Abundance Is Our Birthright

I am so blessed and grateful to be sitting here in my home watching the sunrise on Lake Murray. It's Sunday and a bit chilly this October morning. Sundays are special in several ways. They represent a fresh start on a new week. They also offer an opportunity for me to join good friends and fellow Christians in Sunday School and worship services at Chapin United Methodist Church. In worhip, I thank my creator for the abundance of blessings we enjoy.

Over the years as we have lived in different places, Ed and I have worshipped at different churches. They have each blessed us in a special way and taught us lessons about God, life, and ourselves. Regardless of the pastor or the message, however, the recurring theme has been how abundantly blessed we are. As a result of being blessed, our duty is therefore to be a blessing to others.

As I read the story of the great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Genesis, I realize that abundance was their birthright. These men and their families had challenges to be sure. Sometimes they made wise choices and sometimes not. Regardless, God continued to bless them and stay true to his covenant promise to bless them and make them as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sand on the shore.

Here we are, four thousand years later, and these blessings continue from one generation to the next. Like the patriarchs, we have challenges in life. And often our challenges are similar to theirs. As families we deal with sibling rivalry, jealousy, alienation, forgiveness, and reconciliation. As nations, we deal with war, peace treaties, immigration, and trade agreements.

The beauty of all of this is that the same God who made a covenant with Abraham seeks to make one with us. We may think we live in a different time with all our technology and so we do. But all we experience today was made possible by the one God who set everything in motion by His powerfully spoken word.

As we approach this Sunday with all of its abundance, let's take the time to recognize and offer thanks to the creator who makes it all possible. Abundance is our birthright. Our grateful stewardship of this abundance is our response. We have been freely given so that now we can freely give.

May you enjoy all the abundance, peace, and joy that you were created to experience.

Sandra Hayes
Prosperity, South Carolina

Abundance Can Only Come From A Place Of Positive Energy

In our Beyond Freedom Home Study Course, there is a section entitled Positive and Negative energy. Last night I was blessed to be a part of a weekly tele-conference devoted to sharing personal insights and wins of people who are working through this course. Some of us have done this course multiple times and for others it is their first time throught it. As I listened to one of the developers of the course, Shane Krider, describe his own thoughts and experiences with positive and negative energy, I had a sudden revelation which totally related this to the book of Genesis in the Old Testament.

The idea of positive and negative energy is very basic. We all have experienced positive and negative in ourselves and others at various times. When we describe the characteristics of each, it becomes evident that positive characteristics energize us, excite us, and make us smile, while negative characteristics cause us to sigh, withdraw, and maybe even cry.

Shane said that whether we are displaying positive or negative energy represents what is in our hearts. When we are positive, the energy that is coming from our hearts is really purt love. This very idea is at the essence of creation itself. The Garden of Eden, which represents the beginning of human life, was created out of love and was totally focused on love. Abundance was everywhere - the created were in positive relationship with each other and with their creator. Humans loved God, their creator, they loved each other, and they loved themselves. This is perfection at its finest. There is harmony, happiness, and endless possibility.

I would like to think that the story now ends with, "and they lived happily ever after." If that were the case, we wouldn't even need a personal development course to help us erase the garbage that has crept into our lives via negative energy. When did this start? Sadly, it began right after the creation of all that is good and holy as the polar oppostite of positive, which is negative. In the Genesis story, God simply warned Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for if they ate this fruit, they would die. They, like us, have free will, and we all know the rest of that story. It didn't end with Adam and Eve, however. Everyday, we have the choice as to which kind of fruit we will eat. Fruit from the tree of life or fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Our creator, God, is love, light and life. His polar opposite, best-known as Satan or the devil, represents hate, darkness and death. To choose one is to reject the other. Why would anyone choose the latter? Anytime we doubt the existence of our loving creator, we give power to his polar opposite, which represents negative energy. Since I do have a choice, known as free will, I choose to fill my senses, and my mind and heart with positive energy. By doing this I too become a source of positive energy that gives life, love and light in a world that otherwise knows only death, hate and darkness.

Today I am so grateful to know that I am a unique person who was created in the very image of God Almighty. This means I am a reflection of Him who is love, light, and life. I am also a reflection of His creative power that will live for all eternity. Sometimes this is too much for my conscious brain to comprehend. However, my subconscious mind is totally in harmony with this and enables me to imagine, create, and love what is created. I know without a doubt that in this world so full of possibility and abundance, every thought I have and every action I take matters.