I’ve noticed a larger number of patients than usual calling with anxiety issues over the past few weeks. They often say something like, “I’m feeling so anxious about things, but don’t understand why. This isn’t me!”
As we talk about resolving the anxiety spiritually, our conversation frequently heads in the direction of defending thought from public anxiety at large.
There is so much concern in the public consciousness these days about the pandemic, upcoming elections, fallout from violent protests, political appointments, and more, that one needs to keep on their mental watch to be sure public fears are not unwittingly ingested and turned into personal anxiety.
One solution to retaining peace of mind is to pray for the world and to see God in control of humanity’s future, rather than stupidly consenting to evil having control.
The future of humanity is in the hands of God, not in the hands of man, mortal mind, or any appearance of evil. With God, it’s evil that is doomed, never the good.
Stand with God and triumph over the fears and worries of the world. There is a solution to every problem humanity faces, and Christ is revealing those solutions to open-minded, receptive thinkers around the world today. Be one of those thinkers!
Anxiety is not necessary, for God is in control causing good things to happen that wipe out the bad things.
Focus on the good and retain peace of mind. Stay clear on God’s omnipotence and omnipresence.
Keep your mental antenna tuned to Truth and Love alone, and live free of anxiety.
Thank you Evan for your timely message about an unfounded sense of anxiety in the world. A friend of mine reminded me of Milton Simon’s classic article, “Undisturbed.” In it, he states, “To be eternal, Life must be without any element of friction. God’s man is not disturbed. The one undisturbable Mind governs all in peace and harmony.”
We can rise above all the seeming discord and know that harmony is the law. In the lesson last week, the passage from S&H, p. 410 “Christian scientific practice begins with Christ’s keynote of harmony, Be not afraid!” stood out to me.
We do not have to give into the false sense of anxiety based fear.
Thank you again for your powerful message
Thank you for your referral to this article Deanna. Here’s the link if anyone else wants to read it.
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1u00ttcak2w?s=e
Thank you Karen…so appreciated.
Thank you very much Karen for sharing the article
This is so necessary! Harmony is the reality, “God is in control causing good things to happen”, everywhere in the world we all need to know this spiritual fact. Thank you for this inspiring and encouraging post!
Thankyou Evan for this much needed post. Praying for the world, by knowing Loves absolute control, care and protection must be an antidote to counteract world thought. Interestingly Webster on line dictionary says about antidote, ‘whatever tends to prevent mischievous effects, or to counteract the evil which something else might produce’. Surely divine love does this.
Ecclesiastes 3:15 says, ‘that which has been is now; and that which is to come hath already been ‘
I So very helpful Evan. I have been waking up with anxiety and not knowing why. This message is so helpful. To know that God is in control is all I need to wipe away these thoughts. I will be more alert. God bless.
Thank you Evan for the reminder of who is actually in control. What has come to me is the statement and I paraphrase it “the battle is not yours, but God’s ,stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord” and we need to see that God is most assuredly in control. Divine Mind will fill our thoughts with all right ideas to move us forward with joy, peace and good will toward all. On page 93 of Retrospection and Introspection Mrs. Eddy wrote ” The best spiritual type of Christly method for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary power, stillness and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our own, it becomes the model for human action.” I found this statement so helpful in quelling fear and anxiety during these trying times of political and social unrest all over the world.
Thank you Sue, I hope you don’t mind that I shared your thoughts with someone else.
Thank you all for your healing inspirations.
.
MBE: The time for thinkers has come
Thank you EVAN, for reminding me to be alert & watch & pray
Being a “thinker” is a full-time job
Shirley, love your inspiration that being a thinker is a full-time job! It’s important to be kept “abreast of the times” regarding the news, but I will ask myself the question “What is the REAL truth going on?” That’s quite a job to think about the counterfacts when listening to the often-negative news. Will probably help me to shorten the amount of time I listen to it!! I love Evan’s emphasis on focusing on the good. Thank you to all our commenters.
Hymn p.93
Dwelling in Love that cannot change,
From anxious fear man finds release;
No more his homeless longings range,
God keepers him in perfect peace.
Hymn p. 154-155
In Thee I have no pain or sorry,
No anxious thought, no load of care.
Thou art the same today, tomorrow;
Thy love and truth are everywhere.
I was taking my garbage out to the street
for pickup. Two dogs were coming down the
street and stopped in front of me. The larger one
was breathing heavily. It was a little after 7 and
no one was out. I went to a neighbors kitchen
window and she said she would call someone
who might know.
