What use is God if he can’t actually do anything for us?
Part 2
A similar, hugely beneficial effect of our new understanding of God, relates to the idea of keeping faith. Again, this acts both within the individual life of each believer, and actually operates as a channel of communication between people – even though they are not in contact. Interestingly, this channel works in exactly the same way as in the traditional understanding of God.
So, traditionally, let’s say I am worried about my daughter, who lives a long way away, and is having a hard time. I am not going to be able to visit her to comfort her for ages. So, I say a prayer to God and give him my message of comfort for my daughter. I conceive of him drawing close to her and saying, “I have a message for you from your father; he is rooting for you and sends his love”. However, this sounds like the sort of thing we now acknowledge God cannot do: he is not some sort of spiritual telegraph system; we said that God can only work within each individual’s mind. However, under the idea of “keeping faith”, God does indeed act as a sort of spiritual telegraph system, even though both my daughter and myself are only talking to ourselves (or, rather, talking to the God who is the voice within our own minds), not to each other. So, I keep faith with her and with God. I go out into my garden to look at the moon, and in my heart and mind, I say my prayer: “Dear Lord, I love my daughter so much; please will you lift her up by your great Spirit and give her the strength she needs”. At some point – and the timing is not crucial – my daughter keeps faith with me and with God, and in her heart and mind thinks things over before God and says to herself and to God: “I bet my father is thinking about me and sending me his love, and calling on you Lord to lift me up by your mighty Spirit. And I know too, Lord, that you want me to be whole and well”. As we said at the start, that our new understanding of God maintains the whole of the inner life of personal relationship with God, then, as my daughter says her prayer, all the sustaining love and power of God floods into her heart and mind. The message of my prayer has been delivered to her because we both kept faith.
Spiritual Devotion 