Be proactive with your spiritual growth and avoid playing catch-up

November 26, 2018 | 24 comments

One rule I like to apply in life is to stay one step ahead of error, rather than playing catch-up all the time.

For instance, rather than waiting for lack to appear in one’s experience, we can be proactive with demonstrating abundance so that lack never has a chance to become part of our experience.

The same rule applies to health. Rather than waiting for illness to appear, and then praying to get well, we can be proactive with Truth and stay well, and develop such a strong immunity to illness through our spiritual understanding, that illness seldom occurs for us to fight in the first place.

As in olden times, a city that is strongly fortressed and garrisoned with high and impenetrable walls, is difficult for enemies to invade. When our thinking is strongly garrisoned with Truth, and overflowing with Love, there is no room for error-suggestions to enter and cause havoc.

To stay one step ahead of error, be alert to any signs of heaviness, darkness or suggestions of illness trying to enter consciousness. Don’t ignore forebodings of evil. Deal with them promptly by applying spiritual truth and making them go away.

For me, if I’m feeling a bit down, I stop what I’m doing, and remember that Life is Good—all the time, and I’m living it right now. Enjoy it! If I worry about the future, I stop what I’m doing and remember that the future is now, and it’s all good, filled with God’s love and care. Be grateful! If I sense symptoms of illness coming on, I don’t ignore them. I stop what I’m doing, and argue the unreality of those symptoms and the reality of God’s health until I’m confident that I’m well.

The more one practices at staying ahead of error and metaphysically on top with Truth, the easier it gets. It becomes a way of life. Suggestions of evil can be quickly put down and God’s peace can be quickly found when the heart is committed to knowing nothing less than complete freedom all the time.

It’s a lot easier to stay on top of the mountain of Truth, then to descend into the valley and keep hiking up the steep slopes again and again.

Stay ahead of error. Be proactive with understanding Truth, and thrive!

24 thoughts on “Be proactive with your spiritual growth and avoid playing catch-up”

  1. Evan, thank you for your generosity in sharing with us your great love. I have a Christian Science prison ministry and have recently been sharing some SpiritView with them. I’ve had requests to please send more. They go into 5 Texas prisons. I feel so blessed to have these great ideas to share and bless so many. SV is one of the first things I read of a morning. Thank you.

  2. What a fantastic reminder! Soooo important to stay alert. I was especially struck with, “I stop what I’m doing.” Sometimes it’s a tendency to try to address error while continuing to do whatever we’re doing. But, the rebuke and correction needs our undivided attention. I really appreciate this message!

  3. I love the analogy of staying on top of the mountain… where our view is the best…our Spirit view, than having to climb again and again from the valley of material belief. Wonderful inspiration! Thank you!

  4. Great! Thank you Evan and all contributors. I also find it helpful to identify God as my Mind first thing in the morning ~~ this is how to stick with that fact. Also as a CS Bible Study chaplain in our county jail, I find many ideas from these SpiritViews helpful, although inmates don’t have tablets on which to read the whole thing.
    Blessings to all for a day of being a blessing wherever we are in our spiritual journey.

  5. Thank you for the reminder to “pray without ceasing.” Keeping in thought that we are the beloved child of God helps so much in staying connected with goodness, purity, well being, and true health. Staying on the mountain top and staying focused on the Truth of our being, the strength of divine Love, the ever presence of Life and intelligence of divine Mind protects our thought and actions from the impositions and intrusions of material sense. We live and move and have our being in God! Have a wonderful day everyone!

  6. Thanks for this post! Please check me on this. A problem I see with this message is it implies that error is real. That error is a “thing” out there and it must be guarded against. Belief is what gives thought the power of intention; it is belief in error that makes it real. Here, we have a belief in two powers. To the best of my understanding Mary Baker Eddy insisted on a belief in the Allness of God and if God is All there is nothing to add or take away; if error is there than God can’t be all. Help.

    1. Hi Kenny,

      The definition of “error,” is that which seems to be, but isn’t. Error is the opposite of Truth. In the human experience, what a Christian Scientist calls “error,” often feels and seems real. We need a way to communicate with each other in understandable ways, and thus the use of the word error for those times when the allness of God is not so apparent.

      You are correct, that we are demonstrating the allness of God, and hold that as the ideal and only reality. To protect from “error,” does not deny the allness of God. It’s a reminder to stay aware only of God! That’s the best protection of all, as you mention. Thanks for sharing.

  7. “Beloved C S, keep your minds so filled with Truth & Love that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them.”
    Misc. p 210. Thank U, Evan & Friends. All is God each & every day. We choose what thoughts to entertain.

  8. Hi Kenny. I like your question a lot because it made me think. Evan probably can give you a better answer but maybe I can share what came to me. During the day my house is filled with sunlight. But when the sun begins to set and I notice the light growing dim I start to turn on lamps in my house. I don’t do it because I am afraid of the dark but because I want to maintain the level of light in my home. And I do it before the sun sets so I don’t find myself bumping and stumbling around in the dark trying to find a light switch. Now in Christian Science we learn that “house” can mean consciousness. So what I take from today’s Spiritview is, if you notice the light of Truth growing dim in consciousness error isn’t moving in as an entity but as the supposed absence of the light of Truth moving out. So what we need to do is maintain our spiritual light by affirming Truth before we lose it all together and are stumbling around in the dark with a problem. I see this as a call to affirm Truth and not let it grow dim. Hope this helps. And thank you Evan for this blog today!

    1. Karen, thank you for your contribution. I struggle with the belief that error is not real and your comments help put things into perspective. Thanks!

    2. Hi Karen, thank you for the clarification. The thing I love about Christian Science is that it doesn’t just make me think; it forces me to think differently. In her article The Body Mary Baker Eddy says it all, “Our sufficiency to think is of God; our ability to form thoughts and opinions is of our own ignorance, our belief in duality, but our power or sufficiency to think is when we think with God, as God.” In Oneness!

  9. Thanks to everyone for your comments and especially to Karen for such a clear explanation.
    The first idea that came to me was to “Stand porter at the door of thought, admitting only such thoughts that you want realized in your experience.” Not an exact quotation from Science and Health.

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