It’s quite a promise. “In thy [God’s] presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” the Bible’s book of Psalms assures us (16:11). From a spiritual perspective, this promise of “pleasures for evermore” makes perfect sense. God, Spirit, created all that is real and created it spiritual and good. Because Spirit is unlimited, Spirit’s creation is equally unlimited. And everything in it is enjoyable. Forever.
But it’s a promise that’s hard for the human mind to grasp. “All good things come to an end” goes a popular saying. We remember good things in the past and look forward to good things in the future. But whether or not we are enjoying what’s happening right now, everything material is ephemeral.
There’s an undeniable crossroads to be faced. One road is the assurance of the deep spiritual joys that were so tangible to the psalmist. The other offers a tempting path of plunging deep into materialism, seeking pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction through the material senses. But clinging to the belief that we can find lasting pleasure in matter is like trying to hold on to a sleeping dream when the alarm clock is ringing. Because the alarm is always ringing! We each have an innate spiritual sense that yearns for and insists on all that is spiritual and good.
So why do we try so hard to, metaphorically, stay asleep when our spiritual sense is waking us up to accept the Bible’s promise of never-ending good?
Perhaps it’s because spiritual goodness can feel distant and abstract rather than something tangible that we can actually feel and enjoy. But, in fact, we can easily see and feel at least the symbols of the genuine, spiritual good that is already present here and now. The laugh of a cherished friend, the reflection of a sunset in a mountain lake, the harmonies of a favorite piece of music – all are hieroglyphs of real, eternal good.
But a hieroglyph is not the thing itself. A laugh ends, a sunset fades, a piece of music reaches its conclusion. But God’s goodness – real, present, and eternal – never ends, is forever new and fresh. We can increasingly bring that real and permanent good into our lives just by looking for it in the right place.
The right place is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus told his followers to seek this kingdom first precisely because that’s where all good is found. Does that sound hard or scary? It shouldn’t. Jesus also assures us that the kingdom of God is already right here, within us. To find it within us, we just need to be willing to give up the materialism and faith in matter that would hide it from us.
Maybe we can learn from the example of a rich man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life (see Mark 10:17-23). The man told Jesus he had obeyed God’s law his whole life. But Jesus pointed to one thing, and one thing only, that the man lacked: He needed to sell everything he owned and give the proceeds to the poor and follow Christ. The Gospel writer reports that the man “went away grieved: for he had great possessions.”
Jesus didn’t tell everyone who followed him to sell everything they had. The rich man’s material stuff doesn’t, in and of itself, seem to have been the issue. The issue seems to have been the man’s faith in his material stuff. Outwardly, the man was faithful to God and His law. Jesus was apparently demanding that the man’s outward obedience be matched by an inward conviction of, and joy in, the fact that God truly was supplying him with everything he could possibly need, including real pleasures that never end.
“Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God,” writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 15). Jesus wasn’t asking the rich man to give up a single truly good or necessary thing. After all, Jesus’ promise included the assurance that when we seek spiritual good first, the practical good we need at the moment is “added unto [us]” (Matthew 6:33). Rather, obedience to Jesus’ instruction would have helped the man cut the chains binding him to a limited, material sense of good, so he could soar freely in God’s universe of boundless bliss.
So many have found that as they turn away from materialism to God, their health, happiness, and ability to bless others increase rather than decrease. God does, indeed, love each of us tenderly and completely. Let’s be willing to trust with our hearts, our thoughts, and our actions that there are, as the Bible assures us, “pleasures for evermore” at His right hand.
Adapted from an editorial published in the April 20, 2026, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
