When people get busy doing their routine, prayer is often pushed to the side in the belief that there are more important things to do than cultivate an understanding of God and grow spiritually. But what a mistake! Knowing God is more important than anything else one could do, for what we receive from God is what prospers us and keeps us healthy and well over the long run.
I wrote an article titled, “Why God is relevant,” that explains how I found God to be relevant in my life. I pray it helps you find God’s relevancy in your life too! It was published March 16, 2020, in the Christian Science Sentinel.
Hi. JSH won’t let me in to read the article as I’m not a subscriber.
Why God is relevant
By Evan Mehlenbacher
From the March 16, 2020 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
While attending college after high school, I spent time wondering what to do with the rest of my life. One afternoon while entertaining career possibilities, I thought about becoming a full-time Christian Science healer. No sooner did the option pop into my mind than I thought: “You can’t do that. You would have to think about God all the time!”
Thinking about God all the time felt ludicrous. There were so many other demands to think about, such as earning a living, paying the bills, staying healthy, and maybe getting married someday and having children. The list of things to do other than ponder the realities of divine Spirit seemed enormous and endless.
But as I considered the scope of God as being infinite, all-inclusive, and omnipresent, as I had learned from my upbringing and my study of Christian Science, I remembered that God is not a sideshow. God is the main event. God is Life. God is All. To accept the omnipresence and omnipotence of God is to see that there isn’t anything else to think about; I realized that everything good is included within God’s infinitude. It was a jolting perspective to consider.
The material world would argue that there is something other than God and His spiritual creation to think about, namely, mortal existence, with its demands to figure out how to survive. This view would claim that, rather than seeking an understanding of God and spiritual life, one must spend one’s time managing matter in the form of earning money, acquiring things, coping with disease and a physical body, and planning for a timeline of maturity and death in matter. In a material, mortal view of the world, God can start to feel remote, irrelevant, even nonexistent.
But Christ Jesus came to show us that we can look to God first for life and support. When hungry people needed food, he prayed to God with spiritual understanding, and they were fed. When sick people pleaded for health, he prayed to God, and they found themselves strong and healthy. When someone’s thoughts were tangled and confused, or they were angry or afraid, he prayed to God, and mental harmony was restored. He showed his followers that God was the primary sustainer of existence, health, and supply. He said, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need” (Luke 12:31, New Living Translation).
God is the main event. God is Life.
From Jesus’ point of view, mortality was a fraud. It promises life but delivers death. Its riches are unequally bestowed and often flee as vapor. It gives a person reason to be happy one day, then delivers a blow the next that sends the individual into despair and grief. Knowing the vanity, cruelty, and changeableness of the mortal domain, Jesus taught his followers to look beyond mortality to immortality, which is true reality, for life and hope. He saw no need to accept that we must toil in matter in order to maintain existence, because he knew life has its roots in God. His understanding of health, life, and provision in God enabled him to overcome the constraints of mortality and demonstrate that all human needs are met through the love of God. Christian Science teaches us how to prove the reality of God’s care today.
One can find an accurate understanding of God in the Bible and in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The Bible documents how God has spoken to humanity over the centuries through Christ, pointing the way out of mortality to immortality. Science and Health explains how to put the teachings of the Bible into practice and to heal as Jesus expected his followers to heal. Its teachings enable one to fulfill Jesus’ command “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!” (Matthew 10:8, NLT). Guided by the truths in these two books, one can gain an understanding of God and learn to prove that God’s omnipotence and omniscience meet every human need.
In Christian Science, God is not a deity unconnected to the human experience, a supernatural being in a faraway place, or a mysterious power that is hard to relate to. God is the all-knowing, all-wise Mind that undergirds and constitutes all reality. This Mind has a solution to every problem, an answer to every question, a supply for every need, and gives eternal Life for man to live, which includes eternal health.
In Science and Health, God is defined as “the great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence” (p. 587). As Jesus understood, and Christian Science explains, God is the Principle of all existence, the Mind that orders the universe, the Life that sustains all being, the Love that unites all. God is all good.
With God, one has everything necessary to stay healthy, to live abundantly, and to be happy. When we have God, we have everything. It feels easier and more natural to lean on God for guidance and healing in times of trouble when one understands that God is reliable. As the Bible declares, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1). To know God’s presence is to find the inspiration, love, and support that meet the need of the moment.
God undergirds and constitutes all reality.
Many years ago, on the night I returned to my home from a trip overseas, I became very ill. As my health deteriorated, I prayed. In my prayers, I knew that God was present, and that God could heal, but my health was failing fast. At a point when I was barely able to think one or two words at a time, and was afraid that if I lost consciousness I would never wake up, my thoughts landed on the single word God. This word held deep meaning for me.
