The Valley Chronicle - Clergy Corner: Ask and the door is always open

[caption id="attachment_3043" align="alignright" width="130"] The Center for Spiritual Living Hemet
Reverend Rhonda Tretsven.[/caption] ■ Rhonda Tretsven / Contributed In Luke 11:9 we find, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Sounds simple enough, and it is. So why do we make it so complicated? We are of course human, creating all kinds of excuses why we cannot find God or at least have a relationship with IT. Funny thing is, the Divine is everywhere present. IT is in everything we experience on a daily basis, so we are in relationship with it constantly! Relationships, as I hope we all know, are built on a foundation of admiration and love. It is within a relationship that we give unconditionally to the other. God does the same with us. When we “ask” in this relationship, it is usually through what we know to be a prayer. Prayer is the language we use to let God know things in our intimate world are not working out so well, or as we had planned them to be. Jesus, before he asked God for anything, always said “thank you,” and in his mind, knew that it was already done. There was no doubt in his mind what he was asking for was being created. He knew that he was connected to the creative power of all life, therefore, he knew as part of this indwelling presence, he could do the same. He just had to believe it to be true–without doubt. How many of us pray and then wonder if not only God is listening, but if it will happen. When we doubt our word, we are doubting God. How does it feel when someone doubts our abilities to do something for them? Not very good, does it? So the key is to believe, and know you WILL receive. It worked for Jesus, and it can work the same for us. So again, here we are in this relationship with something we can’t see. How do we know, or how do we find it? Well Dorothy, you don’t have to click the heels of your ruby slippers to find “there is no place like home.” Home is right where you are because that is where God is all the time–24/7/365. We really don’t have to search very far, but as humans we are continually on our quest to find IT. Truth be told, IT has already found you. God is just waiting for you to acknowledge its presence within you. Perhaps, we are so busy on our quest of seeking or meaning, we forget to just be still and know that it is right where we are. As a “questor,” we search for what many would refer to as the “meaning of life.” What is the meaning of life? Life is the meaning you give it. Only you know that intimate journey. No one else can know or do it for you. It is just that because what you are seeking is also seeking you. In seeking, we open many doors and cross many thresholds. When we stand at the door and knock, it seems forever for someone to answer us. However, did we think of turning the handle and opening it ourselves? The invitation for us is always to walk through to something better. But sometimes it will appear as if the door itself is made of steel, and too heavy to open. That door is our minds. We create the steel doors that keep us from crossing the thresholds of bettering our lives and enriching ourselves. I call this the door of limitation. When we stand at the door of limitation, we keep ourselves small and keep ourselves from experiencing the love and growth of our spiritual self. They keep us from our good, and good is our God. Is that what we really want? The truth of all of this is–yes. The door is always open. Seek and we shall find. Because when we ask, it is always given. We have the keys to the kingdom, we just have to put them in what we think is locked, turn the key, and be open to the amazing life that is waiting for each and every one of us. Go ahead open it…

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Rev. Rhonda Tretsven is the senior minister at the First Church of Religious Science, 40450 Stetson Ave., Hemet. Please join us for Sunday services: 9:30 a.m. meditation and 10 a.m. celebration for Rev. Rhonda’s message of love and empowerment.