Yesterday, we learned that righteousness means that we follow a moral code or law to keep ourselves from sin. God is himself the perfect standard for righteousness, and everything he does is right. If we want to forgive others, we must begin with an understanding of what righteous acts look like. Today, we continue with our study of righteousness in our quest to forgive people who have deeply hurt us.
If God is righteousness, we must first understand God's attributes.
God exhibits ten moral attributes that we should seek for ourselves if we want to become righteous. These moral attributes include:
1) goodness,
2) love,
3) mercy,
4) grace,
5) patience,
6) holiness,
7) peace,
8) justice,
9) protection, and
10) intense hate for all sin.
These are really big concepts, so we're going to tackle one per day.
How does the Bible define goodness?
Goodness means that God is the final standard, and all that he does is good. Good is something that God approves. When we do things that are good, we find delight in them, because God delights in them, too.
God is himself goodness defined.
We can find many passages in the Bible which indicate that God is good. For example, Jesus said, "No one is good--except God alone." (Luke 18:19 NIV) The psalmist wrote, Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 106:1 NIV) And King David wrote, Taste and see that the LORD is good..."(Psalm 34:8 NIV)
Everything that God does is worthy of his approval.
Whatever God does is so good, it is worthy of his complete approval. For example, when God created the world, he stood back and sighed with satisfaction. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day. (Gen. 1:31 NIV)
We must be careful to make the distinction here that God's works are not worthy of our approval, but only of God's. Therefore, he is the final standard of goodness.
God has given us the ability to reflect upon his goodness so that we can evaluate things in the way that he wants us to. We can learn to approve what God approves and take delight in whatever delights him.
God is the source of all good in the world.
If anything is truly good, it comes from God. James wrote, Every good an perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17 NIV)
Sometimes, we can be deceived into believing that something evil is good. As children who suffered from sexual abuse, we may have been told that our perpetrator's sick need for sexual gratification at our expense was something good. We may have been told that we were good while we were being molested.
It is important to remember that whatever is truly good comes from God. If we are engaging in behaviors that are immoral or wrong, they cannot be labeled good. The only way to learn how to distinguish what is truly good and what is evil is to study God's Word.
I wrote in earlier posts that I had found Healing Touch to be something good for pain relief and spiritual enlightenment. But as I read more of God's Word, I discovered that the people teaching Healing Touch were doing something evil and labeling it good. Their practices began in witchcraft and other religions that are in direct opposition to the Christian faith. The only way I came to this understanding was through a thorough understanding of God's righteousness that I found in the Bible.
The apostle Paul said, "Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by contant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:13-14 NIV) Through a study of God's goodness, we can grow into mature Christians who can stand up to people who tempt us to do evil things and call them good.
God only does good things for his children.
Unlike our earthly fathers, God only does good things for us. We can find assurance in Romans 8:28 (NIV) that God wants to do good for us: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.
This does not mean that the minute we become Christians, all bad things will cease in our lives. There will still be times when we encounter evil, but we will better understand that even when bad things happen, God will do something to bring good from it.
To clarify this for you, God did not desire for me to be sexually abused. However, he has shown me how he plans to use my experience for good. My pain has led me to help others who share similar experiences. All over the world, people are finding comfort in the words that I share with them.
As another example, my study of Healing Touch brought me a lot of spiritual pain. I felt tremendous embarrassment over the fact that I had been duped into believing that something evil was good. However, as soon as I figured out my error, God put the wheels in motion to turn that bad experience into something good.
My minister thanked me for sharing the truth about healing touch with him; he had been looking for answers about alternative medicine for an upcoming sermon series. A fellow believer thanked me for the information, because it gave her the ammunition she needed to say no to someone who wanted her to get involved in Reiki, another type of healing which is not based in Christianity.
We should imitate God's goodness.
Whenever we can, we should do good. The apostle Paul wrote, "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." (Gal. 6:10 NIV) If it is unclear to us how to be good, we must learn that God is the one we should imitate.
God's #1 goal is for us to become more like Christ each day.
I wrote in previous blogs about developing goals for ourselves. I am learning that it is okay to have goals, provided that they help us to become more like Christ each day. When I discovered that Healing Touch was not pleasing to God, I ended all involvement in the program.
If you've been working on goals, look back over them and ask yourself, "Will this goal help me to become more like Christ each day?" If the answer is no, revise the goal or eliminate it.
