Sunday, October 6th, 2024 Roundtable

PRAYER FOR ONESELF – I thank Thee, Father-Mother God, that neither ignorant, fraudulent, nor malicious mortal mind can reach me, or affect me mcntally, physically, financially, or otherwise; and I knolV it, for God is the only power; that I am not the victim of aggressive mental suggestion, nor the target of M.A.M. claiming to operate through any channcl whatever, but I am the blessed legal child of God, spiritual, immortal. all-harmonious, perfect, happy, healthy, pure, sinless, free, and fearlcss and diseaseless, and deathless, expressing the substance of all good.

Hold yourself constantly and consciously under God’s eternal law of blessing, of happiness, harmony, health, peace, joy, power, progress, protection, abundancc; there is no other law,-only a contrary mortal mind lie which you are awake and alert to, and not under.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST’S PRAYER – There is no matter and no mortal mind. God is All-in-all. All is harmony, health, holiness. This is the prayer ‘unceasing’ to be used on all occasions and at all times. It lays the axe at the root of unreality, materiality (that forbidden tree) and cuts it down. Preserve a sacred silence on this subject of prayer.

(Signed, Author of S. & H.)

— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 63

We all make choices. Moment by moment, day by day, we make choices. We get up in the morning, and we choose to have either a happy day, or a miserable one.

>If we start the day with God, and with the study of the Lesson Sermon, we are choosing peace and dominion. If we rush out, without prayer and study, unprepared to meet the world, we have chosen to be tossed about on the turbulent sea of error.

The Plainfield Lesson Sermons are always so fresh and healing. They never grow stale. We make the choice, deciding I’m going to read the Lesson this morning, before my day starts. And I’m going to listen to God while I read it. I’m not going to rush through it, and be robbed of the comforting, healing message God has prepared for me. I’m going to read it quietly, and hear what God has to say to me. I will make this choice actively, to commune with my Maker, first thing in the morning.

As the day goes on, perhaps we’re confronted with someone who seems to be a difficult mortal. We have to make a choice. We can get mad and blow our top, breaking our connection with God, and thereby becoming mentally unstable and miserable. Or, we can handle the situation from the standpoint of dominion, refusing to be disturbed, and making sure that everything we say, and do, is principled and will bless. We make the choice. If the choice is for God, it is going to bring peace and blessing to everyone we deal with. If not, life can be chaotic and unrewarding.

As our Leader says in Science and Health, “Man’s moral mercury, rising or falling, registers his healing ability and fitness to teach.” (p. 449) God has given us the ability to stay steady and unmoved before the unreal but sometimes aggressive claims of error. The world needs our clear, calm, Christly thinking now as it never has before.

Choices. Moment by moment, we make them. From the minute we open our eyes in the morning, until the time we retire at night, we make choices. Right choices bring abundance. They bring health and peace, the peace of God which passeth all understanding. It’s so foolish to let error make our choices for us. We can make them with God and win! That’s what Christian Science is all about, the freedom to make the right choices. In doing this, we are departing daily from error, and walking steadfastly into the kingdom of heaven. Choices. God has given us the power to make them. And thank God we can make them right. Hymn number 382 assures us of our ability to walk with God and make the right choices:

Take then the sacred rod; Thou art not error’s thrall; Thou hast the gift of God – Dominion over all.

“Choices” Sermons and Articles by Doris White Evans