dailydatewithgod

God moves in and through everything. The spirit of love courses through all things.  The energy of love is what guides the spirit.  We live in human bodies and move about through them.  Coordinating the vision and strength of the spirit to guide our minds and our bodies  brings us to a place of coherence.  From this place of balance we can utilize the tools of our mind for the greatest good. It is like making room for God as the conductor so our instruments showcase the best of existence and dazzle the world.  We bring in Spirit through our breath.  We connect with Spirit by pausing and asking God to be with us in the moment we are in.

My prayer for us is the willingness to utilize the gift of Spirit by paying attention to our breath today.

If God can connect with us in spirit  through our breath, what can we connect to in ourselves through our breath today?  Share in the comments.

God begins all things.  We carry on God’s beginnings in this world. God created us out of love to be love and to share love.  When we remember who we are we have the courage to carry on what God has begun in us.  We continue to do the creation of love in our lives as best fits our lives.  We are not all called to be a Mother Teresa or a Martin Luther King, jr., or a Dorothy Day, or Nelson Mandela.  We are called to be our best selves (ones who are in tune with the love at our core) and show up to share it in the life we are in. This is why comparison’s do not serve us.  We are not in competition with others on how to live our lives.  No one has it any better or worse than anyone else.  We all have our lessons and our challenges in this life.  These situations allow us to continue the love that we are day by day. Our learnings of how love is present in our challenges allows us to awaken and bear witness to the power of love that God continually creates. I need to remember this when I  face challenging situations because sometimes I get stuck in thinking that it is my job to overcome the situation.  My job is to grow in love and be the evidence that God’s work continues through me no matter what I face in life. In my daily meditation dates with God I am reminded of the gift of starting my day by connecting with God.  This increases my chances of remembering who I am and the courage to continue God’s work today.

My prayer for us the willingness to see our challenges and situations as the perfect masterpiece through which to continue God’s work of love that starts within our own hearts today.

If God began the work of love in our own hearts, how can God assist you in remembering who you truly are so you may have the courage to continue God’s work today?  Share in the comments.

God generates faith.  We all have time when we cannot see past the difficulties we are facing. Times when things look grim and our perspective is clouded by what we are not able to see.  Being in relationship with God means trusting when there is no evidence to trust.  It is demonstrating patience when we want to get frustrated.  We live in a world where we rely on what we can see as proof of the realness of things.  Being in relationship with God means sticking around even when we can’t see.  The gift of blindness to evidence allows us to know if our relationship with God is based on outcomes or on connecting with love.  When we cannot see the evidence we have a choice. Either continue trusting based on the love that we sense in our hearts or not.  Either I believe God is everything or God is not.  Blindness is not a test of faith it is an opportunity for a decision.  We get to decide at each moment if our faith in love is based solely on what we can see or if love exceeds the parameters of what we can see with our eyes.

My prayer for us is the courage to embrace the elements of love that we see with blindness of eyes but sight of heart today.

If God is there whether we see God or not, how do you see love without your eyes when you go through your day?  Share in the comments.

God is subtle.  The magnificence of God is evident all around us but it is the subtle movements and creations of love that we sometimes miss.  God does not need to make grand overtures to grab our attention but we think God does.  We tend to look for the big gestures and movements.  We think those are the one that counts.  What about the beauty of taking hold of someone’s hand to support them, looking someone in the eye, picking up a piece of trash, drawing a smiley face on a piece of paper, or looking up at the sky?  These simple experiences of being alive and being present allow us to witness an inkling of the profound nature of love that is within us and all around us.  Recently, I have been in a great deal of physical pain.  Anyone who has dealt with back pain or any nagging pain that limits your mobility knows that it takes all your focus and energy to get through the day with some sense of peace.  It is hard to see outside of it and be grateful.  I think that God should remove this as soon as possible.  This time it is slow going as I return to wellness and in the meantime the only thing that saves me is being able to notice the inkling of love’s presence.  My meditation date time with God has taught me to be aware of the subtle inkling that God makes present in my life to remind me that I am beloved.  After years of paying attention I don’t have to search so hard to find them. In times of discomfort love;s inkling are my greatest comfort.

My prayer for us is the courage to look for the inkling of love present in our day today.

If God can do the grand gestures of love, what little inkling might you like God to make present for you today so that you know you are beloved?  Share in the comments.

God breathes.  God breathes life in and out of everything.  So in those moments between breaths there is a rest.  In the spaces that are not occupied by thought or action there is rest.  Our world focuses constantly on results and action and doing. This is a wonderful thing.  We are great doers, we get results, action needs to take place.  I know I love it when I can get a lot done and when in action in my life I feel alive.  God calls us to find life in all spaces and times.  God calls us to experience life in the rest moments.  Those are sometimes my favorite though it is not easy to admit it.  The space of rest allows me to just be.  I fight it because I think I have to justify it.  I resist it because you cannot measure its worth. Then I remember that God does not measure worth, it is a given. If we do not rest from time to time we cannot continue on our journey of action.  I think the most profound element of rest for me is the reminder that God is in charge.  As much as I think I make things happen and how things might fall apart if I don’t do something, in time of resting I am faced with the reality of how things seem to keep flowing anyway.  Our presence in this world is powerful, otherwise God would not have us here, but it is our being present which carries our power.  Therein lies the rest space between where God flows through.

My prayer for us is the willingness to acknowledge and support each other in the courageous embracing of rest today.

If God has it all taken care of, in a time of rest, how can God help you to witness the value of your presence for you and others today?  Share in the comments.

