Testimony of Healing January 19, 1998 Issue

Prayer heals physical difficulties

Heidi Skok Thorp

Each week since its beginning in 1898, the Christian Science Sentinel has published a representative sample of verified testimonies of healing, told in their own words by men, women, and children throughout the world.

For several years, I had a very deep plantar wart on the ball of my right foot. I have to admit that I hadn't specifically prayed about this condition, since it only bothered me if I stepped on the foot the wrong way. But when I was on a beach last summer swimming with some family members, a cousin who is a medical student noticed my foot. She exclaimed with concern, explaining that I needed to have the wart surgically removed and why this was important. I thanked her for her concern, and then decided that I had better pray!

I saw that I had been accepting an imperfection about myself which had no reality because I am God's perfect, uninvaded, spiritual idea—enveloped, sustained, maintained, governed, and protected by God, divine Love, and only by God. The only thing that could attach itself to me was goodness. During this time I was having treatment from a Christian Science practitioner on some other issues, and I mentioned this situation to her, as well. I do not specifically remember what she said to me, but I know that we pondered the idea of true substance, which is spiritual. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy points out, "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay." The paragraph ends with this powerful statement: "The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit" (p. 468). My identity, constituted by Spirit, could not take in, hold, or keep anything that was not derived from my Maker, God. My substance was truly pure, whole, and complete, not to be found in matter.

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