"The Creator made the world a cooperative enterprise. In order for it to be that way, God had to give us the privilege of going His way or of refusing to go His way."
"But how? How do we go His way?"
"He is specific about that." She ticked the points off on her fingers: "'Love ye your enemies'...'Do good'...'Be ye therefore merciful'... 'Judge not'... 'Forgive'... And best of all, 'Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosom.' A great promise to claim!"
"What do you mean by 'claim'?'
The Quaker lady was silent for a moment. I had the impression that she was not so much thinking as listening. Then she said, "You've heard of 'staking a claim' in the old frontier days?"
"Yes."
"There was lots of rich land available back then, But in order to get any for himself, each man had to move out and claim what he wanted. If he didn't make that move, then for him nothing happened.
"This isn't a perfect analogy, but perhaps it will help to explain... God has all kinds of riches for all of us. Not just spiritual riches either. His promises in the Bible are His way of telling us what's available. But this plenty doesn't become ours until we drive in our stake on a particular promise and thus indicate that we accept that gift. That, Christy, is 'claiming.'"
"This is all new to me," I told her. "I like it."
~ Excerpt from the book "Christy" (pg. 99+100) by Catherine Marshall
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