THE POWER OF GRATITUDE

A CHAPTER FROM JESUS TAUGHT IT, TOO...

THE POWER OF GRATITUDE
In a polite society we say "thank you" after we receive a gift. While
that is nice, it not exactly the way the Universe works. Many falter
in the manifestation process because they believe that they do not
already have what they want. After all, if you cannot see it or touch
it, it is not there right? Wrong! Anything and everything that you
could possibly want or desire is all around you. It is in the form of
energy waiting to be shaped and brought into the physical world by
the creative process of the mind.
Thoughts are things and all things are made of energy—Physics
101. Nothing exists in the world that was not first thought about. A
chair, a house, a plane, a computer, etc. are merely thoughts that
have become manifest. I would go so far as to say that you and all
the infinite manifestations of life exist because of the first thought—
the prime mover—the creative consciousness behind all of
existence.
When we say that we do not have something, we close the cosmic
door. We are telling the Universe "I do not have" and the Universe
grants your desire and thus you do not have. It is said, "seek, and
you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened." Unfortunately
most people think this merely means that if you seek spiritual
salvation, you will find it. However, these words are a basic Law of
the Universe. In essence the law says that if you seek something,
you will find it. It also says that what you have found is what you
have sought. If you knock, a door will be opened, or the doors that
have opened are the ones upon which you have knocked.
This puts life squarely upon your shoulders. What you have gotten
11 0
is what you have sought. "But," you say, "I did not seek disease,
poverty, financial lack, poverty, loneliness or general misery." You
either consciously did or you unconsciously accepted these
conditions because someone convinced you that is all you will ever
get out of life. Someone gives you a canvas and some paints and
you say, "What good is this? There is no picture on the canvas. It is
blank." You are told to draw a picture and you balk because you
are convinced that you are not an artist. As a result, other people
use the paints to draw what they want. Now you are stuck with a
picture that someone else painted and that you do not like.
Now you sit, displeased with the picture but unwilling to change it
because you are convinced that only others can paint. What does
this have to do with gratitude? Because you do not feel that you
can paint, you do not feel any level of thankfulness for the pictures
others have drawn for you. You really wanted a picture of a
beautiful house in the country but someone draws a rundown
apartment. Why should you be thankful, the picture is not what you
want?
The fact of the matter is that you do have whatever you want. The
canvas is all things. It merely awaits your brush strokes to make it
real. When you say that you have nothing to be thankful for, you
are saying that the canvas can never have the picture you desire.
You close the door without even trying to open it. You see the
canvas as blank, but it can be whatever you desire it to be.
Giving thanks means that you have already received something.
When you give thanks to the Universe for all that you could
possibly desire, you are saying that you have received all that you
could possibly desire. You give form and then substance to the
energy that exists everywhere and by law, these things must
11 1
manifest. If you say that the picture on the canvas is a new house,
it cannot be a rundown apartment. The painting can only be what is
put on it.
It is only hard to give thanks for what you think you do not have
because that is your conditioning. You can't paint? Not true! The
world you have, you have painted. When you begin to accept the
fact that you are the artist of your own life, you will begin to realize
that all of those blank canvasses await your secret desires to be
drawn by your creative mind.
Give thanks for all that you desire. They already exist in potential. It
is up to you to make them real. Tell the Universe what you want
and tell the Universe you are thankful that it has given you an
unlimited supply of paint. Do not close the door of life by saying, no,
thank you.