The story of Joseph is familiar to Bible readers—the jealousy of his brothers, his being sold into slavery, his meeting of obstacles and disappointments, his final status of power and influence, second only to the king—a situation he used to brilliantly good purpose. A salient point is this: he proved that no situation—no matter how devastating and bleak it seemed—was the final state of affairs, because he dealt with these situations as having abundant potential to prove spiritual truths of God or good. ^{See Gen., Chaps. 37, 39-41;}

Mary Baker Eddy, in her discovering and establishing of Christian Science and its church, faced and overcame formidable circumstances which those with less spiritual vision might have shrunk from. Surely, Joseph would have approved the deeply felt assurance she has given us in these times: "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 149-150;}

No matter what the source of our discouragement, the answer is available. A good first step in finding new assurance is to admit this point: God is all-powerful, and His universe and man always evidence this omnipotence. "Nothing is more disheartening," Mrs. Eddy explains in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "than to believe that there is a power opposite to God, or good, and that God endows this opposing power with strength to be used against Himself, against Life, health, harmony." ^{Science and Health, p. 380.} Nothing is more heartening than to affirm the reverse: that God is the only power.

Even if you can't at the moment see your way out of some maze, you can be sure of one point: there is a course you can take that will bring you through.

Divine Love's limitless power to save, heal, and guide will deliver you. More than that, Love has never let you drift outside its care, notwithstanding any evidence arguing the opposite.

Christian Science unwraps for us the unique gift of an understanding of God's omnipotence. Regardless of how persuasive the appearances of discord, Spirit is infinite, and man is always included in that infinitude. There is no evidence of disease or failure we need accept as immovable. What is immovable is the perfection of God and man.

What must we do to prove this? We need to actively seek God's guidance, remembering we can be nowhere that Love is not already established. We need to be spiritual radicals, willing to look beyond material appearances and to acknowledge divine realities in their place.

This means, for example, insisting that health is a God-given and inalienable right of immortal man instead of letting the senses argue that man is mortal and ill. Encouragement and healing will be in direct proportion to the spiritual conviction we bring to bear on the exercise.

Man is always controlled by eternal good. No matter what loneliness, despair, or stress we're grappling with, the law of God's omnipotence is never infringed, and we can prove it by applying it. God's law is moment by moment enforcing itself throughout the infinite range of true being. There is not one corner, anywhere, where this law of good has not always been operating. We never have to reestablish divine law but to recognize that there has never in truth been a single thought or act that has broken it.

What could be more encouraging than even a momentary glimmer of these facts!

Christian Science introduces us to boundless encouragement because it is the Science of being. It is the Science that reveals to us the present, perfect condition of everything that truly exists. It is the lens through which we see how things actually are now and here. This Science opens our eyes to the substance, health, good, that are with us today, despite what we perhaps have believed to the contrary. No matter how solid our conviction of illness or disappointment, these never really had the slightest connection with our God-created selfhood.

The more radical our admission of such facts, the more practical we prove them to be. Nothing is more useful than bringing our thought into accord with divine reality. Nothing is more effective than understanding that the law of God is irresistible. Nothing is more curative than understanding that health is as inseparable from man as man is from God. Nothing is more progressive than substituting the spiritual facts of being for the fears and garbage of mortal thought. This, surely, was the tenor of Christ Jesus' life, teachings, demonstrations.

The Christian Science solution to discouragement is unique because it is founded on divine oneness—the oneness and allness of God, and the unity of man with Him. When this oneness and unity are the basis of our prayer, then we leave disappointment and discouragement behind in the great adventure of discovering the infinite goodness that belongs to us always as the expression of God.

Geoffrey J. Barratt