divine love – Page 4 – Spirituality & Healing

True love

Published on April 19, 2012 by lindseybiggsLeave a comment

Last night, as I was going to bed, I was praying to know how to “love my neighbor” better.

The answer that came to me is to love my neighbor (and myself) spiritually.

“In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error, — self-will, self-justification, and self-love, — which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death.” (Eddy, Science and Health, p. 242)

Self-will (or human wilfulness), self-justification (or feeling the need to justify what you are doing perhaps because it isn’t right) and self-love are actually the opposite of Love, divine, true Love.

A well-known, and probably the best written statement on Love comes from I Corinthians 13:

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly,but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (New Revised Standard Version)

I think of this wonderful statement of love as a comparison between self-love (thinking we are the best and indulging our material personality) versus spiritual love, the Love which is God itself.

We have all felt moved, touched or inspired by Love, I’m sure. Perhaps it was in helping a friend, saying just the right thing that meant so much to someone, or in a healing we had. As we erase the “adamant of error” from our consciousness we become lighter, clearer and a better transparency for divine Love, the love that heals, saves and uplifts.

Spiritual reasoning helps in overcoming challenges

Published on May 9, 2011 by lindseybiggs1 Comment

When you’re faced with a problem that seems too big and real, it’s helpful to do some spiritual reasoning.

I like to start with God, divine Love. Things get much clearer when you start with the one Ego or Creator.

I think of God as Love, ever-present and eternal, which is always with me. God is speaking to us and has the ability to communicate with us in just the right way. He/She is able to make Herself heard.

God is infinite, limitless so we can lift ourselves up out of the perception of materiality and finiteness, into the realm of permanent, changeless Good.

God is Spirit and Her substance can never be defiled. God, Spirit, is our substance so there can’t be anything missing or lacking.

When we get a glimpse of who and what God is then we can get a sense of who we are. God’s offspring is pure, light, holy, with infinite ability and capability. This offspring is spiritual and in the image and likeness of it’s Creator. So there isn’t any blemish, lack or loss. God’s creation is complete, harmonious, always good and beautiful.

There are lots of theories and speculation out there that try to present otherwise. They say our birthright isn’t perfect and joy and health aren’t natural. It says we pray to God because we are separate from Him, and prayer isn’t always effective.

All of these subtle suggestions are what is termed the carnal mind and what is illustrated by a serpent in the Bible. We hear the account of Jesus himself confronted with the carnal mind in Matthew 4. Jesus overcame material suggestions and claims, similar to the same ones we hear today i.e. matter is our life, God isn’t all-powerful, and money is power.

He conquered these by knowing and understanding His relationship with His Father. The Word of God, Spirit, gives us life and energy to do and to accomplish all we need; God is ever-present, always loving and protecting us (we don’t need to “test” God but we can apply and demonstrate this fact when faced with a challenge); the carnal mind cannot give us anything. All fulfillment, opportunity, joy, supply, and talent come from God and are spiritual.

So today, if you’re faced with a challenge try to spiritual reason in this way, the same way that Jesus conquered and overcame the challenges he was faced with through trust in his ever-present Father-Mother God.

Practical Spirituality Heals

Published on March 26, 2011 by lindseybiggsLeave a comment

Want to learn more about how spirituality is practical in seeing and understanding the reality of things – the reality that includes health, goodness, and abundance for all?

Check out this video lecture given in February in the Chicago-area at the Evanston Public Library. The lecturer is Christian Science practitioner and teacher Ginny Luedeman, CSB from Salem, Oregon .

This lecture will be available at the link below through June 24th, 2011. Enjoy learning about spirituality that heals.

http://www.secondchurchevanston.com/lectures.html