Article January 27, 1968 Issue

God's Approval

JEANETTE F. SUTTON

In the Bible we find this wise counsel: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.''^{II Tim. 2:15;}As we seek God's approval by listening for and following divine guidance, our daily experience becomes worthwhile and productive of much good.

Material sense would have us believe that happiness depends upon our winning the approval of men, that popularity is essential to satisfaction. Human approval, when it is based on superficial judgment, is changeable, easily lost. If we unduly value the approval and attention of others, we are apt to become unhappy and disturbed when we meet with disapproval or lack of consideration. When our primary motive is to please God through reflecting His loving, constructive attributes, we do not become exultant over the praise of men, nor are we cast down by the lack of it. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discover and Founder of Christian Science, reminds us, "There is no night but in God's frown; there is no day but in His smile."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p.129;}

If we desire popularity, the ways and means of attaining and retaining it tend to enmesh our thought in materialism, thus making us less responsive to uplifting, transforming ideas from divine Mind. Reminding his followers that they could not at one and the same time serve the true God, which is Spirit, and the false god of materiality, Christ Jesus said: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."^{Matt. 6:24;}

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