The Love that lifts us from despair

Even when it seems there’s no end to what’s wrong in the world, God’s limitless love is here, inspiring hope, wisdom, and strength to overcome the bad and to be and do good.

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For a lot of us, life is pretty good. We’re healthy, engaged in fruitful work, enjoying good relationships, and looking expectantly toward the next adventure. But for many, life is a lot more challenging. Man-made tragedies, along with hurricanes and other weather disasters that have left thousands of people homeless, lend themselves to feelings of despair and hopelessness.

But even when it seems there’s no end to our troubles in sight, there is a way out of this morass of helplessness. It’s by turning our thoughts toward the one source of help and hope that is always available: God, divine Love. The Bible puts it beautifully: “The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down” (Psalms 145:14).

Christian Science teaches that God made us for no other purpose than to be the very expression, or spiritual reflection, of His being. The qualities that constitute God are ours right now, by virtue of our being His reflection. For instance, the goodness, freedom, strength, and wisdom that constitute Love are freely and abundantly ours to express. They are infinite – and they never run out. In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, writes, “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis” (p. 258).

Even in the most desperate situations, nothing can ever change this wonderful fact. God’s children are not at the beck and call of evil forces lying in wait to destroy us. We are living, moving, and forever dwelling in divine Love. This spiritual reality motivates and empowers us to be and do good. In fact, because God is supreme, there is no other power anywhere that can disrupt this divine activity or prevent us from fulfilling our God-given purpose: to impart and express the very nature of limitless Love.

This is what brings relief and healing. This is the eternity for you and me and everyone. And right now, moment by moment, we can let Love lift us from despair to hope, and from fear to courage.

Adapted from the Nov. 8, 2018, Christian Science Daily Lift podcast.

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