Article November 23, 1935 Issue

Turning Trials into Blessings

GEORGE H. READ

What a wealth of happiness and health attends the individual's awakening to a realization that each one is the blessed child of God! Christian Science enables us to understand the divine utterance at the time of Jesus' baptism, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Because Jesus realized that God's blessings would ever be upon those qualities which express the Christ in daily living, he was able to present to the world that wonderful summary of divine blessedness which we now know as the Beatitudes. What greater assurance could be given mankind as to the inevitable reward of righteous effort?

Of course we are grateful for what Christian Science is doing to correct the superstitious beliefs of false theology which represent man as ever subject to the will of God, who is said to send both blessing and cursing upon His children. But are we always as alert as we should be to the need for claiming our individual rights to illimitable divine blessings and our unrestricted freedom from any and every claim that anything inharmonious can have even a temporary abiding place with us? Perhaps we have reached the point where we no longer believe that God sends cursing of any kind upon anyone. But possibly we still give some credence to the belief that the wrong thoughts and wrong actions of other persons can harm us. Many experiences related throughout both the Old and the New Testament show us that not only can even the malicious efforts of evil be made harmless, but trials can actually result in blessing to the intended victim who is looking steadily to God for guidance and protection.

Do we not need to realize that the same God is present with us and able and willing to help us turn from our troubles to the blessings of spiritual being? Every trial we experience, every adversity we encounter, every sorrow, every pain, every disappointment can be made to yield a blessing to us as we dismiss the error from our thought and discover the lesson that divine Love teaches, resolve to profit by it, and put that resolve into practice.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
Be Grateful!
November 23, 1935
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit