Let us today be neither arrogant nor falsely humble. We have gone beyond
such foolishness. We cannot judge ourselves, nor need we do so. These are
but attempts to hold decision off, and to delay commitment to our
function. It is not our part to judge our worth, nor can we know what
role is best for us; what we can do within a larger plan we cannot see
in its entirety. Our part is cast in Heaven, not in hell. And what we
think is weakness can be strength; what we believe to be our strength is
often arrogance.
Whatever your appointed role may be it was selected by the Voice of God,
Whose function is to speak for you as well. Seeing your strengths
exactly as they are, and equally aware of where they can be best
applied, for what, to whom and when, He chooses and accepts your part
for you. He does not work without your own consent. But He is not
deceived in what you are, and listens only to His Voice in you.
It is through His ability to hear One Voice Which is His Own that you
become aware at last there is One Voice in you. And that One Voice
appoints your function, and relays it to you, giving you the strength to
understand it, do what it entails, and to succeed in everything you do
that is related to it. God has joined His Son in this, and thus His Son
becomes His messenger of unity with Him.
It is this joining, through the Voice of God, of Father and of Son, that
sets apart salvation from the world. It is this Voice Which speaks of
laws the world does not obey; Which promises salvation from all sin,
with guilt abolished in the mind that God created sinless. Now this mind
becomes aware again of Who created it, and of His lasting union with
itself. So is its Self the one Reality in Which its will and That of God
are joined.
A messenger does not elect to make the message he delivers. Nor does he
question the right of him who does, nor ask why he has chosen those who
will receive the message that he brings. It is enough that he accept it,
bring it to the ones for which it was appointed, and fulfill his role in
its delivery. If he insists on judging
what the messages should be, or what their purpose is, or where they
should be carried, he is failing to perform his proper part as bringer
of the Word.
There is one major difference in the role of Heaven’s messengers which
sets them off from those the world appoints. The messages which they
deliver are intended first for them. And it is only as they can accept
them for themselves that they become able to bring them further, and to
give them everywhere that they were meant to be. Like earthly
messengers, they did not write the messages they bear, but they become
their first receivers in the truest sense, receiving to prepare
themselves to give.
An earthly messenger fulfills his role by giving all the messages away.
The messengers of God perform their part by their acceptance of His
messages as for themselves, and show they understand the messages by
giving them away. They choose no roles that are not given them by His
authority. And so they gain by every message which they give away.
Would you receive the messages of God? For thus do you become His
messengers. You are appointed now. And yet you wait to give the messages
you have received, and so you do not know that they are yours, and do
not recognize them. No-one can receive and understand he has received
until he gives. For in the giving is his own acceptance of what he
received.
You who are now the messengers of God receive His messages, for that is
part of your appointed role. He has not failed to offer what you need,
nor has it been left unaccepted. Yet another part of your appointed task
is yet to be accomplished. He Who has received for you the messages of
God would have them received by you as well. For thus do you identify
with Him and claim your own.
It is this joining that we undertake to recognize today. But we will not
seek to keep our minds apart from Him Who speaks for us, for it is but
our voice we hear as we attend Him. He alone can speak to us and for us,
joining in One Voice the getting and the giving of God’s Word; the
giving and receiving of His Will.
We practice giving Him what He would have that we may recognize His
gifts to us. He needs our voice that He may speak through us. He needs
our hands to hold His messages, and carry
them to those He appoints. He needs our feet to bring us where He wills,
that those who wait in misery may be at last delivered. And He needs our
will united with His Own, that we may be the true receivers of the gifts
He gives.
Let us but learn this lesson for today: we will not recognize what we
receive until we give it. You have heard this said a hundred ways, and
yet belief is lacking still. But this is sure; until belief is given it,
you will receive a thousand miracles and then receive a thousand more,
but will not know that God Himself has left no gift beyond what you
already have; nor has denied the tiniest of blessings to His Son. What
can this mean to you until you have identified with him and with his
own?
Our lesson for today is stated thus:
“I am among the ministers of God,
And I am grateful that I have the
means By which to recognize that I am free.”
The world recedes as we light up our minds, and realize these holy words
are true. They are the message sent to us today from our Creator. Now we
demonstrate how they have changed our minds about ourselves and what our
function is. For as we prove that we accept no will we do not share, our
many gifts from our Creator will spring to our sight and leap into our
hands, and we recognize what we received.