When the daily news reports misuse of power by government leaders, it can feel like there’s not a lot ordinary citizens can do to make things better. But history has often shown that wrong acts will yield to humanity’s deep inclination toward justice – including a change of heart in leaders.
One of the most famous rulers in history, King David, governed Israel in the 10th century BC. David was remarkable well before he became king. The Bible relates that when he was a teenage shepherd he felled a veritable giant of an enemy with one stone slung from his sling, while seasoned soldiers stood by, afraid to act.
But even remarkable people make bad choices, and King David went on to make a big one. He used his power to compel the wife of a soldier in his own army to commit adultery with him, and then ordered that the soldier be killed, to hide what he had done and take the soldier’s wife as his own.
Later, awakened by a trusted advisor to the need for deep remorse, David wrote one of the Bible’s greatest psalms, which remains a powerful prayer for anyone who wants to help themself, as well as others, be better. It includes: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. … Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation” (Psalms 51:10, 12).
That petition is a theme of this week’s Christian Science Bible lesson. Self-cleansing, or repentance, is an ongoing practice. Christianity refers to it as a sacrament, a commitment to living the goodness and purity natural to all of us as children of God.
When we make an effort to let God cleanse our own hearts of anger, scorn, or despair, and replace such feelings with gratitude and support for unselfish and just actions, we become part of a movement of healers.
An account of Christ Jesus’ healing work shows that someone out of their right mind can come to their senses (see Mark 1:23-27). Jesus authoritatively said to the disordered, unbalanced state of a man possessed with an “unclean spirit,” “Hold thy peace, and come out of him.” The account tells that the man was restored to his right mind.
You could say that when any of us acts “uncleanly” – for instance, being concerned mainly with our own desires or what we perceive as our own personal benefit – we need to be restored to our right mind; that is, to a truer sense of our goodness and purity as God’s spiritual offspring. This is the purpose of a sacrament described as the baptism of repentance.
It takes persistent effort to desire and maintain a grounded expectation of good in the face of bad news and actors. Yet we are all inherently capable of this, because God expresses infinite goodness in and through all His children. As we, through prayer, repent and clean our own heart of hate, cynicism, outrage, and other unhelpful reactions, we can better trust that such repentance is possible for others.
It helps to bring this attitude to the ingesting of news. It can be tempting to be depressed or angered by things going on in the world, but a more productive and healing response is rising to a higher conviction that there is a natural “right spirit” in everyone. However buried or ignored that righteousness may appear, it is the essence of each being as an individual expression of God.
Referring to Jesus, the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” says, “First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his followers the healing power of Truth and Love” (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 31).
The capacity to further healing is within anyone who strives to maintain the conviction that people are innately capable of good because all are, in truth, the creation of the infinite good – God. The Bible says, “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (I John 3:3).
However great the need may be for kings and leaders to cleanse their hearts, the way each of us can best further this is to “renew a right spirit within me.” As we let God make our hearts clean, our prayers for others help them to think and act in ways that better serve the welfare of all.
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