Counteracting disaster
WHAT does it take to remain confident of relief, despite persistent drought? To have an assurance of safety even when you live in an earthquake-prone area? To feel protected from any number of potential disasters over which humanity seems to have little control? From a technological point of view, the tools don't exist. And faced with predictions based on geological or climatic cycles, hope can wilt like a parched ear of corn.
But that won't happen if hope rests on an understanding of God instead of on human ingenuity or the vagaries of nature. The Bible indicates that when people are confronted by any oppressive condition, the crucial step is to turn in prayer to the one, all-caring God, whose nature is boundless good, Love itself.
This promise of Scripture speaks clearly today: ``If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul...the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.''1 When individuals begin to recognize themselves as God's handiwork, His children, and find within themselves the ability to be unselfish and loving toward others, then God's law of good is seen to operate.
The thought turning to God in love, humility, and hope correlates perfectly with the readiness of God, the Father and protector of all, to meet the need of the moment. God's outflow of goodness, His ordering and coordinating of all elements in His creation, is perpetual. It doesn't wait on cycles of lack and plenty, calm and destruction, because God is eternal Love, and Love maintains the well-being of its creation. It overrides and erases such cycles. We're able to prove this to the extent we realize the omnipotence of divine law and worship the one God -- worship Spirit -- in our thoughts and actions.
In the face of something that appears as threatening as a serious illness, a drought, or a market plunge, individuals can proclaim, and realize, in prayer that divine law is supreme and neither ordains nor allows disaster. No form of damage or harm is ever the will of God.
True, that statement departs sharply from the engrained beliefs of centuries. The concept of an ``act of God,'' often related to the destructive phenomena of weather and geology, is enshrined in everything from theological beliefs to insurance policies.
But what about the man who knew God better than anyone ever has? Christ Jesus proved through his healing works that discord is never the will of God. He so thoroughly grasped and expressed the divine nature that he could say, ``I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.''2 Jesus healed incurable illness, he gave peace and clarity to the hopelessly insane, he turned shortage into abundance, and he stilled the raging wind. While we all have far to go in following the Master's example, we can at least begin to reflect the divine power in our lives.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, sums up Jesus' authority this way: ``He demanded a change of consciousness and evidence, and effected this change through the higher laws of God.'' She says too, ``Jesus required neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for perfection and its possibilities.''3
This points to the conclusion: divine law's supremacy is provable in human experience. We don't have to merely shake our heads in dismay or defeat at drought, accident, or any other kind of disaster. We can take the offensive -- mentally, prayerfully, and in our actions toward others -- and be ready to see God's will, the will of Love, being done.
The divine Father who ``so loved the world,''4 as the Bible says, maintains the harmony of the spiritual man and universe He created. This is a matter of divine law, and the power of that law can be brought to bear on adverse circumstances, helping bring to light something of spiritual reality and its natural order and peace.
The power of limitless good, which can replace imbalance and lack with harmony, is available to all who acknowledge, deep within themselves, the sovereign presence of God.
1Isaiah 58:10, 11. 2John 14:6. 3Unity of Good, p. 11. 4John 3:16. You can find more articles like this one in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine. DAILY BIBLE VERSE: God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Psalms 62:11
