Listen, accept, and be free!

"You were a good boy tonight. You ate all your dinner. You played gently with the dog. You put your coat on all by yourself." To my three-year-old friend, these are exciting words to hear. He and his mother visit us for dinner occasionally, and sometime later in the evening I spend a few minutes alone with him. He chatters on about his activities, the lights outside, and other special interests. But when he hears how good he has been, he becomes very still and quiet, listening closely to each word. He accepts and believes the good things he is told about himself.

God tells us He loves us, that we are in reality His complete reflection. God --Mind, Life, Truth, Soul -- tells us of our native spiritual perfection, of our eternal, immutable identity as His image and likeness. His voice may be quiet, coming to us with gentle conviction. Or it may be firm, rousing us from apathetic acquiescence in the carnal mind's mistaken views to active affirmation and acceptance of the universe as God made it -- harmonious and immortal.

God is telling us all this and more. In order to hear Him, we must "be still , and know that [He is] God." n1 The stillness of quiet listening allows angelic messages of our true being to pour unrestricted into thought, filling it with a pure sense of God's all-loving care for man.

n1 Psalms 46:10;

One morning I had symptoms of a cold. A busy day lay ahead, and I didn't want to miss any of it. remembering my young friend who listened and accepted the good about himself, I took a few minutes to remember and declare the spiritual truth of my own being. God's creation is not material but spiritual -- perfect, loved, whole. Evil, in this case called cold or disease, is a lie about God's creation. It is baseless, causeless, and effect-less. "Insist vehemently on the great fact which covers the whole ground," writes Mary Baker Eddy n2 in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m "that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside Him. There is no disease."m n3

n2 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science;

n3 Science and Health,m p. 421;

I affirmed man's oneness with God, knowing that the one Parent loves and cares for His child. Because of continuing demands, that was all the prayer I could give. But I had listened, and, furthermore, I accepted these basic facts about God and man and was setting about to live them as best I could.

When I next thought of the condition a few hours later, there was no evidence of cold.

At his baptism Christ Jesus heard God say, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." n4 Since the story concludes there, we can infer that he accepted this blessing from God, convinced of the truth of his sonship. Nothing dissuaded him from the firm conviction of his spiritual perfection and of God's love for him. When subsequently tempted by the devil, Jesus remained steadfast in his faithfulness to God. n5 The Scriptures further tell us that from this victory over evil Jesus proceeded to preach and to heal the multitudes who came to him.

n4 Matthew 3:17;

n5 4:1-11;

Mrs. Eddy challenges us: "Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free!" n6

n6 Science and Health,m p.227.

Through listening to God's Word and accepting the spiritual facts of man and the universe, we can learn to heal the discords that come to our attention -- and to do it with increasing authority. DAILY BIBLE VERSE We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. Hebrews 2:1