The blessings of right thinking
Through the ages, great thinkers have hinted at the power of thinking. But the one who best demonstrated the power of spiritually right thinking was Christ Jesus. In fact, what he taught in his Sermon on the Mount could even be considered a “master class” in right thinking.
For example, Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-45). This is just one way in which Jesus instructed the people to repent, which means to think differently.
In her seminal work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, includes this sentence on the first page of the Preface: “The time for thinkers has come” (p. vii). Certainly, this is a call for right thinking – thinking that promotes healing. But we find, of course, that not all thoughts are right thoughts. Mrs. Eddy clarifies this important distinction further on in Science and Health, when she writes, “Are thoughts divine or human? That is the important question” (p. 462).
A good place to begin to recognize right thinking and to understand the power of our thinking and how to utilize it is to first understand where thought originates. Christian Science teaches that God is Mind, and there is only one God, so there can be only one Mind, the source of all wisdom and intelligence.
And because infinite, divine Mind created all of us, in His image and after His likeness as it declares in the Bible (see Genesis 1:26), then everyone must truly be an expression of the one and only Mind, or God. Science and Health defines God as “the great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence” (p. 587). As God’s offspring, everyone has access to good and right thinking.
Christ Jesus came to reveal the healing and saving power of God, divine Mind, who is wholly good. Mrs. Eddy explains, “In the Saxon and twenty other tongues good is the term for God. The Scriptures declare all that He made to be good, like Himself, – good in Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual universe is good, and reflects God as He is” (Science and Health, p. 286).
Jesus listened only for God’s voice and spoke and acted only as he was directed to by infinite wisdom. He taught his followers to do the same, so that they, too, could rely on the same spiritual power he did to heal.
A few years ago, because of rising rents, my daughter found herself without a viable option for continuing to live in the city where she had just started a business. There seemed to be no answer that wouldn’t jeopardize her business or cause her to pay more for an apartment than she could afford.
However, as students of Christian Science, my daughter and I were convinced we did not need to accept the limited view that there was no answer. Right thinking was available to us, and so we turned wholeheartedly to God – not to ask for material things, but to ask to be shown the best way she could use the talents God had given her in establishing this business, which brought joy to people of all ages. In short, we sought to change our thinking about a situation that appeared to have no resolution, and align it with God’s thoughts of goodness, which certainly would bless all.
My daughter was ready to be obedient to whatever way she was guided by God, even if it meant moving her living space and newly opened business to another location.
After several weeks of praying and patiently waiting to be guided, my daughter learned that her landlady was moving to be closer to her family, and she offered my daughter her apartment for well below market rate. It was larger and less expensive than the apartment she had been living in and even had a garden. The good that resulted for everyone was clear proof that when we honor God as the only Mind and source of all good, He reveals more blessings than we could ever imagine.
No matter what kind of human or material limitations come our way, we can always find an answer of direction, redemption, and healing through right thinking, through knowing God’s thoughts and laws of peace, abundance, harmony, and righteousness. “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts” (Science and Health, p. 261).
