Forgiveness

Jesus taught Love God and Love your neighbour as yourself. The Lord's Prayer says "Forgive me as I forgive them."

Emmett Fox teaches that to have a resentment is to hold the delinquent prisoner. The trouble with having a prisoner is that it automatically makes you a jailer. Therefore you and your prisoner are in jail. To set yourself free he says to sit quietly, read a Bible passage to help centre oneself, then tell God I forgive this person by name. He goes on to say that once you've forgiven the person ask God to set you free from the resentment and the person.

There are people who are delinquents in my life. These people have attacked me, thieves, liars, false accusers, and their supporting institutions, and government who bites the hands that feeds taking my tax dollars to hurt me, they're all fairly easy. I don't want the psychopaths and sociopaths and corrupt government institutions in my life so I can ask God to free me from them. The trouble is I've little resentments about even those people I dearly love. I don't want to be free of them. I want to be less sensitive and less judgemental and more protective and discerning.

Right now, in this day, I'm blessed. I've prayed as Emmett Fox taught. We're all God's children. We're all interconnected. We're all facets of God. The world is a reflection of my self in some ways and vice versa. The answer is always love.

Fox teaches that when that person or institution comes to mind again we just bless them. We don't need to keep forgiving them over and over and going through a formal ritual. Just 'pray for your enemies', bless them and hope that they stay away and you don't attract any more like them.

Jesus says we should clean our house of demons and not let even one back in because they bring their friends and next thing your house is no longer a temple of God.  That goes for 'peace of mind' too.  Those who meditate call the mind 'monkey mind' because it's all over the place.

I have so much to learn and the practice is truly onerous. I remember Willie Gutowski, the minister and psychiatrist, saying that the mind is like a radio and that we should keep it tuned on the God Channel. He joked with me saying, maybe I should use both hands. At that time I'd bought a really cheap truck radio. Whenever I hit a bump, like train tracks, it would suddenly skip from the gospel channel to heavy metal. I'd be forever putting it back on the channel I wanted, whatever that was.  The synchronicity of his message and my having that radio really struck home.

Today I'm still trying to keep my mind on the God channel, staying positive, using the up elevator. It's like riding my Harley motorcycle though . I dare not lose focus or I end up in the ditch.

All those who have hurt me knowingly and unknowingly, I forgive. All those I've hurt knowingly or unknowingly, I  ask that you forgive me.  May we all be released from prison. I don't want to be a prisoner or a jailor. I want to be joyous and free as God would want me.  Those I love and those who love me, I ask God that I might learn to love and be love more humbly and more fully.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad