Immediate healing? It’s possible!

Zahra Baldauf

Originally appeared online in the teen series: Your Healings - May 14, 2019

I’ve always known that healing through prayer is possible. And as a Christian Scientist, it’s felt natural to me to pray about any problems I’ve faced. But I’d always thought of a healing as something to be patient about, a process that takes a lot of time and effort. It wasn’t until last summer that I discovered otherwise.

As part of a counselor-in-training program, we were required to participate in a five-day hiking and canoeing trip. On the last night of the hike before the final descent, I found myself feeling very uncomfortable. I was trying to go to sleep, but my throbbing ankles were a constant reminder that I had rolled my ankles multiple times during the hike that day. As a soccer player, I recognized this feeling all too well, and I also knew this kind of discomfort wasn’t going to just go away on its own.

At first, I alternated between trying to get comfortable and sort of ignoring the problem. But after a few hours I realized that if I wanted to make it down the mountain the next day, I needed to pray.

I began by thinking about being preserved—protected—by God. In my family, we’ve made it a practice to repeat this passage from the Bible together before we go on trips and outings: “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore” (Psalms 121:8). I’ve always liked the idea that no matter what the situation—even on a long hike—God is always protecting me from any kind of harm.

If I knew the healing was bound to happen eventually, why not now?

I thought about the next day, when we would be done with the hike and back at camp, and I’d be seeing my friends. I realized that I was picturing myself in all those scenarios as completely fine. It made me think. If painful ankles weren’t part of my vision for myself for the future … then why did I think they could be part of my present? If I knew the healing was bound to happen eventually, why not now?

With this realization, the pain went away almost immediately, and I was able to sleep through the rest of the night and finish the hike the next day. I had been instantly healed when I understood that I was always fully preserved by God—including right at that moment.

I found this healing to be very cool, because it helped me understand that we don’t need to wait for healings. God’s powerful love is always here to protect us, and we can experience it now.

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