Article January 1, 1949 Issue

WAITING ON GOD

HANS HOLM MILLAR

To wait on God is fundamental to the progressive demonstration of Christian Science. The Scriptures are full of exhortations to wait on Him and of the manifold blessings unfolded to human consciousness as a natural result, as for instance in the twenty-seventh, thirty-seventh, and fortieth Psalms. "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry" (Ps. 40:1).

One dictionary definition of "wait" is "to look (mentally)." How bountiful are the spiritual rewards for such looking to God, divine Principle! But the carnal mind present other, spurious aspects of waiting. Familiar to most is the Dickensian portrayal of Micawber, who was always waiting for something to turn up—placing his reliance upon nothing more solid than wishful thinking. Waiting in a dreamlike state of self-mesmerism for exciting experiences, waiting for profitable, harmonious solutions to any or every human problem to evolve in accordance with mythical laws of luck or chance, or fatalistic waiting, which erroneously claims that regardless of our human endeavors or our prayers all events in our experience are already predestined and inevitable—such materialistic beliefs form no part of Christian Science.

One illuminating example of the Christian Scientist's concept and method of waiting on God, from the many available in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, may be found in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902. Recounting a small part of the struggles undergone in her self-sacrificing labor and love for humanity while writing and producing the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she says (pp. 15, 16): "Six weeks I waited on God to suggest a name for the book I had been writing. Its title, Science and Health, came to me in the silence of night, when the steadfast stars watched over the world,—when slumber had fled,—and I rose and recorded the hallowed suggestion. The following day I showed it to my literary friends, who advised me to drop both the book and the title. To this, however, I gave no heed, feeling sure that God had led me to write that book, and had whispered that name to my waiting hope and prayer. It was to me the 'still, small voice' that came to Elijah after the earthquake and the fire."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

FALSE BELIEFS ARE THE COUNTERFEITS OF TRUTH