Being in Harmony With God: My Contemplation of Verse 46 of the Tao Te Ching

Dr. Dyer's book is Change your Thoughts--Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.

Today, I am focusing on verse 46 of the Tao Te Ching:

When the world has the Way,

running horses are retired to till the fields.

When the world lacks the Way,

warhorses are bred in the countryside.

There is no greater loss than losing the Tao,

no greater curse than covetousness,

no greater tragedy than discontentment;

the worst of faults is wanting more--always.

Contentment alone is enough.

Indeed, the bliss of eternity

can be found in your contentment.

What is the Way to peace?

Striving for contentment is difficult.  

Imagine a horse having a carrot dangling in front of it.  If the horse can't reach it, the horse gets frustrated, especially if it's very hungry.  Or consider the fox in one Aesop's fable?  You know the story, in which the fox gives up when he can't reach the grapes.  He walks away and says something like, "Well, the grapes were probably sour anyway."

Should we accept the lack of things and status?

No.  This 46th verse of the Tao Te Ching is not asking us to give up on our endeavors.  Lao-tzu, the writer of the Tao Te Ching, is asking us to be satisfied with what we already have.  We can experience happiness if we let go of the chase-of-things-and-higher-status mentality.  It is when we let go, that those wonderful blessings can truly come our way.

The thing we need to do is plug into the Source of everything (Tao, The Way)--God, the Father.  If we truly believe in God, we will trust in Him to provide for us.  

The greed for power and natural resources of land is the epitome of striving.  Are we little dictators in our community and/or families?  Are we fighting for something that will always escape us?  Is it worth it to strive for that which we should leave alone?  Why bother to see that which we really don't need in our lives?

Let's ask God to guide us.  

If He is the Source of everything, can't we lean on God to understand the priorities in our lives?  Let's stop what we are doing and ask God for wisdom to figure out what He wants for us.  Let's ask Him to remove greed and discontent from our hearts.  Only then, can we experience harmony in our lives.

Thanks for reading today's post about finding harmony with God.  

I appreciate you taking the time to read it.  

I've got some questions for you: Are you striving for possessions and status?  Are you frustrated with life?  Do you want to experience peace?  I pray that we all would seek peace from the Source of everything--Father, God.  I pray that we would ask God for His help to experience a deep, loving, and mutually beneficial relationship with Him.

May God bless you, my beloveds, with His wisdom and peace, in Jesus' name.  Amen!

This has been an entry for Wisdom Wednesdays.

I am currently drawing inspiration from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer's book and the 81 verses of the Chinese wisdom book the Tao Te Ching.

A Call to Live in Peace

In the book of Ephesians, Paul urges us to be united.

 1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.  2 Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love.  3 Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind yourselves together with peace.  4 We are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future.  5 There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  6 and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all.    --Ephesians 4:1-6 New Living Translation  It seems that God is speaking to me about peace.  I have full faith that it is not by accident.  If you follow my blog regularly, you will see that last Wednesday I spoke about a time for everything, including war and peace.  This Wednesday, I will also be writing about putting down weapons.  Of course, weapons come in many forms.    In Ephesians, Paul is urging us to live godly.  He doesn't just say, "Live godly."  No.  He goes into detail.  Even though Paul persecuted Christians, he himself became one.  He was compelled by Jesus Christ.  I like how the New Living Translation makes it simple for us to understand what Paul is saying in Ephesians 4 about peacefully living in unity.  I thank God that we, in this day and age, have the ability to understand the Bible.  How should we act towards one another?  We should:  --be humble towards one another;--be patient through one another's flaws;--be gentle in our conduct towards one another;--thus, practice unity under the Holy Spirit.  Why should we be united in peace?   --God has called us for His purposes; --we have the same spirit (of God); --we are within one body (of Christ); --we have one Lord who rules over us; --we share in the same faith; --we have been born of the same baptism;  --we have the same glorious future; and--we share the same Father, God.   We should live peacefully with one another! Well, this has been informative.  I pray that the Holy Spirit counsels us all about these Bible verses.  I love breaking down the meanings of the words, piecemeal, in order to understand what I am reading.  I hope it helps you all, too.  Thanks for reading what the Lord has revealed to me about living in peace.   How about you, my readers? Are you living in peace with one another?  Are you living in unity within your home?  Or are you divided in your goals as a unit?  Like the saying goes, "United we stand.  Divided, we fall."  I encourage you all, my readers, to examine whether you are acting in harmony or in discord with one another.  It could change your life.  Please discuss this issue at the dinner table.  It is worth the time and effort.  I pray that God gives you all, my beloveds, His wisdom and peace.   

 
This has been an entry for the Spiritual Sundays series. 

To compile this mini- bible study, I visited: http://www.biblestudytools.com/