God makes His demands upon each of us. We have the capacity, in every instance, to satisfy them fully. Life demands our vibrant activity, our expression of the continuity of being. Truth requires our conformity to reality. Love calls for fearlessness, unselfishness. All that God requires is deeply spiritual, and we can respond affirmatively. We need feel no uncertainty, no doubt, no inability. God, who makes the demand, abundantly supplies our capacity to answer aright. In reality, man forever acts in accord with God's perfection. Spiritual awakening to this fact enables us to best respond to the demands made upon us.

Mrs. Eddy writes, "Truth, Life, and Love are the only legitimate and eternal demands on man, and they are spiritual lawgivers, enforcing obedience through divine statutes." ^{Science and Health, p. 184;} But if God is good and if He bountifully supplies us with the capacity to fulfill demands, why do we sometimes struggle when we are faced with them or feel they are not feasible?

It is because we misunderstand their nature. We see them as material, whereas they are actually spiritual. God's man never has to fulfill or respond to material demands. To so regard our challenges leads easily to frustration, uncertainty, or discouragement. But we never ignore legitimate human requirements. We replace them with the true, spiritual demand, answer it, and on that basis bring a proper resolution to whatever challenge confronts us.

Christ Jesus was eminently successful in every undertaking because he didn't misunderstand what was required of him. The sick, the blind, the dumb, the deaf appealed to Jesus for physical healing. But he understood that the higher demand was Love's requirement of spiritual awakening to the truth of being. And Jesus' right response eliminated the discord. Faced with a hungry multitude, he responded to—that is, he accepted—Spirit's requirement of an abundant supply, and the people were fed. Confronted by a sinner, he perceived the demands of Soul—purity and wholeness—and the sinner was transformed. Challenged by death, he submitted to the claims of Life and overcame mortality.

In every instance he recognized the demand to be feasible because he realized that He who made the requirement was also the source of its fulfillment. "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works," ^{John 14:10;} said Jesus, and then he made it clear that those who understood his teaching would more than equal the works he did.

Sometimes we fail to accept an opportunity because we fear a lack of capacity to fulfill the obligations that accompany it. On the other hand, we may hesitate to take a certain step, feeling that it is the result of either our own or another's human will. Is there an adequate supply? Is the timing proper? Is it "wise" or "right"? An endless series of questions can interfere with a proper step unless they are strictly subordinated to an overriding consideration: has the demand an underlying divine purpose impelling it? There may be endless human arguments on either side of a question. But still, the deciding factor is not so much whether a proposal seems humanly feasible as whether divine Love truly motivates it.

Simon had worked through the night in an attempt to net a supply of fish. Jesus asked him to launch out and put his nets into the water again. Simon responded, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net." ^{Luke 5:5;} Perhaps this demand to catch fish did not seem feasible to Simon. After all, he had just proved the futility of trying to make a catch. And yet the humble obedience suggested by his words "nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net" brought a superabundant catch. Peter could have resisted the request as simply not feasible, as an impractical personal request. But he submitted. There was divine impulse behind that simple request.

How can we know if a given requirement has a spiritual impetus to it? Certainty comes as we submit to God, the one supreme Mind. Truly legitimate demands made upon us are always spiritual, although we may humanly regard them to be otherwise. Admitting them to be spiritual, we will not only avoid inappropriate materialistic offers but will find ourselves able to respond fully and effectively to whatever is being required of us by divine Love.

Suppose we viewed a proposal as an unfeasible demand and failed to take advantage of it—missed seeing it as an opportunity. Perhaps we feared failure or inadequacy or simply change.

Is opportunity lost? Never, because its source is spiritual. New occasions for progress pour forth constantly under the law of divine Love. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Tireless Being, patient of man's procrastination, affords him fresh opportunities every hour; but if Science makes a more spiritual demand, bidding man go up higher, he is impatient perhaps, or doubts the feasibility of the demand." ^{Christian Healing, p. 19.}

Because the only genuine requirements are spiritual, the times when we face them are joyful occasions. Spiritual challenges are a positive aspect of our lives. The sooner we begin to understand them in their true light, the quicker and more adequate will be our response. We will recognize the demand to be feasible, and we will rise to the occasion. Nathan A. Talbot