Article May 21, 1977 Issue

When the Answer Is No

BARBARA-JEAN STINSON

Do we sometimes have a tendency to cling desperately to our present circumstances? Perhaps we've prayed earnestly to God for His help that we might preserve a relationship or situation dear to us. And yet the answer to our prayer seems to be no; for whatever we do, the relationship comes to an end or the situation changes.

At this point the despairing heart may cry out, "Oh, God, why haven't You answered my prayer?" Deep, genuine prayer is always answered by divine Love and in a way that will most bless us. The answer on the surface may appear to be no, and our undisciplined human longings rebel. But if we look more deeply through the light of Christian Science, we will find that God's answer is never anything but yes. Yes to life, to love, to happiness—to all the spiritual good that He is forever giving His children and that also meets the human need at every level.

Sometimes the best thing that can happen to one is to have some human desire apparently go unanswered. "Are earth's pleasures, its ties and its treasures, taken away from you?" Mrs. Eddy asks us. Then she reassuringly adds, "It is divine Love that doeth it, and sayeth, 'Ye have need of all these things.' " Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p.19; Why do we need this lesson? If our thoughts are completely absorbed in the false belief that good exists in a material person, place, thing, or circumstance, we need to relinquish that sense of good and look higher to the permanent source of good—God.

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The Trip to Washington
May 21, 1977
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