People are often searching for something: a job, a home, answers to family problems. We may also be searching for greater peace and security. For all such searching, the Bible provides inspiration and guidance—and answers.

For example, the New Testament recounts that Christ Jesus said to his disciples, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). The "things" he was referring to in this instance were food and clothing. Don't Jesus' words suggest that we can expect human needs to be met naturally as we turn to God in prayer first and put Him above all else in our lives?

When we decide to follow the Master's words, we are thinking of human things as secondary and of feeling close to God as primary. Our communing with God may well start with gratefully acknowledging His goodness, and His love for us and everyone else. We may also ask for humility and patience, expecting our Father's infinite provision of good to become more apparent to us through thoughts that provide guidance, comfort, and release from uncertainty. The forms that God's goodness takes may not be what we have outlined, but we will be blessed beyond our expectation.

Through lifting our thinking above solely human desires, seeking to drop earthly yearnings by trusting God more and knowing Him better, we attain a more spiritual outlook, which opens our thinking to the divine power that counteracts anxiety and restrictions of all kinds. Yes, there may be setbacks along the way, but if we steadily seek God first, we are assured of victory, as an experience I had shows.

One winter day, I fell on an icy street. Trusting in God's presence and power, I managed to get up and continue walking to my destination more than a mile away. I sang hymns and gratefully affirmed the always present care of God. I held to and pondered many spiritual truths, including the fact that, as His image and likeness, I could never be separated from God and His abundant provision for my well-being.

Soon after that day, however, I had to do much searching of spiritual realities to replace matter-based thinking about my body. One ankle became painful, confining me at home and making walking very difficult. I was troubled by the physical restrictions and discomfort, but continued to seek more understanding of my relationship to God as His spiritual reflection. This praying revealed the importance of getting rid of discouragement, impatience, and fear of incapacity. I also struggled much with such questions as "Am I praying correctly? What faults of character need to be uprooted?" But this mental churning increasingly faded as I more and more humbly listened to and patiently waited on God.

Over the course of about two weeks, an adjustment took place in my ankle as I gained fresh insight into Paul's words "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). I perceived that it is God who is the source of the ability to walk freely and to think rightly. With that enlightenment came release from concern about my out-of-home commitments. Soon afterward I was able to walk normally everywhere.

What lessons did I learn from this about seeking the kingdom of God first? For one thing, I learned to lift my thinking above the material claims of pain and injury to the spiritual truth of my real, God-created selfhood, always intact. I also learned to let go of questioning why the ankle injury became so aggressive after I had prayed so diligently when I fell. This was silenced by realizing that dwelling on material, so-called causes and effects—whether supposedly past or present—interferes with holding to the truth of man as Christ Jesus did. I also perceived that any time we affirm a spiritual truth, it bears fruit for us and others.

By the way, when I began to see the light, a great fact came to my attention, stated by Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Truth is an alterative in the entire system, and can make it 'every whit whole'" (p. 371). Through this I saw that divine Truth is forever active in healing, correcting, enlightening—reaching every facet of thought and existence, causing our wholeness as God's reflection to become ever more apparent. My gratitude for that revelation enabled me to stop regretting the experience and instead to be grateful for the blessings—sought and unsought—that had come as I earnestly desired, above all else, to gain an unfaltering conviction of God's closeness and goodness.

Humbly expecting enlightenment as we pray and study, we find that spiritual insights do come; they guide, comfort, and provide. Moreover, we do not need to seek far for the Kingdom of God. In the words of Mrs. Eddy, referring to St. John's vision of heaven and earth with "no temple therein," "This kingdom of God 'is within you,'—is within reach of man's consciousness here, and the spiritual idea reveals it" (ibid., p. 576).

God's always right solutions are at hand. And nothing has the power to interfere with our freedom to seek God first and to find those solutions.