Already Ours

Bringing a spiritual perspective to daily life

It's pretty obvious that you don't yearn for what you already have. People don't go seeking what they possess (but hopefully they do give thanks that they have it).

Well, what if we feel we don't have something we need, like health or joy or companionship? We can't go out and buy it. So what can we do? I'll tell you what I do. I pray.

I pray to learn of God's omnipresence. I know from previous experiences that when I learn more of God's allness I begin to feel and see more good in my life. I begin to realize that, as God's child, I'm not trying to get something God hasn't already given me. Rather, I'm awakening to understand that I have everything I need from Him, now and always. This doesn't mean I have all the material possessions I could ever want; it means that I have all the good qualities, security, and health that God gives.

This isn't true just for me, either. It's true for you. And for everyone. What you have to do to feel this is to realize that God is loving you and sustaining you. Quiet moments of communion with God will awaken you to the spiritual fact that you reflect Him. In this reflection you can't fail to have health, wealth, companionship, joy-everything good. You've never stopped being the spiritual reflection of God, never lost any portion of what He provides, no matter what the difficulties are that you've been facing.

To some, this may be a new way of thinking about God. At first it may seem abstract. But the Bible shows that God is inseparable from His children, in a relationship that is unbreakable. To begin understanding this, a spiritual fact, is to begin seeing it manifested in your moments and days. Thought that turns to God to realize a unity with Him finds that unity. Thought that is aware of God's unlimited giving sees His abundance. Thought that truly understands that we possess all good from God-good that can never be destroyed-finds that good to have never been lost.

Not long ago I began to have a lot of discomfort in one foot. At first I thought it was caused by wearing the wrong pair of shoes for too long, and I hoped the pain would just go away. But after a while I realized I definitely needed to do something, rather than just hope for comfort. I needed healing. And I've found that the most effective means of healing is prayer.

One evening I was getting ready to travel to a meeting where I would hear discussion about the laws of God, which Mary Baker Eddy discovered and named Christian Science. I remember thinking, "Now, at this meeting I'm going to be learning more about God and about how to pray. There has to be something there that will help me with this foot." But just as I was thinking this, another thought quickly followed: "You're already perfect, because God made you perfect. You can't get any more perfect at that meeting than you already are here." Suddenly, I felt complete and perfect. All fear of pain left. And I actually forgot about the problem until I arrived back home and realized I had been healed. The understanding of my relation to God, who gives all good, including comfort and freedom, was objectified in physical healing. I saw and felt God to be All.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the textbook of Christian Science written by Mrs. Eddy, explains, "God could never impart an element of evil, and man possesses nothing which he has not derived from God" (p. 539). For this reason we have never lost, and therefore don't need to go find, any form of goodness. All good is rightfully ours; it permeates our very being as God's children. Understanding this, we need never be afraid.

Christ Jesus said, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing . . ." (John 6:39). We have the same wonderful promise; all that God has given us we can never lose. Whatever it is we feel we've lost, whatever form of good we feel we need to get, we can come to see we have now, through understanding God and the goodness of His creation.

You'll find more articles about the power of prayer in a monthly magazine, The Christian Science Journal.