When he was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt into the promised land, Moses was confronted with many problems, none perhaps more persistent and insidious than his recurring distrust of his ability to carry out his mission. On one occasion he received the reassuring divine promise, "My presence shall go with thee."
Today God has assigned to each one of us the task of leaving the Egypt of mortal mind with its enslaving beliefs of war, fear, hate, want, limitation, and death. Again God's promise, "My presence shall go with thee," is with us as it was with Moses. As Moses and the children of Israel were helped in their journey, so too shall we be helped and ultimately reach the promised land of freedom from all want and fear, all sin and sickness, as we acknowledge and accept, here and now, our reflection of God's presence, of infinite intelligence, and realize our ever-present safety, health, refreshing rest, fearlessness, and diseaseless being. In the presence of God, there is no old age, no futility, no change, no failure, no deterioration. In divine reflection there exists now, for each one of us, a right answer to every problem. Indeed, a problem ceases to be a problem when it is mastered through a realization of God's presence; in its place appears the answer, the solution.
In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 242), Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final triumph over the body." How important it is, then, that we learn how to take this "great step." Before we can deny the claims of error, however, we must detect them, must recognize that mortal mind, ever seeking to imitate the one and only Mind, tries to send forth its spurious promise that its presence, rather than God's presence, shall go with us.
