Dear Friends,
“Dropping Anchor In God’s Presence.”
If you were out on the open sea in a small boat, and suddenly experienced a storm, would you drop anchor right there? In the middle of the storm? Well, in the middle of the “storms” in our lives, this is what we could be doing…..dropping anchor in God’s Presence.
In Psalm 46, we read in verse 1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
And in the well-known, and much quoted section of verse 10: “Be still, and know that I am God:”
Yet when the chips are down our first resort is to worry like crazy and stress ourselves to the limit because for some reason it seems we think that only we can fix or resolve the situation (storm) or whatever it may be that we are facing. For some reason we feel compelled to act; and sadly, most of our “acting” or “taking action” is to worry.
Jean Pierre de Caussade stated: “The past must be left to God’s measureless mercy, the future to his loving providence; and the present must be given wholly to his love through our fidelity to his grace. Let us understand that we shall not acquire true conformity to the will of God until we are perfectly resolved to serve him according to his will and pleasure, and not according to our own.”
The focus for this message is the idea of anchoring ourselves in God’s Presence – no matter what our situation. You see, we all carry anchors, and these anchors are our beliefs. After all we all believe in something! And maybe we are actually anchoring ourselves in what it is we do not want! And we need to take note here. Let us just for a moment consider two scripture quotes: the first being found in Proverbs 23:7…”As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The second we find in Matthew 8:13, “As thou has believed, so be it done unto thee,” and this was Jesus’ remark to the Roman centurion.
Epictetus, a long ago Greek philosopher said: “Men are disturbed not by things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen.” Our self-talk – our story – is made up of thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, experiences, feelings and perceptions, about 90% of which are unconscious at any given time. And to a large degree, we are anchored in this self-talk which in its own way becomes what we believe about ourselves and life as a whole. So when dropping anchor in the storms of life it is well to first check the quality of the anchor. We need to check for ourselves if the stories we are telling ourselves are self-talk or Truth. Once we have established ourselves in truth, we drop anchor in the Presence of the One Power.
We have beautiful stories and examples in scripture yet so often get swayed by the things of the world, and we drop anchor in the economic reports, weather reports, political reports, all the health reports and unemployment and seeming lack. Are we then in a position of worshiping God, and……? Turn to God—the One and only Omnipresent Presence. Have we, for all our sophisticated and advanced technology, made any advancement in our relationship to God; to Life?
We do need relationships with family, with friends; we do need employment. Yet it is in God that our needs are met, because in God there is no lack or limitation. As we realize our unity with the One, we drop anchor, and in this awareness, we become still and the storm passes.
In Closing……
Faith is inherent in the invisible Spirit, and is Spirit, it is the source of what it proves; the source of all beautiful evidences that constitute nature. We walk, talk, think, and live by Faith. Faith is the active principle of Being. By faith we see, therefore it is sight; by it we hear, therefore it is hearing; by it we know Truth, therefore it is knowledge.
All things in creation are not only evidence of its Omnipotence, but of its never failing certainty and unlimited good. All the accomplishments of man and all things accomplished by him, are the result and evidence of faith. Then “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.”
Faith is the ability to live and succeed in every position in life. To accomplish the purpose which every right endeavor has in view and to better one’s conditions as the field of work requires. It is essential that we put faith in our spiritual endeavors, in our mental endeavors, and in our physical endeavors to enjoy satisfactory evidence of the substance of our Being, and have positive proof of the reality of the things hoped for.
Malinda E. Cramer—Divine Science and Healing
Bountiful blessings,
Mallory