If your heart has been broken and your sensitive soul wounded by unkind words and thoughtless, cruel remarks, or if your bleeding wounds have been caused by deliberate, vicious, false, unjust and injurious actions of those who have desired to destroy you, you can be healed.
Dear one, don't crawl into the dark to lick your wounds. Don't lie quivering in your wreathing agony. Don't cling to your suffering by prolonging the intense anguish you may be carrying in your bleeding heart. And, above all, don't let resentment corrode your mind and soul.
Of course, if you love the darkness more than you love the light, the most natural thing for you to do will be to crawl away into the darkness to nurse your injuries and your grudges and resentments. And no amount of pleading on my part will dislodge you.
But, "If thou wouldst be healed", then reach out your hand for a moment and touch the Light extended to you for your full recovery. If you will but close your mind against the hurts for an instant and let the great Light this work contains enfold you with its glorified vision and its healing love, you will know the blessing offered freely for your full, divine healing.
Let me take your hand and we will go together into the house of your enemies. It is a very simple thing to do, for there is neither time nor space to the eternal scope of the mind. This will be a spiritual visit and will be accomplished through the divine thinking processes of your own mind. If your hurts were in the misty past and your enemies have long since gone from this sphere of action the healing is still as necessary, and it is possible. It will be even more welcome because those who are not encumbered with flesh will receive your overtures more readily and with greater joy. Their very progress may have been retarded by your memories or hurts and injuries, and it is possible that only you can release them into the realms where they can be healed of their mistakes. Step into the past and pour out your forgiving love to enfold them in its healing glory.
If your enemies are still here in mortality and are abiding at the nethermost ends of the earth, or only next door to you, it is possible to enter their presence and extend your healing love. Come! I will go with you and we will kneel together, even as it is possible for us to kneel before the throne of God and sing our eternal praises to Him whenever we so desire.
Let my hand enfold yours as we humbly kneel together, and with bowed heads give this prayer:
"God, our Almighty, Loving Father, in the Name of Thy Most Holy Son, the Prince of Peace, we kneel here to ask for Thy healing love to enfold us and this house and those who dwell herein. Let the divine Christ Light be brought forth in Its great power of redemption to fill this dwelling and all who may abide here. Let their hearts be softened and their seals be removed. May they be purified by His Love. May their minds be enlightened by an understanding of His great redeeming glory as their blindness is tenderly healed. Let the full power of Christ's divine Light, which is given to abide in them, be permitted to come forth that all seals might be dissolved and all darkness and ignorance be banished.
"God, our Father, let this great Christ Light be made manifest in us -- and in all Thy children. Let it be brought forth at this time to fill the hearts and minds and lives of all, especially these for whom we kneel at this time to pray. Let all errors be blotted out forever. Let all mistakes be forgiven and let their healing come.
"Let Thy forgiving love enfold them, even as I desire at this time to be enfolded in Thy great forgiving love. Let me also be healed and filled with Thy holy light and love, even as I ask that these, whom I have considered my enemies, might be healed.
"Father, as we kneel here together to fulfill Thy divine law of praying for our enemies, we thank You for this holy, divine privilege. Let only our love for You remain, for we love You, dear Lord, with all our hearts and souls! Our minds are filled with this love for Thee as we send it forth with all our strength. And, dear God, please increase our strength to send it out that it might go forth to enfold and heal a world.
"So be it! In the Name of Thy Beloved Son, Jesus Christ -- Amen!"
"Wouldst thou be healed" of your resentments and your hurts and wounds? If you desire to be healed, then kneel and pray this prayer with all the energy of your heart and in deepest humility send it forth. Or, if you desire, give a prayer of your own wording, but with the same meaning. This is not a prayer to be heard of men. This is a prayer of the spirit. "And he who prayeth in spirit, prayeth according to the will of God. And it shall be given to him, even as he asketh."
As you mentally kneel in spirit in the house of those whom you have considered your enemies to offer a prayer in your great forgiving love, Reason and I will each kneel with you, one on either side. As you continue to offer such a prayer daily until your own hearts and resentments are healed you may be sure that your brother is healed also. And very soon you will know the power of prayer and the nearness of God. In this great service you will be prepared to actually know God, and in time will receive of the "Fullness of the Father".
You too will go forth cleansed and purified and healed, for you will begin to comprehend the power of the great Christ Light and Its forgiving, redeeming, restoring, healing love.
You will then realize that, though you have believed yourself to be kneeling in the house or in the midst of your enemies, they are no longer your enemies. They are your brothers in whom the Light of Christ had not been lighted until you began praying for those who despitefully used you -- even persecuted you.
As you continue in your prayers each day, until all is healed, you will begin to love those whom you considered your enemies before, even as you love your own soul. You will desire them to be so filled with the healing, revealing Light of Christ that in deepest solicitude you will enfold them forever in your own protecting love.
When you carry this forgiving, healing process to the point where you feel that your transgressors have been released from the burden of their transgressions, then you will know your own healing is complete and you will stand forth free and beautiful, clothed in Light. You will have shed completely your dismal, dark robes of the hurtful, evil, depressing garments of defilement. You will be clean. You will begin to become glorious.
Thus will the great healing come and thus will you have a part in it. First to you, dear one, it will come, then to those whom you have considered you enemies -- and henceforth you will be able to help send it out to heal and bless a world. In such perfect Christ-like love you will realize that you have no enemies.