You can also ask, "Does this goal reflect God's goodness, and will it develop in me the characteristic of goodness?" Sometimes, it is difficult to see the difference between a goal that makes us feel good and a goal that makes us good.
Getting even with our perpetrator through vengeful actions may make us feel good, but they will never make us good. Using alcohol, drugs, overwork, shopping, or other addictions may make us feel good temporarily, but they will never make us good in the way that God wants us to be.
Today's Challenge
In your journal, write down how you see God's goodness in your life. Is there anything that you are doing that feels good, but is really evil? If you are trapped in a habit that is not good, find an accountability partner or counselor to help you find your way out of it. Imitating God's goodness must come before we can learn how to forgive.
Showing posts with label healing touch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healing touch. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Clean Up Your Messes and Incompletes, Part II
I am not moving on today with new material from The Success Principles, because I'm trying to clean up my messes and deal with my incompletes. Like most Americans, I have been Christmas shopping, wrapping gifts, putting up outdoor lights, and decorating the tree. My house has been a wreck for days, but I'm getting closer to completing my Christmas preparations.
To take a break from the holiday madness, I went to a Healing Touch workshop this morning. Healing Touch teaches the use of intentional prayer/meditation to bring the power of the Holy Spirit up from the earth and into our hands. We can become conduits for God's healing by gently laying hands on people who are open to receiving it.
Today, we focused on learning how to release pain. Class members took turns receiving and giving Healing Touch. When it was my turn to receive, my arms and legs twitched constantly. The instructor assured us that this was normal when a person is releasing emotional pain.
I realized during class that Jack Canfield's directive to clean up our messes and incompletes was probably behind the emotional release that I experienced. I have had so much work to do in the area of forgiveness, and I have been letting go of a lot of old psychological pain over the past few months. Thanks to the help of a Healing Touch practitioner, I am finally beginning to understand how to forgive completely.
Tomorrow's Success Principle is, in my opinion, critical to every person's long-term success. For survivors of abuse and trauma, it is particularly important to pay close attention to Jack's lesson on forgiveness. We will be learning about how to complete the past so that we can embrace the future. Perhaps you can set aside a little extra quiet time for yourself tomorrow. I know you'll be glad that you did.
To take a break from the holiday madness, I went to a Healing Touch workshop this morning. Healing Touch teaches the use of intentional prayer/meditation to bring the power of the Holy Spirit up from the earth and into our hands. We can become conduits for God's healing by gently laying hands on people who are open to receiving it.
Today, we focused on learning how to release pain. Class members took turns receiving and giving Healing Touch. When it was my turn to receive, my arms and legs twitched constantly. The instructor assured us that this was normal when a person is releasing emotional pain.
I realized during class that Jack Canfield's directive to clean up our messes and incompletes was probably behind the emotional release that I experienced. I have had so much work to do in the area of forgiveness, and I have been letting go of a lot of old psychological pain over the past few months. Thanks to the help of a Healing Touch practitioner, I am finally beginning to understand how to forgive completely.
Tomorrow's Success Principle is, in my opinion, critical to every person's long-term success. For survivors of abuse and trauma, it is particularly important to pay close attention to Jack's lesson on forgiveness. We will be learning about how to complete the past so that we can embrace the future. Perhaps you can set aside a little extra quiet time for yourself tomorrow. I know you'll be glad that you did.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Believe in Yourself
Jack Canfield's Success Principle #5
(1) Believing in yourself is an attitude.
Jack Canfield asks us again today to believe that we have what it takes to create our desired results. He teaches us that research proves that anyone can do almost anything. The human brain is capable of learning new skills at any age; and with proper training and practice, people can achieve impossible dreams. He points out that we must begin acting as if we have already achieved our dreams.
I am imagining that I am walking onto the set of a national news broadcast, such as Good Morning America. The audience is applauding, and the TV journalists are smiling with approval at me. Hope Among the Ashes has become one of the most sought-after life success programs, and I have been invited to speak about my latest book and speaking tour. I know that if I can pretend this is happening, it will eventually become reality. I don't have to know how to get from here to there; my brain will fill in the blanks as I go along.
2) The choice of what to believe is up to you.
When we continually hit brick walls, we can do one of two things. Either we can give up, and tell ourselves it's impossible to achieve what we're after; or we can search for another way to make our dreams come true.
Sometimes, we're trying to achieve something, because someone else has wired us to believe it's our destiny. For example, when I was a young girl, my mother enrolled both my sister and me in dancing lessons. My sister could tap dance like Ginger Rogers, never missing a beat. I constantly found myself stumbling around a few beats behind, watching other dancers who seemed to remember the steps far better than I did.
