Real Thinkers

Quote:

So few mortals are real thinkers; you do not spiritually develop and discipline your minds to the point of favorable liaison with the divine Adjusters.

Rexford,

I am so sorry if I offended you with my directness. My intent was to address the above comment with the following;

"So in my mind, what I posted is a revelation of how I pray. I try to see eye to eye with my Thought Adjuster. My hope is that by submitting my will to God he will enable me to discover the more perfect way for me and I will sometime discover he has led me to do what I now see as too formal. How about you? I am constantly attempting to discover the more effective process in communicating with God. But even that is my own subjective evaluation of what I am able to do. I am sure you find the same problem in effecting the reality of these teachings in your own life and soul. I believe we all do."

Then I said the foreboding words, "mechanical and unreal". The following list is what I was referring to. I do not go through this list every time I pray to make sure I have covered the entire topic to its spiritual fullness. That, to me, would seem mechanical and unreal!

196:0.10 Jesus brought to God, as a man of the realm, the greatest of all offerings: the consecration and dedication of his own will to the majestic service of doing the divine will. Jesus always and consistently interpreted religion wholly in terms of the Father’s will. When you study the career of the Master, as concerns prayer or any other feature of the religious life, look not so much for what he taught as for what he did. Jesus never prayed as a religious duty. To him prayer was a sincere expression of spiritual attitude, a declaration of soul loyalty, a recital of personal devotion, an expression of thanksgiving, an avoidance of emotional tension, a prevention of conflict, an exaltation of intellection, an ennoblement of desire, a vindication of moral decision, an enrichment of thought, an invigoration of higher inclinations, a consecration of impulse, a clarification of viewpoint, a declaration of faith, a transcendental surrender of will, a sublime assertion of confidence, a revelation of courage, the proclamation of discovery, a confession of supreme devotion, the validation of consecration, a technique for the adjustment of difficulties, and the mighty mobilization of the combined soul powers to withstand all human tendencies toward selfishness, evil, and sin. He lived just such a life of prayerful consecration to the doing of his Father’s will and ended his life triumphantly with just such a prayer. The secret of his unparalleled religious life was this consciousness of the presence of God; and he attained it by intelligent prayer and sincere worship — unbroken communion with God — and not by leadings, voices, visions, or extraordinary religious practices.

If you will take a moment to reread my offering, you may realize that I referred to the process of seeking God's wisdom and truth and even stated that what I said was a revelation of how I pray. In referring to the words "mechanical and unreal" I had intended to say that the list above would be realized, not by literally going down the list to make sure I was following all the points referred to but that by sincerely seeking God I would be shown in the end that I had accomplished the same thing. You were apparently "shocked". I have no idea why that shocked you. I do not wonder as I pray if I am effectively not able to be itemized in my mind as I endeavor to make real contact with my Thought Adjuster. I then asked if you do the same and you took issue, and seemingly disregarded the import of my post (small though it may be) and went off in a different direction.

So with that said I would like to readdress the above.

I am persuaded that the term "real thinkers" is not to be taken lightly. The Solitary Messenger says that we are not "real thinkers" (if) "[We] do not spiritually develop and discipline your minds to the point of favorable liaison with the divine Adjusters." Who do you suppose he is addressing? That, to me is an indictment . . . of me! I take that as an opportunity to peer into my own soul to discover what he is talking about. Implicit in this statement is the fact that we could be "real thinkers" by his definition if we would only decide to allow ourselves to give up our lack of discipline and open our minds to what we clearly do not know; God. In doing that we might actually realize "favorable liaison with the divine Adjuster." I submit that the entire Urantia Book tells us we can do this and expects us to do so. Then it announces that we are supposed to show the world the difference. It is Jesus' gospel. Jesus' gospel is much more than, but at least, a different way of thinking; we need to be real thinkers, not merely people who think about reality. It is a way of putting God first and us last. Again I apologize for my offense. Please forgive me. Obviously I have a ways to go yet.

Jim

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