Thoughts for the week:

July 18

We should try to be grateful for all the blessings we have received and which we do not deserve. Gratitude to God for all His blessings will make us humble. Remember that we could do little by ourselves, and now we must rely largely on God's grace in helping ourselves and others. People do not care much for those who are smug and self-satisfied or those who gossip and criticize. But people are impressed by true humility. So we should try to walk humbly at all times. Gratitude to God and true humility are what make us effective.

24 Hours a Day

July 20  Bearing Fruit

If man really were left without a simple practical test of religious truth, he would assuredly be in a sad plight; but happily this is not the case. It is as simple and direct as the acid test for gold. It is the simple question - Does the truth work in our lives? This test is so staggeringly simple that most clever people have passed it over... THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS UNDEMONSTRATED UNDERSTANDING. If you wish to know how you really stand spiritually, look about you at your environment, beginning with the body. There can be nothing in the soul that is not demonstrated sooner or later in the outer, and there can be nothing in the outer that does not find some correspondence in the inner.

Around the Year with Emmet Fox . HarperOne. Kindle Edition. (Excerpt)

July 21  Unremitting Vigilance

We must not allow any consideration whatever, any institution, an organization, any book, or any man or woman, to come between us and our direct seeking of God. Centers, churches schools, all fill a useful purpose in providing the physical framework for the distribution of right knowledge, but the actual work must be done by the individual. 

Around the Year with Emmet Fox . HarperOne. Kindle Edition. (Excerpt)

July 24

Keep as close as you can to the Higher Power. Try to think, act, live as though your were always in God's presence. Keeping  close to a Power greater that yourself is the solution to most of the earth's problems. Try to practice the presence of God in the things you think and do. That is the secret of personal power. It is the thing that influences the lives of others for good. Abide in the Lord and rejoice in His love. Keep close to the Divine Spirit in the universe. Keep God close behind our thoughts.

24 Hours a Day