I wish I had figured out way back then that I preferred playing the piano to tap dancing. I would have given up the dance lessons and opted for more time at the piano. Remember, we get to choose what we become.
(3) You have to give up "I Can't."
Several years ago, I learned about the energy field that surrounds each of our bodies. An herbalist showed me a way to tear down someone else's energy field with my hands, until that person could no longer hold out his left arm.
Interestingly, Jack Canfield has shown me another way to look at this. If we ask someone to hold out their left arm to the side and resist us, we generally cannot push their arm downward. If we ask them to just think about something that they can't do, they have a little trouble holding up that arm. If we take it one step further and ask them to speak aloud, "I can't _____________," that arm becomes so weak, we can push it to their side without resistance.
As survivors of verbal abuse, you can begin to see how huge an impact our critics' words had on us. Every time our abusers shouted at us, told us we were incompetent, or said unkind words to us, our energy field got damaged.
I have been visiting a healing touch practitioner, and she observed that my energy field had great dents in it. She explained that this is a common occurrence among people who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). With her help, and with my belief in the dream of getting well, we have seen huge improvements in my energy field.
We can all reclaim our personal power and heal our energy fields. It begins with the belief that we can. The Bible tells us, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil 4:13)
(4) Don't waste your life believing you can't.
What if someone told you today that you have only a few months to live? Would you feel that you'd wasted your life, never taking the risks to become what you wanted to be?
In 1992, I was diagnosed with melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Within days, I was whisked through a large group orientation for people facing this disease. I was told to get my affairs in order and to make sure that I had life insurance before I continued with my treatment. The prognosis for someone with stage four cancer was extremely poor.
Suddenly, the prospect of living only a few months made me realize that I had wasted a great deal of time on pursuits that were really not important to me. I decided to quit my teaching job and give up my doctorate degree work. The only thing that seemed important to me was time spent with my children. I did not want to leave them without a mother.
I believed that God could heal me, so I called a minister who had a gift for healing people. I asked him to pray for me, which he did. When the doctors performed my surgery a few days later, they were dumb-founded. They could not locate a single cancer cell in the tissue they removed! Never believe that God can't do the impossible. And quit wasting your life, believing that you can't achieve your dreams.
(5) It's all about attitude.
Your attitude about challenges, remember, will dictate your outcomes in life. (E + R = O) I adopted the attitude that I refused to die before my children were grown, and I got a far better outcome than most other patients in that melanoma clinic 18 years ago. I am living proof that attitude is everything.
(6) Don't assume you need a college degree.
Jack points out that lifelong learning is essential to our success; but a college degree is not. He cites many examples of people who have become millionaires without ever attending college.
I have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and most of a doctorate degree in education. I also worked on a degree in interior design. I can honestly say that I have learned far more about how to navigate my way through life by reading the Bible and learning from wiser Christians than I ever learned in college.
However, I don't think that I would have the discipline that I do today if I hadn't attended the University of Michigan. Surrounded by people of high intellect, I was challenged daily to push myself beyond my comfortable limits. I think that surrounding ourselves with highly successful people can be one of the most helpful things we can do to make our dreams come true. Whether we find these guides in college or somewhere else is up to each one of us to decide.
(7) What others think about you is none of YOUR business.
I had to read this several times before I got the point. We all spend far too much time worrying about what people think of us. Believe it or not, most people are too busy thinking of themselves to even notice what you're doing or saying.
My favorite quote comes from Dr. Seuss: Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
Today's Challenge
Keep working on your purpose statement and your dreams. Imagine yourself at the pinnacle of success, and act out what you will be doing. Walk onto that imaginary stage and wave to the cheering audience. Or step onto that pitcher's mound and wind up to throw the winning pitch. Believe it, and you can become whatever you dream.
(1) Believing in yourself is an attitude.
Jack Canfield asks us again today to believe that we have what it takes to create our desired results. He teaches us that research proves that anyone can do almost anything. The human brain is capable of learning new skills at any age; and with proper training and practice, people can achieve impossible dreams. He points out that we must begin acting as if we have already achieved our dreams.
I am imagining that I am walking onto the set of a national news broadcast, such as Good Morning America. The audience is applauding, and the TV journalists are smiling with approval at me. Hope Among the Ashes has become one of the most sought-after life success programs, and I have been invited to speak about my latest book and speaking tour. I know that if I can pretend this is happening, it will eventually become reality. I don't have to know how to get from here to there; my brain will fill in the blanks as I go along.
