We must realize the ability of mental might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them with the life which is spiritual, not material.
~ Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 428
Do you appreciate the ability of “mental might?”
If fear crowds into thought, you have mental might from Truth and Love to resist that fear, disarm it, and ward it off. Be sure to exercise that might decisively!
If a suggestion of disease barges into awareness, you have mental might to shove that suggestion back out and keep it away. You are not helpless. Be sure to exercise your mental might emphatically!
If doubt takes over and wants to discourage you, you have mental might from God to reverse that doubt, replace it with faith in good, and stay free. Be sure to exercise that mental might with confidence!
This mental might Eddy is talking about is not human will power. It’s divine strength to resist evil, side with good, and live healthy and free of suffering. It’s part of your spiritual make-up as a child of God.
Honor your mental might from God to side with right and kick out evil! It’s the happier way to live.
‘evil isn’t a noun or proverb..or verb’:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/114crgvvpw0?s=e
Thank you, Angie – a perfect example of the power of mental might, and it all fits so
beautifully with this week’s Lesson on Man. It takes mental work on our part, but as
the example of the article demonstrates, it pays off.
“And a little child shall lead them.” Isiah 11:6
The start of each day studying truth protected all of the children.
The adults learned from them in simple, abstract terms how childlike trust removed evil as an entity.
Let that child in us cast out demons of error.
Thanks Evan & Angie for starting off this week with assertive, positive ways to handle evil.
Great comments David. As Christie Hanzlik mentions, we are all the children of God and not the adults of God:
https://cedarscamps.org/inspiration/article/back-to-school-blessings-for-all-of-us/
Thank you Angie for that article. It was very helpful to me.
Hello Angie – I look forward to seeing your references to sentinel references from years gone by. I find them so very helpful. I was born into a Christian Science Family but there were about 25 years there that I didn’t really participate. Now I am back and I can not express my gratitude for you and this site. Thanks. Sent with Love. Kathi
When I use ‘mental might’, I feel I am exercising my will power over adversity -God given and requested- is it the same thing as divine strength? Is it another name for the same thing?
Thank you for your help to understand.
James 3:17, Science & Health 144:14.
Dear Elizabeth,
It’s easier to just be very quiet and listen for God’s voice.
Elizabeth, thanks for mentioning this. It is confusing to me too because it sounds like we are saying there is something real called evil and we have to fight it off. Evan does say above that it is not human willpower but divine Strength built into us. He wants to remind us that we are not helpless but have divine help always. But still hoping to see more clearly that evil is unreal, not a real enemy, just a seeming appearance. Even the belief of evil is unreal, I hope to see that we can’t even have such a thought, because we are the beloved children of God and can only see Him. There are no evil beliefs or appearances in Divine Mind.
I found two definitions: 1) a source of sorrow, distress or calamity. 2) the fact of suffering, misfortune and wrongdoing. There is no such source and no such fact.
Perhaps everything I just wrote is the exercising of mental might. I’d rather think of it as a yielding to and resting in the truth of God. Love to all, hope to hear more thoughts on this.
Yes with listening to God only and exercising our God-given dominion we can reflect only good and God-like qualities.
Christian Science really demands that we use mental might, announces that we have it as Mind’s expressions. I love the poster of Mrs Eddy I’ve seen in Reading Rooms which have her picture with the caption : This woman stood before the world and said “you’re wrong!” She revealed Christian Science to use as a science, with God’s irrefutable law of good; God’s law of harmony and peace—as referrnced in the article-powerfully contradicts any suggestion that evil has power. Our mental might comes naturally as we understand Mind’s omnipotence .
From Pulpit and Press 3:26; “Perchance some of you may say ‘The evidence of spiritual verity in me is so small that I am afraid. I feel so far from victory over the flesh that to reach out for a present realization of my hope savors of temerity [overconfidence]. Because of my own unfitness for such a spiritual animus my strength is naught and my faith fails.”
Eddy then gives us her response to such defeatist thinking: “Is not man metaphysically and mathematically number one, a unit, and therefore whole number, governed and protected by his divine Principle, God? You have simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with your divine source, and daily demonstrate this. Then you will find that one is as important a factor as duodecillions in being and doing right, and thus demonstrating divine Principle.”
Pulpit and Press’s Dedicatory Sermon is just 11 pages long. It’s quite fun to read!
WONDERFUL1 Thanks so much for such a reimforcing message at the top of a beautiful summer day.
Thank you Carolyn. I can’t believe I have never read that in its entirety. This blog subject has brought out a good discussion. Thanks Evan and a contributors. Will check later for more comments.
As I see it, in the first chapter in Genesis, God gave man dominion over all the earth, and He made us in His likeness. We are meant to exercise this God-bestowed dominion over all that is unlike God.
We know it is not a personal power, but God’s all-power. We are in effect to cast out the false
beliefs of material claims to sin, sickness or death, out of our own thoughts – to know them as
powerless false claims. Then we look to God, and let God do His own work. We have no power
of our own, as even Jesus declared of himself, but we have divine authority for reflecting God’s
dominion over evil of every kind. When we exercise this dominion, to my understanding we are protecting ourselves and helping to free our fellow man. We just keep loving God and man, and let God show us His power in action. There is nothing real except God and His wonderful creation.
Kick out evil! Love that comment Evan. Some quotes written by others:
– The only source for evil is mistaken thought…evil is a mistaken view, not the natural way of things.
– In actuality, God’s child can know only that which God creates. Man is not surrounded by pictures he is trying to destroy. He lives in God, divine Principle, Love, impressed by spiritual sense. Whenever evil masquerades as real or as good, there is the opportunity to see it as illusion, something to be abandoned and remain unimpressed.
– Individual deliverance from evil of every kind is through the acquisition of spiritual reality, rather than by getting rid of something undesired.
P.s. Recently came across this website with some interesting articles:
https://csclassics.com/
Thank you, J, for sharing your discovery of this website – looks like lots of interesting
articles there to explore.
You’re welcome Maggie and Mary. 🙂
Thank you Evan, for today’s post, and every day…so very very helpful.
Also thank you J, the website is a gem!
So grateful to Evan sir and all others for writing inspiring Truths to start God -given day.
Thank you for this very loving and powerful statement, Evan ! Just what I needed this morning! ❤️❤️ Our God is Love, unchanging Love !