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Remember that the law of cause and effect is always operating in every man’s life, even though it is often difficult to see the relation between a cause and its effect, because of the long time that may elapse between them or because the particular effect does not seem to be related to the apparent cause.
There are also negative as well as positive causes. Sometimes things happen because something else was not done.
Neglect is a negative cause that brings a train of uncertain, unprofitable results. For instance, if your garden is left uncultivated for a time grass, thistles, and various weeds may spring up in it, but there is no particular kind of weed that always follows neglect of a garden. Different localities have different kinds of weeds. So it is with neglect of prayer in our life. A variety of troublesome results may manifest themselves.
There are sins of omission as well as sins of commission. The blind man who was healed by Jesus had not sinned nor had his parents sinned, but Jesus explained that his condition was an opportunity for the glory of God to be made manifest. The man had not committed a definite sin, but he had not raised his faith in God to the point where God could heal him.
No person is perfect in all respects, but everyone has abundant opportunity to improve himself so that he can live the more abundant life that God has prepared for those who will accept it.
We cannot point to any definite sins committed by many of the good, peaceable people who suffer the dire consequences of war. We must realize that just being peaceable and good in a negative way is not enough to guarantee us the full protection we need. We must be good and peaceable, but we must also be positive and understanding in our faith in God’s omnipresent power to protect us.
Of course God does not send trouble upon anyone, for He loves all His children; but men who are ignorant of God break the law and so bring trouble upon themselves. They also harm innocent men, whose faith in God is not firmly established.
Those who place God first in all that they think and do and who feel His presence with them in spirit and in truth are protected from the evils that ignorant men bring upon themselves and their passive neighbors.
If a person has done something wrong, even in a past incarnation, he can be freed from the effects by the grace of God. God’s forgiving love is the greatest power on earth today, and when it is permitted to work freely in a man it wipes out the remembrance of all evil from his life, and restores his soul to peace and happiness.
God’s love is always ready to help every man to be forgiven for his past mistakes. But first the man must forgive every other man toward whom he feels ill will before the power of God’s love can operate freely in his life.
If you will forgive everyone toward whom you have any bad feelings and ask God to forgive you, He will do it, and His love will set you free from all the mistakes you made in the past.
God’s love is always ready to express itself through you when you co-operate with love by practicing love in your thoughts, words, and deeds. Jesus said the greatest commandment is that you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. When you love God in this way you will become better acquainted with His power and love, and you will open the way for His love to do its mighty works in and through you. The Psalmist has expressed the idea in these wonderful words:
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
The good works that we do today are like good seed and will produce good fruits for us later, although these good works may not be just the same kind as those we at first performed; for goodness has a host of pleasant ways of bearing fruit. The good harvest may come in the form of peace of mind or joy or perhaps of wordly goods.
When we cast our bread of good works upon the waters of experience in the consciousness that we are working for God, our substance will return to us, perhaps after many days, and it will be increased by the power of God’s love.
We cannot always know how God’s law works for us in its every detail, but we can be sure that good deeds and thoughts always bring good, that negation begets negation, and that the fruits of these things always have their inception in the hearts of men. Grace becomes manifest in our life when we dwell in “the secret place of the Most High” and there become acquainted with God’s forgiving love.
God is always generous and understanding, sending good results into the life of those who have faith in His omnipresent goodness. God is the first cause back of all things that are good. The things that are evil are caused by man’s misunderstanding and misapplication of God’s good things. God is always willing to forgive men for their mistakes in misusing His good things when they are willing to become loving, forgiving, and peaceable.
SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY MEDITATION
SUNDAY: Standing firmly upon my faith in God’s infinite power, I am protected and blessed in all my ways.
MONDAY: All memory and all effects of my past mistakes are wiped away by the grace of God’s love when I enter into it fully, spirit, soul, and body.
TUESDAY: I have faith that God’s love is more powerful than all the negative forces of evil in the world.
WEDNESDAY: As I freely forgive everyone who has wronged me, I open the way for the forgiving power of God’s love to set me free from condemnation.
THURSDAY: I am dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, and I am abiding under the shadow of the Almighty.
FRIDAY: I am protected by the power of God’s love because I believe in it and practice it.
SATURDAY: I am willing to become small in my own personality so that God may increase in me.
