The Bible: showing me where I'm going

By Laura Matthews

TO ME, THE PROMISE of the Bible is not just about historical and legendary figures. It's about me—about my own spiritual development.

When I read about Abraham's discovering that there is one omnipotent God, for example, I remember my own wonder at accepting this truth. God's promise to Abraham became His promise to me, as I learned that following the one God allows me to experience His constant care (see Gen. 12:1, 2). The change in Jacob's character at Peniel touches me because I, too, have had profound personal encounters with my Father-Mother that led to physical and moral healing (see Gen. 32:24-30).

The First Commandment promises man's unbroken relation to God: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3). My efforts to obey this commandment have turned me away from the "tribal gods" of materialism and lust, and from fearing sickness or discord of any kind—although there are times of testing for me, just as there were for the children of Israel.

David the king of Israel unified his people under the one God, but was tripped up on occasion by his own desires and ego. I can certainly relate to the latter! But

I've also encountered the unity that comes from serving God at church, work, and home. Joseph, Ruth, Nehemiah, Daniel, are just a few more of the Biblical figures with whom I feel a spiritual kinship. It's not important that they lived in a primarily nomadic time, far from high technology. The connection we can all feel with them is universal and eternal. It's as Mary Baker Eddy says, "The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development" (Science and Health, p. 547).

God's promise to Abraham became His promise to me.

I believe this march through history was not random human development, but preparation. The promised arrival of Christ Jesus was the result of the spiritual progress mankind had already made. Jesus is the perfect example for us to follow. Even now, I am striving to learn to heal and to live as he did.

As I view the Bible this way, I'm encouraged by its final book, Revelation. This book reveals the inevitable outcome of spiritual progress—the destruction of evil and the realization of man's eternal status as God's spiritual idea. Revelation promises that, as we grow spiritually, matter itself will become less substantial to us, until it is no longer a part of our lives at all. We will dwell in the spiritual city of God, where there will be "no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (21:4).

Since I'm still learning more about God each day, I especially love the Bible's promise, because it reminds me where I've been—and reveals where I'm going.

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