“When things are going so well, something bad is bound to happen.”
Have you heard – or even thought – something like this before? It suggests that there is some unwritten law that, when life is good, evil has to balance it out. It’s worth rethinking that perspective. Even better, it’s worth praying about it!
We can start by asking where God’s power would fit into that view of life. Does God share space with evil? A foundational concept in Christian Science is that God is spiritual good, and good alone. God has no opposite, so it follows that God’s goodness has no opposite. It’s comforting to glimpse in prayer how, in every corner of existence and in every corner of thought, God, including God’s pure goodness, is present – the only presence. In reality, there exists absolutely nothing to react negatively to God.
An experience that Jesus had illustrates this vividly: The Bible describes one of Jesus’ most wonderful times of inspiration when he took three disciples – Peter, James, and John – up a high mountain. Jesus “was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. … and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matthew 17:2, 5).
That moment must have been incredible for Jesus. To be so inspired that he literally shone brightly like that! Did evil follow? No, only more good. After the four of them walked down the mountain, Jesus healed a boy of epilepsy.
Today, we can walk in Jesus’ footsteps and always expect and welcome the coming of additional good in our lives. It’s natural to do so, since we are each an individual expression of God. Just as Jesus did, we are able to embrace the truth that God alone is acting and in authority. In prayer, we see that we’re simply not required to go along with the common belief that there is an additional power that opposes God’s authority, enforcing trouble and suffering.
Let’s let the belief in any insidious opponent to God, good, fall away, as a result of our lack of belief in it. There is only one single presence to bow to, and that is God’s ever-presence.
God is the only cause, and God is causing goodness only, Christian Science teaches. Prayer based on these facts is enlightening prayer – it is prayer that effectively dispels fear. The founder of the Monitor, Mary Baker Eddy, explains in her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” that “spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress” (p. 170).
Sometimes, when I am praying, I ask, “God, if evil has no life, has no personality, and isn’t Your creation, can You please help me better understand why I don’t need to believe in and fear it?” I remember once praying about some recurring sores in my mouth. Instead of asking God what caused my suffering, I asked God to point out the direction that my prayers should take. I was led to allow only the awareness of God’s goodness to grow in my thoughts. As the power of God, good, permeated my perspective, I became permanently free of those sores.
What followed? Evil of some sort? No, what followed right after was an even more significant healing – a healing of blurred vision – something that I’d been praying about for some time.
God’s goodness continues without pause. And that’s not because we’ve done something to become worthy of it – but because we’re always worthy of God’s blessings. Our very existence as God’s children is utterly for God’s glory!
We can be confident in realizing that there’s simply no presence that could ever have the ability to cause harm. The Bible declares, “I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 46:9). So we can be grateful for how, in all of God’s creation, the continuity of God’s goodness is inevitable.
