PASSAGE: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
 
QUESTION: I’m a hard worker and can’t seem to keep a decent job to support myself. I’m struggling to survive financially. I want to own my own business where my age (I'm almost 59) won’t be such an issue. I know God shines his light on the just and the unjust. However, is this verse telling me to trust that he is working in the background (when his help is sought) even though it seems the unrighteous are prospering and the righteous are hurting from the deeds imposed upon them by these individuals? They are suffering financially and emotionally while the unjust seem to be having a good life. These people are always right in what they do. In their opinion, it is the “responsible persons” who have the problem. In short, they are good time Charlies with no sense of priority. Today is important; bills and other responsibilities are addressed last if at all. I could go further, but hopefully this gives you the area in which I’m struggling to understand.

COMMENT: Metaphysically, we understand “the Lord” to be “the Christ”—the indwelling Presence of God that is our true identity, the “Lord of our Being.” So this clear and powerful statement is reminding us that we are to make our life choices from that Christ perspective. There are always two voices available within as we stand before any new choice or challenge. One is the logical voice of the individual and collective consciousness containing a mixed bag of positive and negative ideas and emotions, assembled from past experience and sensory input from the world around us. That voice is usually louder and more strident than the other, which is the uncompromised voice of the Christ—pure love, clear guidance. The promise of this passage is that if we stay firm in our commitment to that Christ voice, our human process will be infinitely easier than if we allow the logical voice to send us wandering through dualistic confusion.

We are not in Christ consciousness when we expend time and energy comparing ourselves to others, or judging others as unworthy of the good they seem to have in their lives. “Judge not” was Jesus’ most constantly repeated teaching; if we find ourselves judging, we are blocking ourselves from the flow of energy and infinite possibility that are the essence of the Divine. If we begin always with a true sense of gratitude for the good already expressing in our lives, we can be certain that the divine energy that is expressing as that good will joyfully bring more as we open our hearts and minds to receive it.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed