Category: Health/wellness

Throwing off limitations

Published on by lindseybiggsLeave a comment

I love the movie Hidden Figures. It is such an inspiring success story of overcoming adversity, racial and gender discrimination, and other limitations. The women in this movie are courageous, intelligent, persistent, confident and poised. Each of them overcomes boundaries individually and collectively, and the audience rejoices in their victory.

Stories such as these are empowering because they show what we are capable of. These women face down demons of discouragement and fear. And through their persistent effort they make a significant difference with marked achievement. We are all capable of throwing of material fetters. The world is constantly imposing on us “you can’t”. These “voices” may come from within or without. But if we begin with knowing who we are as the spiritual children of God, and listen to God’s voice, we will go up higher.

Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to foresee the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legitimate state of man. God made man free.1

We want to strive to begin with God and what God is seeing and knowing about us each day. We can’t get any higher than that, so why not start with this beautiful view! God, Spirit, is infinite, intelligent, perfect being and consciousness. Spirit created us in the image and likeness of Spirit, God. So what does that tell us about who we are? Talented, beautiful, graceful, meaningful — capable of being conscious of what God is conscious of right now. We reflect the qualities of our Creator. God is communicating Himself in tender, compassionate ways. When we listen to that voice, we go up higher. We discern our true spiritual nature and, in turn, we are freed from material impositions and limitations. When we reason from this good premise, we get good results.

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.2

We all want to be free, and we can be by freeing ourselves from material fetters. It’s the Holy Spirit that comes to our thought to reveal to us who and what we really are. It’s like waking up to the truth that has been there all along. Just like when explorers realized the Earth wasn’t flat, everyone’s perception had to change. The Holy Spirit wakes us up to the infinite, spiritual nature of reality and our perception changes. We grow and expand out of the material limits and express more of God’s divine nature. This is way we give glory to God!

Citizens of the world, accept the “glorious liberty of the children of God,” and be free! This is your divine right.3

1 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 227
2 II Corinthians 3:17
3 Ibid, p. 227
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Block out the noise

Published on by lindseybiggsLeave a comment

I love this scene in the movie Race (2016). It shows us how clearly we want to stay tuned in to God, divine Love, and the messages God is communicating to us, and tuned out to evil, negativity, fears that the world tries to impose on us. We all have that capability to stay tuned in to God. God’s messages are ones of fearlessness, strength, poise, gentleness, inspiration, and calm. They counteract chaos and fear with the sweet assurance of knowing we are as God’s beloved children.

Jesus referred to this as going into your closet and shutting the door to pray (Matthew 6:6). We want to close out all those other voices — the world, the doubts, etc. — leave them outside the door. Don’t take them in to that prayer closet with you. You want to be so still, so quiet, that you can hear God’s angel thoughts speaking directly to you telling you that you are calm, safe, loved, cared for, worthy; telling you how much God loves you.

The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Psalms 93:4

When we glimpse God’s love it’s like the radiant sun that melts our doubts and fears away. This is the “secret place of the Most High” (that Psalm 91 mentions) where want to dwell mentally. And we can take that “secret place” with us in our workplace, the grocery store, our homes. This is where we hear and feel God telling us that we are children of our loved divine Father-Mother, made in Spirit’s image and likeness. We can see those around us as dwelling in that secret place as well, whether or not they recognize it. In this way we glimpse God’s love as a comforting embrace where we all live and move together.

Through the love of God our Saviour
All will be well;
Free and changeless is His favor;
All must be well;
Precious is the Love that healed us,
Perfect is the grace that sealed us,
Strong the hand stretched forth to shield us;
All, all is well.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 350)

Prayer of liberation

Published on by lindseybiggsLeave a comment

Jesus prayers were “… deep and conscientious protests of Truth, — of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.”*

Recently, I’ve been thinking about prayer as being a “protest of Truth” — a recognition of who and what God is and our oneness with God as the spiritual image and likeness. How do we make this deeply practical?

To me, this means acknowledging God as infinite Love, and each of us as the spiritual image and likeness of Love. That means we can’t have anything that isn’t derived from Spirit, God. We reflect the peace, love, and joy that proceed from God. This is the law of our being. When our prayers goes from wishing to see more of God in our experience to a recognition of the underlying facts of our being, this prayer results in awakening and healing. We awaken to who we really are as spiritual children of God, and we experience more health and greater freedom from limitation.

Isn’t this what Jesus really embodied? The liberation of humanity from sickness, lack, inequality — a false bondage that didn’t have any authority from the Father? Didn’t he embody the reality of divine Love so that everyone who he came in contact with felt the effect and power of that Love? The people he came in contact with were healed, transformed, revitalized, and shared the good they experienced with others.

There have been many people throughout the centuries who have embodied that spirit of liberation, –Nelson Mandela, Mary Baker Eddy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, — that resulted in greater peace and freedom for others. They have protested mentally and physically to a greater possibility that wasn’t yet visible to others. They discerned the integrity and worth of each child of God regardless of physical circumstances.

Each of our prayers can be a “protest of Truth” to this greater, deeper reality that Jesus saw beyond the physical. He understood our unity with Truth and Love and the spiritual rights we each have as the image and likeness of God. He demonstrated that the Father’s will for each of us is goodness, health, love, and worthiness. He proved that the breaking down of physical, social, and emotional limitations is for each one of us — and it is really the breaking down of every mental imposition which says “you can’t”, “you are less than others”, or “God doesn’t know or love you”. By standing up to these negative inner and outer voices, we can demonstrate the establishment of God’s will here and now. We can usher in the goodness of His presence and our completeness, wholeness, and exemption from anything that doesn’t proceed from our Father, God.

Prayerful protests keep us awake to who and what we are, so that we don’t drift along with materialistic thoughts. They keep us active and alert to the inner divine power that governs us. This spiritual power loves, embraces, and keeps us mentally and physically secure. We can have confidence in the power of good that lives within us.

Live your freedom today! Praying with a powerful protest of Truth and Love brings freedom to mind and body, and shines a bright light in the world!

*Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 12)

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