As I meditated upon this verse, I decided to google it. I came across this verse as reflected in the Message Bible.
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“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.”
If I get my inside world right, then I will see God in the outside world!
What is my mind? What is my heart?
I turned to the dictionary for both. The heart is regarded as the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions, especially love or compassion, capacity for sympathy or generosity, compassion.
The mind is the part of a person that thinks, reasons, feels, and remembers.
Let’s put this together. If I think in terms of love and compassion and act in terms of love and compassion, I will see God in the outside world.
If you think about it, this is what Jesus was all about. The actions of Jesus were filled with love and compassion.
So, if I think in terms of love and compassion, I will see God in my outside world. I will see God because like Jesus, my actions will also be filled with love and compassion. My inside world will be in balance with the outside world.
If I cannot feel love in me, it will be more difficult to see love outside of me. When I no longer see love outside of me, it is time to do an internal check. What are my innermost thoughts? Are they anger, greed, jealousy, rage, frustration, fear?
If so, it is time to focus my mind on love and compassion so they can sink into my heart and become available for action in my outer world.
A contemplative practice such as centering prayer can aid in this process. A contemplative practice slows you down so you can conduct this very important internal check.
Contemplative practices will help you operate from your heart. This is where love and compassion live. This is where God lives.
What do you think?
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