One day, all alone in my house, I cried out, "God, I need to feel Your presence. I need help!" I was standing in front of the kitchen sink with tears streaming down my face because I had recently lost my husband, and it was all I could do to keep the house standing up around me. Everything mechanical was breaking down, as if to say, "You just can't function alone in this house, and your husband's not here to help you."

With tears flowing, I surrendered my fearful outlook and cried, "I will listen for Your voice, God, and follow Your direction, even if it means selling my home and moving. And, God, if the message is to stay where I am, I will trust Your care, I promise." I knew that, in reality, nothing can keep anyone from feeling the presence of God, anywhere. In truth, there is no other presence. But, as in this case, it can sometimes seem difficult to recognize that our Father-Mother God is, and has always been, with us to comfort, encourage, and heal.

How can we all feel this presence of God more? By acknowledging that we are the child of God, united with this divine presence; by knowing that each day we can prove that we're in this holy presence by expressing such spiritual qualities as compassion, beauty, peace, and bliss. This wonderful oneness with our creator can also be felt in joy and gratitude for the way God cherishes and enfolds each of us as His precious ideas.

These truths helped me greatly during the experience I just mentioned. I recall that I was still sobbing when I declared aloud: "Nothing can cause me to fear or to doubt God's presence here and now, for God's tender love surrounds me and maintains me. I know God, divine Truth, enfolds me and guides me at all times. I will listen for His voice." I was then startled by the telephone ringing, and when I answered, I heard a very faint voice speaking on the other end. I responded, "I can't hear you!" and hung up.

Now, hadn't I just prayed, "Thy will be done"? But all I could say was, "I can't hear you!" Much to my joy, the person called back, stating that she had seen my name in the directory of Christian Science practitioners at the back of The Christian Science Journal. She wanted to come to meet me, as she was a Christian Science practitioner herself and happened to be passing through town at that time. When she arrived, I knew my prayer for help had been answered. I felt free to talk with her about my concerns and even to ask her to pray for me. Her prayers assured me that I was never truly alone, out of God's presence or beyond His help. In one verse of the ninety-first Psalm there is this beautiful message about God: "He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him" (verse 15). Through these words I felt the presence of God, assuring me that I could remain in my home and that it would be maintained. This has proved to be so.

Each of us can be assured each day that we can never be separated from God. Ideally, our intent should always be to take what we are learning about God's ever-presence and utilize it to the highest possible degree for good. In this way we can confidently face each day's challenges and events, letting God lead us to solutions through His wisdom and love. Sincere humility opens our hearts to receive Christ Jesus' teachings on how better to love our fellowman, to forgive, and to heal.

Christ Jesus said, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). Jesus healed all types of disease. Before his betrayal and crucifixion, he was praying alone, a little apart from his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. The Bible says "... being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44). Science and Health speaks of Gethsemane as "patient woe; the human yielding to the divine; love meeting no response, but still remaining love" (p. 586).

In Jesus' prayer, as recorded in Matthew's Gospel, he states clearly, "Thy will be done" (26:42), and he obeyed God's will. When we ask God for help, we also must listen and obey, letting God work His will in us. Such obedience brings the greatest blessing any one of us can ever have: to feel our oneness with the divine presence, to know and experience God's love and care.