Will Rogers said, "I consider no man an enemy." And it is true that Will Rogers had none. Not one man on earth disliked him or wished him harm. There were a few, in the beginning of his picturesque career, who would have forced him into their own orthodox molds. But to Will their molds were most undesirable. Free and unhampered by other men's conformity, he fulfilled his own pattern of life. Refusing to be entrapped, he sent out only love and went upon his way.
The only real enemy any man ever has is the little mortal "self" with its touchy, super-sensitive prides and its struggles to protect itself, exalt itself, glorify itself at all costs. As one begins to love his enemies, or his brother, as he loves himself, he will have overcome that little "self" and will stand forth magnificently free -- free from the shackles of earth. It is a big step, I warrant you. But the great results achieved in making such a step are far greater than the effort required to make it. It is a step into a New Day -- a higher dimension of living and feeling and thinking -- and be-ing.
Glory be to God for the keys of fulfillment and for opportunities so divine. Glory and praise and thanks be to Him for His nearness, for He is always just as near as you permit Him to be.
Always, as one humbles and subdues himself to kneel thus in the house of his enemies, as he prays with all the energy of heart for those who, in their tragic ignorance, sought to injure him, the very heavens open and angels from the very throne of God are sent to lend their strength. And that prayer is multiplied by many. The hosts of heaven join in to send it forth, a singing melody. It encompasses the world, then wings its way across the universe. A prayer so great goes forth clothed in living flames of glory to find its way to the very highest heaven, even to the throne of God.
Prayers are always answered. And according to the unselfish intent of the pray-er are they glorified. The pray-er will, in time, be clothed in the very glory his prayers express as he sends them forth from his own forgiving heart, opened and filled with love.
The most comforting knowledge connected with the privilege of prayer is that one need never make an appointment to enter the Presence of God and kneel thus in humble love and melting adoration. Nor need one feel unwelcome or unwanted or even rushed as he lingers to talk with God, even as one man talks with another. There is no rush, for time is not. He can linger to tell even the smallest details of his problems, if he so desires. And then, if he remains very quiet, he will learn to hear God's answers.
At first those answers may be only the silent promise of peace as it enters his heart. This is the "Holy Spirit of Promise" bearing witness to one's soul that all will be well. This is the assurance that the prayer has been heard and will be granted in His own time, in His own way and that henceforth the individual can leave it in the hands of the Father. This is the point where one learns to believe that those things, which he saith when he prays, will be given, and he shall have whatsoever he saith." This is the point of contact with that divine Light of Christ as it begins to become operative in the life of the individual.
"Therefore I say unto you, all things, whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive them; and they shall come unto you. And when you shall kneel to pray forgive, if you have aught against any man; that your Father also, who is in heaven, may forgive you your sins." (Mark 11:24-25, Latin Vulgate). This is the law of fulfillment. And this is the point where one learns to believe in his own prayers, and in the power of God to fulfill them. It is not up to the individual to work out the answer. All that is required of him is to give thanks constantly that it is being taken care of. God has never failed to fulfill His own divine promises or assurances, nor to back up His Word.
Learn to enter into this divine power of consultation with Him and watch yourself grow into a new being, more confident, more love-filled, more abundantly happy and more abundantly free.
Prayer is the greatest power that has ever been placed in the hands of man. Few use it with understanding. Few use it at all. Some only use it in great emergencies. Some use it as a thoughtless, lifeless, empty ritual, and such praying is vain. But no individual can pray with real intent without being heard and he who is heard will receive an answer. Thus one grows into the spirit and power of prayer and begins to walk with God.
In thus entering into the Presence of the Greatest of all, The Divine Ruler of the Universe, The Great Creator, The Father of all, the Lord God of Hosts, you may be sure that you will never be belittled because you are an obscure person or poorly clad, ragged and unknown. Neither will you be rejected though you are at the very bottom of all human existence, wretched and forsaken by every physical, earthly, human hope or possibility of help. In His love are the answers to all your problems, the supply for all your needs, the power of your complete glorification and the love for your everlasting healing. Always there is His perfect desire to bestow His abundance of all good upon you.
No matter who you are or what your lack or failings, you will never be contemptuously received. God is not mocked, neither has he ever mocked any child of His.
The key to His Throne is humility. And the more often one approaches that Throne in prayer, the more readily he will be received. Any life that becomes a prayer will become powerful. Those who linger thus in His Presence will begin to take on the Light of His glory.
You too are His child and he loves you.
You need never even leave His Presence, if so be you desire to remain. His loving invitation is always held out to you. It is, "Come!" Seek Him with all your heart and you will find Him. Know surely that no problem can remain unanswered if it is turned over to Him. He has all answers. He has all power. And He is all love.
The only bars upon the doors that lead into His Presence are the hardened seals that man has placed upon his own heart and the seal of blindness he has placed upon his mind. Let your heart melt in tears! Let your love go out as it seeks "To know God" and you will find Him. As you melt the seals in your own heart and in your own mind, with infinite love you will help to melt them also for the whole world. Let your seals be melted! Let your love and prayers ascend! Let your heart be at peace and know that henceforth you do not walk alone.
As you begin to live the higher laws, to pray for your enemies and for those who have despitefully used you and persecuted you, you will begin to take on the very perfection of your Father.
"Love your enemies; pray for them which spitefully use you and persecute you" that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven -- Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
These are not just words. These are the very realities of the Higher Kingdom which, if you seek them, will add all things unto you.
"Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (James 1:22)