Testimony of Healing September 16, 2013 Issue

No more symptoms of arthritis

Adrienne McWhorter

This article initially appeared as a Web original on JSH-Online.com on July 29, 2013.

I had been having symptoms of arthritis in my legs, arms, feet, and hands for several years. Finally one day the pain in my right arm was so severe that I couldn’t use the arm and had to have help getting dressed. Also, walking was painful; my days were never without pain. I had been praying about this, but now I really began to knuckle down in order to get to the source of the difficulty. I knew from my study of the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Christian Science textbook, by Mary Baker Eddy, that I had to spiritualize thought so that the body would correspond to my Godlike thinking.

A central point in Christian Science is that physical ailments always have a mental basis; therefore, they respond to a change in thought. I had to shift my basis of thought from an identity in matter to a spiritual identity. So I arose every morning at 4:00 a.m., went to my office, and spent about six hours each day praying to better understand God and my relationship to Him. I also asked a Christian Science practitioner to pray with me. (A practitioner is someone who devotes his or her full time to helping others through prayer.)

My prayer was mostly that of identifying with God. By that I mean that since I am made in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26, 27) and since God is Spirit, I have the same substance as God; that I am spiritual, made up of spiritual qualities—the qualities that are God’s. I had learned in Christian Science what the qualities of God are, which are written or implied in the Bible. Besides Spirit, God is divine Mind—the only intelligence there is. Mind is ever active, limitless. Mind as God is all-power and all-knowing. Mind is the source and condition of all existence, the source of all movement, the only action, perpetual motion. I understood that I reflect the unrestricted movement of Mind.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

An unselfish reputation