Partnering with God in Tough Times

As a result of the recent financial crisis, a friend of mine told me he felt he'd lost control of his life. To me, the current challenges make it clear that none of us have control of the world. But what we can control is how we choose to respond.

Although my friend lost money, I saw that he could still choose to take every opportunity in his life to experience joy. He could still choose to be open to abundance and prosperity. Rather than giving up, I suggested he take action to protect and strengthen himself through these challenging times. And I reminded him he's not alone.

"You have a partner in God," I told him. "A partner in whom you can trust completely all the things that go on in the world."

I'm not suggesting there will be no more storms, droughts or blizzards. Partnering with God doesn't guarantee I won't lose money or have a health challenge. We all have challenges to overcome and from which to learn. However, through my trust in God, I choose to respond to each challenge as an opportunity for learning to become a better person and contributing to a better world.

In my partnership with God, I have an agreement just like I have an agreement in any other partnership. I don't control my other partners nor do I control how anyone chooses to be a partner with me. I don't control them nor the partnership, just as I don't control God. All I can do is make the best choices for myself. So I choose to strive towards perfection and then let go of control. I call it "Letting go and letting God."

Some years ago, I chose to take a vow of poverty and focus my life on being of service. I gave up my material concerns as I had known them. I no longer owned anything. I didn't have all kinds of things that a lot of people have. I didn't have any income or pay taxes. I didn't have a bank account.

During that time, I had many opportunities to learn about what really matters to me. I learned about true abundance and prosperity which allowed me to live a very rich fulfilling life. I found the freedom that comes from not being attached to things through the perception of personal ownership. I found deeper appreciation for what is present in each moment and circumstance in a way that felt as if I was owning everything.

Eventually, I chose to let go of my vow of poverty. In the period since that time, I've also lived a very rich, fulfilling life. My life now has many more material concerns than it had years ago. At times, I find the greater personal material concerns weigh upon my sense of freedom. It's somewhat like having been in a sheltered lifestyle and then re-entering a life with many more concerns to take my attention away from the grand experience that freedom from material concerns brings.

My ability to experience prosperity and joy are more about my having the willingness to choose how I respond in appreciation of what is present in each situation. I have found that when I choose to respond with trust in God, I am partnering with the one who is in control and leading through learning rather than obtaining anything material.

God, the Creator that created me, is within me. I still am who I am, regardless of my financial situation. God is still my partner. Through my partnership with God, I can experience richness, abundance and fulfillment. It's up to me to choose, and to then let go and let God.

Comments

[Anne Naylor - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for this timely reminder for me. I sometimes forget that God is in all things, big and small. When I remember to call upon God when doing "small" things like going through my bank statements, I do so with greater peace and trust.

In fact, there are many ways I can partner with God. Like what is God up to? How can I offer my support to His work? I get that He is loving a lot of people and situations. I can help with that.

I wonder what God would like of me as His partner? Maybe I shall ask that question - and see what shows up....

God bless you, John.

With love,
Anne

[dctackett]

I love that you call upon your cosmic male parent when going through your bank statements, so you can do it with greater peace and trust... lord knows I could use some peace and trust when going through mine.

"What is God up to?"... he's kickin' back with a brew watching his own reality TV.

"I wonder what God would like of me as His partner?"... maybe he just want's you to be more entertaining.

God bless you, Anne.

[cayuse]

He is all the energy an Cosmic Consiousness that cannot be created or distroyed. He is the TV itself. You are the bubble you can become the sea itself

[jillsond]

Sounds like you went through a 12 step program.

[dctackett]

Indeed, a government funded, Faith-Based program.

[cayuse]

I have always trusted in nature. "Realize the world is unfolding as it should", "Take no thought for tomorrow"

Later I studied Yoga and the simple life you talk about. But I transcended this into right action of living without the attachment to materialism, like yourself, the result is I live well.

But what ever gifts come my way or go away I am prepared to accept. Is that not the way to prepared to leave the body for the SPIRIT that is only light and not body. "Be in the world, but not of it" How much better it must be not to feed, cloth, house and drag this body around. How blessed we are!

[dctackett]

If it's such a hassle to feed, cloth, house and drag this body around, why keep doing it? There's a quick solution to your problems.

If you don't want to be "of the world"... then why do you have a body that's "of the world"?... maybe you should just get out of this world and head back to the spirit world.

