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Tuesday, 23 July 2013

Commitment to work for God; pride rebuked

Joyce Voysey

Here is a favourite of mine: “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established” (Prov. 16:3).  This passage reminds me of an inspiration I had some years ago with Gen. 1:26 and 27 (in part):
God gives us the idea – “God said, Let us make man…”
God gives us the method of accomplishing the idea – “So God created man….”

We are inclined to say, on receiving an idea from God (divine Mind) for some activity, “Thank you, God.  I will carry that out”, whereas we must wait for God’s direction on how to accomplish the fulfilment of the idea and not go off “half-cocked” with our own will.  (“Half-cocked” is very apt, as I found by definition: “To act prematurely or without reflection or too soon.”)

I reckoned that there are two parts to every activity – 1. Receiving the inspiration from God; 2. Waiting on God to tell us how to go about the doing of it.
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We may be inclined to misquote Prov. 16:18 as “Pride goes before a fall.”  The proverb actually reads: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” – something to be aware of. My thought recalled William McKenzie's letter quoted by Robert Peel in Mary Baker Eddy: Years of Authority (Note 40 on page 398):
On January 21, 1896, William P McKenzie wrote Mrs. Eddy in regard to the “awakening” she had brought to him:

I used to be very indignant when accused of being a theosophist for I was not even latterly acquainted with the doctrines of theosophy; but I have learned how my whole human mentality with its poetic idealism, aesthetic love, hero worship, pride of seeing hidden things, glory in mental power, had been a subtle spiritualising of matter—a putting of divine wisdom into human mind.  The uncovering was terrible & for a time I seemed to lose my consciousness of Good.  Then the intricacies of personality have been revealed as never before & after a long agony I seem to find myself alone with God.  I never had any idea before what was unconsciously in mind.

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