“... grace is given more richly by God to the soul than any earthly gift. It is given more richly than brooks of water, than the breath of the air, than the brightness of the sun; for spiritual things are far finer and nobler than earthly things.”
~Johannes Tauler (1300-1361)
Humility receives, and does so graciously.
Our highest calling is the worship of the living God—in Spirit and in truth—such that we might not simply give our Lord blessings of praise and thanksgiving, but that we may receive his abundance of grace, to every walk of life that amounts to our being.
Yet, there is much confusion regarding motive for worship; we may desire deeply within us to give back to God, but unless we are prepared to receive, our worship will be pointless. We will have nothing to give if we cannot receive.
Again, the truest sense of humility is unabashed receipt—the calmness to receive our gift, the all-empowering and all-forgiving grace, with no thought to give back without first securing the totality of the grace-gift; letting it enter into our spirituality, transforming us from the inside out.
In The Presence Of GOD
Baying in the Presence, ready, for the Word, the Spirit, the Light, and the replete goodness of the Lord to purge us of all ill-feeling that may be contemptible, is the soulful portion of receipt we may now contemplate.
Being a believer in Jesus Christ requires abiding in certain alienable Spiritual truths that come only with the moment.
God gives grace only for the moment, not that it can be bought like a cheap earthly possession and thereby monopolised. The motive of the religious is therefore defeated. Grace may not be possessed; it can only be received as a gift. And it is the right state-of-heart that procures such a moment.
And this gift we speak of prevails upon and over us to the extent of our baying in that Presence—the achievement of the mindset and heart-space of our unworthiness in the sight of God. We really are very unworthy, you know. When we come to God unworthy, the Lord comes to us, running, passionate to redeem us. That is the practice of the Presence of the Lord.
Wisdom Contained In The Moment
Everything of God, as it attends to us, occurs in the moment, and this is evidenced never more so than by the facts of us getting ahead of ourselves in pride, or getting behind in life by being overly reflective.
The wisdom contained in the moment points us to the importance of receptivity.
Where we come before God, at any conscious moment, with hands held palm up, our minds open, and our hearts free, we will receive grace enough, and such humility will be magnanimously blessed.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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