Can we really count on changeless good?
Recognizing God’s goodness as an eternal constant has tangible benefits.
When I was growing up, I’d often hear the saying, “You have to take the good with the bad.” In my own kid-like way I wondered, “Why wouldn’t good be depended on as a constant in our lives?”
In my teens, our family learned about Christian Science. My inklings about having an expectancy of good were validated when I began reading “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” In this book by Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, I was finding so many references that opened up my view of God as good itself.
For instance, Mrs. Eddy writes, “God is natural good, and is represented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature of Spirit, God” (p. 119).
God, divine Spirit, is entirely good and the source of all good. So goodness is not ever dependent on material conditions. It is spiritual, it is natural – the outcome of God’s love for us. And as God’s children, or spiritual ideas, we reflect God’s goodness.
As we increasingly understand this spiritual reality, we more tangibly experience this good in meaningful ways. I’ve experienced in my daily life how these truths enable us to face challenges with confidence and with an expectation of healing outcomes – and, indeed, to find healing through prayer alone.
Looking around us, we can easily observe that the world has great need of a fuller realization of God as the governing power – as good itself in operation. We rightly can be encouraged when we see progress in global affairs. Where there is conflict, we can know that God’s law of good is omnipresent and ever active – not abstract or out of reach. It can be experienced in practical, healing ways, universally and without exception – as countless accounts in this column and in the Monitor’s sister publications illustrate.
We can start right now to be more aware of God’s power as the ministering and unchangeable influence for good in our lives and in the lives of others. Sticking to these truths provides an impetus to our prayers, and brings inspiration to our actions.
Adapted from the March 16, 2023, Christian Science Daily Lift podcast.