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Several years ago I woke with...

From the December 1998 issue of The Christian Science Journal


Several years ago I woke with what would be called an organic disorder. The pain was so severe I could hardly think. I did my best to pray but found I was repeating words without much conviction. Fear seemed overwhelming. As I did my best to reach out to God, I found I was repeating the thought that God imparts to man harmony, order, perfection, and does so eternally. Suddenly I realized the first letters in those four words —harmony, order, perfection, eternally—spell hope.

To me, this was an angel message from God awakening me. It was not an uncertain hope that things would get better; but it was hope based on the operation of unvarying spiritual law. It was the kind of hope that encouraged me to know that I could put my full trust in God. Suddenly I was no longer just repeating words. I knew that the basis of my hope was that God is assuredly imparting harmony, order, perfection, and that He does so eternally, without interruption.

I thought of several Bible verses that encourage hope, including the one that reads, "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (I John 3:3). I saw that purity represents the unadulterated perfection of man in God's likeness. Very soon I was completely freed of the pain, and I slept peacefully.

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