If ever tempted to feel discouraged, listen less to material sense, and more to spiritual reasoning.
Discouragement comes into the human experience through the physical senses and can be defeated by listening more faithfully to spiritual sense.
If one is inclined to size up his prospects for supply through what he can measure financially, he may get discouraged if there is no money in the bank. But if one reasons out properly that supply flows abundantly from God and is ever-present, he will see supply where he never thought supply was possible, and his financial needs will be met.
If one measures health according to what he can see in the physical body, he may get discouraged if his “numbers are off,” according to a medical diagnosis. But if he understands health to be a permanent and spiritual part of being, and that God regulates and governs his state of health to stay perfect at all times, what appeared to be wrong, will vanish.
Discouragement is not necessary.
When listening to spiritual sense, and reasoning out from the spiritual facts of being, you’ll find reasons to be encouraged!
Live a life of encouragement. It’s a choice you can make. God is with you to master any challenge you face and to keep you moving down a path of progress.
“When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress. The struggle for Truth makes one strong instead of weak, resting instead of wearying one” Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 426.
Thank you so much for this, Evan, it is just what I needed this morning – turning my thought from sense to Soul!
Anne, Stourbridge UK
just what I needed,thank you Evan!
It seems so easy to get caught up and not calling on Divine Science. Page 426 reminds us to stand porter at the door of thought. Our Divine Thought, conquers all evil thoughts.
Boy I’ll tell you sometimes your remarks hit straight on! Thank you so much for this these comments they really apply to me, financially speaking. Out of work for a few months and really holding to thoughts like this… studying and learning, that’s my job at the moment, in other words I’m back in school :-). Thank you again and blessings for your day.
Thanks for this message. It’s seemed like lots is out of whack at the moment, including finances and health. Things seem to snowball. I am grateful for the reminder that God is governing all! Always supplying all needs, and providing a constant, unassailable state of health.
Thank you Evan. Blessings to all today.
Thank you Evan. I love the first sentence of this Blog!!!
Recently I’ve become more aware of the importance of ignoring material sense and instead focusing on spiritual sense. By “spiritual sense” I mean the discernment of the ideas of Truth and Love (God) that are ever present in consciousness but can get overlooked when we are focusing instead on the illusions of material sense. A citation in the August 6th Christian Science Bible Lesson on Spirit renewed my understanding of the futility of trying to perceive spiritual truth through material sense. A part of this citation is shown below:
“Can Deity be known through the material senses? Can the material senses, which receive no direct evidence of Spirit, give correct testimony as to spiritual life, truth, and love?
The answer to all these questions must forever be in the negative.
The physical senses can obtain no proof of God. They can neither see Spirit through the eye nor hear it through the ear, nor can they feel, taste, or smell Spirit.” SH 284:15-23
Prior to reading this I often would pray about some situation and then look to (wait for) the material senses for evidence my prayers were effective. I knew that looking to material sense for proof my prayers were effective was not correct, but it was difficult to resist the temptation to do that. But after reading the above citation it became clear to me that the material senses are incapable of perceiving spiritual reality. Even a harmonious condition perceived through the material senses is not reality. Only spiritual ideas are reality. And as made clear in the citation above, it’s impossible to perceive God and His spiritual ideas through the material senses. Now, once I grasp the spiritual truth about some situation, I’m no longer tempted to try to get confirmation through the material senses of that truth. Instead I’m now content to experience the full expression of that truth in thought and ignore (shut out of my thinking) whatever the material senses may claim is the opposite of that truth. Because after all, “The physical senses can obtain no proof of God.” By no longer looking to material sense for confirmation of what I’ve perceived via spiritual sense, I’ve found the following from Evan’s blog today is inevitable:
“what appeared to be wrong, will vanish.”
There are many references in Science and Health on the topic of material sense being unable to perceive Truth. Below are a few of them.
SH 95:30, 167:11, 330:14, 359:14, 596:1
Thank you God, Soul for your completeness and oneness which we all reflect and express right now! Thank you Evan for your great post on standing up to and defeating a false sense, discouragement. Thank you Brian for sharing and leaving us citations on the nothingness of material sense and the allness of spiritual reality. I am thinking about last week’s bible lesson, section 4 about the singular, simple, pure vision of looking only to God, Good for any and all informaton regarding existence. That’s all there is. All.
Thanks so much, Evan, for this very helpful blog and to Brian for your comment. This quote from S&H in last week’s Bible lesson really stood out to me, “The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacity, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being.” (p. 227:24) The report of the material senses is always an illusion, a false testimony, not from God and therefore having no reality nor identity.
The unseen hand
in our life…
expressing endlessly
our best course…
Is the greatest
show on earth
Thank you Evan (and Brian). I so needed this in studying re health. Copied both your articles.
WOW ! What gems of thoughts have been expressed. All will have great bearing on this week’s lesson in particular. As ever, Brian, I love your insights. I will strive to understand and digest them. Hope, Faith, Love are constant companions. Thank you,
Evan.
It occurred to me that perhaps my comment above wasn’t clear on how it relates to “discouragement”, which is the topic of this blog. So I’d like to try again…
In my own practice of Christian Science I’ve often become discouraged when, after praying about something, the evidence perceived via the physical senses didn’t change immediately to conform to what I was knowing via my prayers. I believe that focus on wanting to see the material evidence change prevents healing in many cases. Therefore, the point of my comment above was to convey that I’ve since learned that a healing is “complete” when we reach the point of clearly perceiving the truth about the situation in our thinking. Since I’ve learned that, I no longer become discouraged if the error that I’m perceiving via the material senses does not immediately vanish. I’ve had cases where it has vanished immediately. But in other cases, the evidence perceived through the material senses does not change immediately. But even when that happens, I now know that it’s the clear understanding of truth that occurs in thought that indicates the healing is complete and therefore I can be grateful for the healing (revealing) when that happens. And that viewpoint prevents discouragement.
SH 495:20: Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.
Hi Brian! I thought your first post was clear and I loved your first line beacause I thought the exact same thing… I actually paused after reading Evan’s first sentence… Looked up and thought ” nuff said!” I did however read on! Thanks for your comments though… All very helpful.
Thank you Evan and commenters. It can be tempting, especially in mental exhaustion after having tried for a while to find a spiritual perspective, to look back at an unchanged material picture and simply feel deflated and discouraged. Your insights above are much appreciated.
Just what I needed at this moment.
Thank you Evan.
Am awfully grateful for todays spiritview!
I do need it so much and it gives me a lot.
And the comments give much insite.
Thank you Evan for another grate healing Blog!
Glad I checked back today! Thanks Brian, good explanation !
Thanks to all.