November 1, 1993

• Acknowledging God’s presence daily

• Giving and receiving help

• Thank God for challenges

God is with each of you in the various experiences that you share with one another and those that remain only for you to know. You must all develop a stronger conviction of God's presence. We speak so often of the need to recognize God in your lives, but too often that recognition remains dormant. Seeing God in your daily lives requires effort. This effort is experienced by all. The one who suffers is often unable to see God. The one whose life is proceeding in a comfortable fashion is not motivated to see God. Too many miss the opportunity of recognizing God's presence. You must work at it. It does not come uninvited.

God is not generally thrust upon your consciousness for you to say, "Oh, God is here today." God's presence is a quiet presence, but it is enormously powerful. But the power is not through dominance. The power is felt through peace. The peace is expressed through love and giving and receiving. There is no power which is as strong and consuming as love. Love indeed is the center of all. You cannot ignore it, for it is around you. You may not recognize it, but you cannot turn your back on it.

Your experience of human life is a series of challenges, moments of dejection, moments of elation. Regardless of the specifics, God is continuously present. This you know intellectually but you spend precious little effort in seeking ways to recognize it. When your lives are relatively smooth, it is not through your own doing. It is a combination of your efforts, the efforts of others, the impact you have on others, the impact others have on you. But when those moments of challenge and stress and worry or anxiety dominate, it is not you who create the stress, the challenge, all alone. It is your interaction with life around you, and God is a part of that life. God does not cause the stress and anxiety, but God provides you with the means of dealing with it.

So when life presents you with difficulties, first ask yourself what you can draw upon from God to bring to the situation at hand. Then proceed with what you can do with the situation. Look first to God and then look outward to what it is that has an impact on your life. God is very patient and will always wait for you to turn to God. There are moments, as you know, of God intervening, but that is not God's wish to intervene, for intervention does not bring you closer to God. It is only through your efforts that you are brought closer to God. You must initiate the recognition. God is present when you don't recognize that presence. When you call for God’s presence, you are not really asking God to be present. You are asking for the power of recognition of that presence. God is there always.

When you are not faced by major challenges, it is a time to strengthen your faith through reflection and meditation and prayer. It is a time to strengthen your expression of love to those around you who do not experience the current peace and stability that you may experience. When you are faced with a diminished number of challenges, that is the time that is most appropriate for you to reach outward. When the challenges come your way, that is the time to be receptive to the offerings of others who are in less stress or experience less concern.

Regardless of what happens to you in your daily lives, you are indeed therefore being challenged, either to reach outward and give or to look outward and receive. There are times in your life, therefore, when you give and other times when it is more important to receive. By denying the giving or denying the receiving, you are diminishing the effectiveness of God's presence in your lives.

Living is a dynamic activity. It requires effort; it requires action. Even the action of receiving the help of another requires energy on your part. It requires humility and the burying of your pride, your sense of self or self-importance, and the willingness to be the recipients of something others do for you. Many humans find this most difficult. It is easy to cry out in anguish when you are hurting, but it is so often difficult to be open to the response to that outcry.

Too often we observe so many of you who express a need for help, not by asking for it but by indicating that something is not right in your lives, and yet you block the efforts of others to come and give you peace. Pride is a dangerous characteristic in life, for it prevents you from receiving the hand of God. Giving to another with the intention that you will be recognized for that gift is an empty activity and is not reflective of God's giving. Only selfless giving is really meaningful.

You have all experienced on occasion receiving the help of others, that help being offered spontaneously, unselfishly, and lovingly. You have also experienced offers of help which may appear to be in some form self-serving or self-illuminating on the part of the giver. The problem of many is that they are suspicious of help proffered by others as being in the interest of the giver. This feeling, this response is triggered by the fact that so often you may offer help to another which is in a sense self- congratulatory, self-serving, or offered with the intent of bringing praise to you rather than the need being fulfilled by another. When you offer help selfishly, you learn to be suspicious of help offered by others. When you reach out to others selflessly, thinking only of the benefit to be received by another, you learn what it means ultimately to be willing to receive selfless help from another.

We suggest that you make a strong effort to consciously seek God in all that you are doing, whether it be merely remaining in the presence of another, talking with another, giving advice to another, or helping another, just listening to another. Turn your attention to where God belongs in this equation, and when you are the recipient of another's loving presence, approach that experience with trust and with confidence that God is a part of that relationship. You are given so many opportunities for outreach, outreach to the wider world and outreach to one another. Be willing to accept that outreach more readily when it is offered to you.

God's presence is constant. It is up to you to see and to feel that presence. It is an effort and it is worthy of considerable conscious thought on a daily basis. If you go through a day unaware of those evidences of God, the day has been lost. But if you experience within each day a sense of God's presence, then that day will have contributed enormously to the development of your souls and will serve to give greater meaning to the importance of your own lives. Don't let a day go by without reflecting upon where God is for you that day. It is easy to say, it is easy advice to give. It is most difficult to receive, for it requires a change in your priorities, it necessitates a change in your consciousness, but such a change brings meaning to what you do and it gives importance to your relationships with others—giving relationships, receiving relationships. Your day has significance. Your soul grows and you are aware of that growth. Therefore whatever happens to you during that day will remain a source of rejoicing.

Challenges and frustrations and anxieties can thereby be considered something for which you can thank God, and you can say, “The day was challenging, the day was a trial to endure. Thank you for the challenge, thank you for the trial, thank you for my presence in the light of God.” No day is lost when it is viewed that way. Any day that you recognize your growth toward God because of your presence in God’s light is a day that is won. It is a day for which you can give thanks. You don't give thanks just for the good days. You give thanks for the painful days that bring you a stronger awareness of God.

Therefore we ask you to find it in your hearts to give thanks to God every day, not just paying lip service, but honestly recognizing the value of that day's experience to your growth, your progress along the road, bringing you into God's loving light.

We bless you with that joy of knowing that each day is a gift from God, and we challenge you to accept that gift with gratitude and love each day.

Amen.