new church life: september / october 2013
O Lord my God, You are very great:
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain. (Psalm 104:1, 2)
Peruse the Psalms to find many more examples, which can become models
for our own thinking and prayers.
It is also important for us to have a developing concept of the Lord.
Our understanding of the Lord is called “the chief of all ideas” (Apocalypse
Explained 808:4), and “the thought of God as being one, and that one the Lord,
is the principal and fundamental in all things in the doctrine of the church.”
(Athanasian Creed 58). And our place in the spiritual world is directly affected
by how we think of Him. (Divine Love and Wisdom 13)
Obviously, this is not merely our intellectual concept of the Divine apart
from life. Our ideas in the next life are based on what we have embraced
through conscious choices and overcoming temptations. But erroneous ideas
about the Lord enter into all our thinking and resulting acting, leading to a
less than angelic life. And we carry our ideas of the Lord with us into the next
life. (Arcana Coelestia 9303:3) Thus to the extent we can understand the Lord
better, or correct some of our misimpressions, the life of regeneration can be
seen more clearly.
Now, in a sense, everything we learn from the Word is developing an
image of the Lord, for all truths lead back to the Lord. As an angel noted to
Swedenborg, “the particular truths [in the Word] are so many mirrors of the
Lord.” (True Christian Religion 508e; see also Ibid. 6:2, 11:3, 767:2; Invitation to
the New Church 41) While this is generally true, think how much more openly
they could lead back to the Lord if we were to consciously reflect upon the
Lord’s role in so many teachings of the Word: about providence, heaven and
hell, creation, love, freedom, regeneration or many more!
Consciously thinking about the Lord is incredibly useful. It is a fundamental
step toward our conjunction with Him. “They who are in the most holy idea
concerning the Lord, and at the same time in the knowledges and affections
of good and truth . . . are conjoined with the Lord.” (Arcana Coelestia 4211:3;
see also Heaven and Hell 296, 435; True Christian Religion 369) Conjunction,
or heavenly life, is the result of regeneration. But to facilitate the process of
regeneration, thinking about the Lord is crucial.
So during the course of this coming year I encourage you to:
Use a portion of your prayer time to speak of the Lord’s traits as a way to
be reminded of Him, as in the Psalms.
Devote some time to thinking about the Lord – perhaps reflecting on how
He has guided your life or how you can see Him in the world around you.
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