Prayer That Heals

        An acquaintance once told me that she often wondered when she was growing up and plagued with so many physical ailments, "Why doesn't God hear my prayers?"  She was very religious and would plead for deliverance from her suffering.  But healing still seemed elusive.


        God does answer prayer.  But perhaps one's prayers need to embody less fearful pleading and more understanding trust in His care for man.  I Corinthians states:  "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also."  (14:15)


        Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:  "The prayer of faith shall save the sick', says the Scripture. What is this healing prayer?  A mere request that God will heal the sick has no power to gain more of the divine presence than is always at hand."  And she continues further along, referring to God as divine Truth and Love, "It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through blind belief, nor is it the human understanding of the divine healing Principle as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, -- of man's likeness to God and of man's unity with Truth and Love."  (p. 12)


        Christ Jesus' assurance "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" takes on new meaning for the person who begins the study of Christian Science.  He begins to see that an understanding of God makes free because the fact is that everyone's real selfhood is God's likeness, therefore eternally free, spiritually whole and safe at this moment.  The spiritual laws underlying the Master's words and deeds, their changeless Principle, become clearer to the individual who gains some practical understanding of the Christ-power that Jesus expressed so fully.  And this imbues his prayers for himself and others with power and efficacy.


        The law of God is available for everyone to learn and benefit from.  When the spiritual truth of God and man is specifically brought to bear on a particular trouble through prayer and purified living, healing takes place.  And it doesn't matter whether the difficulty is of long duration or is acute.


        The spiritual concept of man is basic to the teachings of Christian Science, and this is why adherents of this Science find it essential to pray from the Biblical standpoint that man is made in God's own image. (See Genesis 1:27)  Accepting the premise that God is perfect Spirit, as the Bible teaches, they realize that the creations of Spirit can only be spiritual, perfect.  And this is the reality of man's being, despite appearances to the contrary.  It must be, because God couldn't have created man subject to discord and destruction.


        In the measure that we express out true nature as this spiritual likeness, we are following the example of Jesus, who healed sin, disease, and all discord through spiritual means alone.  Mrs. Eddy writes:  "The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness give place to light, and sin to reformation.  Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural." (Science and Health, p. xi)


        The last one hundred pages of Science and Health are devoted to healings that resulted from studying this book.  Among those wonderful experiences are healings of cataract, rheumatism, cancer, deafness, kidney disease, stomach trouble, and many other conditions.  Christian Science has lifted countless thousands out of painful and physical problems.


        Jesus promised us, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also."  (John 14:12)  Humbly striving to follow our Master's teachings through an absolute faith in God and a growing discernment of our true nature as His perfect likeness, you and I can begin to fulfill that promise and find healing.

Early Morning Walk

(While out with our Australian Shepherd earlier today, this poem came to thought)








                                                            Cathedral of the Trees






                                                             I've had my share


                                                             Of inspired, holy moments


                                                             Worshiping in a church


                                                              Made of wood and stone.






                                                               But I do believe,


                                                               On a bench on the edge


                                                               Of a still and lovely forest


                                                               I am quite near the divine,


                                                               I sit here uplifted, all alone --


                                                               Except for our dog,


                                                               (And for the One


                                                               Who made all this,


                                                                      Of course.)






                                           "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof;
                                                      the world, and they that
                                                            dwell therein."


                                                              Psalms 24:l
  




  

Watch That Disturbed Thinking!

        Last month I quoted something from Psalms to the effect of keeping our thoughts in God.  "God is not in all his thoughts", to be precise.  (Psalms 10:4) 


        Expanding on this, it is clear to me that God being Love, and love all the time without exception, if we're to have our thoughts in God, they have to be loving also, have to be what Jesus lived and commanded his followers to embody above all else. 


        Having allowed myself to get disturbed over this or that mundane glitch more times than I care to admit ,and paying for it (naturally), I can see that our thinking has to pattern that of Christ, that Christlike love, no matter how trying day-to-day situations may sometimes seem, is paramount.


        Jesus said, "The prince of this world cometh and findeth nothing in me", that is, nothing of its own unloving, disturbed, resentful, etc. nature.  Opening the door to un-Christlikeness will cause us to undergo experiences we do not have to have.  And hopefully, you and I are learning through hard experience, if need be, to not play host to the prince of this world through disturbed thinking..

A Joy and Privilege

        This is what it is to be blogging for Christ Jesus and Christian Science.  To think that people in parts of the world I may never see are reading and being helped by what I hold dear, well, does it get any better than this?  Not to me, it doesn't.


        And beginning my 9th year blogging, having this way to spread God's Word is a continuing pleasure for me.