Blessedness that brings lasting joy
At one time or another we may have felt great happiness when a weighty problem was resolved in our lives – maybe something with our health or a relationship. That’s a pretty normal response to a positive outcome! But what about our state of thought when answers are nowhere in sight, or when we’re suddenly confronted with a new challenge?
Happiness that just comes from improved circumstances or conditions is not something that can necessarily be depended upon for needed grace and serenity if the waters get rough again. But there is indeed a dependable source of joy and peace that we can rely on at any moment: God. A fresh and abiding sense of spiritual blessedness comes from understanding our unity with God, and uplifts whether the situation appears disturbing or not.
From beginning to end, the Bible is filled with praise and celebration of God’s goodness, which is poured out all the time to His deeply loved creation – which includes all of us. The New International Reader’s Version describes our God-given blessedness so beautifully this way: “Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings come from the heavenly world. They belong to us because we belong to Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).
Decades ago, I felt anything but blessed and was struggling overall with a sense of happiness that came and went all too often. Then I began to study Christian Science. And the God-given blessings of His goodness that I was learning about transformed my thought and experience, even if in what seemed like tiny increments.
More and more I began to see blessedness as spiritual and permanent, like a thread that couldn’t unravel, for me and everyone. This resulted in feeling less and less the coming and going of a happiness based on circumstance.
The teachings of Christian Science have been such a powerful light to me over many years. They brighten and make ever clearer the truths of the Scriptures. For example, consider the use of “Christ” in the previously mentioned Bible verse. In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, describes Christ as the “divinity of the man Jesus” and “his divine nature, the godliness which animated him” (p. 26).
Jesus’ teachings and healing works reveal that blessedness is inherent in our true identity – which is wholly spiritual because it comes from God, our divine Parent, who is pure Spirit and Love. In other words, the peace and freedom of spiritual blessedness stem from the constancy of our God-derived nature.
The Christ light, which comes to human consciousness at every moment, communicates a steady joy that uplifts thought – even before we see the full way out of some difficulty.
Because the spiritual reality of our blessedness is not dependent upon material circumstances – on people, place, or time – but comes directly from God, it is unlimited and unconfined. We can drink in our divine state of blessedness and let it purify our motives and thoughts. This results in lives healed and uplifted to a more permanent joy – beyond the shifting scenes of human experience.
The first verse of a poem called “Satisfied,” written by Mrs. Eddy, illustrates this perfectly:
It matters not what be thy lot,
So Love doth guide;
For storm or shine, pure peace is thine,
Whate’er betide.
(“Poems,” p. 79)
Blessedness rests securely in God, whose direction always brings calm, comfort, and confidence.
