Friday 8 February 2008

Meditate on this today...

Phil 2:13 For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Does this verse confuse you a little? Well, it certainly confused me for a while. I had to ask myself, "What is that 'to will' bit doing in there?" The word "both" seemed to indicate that the writer saw the concepts of "will" and "Work" as being mutually exclusive. Does God have to force Himself through His "Will" to do this unpleasent thing called "Work"? Does He get through it rather like we hurry through our working days so that we can get into our sporting togs and have some fun (good pleasure) hitting a ball around?

I battled with this for a while but then I discovered that the key to understanding that text lies in the translation of the word "will".

In Greek this was translated as θέλω, pronounced "thel'-o". Now here is the fascinating thing: that word also means "to wish, to delight in, love". Let's do a little experiment here now: replace the word "will" in the text with the word "love", like this:

For it is God who works in you, both to LOVE (you) and to work for his good pleasure.

Now the whole thing looks different! The text is also now saying that it is God's good pleasure to Love us. "He Delights in" working through us to bring Spirit into manifestation on the material plane. It is a challenging task and God needs us to complete this "job", this "work".

But I still had one more problem. That word word "pleasure" somehow sounded a little frivolous. I asked myself, is God just having fun with us? Is it His "good pleasure" to impose his "will" on us? Look around you at all the pain and suffering and hardship (and heart break) in the world. Is God striking us with so many horrible things just so that He can have some fun ("pleasure") teaching us to be better people?

Let's look a little more closely at what the writer of the letter to the Philippians might actually have been saying before he got translated into English. The word "pleasure" was translated as 'εὐδοκία,' pronounced "yoo-dok-ee'-ah". And here is the "AHA!" moment: That word 'εὐδοκία' also means "purpose"!

Wow! Suddenly, it's chrystal clear: It is God who works in you, both to LOVE (you) and to work for his good purpose. God has a good purpose in mind for us. By implication it is calling on us to "Let go and let God". His Good Purpose is to manifest Love in your life. His good purpose to make your cup run over with all the good things that it is your Father's good pleasure to pour good into your life.

For it is God who works in you, both to LOVE (you) and to work for his good PURPOSE.

God does not give sparingly. We only receive his Goodness sparingly because we don't open our hands wide enough to receive what He is waiting to give us. Our hands are closed into fists by worry, fear, hate, envy and most of all... because a fist cannot let go until it opens, we are so grasping that we do not pass God's gifts on to other people. Romans 13:10 says, "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law". But instead, we are closed systems and Spirit cannot express through us.

Like water in a river flowing past rocks in mid stream, it leaves us isolated, lonely and separated from all the goodness and the healing power of the water that keeps on flowing past us. We block the flow of Spirit through us so that it cannot bless us with God's Great Goodness. If we want to receive, we must also give! The Bhagavad-Gita says, "Give me your whole heart. Love and adore Me, worship Me always and you will find Me. This is my promise - Who loves you dearly."

So now you know what you have to do. Don't delay. Discipline your mind to reject negative thoughts and feelings immediately. Turn to the positive. Turn to Love. Work with God. Do it today and change your life around!

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