Editorial December 26, 2016 Issue

‘Above all that we ask or think’

Allison W. Phinney

That short phrase in the title of this editorial has been a huge help to me whenever I’ve come upon it in a Christian Science Bible Lesson or in an article in the periodicals. It serves as a potent reminder to stop thinking about what I’m trying to accomplish with my prayer or treatment and have more of what God is already doing. I find those few words bringing me home to the basic spiritual fact that there is something far greater and more essential always available than the human mind’s impressions of whether it knows enough or is inspired enough.

Jesus of Nazareth was so totally at-one with all that God is giving and doing that we know him as Christ Jesus. He wasn’t just a powerful personality presenting yet another version of religious opinions and doctrines from the past. His very selfhood was, in effect, God’s expression, and this enabled him to show the full nature and meaning of God for the first time in human history.

We, too, may want to focus more on the simple question, “What am I hearing God saying to me today?”