As you begin your day, take just a moment and forgive the world and everyone in it.  Let go of any grievances you carry.  Let go of any frustration, anger, or conflict you have.  Now find gratitude.  Anything you may be grateful for starts the flow of gratitude in your heart and mind.  Build on this notion of gratitude as forgiveness for everyone and everything releases you from the burdens you have carried until today.  Today is a joyous day.  The Light is with you today as you see the world in forgiveness and gratitude.

Now you can see, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” Let the joy of this knowing fill your heart.

There is no person place or thing outside of ourselves, that holds the key to our happiness, our ability to live joyously.  Whenever you think you have come upon such a thing, you have created an idol, a graven image.  Do not allow your mind, your small sense of self, the I that is your humanness to place this Divine aspect outside of you, for YOU are the Son of God, the Oneness with all that is.  If you place that outside of you then you will naturally want to pursue it.  This sets up an unsolvable loop.  Rest in the knowing that “you are my son, in whom I am well pleased” and “it is my great pleasure to share the entire Kingdom with you.”. You must surrender ALL thoughts of your own and learn that with this comes, joy comes to you by Grace.  It is Thy will be done. Not my will but Thy will.  When you allow yourself to become a vessel, a perfect transparency for The Great Divine Intelligence to operate through you, ease, peace and joy becomes your life.  This is living by Grace.  You will recognize it by the inner peace it brings you. Let it begin today. Let go of all external references you have created and know that “I am with you always and shall never forsake nor leave you.”

The world does not see us and value us along with our good efforts. This is obviously perception, an experience of self or ego.  When you have “eyes to see and ears to hear” you can use your faculty of spiritual discernment and move your own thoughts and actions above this realm.  Here you will see as St. Francis did that giving is receiving rather than sacrifice.

Lord make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love

Where there is injury, pardon

Doubt, faith

Despair, hope

Darkness, light

Sadness, joy

O Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned

And it is dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

The clear idea here is that we surrender our sense of self and are filled with The One Consciousness and all sense of lack disappears and we are one with all that is, The Fullness of the Earth. Then we wish to share this and in sharing, we receive. In this forgiveness, we are forgiven, in this dying unto ourselves we are born.  The Divine Consciousness literally lives and expresses through us rather than us living as our small sense of self.

Let this day be a day of receiving Divinity and sharing It with all who come into your sight.