By Rev. Brandon Nagel, Senior Minister
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says, “If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes,” -Mark 9:23. Every time I would read this, the thought that would immediately come into my mind was, “What exactly is it that I am supposed to believe in?”. The logical answer seems to be God. All things are possible for those who believe in God, but then I realized it is more than that. Millions of people all over the world believe in the power of God. And certainly not all of them are consistently accomplishing all the things that they wish. So, what is it that Jesus is encouraging us to believe in? This was the question that I took into meditation and the answer that came to me was that we are being asked to believe in the most powerful thing in the universe, our self. And more specifically, the presence of God that we find there.
In order for us to truly accomplish all that we wish to accomplish, we must turn within to the innate power that we find inside and encourage ourselves to see that presence having a greater role in our lives. And Unity’s teachings have given us just the tool to do exactly that. Through speaking affirming words and encouraging statements to ourselves we begin to change our mind from one that processes life intellectually to one that processes life spiritually. And it is this ability to process things spiritually that leads us to the truth that we find in the Gospel of Mark, that truth that all things can be done for one who believes. And with that truth comes our ability to create our experience of life.
As we speak those words of encouragement to ourselves, what we find is that we are really fulfilling the ancient wisdom that was found above the doorway to the Oracle at Delphi, “Know Thyself”. For far too long, humanity has reached outside of itself, striving and stretching, to attain even the briefest of glances of the divine. Reaching out to just touch the hem of the garment of God and all the while, we have been looking in the wrong direction. We’ve been looking for something separate from us, believing that we were not worthy or capable of being divine. And we couldn’t have been more wrong. When we take the time to believe in ourselves, when we take the opportunity to really and truly learn who and what we are, then we find that all things in life are possible. We find that the pathway which we desire to travel is clear. But it can only be cleared by turning within and listening to what we hear there.
So, my advice to you, my fellow traveler on this path, would be to take the time to close your eyes and say out loud to yourself,
“I am a divine expression of God.”
Say it and believe it. The scriptures are filled with stories of how powerful faith is and when we take the time to believe in ourselves we learn that truly all things are possible.
