How often in daily life we find ourselves faced with a difficult situation, and we ask ourselves: "Is there a way out? Can a solution be found?" Christian Science reveals that if we pray to God aright, we can find the answer to every question burdening our thought—the solution to all human problems.
Christian Science associates prayer with spiritual understanding. Its teachings, interpreting the Scriptures, give us an understanding of God as infinite, ever-present Spirit. They also reveal that God, the all-knowing Mind, is the only intelligence of man. Since man, according to the spiritual record of creation in Genesis, was made in God's image and likeness, he partakes of God's nature. The spiritual understanding of God and of man's relation to Him, therefore, is the key to the solution of all our problems.
Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, solved the problems confronting him through the understanding of his indissoluble relationship with God, his heavenly Father. It was the Christ, the spiritual idea of God, which enabled Jesus to meet and master these demands. He proved the power of the Christ beyond all doubt in his beneficent work for the welfare of mankind.
Whether the problem was a severe illness, a question of supply, a storm at sea, or the aggressive evidence of sin and death, Jesus was equal to the challenge. He found the right solution, thus proving man's God-bestowed dominion over all the earth. In the Sermon on the Mount he gave us the key to an understanding of his mighty works in the following significant statement (Matt. 6:33): "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
On page 2 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy asks, "Are we benefited by praying?" and then she gives us this comforting answer: "Yes, the desire which goes forth hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return unto us void."
Anyone who has studied the life of our Leader will know that she spoke from experience. After her discovery of Christian Science in 1866, and later on when she published the textbook and founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, she frequently had to overcome difficulties that seemed superhuman and to make far-reaching decisions. The right solution always unfolded to her through prayer, through the scientific understanding of God as the creative, governing, and sustaining Principle of the universe, including man.
We are deeply impressed by the fearlessness and foresight reflected in the steps she took to preserve unsullied her revelation of Christian Science in its divinely bestowed purity and in establishing in the Church of Christ, Scientist, a form of organization which would assure mankind of the beneficent operation of this revelation for all time.
Mrs. Eddy devoted her life wholly to God's service. She claimed no personal merit. She knew that man is not the author of intelligence, wisdom, and discernment, but that these are divine qualities, which man as God's image reflects. In difficult situations in daily life it is always helpful to loose our tasks from the limiting notions of personal capacity or incapacity and become so at one with God that His work may be done through our individual reflection of the one omniactive Mind.
Nothing is beyond divine Mind. Mind is all-knowing, all-seeing. Mind expresses in man all the inherent qualities and capacities of true being in all their perfection and unfailing efficacy. Knowing this, we can manifest the ability, wisdom, and foresight needed to accomplish our tasks to the blessing of all concerned and to the glory of God.
As a businessman I was once faced with a situation calling for an immediate decision. Our firm had been commissioned to carry out an urgent export order. It was destined for East Africa, and there was only one ship bound for the port of entry every four weeks. Therefore the order had to be shipped on a particular day if it was to reach the port and be transported overland before the rainy season set in. Everything had been carefully planned to guarantee correct handling of the order. However, the breakdown of a machine upset all the arrangements. It was doubtful whether the necessary repairs could be made in time.
I turned away for a moment from the tumult of human opinions, arguments, fears, and pessimistic predictions and asked God to show me what to do. Since God is all-knowing and ever present, I knew that the right way to correct the situation was at hand. After a few moments, I was led to make a definite recommendation to our machinists. They did not seem interested, because they had other solutions in mind, which, if followed, would have been much more time-consuming. Then I realized that Mind is not only all-knowing but also omniactive, that intelligence is expressed in spontaneous, vital action.
It became clear to me that this was not a matter of one human personality attempting to control an adverse condition, but that the all-knowing Mind had absolute command of the situation and that this Mind expressed itself through all its ideas. Soon one of the machinists accepted my proposal; and in a very short time the machine was working again, and we were able to deliver the order in time.
When we are faced with a difficult situation, we must not listen to suggestions of personal sense. We must not resign ourselves to a situation or try to force a solution through human will. We must give up our false sense of responsibility, our fears, and our limited concept of man and his divinely bestowed abilities—in short, all that constitutes an erroneous, mortal selfhood. As we then prayerfully cling to the true, spiritual status of man as God's likeness we are reflecting God, the all-knowing, omniactive Mind, and glorifying Him in all that we do.
Our work will be the manifestation of God, infinite good. It will demonstrate the spontaneity of Spirit. On page 326 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes, "Working and praying with true motives, your Father will open the way."
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the Lord his God: . . . which
executeth judgment for the oppressed: which
giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the pris
oners: the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the
Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the
Lord loveth the righteous.—Psalm146:5-8
.
