Praise the Lord.
Let’s get right to it.
Ever wonder why some people are always easy to get along with, and others have “Danger, Do Not Enter” signs all across their faces. Or why some seem NEVER to smile or have anything nice to say about anybody. Or why some people NEVER accept responsibility for what’s jacked up in their own adult lives and want to always find ways to blame others.
It’s quite simple if you just think about it for a moment. They always seem to say, “Back in the day, so and so did such and such and that is why I am the way I am today.”
Well, while that could very well have been where the seed was planted and took root, it’s not the reason some 20, 30 or even 50 years later down the road, you still have not dealt with it. It’s also not an excuse that to this day, whenever you see that reason, it brings back those feelings and imprisons your mind, body and soul to the extent that you will never be free to live the life you feel you deserved.
This happens to be one of the main reasons “us” never fully matures to the level spiritually that God needs us to be so that He can use us to fulfill His divine purpose in our lives. There is too much resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, and deep-seated dislike or even hatred for whomever or whatever caused it.
I have witnessed such folks, and all I can do is pray for them. Until they acknowledge that there’s an issue, they will die believing they were never given a chance to blossom to full maturity.
More than 20 years ago, it was suggested that I read a book by an author that seemed to address this and provided a solution. Just a few pages were so eye-opening and revolutionary that I was compelled to go back time and time again.
The delusion of time
Here is the bottom line, end the delusion of time. To be identified in your mind is to be trapped in a time warp, a desire to live only through memory and in the future. This will create an endless preoccupation with the past and future, and you’ll be unwilling to acknowledge the present.
You will remain that way simply because the past gives you an identity, and the future holds the promise of salvation or fulfillment in whatever; however, both are illusions.
The more you focus on the past and the future you’ll miss out on the most important of them all, the present or the now.
It’s the most important because it is the ONLY thing. Life is and will always be in the NOW. It’s the only one that you are living in and the only one you can control. The past is etched in stone and unchangeable, and the future is unwritten with the potential to happen with no certainty of its outcome.
You have to get out of your mind and focus on what’s happening right before you because it’s the only one you have complete control of and can determine its outcome.
All problems are illusions of the mind
Just for a moment, focus, and think about what’s happening right now in front of you. Now, what problems do you currently have? The answer should have been none because it’s impossible to focus 100 percent on the now and a problem exists.
The reason you believe that there are problems is that your mind unconsciously loves conflict because, for some strange reason, it gives you identity and purpose. While this is normal for most folks, it’s also insane.
Identifying a problem exists means that you are dwelling on something mentally without ever attempting to take action now to address and resolve it. Instead, you choose to make it apart of you and welcome it into your life.
You become consumed and overtaken with all the cares and issues in your life that you forget that you are living in the now. You never realize that all the while you could erase them all by simply living in the NOW.
What’s more damaging is that you are attempting to carry all 101 things you need to do tomorrow instead of the one thing you can do NOW. That one thing could very well eliminate the other 100, but you will never know that because of your current state of delusion.
Problems you allow into your life bring about pain and attached with them are symptoms that affect your body collectively and eventually tear you down and can ultimately take you out.
When you look at it from that perspective, it appears that it would be a simple, easy choice — choose to live and choose to be healthy. Unfortunately, because Satan knows this and works 25/8 to ensure you never realize that the option is that simple, he will pollute your thoughts to the point that you remain in a state of confusion, delusion and misery.
This is followed by negativity, resentment, malice and graduates to even hatred over something that only exists in your unconscious mind. All because you decided not to live for today, in the NOW!
I see this almost daily and never really came to this concrete, failproof method of dealing with our issues until I went back and looked this over again.
I, too, have fallen victim to this but could not put into words how I came out of it and just decided to stop making excuses for my shortcomings and mistakes and decided to take control of my life.
I willed what I would become and asked the Lord to help me in all my endeavors: marriage, fatherhood, spirituality, etc. Low and behold, I can NOW say I have a winning formula, and it can be used by anyone that has the same beliefs I have and are trusting in the same Creator, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I can’t guarantee success outside of that. Also, you must know that it requires more than just a belief. Hope is the goal setter, believing is the motivator, but most important, FAITH is the activator. Without action, you will be destined to fail time and time again, and your life will remain in that vicious loop of failure and disappointment, never to be broken until you are broken.
Live for today; live in the NOW and change your life for the better. Watch God take you to places you could only have dreamed.
And the church said…
Till next week,
Blessings Bishop Dr. Robert L. Harrison, Jr., Ph.D., DD
