I rest in Spirit, and I am comforted

[bluidkiti]

Comfort
I rest in Spirit, and I am comforted.

Life is unpredictable, and sometimes, I may feel frustrated or disappointed by unexpected events. I may feel hurt by the words or actions of others, or fearful due to an accident or illness. Yet through it all, I count on the love and comfort of Spirit.

I am empowered by the spirit of God within, giving me courage and wisdom to brave any hardship. I hone in on what is working well in my life, while facing challenges with strength. I know that even the most difficult situations bring blessings.

I rest in the comfort of Spirit, listening for guidance and finding the answers I seek. I am reassured, soothed, and consoled. Peace fills my soul.
For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Do not fear, I will help you.”—Isaiah 41:13

Daily Word

[MajestyJo]

These are a few simple suggestions for people who are willing to make an experiment. You can discover for yourself the most important and practical thing any human being can ever learn – how to be in touch with God.

All that is needed is the willingness to try it honestly. Every person who has done this consistently and sincerely has found that it really works.

Before you begin, look over these fundamental points. They are true and are based on the experience of thousands of people.

1. God is alive. He always has been and He always will be.
2. God knows everything.
3. God can do anything.
4. God can be everywhere – all at the same time. (These are the
important differences between God and us human beings).
5. God is invisible – we can't see Him or touch Him – but, God is here.
He is with you now. He is beside you. He surrounds you. He fills the room or the whole place where you are right now. He is in you now. He is in your heart.
6. God cares very much for you. He is interested in you. He has a plan for your life. He has an answer for every need and problem you face.
7. God will tell you all that you need to know. He will not always tell you all that you want to know.
8. God will help you do anything that He asks you to do.
9. Anyone can be in touch with God, anywhere and at any time, if the conditions are obeyed.

These are the conditions:

- To be quiet and still
- To listen
- To be honest about every thought that comes
- To test the thoughts to be sure that they come from God
- To obey

So, with these basic elements as a background, here are specific suggestions on How to Listen to God:

1. Take Time
Find some place and time where you can be alone quiet and undisturbed. Most people have found that the early morning is the best time. Have with you some paper and pen or pencil.
2. Relax
Sit in a comfortable position. Consciously relax all your muscles. Be loose. There is no hurry. There needs to be no strain during these minutes. God cannot get through to us if we are tense and anxious about later responsibilities.
3. Tune In
Open your heart to God. Either silently or aloud, just say to God in a natural way that you would like to find His plan for your life – you want His answer to the problem or situation that you are facing just now.
Be definite and specific in your request.
4. Listen
Just be still, quiet, relaxed and open. Let your mind go "loose." Let God do the talking. Thoughts, ideas, and impressions will begin to come into your mind and heart. Be alert and aware and open to every one.
5. Write!
Here is the important key to the whole process. Write down everything that comes into your mind.
Everything. Writing is simply a means of recording so that you can remember later. Don’t sort out or edit your thoughts at this point.
Don't say to yourself:
This thought isn't important; This is just an ordinary thought; This can't be guidance; This isn't nice; This can't be from God; This is just me thinking..., etc.

Write down everything that passes through your mind:
Names of people;
Things to do;
Things to say;
Things that are wrong and need to be made right.
Write down everything:
Good thoughts - bad thoughts;
Comfortable thoughts - uncomfortable thoughts;
"Holy" thoughts - "unholy" thoughts;
Sensible thoughts - "crazy" thoughts.
Be honest! Write down everything! A thought comes quickly, and it escapes even more quickly unless it is captured and put down.
6. Test
When the flow of thoughts slows down, stop. Take a good look at what you have written. Not every thought we have comes from God. So we need to test our thoughts.

Here is where the written record helps us to be able to look at them.

a. Are these thoughts completely honest, pure, unselfish and loving?
b. Are these thoughts in line with our duties to our family – to our community?
c. Are these thoughts in line with our understanding of the teachings found in our spiritual literature?

7 Check
When in doubt and when it is important, what does another person who is living two-way prayer think about this thought or action? More light comes in through two windows than one. Someone else who also wants God's plan for our lives may help us to see more clearly.
Talk over together what you have written. Many people do this. They tell each other what guidance has come.
This is the secret of unity. There are always three sides to every question – your side, my side, and the right side. Guidance shows us which is the right side – not who is right, but what is right.
8. Obey
Carry out the thoughts that have come. You will only be sure of guidance as you go through with it.
A rudder will not guide a boat until the boat is moving. As you obey, very often the results will convince you that you are on the right track.
9. Blocks
What if I don't seem to get any definite thoughts? God's guidance is as freely available as the air we breathe. If I am not receiving thoughts when I listen, the fault is not God's.

