Breaking down barriers
If you are encountering barriers to progress, perhaps in the form of limited experience, lack of education and opportunity, or feelings of inadequacy, there is a solution.
Looking at the life of Christ Jesus, we see he didn't accept barriers of any kind. Although confronted with sickness and disease in numerous forms, he healed them with perfect authority. We have the opportunity to learn from his example, and we can begin to follow it, at least to some degree.
The Bible tells us in the first chapter of Genesis that God made man in His own image, giving him dominion over all things. In this beautiful record of creation there is no suggestion of limitation. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes: ''Man is not made to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not subjection.'' n1 So the real, spiritual identity of each one is the child of an infinite, all-loving Father-Mother God, His faultless, unfettered expression. God's nature being infinite, the good He endows us with must partake of the nature of infinity.
n1 Science and Health withKey to Scriptures, pp. 517-518
We have the right to freedom from restrictions, whether self-imposed or not, and the answer lies in prayer that turns thought from materiality, with all its limitations, to spiritually based reasoning. Such prayer acknowledges our perfect identity and unity with our creator. We need to reverse the false concept of ourselves as limited mortals. Barriers cannot stand when confronted with this type of prayer. As a hymn puts it, ''Man is the noblest work of God,'' n2 and God does not have favorites - some ordained to succeed and others doomed to failure. Each one is equally blessed by our Father, and step by step we can bring this truth out in our lives.
n2 Christian Science Hymnal, No. 51
When we identify ourselves as God knows us, as His perfect spiritual offspring, defeatism and discouragement diminish. Of course, we also need to express our Christlike nature in the exercising of such qualities as faith, love , joy, compassion, patience, and so on. This puts us in direct line with the good that God always gives to man.
A Bible promise that proved very apt in my own experience reads, ''Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.'' n3 When I was working in a clerical capacity in a business considered strictly ''a man's world ,'' the male head of my department resigned. Feeling sure I could fill the position, I submitted an application. At first this was received with opposition and almost ridicule, but because no other suitable applicant appeared, I was allowed to undertake the work on a trial basis.
n3 Revelation 3:8
I realized there would be challenges but prayed daily to see myself in my true selfhood as the perfect child of a perfect Father-Mother God, subject only to His law and endowed with intelligence from the one infinite Mind. Although in the initial stages I did make mistakes, in almost miraculous ways these came to my notice so that I was able to correct them before any harm was done. The result was that I did the work successfully for many years, so much so that a male colleague later remarked how the job had become uniquely mine.
When the darkness of material thinking yields to the illumination of spiritual understanding, we find obstructions melting away as inevitably as the night disappears with the dawn. We discern the reality of our being as blessed children of a perfect God, without limitation or barriers of any kind. This is our birthright. DAILY BIBLE VERSE As many as arte led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For yehave not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witnes with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.... I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:14-18
