Article March 9, 1987 Issue

Healing and prayer

The Christian Science Monitor

In recent years I have talked to several people who are sympathetic with the idea of healing disease through mental means. But they question the need to involve God in the healing process. They recognize that disease can have a mental cause and so conclude (contrary to the Christian Scientist's view) that the source of cure can be found in the human mind. Usually I tell them that sooner or later the human mind will find it is not equal to overcoming its own belief in disease, whether the disease is thought to have a mental cause or a strictly physical one. This is one reason why the Christian Scientist sees a need to yield to the illimitable harmony of God, the one divine Mind. As Paul said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." ^{Phil. 2:5.}

Turning to God for healing requires prayer. Through prayer we seek to affirm our love for God and our unity with His purpose, to feel God's love, and prove God's, Love's, control. We do bear witness to that control when prayer results in healing. The Christian Scientist, then, sees spiritual healing not only as the most reliable means of ensuring his well-being but also as a form of Christian worship. Spiritual healing, like prayer, has a holy purpose; for it affirms the presence of God and illustrates His nature as all-caring and omnipotent Love, as the actual Life of all that He creates.

When we pray, are we asking God to get rid of evil circumstances that apparently He has already permitted? Or does evil appear only in the material view of creation—the perspective from which it would seem that the control of the universe is at the mercy of material law? In harmony with the Scriptures, Christian Science teaches that God sees His creation as spiritual and perfect, as the expression of His own nature, and that man in God's image is the actual selfhood of everyone. When, through prayer, we yield to this truth, discern it as the reality of our being, the harmony that characterizes our true being is brought to light. Healing occurs.

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