Testimony of Healing September 11, 2006 Issue

PRAYER: EFFECTIVE IN SUDDEN ILLNESS

MARY ANN LIVINGSTON

When I was growing up, my parents believed in prayer, yet they relied completely on doctors to maintain the family's health. After college, when I first visited a Christian Science practitioner, I was under the care of physicians. That practitioner said, and with great authority, "God loves you." It was as if a bright light flashed on and I wanted to learn more about God's love. I didn't realize that I had also found a reliable approach to healthcare.

I began to study the Bible and Science and Health with the support of the practitioner, and I gained a view of God as divine Love, and of myself as His daughter, spiritual and inseperable from His care. Several months after that visit, I tossed out all the pills. I no longer needed them. My parents feared that I was putting myself at risk by relying on God as my only physician. But I began to trust God wholeheartedly with my health, then later with the health and care of my twin sons. And each time I acknowledged God's loving care and control, we experienced healing, often with the prayerful support of a practitioner, and I found that God was indeed a "very present help" in every trouble (Ps. 46:1).

The summer my sons graduated from college, I'd planned a trip to visit Dad, but that morning I woke up in pain. I couldn't eat or drink and was barely able to walk, and I was hemorrhaging. This was sudden, unprecedented, and very alarming. Although my parents had gained an appreciation for Christian Science healing over the years, when I canceled the trip I didn't explain how ill I was—I didn't want Dad to worry. Plus, I really felt at the time that the condition was life-threatening.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

FACIAL INJURY HEALED THROUGH REALIZATION OF GOD'S PROTECTING POWER