What God Gives...
We live in a searching society. It’s not uncommon to search the internet for everything from buttons to bulldozers. If we don’t know an answer to something we say, “I don’t know. Let me google that” and the search begins. It’s nothing new, but as our methods of searching advances with technology we may be lured into thinking that our searches are solely materially based and so materially answered.
There is something more than mere intellectual, technological searching, which is matter-based therefore limited. Humanity is reaching out for something more, something beyond itself. This “something” is God. This spiritual search and desire to gain a deeper understanding of God and of our relationship with God, as God's child, satisfies us in ways that matter never can or will. This is because only what comes from Spirit, God, is permanent and complete. Only God can give a deep inner spiritual sense of wholeness and perfection. Only God can supply the spiritual qualities necessary for spiritual development and deepening spiritual understanding, which is so satisfying that we come to the true realization that all that is needed is received from God, good, and it’s always in spiritual qualities and thoughts. These spiritual thoughts then, these right and divine directions, are our daily supplies.
The Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, explains: “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment. What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet assurance is the ‘Peace, be still’ to all human fears, to suffering of every sort” (Mis 307:1).
Spiritual ideas, that God, divine Mind, gives present perfection and wholeness. They assert man's completeness and wholeness. They tell of man's oneness with God. They encourage trust in God for all needs; and they assure God-given supply of all right ideas, which then manifest themselves in ways and means necessary to meet the human need. These are daily supplies that come directly from God, divine Mind, to man – Mind’s perfect idea, or child. They are ever-present here and now. And as we learn to wholly lean upon divine Mind for these right, spiritual and scientific thoughts we find they bring with them a spiritual peace, a deep inner trust in God, a spiritual sense of His love and care. They are manifested in healing: in the disappearance of disease, the conquering of sin, and the destruction of evil.
This was certainly true in the experience of the Founder of Christian Science! Mrs. Eddy writes in her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “For three years after my discovery, I sought the solution of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scriptures and read little else, kept aloof from society, and devoted time and energies to discovering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing” (SH 109:15-16). Our search, too, for truth, for spiritual right ideas, begins with turning to the scriptures, where we find divine guidance and support. This is what makes our spiritual search, which precedes any human footsteps we may be eager to take, sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope, never selfish, depressing, nor oppressing, because a true spiritual search for a solution to a problem begins with turning to God’s Word and letting His Word lead us closer to Him. In His Word we find the right ideas necessary for our healing. The Bible is reassuring when it states, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Ps. 119:105).
A practical use of Scripture can be based in any of the simple petitions of the Psalmist. If we were to refer to Psalm 43:3: “O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me” we can use this prayer at face value, as a petitionary cry for light, truth and guidance. Or, we can use the right ideas in this Psalm and rephrase them into a deeply Christianly scientific treatment for ourselves and/or humanity. By spiritually understanding that God’s light and His truth leads in all ways at all times we can, through spiritual logic, pray: ‘God gives me His light and truth.' Or, more affirmatively, 'I possess God's light and truth right now and I see my path, hear His truth, and feel His light and truth guiding me unerringly.’ This scientific verity, then, opens thought to see God’s present guidance and to listen for His directing. It states, in present tense, what is going on right now, in reality, as we safely rest on this truth to uplift thought and dispel fear and darkness.
Not only in the Psalms, but throughout scripture we find practical, operative, truths that lead us to a clearer understanding of our relationship to God, divine Love. The Scriptural messages, right ideas, are infinite and each one points to God as savior and healer. The way unfolds beautifully, opportunities are revealed, solutions are found as already present here and now because right ideas are always present, coming from God to man directly and completely. This makes the search sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope.
It should also be noted, that if it appears the spiritual search and effort to get closer to God becomes depressing, discouraging, or debilitating, then this false claim should be quickly and correctly labeled as the carnal mind, of which St. Paul discusses, and it can be prayerfully destroyed and rebuked as unreal, unimpressive, and useless. Christianity scientifically speaking, this so-called carnal mind, or mortal mind, is simply trying to oppose the all-knowing, all-seeing divine Mind, God. It is simply trying to inhibit the present realization of God’s presence. It is simply trying to thwart any spiritual search for a deeper understanding of man's relationship with God, and it is powerless to do so. It is powerless because in reality there is no power opposed to God, good. Mortal mind, a mind separate from God, is not possible if divine Mind is omnipresent, -- which it is! All misstatements of the carnal mind are false, powerless and are at the mercy of Spirit, God. The truth is, God's creation has all that God has, all right ideas, and is inseparable from Him! All that is God-given, God-provided, God-protected, and God-originated is also man's, God's creation.
The most important search any of us can ever undertake is the spiritual search to understand our relationship to God, because to get to know God, to find Him, to listen to Him, to walk with Him, satisfies us like nothing else can. We then find that all our needs are, in reality, supplied by Him through spiritual right ideas, for He gives His child all that He has. Christ Jesus teaches us: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7).
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Contact: Lynn Jackson:
Email: lynn@jacksoncsb.com
Website: Lynn Jackson, CSB
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