Commit to affirming human dignity.
November 20, 2023
The presence and peace of God belongs to the center of all that you experience in human life-form. That presence shines with its energy that permeates and fills every corner of your life.
We speak always in terms of a collective you, not a select you. Our presence in your life as guides is meant to benefit all. We receive the energy of the Spirit Center you refer to as God, and we transmit that loving presence in ways that may for many be more easily experienced on a conscious level. Being blessed by God, being surrounded by God’s light is not an abstract concept that is true but practically impossible to experience in a conscious way as coming directly from the love that surrounds all people. It is an experience that you have witnessed at some point in your life to think, “Ah, this must be God that is present,” but that experience does not have to be limited either in frequency or intensity.
The concerns you expressed that pertain to conflict around the world are shared by so many, but not all experience a response that they can attribute to God’s presence. Whatever is experienced can be fleeting and seldom in frequency.
As you search for ways of addressing the terrible conflicts that seem to arise, you also seek that balance in your life. How do you address such imbalance and yet find some sense of peace? How is the peace that you do feel characterized? It certainly isn’t a sense of relaxation, of thinking that there is nothing you can do so therefore don’t start. The peace is not an acceptance of the status quo.
Real peace can never be achieved when one merely seeks an absence of stress or concern, for that absence will never occur for extended times. Certainly, there are moments in your life when you are aware of less tension, when you feel a burden has been lifted from your shoulders, but that’s not the true peace we speak of. We speak of a peace that is not one of disengagement but engagement. If you want to feel peaceful about an issue, you must feel: 1) that you can be engaged, and 2) that such engagement will be part of the resolution that you seek. You may not see the end result with peace, but such engagement over the long haul can only be sustained when there is a direct sense of connection to the energy of mutual love.
Even among individuals who love one another, there are moments of conflict. Such love does not avoid those conflicts, but out of that love comes a commitment to engage to a level that is necessary to feel that there is a step forward, that on a personto-person level is essentially what is necessary to find in their lives a place of peace that they can stand on, that place of engagement, of being involved, of being committed to the betterment of others.
Praying to God for peace, therefore, is not limited to the hope that conflict will be dissolved, but rather that in the progression of resolution, you feel committed to your own participation. It is a sense of sureness that what you do, what you say, who you truly are all serve to bring comfort and mutual understanding and acceptance to others. You are doing your part. You may not see the full consequences of those efforts in your human life, but knowing that you are committed to finding a way to contribute to the peace you pray for, that brings the peace.
You often pray for balance. We’ve said so often that praying for healing does not necessarily mean the total elimination of whatever health challenges may exist. That healing may be, in fact, an achievement of a kind of balance in which the healing you pray for is manifested in a strength and certainty that God’s energy of love is indeed present. That sense of healing, therefore, is a process; it is not a product. When there is healing, there is growth, there is strengthening of vision, vision of the presence of spirit. Out of that vision may come insights that provide further levels of healing. The individual who has been “healed” may not exhibit the kind of healing that was originally prayed for, but that healing, that balance, that awareness of heart vision has been strengthened and is clearly evident. There has been, therefore, true balance. That is what healing is.
But so is it when one deals with conflict, for isn’t illness a series of conflicts within the body? Praying for peace, therefore, is analogous to praying for healing, for you are in effect praying for a healing of relationships, a healing of understanding. The peace that you seek is the balance that can be achieved in the healing between people, societies, philosophies, religions.
How do you best respond to these crises that you are reminded of constantly around the world or close at hand? You respond by praying for peace, praying for healing, praying for that balance. Every individual participates in peace-seeking, in that effort to find healing and balance. But the response by each person will be an individual response in terms of the kind of response.
If you pray for peace, if you pray for balance and healing, as you have noted, it is not just praying for God to step in. It is for you to step in. You will do so in your own way, but the peace that you seek is a true peace when you can identify what is most meaningful for you as a response. There is no response to the needs for peace that is better than another.
The peace you seek can only be achieved, that balance can only be achieved, that healing can only be achieved when it is responded to from many different directions. If three people pray for peace in the relationship between nations, each person will define that peace differently. Each person will find a way of being committed to that peace differently. There is no one way.
For you to respond to the needs of the world, it is essential that you be open to all possibilities. You can seek insight through prayer, and you will be given the heart vision to recognize what response will be most appropriate for you. Such responses, as you may discover, can change over time, for your life continues to evolve. Your understanding evolves. Your viewpoints may evolve. What is essential is not what you do but your commitment to a vision through an open heart, a vision that recognizes the unity of all that we speak so frequently about.
One of those responses could be described as patience. You may not have the means of responding in one way, but you could respond in another. It could be through patience that is exercised through a full acknowledgement of the equality of all. That patience may be limited to an acknowledgement that God’s presence is everywhere, and you focus your loving energies on strengthening the heart vision of others through prayer. Those prayers enable others to respond in ways that are best for them. Approaching such conflict with patience means you remove from the conflict the requirement that all must be resolved in a specified timeframe. What is important is that growth, balance, peace as we define it finds fulfillment.
We speak of your own spiritual growth as not being a race. It is a process. It isn’t who gets to God first. It is the journeying toward God that is important. And so it is with your response to conflict. It is the journey of responding that is important. All conflicts ultimately come to an end, but such patterns do not mean there is no suffering, agony, or losses. It is always a tragedy when people are killed in the process of a conflict. It is abhorrent to us that the behavior of some human beings toward others can result in such tragic consequences. Recognizing those consequences, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the direness of the conflict and be blinded from a vision of what true peace can be. We have said retribution is not a response to such suffering. It only exacerbates it.
One has to find ways of responding to loss, responding to fear, responding to anger in ways that do not prolong the conflict. The response to patience carries with it a commitment to whatever is necessary to affirm human dignity. That is the goal. Avoid ways of thinking that result only in panic and anger, further hatred, continued retributions. Find ways, your own ways, that can provide a view of balance, that can provide a firm belief in God’s presence. Seek ways of tapping into that presence.
The peace you pray for toward friends and family who have suffered personal losses is addressed in the same way. You pray that they are given strength to recognize the loving embrace that is God’s in the midst of sadness, in the midst of enduring great loss. Pray that there may be a balance found, one that looks forward to what a loving relationship toward others can create.
When you pray for the health of another, pray for that balance. Pray for that affirmation to be felt, that God’s healing, balancing, affirming presence embraces all at all times. Pray for a vision of God’s presence. Pray for an understanding of your own response to those in need. When you sense that response, when you feel you are acting in concert with that presence, the peace you truly seek will be yours.
We serve as your guides because we are filled with a loving presence that is God. We speak to you in many ways as a means of clarifying your heart’s vision to God’s presence. Know that you and everyone are loved, are cared for, are valued, are cherished. Know always that we are here to facilitate that balance, that healing of spirit, that peace of spirit. We are here for all human beings. That is our desire. Always turn to God and know that in doing so, your guides are illuminating your pathways. That illumination originates with God’s presence, and it is we who help focus that presence upon your life. It is when you are experiencing peace that you will find you are focusing God’s presence upon the path of another.
Be comforted by your engagement. Be comforted by your commitments. Be comforted by your prayers for balance. Be comforted by your greater understanding of the peace that is the goal of all human beings.
Amen.