"THOU shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise" (Isa. 60:18). The gate to the kingdom is praise to God. This is our starting point—this thankfulness of heart for divine Love's infinitude, for the all-inclusiveness of Mind, our true and only consciousness. When we thank God for the allness of His goodness, we are loving Him and His ideas. This is a prayer of gratitude for already present harmony. Gratitude opens our mental doors to right ideas, which are God-empowered to replace false beliefs.
To the human mind, gratitude is appreciation for benefits received; but divinely conceived, it is perpetual awareness of God's kingdom. Popular theology prays to God for something desired, and then, if it is received, thanks God. But in Christian Science we learn to start with thankfulness for perfection already present. When we start with gratitude, we cut through the confusion of mortal reasoning to reality.
Christian Science corresponds with the inspired Word of the Bible in asserting that God made all and made it good. Our part, it teaches us, is to be able to recognize this goodness as the only substance of our being. God's kingdom is always intact. The part our gratitude plays is its effect upon our own thinking. It lifts our thought to spiritual perception. When we humbly and reverently thank divine Love for the ever-lastingness and all-pervasiveness of its presence, the basis of our thinking is changed from the material to the spiritual.
