new church life: jan uary / february 201 4
has occurred in the past year. You can see reviews of the year in pictures and
consider who has made particularly notable contributions. A person can also
take stock of his or her own life over the past year and reflect on the patterns
appearing within the events.
The Lord strongly encourages us to do this kind of reflection. Even if
this time of the year may not seem opportune for such consideration, it is
absolutely vital that we make time for recognizing the key patterns in our lives:
patterns in what we care about and think about, patterns in what we say and
do, and patterns in the results that our words and actions produce. If we don’t
see any patterns, we will not be learning much and will probably continue in
habits that aren’t good for ourselves, and aren’t good for the people around us
as well.
Ahab as a king represents the understanding part of our mind that directs
the decisions we make and our perspective on what is most important. The
Lord has given us the capability of freely reflecting on our spiritual and natural
patterns of life. As stated in Divine Providence 278, we are given the capability
of looking at these things because we have the possibility of higher and lower,
or interior and exterior thought. From the higher or interior thought we can
look at what is happening in the lower or more exterior plane of our minds.
We can see that we are in good or bad moods, or that we are thinking more or
less clearly than usual.
But by ourselves, all of this would not mean a tremendous amount because
there are crucial patterns in life that natural observation does not give us. The
prophet, Micaiah, whom Ahab viewed as a trouble-maker, represents truth
from the Lord that must have its initial source in Divine revelation. Without
Divine revelation there is much that we could not possibly know, as clearly
stated in this passage from the Writings.
. . .without the Word no one would possess spiritual intelligence, which consists in
having knowledge of a God, of heaven and hell, and of a life after death; nor would
know anything whatever about the Lord, about faith in Him and love to Him, nor
anything about redemption, by means of which nevertheless comes salvation. As the
Lord also says to His disciples: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5); and
to John: “A person can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.” (John
3:27) (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 114)
It is important for us to learn about the Lord and about what is true
and good from the Word. But our knowledge is relatively useless unless we
recognize how its description of what is real — and how the consequences of
certain patterns of concern, thought, speech and action relate to our own lives.
By ourselves we don’t want to see these patterns in our own lives.
. . . from themselves people do not desire to understand anything but that which
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