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The Bible has many short, easy-to- remember phrases full of insight and spiritual advice. These phrases are even better when someone adds a twist to an ancient saying to make it relevant to modern life. Recently, I ran across one of these twists that really made me think, and it changed my whole attitude toward what we may think of as "problems."

We have all heard the Biblical phrase "And It Came to Pass." You find this saying sprinkled liberally throughout the Bible. Most of us think of this phrase as meaning: "and then this happened."

But I think a better understanding of this verse comes from someone who put a modern, yet sage, twist on this well-known phrase: "The Bible said 'And It Came to Pass'. It didn't say 'And It Came to Stay'." I love this turn of the phrase and when I first heard it, I laughed, but then I realized how profound it is.

How profound and how true! Physical, material things and experiences are ever-changing. These things are never permanent. The Changeless Mind of Spirit creates the ever-changing expression of Itself. The permanent creates the impermanent. The Timeless creates the time-sensitive. The Infinite creates the finite.

This idea of "It Came to Pass, not to Stay" is a great way to deal with what we might call our "troubles". When you are going through a hard time, just remember, it will pass. It was never meant to stay in our experience. It came to pass so that we may learn something. It came to pass so that we may expand and grow. It came to pass so that we could become aware of our subconscious beliefs and change them.

Whenever we go through difficult times, we can take this new attitude toward it. It came to pass, not to stay. When we need to heal something, we are given the gift of experiencing whatever is needed to put us on the path to healing. When we need to heal our relationship with our fathers, let's say, we seem to attract men who are like our fathers or who bring up similar issues we had with our fathers. These situations come into our experience for us to make them pass by healing them. They came to pass, not to stay and punish us and make our lives miserable.

Consider difficult times related to money or the lack thereof. This kind of experience gives us a chance to deal with our beliefs about prosperity and money. If we believe that money is the root of all evil, wouldn't the Law logically deduce that it needs to keep money away from us? We might not even be aware we have such beliefs, but that is what experiences do for us. They show us the beliefs we did not even know we have, but beliefs strong enough to create our situations. This lack of money came to us so that we have the opportunity to develop our prosperity consciousness which, in turn, will make it pass. It did not come to stay!

Or how about a physical illness. When we discern the mental equivalent of the illness, we discover the subconscious beliefs behind it and causing it. We now have the opportunity to work through the healing of the beliefs and then the physical healing happens automatically. This is our chance to heal a limiting belief and move upward in our spiritual growth. The illness came into our experience for the express purpose to have us face and deal with a particular limiting belief, a belief that is not life-affirming and joy-creating. Life is always moving forward. Our spiritual growth is always moving us toward greater expression of God Itself; greater expression of Life, Love, Light, Power, Peace, Beauty and Joy. It came to pass, not to stay.

Build this attitude of "it came to pass, not to stay" as you face your challenges. We all have challenges because Life is in a continuous progression of growth. Life does not stand still. Challenges make us move forward. We will never be without our challenges, but when we realize that all challenges are just chances to change and grow, we won't be devastated by them. We won't be immobilized by them. They came to pass, so let's help them on their way!

'2006 Tina Montalto