The material past does not affect the spiritual present

July 25, 2023 | 24 comments

If you’re ever concerned about something that happened in your past affecting what is happening to you today, take heart. You can let that fear go and claim freedom from the past.

You have everything you need coming from God today to experience the best life has to offer.

What appeared to happen in matter yesterday, does not affect what is happening in Spirit today. What is happening in Spirit today is all you need to know and think on.

The material past does not affect your spiritual present.

24 thoughts on “The material past does not affect the spiritual present”

  1. Evan this is such an important concept and certainly one that needs to be mastered..
    I’ve found it help to think of the past as a shadow and the present as sunshine.
    I daily remind myself that I am standing g in the light of Love rather than in the shadow of the past.

    1. Thank you Evan and thank you John! I love your analogy of sunshine and shadow – very helpful.

      1. Thank you Evan!
        What a wonderful reminder that
        God(Spirit) alone defines our life.
        God governs every aspect of each one
        of his children at all times.
        There can never really be lack or want,
        because it is impossible to be defined
        materially. What a promise ,”You have
        everything you need coming from God today to experience the best life has to
        offer”
        Shelley

    2. Dear Evan, Thank you for this. It’s so important for everyone.
      Dear John,
      Excellent! That is a quick, concise fact to remember. “I am standing in the light of Love, rather than in the shadow of the past.” Thank you so much for that! I can use that every time the past starts to hound me, because I know it’s true.
      Cathy

  2. Perfect timing! Visiting with family this week and seeing scars from accidents, ankle bracelets indicating house arrest for past actions, rehearsing stories of “remember when”, are all iron chains to a material history.
    Reading this Lift in the morning with a few hours of quietness to myself really helps check thought, “loosen bands”, and keep reality in the spiritual now. I look forward to the good today and handle the aggressive suggestions of a past. The nothingness of nothing is nothing. Spirit is all that is, was, and will be. How powerful!

  3. Thank you Evan. This is just what I needed to know . I want to thank all those who always shared spiritual and helpful messages with us in time of need. I once presented a challenge of the loss of my compound.

    The messages that were shared on that day uplifted my thought. I immediately found that there was nothing to lament about because all had been gain as I had continued my spiritual journey through the years without interference from those who thought taking my house wouldl lead to frustration, but God was there for them and for me.

    Today, this message, together with all the other messages we have been commenting on has made it clear to me, that nothing has truly affected my spiritual present. I consider the fact that my second marriage and the home, my husband and I moved into is an answered prayer. The home is ours and an inheritance. The person who introduced, Christian Science, built the compound. where we live now. He was my husband’s father. He lived here and passed on twelve years ago but none of his children lived there until my husband and I got married and settled here, being a neutral settlement for both of us..

    We are developing the place, to our taste as years go by. A very big compound with apartments for tenants, the office my father in law used in his time is now my office renovated to my taste.

    Divine Love has made me to understand the meaning of home and family in it’s spiritual sense and today I am enjoying an inheritance. Mathew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. .As Evan has rightly said, “What is happening in Spirit today is all you need to know and think on”. We read in Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, that “Progress is the law of God. The goodness of God is all I need to think of. I am living in the present. Thank you all.

    1. Grace – So pleased to hear that all things have worked together for your good, because you
      love God, and He has proved that He loves you. So we are learning that we do live in God’s eternal spiritual NOW – there is no yesterday or tomorrow in infinity – and it is all in our Father’s loving
      hands, who is blessing us all with spiritual blessings, and taking care of our
      every need every moment. Christian Science is a true blessing.

  4. A wonderful thought and reminder. I thank you, Evan for sharing and everyone for their comments. As John commented, definitely something to try and master, especially in family situations as noted in Fawn and Grace’s comments.

  5. As I ponder these precious thoughts, above, I realize that the past years
    have drifted by like a leaf down a gentle stream … they really are
    now insignificant and NOW is really the Only time.
    As Shakespeare had written, “the world is a stage..” and we are mere
    actors in a play. It is up to us to mold our thoughts into what we choose
    in Mind, Spirit and in Truth, in God’s Love,
    for our thoughts Are really all that we have.
    From a treasure trove of helpful thoughts:

    “Your past is just a story. And once you realize this,
    it has no power over you”. … and

    “The past is where you Learned the lesson
    The future is where you Apply the lesson
    Don’t give up in the Middle!”

  6. Thank you all for the beautiful comments everyone had this morning and thank you for sharing.

    1. Wonderful article, very helpful dear “J”. Thank you very much for it!
      Your articles are almost very helpful and just the Truths I needed!

    2. Thank you very much J. This article, Parting with a Painful Past, was really wonderful and so timely and needed. We hear much in world thought about the mental health crisis, and we’re taught that difficult, painful early experiences will surely cause lasting harmful effects as one grows into adolescence and adulthood, such as addiction, depression etc. This article explains clearly and with great sincerity how to address spiritually these seeming intractable problems. It is worth reading and re-reading. May these ideas spread and reach all who need them,

  7. Knowing we are fully cared for in this moment by our dear God, can melt away unhelpful ideas about the so-called past. Someone shared a few days ago on SpiritView that the past is just a thought we are having in the present. It doesn’t actually exist now, only our often distorted material memory of it, so it can have no real power over our true spiritual being.

    Regarding our spiritual present Mrs. Eddy said in Misc Writings (p. 307), “…it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment. What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipotent Love.”

    To have “ALL we need EVERY moment,” just think about that. What more can we need than ALL.

    Blessings to Evan and everyone here learning together.

  8. Thank you dear Evan for he needed spiritual truths you give us with today`s SpiritView!
    Yes, I love the passage from Misc Writings, Rose is stating is very comforting and healing and I love it too very much! Thanks for mentioning this dear Rose!

    “The material past does not affect my spiritual present.” Thank you, Evan, it`s so comforting and healing my thinking about some things in the past. The past is gone also when it was nice! The nice happenings came always from God, which makes me joyful. Nevertheless, we are always living in the spiritual present! Dearest Evan, it is so very satisfying what you give us , i.e. “We have everything we need coming from God today to experience the best life has to offer!” Thanks again deeply!

    Love to all for your wonderful and helpful comments! 🙂

  9. From the enlightened article by Richard Gates … (Thank you so much
    for sharing it with us, dear J) :
    “Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are
    completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort”.
    In trying to always do what we believe is right, I think sometimes
    we need to especially guard our thought from others that may Seem
    to be influenced by erroneous beliefs in general, or about us, either
    intentionally or not.
    Sometimes friends of the past may have seemed to have treated
    us unfairly by their thinking being biased or swayed by media,
    false information, which the truth [Truth] always eventually comes
    out and turns out to be correct and is coming out more and more,
    as evil can not be truly hidden. Coming from various ways of
    thinking of things, they may not want to admit that their interpretations
    of things were “wrong” and sometimes hold thoughts against us in
    subtle ways that we must guard against, as they are not true.
    This article is very helpful in pointing this out and as stated within,
    “Our Leader writes, “A knowledge of error and of its operations must
    precede that understanding of Truth, which destroys error …”

  10. DEAR Evan et al: Every single word written above has been a tremendous help in climbing up and out of some past memories. My gratitude is very deep for all the wisdom and kindness expressed .
    Each kind and wise word has helped me live in God’s spiritual today world and not rethink some
    unpleasant past happenings. Thanks to all those memories are fading today and I am learning to claim that I live in the atmosphere of Love Divine. Thank you–all above.

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