Emerson Center for

Spiritual Awakening

New Thought based in ancient wisdom ... 

the timeless teachings of

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Dr. Susanne Freeborn, Senior Minister

Rev. Linda S. Siddall, Assistant Minister

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Ancient Wisdom Taught in a Modern Way!

Stepping Up to Higher Ground

05-27-01

Rev. Linda S. Siddall

Today I’m going to talk about how to “step up to higher ground” in one’s life. By the end of this talk, you will have an action plan that you can use and share with others in your lives and, perhaps, even carry out the plan together.

 American transcendentalist, writer, and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.” That struck me as not only a true statement but also a vivid one. Just for a minute, I want you to close your eyes and picture yourself standing barefoot in a lush green meadow. It’s a golden and warm spring day. Wild flowers are all in bloom. Birds are singing. Butterflies are floating by. The tinkling sound of a nearby brook beckons you to come…dip your toes into the cool, clear water. The radiant sunshine warms your face and your outstretched arms as you reach to the sky, celebrating this grand and glorious day.

 After a while of feeling magnificent, you look down and see your shadow. And in between your shadow and the brook lies a coiled garter snake. If you are like me, you jump in fright and run from it as fast as you can. A creepy old reptile has marred your lovely day.

 And so it goes in our lives, too. We allow the “creepy old reptiles” of our consciousness to get in the way of our greatness. But here is the good news. We can change that by having faith that our good is already ours. It is not “out there” somewhere, waiting for someone to give it to us. Joy and abundance and good health and love and all those things that are of God are qualities that we already have and can demonstrate when we allow the Light of Spirit to move us up from the raging waters of struggle to higher ground of right thinking.

Those who have great faith have great power. Let me tell you a little story that explains what I mean.

 The fields were parched and brown from lack of rain, and the crops lay wilting from thirst. People were anxious and irritable as they searched the sky for any sign of relief. Days turned into arid weeks. No rain came.

The ministers of the local churches called for an hour of prayer on the town square the following Saturday. They requested that everyone bring an object of faith for inspiration.

 At high noon on the appointed Saturday the townspeople turned out en masse, filling the square with anxious faces and hopeful hearts. The ministers were touched to see the variety of objects clutched in prayerful hands–holy books, crosses, rosaries.

 When the hour ended, as if on magical command, a soft rain began to fall. Cheers swept the crowd as they held their treasured objects high in gratitude and praise.

 From the middle of the crowd one faith symbol seemed to overshadow all the others. A small nine-year-old child had brought an umbrella.

 This child of deep faith had great power. And so do you.

 Stepping into that power and into right action moves us from the lowlands of defeat to the higher ground of success. To get there takes a belief in the Thing Itself, in the Creative Intelligence, in the Law of Mind that bring our thoughts and beliefs into form. But what is faith, really? There are as many definitions of faith as there are spiritual and religious traditions. Here are a few that are meaningful to me and that align themselves with New Thought.

First, faith is an affirmative mental approach to Reality. We get what we have faith in, what we believe in. Faith speaks an affirmative language. It speaks of what is and what is possible. It speaks to our highest and greatest potential as manifestations and expressions of God as man. Second, faith is the power of prayer. It is an attitude that believes so deeply and completely in its own idea that it cannot even imagine any contradiction to that idea. So! Would you rather have faith in that which is not of God, or that which is? Is your faith casting you into the raging sea or placing you safely on higher ground? Ernest Holmes says, “The Principle governing faith is that when the one praying becomes convinced, his prayer will automatically be answered.” (SOM, p 157)

 Faith knows that our life is God’s life. And when we believe that with conviction, we are living in spiritual Truth and in the splendor that is God.

 Third, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says that faith is “…to bring God back into the world, into our lives…To have faith in God is to reveal what is concealed.” This is a plea to remove our sense of separation from God, to realize that there is no God up there and us down here. We can then remember that all is God, that Spirit is within us just as we are within It. Our embodiment of that spiritual truth allows God to reveal Itself to us to the degree that we believe this is so.

 Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, and faith looks within. Let us remember that feelings and emotions are creative, resulting in thoughts and beliefs that we bring into form into our lives. In Matthew 9:27-30, two blind men followed Jesus and cried loudly, “Have mercy upon us, Son of David!” Jesus replied, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done unto you.” And their eyes were opened.

“And their eyes were opened.” That is as true for us today as it was for these blind men 2,000 years ago. Whatever we have been blind to about our own greatness, our innate divinity, our realization of being individualized and unique expressions of God, we can use the power of faith to open our eyes to the spiritual truth of who we are. That is how we step out of the muck and mire of limitation and step up onto the solid rock of God and Good.

  Fear paralyzes; faith liberates. The Creative Process is always at work. Having faith and understanding the power of our thought gets us close to land. However, using the Law of Mind from the right state of consciousness gets us out of the water onto dry land.

In his book, Creative Mind and Success, Ernest Holmes said:

 “The mind is a magnet and we attract that with which we identify the self. In order to get the most out of life we must learn consciously to change many of our habitual thought patterns. If you are filled with fear, refill yourself with faith, for faith always overcomes fear.

Faith is the supreme affirmation. It is the unconditioned affirmative. It is the affirmation that makes all things possible to the one who believes in the Power of God.

Your thoughts are tools that you use in affirming the creative Power into your experience.” 

My mother said this another way in an e-mail message that she sent to me yesterday. She said, “When you feed your faith, your fears will starve to death.”

In their own ways, both my mother and Ernest Holmes urge us to stop thinking about the problem and letting it consumer your life, recognize that the Life Principle has no problems. I once heard a minister say over and over again in many of his sermons that we get not what we pray for but what we pray from. When we pray from a consciousness that knows only God, that aligns itself only with God, and that knows nothing but God, we have reached higher ground…and our lives demonstrate positive and fulfilling results. In “Letter to Earth,” Elia Wise says, “In order to fly, you have to give up the ground you are standing on.”  

All thought is creative. In Mark 9:14-23, a father brings his son to Jesus for healing. The boy cannot speak. The father asks Jesus to heal the boy but, in his request, uses the words, “if you are able to do anything.” Jesus, of course, goes ballistic, aghast that this man doubts God’s ability, operating through him, to heal the child. Jesus replies, “ ‘If you are able!’ All things can be done for the one who believes.” Do you have the conviction of the Christ? Are you aware of and careful about what you believe?

The Law of Mind is an impersonal law, acting upon what you give it (your beliefs), no matter what they are. It doesn’t think about whether your beliefs are helpful or harmful. It merely brings them into form. Are your beliefs based in ego or based in God? Where are your convictions? Where do you place your faith? Where are you right now—drowning in the waters of fear or stepping up to the higher ground of faith? In your daily spiritual practices, meditate on these questions and see what Spirit reveals to you. These revelations will be blessings for each and every one of you, no matter what they may look like. Accept them as gifts to be opened, examined and used with deep gratitude and great expectancy.

Howard Chandler Christy says, “Every morning I spend fifteen minutes filling my mind full of God: and so there’s no room left for worry thoughts.” What a great idea! As you start your week tomorrow morning, I want you to take three specific actions each day next week to move to higher ground and to demonstrate the desired conditions in your life.

1.      STEP UP to the Truth that we ALWAYS have the inner power of Creative Mind to take us from the raging waters to dry land.

2.      STEP UP to the Truth and speak your word with conviction and faith, knowing that it is done unto you as you believe.

3.      STEP UP to the Truth that you are created in the image and likeness of God. Believe that the Indwelling God and the Innermost God expresses Itself in you, as you, and through you. Be mindful of where your thoughts live. High thoughts will take you to higher ground.

We are creative beings who are not meant to play the victim. Let us bring forth the magnificence that lies within us. There is a Power in the Universe that is greater than we are, and we can use it. Our thought has the power for good and the power for calamity. Only we can choose which path to take. Let us choose wisely and well. And so it is!

 °°°

Warmly Celebrating Spiritual Growth and Abundant Life in an Open Community

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Last modified: August 23, 2002