god as love

Jesus taught us to abide in love, to love one another and that as we love, we will know 'my father', Jesus' loving Papa. (Gospel of John, chapters 13, 14 and 15)
 
Sometimes this can feel extremely tough - I have been treated badly, why should I love!

​Yet when we hate, we are imprisoned by our own thoughts and feelings.

It is written in Matthew 5:5 that Jesus said "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
 
As taught by Neil Douglas Klotz in his book, Prayers of the Cosmos", the Aramaic language that Jesus and the Jews of his day spoke had many definitions, to be interpreted in several ways and at different levels of experience. Another definition could be:
 
"Blessed are the gentle, those who have softened the rigidity within them."
 
We are then invited to ask what the words rigid and soft have to do with our experience of life? Where am I too rigid in my thinking? As I soften, open and allow other ideas and experiences into my mind and heart, I will experience the abundance of nature, enjoy everything that appears in form. Including those who seem to persecute us.
 
The key for me is the deep, abiding experience that God is love. As I open, soften and allow God as love to heal the wounds in my heart and mind, I am changed - I am healed - mind, heart and body.
 
Rev. Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK