Seeking God

IT'S easy to think of ourselves as caught by the ebb and flow of the economy, by the vagaries of chance, by lack of opportunity, by poor education. Hard times, poverty, dire circumstances, may seem threatening. But there is a way out. When we seek God diligently, with all our thought and action, we find Him. Seeking God during difficult times does more than comfort or encourage us; it brings healing. Even if we think we don't know much about God or prayer, we can begin by simply praying: "Help me to learn more about You, God. To know and understand You better. To know and understand how You made man - made me - spiritual. To know, to feel Your presence, Your goodness, Your care. Help me to know that You govern man and that man is loved by You.'' This kind of prayer opens our thought to a higher, more spiritual understanding of God, the Almighty.

Whether we pray often or are just beginning to seek God, prayer is really an opportunity to do more than tell God what we need or simply beg Him to fix what's wrong in our lives. We can use our sincere praying as a way to understand God and His creation better. As we humbly pray to learn more of God and His creation, we will find that God is a loving God. In the Bible the First Epistle of John tells us, "God is love.'' Learning more of God and of man's relationship to Him broadens our views of reali ty and expands our understanding of God as all-knowing, all-loving.

As we learn more about God, Spirit, and find Him to be loving, we will begin to see that the difficult circumstances facing us aren't created by God. Learning more of God's goodness and abundance helps us to recognize that God is the source of all that is real and good.

Spiritually learning that God has already supplied man's needs unblocks doors of limitation, opening them wide to the good God is pouring out on us, on His spiritual offspring.

Christ Jesus assured us that our heavenly Father knows our need for proper food, clothing, and shelter. But, he said, "Seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.'' When we seek God first, we find that the understanding that God is good, abundantly gives us whatever else we need. The one good God is not an absentee God waiting for us to call Him down to rearrange or improve our limited human circumstances. God is ever present, ever loving, always giving abundant good to His children.

The ever-presence of God precludes evil, as Christ Jesus demonstrated when people came to him for healing. His works proved man's oneness with God and showed the practical, healing effects of understanding how much God loves man. He demonstrated man's inseparability from God. And our understanding 209>however small 209>of man's oneness with God can free us from sickness and lack. Jesus' life was based on seeking God first.

As we pray to understand God and man aright and begin more fully to trust the Almighty, who has bestowed only good upon His perfect creation, man, we, too, are seeking God first. And we can trust that our earnest desire to seek God and our humble willingness to live in obedience to Him will lead us to a life of triumph over limitation.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: " 'God is Love.' More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go.'' God's love is ample for every situation in which we find ourselves. It is His love that ultimately frees mankind from troubling circumstances. And as we seek Him, we find His love is ours to share.