At first glance, the promise sounds too good to be true. Wow! Really!! The human mind may exclaim in gleeful delight when it hears Jesus’ words, “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Luke 11:9), when turning to God for help.
The surface implication is that we get anything we want when asking God for help. A new car, more money, tighter abs, less tummy, and any other desire of the human mind. But that isn’t what Jesus meant.
God is not in the business of satisfying selfish material desires. God is Spirit. God gives us spiritual help, which in turn, meets human needs in the most appropriate way.
When asking God for help, seek the kind of help God gives. Spiritual help! Ask for wisdom, depth of understanding, spiritual mindedness, love, truth, intelligence, peace of mind, and spiritual sense.
Ask for what God can give, and you will receive it. In abundance!
Couldn’t be more helpful for me today Evan….Thank you.
S V certainly makes us turn from the sense of things to the Soul of everything.
“He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Ps 91
This quote from Psalm 91 is part of the daily lift today and seemed to add more spiritual substance to your quote from Luke. Grateful thanks ….
Happy day all❣️
Love this so much! Thank you. ❣️
Divine Love always has met, and always will meet, every human need. ❣️
Thank you for another excellent post. So helpful
This reminds me of a passage in Science & Health:
“Experience teaches us that we do not always receive the blessings we ask for in prayer. There is some misapprehension of the source and means of all goodness and blessedness, or we should certainly receive that for which we ask. The Scriptures say: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” That which we desire and for which we ask, it is not always best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will not grant the request.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 10:22)
Of course, God knows nothing about material things, so whatever our human need is, we must “change things into thoughts, and exchange the objects of sense into the ideas of Soul” – that which God, Divine Love, is always suppying to meet our every human need. Then we can pray to know what we need to know to
discover them. If we do not receive what we pray for, then it must be because that particular request
is not right for us, and will not benefit us.
Certainly God , the infinite power and substance is always ready to give and to heal if our thoughts synchronize and coopéré with the Spirit, Eternal Intelligence..
Thanks Evan for the spiritual food for each passing day.!
It’s always a pleasure to read all the thoughts at SV.
I love the promise in this – Spiritual blessings … . all that we really need.
We may Think we need material things, but they satisfy for a short time
and then we are wanting again, for some other “thing”. I am reminded of
Mother’s Evening Prayer (Mrs. Eddy’s poem – hymn #207), which reads,
“O make me glad for every scalding tear, For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear No ill, since God is good
and loss is gain.” …. “His (God’s) habitation high is here, and nigh …
His arm encircles me, and mine and all.”
The Spiritual good that is abundantly given to us from God’s dear Love is
with us always and in all ways. Our gratitude for what we have spiritually
supplies our every need.
Wow Evan! This is as clear as a window with the glass removed (i.e., as clear as it gets)!!!
How frequently I’ve prayed for material things only to be disappointed. But I remember what a practitioner once told me…”the demonstration happens in thought.” And then today this message about how God gives “spiritual help” (i.e., spiritual ideas we receive and understand, hold to, in thought).
God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies.
(Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 307:1–2)
It’s easy to think a CS “demonstration” is a material manifestation of some type. But as the article, What’s the demonstration?” by Barbara Vining, brings out so well…
“…mentally accepting and holding to the truth…was the demonstration. My healing was the effect of that demonstration. Had I wavered in my acceptance of that truth there could not have been healing.”
So healing is a side effect of demonstration. When practicing Christian Science, there are only good side effects. If we look to matter to see if we are healed yet, we are looking in the wrong place. We must put matter out of thinking and instead evaluate our thoughts to see if what we are thinking is in line with God and God’s idea, “infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation.” And if we find our thinking isn’t in line, we can pray to correct it.
I know this article has been shared before, but I read this article every now and then to remind myself what is really the “demonstration” I need to make.
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/y7foxpug7y?s=copylink
One of my all-time favorite articles and the key to understanding how to heal…by demonstrating! When we demonstrate, healing is inevitable. Thanks for connecting it to today’s Spirit View (which is exactly what I needed) linking it for us all.
Thanks for this very helpful reminder. We live in the divine atmosphere of Love and when praying God listens and He shows us the way and supplies all o9ur needs..
“Understanding God’s limitless supply” By Jane Keogh. From the October 17, 2014 issue of The Christian Science Sentinel:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1hv0w3umjhs?s=copylink
Thank you all! I have not been able to install SpiritView on my iPhone Home Screen. A red note appears with the message Install which when I click reveals a block that says install but when I click this, nothing happens. Is this no longer available? Thank you.
I read somewhere that an experienced CS teacher once said that he wouldn’t even pick out a tie without God. We tend to equate “selfish” with wanting material things. To me, “selfish” in Christian Science means leaving God out, and just thinking about ourselves as either lacking or being able, by ourselves, to do something—no matter how worthwhile it might be. God is the self, or “I am.” If we put everything at the feet of God, then what works out will be the right thing. We learn gradually that what we want is the spiritual expression of everything. Once I said to God reverently, when the need was great and resources seemed nil, “God, we need a car. I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but I know you will provide for us.” I didn’t articulate it, but what I was really asking for was faith and trust in His love for us. The prayer could have been answered by moving to the city and not needing a car at all. In our case we were given the opportunity to get an older car for free. The car was just a symbol of faith, trust, and hope for good working in our lives. Don’t forget to ask, knock seek—even if it’s to do the dishes.
Thanks Kay. The first sentence of your comment reminded me of reading Gilbert Carpenter’s reminisces and how Mrs. Eddy chastised her carriage driver for getting a bad haircut. She evidently understood everything in our experience is a reflection of Mind and if her driver had been manifesting that Mind, he could only have gotten a perfect haircut. In another case she wouldn’t accept new carriage horses until she was sure the worker she entrusted with that task had manifested Mind in choosing the horses. I’ve learned that it wasn’t uncommon for horses back then to get spooked and bolt causing injuries to whomever was in the carriage. So it must have been important to Mrs Eddy that horses be selected that weren’t inclined to getting spooked by various things.