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How Can Trials Be Blessings?

From the August 1974 issue of The Christian Science Journal


"To those leaning on the sustaining infinite," we read in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, "to-day is big with blessings." Science and Health, p. vii; But sometimes our day may not appear to be big with blessings. In fact, just the opposite may seem to be the case. Does this indicate we are not "leaning on the sustaining infinite"? Not necessarily. Jesus' life did not always seem to be filled with what would be called blessings. And yet he, more than all others, leaned wholeheartedly on his heavenly Father for every need. And his needs were filled.

One might ask himself what he is expecting in the way of blessings. Must they be continuous peace and harmony? Trials can also be blessings. The Scriptures are filled with accounts of struggles with evil followed by triumphant victories through radical reliance on God. Shakespeare recognized the fact that blessings can come in disguise. He wrote of the sweetness of "the uses of adversity," that make it possible to find "sermons in stones, and good in everything."

Finding mere ease in matter should not be a goal of any follower of Christ, Truth. One may need testing times until all belief in a power or existence apart from God gives way to the realization of the uninterrupted eternal harmony of God's spiritual creation. Here and hereafter these tests are requisite for mortals.

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