Christianity has always maintained that God meets every human need abundantly. The master Christian insisted that people should never be concerned about their supply of human necessities—even food and clothing—because God, the divine Father of all, "knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Matt. 6:32; And his followers have continued to say the same. Paul, for instance, wrote, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19;
Doubtless these comforting assurances have sustained and strengthened millions over the centuries. They have dispelled fear in times of trouble, even in all kinds of mortal crises. And they surely will continue to do so until the last human problem has been entirely solved. There is ample evidence that those who trust in God's care do have their needs met in the most practical ways.
The Christly understanding of God's love for man brings sweet assurance that we are never left alone to struggle with difficult conditions. We are never helpless, never dependent upon limited, physical resources of our own for strength or the ability to accomplish whatever needs to be done. There is no situation or condition too dangerous or urgent in all the world in which God, omnipotent good, cannot reach us and miraculously rescue us, or provide wisdom, protection, or direction according to the need, heal disease, and transform discord into harmony. This applies to every human being everywhere—to the farthest parts of the earth. Not one is excluded from God's care. Not one can forfeit it.
The history of Christendom is generously punctuated with accounts of human needs being met through divine power. Such miracles of divine grace are not haphazard or supernatural. Christian Science shows they are the consequence of the operation of spiritual law. They take place whenever the understanding of God's love comes to human consciousness, dispels fear, and lifts human thought to acknowledge the divine Providence.
Miracles will occur more often and with even wider effect when we learn to trust God more absolutely and to look for proofs of His care with more expectancy. And when we do, we will witness wiser handling of all the world's affairs; progressively less evidence of lack and suffering; more intelligence in the government of the nations, the business world, the churches; more harmony in homes and families; more personal problems solved; more health and happiness established in place of disease and depression.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that God is able to meet all human needs, people sometimes question this aspect of His power on the basis that God, divine Spirit, is All-in-all and there is none else. The Bible insists that He is "of purer eyes than to behold evil." Hab. 1:13; How, then, they ask, is He able to discern a need in the mortal world in order to heal it? They agree that since there is none beside Him, infinite good, there is no reality in any discord—or, indeed, in the material world or mortal existence as a whole. They maintain that God cannot know of a realm that does not exist in truth. How can He supply a human need, guide human beings in the paths of right government, provide solutions to worldly problems—all in a dream universe, which does not truly exist and which He does not know?
Yet God does do all these things. He always has and always will. As Mrs. Eddy says, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." Science and Health, p. 494;
God, Spirit, meets the human need through Christ. Through Christ the divine idea reaches the human consciousness and elevates it to discern in the place of its own insubstantiality and inharmony the actuality of perfect, spiritual being. In this being there is no lack, no suffering, no discord.
The human mind does not possess of itself the power either to improve itself, heal itself, or to know what is spiritually true. It does not expose its own unreality and of itself give place to the divine Mind, Truth. The power to know and establish spiritual truth belongs only to God, Spirit. "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" asks Paul. And he continues, "Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." I Cor. 2:11;
The spirit of God is ever present with everyone in his true being, and it becomes operative in human thought insofar as the individual is awakened to divine consciousness through Christ, God's Mind's, manifestation. When this occurs, there is an immediate influx of spiritual understanding—the healing light that dispels illusion. The field of consciousness is then left free to bring forth God's phenomena of abundance, health, and harmony.
Mrs. Eddy describes this healing activity in her poem Christ and Christmas:
Forever present, bounteous, free,
Christ comes in gloom;
And aye, with grace towards you and me,
For health makes room. Chr., p. 27 ;
God is the only healing power. It is only through divine grace—the revelation to human consciousness of God's love—that human needs are ever really met. These needs exist only in belief. In truth there is no lack, no discord, no ill health, no death. God, divine Love, governs all through immutable laws of harmony. His man is invariably whole and free. When this understanding displaces an error of belief, that error is dissolved, true consciousness asserts itself, and humanity sees the effect as healing.
Whatever the nature of a human need, however long it has seemed stubbornly to persist, however unworthy of help and healing an individual may feel himself to be, God's power is always available to meet it. Mrs. Eddy says, "Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods." Science and Health, p. 67.
