Good is here, regardless

To someone burdened by unhappiness, the idea that health and joy are available every moment might seem strange. But good ism possible regardless of how concrete or knotty our troubles appear to be. It's within our grasp now because God is always present, and He is infinitely more powerful than the shadows of evil we may be wrestling with at the moment.

The challenge is to feel His goodness and prove it. We can meet the challenge as we reject the thought that happiness can only be found -- if at all -- in the future, or that it's confined to the past. Our well-being isn't dependent on events, places, or people of some former time nor on a stroke of good fortune in the future. It's depedent on God, who is always providing his creation with everything it needs.

We see this throughout the Bible -- in the lives of Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and in the unparalleled example of Christ Jesus. The timeless truths they perceived and practiced are present to be discerned and proved today.

For example, there was time when I felt that good was lost, that the people and style of living I associated with happiness were gone forever. But I began to see through Christian Science that all good comes from God. Even though good is expressed in people and events, the source is always divine. That's why good is available now and not depedent on the passage of time. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above," the Bible reminds us, "and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." n1

n1 James 1:17

I lterally woke up to the nowness, the eternality, of good. The result? New opportunities, new friends, and a deep appreciation for even the smallest signs of God's provision in every phase of life.

Good only seems distant and unattainable to the extent that we hold a limited sense of God and man. Through study of the Bible's healing message, through mentally listening to His direction in silent prayer, we can come into rapport with God, with the one infinite, divine Mind. Then we'll find our life brightened by pure thoughts from Him. We'll become more conscious of, and begin to experience, good as the present fact of our being. We'll gain a clearer sense of our actual selfhood -- not as an unfortunate mortal but as the immortal , satisfied image of God, amply provided for now and always. New possibilities and fresh opportunities come into view as we open our thought to this higher concept of God and man.

Christ Jesus' healing works sliced through the delusion that man is a victim of circumstance and that time can interfere with the immediate appearing of good. Through the power of God he freed people who had been suffering for years , even decades. he said, "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." n2

n2 John 4:35

The truths of God and man demonstrated by our Way-shower can be proved, to some degree, by each of us. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes, "It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good." n3

n3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 494.

We need to recognize and deal compassionately with people's problems and with the challenges that face humanity as a whole. They can't be resolved with a simple assertion that good is present. The demand is to cultivate an understandingm that good is present, because God is infinite, the only power now, however wicked or stubborn the situation seems.

As we individually strive to live by Jesus' teachings and to place our trust in God, we'll prove more and more that good is indestructible. DAILY BIBLE VERSE When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. Isaiah 41:17, 18