Inheriting the Earth

I've been reading, hearing, witnessing, etc... a seemingly Divine Truth these past weeks, so I'm assuming this is God drumming a message into my little brain.  Perspective, perspective, perspective?  When Jesus says "inherit the earth,"  I really had no idea whatsoever what he meant.  "Inherit the earth?"  huh?  Well, it came to me through my reading, hearing and witnessing, that "earth" really means "world."  Not as in the big round blue ball floating in space, but in the way we say things like, "Her world is pretty chaotic," Or "His world is full of blessings."  And what we mean by that is our personal experience and our perspective on our own individual lives.

Emmet Fox talks about "inheriting the earth" meaning we gain control over how we perceive our reality.  And that brings us to our topic today... How we think.

How we think shapes our reality.  If we think we don't have any friends, then we will make little effort to make friends and then our thinking will be our reality.  If we think we can't stop drinking, then that will be our reality.  If we think we're not worthy of love, then we probably won't experience a lot of love in our lives.

Lately in my recovery meetings, I'm hearing over and over again from some folks who have a lot of time living sober, that the transformation that occurred in their lives began with how they thought about things.  As they slowly changed their thinking, their behavior changed.  For me, two months ago I decided "I'm a non-smoker."  I didn't say to myself "I'm going to try to stop smoking" because whenever I try to do something I tend to fail at it.  Making the decision and choosing to think differently about cigarettes has helped me stay off them for two months now.  I believe that if I maintain my thinking that "I'm a non-smoker," that will continue to be my reality.

Now regarding food.  I've gained 15 pounds since treatment and I'm thinking that if I change my thoughts about food, the 15 pounds will come flying off.  But here's the thing, if I'm really and I mean rrreeeaaalllyyy honest with myself, I don't want to change my thoughts about food.  I don't want to give up my chocolate every night.  I am not ready to make that a reality because I enjoy food so much.  The work ahead of me now is to move into a place where being a comfortable weight outweighs my love for food.  So I begin with prayer, asking God to help me have a desire to be healthy.  That's how prayer works, it's the beginning of changing our thoughts, thus changing our reality, hence "inheriting the earth."