Finding the deep peace of God
In the closet of prayer, we find that the kingdom of heaven really is right here for us to discern and experience.
Would you like to feel more peace in your life?
Despite everything reported about a world full of uncertainty, there is a spiritual universe that is peaceful, intelligently governed, stable, and filled with love, safety, and security. This universe is not a far-off place to be discovered after death, but is here and now and discernible through spiritual sense. As Christ Jesus taught, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 10:7). God’s universe of Truth and Love is found in spiritual consciousness, and is ever present for us to see, know, and experience.
When I was a young man looking for more peace in my life, I planned a day off from all worldly commitments to commune solely with God. I made strict rules for myself to not get distracted that day and was committed to making the sacrifices necessary.
When the day came, I studied the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, for ideas about who I am and where I was headed in my life. I researched words such as “peace,” “calm,” “stillness,” “equanimity,” “faith,” and “trust.” I sought out spiritual truths to dissolve fears dominating my attention and replace them with a clearer understanding of God’s infinite love, in which everything works together for good.
As I proceeded, like morning light that grows brighter as day unfolds, peace expanded and took hold, and I felt close to God. By nighttime, my thought was settled, whisper quiet, buoyant, happy – heavenly. It was glorious beyond anything I had ever known.
The profound peace I’d found stuck with me for weeks and took my life in new and progressive directions. I glimpsed what it feels like to live in a universe of infinite Love.
Since then, if I start to feel stress about personal conundrums or world events, I think back to that day and remember that it’s possible to shut down the fears and anxieties of the human mind and find profound peace by understanding the truth of God and His universe. This truth says we are not helpless mortals at the mercy of chance, disease, conflict, and chaos. We are immortal beings living eternal, spiritual lives here and now in a universe of divine Love.
This universe of Love is a place of stability, calm, love, abundance, and health. To material sense, this may sound like a fantasy. But to spiritual sense, it’s rock solid and right at hand. Christ Jesus taught us how to find it when he instructed, “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6).
The closet is spiritual sense. When the material senses bombard us with disturbing reports, we can enter the closet of spiritual sense, shut the door on the din of mortal mind (a supposititious mind opposed to God, good), and feel God’s presence.
The human mind may argue that this is impossible. But there is nothing imperative about material sense. God’s man is governed by spiritual sense, which is ever present to guide, direct, and inspire us. Like changing television channels, we can switch off material sense and tune in to spiritual sense to find God’s peace.
Explaining the closet Jesus referred to, Science and Health says, “The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but lets in Truth, Life, and Love” (p. 15).
The sanctuary of Spirit makes us aware of God’s omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. It’s the one divine consciousness and includes no evil. In the prayer closet of Truth, God, the temporal anxieties of the human mind dissolve in God’s reality. There is only infinite Love, all-permeating goodness, and profound peace. Consciousness of God’s allness shows that evil is not the reality it appears to be. God is All-in-all, the only Life, Soul, Spirit, and Truth of existence.
As we enter the closet of spiritual sense and know God’s goodness, the human comes into alignment with the divine. More of the kingdom of heaven is felt on earth. Peace takes over. Healing happens. Consciousness of God’s allness finds the peace of God.
Adapted from an article published in the April 18, 2022, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.