Usually it is because there is something I will not do:
- something wrong in my life that I will not face and make right;
- a habit or indulgence I will not give up;
- a person I will not forgive;
- a wrong relationship in my life I will not give up;
- a restitution I will not make;
- something God has already told me to do that I will not obey.

Check these points and be honest. Then try listening again.

10. Mistakes
Suppose I make a mistake and do something in the name of God that isn't right? Of course we make mistakes. We are humans with many faults. However, God will always honor our sincerity.
He will work around and through every honest mistake we make. He will help us make it right. But remember this! Sometimes when we do obey God, someone else may not like it or agree with it.
So when there is opposition, it doesn't always mean you have made a mistake. It can mean that the other person doesn't want to know or to do what is right.
Suppose I fail to do something that I have been told and the opportunity to do it passes?
There is only one thing to do. Put it right with God. Tell Him you're sorry. Ask Him to forgive you, then accept His forgiveness and begin again. God is our Father – He is not an impersonal calculator. He understands
us far better than we do.

11. Results
We never know what swimming is like until we get down into the water and try. We will never know what this is like until we sincerely try it.
Every person who has tried this honestly finds that a wisdom, not their own, comes into their minds and that a Power greater than human power begins to operate in their lives. It is an endless adventure.
There is a way of life, for everyone, everywhere.

Anyone can be in touch with the living God, anywhere, anytime, if we fulfill His conditions:
When man listens, God speaks.
When man obeys, God acts.
This is the law of prayer.
God's plan for this world goes forward through the lives of ordinary people who are willing to be governed by Him.


Written in the late 1930's by John E. Batterson
(A personal friend of Dr. Bob's — co-founder of A.A.)
Distributed by Wally P., Archivist/ Historian/ Author

Continued...

[MajestyJo]

Our search for enlightenment and fulfillment, noble as it may seem, might actually come down to one thing self-centeredness.

It's all well and good to seek spiritual truths, but many of us are looking in the wrong places.

In God's Care - Karen Casey


This really spoke to me. There is always so much discussion about God, is He or isn't He.

I remember my sponsor telling me many years ago, "God can be anything as long as He isn't you."

For so many years I looked on God as this distant being. Out of reach and much too far away to care for me. Instead of looking outside of myself, I had to go within and find the "Goodness" of God within so that I could pass it on to others.

I love the saying, "God is Good. Good is God."



PTSD - Spirituality

Many trauma survivors have a problem with spirituality. In fact, you have one or more of the following issues with spiritual beliefs and a Higher Power concept. Where was God?

What do I believe in now?

How do I reconcile a belief in God with what has happened?

How do I face the reality of my fragile life?

How can I trust God again now that I know bad things can happen to me?

I cannot forgive my perpetrator I am lacking in my faith. Why???

How can I believe in a Higher Power when there is evil and cruelty in the world?

How does God view suffering in the world?

What is the meaning of what happened?

I don’t feel safe anywhere.

My life no longer feels predictable I am angry with God, is He angry with me?

I feel like God abandoned me.

I feel betrayed by God.

What is my relationship to God now?

I feel ashamed; God wouldn’t want me anymore.

I feel dirty; so, I cannot get close to God.

I feel distanced from the community now that this happened.

No one will ever understand.

Am I at fault?

I feel so powerlessness.

What do I believe in now?

How do I make sense out of what happened?

I no longer understand the meaning of life.

Where is there value in my suffering?

My perpetrator was never punished, what now?

I don’t feel like I belong anywhere anymore. Goodness doesn’t protect anyone.

How can I believe in a loving, all-powerful God after what happened?

How do I resolve my feelings of guilt with a faith in a Higher Power?

I still feel God abandoned me.

It is difficult to think of God as a loving Father after what my own father did to me.

These are very deep questions. You have a right to this difficult struggle with ideas related to faith and belief in God. Your struggle doesn’t prevent you from working a 12-step program
of recovery. In fact, being in this struggle is one aspect of working a 12-step program of recovery on your PTSD.