The dogs went around the corner so I got my car.
When I saw another person I said the dogs are
lost and I didn’t bring my phone. I asked if she
would call the fire or police.
Instead we got them in her backyard. And are
doing more calling.
No anxious dogs either. Perfect peace.
There is a beautiful hymn based on Ps. 31:15 that starts this way:
“My times are in Thy hand; dear God,
I wish them there;
My life, my friends, my soul I leave entirely to Thy care.
John is that a C.S. hymn? I can’t seem to find it. It’s beautiful. So comforting. Thank you for sharing.
I am currently studying an excellent article from the Shared Reflections booklets which were printed in the Journal some time ago. I think the title says it all ….’To progress let God lead’ By Barbara Vining CSB.
Maybe sometimes we are tempted to overthink our anxious thought /situation instead of standing back to listen to how Divine Mind is Guiding us. To let go of ‘I think ‘ and replace with ‘what is God showing me today?’ And finally it is so important to say ‘thank you’ to God for anything good and beautiful we encounter every moment. Thank you Evan. ❣️
These thoughts are so helpful and soothing. Thank You, Evan and All.
So many things seem to be under attack ~ freedom, religion, (most recently with the faith of the Supreme Court nomination in US), taking God out of government and lives, harmony, peace. I believe it is the “chemicalization” that Mrs. Eddy refers to.
In S&H 401:16, she writes, “What I term chemicalization” is the upheaval produced when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal belief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to the surface, forcing impurities to pass away” and 540:9 “The muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the stream. In moral chemicaliation, when the symptoms of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our ignorance that the Lord hath wrought an evil, but we ought to know that God’s law uncovers so-called sin and its effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin.” and 96:21, “Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.”
Mrs. Eddy had such insight in her time, even when she wrote, “The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, ~ he will look out from them upon the universe”.
We certainly live in challenging, but interesting times.
Thank you Evan! I especially like your call to be alert so we are not influenced erroneously;
“… one needs to keep on their mental watch to be sure public fears are not unwittingly ingested and turned into personal anxiety.“
Truth and Love direct us all.
“ There is a solution to every problem humanity faces, and Christ is revealing those solutions to open-minded, receptive thinkers around the world today.”
Today’s goverse
“Those who love Your law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble.”
David, Psalms 119:165 New American Standard Bible
Get GoVerse: http://itunes.com/apps/goversequotes
Thank you, M, for reminding me/us about this app!
My dear friends are divided in politics and the issues facing our world too.
Evan you have hit on the reason for a most challenging weekend physically.
The envelope around mortal mind makes no sense. But when I expressed that God made the whole universe, that He loves and governs this earth and man it met with silence.
All comments this morning are uplifting. God is in control.
Last weeks lesson on Reality and this weeks on Unreality brings to light just how to think about these challenging times.
With divine Mind governing us we have hope and security.
We have the duty to obey this command as found on page 451 of our textbook Science and Health.
” Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate. They must renounce aggression, oppression, and the pride of power., Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, must be their queen of life.
My dear practitioner sent me this timely message last night to “tuck me in”.
I told her that this challenge is a tough one.
Responded in her most loving and positive way;
“To declare that anything is tough gives reality to it. Can we change reality? If we declare a problem to be an unreality that has no place or time or partnership with toughness, now there’s the opportunity to experience the nothingness-healing mind and body.”
It’s another week in under God’s law. Thank you for today’s lesson.
David, what a dear, loving practitioner to send you a message to “tuck you in”. It melted my heart ❤️. God bless our wonderful practitioners for their dear love and support and tireless work.
Thanks Evan for a wonderful thought starter on this Day of Atonement – fasting from anxiety about the apparent what-is-ness and recommitting to who and what we really are. I am again reminded of Esther’s insight that “for such a time as this..”..