God fits.  The only realness in our lives comes from the truth of who we are.  Who we are at our core originates from our design for being.  God made sure that every element that encompasses who we are is a living and vital presence of love.  The idea that we are somehow lacking or not enough simply does not fit with God’s design.  God is not incomplete nor are God’s designs.  It is clear that God wants us to recognize our wholeness so we are reminded again and again.  It is the subtle nudges or senses of things that we so easily ignore that are meant to wake us up to our fitness. The fitness of being all that is needed right here, right now. The world is always ready in a loud voice to tell us how we are not measuring up. We need to do more, study more, prepare more, change more and more. We believe it because it mirrors the same story we hear in our heads.  When we listen from the stillness of our hearts and our breath, we are present to our complete fitness to this moment.  God is present in this moment. We are fit for the here and now.  Our head likes to go forward and back and sometimes we get dragged along.  To  come back to our fitness all we have to do is take a breath.

My prayer for us is the courage to use our breath to remind us of our fitness for this moment that God has created for us today.

If God’s fit is enough, how could what you be seeing be a lack of fitness for the moment you are in?  Share in the comments.

God is Truth.  To be full of truth is to be full of God.  Truth is the recognition of love at the origin of all things.  When we strip away the exterior appearance, love is there.  When we look behind the curtain, love is there.  When we let go of what we think it is supposed to be like, love is there.  Living in truthfulness means we can no longer deny the presence of love in everyone and everything.  We have given up on trying to determine ulterior motives.  We have conceded that there is nothing more powerful or pervasive than God. We are willing to look at what seems like darkness, evil, and dislike and find the grain of truth that exists even in the slightest form.  I have never been able to hate my way through to acceptance.  I have not yet mastered the ability to anger my way to peace.  Love is the way.  Love is the path.  Remembering the existence of love in all things is my freedom.  Recognizing this enables me to ask the Creator of Love for help when I don’t know how to live in truthfulness.

My prayer for us is the willingness to live in the truthfulness of love even in the places inside and outside of ourselves where love seems absent.

If God created all things and God is love, how can God enable you to live in the truthfulness of love where you do not believe it to be present today?  Share in the comments.

God pays attention.  The detail that threads through life is no mistake. God makes sure that every nuance and detail is taken care of.  No stone is left unturned.  Nothing is left out of the equation of life.  All is interconnected.  There is a wholeness of the universe and we are a part of it.  It is in us and through us.  Our very being is notice of the wholeness of life.  The way we breathe and connect with our bodies and with nature is the most basic sign of this interconnection.  It is subtle until we learn to notice it.  God notices it all the time and provides multiple opportunities to reconnect. Our hearts remind us in their subtle shift and tug at us to reconnect. God stands ready to receive us when we choose to notice our wholeness.

My prayer for us is the willingness to notice the desire to be connected to our wholeness today.

If God is ready to help us reconnect to our wholeness at any moment, how might you want to notice heart wishes for connection today?  Share in the comments.

God is listening.  To embrace the idea of God present at every moment of our lives requires an acknowledgment that something other than us is actually interested in being present in our lives.  We have convinced ourselves of our unworthiness because we measure ourselves by the world’s view.  Given the world operates on fear and lack no one measures up.  If no one measures up, why are we continuing to only hear the voices of the world that remind us we are not enough.  Why not hear the voice of God who says: you are enough because I made you enough?  Why not hear the message of wholeness that comes from the One who created us whole?  Perhaps because God’s voice doesn’t come at us screaming or on a shiny billboard. God is the still small voice that we hear when we quiet down long enough to listen.  The practice of meeting God for my meditation dates in the quiet of each morning allows me the opportunity to hear God before I have let the noise of the world in.  Then as I go through my day I can hear God’s voice or at least remember to stop and listen for it.

My prayer for us is the willingness to develop our hearing in such a way that we are attuned to the still small quiet voice of God and love today.

If God hears you with love and wants you to hear you with love, how could God assist you in being able to quiet the other sounds you are hearing today?  Share in the comments.

God gives endlessly.  It is up to us if we want to receive the gifts of this life and this day.  God is ready and willing to give at all times.  We get stuck in fixed ideas of what the gifts are supposed to be or look like that we often miss them.  If we don’t recognize them, how can we receive them?  There is a vulnerability in receiving.  I know I have often thought that I was not worthy.  But gift giving is not about worthiness.  Any time I have had the opportunity or desire to give a gift in thought, word, or deed, it is not because I deem the other person worthy.  I do it because I am in a giving space.  We give gifts because of who we are being not because someone else deserves to get a gift from us.  There is such joy that comes from giving, it is almost selfish.  God is the same way only greater.  God showers us with gifts because God is love and giving is an expression of love.  When we receive we keep the flow of love going.  When we reject the gift we stop the flow of love.  Just like our breath comes in and goes out. I recently celebrated a birthday and I remember on my meditation date with God that morning I was reminded gently that my only job that day was to receive.  I wasn’t going to be acknowledged or celebrated by others because I was a certain way or did something perfectly, it was simply because people wanted an opportunity to express love and care.  I asked God that morning for the courage to just receive, let go of expectations, fear of being vulnerable, and needing to do something in order to receive.  I did it as imperfectly as I was meant to and found myself taking lots of deep breaths, but I did it and that is what counts.

My prayer for us is the courage to receive the little gifts that God places on our path throughout the day today.

God is constantly giving us little gifts to let us know we are loved and cared for, how could God assist you today in being able to receive those gifts? Share in the comments.