All that is required to work this aspect of a 12-step program is a willingness to face these issues. You do not have to believe in God to start working a program of recovery. What is needed is an open mind and a resolve to work through the spiritual damage done to every trauma survivor. Spiritual recovery from trauma comes when you make your peace with a belief in a higher power even though this awful trauma happened to you.

www.mental-health-today.com/ptsd/12step.htm

Continued...

[MajestyJo]

When little things would irk me, and I grow
Impatient with my dear ones, make me know
How in a moment joy can take its flight
And happiness be quenched in endless night.
Keep this thought with me all the livelong day
That I may guard the harsh words I might say
When I would fret and grumble, fiery hot,
At trifles that tomorrow are forgot -
Let me remember, Lord, how it would be
If these, my loved ones, were not with me.

Author Unknown
__________________

Principles For Better Living

Keep it simple.
Stop trying to please everybody.
Start pleasing yourself.
Cultivate gratitude.
Carve out an hour a day for solitude.
Don't be afraid of your passion.
Cherish your dreams.
Express love every day.
Keep your house picked up.
Don't over schedule.
Strive for realistic deadlines.
Never make a promise you can't keep.
Allow an extra half hour for everything you do.
Create quiet surroundings at home and at work.
Go to bed at nine o'clock twice a week.
Always carry something interesting to read.
Breathe -deeply and often.
Move -walk, dance, run, find a sport you enjoy.
Drink pure spring water. Lots of it.
Eat only when you are hungry.
It it's not delicious, don't eat it.
Be instead of do.
Set aside one day a week for rest and renewal.
Laugh more often.
Luxuriate in your senses.
Always opt for comfort.
Let Mother Nature nurture.
Don't answer the telephone during dinner.
Stay away from negative people.
Don't squander precious resources: time, creative energy, emotion.
Nurture friendships.
Approach problems as challenges.
Honor your aspirations.
Set achievable goals.
Surrender expectations.
Savor beauty.
Create boundaries.
Don't worry, be happy.
Remember: happiness is a living emotion.
Care for your soul.
Search for your authentic self until you find him/her.
Begin and end each day with prayer, meditation, or reflection.

Author Unknown

Some things I posted on another site in 2012

[MajestyJo]

I was once asked, how do you find the Spiritual Solution?

I think it is a personal one. For me it has been a lot of meditation, a lot of open mindedness and spending time with me and God. I like to say, God is as He/She/It reveals themselves to me.

I went to AA and did a lot of service over the years. Step 11 has been a enlightening experience for me. It was a foundation that I feel that has raised me up to a level where I am comfortable with myself, I have been granted a lot of awareness. (or should I say I can come to such a decision if my acceptance of my health in today is there) It is my own truth, yet it isn't the insanity of when I was using. They did promise me that I would recover from that
hopeless state of mind and body. That almost left me when my health started to deteriorate.

There have been a lot of health issues and doctors. All I have been able to do is live in today. I have applied the 12 Steps to my pain as well as my disease of addiction. They didn't promise me that life would get better, all they promised was that I would.

I have gone to Al-Anon for 20 years and have gone when needed to AA, ACoA, NA, CA and counseling to deal with issues as they came up. Counseling for anger, self-esteem, sexual assault, and childhood issues.

I did ten years of intense service and without that, I don't think I
would have what I have today. I found myself reflected in the
people around me. I lived my life through other people for years.
In today, when I do that, I feel that I am using. My recovery is
centered with God, and I am not self-centered like I was when I was using, although the defect can raise it's ugly head on occasion, yet I am learning to practice self-care, self-worth, self-respect, self-esteem, etc. I call it getting to know the Higher Self. Spirituality is about giving and sharing with others. Getting out of myself to help others. I am not the great I am, and yet without me, I have nothing. I can't give away what I don't have. I need that spiritual food and the emotional balance and that is why I need to continue to work my program, one day at a time.

When I got honest, I came to realize that God didn't forsake me, I was the one who went away. Yet my childhood religious upbringing didn't stop me from becoming an alcoholic/addict. I had to make God personal. Today God is a spiritual connection within me linked to the power and glory of God outside of me.

One of the blessing in recovery was to find a church with members who were spiritual in nature. They greeted you at the door, they had a dinner to invite you to meet the other members, and the minister's message I could apply the principles of his message and learned to apply them to my life.

For me, spirituality is identifying God in all things and sharing it with others.

The Bible says we must become as little children. We need to learn to trust. We need to learn to crawl before we can walk.