I knew that God was my Life, and that God could never be threatened, sickened, or lost. As I recalled this simple truth, I realized I didn’t need to save my life, because it was already safe with God. I could cease my fierce struggle to stay alive, and trust God to keep me alive. With this realization, a heavy burden of personal responsibility for preserving my health lifted, and a wave of peace swept through consciousness. I lost all fear of death and felt assured that everything was going to be OK. I decided it was all right to fall asleep for rest, feeling confident that I was safe because God was caring for me. When I awoke two hours later, I felt 90 percent well, and the remaining vestige of illness was gone very soon. The healing was decisive and welcomed.
As children of God, we each possess God-given power to conquer evil with good. Armed with a keen awareness of the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, we can defeat suffering and maintain order and peace. The claims of mortality are not imperative. They can be overturned. Evil can be stopped and seen as powerless!
Science and Health states: “Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man” (p. 393). Each of us possesses spiritual might to claim our divine right to health, to resolve conflict with love, to act without fear, and to better our experience. We are divinely empowered to feel Life’s blessings to the fullest! Each day is an opportunity to exercise this power.
When human reason argues that there are more important things to do than to seek out God, one can counter with the truth that there isn’t anything more important to do than to understand God. To know God is to readily recognize God’s benefits. As I glimpsed many years ago when seeking direction for my life, there isn’t anything more important. There is no higher consciousness to possess, no higher goal to aim for, no priority more important to pursue. When you have God, you have everything.
Many thanks Carol. That’s great!!
Hi Linda, the article title in the post is a link to the article, enjoy. 🙂
I’m not a paid subscriber either. I clicked on that link and I just get the login page.
Thank you so much, Evan, for bringing this article to our attention. As Mrs Eddy says in Science and Health p 390: “It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony” and of course, your article brings out how important it is to understand God first and foremost, and therefore how this understanding of God can bless us in so many ways.
This is the sharing link for Evan’s very helpful article https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/8b8z1fvnd0?s=e
“When you have God, you have everything.”
Thank you very much, Ken for the link to Evan’s precious article. I gave my Sentinel already to the distribution of church magazins.
Thank you Evan for your today’s wonderful spiritual views! Meanwhile I understand that as God is my life, He is doing everything, leading me to all what i need even if it needs demonstration, and so forming my day joyfully. Actually we cannot do anything without God because we, as His creation and image and likeness are made to reflect His precious qualities to His Glory.
Have you all a glorious weekend with our Father-Mother God 🙂
Ken,
That is exactly what I loved “When you have God, you have everything.” Evan, thank you for that wonderful article! 🙂
I’m not a paid subscriber either. I clicked on that link and I just get the login page.
P.S. Thank you Ken, that worked.
It’s a wonderful article, thanks Evan for reminding us about it.
A friend of mine asked me how often I prayed in a day, and I know she was surprised when I told her it was pretty much continuous! God’s angel messages are always available and our days pass much more harmoniously when we listen for them and action them. Have a great day, everyone!
So true, Dylis, thank you very much!! 🙂
Wonderful article, Evan! I loved the part where you realized that God was your life and you didn’t need to fight to stay alive. God was caring for you. I find that we have to get to the point when praying – or battling with some belief that we realize that the battle is God’s , not our own. In other words, we don’t maintain the Truth but yield to it. The mortal mind is not the healer- God is. As you rightly said God is our everything!
Thanks Ken for the link and thank you Evan for this inspiring article.
I often start my day with the thought ‘Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike Good”…so how lovely to see this within your article Evan! Thank you for reminding us that by putting God first everything takes it rightful harmonious place!.
Sentinel gone to a friend and I am not a member of JSH so could not re-read. Thanks for giving us daily inspiration however!
Yes you can read Evan’s article. Just click on the blue link, Ken gives us up here and it will open the article to read!
Two good article plus a post, We get double our need and then some as a pre mother’s day gift.
Hello Radine, Ken’s 2:18am entry above has your link.
& today’s Relevancy of God post is so important!!
When in the work force, I loved the realization I was needed there as a Christian Scientist, not just as a worker -so Grateful for this ‘Blessed Light’ of Truth and Love which heals and saves, bringing back into focus realized all-harmonious being.
Thanks Evan. I read this article when it came out, but it is a great reminder to put God ahead of paying bills, running errands and even work. As you say, God is already giving us everything we need all the time. We don’t need “to get” as we already have. I love the quote from Malachi in this week’s lesson about God pouring us out a blessing. We should all take it to heart.
I am so grateful for SpiritView. I wouldn’t start my day without it. Thanks for all your work in putting it together day after day.
Jeff
A truly excellent and healing article. Thanks Evan.