[cayuse]

Because the trip you are on you did not create. I once backed of of meditation because I did not want to leave family and a new born son

I now know that through communion with Cosmic Consciouness is how to "be in the world", to do you purpose on earht with enlightenment, realizing the material world eventually dies, but you live in eternity "but not of the world"

[ianrthorpe]

You really don't understand the God concept do you? Which God do you believe in, God (which is simply old English for "good" (and is still the word for good in Scandinavian languages has become a generic name for your deity of choice. So do you believe in and partner with Jah aka El, The Ancient Of Days (he's not much of a partner, he only ever said two words, "I am" from which the allegorical creation of humans should be clear. Or is your partner Mazda (The Lights) a begnin god of logic and reason, or Baal (The Lord) who is not the evil polytheism of the Old Testament but the helper and protector of humans. It could be Ishtar, the sacred feminine, the threefold goddess of North European pagans or Hermes Trismegistos, the God who most closely resembles Jesus.

Or it could be the anient Irish Great Father Of All Things, Dagda which translates into modern English as The Good so he is the only god whose name is actually God.

I think you need to do a little more background reading before you start offering advice.

http://www­,greenteet­hmm.com/ph­ilosophmen­u.html

[dctackett]

don't you get it, it's THE god... (Sarcasm).. walk with him... let him into your heart... don't turn your back on him.

[hu.man]

Think of the largest number you can envision and then multiply that by itself then do that one more time and so on... then you can somewhat begin to understand the concept of God which is a useless exercise because you can go on with this exercise ad infinitum. If you can define God within an intellectual exercise then you have a limited concept of God.

Through the modern science of astronomy, we are just beginning to understand the incomprehensible magnitude of this universe we live in. And if you are inclined toward mysticism, then you have a notion that there are many universes within the creation. The best definition that I know of is just what is offered here which is God the Creator of All.

[cayuse]

The Western Indian's GOD OLSEN, the one GOD is the GOD of Christ, Buddha, Kristna, Mohammad and Moses. They all teach the same as you in he sense of good, but what you have not learned yet, is the limitation of the mind. The spirit consciousness in the body is traped by the ego self must transend to SPIRIT that lives beyond the body. You must learn the excercises that develop the intuition and knowledge to transcend from a beleive system to the KNOWING by experience.

Law of Nature and Nature's GOD expresses the greatist intellect about the fact that science will never know how life began or why it began. But it does know nature existed, does exists and will exit long after man earth or life in his body. Your consciousness is made up of the light of all the electrons within your body. They are but the bubble of light in the light of GOD the ocean of energy that cannot be created or destroyed.

[wondering]

I love this stuff !

I used to read science fiction and fantasy, but now I just read Huffpo comments.

[dctackett]

Wow... you've got it all worked out, don't you?...

I'm surprised at how well you know this "GOD" and what great insight you have into "SPIRIT"...

Surely, you are not repeating what you are picking up from others... are you taking disciples?

[mikie63]

What if I do not believe in any god? I know that you believe that I have nothing better to look forward to than Hell, but Hey, you can have your beliefs too. When an elderly woman said to me after my loving wife's funeral that "it was God's will" , I of course said nothing to her, but I sure wanted to. I suppose that you also believe that my wife's suffering from cancer before she died was really what your god wanted to happen; well it did! Since your god is so all powerful and all knowing, he must want everyone who dies to suffer first. Now that is a loving god, right?

[ayc]

I'm sorry someone tried to comfort you with those inane words. And I am sorry your wife died from cancer. That sucks.

[jamie461]

I believe in God, but I don't believe in a location called "hell." Nor do I think you are going to be shipped off to that location some day. What that elderly woman said to you at your wife's funeral -- while probably well-intentioned on her part -- was dumb. People say dumb things to the grieving because they don't know what to say, for the most part. I have never believed it is God's will for us to suffer. Suffering is part of the human condition for all of us, in some form. Having faith doesn't prevent suffering -- but it helps us to find the strength to endure and find joy again.

I'm a big fan of C.S. Lewis, whose spiritual journey took him from atheism to Christianity. He, too, watched his beloved wife suffer and die from cancer. During that time, he was quoted saying about the necessity of prayer..."I pray because I can't help it. It doesn't change God, it changes me." I believe that God gave us free will, to choose our own path, and that includes a decision to let Him into our lives or not. From my personal perspective, having Him walk beside me makes life richer and more manageable.

[dctackett]

how does having an invisible friend "walk beside" you make your life richer and more manageable?