OUR WORK
GOD HAS much to be done, and He will reveal the plan to those who seek it, and will open the way of progress and success to those who are really willing to give up preconceived opinions and to grasp the Truth as the Holy Spirit reveals it. Heretofore men have worked for money, labored “for a living.” Now men are going to be forced to see that work is for the purpose of expressing God-given faculties and powers and loving service in the way that is truly beneficial. Wasted effort or unwisely directed plans will be a thing of the past. Each thought and each move will be divinely inspired, and results will be satisfying and permanent.
We find that we must be not only good but good for something in this world in which we live. Sometimes we get into a rut and need a change of work, but first we must change our viewpoint.
It surely is not wisdom and good judgment to keep at a thing year after year that brings no appreciable returns and that does not cause the soul to grow and expand and radiate through the body as ever-renewing health and youth. It is foolishness to devote oneself so wholly to a given line of action that one’s own consciousness is neglected, so that one fails to learn how to keep in health and strength and how to bring forth the things needed for daily comfort and peace of mind.
The work that God appoints us to never demands of us more than we can do comfortably. And He never obliges us to neglect our own unfoldment of the Christ pattern within us. When we are doing as God would have us do, He takes wonderful care of us, not by bringing supplies and placing them at our feet always, but by showing us how to use our own resources in a way to convert them into whatever we need or would use. One who is living the Christ life attracts blessings of all sorts, and he need never worry about financial matters, though he will give enough thought and attention to them to keep his part of the law.
Many individuals are going through a very definite period of awakening and adjustment these days. And many do not seem to know which way to turn. Employment of the past seems taken away. Nothing that one has done before seems to offer itself. Many times the reason for this is that the soul has been driving itself along certain ruts for a long time, and for its own good needs a change. It is not always best for a person to continue doing that which he likes to do, or that for which he has been trained, or that for which he is paid best. We need to round out, to develop, all our faculties and powers to do that which brings us close to humanity and that which increases what the world needs most. If we do not keep in touch with Spirit and heed its promptings, our own unconscious desires will take us out of the ruts and leave us floundering on the rocks, until we wake up and take hold of something that we shall find we like and that helps us and others.
We are declaring and giving thanks each day that Jesus Christ is revealing to each needy one the Truth about supply and the righteous expression of faculties and powers that invites the daily supplies as they are required. It is God’s will for all His children to have abundance. And it is our privilege to think this Truth and declare it and expect it to be proved in our life. This is our method of prayer: acknowledging our oneness with God, claiming the ability that this gives, and expecting to have the things needed and conducive to spiritual progress.
We are God’s children. But we are also His brain power, and His hands, and His voice: it is through us that God expresses His ideas, His blessings, and brings forth the unmanifest good in the forms in which we use it. Understanding this gives one a much better attitude toward work and makes one confident that one can and will have plenty to do and will receive compensation for it. As we realize that we are helping God to bring forth His blessings and order, our work becomes interesting and joy-filled. We no longer feel that we must over do in order to realize as much money as possible. We leave it to the divine law to bring to us our own; and we soon see that the better work we do the more satisfaction and supply we receive, because it is a law back of the personal relations existing between men. God never sends a soul into the world without providing for its needs. Until a person seeking to find his right work gets the light and feels the urge to be up and doing, he is to be still and wait upon the Lord and see His salvation. Meanwhile instead of worrying about financial matters and the money to pay expenses, he should keep going to God and confidently making known his needs, giving thanks for the supply. He should give thanks first of all for wisdom to know what is needed to be done; then give thanks that the needs are supplied out of the great storehouse of the Father. He must bless and break and pass out what he has; and give thanks and know there is more coming as he requires it.
There is an inexhaustible supply, and we are God’s beloved children for whom He is ever providing and to whom He has given His own life and wisdom and power and substance, the innate ability to do whatever is required in bringing our own soul to the Christ standard of living and serving others.
In order truly to prosper in his work the individual must keep his mind filled with real prosperity ideas in right relation. He must think whether or not he is doing what he really desires to do and must know by divine intuition that it is helping to develop and to round out his own consciousness and keep his body strong and radiant. Also he must understand whether or not he is serving others to the best of his ability, and whether he is thinking of them and feeling toward them that which invites from them their best and that which is just toward him. To determine these things requires spiritual discernment and the balanced development and use of all the faculties of mind. There are those who arrive at a rather good prosperity consciousness without being conscious of the science of Truth. But we find that every one may attain his right place if he develops a health and prosperity consciousness by daily applying himself to the practice of Truth.
This problem of keeping ourselves employed isn’t what it seems. Once we come into the understanding of the true purpose of life and service, we shall not need to keep busy all the time doing things we are not particularly interested in, for folks who have no interest in us. Work has been held up to us, from the time we were born, as a means of earning a living. We have been impressed with the thought that we should be constantly employed and that we should seek to increase our earning power.
Well, now we are coming to see this matter in a new light. Work is for self-expression, the development of God-given faculties and powers, and for helping those about us. Our life and sustenance are gifts from God and are free—free for the taking, when we understand how to proceed of course.
At present we do find it most helpful and convenient to have some definite arrangement whereby we serve others and keep the channels of supply open. As long as we expect to use for ourselves those things and conveniences which require the efforts or others, we should and must give of our own abilities in some sort of service in return. Many of the most important and necessary things in life are free gifts from God, and we may have them, constantly without any thought of doing any definite thing in return for them. The air we breathe, the sunlight, the beauty of nature, the out of doors for recreation and rest and inspiration. For these we should be thankful to God, and we should be appreciative enough to make the best use of them, that we may the more perfectly interpret His plan in ourselves.
