HOW important it is that each individual understand and demonstrate constantly the nature, presence, power, and love of God! Indeed, this is the mark of the genuine Christian Scientist. It is for this reason that he studies each day his textbooks, the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. From this study and from prayer and quiet meditation, he gains an ever-unfolding awareness of what God is.
Without this earnest seeking and daily demonstrating, one's understanding of God tends to become set and limited. The book of Judges speaks of the generation which Joshua had led into the Promised Land; then it states (2:10), "There arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." God was to them merely "the Lord God of their fathers" (verse 12), not of themselves.
One important reason for demonstrating what one understands of God and of man in His image and likeness is that through this demonstrating, we are continually aware of the presence, power, and availability of God, divine Love, to meet our needs. It was this thought that the Psalmist expressed when he said (Ps. 46:1), "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
