God calls us to Him
Not just some of us. Not just a chosen few. God's grace and love extend to allm . As Christ Jesus says, "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." n1
n1 Matthew 5:45;
Many people, burdened with guilt and sin, are unaware of this divine grace. They feel unworthy to approach God or to turn to Him for help. Yet all the while He is calling them to Him through Christ, the very evidence that God is saving Love.
"Christ," explains Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, "is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." n2 This Christ-idea, which Jesus epitomized and taught, is always present in human consciousness. No human being , even the worst, is totally without this spiritual element. Though it may seem hidden or in embryo, the Christ is in us all as a divine influence for good.
n2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 332.
So it's not a matter of our deciding we are "good enough" to come to God. god has already called us and claimed us as His own through the Christ within. But this does't mean we have nothing to do. We must respond to God's call and act on it. Only by honestly opening our hearts to Love's message and obeying it can we feel God's redeeming grace, which saves from sin and sickness.
A young man felt very far from God at one point in his life. Even though he had been raised a Christian and believed in God, when he left home he sank deep into a life of immorality and dishonesty. He knew his life style was illegitimate because, even while he was choosing the wrong, deep within him the Christ was voicing good, telling him what was right.
But because of what the Bible would call "hardness of heart," he turned from the voice of good, and for a time tried to silence it by plunging even deeper into wrongdoing. The suffering this brought was immense. Peace of mind and health left him. Later, he understood why. By denying God's message that there are moral and spiritual laws to live by, he was in effect cutting himself off from God, the real source of health and well-being.
The suffering that came from denying the message of the Christ shattered the illusion that true happiness could be found in sinful living. For a while, it seemed to him that God's message was a law of condemnation and punishment. But through the study of Christian Science, he began to realize that the law of divine Love condemns and destroys sinm and evil,m not the person, so that the good in us can be saved, purified, and expanded.
Gradually, he began to understand and accept the Christ's message and its demands. He climbed up out of the pit of immorality. But not by himself. He felt God's love and grace support his every step. How unworthy of this constant love he felt at times! No matter how often he slipped and fell God's grace lifted him up. It made him a better, more moral and honest person. And it set him on the path toward deeper spirituality.
This is the nature of God's great love -- to uplift, to purify, to save and heal. No matter how deep the sin, understanding and obeying the divine message of man's God-given perfection and spirituality brings healing. The true idea of being and doing explained in Christian Science gives divine power to remove the false beliefs, fears, and errors of thinking that would keep one from feeling God's love and discovering his true selfhood as God's perfect, spiritual creation.
If we turn to God and listen for the voice of good, we will surely hear it. Divine Love speaks to us now, through the Bible and in our hearts. God Himself calls us to Him. And all who accept the divine message will feel, God's boundless grace lifting them up, saving them, and bringing them into the consciousness of all good. DAILY BIBLE VERSE God, who is rich im mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-6