Discouragement is always just a moment away, but a few words of inspiration can change discouragement into hope. This site is dedicated to the task of filling you with the urge and ability to live in Hope. Life is not easy. There are many articles here that cover the areas of our life that fall victim to discouragement. Some of these articles may be controversial, some are downright theological, and some are psychological. All are intended to help you have hope. The basic assumption of Words of Inspiration is that we are spiritual beings, that we have a mind (soul), and that both of these are contained in a body. These articles will be about the relationship of these three parts of us and how keeping them in balance is what produces ongoing hope. A person living in balance, inspired by hope, does not live according to the dictates of his body nor to all the thoughts that pass through his mind, but he lives out of his spirit. By reading these articles and prayerfully reflecting on them, the spirit can be restored to it's proper place of being in charge of our life.

How to move around this site

1 Pick the box on the side that seems to be the words of inspiration you need.

2. Play your hunch, but don’t just jump all around. At least get through the article and allow it to sink in a little. I am keeping these articles very short but they are packed and hopefully they will get you inspired and feeling hopeful.

3. Don’t dig too deep. Find something, read it, reflect on it and let it inspire you. Come back the next day and do it again. I’ll be adding to the site on an ongoing basis so there will always be something else to ponder.

4. Throughout the site I will be suggesting an activity that will activate the inspiration gained by reflecting on the article. Most of these suggestions will be at the end of an article and will be based on the contents of the article. If you come up with your own activity, so much the better. The best activity is to write your on words of inspiration.

5. I have just added a contact page. I am going to be adding a lot more pages and my book in just the next few days. If you don't see it then contact me and jump my case.

In order to give you an idea of what kind articles are here, I have put one on this front page:

FORGIVENESS

It’s not that God forgives us only as we forgive others. It’s more that if we have an unforgiving nature then God’s forgiveness is meaninglessness. For forgiveness is an act of love. And it is God’s nature to love and love He will do in all cases. He would have to have a nature other than love, contrary to love, to not forgive.

So what about the Lord’s prayer, where it plainly says to ask God to forgive us as we forgive our neighbor? Jesus gave us this prayer in response to the request of the disciples teach us to pray. It is not a statement about how God forgives, but a statement about how to be humble in making our request.

Even though we know God is going to forgive us, we should ask, not for God’s sake but for our own sake. Just because someone has an infinite supply of something does not mean we shouldn’t ask for it.

Jesus is saying pray with a humble heart. Do not ask for more than you feel you deserve even though you know that God is love and and love is an act, and forgiveness is going to be granted. The same applies to ‘give us this day our daily bread.’ This is contrary to give me great wealth so I won’t be dependent on you any more. Which request comes from the humble heart? So one of Jesus’ teachings with the prayer is “don’t take advantage of God’s nature” If you do then you are not requesting but manipulating and this does not teach love. For learning to love is the whole point of Jesus and the whole point of everything we do. It’s kind of like knowing the answer but now what is the right question.

In the above, forgiveness and love have been tied together. It takes love to forgive. Love is the energy that produces forgiveness. For to forgive is to reset the relationship so that one is no longer offended by the other. Anger and resentment end. And this is the hard part, the stage is reset such that the offense could happen all over again. This last part is saying I forgive you. Our human tendency is to protect ourselves so we tend to say I forgive you but I won’t forget. Or I forgive you but I won’t allow myself to be put in this situation again. Or we say I forgive you but then end the relationship. True forgiveness is beyond our ability with our natural human resources, requiring more than just our human effort. Jesus goes on to say that if we don’t forgive our neighbor that God will not forgive us. This appears to say that it is all on us to do the forgiving but if taken literally this puts ‘God is love’ in question. What Jesus is saying is that we simply cannot expect to experience God’s forgiveness if we are still carrying unforgiveness. The effect of unforgiveness is too blinding to be able to see God loving us and forgiving us. So the effect will be as if God did not forgive us. On the cross Jesus says “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”. This is the moment of salvation for humanity. Notice that humanity had no idea of what was going on, and for the most part still doesn’t know that that request for forgiveness on the cross covers all sin by everyone, in the past, present and future. It was as if Jesus said Father be who you are, be love, be forgiveness. Every time we ask for forgiveness, we are going back to those words by Jesus on the cross and any experience of forgiveness is based on how we incorporate those words into our life by forgiving our neighbor.

We have to use the Holy Spirit to forgive. As we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into forgiveness and supply the necessary courage to truly forgive, we become aware and understand the purpose of our life; to learn to love so that we too may experience the kingdom of Heaven right here, right now.