By Rev. Brandon Nagel, Senior Minister
Recently I spoke about the power of maintaining our focus on God and how meditation and even just the practice of acknowledging God to refocus ourselves if need be. However, it is also important for us to consider what it is we are seeking God for in the first place. Let’s face it, we are conditioned to go to God in a time of crisis. To seek God for support with healing from illness or freedom from financial concerns. We are taught that we can utilize the power of God to support us through difficult times. And it can, but it is important for us to be clear on what it is we are attempting to demonstrate when we do set out on our spiritual path. We must answer the question of whether we are seeking God to demonstrate God itself or we are seeking God to demonstrate something (healing, personal or professional success).
And there is nothing wrong with seeking God to demonstrate some need in our life. Many of us found our way on to this spiritual path by seeking a solution to a problem that we knew was bigger than we could handle on our own. It was my experience though that once I began seeking God as a way to support my path to becoming a minister what I ultimately realized was that the experience of simply seeking God became so much more powerful. When I was able to simply sit and be still and not bring any preconceived idea of what I wanted to the table, I left those times of stillness with a greater sense of harmony and an enriched awareness of peace. Just by taking the time to be with God without an agenda or concern. Through that process came the understanding that our focus on this path is not in what we can demonstrate, but instead in our ability to demonstrate the very presence of God itself, individualized as us.
When this becomes our focus, we receive that healing and success that we were seeking because all of that comes from the very nature of God itself. Realizing that becomes the spiritual work that we undertake and once we attain the understanding that demonstrating the presence of God itself is the goal then we are able to truly live the life we had sought to live. So often we look at our spiritual tools as a tool for manipulating our lives to get what we want out of them. But when we learn that our only responsibility is for the spirit of God to dwell in us, that is when we are truly opened to receive the joy that we had suspected was available to us all along. The truth is that we cannot ‘use’ God, but we can surrender to that presence of God and allow it to use us. Our goal in going into the inner chamber and communing with the still small voice we find there should be to demonstrate that presence in our lives.
We know that the presence of God is all good, we know that that presence is individualized within each and every one of us. Instead of focusing on what it is that God can give to you, I would encourage you instead to focus on how it is that you can demonstrate God in all that you do. And if you make this shift, you will see a world of harmony open up before you; regardless of what the appearance of the world may be.
