Overflowing Good
SOMETIMES it seems as though there just isn't enough. Not enough time, work, love, health, or even sunshine! We may try to struggle through such times. The Finnish use the expression sisu! to urge people to endure through difficult times. But is managing to survive difficult situations the most we can expect?
The Bible is full of assurances of the overflowing goodness and love given to man by God, his heavenly Father. The Psalmist sang, "My cup runneth over" (Psalms 23:5). In Malachi we read, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (3:10).
Clearly, these assurances aren't based on a material glut of things. They must be the result of a different perspective, a spiritual sense of being. God, Spirit, can't have material limitations; whatever is spiritual can't be restricted by age, space, or physical characteristics. As Spirit's likeness, man-that's you and me- must be spiritual. So man must be wholly separate from matter and its limitations.
Why, then, does it appear as though we are mortals with never enough of what's good or needful? If you've ever watched someone who's been hypnotized, you've seen how that person will behave in ways that don't seem sensible-because he's been made to believe a lie about himself and his circumstances. The Bible uses the symbol of a serpent to show how we are made to believe a lie about our real nature and circumstances.
The fundamental lie that the "serpent" promotes is the belief of limitation. The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, points this out. One description of the Scriptural symbol of the serpent given in the book is "the first lie of limitation" (p. 594). Right now, we can start refusing to be hypnotized into believing we're subject to never-enough good, and instead accept the fact that we have abundant, cup-overflowing good.
What is the nature of this goodness? And how do we begin to experience it? Since the source of all good is God, divine Spirit, all that's truly good must be spiritual. But this doesn't mean it's elusive or abstract. On the contrary, it's forever at hand and available to all because, as we've already seen, all that's spiritual is unlimited. As we cherish and strive to demonstrate the qualities of God that we reflect as His likeness, we'll increasingly find that we have ceaseless joy, unchanging health, unlimited intelligence-all that we need, all that genuinely satisfies.
Christ Jesus taught his disciples not to worry about having enough to eat or wear, and so forth. Instead, he directed them to focus on spiritual being, and promised they would find all they needed. He said, Matthew's Gospel records: "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? . . . For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (6:31-33).
This spiritual approach applies to health, too. One day a friend told me that the movements of one of her arms were restricted and painful. She asked me to pray for her. I saw that it was only the lying serpent that would tell us we're limited. And actually, a snake can't talk! So my friend couldn't really be deceived by the false belief of material existence. Instead, she could always hear Christ, the voice of God, assuring her that she is spiritual and perfect, without limitation. Within a couple of hours my friend's arm regained full, and painless, movement.
The next time you're tempted to feel there just isn't enough of something, refuse to be hypnotized! Remember that God's infinite blessings are pouring out on you!