The Sermon on the Mount_ The Key to Success in Life - Emmet Fox [54]
The Way of Life, the strait gate, is, however, worth much more than whatever trouble or effort it may call for. On this road the rewards are not temporary but permanent; every mile gained is gained for all eternity. Indeed, the changing of one’s consciousness is in truth the only thing that is really worth doing at all. A comparison from everyday life will help to illustrate this point: Suppose a man successfully removes a stain from his coat; that action will benefit him for as long as the garment is in use, say a few months. Suppose, on the other hand, he develops a bodily function, say his breathing capacity, by suitable physical exercises; the improvement gained here will be with him for the remainder of his physical life, perhaps fifty or sixty years, and is, for that reason alone, a far more important thing to have done, even apart from the much more far-reaching effect upon his life of the operation itself. Now, if he makes a qualitative change in his consciousness, which is what happens under prayer or treatment, then not only is the effect of that change felt in every phase and department of his life, but it is with him through all eternity, for he never can lose it. Thieves cannot break in and steal.
As soon as you obtain the spiritual consciousness you will find that all things indeed work together for good to those who love Good, or God. You will experience perfect health, abundant prosperity, and complete and utter happiness. Your health will be so good that mere living will be in itself an inexpressible joy. The body, no longer the burden to be dragged about that so many people find it, will be as though it were shod with winged shoes. Your prosperity will be such that you need not take the question of finance into consideration at all. You will always have all the supply that you need to carry out any of your plans. The world will turn out to be full of charming people only too anxious to help you in every way. Others will come into your life only for good. You will find yourself occupied with the most delightful and interesting activities of the most widely useful kind. All your energy and all your faculties will find full scope for their expression and, in short, you will develop the “completely integrated and fully expressed personality” of which modern psychology dreams.
Those who have not glimpsed the secret of the Christ Message may look upon all this as nothing but a beautiful vision, “too good to be true,” but it is just the essence of the Christ Message that nothing is too good to be true, because the Love and the Power of God are true. It is just this very belief that complete harmony is too good to be true that really prevents our getting it. We, as mental beings, make the laws under which we live; and we have to live under the laws that we make.
A tragic mistake that is often made by orthodox religious people is to assume that the Will of God for them is bound to be something very dull and uninviting, if not positively unpleasant. Consciously or not they look upon God as a hard taskmaster, or a severe Puritanical parent. Too often their prayers virtually amount to something like this: “Please, God, give me such and such a boon, which I sorely need—but I don’t suppose you will, because you won’t think it is good for me.” Needless to say, a prayer of this sort is answered as all prayers are answered, according to the faith of the subject; that is to say, the boon is not granted. The truth is that the Will of God for us always means greater freedom, greater self-expression, wider and newer and brighter experience; better health, greater prosperity, wider opportunity of service to others—life more abundant.
If you are ill or in poverty, or obliged to do work that you dislike; if you are lonely, or if you have to mix with people who displease you; you may be certain that you are not expressing the Will of God, and as long as you are not expressing His Will, it is natural for you