"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
Recently I was feeling so far away from God’s love. My prayers and searching to better know God started to feel desperate. This went on for a few days. Then, one day, it struck me: it’s not about how many times I pray. It’s the desire, the yearning, to know more about God that breaks through the mesmerism, or resistance, that would keep us from feeling God’s love.
I realised that Jesus’ prayers were often simple. He didn’t troll through passages from the Scriptures every time he healed someone. What Jesus had was an absolute trust in God, a clear understanding of God’s universal love. This directed his every thought and movement, filling his consciousness with goodness. Jesus knew that God was helping him, is here to help everyone.
I saw that each of us, too, can feel this love of God. Even if at a particular moment we don’t feel close to God, God is ever active. The fact is that God is always working on our behalf. There’s no furrowing of brow needed, just the simple, humble listening for Truth, which breaks through resistance to feeling God.
And that’s just what happened to me! The feeling of disconnect lifted and I felt the assurance and peace of God inspiring my prayers. This reminded me of an experience I had with my cat, Stanley. He was an outdoor cat and had arrived home one day with a hole in his thigh. When I came home from work the children alerted me to the situation. This dear cat was finding it hard to move and did not want to eat, and his breathing was slow.
I went into the room where Stanley was resting to pray. At first, I was rather alarmed by the wound and his listlessness. But quickly my thought was filled with absolute love for him. It felt so powerful yet simple, I knew it was divinely inspired, spiritual love. I felt a deep peace surrounding the both of us.
I started to pray with the 23rdPsalm, even saying some of it out loud to Stanley: “The Lord is (your) Shepherd; (you) shall not want. He maketh (you) to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth (you) beside the still waters.”
Stanley started to purr loudly, like a motor running. I went on through the whole psalm. By the end he was lifting his head and letting me stroke him. Soon he was up and about, and, within a week, he had totally recovered. The family was struck by how quickly everything had healed.
This statement by Mary Baker Eddy sums up the power of God’s love to break through whatever would seem to contradict it: “A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God.” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883 – 1896, page 354).
This testimony was accepted by the Sentinel in 2020.