A Sound Mind

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Recently a Bible verse came to me that I’ve known for quite a while, but it meant something a little different this time. The verse is this: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” As I thought about it, thanking God for being so near and for speaking that way to me and to every one of His loved children who are listening, something came from that verse.

God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power. That’s a promise. God has given every one of us spiritual power to use for good — a power from God, not of ourselves, but for all mankind. That power must be used with love. It must be the Christ love that doesn’t go up and down, doesn’t waver when approached by a problem, but keeps on loving. It doesn’t react and hate, but loves. It isn’t always easy to love when, perhaps, someone has done something that is not kind. But if we really love the truth and love God, we won’t fall to the level of hating.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power to do good, to be right, and to love — to love divinely, to see my fellow man as God made him, perfect, and to lift him up. And of a sound mind. And that means to keep our feet on the ground. Don’t get elated, drunken with the good; don’t get taken off, but stay steady with God. I never saw that so clearly before. I’ve watched as good has come to some folks, and when they got to that last thing, the sound mind, they forgot about it and lost the good that they had demonstrated, because they didn’t keep themselves in the mind of Christ. That steady, consistent, humble — not prideful — but humble sense of God.

Mrs. Eddy wrestled mightily. A light from the sky didn’t suddenly shine on her; she had to work. At times it seemed that she was absolutely alone, but she worked, and she walked with God, and she won mighty victories. Our Leader has said, it is the flesh that is evil. She was referring to the flesh, or mortal mind. She also has said, “Mortal mind has not been kind enough to me to make me want to linger in it.” I think what we’re about here is putting off as fast as we know how, the flesh, and to have the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind — and that means to persist, to put our roots down deep, to learn whatever the lessons are that need to be learned, and to learn them joyously, not complaining or fussing, carrying on, or saying, “God, why did You do this to me?” It’s loving more, keeping the blessing in view, it’s service to God, and it’s keeping the joy so that we can communicate that joy to others.

I’ve had to remind myself over the years, God made me loving, lovable, and lovely. Loving; lovable — there isn’t anyone anywhere who can do anything greater than love, love as God’s children. And lovely — a comforter, a peacegiving idea of God. That’s what God has made us all.

In the early days, when the workers were so very busy seeing Christian Science grow and doing the work that had to be done, and Mrs. Eddy was still here, many of them would pray, “Dear God, keep me sweet.” And that means loving, kind, and strong; but let us never become embittered by what error we may seem to experience or believe. Let me cast it into the trash bin as fast as we know how, and get on with doing the good that God has for us to do.

We are shining bright through the power, the love, and the sound knowing that God is our mind. From this path, we will not deviate. It is God-directed, God-protected, and God-blessed, and we are so very grateful to God for giving us the privilege of seeing Mrs. Eddy’s revelation restored to its rightful place.




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