December 8, 1993

• Activating God’s response to prayer

God speaks to each of you in ways that are so different from what you are necessarily aware of. Too often you ask for direct answers or a sense of absolute conviction that some action should be taken or a position expressed or a belief embraced. God does respond to those needs, but for each of you as for every human being, God’s response is a unique one. It is a personal response, different from all others. Just as you do not deal with your children in identical manners—one child can be approached in one way, another must be approached in another way—so it is in your relationship of God to you.

Part of your responsibilities in living human lives is exploring the most effective and meaningful ways of receiving God's replies to your needs. God does, without exception, reply in the highest manner possible to each of the needs that you experience, but God’s response is not immediately felt unless you are in a position to receive that response. So often you have been told that God answers all prayers, even before the prayer is uttered. God knows the needs you feel and God’s response is immediate. But for God’s response to really take effect in your lives, you must be willing and able to receive it. If you ask someone for advice and then immediately leave the room, the advice may be forthcoming but you will be unable to hear it, for you have left. It is this same philosophy that you must recognize when you approach God through prayer. You must be willing to remain in position to receive that response.

When you are faced with challenges of great severity, it is right to pray to God for help. It is right to ask that only the best be done, that only the highest good may come of all that is being endured. But beyond that, you must recognize that the potential for realizing that good is immediate, is always present. The responsibility is not God's to answer your prayers; the responsibility is for you to answer your prayers. By praying, you are acknowledging a need, but the capacity to meet those needs can only be fully exercised by you. Your lives are in your hands. The strength which you need in your lives may come from God, but it can only be activated by you. God does not generally work in your lives despite your resistance, but rather this help comes with your acceptance.

When you are faced by challenges, find as many avenues as possible to open to God's presence, to God's influence. When the house is dark, you must open all the windows and allow the light to come in. You cannot keep the shutters closed and then merely continue hoping it will get light outside. All the brilliance in the world which may surround that dwelling will never be felt from within.

It is therefore up to you, each of you, to open the blinds and allow the light which is already there to penetrate the darkness. The light, the warmth, the love and care are there, but such light and love and care do not emanate from a single source. It emanates from all. This means that the light illuminating the darkness must come from all who surround the one in need. It is you who serve as the hand of God. It is you who have within you the power of magnifying God's light. It is you who have the potential of increasing the awareness of God in life.

If you pray that a society become more conscious of God and do nothing more, that consciousness will not increase. It will only increase when you commit yourselves to the importance of that raised consciousness through your own activities. Ultimately God does not impose God upon the world. It is people who allow themselves to be reflectors of God. It is in the reflection that God's brilliance is most clearly seen.

If you want to know about God, seek out a godly person. If you want to know about evil, seek out one who reflects evil influences. If you want to learn history, seek out an historian. Regardless of what you seek, there are those around you who can provide. It is important that you become a resource which reflects your perception of the warmth and love of God.

God is not an abstract belief or construction which has been formulated by society in order to provide a sense of direction. It is true that society throughout history has viewed God from numerous perspectives which have in turn served to shape those societies. But ultimately it is really the individuals in the society who recognize through their own experience the reality of God and then illuminate that society through their own experience.

If you pray that another may become more aware of God, do what you can to reflect God in the presence of that other person. If you pray that one be given the strength to endure, you should offer the strength of endurance. If you pray that God provide wisdom in the making of decisions, then you should be open to what it means to be wise in the presence of decision-making.

All humans are an essential part of this equation of effecting God's love in the world they experience. Your roles are active roles in this regard. They are not passive. You wish another to understand the meaning of love, be the first to express love. You wish another to learn compassion, be compassionate. You wish that people would learn to be tolerant, show your tolerance. You wish that another find an appropriate direction to life, placing priorities appropriately, be sure you know your direction of life and be willing to share how you achieved that recognition.

You see there is a direct connection between wanting to see something accomplished and committing yourself to the accomplishment of those goals. You cannot solve the problems of the world on your own, but you can certainly demonstrate a godly approach to your own problems. The example that you set provides a concrete basis for another who may be floundering. You can tell someone what to do, but it is better to show them. You can tell someone what it means to be loving, but it is more appropriate to be loving.

Your involvement is active, but you must not be overwhelmed by a feeling of inadequacy in your being unable to accomplish all objectives. They all begin one step at a time. Progress is made not with large steps, but with many small steps. God's presence in the life you observe is not accomplished in a sweeping gesture but in small acts of godliness.

That's what we ask you: to be willing to be godly in whatever small way it may be. It is the godliness itself, it is the expression of love itself that is important. It is not a matter of changing a large group of people, a society, a country. It is affecting another by your own strengths and attitudes. Love is learned as love is experienced. You cannot tell others about love and hope they will understand if they have never experienced it. But if they have experienced love, they don't have to be told about it. The love that you experience for the first time is always the love offered by another. It is never experienced spontaneously by itself. You are the beginning of the experience of love by another person. You may be the beginning of a recognition of God by another person.

There is so much joy in living life in this manner that once you have experienced unselfish giving—being there, offering your presence, reflecting love—your lives will be changed. Of course there are times when you need to have someone else to lean on, but having offered love, you will be more ready to accept love which is offered to you. Having been compassionate, you are in a better position to accept compassion without suspicion, without doubt. If you have experienced unselfish giving, you would no longer be doubtful of the existence of unselfish giving by another. You begin what becomes your life around you.

It has been said you create your own reality. In a sense that is correct. You are each divine. You possess the potential for love offered others as God offers love to you. If you have not experienced love from another, love from God, you will not have the tools available to provide love to another. Experience love where you find it. Welcome its vitality, welcome its genuineness, welcome its reflection of God, and take that experience and transform that in your relationships with others. In so doing, you become the active hand and heart of God in the world.

We bless you with that commitment and with God’s spirit of love.

Amen.