Testimony of Healing July 24, 2000 Issue

Understanding God's law brings immediate healing

Grace Flechtner Lyon

I recently woke one morning with symptoms of a bad cold. I was not sick enough to stay in bed, but I had very little energy, and my usual activities were interrupted. I prayed for myself and felt somewhat better. But by the end of the day, I still was not well.

The following morning, there was enough improvement that I went out to run an errand. Still, annoying conditions of the cold persisted. Even though it's widely believed that a cold has to run its course, I knew through regular study of the Bible that Jesus routinely instructed sufferers to do exactly what they believed they could not do. For example, to an impotent man he said, "Rise ... and walk." To a man with a withered hand he said, "Stretch forth thy hand." To a dead child, he said, "Maid, arise" (see John 5:8; Luke 6:10; 8:54). These examples have helped me understand that spiritual law can and does reverse material conditions.

As I drove to my destination, I thought about some words from Science and Health, where Mary Baker Eddy says of Jesus, "... he taught mortals the opposite of themselves, even the nature of God ..." (p. 20). These words have long illustrated to me how important it is in a Christian Science treatment to specifically realize, according to the timeless healing example of Christ Jesus, that the spiritual fact about each of us, even the nature of God, is the very opposite of any material condition. I also thought about another instructive statement in Science and Health: "It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony" (p. 390).