Article December 24, 1938 Issue

"Grace for to-day"

TERESE ROSE NAGEL

The quality of grace is one which is greatly needed by individuals in every walk of life. The Bible is replete with references on the securing and retaining of grace. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 17), Mary Baker Eddy gives the spiritual interpretation of the petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," as, "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections." How then can we obtain "grace for to-day," that "the famished affections" may be satisfied?

Patience, coupled with the understanding that man is complete, satisfied, at one with his Father-Mother God, refreshes and replenishes human thought. As we see that the only real rest and peace come from divine Love, we find a human yearning for persons and things yielding to divine satisfaction. Man, as a complete idea of God, is sustained by Mind, the inexhaustible source of all good. The seeker who learns this, finds that all true happiness is God-bestowed, and false human affections are replaced by a better understanding of God. All yearning for person, place, or thing may be reversed by the desire for Spirit, God, a hungering and thirsting after righteousness. As man inherits true qualities from God, who created him male and female, man has strength, poise, freedom, and dominion now. Thus in real being there are no unsatisfied longings.

As one studies the petition, "Give us grace for to-day," one realizes that God gives us sufficient for each day. With this sense of spiritual sufficiency one knows that no good can be withheld from him or taken from him. No belief in matter, whether this be manifested in material possessions, an inflated sense of self, or a belief in human popularity, can obstruct one's continuous growth in grace, if one is in earnest and alert.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

The Christian Scientist's Christmas