It is Blessed to be Persecuted as the Result of Our Right Thinking

This exerpt is worth sharing on this day of Thanksgiving. As we give "thanks" and "giving" attention today I am reminded of how many may not see the wonderful things all around them. Their minds are flooded with self-defeating emotions of worry, fear, excuses, gossip, self-pity, hopelessness, comparison, complaint, criticism, selfishness, negative thoughts and words that reflect all the pain they suffer with needlessly....If they only knew....read on...



"It is Blessed to be Persecuted as the Result of Our Right Thinking...All this is indeed very startling, and it is perfectly correct; only we have to understand that the source of all this persecution is none other that our own selves. No outside persecutor, but only our own lower selves.



When we find rightousness or right thinking very difficult - when we are very strongly tempted to hold the wrong thoughts about some situation, or some person, or about ourselves; to give way to fear, or anger, or despondency - then we are being persecuted for rightousness' sake, and this is for us an extremely fortunate or blessed condition, for it is in such moments that we are really advancing.



Every spiritual treatment or scientific prayer involves a tussle with our own lower self, which wishes to indulge the old habit of thought, and, in fact, persecutes and reviles us - if we like to put the thing dramatically in the Oriental way. All the great Prophets and Enlightened Ones of the race who ultimately overcame, did so by just such struggles with themselves, when they were being persecuted by their own lower natures, or the Old Adam.



Jesus himself, "who was tempted in all respects like as we are," had to meet this "persecution" more than once; especially in the Garden of Gethsemane, and, for a few moments, on the Cross itself. Now, since these combats with the lower self have to be fought out sooner or later, and so, relatively speaking, they are great blessings.



Note carefully that there is no virtue or advantage whatever in being persecuted or annoyed by other people. Nothing can come into our experience unless it finds something in us with which it is attuned: and so, to have trouble and difficulty is only a sign that our own mentality needs clearing up; for what you see at any time is nothing but your own concept.



We get only what belongs to us at any time, and nobody can prevent our getting that; and so all persecution and hindrance are absolutely from within.



-- Sermon On the Mount by Emmet Fox



May you find peace in your heart to enjoy yourself completely in the lifetime.



Dr. Susan Duve

A Happy Soul