pilot of serving God. We spent far less time thinking about God’s work than we did about investing, business, and prosperity. Kingdom-building had been subtly replaced by wealth-building. We wondered how much more good we could have done in the world if we had applied the principle of visualization to building the kingdom of God, rather than our bank account primarily."
However, the gospel clearly teaches us to have faith (the best form of visualization and "attraction"), set goals and strive to reach them, and that when we obey the commandments we will prosper.
I look forward to reading more from you.
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