Our right to be inspired

Many tend to just go through the motions of daily life, believing that inspiration is for others or is hard to find. But according to the Scriptures, we each are the offspring of God, the expression of infinite Spirit or Love, which is the source of inspiration. The book of Job says, “The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life” (33:4). So, being alive and awake to our Father-Mother God and having the inspiration to do that which is right and needed are natural to us. Our lives come with spiritual inspiration just as they come with breathing.

We see this borne out in the largest sense when we look at the life of the master Christian, Jesus, whose every word and action moved human life Godward, bringing forth health, progress, and freedom. He moved through his life with unwaning light and wisdom—and brought them out to and in others. His assertion “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) not only remains a promise of the forever unity we each have with our divine Parent but also guarantees that whatever our source—divine Spirit—includes we include as Spirit’s reflection. Jesus proved that we can all experience this animating divine influence by turning to God—and not just in times of need but as a daily practice. When his follower Paul wrote to a group of Christians who were just finding their way in Christ’s teachings and practice, he guided them in spiritual paths that would open thought to the wellspring of insight and motivation that guide rightly and are ever ours. He instructed them, for instance: “Pray without ceasing. . . . Quench not the Spirit” (I Thessalonians 5:17, 19).

Prayer, even if not yet ceaseless in our lives, is the desire to know God, to hear divine Love’s guidance, and to be Christlike. It is always beneficial, for us as well as all of whom we think. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy explains the wonderful effect of such enlightened understanding: “Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal” (p. 547). But to make metaphysical discoveries—to discern the divine news that consistently brings hope, renewal, joy, solutions, and healing—a regular prayer practice is the greatest possible help.