This week’s “Christian Science Quarterly” Bible Lesson on the subject “God the Preserver of Man” highlights the role angels play in our lives. “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy defines angels as “God’s thoughts passing to man” (p. 581). These angel messages guide us to safety from danger, lack, and disease. Science and Health also explains, “These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through the understanding of God” (p. 567).
It is our loving Father, divine Love itself, that gives each of us the understanding of Love’s perpetual, faithful care in our daily life. God is divine Life, and Life is eternal. Man – meaning all men, women, and children – is the beloved child of Life. God cannot be deprived of His offspring, and we cannot be deprived of Love’s protection.
So why are angels the avenue through which God delivers us “from the depths”? It is because fear and wrong thinking are the enemies that seem to cut us off from a secure sense of safety and protection. And God’s angels, His thoughts, counteract wrong thinking and steer our thoughts in the right direction.
When angel messages, the spiritual inspiration which Truth sends, help us, we feel loved and provided and cared for. These spiritual guides provide comfort and guidance, lifting us out of distress, loneliness, and emptiness.
In the Bible, we read about Elijah fleeing from the wrath of Queen Jezebel after the confrontation on Mount Carmel, where he had proved the powerlessness of the false god Baal that she promoted. He became frightened, feeling alone and vulnerable, as he fled from the enemy that hunted him.
God not only preserved Elijah’s life, but renewed his faith and strength, when a stellar display of threats passed before him: first a “strong wind”; then “an earthquake”; and finally “a fire” (see I Kings 19:11, 12). These may have looked menacing and impressive, but since God had no part in them, they were powerless. Wasn’t this true, then, about the wrath of Elijah’s enemy as well? God was not in the vindictive threats of the queen, so they were harmless. Now, through the angel message he had received, these aggressive feelings – his sense of isolation and fear of his enemy – had no power to harm him.
In our daily life, staying focused on God’s tender care and goodness brings us the angel messages we need. And they can come as quickly as needed when there is a visible upset or urgent demand.
Christ Jesus promised, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16). It’s heartening to know that Jesus prayed for all who follow him, not only in his time but in ours as well. Mrs. Eddy elaborated on this promise when she explained, “‘Lo, I am with you alway,’ – that is, not only in all time, but in all ways and conditions” (Science and Health, p. 317). This means we can count on the Comforter, the Science, or law, of divine Love, in even the most trying circumstances.
This proved true one day when I heard a noise coming from another part of the house. As I went to see what it was, I felt a deep sense of calm enveloping me, and I felt God’s love. I found my husband bent over. He was struggling for breath. I felt no fear as I put my arms around him and shared the angel thought coming to me, “The Comforter is here. The Comforter is right here!” There was no effort on my part as the words were spoken, just a sweet, reassuring trust that God’s healing love was with us both. I felt the peace of God, and with this peace came the imperative, spiritual authority of God’s Christ strengthening us. This took place in a moment, and all was immediately well.
God’s angels come to each of us as we need them, to bless, strengthen, and heal us. Then we find that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1). This is the spiritual preservation of God that we can always count on.
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