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If worries try to rule the day

A Christian Science perspective: Replacing ruminating with clear-headed receptivity to God's messages.

  • By T. Jewell Collins

It’s not always easy to set aside our worries and concerns. They gnaw at thought, keeping us in a state of confusion. But right where they seem so real, right there is an ever-present, all-powerful God, ready to reveal to us what He already knows. This knowing can replace the concerns that need to be erased because it emanates from a God who knows only good for His creation, a creation that includes you and me.

Acknowledging that God is good and that His presence can’t be preempted by the intrusion of fearful presentiments lifts thought and sets it down in a better place.

In the larger scheme of things, sometimes these concerns are inconsequential, but at the moment of dealing with one, it can loom large. That’s what happened to me one day when I was troubled about a hurtful misunderstanding between a friend and me. As I prayed, this passage came to thought: “The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 574).

That passage, coupled with familiar ones from the Bible, including accounts of Christ Jesus’ healing ministry, calmed the frustration I felt about the situation with my friend. In this prayerful mode, peace and tranquility washed over me. Pressure that had weighed me down dissolved, despite no apparent evidence to support my newfound lightness.

The unfoldment that can infuse thought with a confident knowing is like the sun shining through an opening in a bank of dark clouds.

We don’t need to speculate about how our prayers might be answered. I replaced ruminating about the situation with a willingness to accept whatever God had in store for both me and my friend. I knew from past experience that it could be only good. I felt Him supporting my endeavor to remain clearheaded and receptive to His messages. And an unexpected resolution came my way.

Fear and disappointment have no place in God’s plan. His all-power denounces the claim of any opposing power. God’s constant availability may seem to be eclipsed by something bigger, more important, even more powerful, but that something can never usurp the Almighty. God was there first.

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