Is That You, Stan?
'Then saith Jesus unto him [the devil], Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10).
One day at work I joined a meeting and found staff members all but rolling on the floor. They showed me the source of merriment: a manuscript that referred to this account of Jesus talking to the devil. What Jesus said, according to a typographical error in this version, was "Get thee hence, Stan."
Maybe there's a lesson there. Wouldn't it be nice if we were so unimpressed with evil that we could just say, "Get out of here, Stan [Satan]"?
What is evil anyway? Is it something superhuman, able to overpower everything in its path? Jesus didn't need to use weapons or act like Batman or Superman to rid people's lives of evil and its threats. He prayed. And when he did, sickness was healed, storms stopped, and hungering multitudes had food to eat. Jesus showed that God is more powerful than anyone or anything. In fact, He is all-power.
Do you think of this when faced with a tough situation, perhaps an illness or financial crisis? Can you think of the threat as a bit like that nonentity, Stan-not an evil power but just a mistake? Jesus said of the devil, "He is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). A lie fathering a lie can only result in another lie, a nothing, a false concept, an illusion.
We can more readily solve our problems if we understand the Bible's profound message that God is infinite, changeless good. And if good is infinite, everywhere, there is no place for evil. Not anywhere!
Christian Science, discovered by Mary Baker Eddy, explains the message of Jesus. It shows that by means of knowing the allness and goodness of God, by living daily life in obedience to God, we can heal in the way that Jesus healed. You could say it's a matter of being so impressed with the wondrous love and power of God that we become unimpressed with and reject whatever is troubling to us, because we know evil in any form is not a creation of God. The omnipotence of God proves the powerlessness of evil practically, through healing.
One time a small growth appeared on my cheek. I had earlier been healed through prayer of what I'd been told looked like skin cancer. And this time I was instant and vigorous in my prayer for healing. My thoughts went something like this: "God is the only creator. He creates only good, and I am His good creation. You, disease, have no creator, because God is All. You have no origin, no life, no place of residence. You cannot exist in the all-inclusive love of God." Understanding these facts to have the power of God behind them, I knew I did not have to fear the skin condition.
Several days later, when I saw my face in the mirror, not one trace of a growth could be found. The skin was perfectly clear and smooth. There have been no further appearances of such growths, and it has been about ten years since that time. Satan had been found to be no Satan, nothing at all.
With divine authority, we can say in the face of evil thoughts, "Get right on out of my thought. Don't tempt me, because you'll find no response here. God loves me and everyone. He protects and defends us. He empowers us through His healing truth, so that we never have to fear any evil." Mrs. Eddy wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. . . . The maximum of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all. Evil is a suppositional lie" (pp. 102-103).
Disease is cured through prayer; sin is destroyed; limitation is dissolved. With spiritual authority, we can make any evidence of evil go right out of our lives. Any trouble we face is an unreality. An error. A mistake. The knowledge of God is greater than any human problem, and the Bible helps us to prove this true!
Then the devil
leaveth him, and,
behold, angels came
and ministered
unto him.
Matthew 4:11