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/257hclrefly?s=e
“..Science separates the wheat from the tares,through the realization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting the divine likeness.” (SH300:19; Bible Lesson section 2)
Gratitude for the continuing thoughtful comments
I come back to SV all day to glean more…
“ All power is given unto the Lord…”
The problem with ignoring Truth (that there can be only one power and that power is wholly good) is that position posits one into the the realm of having two or more opposing powers where all hope is lost for positive outcome and one prospects is left to a random probability. Further more it lends a basis for thought to justify body and soul and the greater to be encompassed by the lessor which in itself is impossible. What is it when we give up hope and faith in a supreme power? It is certainly not a fair exchange. Hope based in material superiority can only be at best temporary and thus is doomed from the outset of that hope. But hope and faith established upon Truth as established above is a recognition that all events are the providence of a superior power having an outcome of good. The principle of the superiority of one power being wholly good is founded in the spiritual understanding that the one is not in conflict with his own purposes. Is not self destructive, is not hateful nor vengeful as there is no basis for that activity. Therefore the only true basis is love, Divine Love and that Love is caring for us all. We must know that or the alternative is our resultant founded on a false derivation of perspective.
Sorry to intrude again. Dogs are home. They
were from a different section of town. They were
noticed missing at 2 a.m. The grandmother
was dog sitting.
Anxious grandmother, anxious dogs.
“No anxious thought…”
And yes this is minor compared to other seeming
catastrophes. But is an indication of Love
surrounding each idea.
Thanks for the update! “None can beyond Thy omnipresence stray…” Hymn 66
Job well done! (=
One of my neices sent me a few photos that her little son had taken of his kitty cat. So I made a card for him with a picture of his kitty sitting very still and looking out the window. I put the following citation on it:
I am listening,
I am listening,
Father Dear,
Father Dear.
Anything you tell me,
Anything you tell me,
I will hear,
I will hear.
Author unknown
Being still and listening for God’s loving message helps us respond with the Truth that God is, indeed, governing every aspect of His universe, and that we can see and feel this love that meets every need. I love the thought that the word “universe” could mean that we are all singing “one song” – “uni” meaning one and “verse” meaning song – full of joy and God’s embracing love!. Thanks to you, dear Evan, for your inspiration and loving care for God’s universe – and to all who share their inspiring thoughts.
Thanks for sharing, Berna! I will teach it to my grand-niece with the Frere Jacques tune as Brenda suggested. I will make a slight change as well. Instead of repeating the “Father Dear” will sing “Mother Dear”. Yay for both Father AND Mother!
speaking of songs, Berna’s little verse can be sung using the tune of Frere Jacques.
Thank you Evan for always sharing what’s uppermost in the the public thought and showing how we can handle in in our prayers! Like a previous poster, I check back before bedtime to get the rest of the comments. Always helpful and supportive!
Your comments today are certainly timely. After a restless night thisHy,n came to thought”we are hid with Christ forever,in the Fathers holy plan.”hymn 370. Reading Christian Healer one of the biographies has
Supported my understanding of how to discern right thinking. Your
Blogs and those of others very enlightening.
Thank you very very much dear Evan, for your today`s inspirational and absolute comforting and healing SpiritView! it is very very helpful! I am not anxious about the pandemic,And yet I have to clear my thinking sometimes, knowing that our omnipotent, omnipresent God is in control and governing all in his endless wisdom. Today some thoughts seemed not so harmonious as I expected. I had Readingroom service. Then I prayed, dear God let only your wisdom govern my thoughts and actions. God answered this prayer with ideas that lead to harmonious and satisfying outcomes. Thank you dear God! And I pray to know all people, children of God under the sheltering wings of our loving Father-Mother God!
Am very grateful to all commenters for their inspiring comments and several links to relevant articles. Brenda ist right, I can sing the poem Berna L. Francis posted up here to the melody of frere Jacques. Also in Germany we know this song and that same melody, of course in German.
Oh is this SpiritView blog today so very lively, thanks to all, I love it very much and it gives me a lot!!!
Thank you Even and to others who have posted too! I also had a sense of anxiety last night, and after praying, I woke up with a sense of peace and quotes “I have loved thee with an everlasting love”; “with loving kindness I have drawn thee”. I would also like to refer everyone to a phone in number where you can hear the comforting Christian Science Bible Lesson, and Sentinel Watch, Daily Lift, ad El Heraldo (Spanish), any time of day or night: (323) 805-8700. This info is posted on PrayerThatHeals.org
Thank you, Evan, and all posters. It is so wonderful to be among other Christisn Scientists during these “tough” “times”. Makes me feel like I am back in my church lobby with loving members (which is not happening yet where I live).
This verse from Isaiah 26:3 sums it up perfectly, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee”.
Love to you all!
Three cheers for a new outlook!!! Thank you, Evan, for articulating a serious problem for me and I
i magine many others.