Discover delights that last!

WE can discover genuine delight through knowing God. Delight found in Him is not surface pleasure or self-gratification. It's deeply satisfying because spiritually substantial. It's rich in beauty, depth, and permanence. Finding this kind of delight is the natural result of growing closer to God through the desire to know and understand His perfect nature. Through this hungering for enduring substance we soon find that He is always revealing Himself as changeless Love, as invariable good. In fact, God is All, the one and only Mind, which imparts every right and satisfying idea.

The Bible teaches that God is also Spirit, the true substance of all being. Scripture tells us, too, that God's wonderful likeness, man, is the means by which God expresses Himself. In other words, God needs you and me and everyone to reflect His nature.

In a very profound sense, our primary and only purpose for being is to express the spiritually satisfying qualities of God!Far from an abstraction that has little relevance to our lives, such a view helps to uplift our lives, to give them deeper meaning. To express the divine nature more fully each day is to gain genuine fulfillment and to move forward in the working out of our salvation.

Christ Jesus' teachings assure us that anyone who begins to find delight in knowing God is beginning to win freedom from the mistaken belief that life or enjoyment is material. Jesus declared, ``It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.''1 Jesus' words clearly point the way for each of us to find his or her true identity as God's spiritual likeness. This way is not in physicality but in living the Godlike qualities that instill harmony in our thoughts, conversation, and action.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, ``We all must learn that Life is God.''2

It's true that we don't suddenly demonstrate in its entirety the absolute truth that Life is God. But the promise ofexperiencing genuine enjoyment through knowing God is so encouraging and uplifting that we bend all efforts to know Him through expressing Him. This requires that we live God's goodness and obey His will instead of acting out the selfish demands of human will.

To be what we divinely are may seem like an unachievable assignment. But always we have before us the magnificent example of Christ Jesus. He said that his purpose was to do God's will. And he was so conscious of his divine sonship that he proved God's allness in every situation. Whatever challenge confronted him, Jesus honored God, Spirit, as his Life -- as the only Life. This spiritual standpoint was the primary theme of his ministry and brought it to its triumphant climax -- complete dominion over the lie of life in matter.

As you and I find increasing delight in honoring our Father-Mother God, we too can prove that we are heirs of God. And by following in the steps of our Master, we learn how to revere God. As His presence and power take priority in our thought, we prove more consistently that knowing God brings delight that outweighs any earthly pleasure. We find deep contentment. We find a harmonizing and enriching of our relationships with others. We find healing in the broadest sense.

When we explore God's infinite nature, when we come to understand Him not only as Love and Life but as indestructible Spirit, as the one pure Mind, the source of all genuine intelligence and wisdom, we're more receptive to the spiritual ideas that heal our ills and that vitalize and color our lives. New avenues for expression open up. Fresh approaches to prayer fill our being with the satisfaction that can come only from God.

For many years I've seen how vital it is to claim the spiritual delights to be found in knowing God. I've learned that our prayers are effective when they begin with the firm recognition that joy is spiritual, continuous, and absolutely indestructible because its source is God, Spirit. This acknowledgment, clearly understood, reaffirms our unity with God and frees us to express His talents in satisfying, rewarding activities.

Let's resolve to know God, express Him, and experience the boundless delights to be found in His nature.

1John 6:63. 2Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 496. You can find more articles like this one in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine. DAILY BIBLE VERSE: I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Romans 7:22