I read your article 3 times in the CSS, as I needed to hear it’s message. Your clear expressions of the importance of consistently communing with God were powerful in my life. This early morning I was thinking of my heart’s desire to continue to expand my understanding and obedience to God today. Then I opened my email and here is your reminder! Precious! My prayers for expanding my acceptance of the allness of God, and living that truth are harmonizing my situation, and helping me see what’s truly going on in God’s family, thus helping the world wake up to experience improved harmony in their lives. I will re-read your article again today! Grateful for the link, Ken, although I did retain that Sentinel.
First Be true to God.
Second Be true to ourselves.
Last Be true to the world.
Two days ago, I called my dear cousin, a Christian Science practitioner, and talked to her about rightful companionship. Our focus was through prayer, as we are never separated from good, God. So yesterday on my morning walk / beach clean up, a woman stooped down to pick up small pieces of plastic, the same as I was doing. I offered my small trash bag for her finds. I knew within minutes, she was a kindred spirit. In the next hour and more, she revealed to me her focus of native plants, (outside her home)in so much detail, her love of the natural world, plus sharing values of honesty. The meeting was no coincidence. I knew that turning to prayer, I would (what I call) get those High 5’s from God: the blessing that is so pure, you’re smiling all over! Our unceasing prayers are relevant to the abundance of so much good, and quietly praising God. Or shouting Yahoo! High 5’s!
Ten years ago, I received my BA degree in Sustainable Community Development. Yet, I must know first and foremost “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is BIG with blessings”. (Science and Health, p. VII, Eddy)
What an exciting day ahead of us, right?
How grateful to know that you, Evan, Walk the Talk! High 5’s! (6 ft. away, LOL)
Thanks Evan, Dilys, Jo and all!!
I look forward to reading the article, maybe 3 times!❤️❤️❤️
Thank you, Evan, for such a practical, healing article. And thanks for all the comments in this joyous community. The simple yet immensely powerful statement that “God is reliable” brought tears as S/he has been so reliable to me since the age of 3 when I was healed of an “incurable” disease through CS after my parents had taken me to many medical specialists. My father had left CS at 16 and my mother hadn’t been brought up in any religion. After my healing I was enrolled in the CS Sunday School and my parents began attending church. Our lives were forever changed. I also love these lines from Evan’s article, “We are divinely empowered to feel Life’s blessings to the fullest! Each day is an opportunity to exercise this power.”
Happy Mother’s Day to all of us, as we naturally feel and radiate God’s all-embracing, unstoppable, infinite love, justice and peace.
Ha, ha! I love your initial response in thought to the idea of becoming a full-time Christian Science healer:
“You can’t do that. You would have to think about God all the time!”
I’ve heard that before and I remember thinking it sounded undesirable to think about God ALL the time! Wow how grateful I am for spiritual progress. This morning when I read it, I thought “oh my, if I could keep my thought on God ALL the time that would be living in heaven right here on earth.” Everything is already done, worked out for good in God. Everything exists in God and if we keep thought on God, all else falls into place with ease or we are lead to where it will if we are willing to turn from what seems to be keeping us from experiencing, God, good.
I’m so grateful for a deepening understanding that if something seems inharmonious or wrong, I can correct it with changing my thought about it by understanding that God really is infinite, all. I don’t need a person or a situation to be better, my thought needs to move, to God, to the truth about the situation. A recent big revelation for me is “active trust.” God is doing it! God knows how to be God! I can trust that and not employ human will.
I can’t wait until I think about God ALL the time! Spoiler alert: really I already do, because I am Mind expressed, we all are!
Trista, your comment about active trust is wonderful. To realize that “God is doing it” and “God knows how to be God” fits in with something that caught my attention in another article (Hearing God’s voice brings healing) this morning. MBE says in No and Yes, Pg 16: “For God to know, is to be; that is, what He knows must truly and eternally exist.”
Evan, thank you so much for sharing your article. I had read and heard it from the Sentinel and really appreciate the help in understanding the relevancy of God in our current times. I so appreciate this Blog and Vlog and all the comments. Thank God for such worldwide support. Love to you all.
Thank you again, Evan, for SpiritView, and also Thank you for deciding to become a Christian Science healer and teacher. And also thank you for writing articles for our periodicals, the weekly Sentinel and monthly Journal. In re-reading your article, “Why God is relevant”, I had this thought…if God wasn’t relevant what would we be? If there was no God, we would cease to be. If we are truly the reflection of God, what would there be to reflect? We think about God more than we may realize because every giving, loving, helpful, wise thought actually comes from God. How grateful I am to Mary Baker Eddy who so lovingly gave Christian Science to the entire world. Since God made us in His image and likeness, as we are told in the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis, without God we just would not “be”!! As we celebrate all the mothers of the world, let’s be grateful for all the mothering qualities we reflect from our true Mother, God❤️
Live Love, CayDee
When that article first came out, I thought it was one of the best I’d ever read! So helpful and spot on.
