1960 HOLLAND OPEN CLASS

TAPE 341 SIDE 1

UNDERSTANDING GOD AND PRAYER

By Joel Goldsmith

Part 4 of 6

So it is, this thing of saying grace, “Thank you, God, for what you have on my table,” what about all our neighbors’ tables? Is that no concern of ours? “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. We should learn to say grace with very meal, but let that be a praise and a gratitude that the crops are in God’s hand, and the things of earth are in God’s hand, and because they are in God’s hand, they’re universal, impersonal, impartial, and they are meant for all men. And if all men do not have them, that’s their demonstration, or lack of it. Because it is said that if you abide in the Word and let the Word abide in you, you will bear fruit richly. But if you do not abide in the Word and you do not let the Word abide in you, you will be as a branch of a tree that is cut off and withereth.

So you will discover that if you abide in this Word of prayer, if you abide in this Word of God, if you understand God to be Love and to be Life, if you are praising God, thanking God for universal good and for its ever availability, you will bear fruit richly. The very moment you try to personalize God and siphon Him down into your garden, you shut yourself off, you become as a branch of a tree that is cut off and withereth.

The whole secret of life lies in understanding God aright, then in understanding prayer aright. Prayer must never be selfish. Prayer must never be a going to God to do “me” a favor, because in the very instant that I am seeking it, I am certainly neglecting my neighbor, and desiring something for myself without any thought of my neighbor. And this is not loving thy neighbor as thyself.

That is why it astonishes many people, even many who believe they know the Bible, when they are reminded of the fact that the Master said, “It profiteth you nothing to pray for your friends, you must pray for your enemies,” and then He tells you why, “In order that you may be the Son of God.” Think on that and you will know where our mistakes have been. We have prayed for our friends and for our allies and for our families, and mighty little praying for the enemy and for the stranger without the gate. And yet it profiteth you nothing to pray for your friends.

In other words, prayer, in order to be the prayer of a Son of God, must be the recognition of God as equally your Father and mine, the Father of the enemy and the Father of the friend. And we must pray for our enemy the same as the Master prayed for Judas Iscariot, not to condone their offense but, “Father, forgive them, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

Have you ever had the experience of feeling that you had done something wrong for which perhaps you were either being punished or from which you couldn’t get your peace? Have you ever had an experience whereby you said to yourself, “If only I could be forgiven” or “If I could only forgive myself.” If you have had that experience, you will know exactly what it means to pray for your enemy because there isn’t an individual under the canopy who has not, through omission or commission, done something or left something undone that should not have been so.

And just think what it would mean if we, those of us who are in this room, those of us who have something to regret in life, something for which we are sorry, something we know we should not have done, think, if in this moment we could be assured, “My sins are forgiven me.” Think of it, if we could have the full and complete recognition, “There are no more offenses charged against me, I am free, I am completely forgiven.” Why, do you know there wouldn’t be a disease within a hundred miles of our bodies the very moment that we would realize that every sin of omission or commission has been completely erased from consciousness.

And this I can say to you, forgive those who wrong you, forgive those who have persecuted you, or your race or your nation. Forgive and ask God’s forgiveness, knowing that whatever has been done has been done through ignorance, and you will fulfill the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our debts as,” in proportion as, “we forgive our debtors.” Stop and think how many times you have put a rope around your own neck in praying that very prayer. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” and then not forgiving them, and finding ourselves not forgiven. Then you will know why that you only become a Child of God when you start releasing everyone on earth from their sins, from their offenses. The moment that you begin that, you, yourself, are released.

Actually, there is a mystical reason for it, one that is never taught in any of the religions except the mystical religions, and that is this. There is only one Self, God is the Self of every individual because there is only one Life and there is only one Mind, there is only one Soul. Therefore, God is the Self of every individual, and that means that I am you and you are me, for we are One. You are in me and I am in you and we are in God, and therefore, what I do to you, I do unto myself. What I do of good unto you, I have done good unto myself. The bread that I have cast on the water comes back to me. The evil that I do to you, or the good that I leave undone unto you, is the good that never reaches me.  Because I am in you, and you are in me, and we are one in God!

End Part 4