Daily Watch for the week of November 5th, – November 12th, 2023
From 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
107 — WATCH lest you permit a human estimate or attitude to blind you to the true and divine significance of your human experiences. This is an important point, since it is your attitude towards anything that determines how it will affect your progress.
Jesus says in Matt. 10:22, “He that shall endure to the end shall be saved.”
What would be the value of a consciousness of God, and an understanding of Christian Science, that had not been toughened and strengthened so that it could endure to the end? When one has the right attitude toward human persecution and affliction, he will never be ashamed of his problems, nor will he personalize the channels through which such experiences come to him. Rather will he rejoice at whatever plunges him into a hot or cold experience. He will perceive that it is Love’s plan and Truth’s way of training him to endure.
The gist of the Master’s statement is that, if one desires to establish himself in the character of the Christ, which means holding steadfastly to the realization of one’s spiritual identity until the claim of material selfhood is silenced, he must suffer the effects of persecution and affliction, in order to develop his receptive and retentive qualities, which will enable him to receive and maintain the eternal good.
The most deadly thing, as far as spiritual growth is concerned, is the harmonious state of mortal belief, which sees no clouds on the horizon to mar the mesmerism, or to startle mortal man out of this mortal dream. What will stir one to mental activity, unless something jars him, unless some phase of error shakes him? Certainly a false peace, serenity or security in matter must be broken. Mortal man must be shaken out of his complacence. Otherwise he will never make an effort sufficient to throw off mortality, or to accomplish anything constructive along spiritual lines. The effort necessary to change one’s thinking from the human to the divine status requires something more than a feeble desire. It requires something drastic to cause him to cry out, “Lord, save or I perish.”
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from Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, as given by Mary Baker Eddy, page 49
“Hear, O Israel, for the Lord, our God, is one God.”
You are not to come in your own name to pray.
You are not to control any mind.
You are to come only in the divine strength, and know that God will rule and does, and that hypnotism and evil minds cannot, and do not, control men or governments.
All power is God, good.
This is my only formula to Christian Scientists for prayer, and God will give you faith that will remove mountains.