In the Christian Science Bible Lesson July 15, 2013 Issue

Life-preserving faith

For the Lesson titled "Life" from July 15 - 21, 2013

Steve Warren

“Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust” (Psalms 16:1, Responsive Reading) is a prayer at the heart of this week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Life.” Abram puts his trust in God to “shew me the path of life” (Psalms 16:11, RR). To avoid strife between his herdmen and Lot’s, he humbly allows Lot to choose what land he prefers for his people (see Genesis 13, citation 3). Lot chooses the plains of Jordan because they appear to him well watered, full of promise. As history played out, Abram and his seed prospered in Canaan, while Lot’s land was eventually destroyed. 

Abram’s faith in God’s life-preserving power had nothing to do with the look of the land. His trust in the divine, as opposed to the material appearances, illustrates Mary Baker Eddy’s point that the Life divine is “Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living …” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 14, cit. 1). This consciousness gives us dominion over the whole earth, as it did Abram (who was later given the name Abraham). 

Long after Abraham, Paul stated in Galatians that Abraham’s seed shall receive this same understanding of God, but now the understanding is revealed to those who are united by faith in Christ (see 3:16, 29, cit. 4). For those who accept Christ become heirs to the covenant God made with Abraham to care for his seed. Jesus Christ fulfilled that covenant by giving humankind the true idea of God and of eternal life (see I John 5:20, cit. 9). Consciousness of our true spiritual existence enables us to give up limiting material beliefs and admit the immortal facts of being (see Science and Health, p. 428, cit. 9). The fact is that we are created in the image and likeness of our Father-Mother, God (see Genesis 1, cit. 10). As His offspring, we have the understanding of divine Life, which gives us dominion over material beliefs. 