When Saint Paul talks about following Christ, he warns us that it won’t be a walk in the park. We can, however, expect divine help.

“Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh,” he writes, “(for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:3–5).

This passage makes clear that obedience to Christ starts with how we think. Just as we clean our windows to ensure an unobstructed view, we need to purify our outlook with the understanding of man’s spiritual origin as the offspring, the image and likeness, of God. God, the only creator, is infinite good, so man reflects only God’s goodness. 

Spiritual communication moves in just one direction: from God, the divine Mind, to His ideas—each one of us. Bringing every thought into accord with Christ—with the true idea of God—demands diligent listening. This listening is a powerful form of prayer that heals and changes lives. 

I tried uninterrupted listening to hear God’s Word for just five minutes, not allowing any distraction to enter my thought. I failed! It took numerous tries before I was successful at keeping my mind from wandering to various “imaginations.” Then I remembered Jesus’ words in the garden of Gethsemane when his disciples fell asleep: “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). 

One hour! That seemed impossible. But I kept at it until I could do it for ten minutes, then fifteen. I am still working on the one hour. 

As Paul indicates, staying centered on God, Truth, requires a strong defense against distractions. We need to reject anything we’re seeing or that is coming to our thought that is contrary to what God has created and replace it with the clear view of what God knows about His kingdom, including each of us. To do that, we must understand that everything God made reflects His perfection. 

The Bible tells us, “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). Because evil—inharmony of any kind—is not part of God’s creation, it has no reality. It’s actually a misperception by “mortal mind,” the false sense of a mind apart from God. Even when it seems that another person or some outside force is a source of trouble, what we’re really seeing is a false concept that we are being tempted to hold in our own thought and accept as real. 

Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then charges them to something else,—like a kitten glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking it sees another kitten” (p. 220). 

What we think is a frightening event or a disturbing personality is actually a temptation to believe in a Mind apart from God. 

So what we think is a frightening event or a disturbing personality is actually a temptation to believe in a mentality apart from the one, infinite Mind, God. Replacing this misperception with what we know to be true of God’s creation results in healing. Science and Health tells us that this is how Christ Jesus was able to heal. “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals,” it explains. “In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick” (pp. 476–477). 

I noticed that the sentence does not say “this corrected view.” Our prayers must start with God’s perfect man; thus, we work out from present, unaltered perfection, as opposed to starting with a distraction or problem and attempting to work up to perfection.

As I found, bringing thought "to the obedience of Christ” is hard work at first, but it gets easier with practice. Eventually it becomes second nature. Recently, I had a lesson in maintaining a spiritual view of myself and those around me. On a nine-hour flight to Italy, passengers were informed that the entertainment system was not working, which meant no in-flight movies. That’s a long span without something to help pass the time. 

Adding to my frustration, a woman with a persistent loud cough was sitting next to me. Then a man who was blind repeatedly walked up and down the aisle, hitting the back of my head with his cane each time he passed. I felt trapped by a situation over which I had no control.

It was tempting to be upset at everything going wrong on such a long trip. But thinking again about watching one hour, I started praying to correct my thought about what was going on around me. I needed to shift my viewpoint from that of human misfortunes to a higher view of myself and my fellow passengers as God’s man, the reflection of His goodness. 

Bringing thought into conformity with Christ is hard work at first, but it gets easier with practice.

 The next time the blind passenger passed my seat, I put my hand on the small of his back to gently guide him in the right direction. Other passengers started doing the same. Then I turned my focus to helping people who, before my departure on this trip, had asked me to give them metaphysical treatment in Christian Science. For the remainder of the flight, interrupted only occasionally by moments of sleep, I found myself able to “pray without ceasing,” as Paul advises in I Thessalonians 5:17. 

What a beautiful night! The passenger next to me stopped coughing and fell asleep. The blind man stopped hitting my head during his aisle walk. By the time breakfast was served, I felt refreshed by and grateful for the prayer time. I was reminded of this statement in Science and Health: “The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of repose in unconsciousness” (p. 218). 

Clearly, it was my thought that had needed changing on that flight, and doing that resulted in blessings for not just me but others as well. Every challenging situation is an opportunity to spiritualize our view. And we have Mrs. Eddy’s promise from an address to early students of Christian Science: “Be of good cheer; the warfare with one’s self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 118).