Day 12 - Surrendering to the Will of God

“…O thou who hast surrendered thy will to God! By self-surrender and perpetual union with God is meant that men should merge their will wholly in the Will of God, and regard their desires as utter nothingness beside His Purpose. Whatsoever the Creator commandeth His creatures to observe, the same must they diligently, and with the utmost joy and eagerness, arise and fulfill. They should in no wise allow their fancy to obscure their judgment, neither should they regard their own imaginings as the voice of the Eternal. ”

- Bahá’u’lláh -

When speaking about, surrendering to the Will of God, observing the fast, or any sort of Divine Laws and Commandments, is essentially, already practicing this surrendering.

For had you not actively surrendered to it, you would not be observing them - cause let’s face it, not all of these Divine Laws are easily digestible for the mind at first glance, given the current plight of our society and standards thereof, but the spirit knows where it’s at so it obeys them even if the mind is like, for realzies? You’re going to starve me for 19 days from sunrise to sunset, you cray cray~

Surrendering to the Will of God, is like opening the palms of your hands, so that God can grab the problem from your hands. Many people raise their hands with clenched fists to God and want Him to take away their problems - these people don’t understand a couple things.

One is, God can’t take away from you, the one Gift that He Himself gave to you in the first place - the gift of choice, agency and decision. With a clentched fist, He can’t violate your hands, commit an act of ‘violence’ on you to take it from you, pluck it from your fingers, and be like, alright, I got this~

That’s so not graceful yo!

Granted that He has the capacity of course to do whatever He wants at all times, He won’t do it under regular circumstances, cause violating a Gift is not an every day thing that God wants to do, you know?

It’s just not His style.

It’s more of like a special day occasion type of thing, or an exceptionally rare and absolutely must basis kind of thing, where He can’t bear to watch you hurt yourself and swoop in for something - God created His own emergency breaks that only He is aware of!

Two is, this is precisely why we have to pray! Haven’t you ever thought about the whole, if God is the All-Knowing and All-Wise, why He would even make it redundant, and command us to pray, commune with Him, and tell Him what we want? I mean, what would be the use of prayer if He already knew everything?

THIS.IS.EXACTLY.WHY.

Because it requires the surrendering of our will to His, the act of prayer, literally, like reading the Words that have been given to us to read by the Prophets, are like trusting that we are reading the blueprint of how to ‘surrender to the Will of God’, we are not even recommended to use our own words, in case, we get lost and say the wrong thing.

Prayer is like a guaranteed letting go of all else and surrendering to the Will of God the way He wants us to - specifically because, the magnet power of the Word of the Manifestations of God fans us ever more greatly, gives us that kick towards the surrendering and trust to the Will of God.

Meditation

Meditation on Trust in God

• The link above directs you to the library of last years meditations during the Baha’i Fast, you are most welcome to listen to any and all of the podcasts and meditation practices!

Reflection Questions

1. Why or why do you not surrender in God’s Will? What happened that confirmed or aroused suspicion to the Will of God?

2. How do you recognize the Will of God and attune to it?

3. What are the types of feelings that the word ‘surrender’ arouse in you? Do you feel a sense of giving up? If so, why? Explain

Prayer

“O Lord! Render victorious Thy forbearing servants in Thy days by granting them a befitting victory, inasmuch as they have sought martyrdom in Thy path. Send down upon them that which will bring comfort to their minds, will rejoice their inner beings, will impart assurance to their hearts and tranquillity to their bodies and will enable their souls to ascend to the presence of God, the Most Exalted, and to attain the supreme Paradise and such retreats of glory as Thou hast destined for men of true knowledge and virtue. Verily, Thou knowest all things, while we are but Thy servants, Thy thralls, Thy bondsmen and Thy poor ones. No Lord but Thee do we invoke, O God our Lord, nor do we implore blessings or grace from anyone but Thee, O Thou Who art the God of mercy unto this world and the next. We are but the embodiments of poverty, of nothingness, of helplessness and of perdition, while Thy whole Being betokeneth wealth, independence, glory, majesty and boundless grace. 

Turn our recompense, O Lord, into that which well beseemeth Thee of the good of this world and of the next, and of the manifold bounties which extend from on high down to the earth below. 

Verily, Thou art our Lord and the Lord of all things. Into Thy hands do we surrender ourselves, yearning for the things that pertain unto Thee.”

—The Báb 

Tomorrow’s Day 13/19 purification series will be starting the FIRST of the Kosha’s, meaning layers of the human body.

Remainder of the 19 Days of Purifications Theme Topics

The Five Koshas 
13. Physical [NEXT]
14. Energetic 
15. Mental/Emotional 
16. The Witness
17. Bliss Body 

18. Summary 
19. Maintaining purification

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Introduction to the Author 

作者简介

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Nahal Haghbin's Chinese name is Chen Nana, a Canadian-born foreigner who grew up in Tianjin, China. She is an Integrative Yoga Therapist (IAYT) in training. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences from the University of British Columbia and a Master's degree in Control of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 2014, Nahal worked with the World Health Organization on the H7N9, MERS-CoV and Ebola global outbreaks whilst serving in the Assistant Director General's Office Taskforce. It was her teenage experience of SARS in 2003, that led her to choose her eventual profession and future career in the control of infectious disease outbreaks. 

作者简介：Nahal Haghbin 中文名字：陈娜娜，出生于加拿大，在中国天津长大的外籍人士。她是一名在训的综合瑜伽理疗师（IAYT），她拥有英国哥伦比亚大学生命科学学士学位和伦敦卫生及热带医学院传染病控制科学硕士学位。2014年，Nahal与世界卫生组织合作处理H7N9、MERS-CoV和埃博拉全球疫情，同时在助理总干事办公室工作组任职。正是2003年她十几岁时的非典经历，让她最终选择了她未来的职业方向：控制传染病的爆发

Nahal has found that she can best be of service to mankind by combining her passions of global health and integrative yoga therapy. To her, both serve as complementary systems of knowledge to interpret the world around her. Nahal has found that by bridging the two disciplines, it broadens the availability of language and understanding that she can access, to share her interpretations of various health conditions. 

Nahal发现她能结合自己对全球健康和综合瑜伽理疗的热情，为人类提供最好的服务。对她来说两者是互为补充的知识系统，可以用来帮她解读周围的世界。Nahal发现连接这两个学科拓宽了语言和理解的可用性，使她能够分享她对不同疾病的理解.