A Season Of Thanks

FRI., NOV. 18, 1988, 6:29 AM
FARM, STUDY

In less than a week your family will be gathered together for the traditional, secular time of thanksgiving. You have much for which to be thankful, and so does each of your sons. The troubles in your family are quite minimal in comparison to the blessings. Thanks is certainly the proper response to this recognition.

Even though you shall thank Me, and each of your sons shall, also, each in a somewhat different way, I still refer to this as a secular time of thanks. Most of the thanks will be offered to Me, as Almighty God, but much of this will be ritualistic rather than truly sincere. Why? Thanks can be sincere only when you truly believe and accept… even know… that I am the giver of all good gifts and that I have some important part in your prosperity, whatever it may be.

Now I have told you repeatedly that I have only a few servants that I regularly and fully sustain. For most of you I serve as a spiritual helper but do not control circumstances and do not do miracles, so that what you accomplish is from your own efforts, at best energized by Me. Many peoples, particularly Americans, are quite content to see themselves in this normative category. They just don’t truly consider that I am responsible for their success or their failure. Many pray for success or, especially, for help in getting out of some difficulty, but, except in instances that seem truly miraculous, they do not genuinely thank Me for intervention. Most of you have reasonable faith in your abilities, and it is logical to feel that success has come largely from your own efforts.

Hear this as a rough analogy: you teach a course that has a great deal of content. To assess the learning of your students you give a test. You have selected, from this extensive content, some items that you consider representative. Answering these successfully should represent the ability to answer questions not asked. As a student prepares for this she must decide how much she can learn and what it is that you, the examiner, consider important and what the questions will be. If it is a normal group and a normal test only a few have learned the proper material well enough to do truly well. Most have only partial success. A few have not studied appropriately and sufficiently and fail.

You have lost the sense of analogy, because you’re trying to think this out on your own rather than listening only. I said earlier that there are some in the earth for whom I truly provide and do truly sustain. Some know this, but there are others who believe this to be true when it is not. And, completing the picture, there are some that I do sustain who do not acknowledge this. The central point is that you do not know for sure how much I am involved in your sustenance and so you (generic you) aren’t sure how much thanks is warranted.

Only a few will do genuinely well on your test. You are only partially right in predicting who these will be. The analogous test is that some of you are sustained by Me, but how many acknowledge this and thank Me fully? For the test, be prepared for everything. In relation to Me, thank Me as if I were solely responsible for your life position.

You have more awareness than most of My interventions into your earth life. Still, you don’t know for sure what you have accomplished… or exactly how much help I have been. Be safe. Thank Me for everything. Assume you are one of the truly favored.