Article December 2, 1991 Issue

Don't linger with lingering health problems

Healing has nothing to do with the duration of a problem but everything to do with our persistent trust in the immediacy of God's care.

Marjorie C. Stephens

I've done all that I can and things still have not improved. I don't know what else to do!" That certainly may be how we're tempted to feel when confronted with a lingering illness or some other prolonged difficulty. But if our efforts to get better are based on a confidence in our own, or in another's, personal healing ability, then it's really not so surprising that we end up feeling this way.

Through the study of Christian Science, we discover that the solutions to problems, no matter how severe or long in duration, come from gaining a spiritual perspective of our inseparable unity with God, Love, the source of all good. In The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mrs. Eddy provides this insightful counsel: "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance." God's guidance and means are always spiritual. Our job is to reach out in humble prayer to God with the certainty that all things are possible to Him.

The Biblical account of the woman healed of the issue of blood is a good example of one who, suffering with a longstanding health problem, found spiritual means to be the most effective method of healing. She had been diseased for twelve long years Mark and Luke tell us. After spending all her money in search of healing, she found herself worse. But instead of wallowing in discouragement, she consciously and resolutely reached out to Christ Jesus as he passed by in a large crowd. He detected the sick woman's earnest yearning. She was instantly healed. We read that "immediately her issue of blood stanched."

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