“Simply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the longing to be better and holier, expressed in daily watchfulness and in striving to assimilate more of the divine character, will mould and fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness.” (Science and Health, page 4)

Your humble and loving heart will reveal your heaven to you. Your sincere desire to be better, to understand more, and to love more truly and fully, is a guarantee of blessings. We can assert that we love God, good, or plead with Him. But without an open heart for instruction in righteousness, without an earnest, honest desire to listen and follow, we are missing something vital to our progress.

If we are to see ourselves truly, as God’s own image and likeness, we must begin with humility, a willingness to lose a prideful sense of self, or alternately a self-pitied one. If we are genuinely longing to listen and follow, to let go of ego and release ourselves to God’s Life, we shall discover the richness of that wonderful Life more and more each day.

It takes discipline, but not mere human willfulness. We should not berate ourselves for mistakes, giving them an enduring life, nor should we push ahead with a human time frame for our spiritual growth when we do not truly understand or feel the Truth of it. If we are recognizing the “divine character” and daily watching our thought for what is out of accord with that, then we shall advance. We shall begin to see more clearly that what we strive to be, is what we already are: the perfect idea that God saw fit to make and continues to thoroughly, attentively love.

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.