I made copies of it for my kids, as well, and reread it often.
Thanks, Evan!
I reread this article this a.m. and will read again.
The message is clear and putting into practise is
Our duty to God, ourselves and mankind. Thanks
Evan for your helpful,sustaining blogs and articles.
Also to all who contribute to Spiritview. it keeps us
On track.
Thanks Evan for blessing all mankind. We feel the love. And I know how much you are loved.
God isn’t a sideshow but the Main Event…
That idea from your article ( thanks, Ken) really resonates with me. I, too, read it several times in March, but sometimes I need another reminder.
Evan, and fellow seekers, your constant care is needed & eagerly accepted each day. Many THANKS
I am so grateful for this Blog and all the comments.
Thanks everyone.
Jo, that was many years ago in the 1980’s. I am now in Tustin, CA. I posted this yesterday late, so am repeating it here. And thank you for sharing your experience today relating to companionship. Evan, I remember reading your article when it was first published and appreciate your refresher. Also for following through and becoming an active practitioner and teacher, and most of all for your blessing a worldwide congregation of followers.
Lori, thankyou for the update. I feel that we are indeed companioning together here – Spirit View – in our love for our Divine Creator,. Love reflected in love.
Evan, Thank you for your selfless, healing work for mankind. I look forward to, and benefit from SpiritView everyday. The depth of your understanding brings great inspiration to all. Your wonderful article and post today are very much appreciated, as always. Thank you, as well , to those who share comments. All of this is so helpful in our journey toward more spiritualized thinking. Blessings to all.
Hello dear Evan, Want to ‘join the chorus’ in thanking you for your blog…proof profound in helping the fortunate of us who’ve found you realize God’s relevance to humanity. Speaking of which, prayer itself (often somewhat of a mystery in general) became an inviting open door to spiritual healing for me when it dawned through quiet wondering/pondering that understanding God means ‘realizing’ God’s presence. It is this realization, through God’s imparted understanding, that brings Spirit’s immediate relevance to the fore of consciousness. As there is ‘just One,’ in fact God’s consciousness is my consciousness, God’s consciousness is your consciousness. This realization brings it home…easier healing, productive Life. ‘Understanding’ is an essential and nifty concept; but ‘realization’ is ‘pay dirt,’ making God relevant & immediate. We ‘experience’ God with this understanding, making simple the realization which gives us the constant, conscious ‘experience’ of God and man’s spiritual identity the essential relevance of human existence. Reality…
All the comments today – so appreciated. &makes me think, isn’t it time to consider, doesn’t it seem like a good idea to seek, for all interested, to provide free access to JSH-Online & the Christian Science Weekly Bible Lesson (by subscription) as a service &gift on behalf of man and womankind?
Goodness gracious! as my Grandmother MaryAnn would say! An idea clearly overdue, she would say! I believe Mary Baker Eddy would think the same, if asked.
WoW! Great, wonderful, sharings, all! Thank you! And thank you, Evan, as always.
A fish was once asked, “where is the ocean?” He wasn’t sure, but…sure enjoyed life in it!!
(ok, my interpretation of an old story, but works well enuf, huh.)
We live and move and have being IN infinite divine Mind. There IS no OUT THERE!!
Thank you everyone for your comments which enhanced the topic Evan begins. I will reread, bookmark, and share this article with friends and family.
I couldn’t say it better for me than Trail Rider 7 did. Like him/her I read your article 3 times in the CSS, as I needed to hear it’s message. Your clear expressions of the importance of consistently communing with God were powerful in my life. This early morning I was thinking of my heart’s desire to continue to expand my understanding and obedience to God. I re-read your March article again today too! I am so grateful to daily have the Bible Lesson, SpiritView with your inspiring words (and comments from other readers) and the Daily Lift to start my day off. Thank you all.
Hi Evan, thank you soooo much for sharing this with us all. I subscribe to all periodicals except The Sentinel so missed it first time round. Yea this is invaluable lesson for me so I will be subscribing…..
Loved you pointing out that God is the main event. How many times have I been mesmerised into believing he/she is merely a side event and that bills, money, health, relationships etc etc are much more important, then distracted we put God on the back burner, as it were? It’s about time Rick gave God the dues he/she deserves. Also thanks blogger for the fact” we pray all the time” never thought of it that way, but yes we should…We are all so truly blessed.
Wonderful article, Evan, much needed for me right now. Thanks
Thanks for all your daily messages and for going early into the practice and the lectureship. I remember being inspired by a lecture of yours many, many years ago at a Chicago church.