A common problem these days is addiction stemming from prescription drugs. Many people might be interested to learn that there is a way to combat sickness and recover health without having to depend on medication. That way is the healing power of Christianity that Christ Jesus practiced. His words "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32) point to the naturalness of healing from a purely metaphysical standpoint as he did. They point to unchanging divine law, which we can turn to with certainty.
Through the study of Christian Science, we're helped to see what that healing truth is, the truth found in the Bible's pages. There we learn that God is omnipotent and entirely good and that man is the image of God. As the likeness of his creator, man forever expresses the divine nature. And because God is Spirit, man is spiritual. To be sure, we appear to be merely flesh and bones and subject to suffering. But physicality isn't the actual or ultimate substance of our being. Life in the flesh is a misconception of man, whose real identity as the image of God is incorporeal, untouched by debilitating physical conditions.
The growing understanding of man's spiritual nature has a purifying effect on the body. It awakens us to the everpresence of Christ, Truth--of the divine healing influence--and the body responds to this uplifting influence. Health is restored.
Not cloud talk, this. So many men and women--children, too--can attest to this. And from my own experience, something that happened to us when we lived in Seoul, Korea. Apparently something we had eaten on the economy as they put it that we Westerners couldn't handle, or the water we had drunk that we shouldn't have, resulted in acute discomfort. We needed help from a practitioner and there just happened to be a worker from The Mother Church in Boston in Southeast Asia at the time for a meeting of Armed Services chaplains. This Journal listed practitioner was staying at a local hotel. My husband phoned and he immediately took a cab and came to our apartment. He spoke to us of strong truths found in the teachings of Christian Science, and prayed for us. Before very long, the extreme discomfort abated, and by the next day, we both were recovered enough to eat something. Oh, were we grateful to God for that potent help from this devoted worker!
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "To ignore God as of little use in sickness is a mistake. Instead of thrusting Him aside in times of bodily trouble, and waiting for the hour of strength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn that He can do all things for us in sickness as in health." (page 166)
Divine healing in Christian Science is more than a recovery of health; it includes moral strengthening. Turning to God in prayer and relying on Him for healing constitute the genuine Christian way of salvation. This holy activity regenerates and purifies one's thought and life.
We have a God-given right not only to enjoy sound health but to recover it through spiritual means when it is threatened. Jesus has furnished us with a precedent, indicating that as we follow his example we can learn what God is and how to avail ourselves of His power.
The Bible is full of asurances of God's healing help. These are not empty promises. They come to life for us in clear-cut healing when we are equipped with practical knowledge of God's eternal law of harmony and of our relationship to Him. Empowered with the Christly understanding that a study of Christian Science brings, we can turn to God for every aspect of our well-being, including health, proving to our own satisfaction and joy, "The Lord will take away from thee all sickness." (Deuteronomy 7:15)
