As children of God, you and I are never outside the embrace of God, who is universal Life, Truth, and Love. Through acknowledging in prayer God's supreme, all-encompassing nature and His just government of the universe, we can increase our awareness of His ever-presence. And within our consciousness of the divine presence we find security, safety, peace, and the true justice that is rightfully ours as His children.
We are never outside of the divine jurisdiction. But is turning to God in prayer enough when dishonesty, crime, hate, destruction, illness, death, seem rampant? Is it enough when we need to find refuge and security—true justice?
Society has struggled with such questions for centuries. For instance, the prophet Habakkuk asked: "O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth." Hab. 1:2—4.
Do Habakkuk's words sound familiar? Do we ever feel similarly weighed down by the apparent injustices perpetrated in our lives? But remember, Habakkuk was reaching out to God in prayer with expectation of an answer! And he did get his answer when he realized, "The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Hab. 2:20. Despite a list of woes, he was able to regard things from a spiritual perspective. So much so that he could close his writings by stating, "I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Hab. 3:18. Habakkuk's dirge of woes became a psalm of grateful praise.
What does God require of us when injustice seems rampant in our lives? Where can we find a consistent refuge, the genuine peace and security we seek? We really can find this refuge in the consciousness of God's love gained through communion with Him in prayer.
Prayer to God is a vital force for good. Effective prayer involves approaching God humbly, with an honest heart, and with a willingness to listen for spiritual answers to our questions. In the highest sense, praying to God, universal and divine Love, is not an appeal to Him to change the divine order, because every aspect of His creation is forever in perfect order, spiritual and complete. Rather, such prayer requires us to understand and come into better conformity with God's wise, loving intent for us. Prayer cannot change God or the nature of His love. It can't bend divine justice to human will. Rather, prayer changes us by guiding our thoughts and life into alignment with divine Love's nature and requirements. Then human will yields to the divine will and to the divine standard of justice.
Another prophet, Micah, stated the primary need this way: "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Mic. 6:8.
One incident helped me greatly to understand the healing power of conforming to the divine standard of justice by meeting the requirement to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. I learned that meeting God's requirement can bring a just resolution to unjust situations.
I was dealing with intense hatred from someone who did not know me well. The hateful behavior stemmed from years of misinformation and misunderstanding that had apparently gone unchecked. Talking wasn't going to correct anything. The situation had become volatile, and I turned to God in prayer to know what to do. As I prayed, the thought kept coming, "Be nice to her. Just be nice!"
As simple as these words were, the demand to be nice seemed so hard to meet. So I turned to the Bible and found direction in these words of Christ Jesus: "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy....Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." Matt. 5:7, 43—45.
I realized the spiritual demand was to be merciful, to love her, and that this would require more humility and courage than I had ever expressed. Science and Health states: "Christian Science commands man to master the propensities,—to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success." Science and Health, p. 405.
I learned that meeting God's
requirement can bring a just solution
to unjust situations.
The true propensities of man are found in his native ability to be and do good, which is derived from his relation to God as God's beloved child, as His pure, spiritual expression. The Bible reveals God to be universal Love. Therefore, because man is the image of Love, our natural propensity can only be to love—to be kind, chaste, charitable, and honest; to be just, merciful, humble. Again, "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Following the God-derived impulsion to be good and loving despite injustice and opposition is our God-given means of defense against evil.
I saw that being kind to this person wouldn't involve conceding power or authority to evil. Rather it would require me humbly to bring forth evidence of my God-given capacity to love. Mercy was the only just and healing response to this unpleasant situation.
So I sought out opportunities to be kind toward this woman. Every single act of kindness required consecrated prayer for moral courage, both to face the hostility and to face down any tendency to feel justified in being angry. It also required a humble willingness to yield to the God-derived inclination to be kind. No matter how small the act, each was a great victory to me. I was bringing forth evidence of my constancy in walking humbly with God. It was clear that I was not meeting this challenge alone.
The greatest wrongs committed cannot change our natural, God-given propensity to love. Such a deep and abiding spiritual capacity, reflecting divine Love, has the power to heal. Three days after commencing with this prayer and kind response, I realized that I could actually love this woman; not only because I was God's loving child, but because she was His loving child—whether she realized it and acted like it or not! Nothing could stop me from loving her as she really was. What freedom this brought. The hateful behavior stopped immediately and was replaced with profound peace between us. The woman could not help responding positively. The hatred simply could not continue to exist in the presence of kindness and love and a perception of her true nature.
Micah wrote, "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good." When facing unjust situations, what does God require of us but the humble willingness to live consistently with the spiritual demand to be merciful, to love. Christ Jesus' profound teaching "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy" is such a simple requirement. But when understood and practiced, what powerful, radical, healing results it produces! Blessed are they who do justly through the tender expression of humility, mercy, and love, with a constant, reverent awareness of the presence and power of God, for they shall obtain true justice and permanent healing.
