Allowing inspiration to transform us
When we pray to God, are we truly willing to let the divine inspiration that comes to us change how we see things for the better? After accidentally cutting himself at his restaurant job, a teenager found that this willingness made all the difference in opening the door to healing.
When we turn to God in prayer, sometimes God’s message may come as ideas whispered in the heart, as a delightful new view of everything around us, as a wordless, deep impression that everything truly is OK, or as something else that nudges us for the better. And just as there are many ways divine inspiration may come to us, there are all sorts of approaches to bringing the inspiration we receive into action in our lives.
One that I’ve found helpful involves allowing – allowing ourselves to be transformed by God’s response, to feel and be grateful for God’s holy gifts.
There is a definite healing aspect to this facet of prayer, as Christ Jesus proved. In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy says of Jesus, “He was inspired by God, by Truth and Love, in all that he said and did” (p. 51). This divine inspiration led him to naturally behold everyone as they really were – as spiritual, flawless children of God. Jesus brought this into action, healing people of illness and character faults, and taught that we could, too.
As a teenager, I inadvertently cut myself when working at my after-school restaurant job. I felt stressed because I really didn’t have time for some long healing process; I needed to be able to work. But I knew from what I’d learned in Christian Science Sunday School that an inspired change to the way I was thinking could heal. So with an open heart, I prayed, asking God, “What shall I allow into my thought today?”
What came to me was to consider the God-given spiritual foundation and nature that is truly ours. When I got home, I opened Science and Health and saw this short sentence: “Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought” (p. 495).
It dawned on me that to allow nothing but God’s likeness to abide in thought is to open ourselves to ever-present Truth and all-powerful Love, which are Bible-based synonyms for God. God’s likeness could never be lacerated physicality; God is unchangeable and invulnerable divine Spirit. We are made in God’s likeness, not some mortal likeness.
It felt natural to allow, calmly and serenely, this spiritual fact to settle solidly in my consciousness. I began to really enjoy resting in God’s presence, admitting that we are not vulnerable and mortal but rather the individual expression of God’s likeness – spiritual and whole.
I was very soon completely healed. I didn’t miss a day of work and could continue to do all that was required of me.
We can all allow ourselves to love God, to pause and discern our spiritual nature. We can rest for a moment and allow ourselves to feel more grateful for our spiritual perfection. We can allow divine Love’s answer to our prayers to rest forefront in our thoughts. Doing this illustrates well what it means to “be still, and know that I am God,” as it says in the Bible (Psalms 46:10).
When we willingly allow our thoughts to become transformed by divine Truth, our whole outlook – what we think and feel deep down – is purified. Fear lessens as we allow our awareness to grow. Awareness of what? Awareness of God’s authority, God’s all-presence, and our precious identity as God’s likeness. This identity is brilliant, solely good, and absolutely permanent.
“The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress,” explains Science and Health (p. 324). God is always present to purify our thoughts and empower us to live more fully our real nature as God’s likeness. And, if we choose to, not only can we allow this divine influence to transform us – we can expectantly welcome it.