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Unity Church of Castro Valley

Sunday Message for February 11, 2007

Give From Your Happiness

How many of you have received mail asking for money?  Have you received those that have pitiful pictures of starving or ragged looking children on junk heaps?  Do you end up sending them money because you feel guilty?  Have you noticed how many of those requests for money rely on your guilt? 

Well, if you are giving out of guilt – STOP IT!  Nothing good can come out of that frame of mind.  The energy of guilt that goes with that gift is just like putting a curse on it.  And what’s more – it’s like putting a curse on yourself.  And you end up resenting anything you do out of guilt.  So now you’ve not only got guilt but resentment going for you.

Guilt is a feeling of self-condemnation.  Though we may not be conscious of it, the underlying source of our basic guilt is always the belief that we have somehow “sinned,” and the fear that God will attack and punish us for our unworthiness.

Guilt and fear cannot coexist with love.  When we hold on to these negative feelings, we are prevented from experiencing the peace and presence of God.

It is a psychological fact that if we hold on to guilt, we will attempt to handle it either by attacking ourselves (frequently expressed as symptoms of depression or physical illness), or projecting the guilt onto someone else.

MOTHER THERESA

Mother Theresa was one of the most loving and giving people we have seen.  Yet, she did not do what she did out of guilt.  Even when she was well into her seventies, she could outwork people half her age.

Jean Houston spent some time working with Mother Theresa.  She was amazed that she couldn’t keep up with this old woman.  So she asked Mother Theresa how she could do what she did for so many hours without getting tired.  Mother Theresa told her that she could do it because she spent four hours every day with Jesus.

Mother Theresa gave from her happiness, she gave from her wholeness, she gave because she felt so fulfilled within herself.  She didn’t give so that she could feel good – she felt good and the result was, that she gave this goodness to others.

(Psalms 36:8) “They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.”

SPIRITUAL GIFTS CLASS

This is one of the reasons we gave the class on Spiritual Gifts.  We need to be able to look at ourselves – our wants, our desires, and our passions.  Then we need to give service from our true passion just like Mother Theresa did.

When we give passionately from our true gifts, we are giving from our wholeness and are able to share so much more with others.  Talk to anyone who was in the class and they will tell you that finding their spiritual gifts made things in their life just make more sense to them.

And, we are going to allow those spiritual gifts to develop by using them on a regular basis.  We had several people whose gift is prayer and we are in the process of forming a new prayer team.

MONEY

Also, when you give money you need to give from your happiness.  Quite often we find ourselves giving our tithe to our church out of guilt instead of giving from prosperity.  Quite often we will give money to a beggar because we feel guilty that we have so much more – when we should be giving out of our fullness of abundance.

Until you know that you are a prosperous child of God, until you know that God is your one and only source, you are giving from the wrong reasons.  It says in (Genesis 9:3) “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”  We need to remember and believe in our own prosperity.

When you give from a sense of being prosperous, you will increase your prosperity.  You will be attracting to you – what you believe in your consciousness to be true.

LOVE

Then there is love.  If you are looking for a mate to fulfill you in life, you will never find love.  If you are looking for your other half, you will never find true love.

Look to God to find fulfillment. (Psalms 16:11) says, “You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Before you can find your perfect mate – you have to already be a whole, happy, loving being.  You have to already love yourself, before you can ever love anyone else.  You can only give love from your happiness with yourself.

THE SECRET

In the movie The Secret they say that we attract what we think about, we create our reality based on our beliefs.  So we cannot give from a consciousness of lack.  Before we ever give to anyone or anything else – we start with ourselves.  When we pray for others – we start by praying for ourselves.  We must be filled up before we have anything to give.

We start by developing a relationship with God.  Then we develop a loving relationship with ourselves as beloved children of God.  Once we recognize the Christ presence within ourselves and operate from that consciousness – then we will be able to see the Christ presence within everyone else.  Then we will be able to give from our wholeness within God.  We are not giving because anyone else needs anything, because God will provide for all of his children – but we are giving because we wish to give from our happiness.

So ask yourself – in what way am I whole, perfect, and complete?  In what way am I prosperous?  In what way am I gifted?  Then give from that consciousness of wholeness.

Let it be your way.

SCRIPTURE: Genesis 9:3; Psalms 16:11; Psalms 36:8

REFERENCES: Good-Bye to Guilt Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D.

Last updated February 9, 2007