Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book: How can I continually do what is right and also please the lord?

Q: How can I continually do what is right and also please the lord? I always find myself doing what I do not want to do, and it's killing me. Please help me.

A: I understand what you're asking... how to do the right thing when the wrong thing is easier. There is no magic thought or deed that can force you to do right, because God has endowed you with free will which is the freedom to choose between good and bad, right and wrong -- you're just as free to choose either one. Since you want to do what is right then you are already able to discern what is good/bad or right/wrong and you're having difficulty making the choice to do the good thing. You're fortunate, because some people seem unable to discern which is which.

This is where character comes into play. Is your character strong or weak? If it's weak then you have to begin to strengthen it through making a series of simple/easy choices and stick with them; for example... no chocolate for the rest of the week; no smoking or drinking for the next 10 days, go to bed before 10pm this month, give 25 cents to every needy person you see for the next two weeks, no swearing for 5 days... these kinds of simple decisions will require you to concentrate on following through with your decision. As the simple decisions become easier to stick to then the more difficult ones will be come easier too.

If you already have a strong character and you're just not making good choices it's because you're lazy. To improve on that use a similar technique to the above but choose to do the kind of things that combat laziness. You may also have to make some choices regarding who your real friends and associates should be.

Basically, what you have to do is to strengthen your sense of morality, your integrity, your virtue. The only gift you have to give to God is your decision to do his will in your life.

Morality has its origin in self-consciousness. The physical environment entails the battle for existence; social surroundings necessitate ethical adjustments; moral situations require making choices in the highest realms of reason.

Limitations of intellect, curtailment of education, deprivation of culture, impoverishment of social status, even inferiority of the standards of morality resulting from the lack of educational, cultural, and social advantages, cannot invalidate the presence of the divine spirit in such unfortunate and handicapped but believing individuals.

Morality can never be advanced by law or by force. It is a personal and freewill matter and must be disseminated by the contagion of the contact of morally fragrant persons with those who are less morally responsive, but who are also in some measure desirous of doing the Father's will.

Labels: character, free will, God, morality

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