What do you know for sure?

That's a common greeting in my part of the world. "Not too much!" comes the good-natured reply -- or we may just give a slightly startled laugh. After all, if taken seriously, the question can be rather unsettling.

We may have wondered just how much the human mind can know for sure. So many of the "facts" of this world that we take for granted rest on shaky foundations. But we can be more certain of what's true, eternally true, as we get better acquainted with God. What He knows is for sure, because He is the only true creator, the one infinite Mind. His image, man, is forever conscious of the truth He knows and has established. Our knowing, then, more nearly approximates the divine as we realize that God alone is Mind, the source of eternal truth.

For example, the flu once threatened to overwhelm me during a six-hour car trip with several other people. I started to pray, but at first my prayers were more like wishes that the long trip would be over so that I could be by myself and sleep in my own bed for a while. When the distress was most acute, I found myself turning to the one Mind, silently asking, "What do I know for sure?"

As I took stock of my mental cupboard it seemed pathetically bare, but even so I was receptive to the truth that Mind was revealing. The thought came that there was one thing I could unequivocally state and realize: God is Love. In desperation I sought to feel Love's presence, which would quiet my shaken, quaking consciousness. I knew without a shadow of doubt that divine Love loved me and every other living creature. With awe, I felt the reality and radiance of that infinite Love, and I was healed. The rest of the drive was a pleasure, and there was no need to retire when we reached our destination.

I had clung to the only truth I could unreservedly accept -- in this case that God is Love. I was able to hang on to that because it was a divine fact, transcending human circumstance. It was unquestionable. It was spiritual reality. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things." n1

n1 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 207.

Christ Jesus was apparently so certain of the presence of a God who is Life and Love that he was able to call his friend Lazarus forth from the tomb. "And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes." n2

n2 John 11:44.

When Jesus insisted, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," n3 he surely wasn't talking about wishful thinking or halfhearted hoping. He healed sickness and other discords with such sureness and swiftness that there's no doubt that what he knew was true, and that he knew it for sure.

n3 8:32.

He made it clear that God is Love, that God is Spirit, that God is the only creator. He made it plain that there is no other lasting power, and he insisted that God's goodness is a present possibility to be affirmed and experienced. He knew, too, that devilish suggestions that God is not the only cause and creator had to be specifically denied.

It's good sometimes to sit down mentally and discover exactly what we do know for sure. Then we can better help ourselves and others.If what we know isn't much, we can prayerfully look to divine Mind until we become certain of some spiritual truth. The truth of God and His creation is always above human circumstance and able to heal it. DAILY BIBLE VERSE I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it , nor any thing taken from it. Ecclesiastes 3:14