Instability in the world is hardly new. Going back to Bible times, for instance, for centuries foreign powers had ruled the country of Jesus’ forebears, and during his time the Romans occupied it. And yet the four Gospels show that the Master possessed a peace and serenity that he taught and shared with others. He said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

What was Jesus seeing that allowed him to calm a storm and walk over the waves of a large lake? What did he know that allowed him to reassure and strengthen—and heal­—those around him? He once compared his teachings to a house that withstands both storm and flood because it is built on a rock. And he said that those with even a mustard seed of faith could change the world.

Jesus reassured, strengthened, and healed those around him by knowing that God, and not the world, is the source of permanent good. His teachings point to spiritual reality, the ever-present existence and universe that are the eternal expression of the one infinite, all-good God, Spirit. This universe is entirely independent of a physical concept of the universe. As we turn away from the false evidence of the physical senses, we can begin to grasp intuitively the naturalness of infinite good and harmony. As we cultivate an understanding of and trust in this spiritual universe created by God to manifest Him, we come to see more and more its substantiality and tangibility.