2) The choice of what to believe is up to you.
When we continually hit brick walls, we can do one of two things. Either we can give up, and tell ourselves it's impossible to achieve what we're after; or we can search for another way to make our dreams come true.
Sometimes, we're trying to achieve something, because someone else has wired us to believe it's our destiny. For example, when I was a young girl, my mother enrolled both my sister and me in dancing lessons. My sister could tap dance like Ginger Rogers, never missing a beat. I constantly found myself stumbling around a few beats behind, watching other dancers who seemed to remember the steps far better than I did.
I wish I had figured out way back then that I preferred playing the piano to tap dancing. I would have given up the dance lessons and opted for more time at the piano. Remember, we get to choose what we become.
(3) You have to give up "I Can't."
Several years ago, I learned about the energy field that surrounds each of our bodies. An herbalist showed me a way to tear down someone else's energy field with my hands, until that person could no longer hold out his left arm.
Interestingly, Jack Canfield has shown me another way to look at this. If we ask someone to hold out their left arm to the side and resist us, we generally cannot push their arm downward. If we ask them to just think about something that they can't do, they have a little trouble holding up that arm. If we take it one step further and ask them to speak aloud, "I can't _____________," that arm becomes so weak, we can push it to their side without resistance.
As survivors of verbal abuse, you can begin to see how huge an impact our critics' words had on us. Every time our abusers shouted at us, told us we were incompetent, or said unkind words to us, our energy field got damaged.
I have been visiting a healing touch practitioner, and she observed that my energy field had great dents in it. She explained that this is a common occurrence among people who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). With her help, and with my belief in the dream of getting well, we have seen huge improvements in my energy field.
We can all reclaim our personal power and heal our energy fields. It begins with the belief that we can. The Bible tells us, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil 4:13)
(4) Don't waste your life believing you can't.
What if someone told you today that you have only a few months to live? Would you feel that you'd wasted your life, never taking the risks to become what you wanted to be?
In 1992, I was diagnosed with melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Within days, I was whisked through a large group orientation for people facing this disease. I was told to get my affairs in order and to make sure that I had life insurance before I continued with my treatment. The prognosis for someone with stage four cancer was extremely poor.
Suddenly, the prospect of living only a few months made me realize that I had wasted a great deal of time on pursuits that were really not important to me. I decided to quit my teaching job and give up my doctorate degree work. The only thing that seemed important to me was time spent with my children. I did not want to leave them without a mother.
I believed that God could heal me, so I called a minister who had a gift for healing people. I asked him to pray for me, which he did. When the doctors performed my surgery a few days later, they were dumb-founded. They could not locate a single cancer cell in the tissue they removed! Never believe that God can't do the impossible. And quit wasting your life, believing that you can't achieve your dreams.
(5) It's all about attitude.
Your attitude about challenges, remember, will dictate your outcomes in life. (E + R = O) I adopted the attitude that I refused to die before my children were grown, and I got a far better outcome than most other patients in that melanoma clinic 18 years ago. I am living proof that attitude is everything.
(6) Don't assume you need a college degree.
Jack points out that lifelong learning is essential to our success; but a college degree is not. He cites many examples of people who have become millionaires without ever attending college.
I have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and most of a doctorate degree in education. I also worked on a degree in interior design. I can honestly say that I have learned far more about how to navigate my way through life by reading the Bible and learning from wiser Christians than I ever learned in college.
However, I don't think that I would have the discipline that I do today if I hadn't attended the University of Michigan. Surrounded by people of high intellect, I was challenged daily to push myself beyond my comfortable limits. I think that surrounding ourselves with highly successful people can be one of the most helpful things we can do to make our dreams come true. Whether we find these guides in college or somewhere else is up to each one of us to decide.
(7) What others think about you is none of YOUR business.
I had to read this several times before I got the point. We all spend far too much time worrying about what people think of us. Believe it or not, most people are too busy thinking of themselves to even notice what you're doing or saying.
My favorite quote comes from Dr. Seuss: Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
Today's Challenge
Keep working on your purpose statement and your dreams. Imagine yourself at the pinnacle of success, and act out what you will be doing. Walk onto that imaginary stage and wave to the cheering audience. Or step onto that pitcher's mound and wind up to throw the winning pitch. Believe it, and you can become whatever you dream.
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