A few weeks ago, there was a sad report in our local newspaper telling about a young man longboarding down a hill in town. A car drove up close to him. An arm reached out the window and yanked on his shirt throwing him off his longboard and into a disastrous crash that put him into intensive care at the hospital. It was such a malicious act, and so unnecessary. My heart went out to this young man.
It reminded me that one must not be naïve about the evil intent of others. Ideally, everyone would be nice to each other in this world, and we’d all get along and support each other in positive ways. But mankind is far from reaching this ideal. So it’s important that we prayerfully defend ourselves from malicious intent ahead of time.
We are not helpless. There is something we can do. We can cultivate a state of thought that is attuned to the need of the moment. We can prayerfully build a strong defense.
The apostle Paul wrote,
“…put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil….hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.” Eph. 6:13, 16, NLT.
Our mental armor is a consciousness of spiritual truth that cannot be penetrated by fear or evil intent. God has eyes everywhere. God has ears everywhere. God knows all. When tuned into the Mind of God, we can hear what we need to know to stay safe, act intelligently and wisely, and stay out of harm’s way. Or, if we do end up in harm’s way, the voice of wisdom can be heard speaking to us and leading us out.
God is not ignorant. God is not caught off guard. God is always awake, alert, attentive, and aware. By staying in this consciousness of Truth you can stay intelligently informed.
Later, a follow-up newspaper article reported that a vehicle had been coming down the hill just behind the man when he jumped onto the street with his longboard into the vehicle’s path. It’s still a very sad story, and not just, but there was an opportunity to be alert and construct a vigorous defense for safety.
There have been many times in my life when I heard the voice of wisdom speak to me within and guide me in a way that protected me from unforeseen harm. I’m sure you’ve had experiences like that too. So, the greater lesson is to keep in that inspired state of consciousness that stays ahead of evil and out of its reach. It’s doable, and essential to prolonged well- being.
yes so true…important to be alert…not to danger…but to God’s protective guidance. While looking for a parking spot in a large car park i was listening for God’s guidance when suddenly I “heard” in my thought “SLOW SLOW SLOW” . I almost stopped and suddenly a young girl looking at her phone while texting walked straight out in front of me. . At the same time another large car, whose driver had not seen the girl, suddenly backed out on the other side and almost hit her. I tooted the horn which alerted everyone. Thankyou God!
This article is so good, Evan. You aren’t mincing words about evil and its intent either. Evil must be addressed, called out, and dealt with. How? By daily protective prayer and by common sense human footsteps that follow. Fear of evil paralyzes, but truly understanding the methods of evil and its intent (however unpleasant it may be to address) enables us to do something about it. This week’s Bible Lesson shows how evil operates with the metaphor of the snake as evil. The account you write about is overt evil, but there is also silent evil, which operates to seduce man (as the snake did Eve) to act foreign to his nature. Both need to be confronted! As the devils fell from heaven for the 70 disciples in their journey, so can we rout out evil in our daily walk. Takes diligence and tremendous love. I’m just learning this. We cannot ignore, tolerate, or placate evil.
Thanks Evan for sharing more words of wisdom! I enjoyed reading the above comments too. It made me think of Psalm 91, which is about divine protection.
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty….”
Thank you so much for this very wise subject today. We all must stand porter at the door of thought as evil does try in every which way to tempt us into believing how powerful it can be. We must be aware of what is going on and keep knowing what is True about each situation that arrises and would try to bring us down.
The other comments were most helpful as well. Have a great day, everyone!
As a fitting follow-up to your great post, Evan, may I add that the young man, who is a husband and father, is back home to his family?
Thanks as always for your blog.
Thanks for this article, Evan….it’s very helpful and very timely since it would seem that evil is “lifting its hydra head” all over the world these days and our safety is a common concern. I recall a practitioner’s words when she was praying for our daughter who had fallen prey to some so-called “childhood malady” at school. She said to always remember, “Life is NOT a hostile environment…Life is God.” I have often thought and repeated these words in the years since, applying it to anything that would seem to threaten our peace. I think of all the implications of Life being God, using the synonyms and attributes Mrs. Eddy ascribed to God (Life is Love; Life is Principle, Life is all-powerful, etc.) and have never failed to find peace restored.
Yesterday, I watched the American History Channel that I get from RCN. It was all about the radio program of 1938, WAR OFTHE WORLDS presented by the Mercury Theator. It showed how easily human kind can be hypnotized to believe and follow hypnotic temptations. Even a simple radio adaptation and cause panic throughout the USA. All through the program there was warnings that this was just a radio show but people put it on before the warning. It was a prime example of mortal mind and its aggressiveness to cause havoc amongst humans.
Ah, I have been protected so many times from significant injury that it goes beyond counting. I’ve used the tenants to help me keep my mind stayed on God, good, Spirit for divine guidance. We’ve all been blessed with this thought “putting on the armor of God,” Truth as a continuous protection from all the ills of false belief. Personally, I am very thankful for MBE’s revelation and sharing her discovery to bring to us a very present help throughout our day.
Thanks so much, Evan, for this important reminder. And, thanks to Robyn for her comment including ““Life is NOT a hostile environment…” The impossibility of a hostile environment was proven to me many years ago when my daughter, then age 11, and I were moving from New York to California in July. No one had warned me to stay out of Death Valley, and since we were seeing all of the National Parks and popular landmarks, we included Death Valley. As we sat in our heavily loaded car containing our belongings along the side of the highway, car overheated with no water, I was praying that we were not subject to environment only God’s law. A young man approached towards us in a pickup truck. He made a U-turn, pulled up behind us and asked what we were doing there. I explained I was on my to California. He had 5 gallon jugs of water in the back of his truck and filled my tank with water. He then said he used to work for the highway dept. in the park and that the superintendent lived in the park. I followed him up to his house where they hosed off my car and gave us some lemonade to drink. Then this young man followed us out of the park to Lone Pine, CA, where I had the car repaired. I was so very grateful for God’s protection – and still am every time I think of this experience. How grateful I am also for Christian Science which gives us the understanding of God which sustains us under all circumstances.
“Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.” (S&H:571:15)
Jesus certainly gave us a good example of protection when he walked safely through a crowd of people who wanted to stone him (John 8:59). His pure thought and prayerful preparation were his armor of protection.
I love the example of Jesus Christ who’s key instruction was to hold to divine science – to keep his words. He knew no fear (evil) and walked away from it ‘unrecognized, untouched”, knowing a seeming crowd of malicious intent wasn’t real.
Thank you Evan and all who have added comments today.
I have prayed often with ideas from Psalm 91 when I feel in need of God’s protection.
Years ago my husband, two children and I set out on a special launch trip around some islands in the northern part of our country, New Zealand.
We were holidaying with only a tent to live in, and felt it would be more interesting to go on the launch trip rather than stay in the tent as it was a wet day.
I was a new student of Christian Science but read, studied and prayed before we departed.
As we proceeded the weather got stormy and whipped up the waves,and I kept praying.
The trip took three hours but we eventually arrived back at our base safe and sound.
The captain of the launch remarked to us it had been the roughest mail trip he’d experienced.in his time on that job.
We had all felt God’s protection that day and I learned how important it is to pray for and acknowledge God’s ever-present protection, when departing on some new adventure.
Thanks for all the many good thoughts.. We seem to be living in turbulent times. Need to focus on the good!
Wow! Great blog and comments. Very helpful. Thanks everyone! (=
This is such a loving and very timely blog, and the sharing today is wonderful . So many good thoughts. Love the contribution ” Life is NOT a hostile environment..Life is God” This is a keeper. Thanks for sharing! Thank you Evan for addressing this important topic.