Testimony of Healing December 22, 2008 Issue

MAKING ROOM FOR GOD'S BLESSING

ROBERTA DEVER

One morning, I woke up with flu-like symptoms—and was aching all over. It was a time of year when a lot of conversation was circulating about this condition. My first impulse was to try to go back to sleep in order to escape the discomfort. When that didn't work, I turned to prayer for help. I began by reading that week's Christian Science Bible Lesson, which included a story about the prophet Elisha (II Kings 3:16–20). According to the account, three kings traveling near where Elisha lived needeed water for their men and their animals. When two of the kings told Elisha of their plight, he answered, "Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches. ... Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts." Sure enough, when morning came, "The country was filled with water."

In the same section of the Lesson, this statement inScience and Health caught my attention: "Mind's control over the universe, including man, is no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science" (p. 171). I saw that God's control over everything is forever. This power was in operation in Elisha's time—thousands of years ago—and it's in operation now. God hasn't changed. That "demonstrable Science" is forever in action. I saw that any problem—whether it looked tiny or gargantuan from a human standpoint—was only "a light thing in the sight of the Lord." Why would I not expect to experience the presence and power of God, this day and every day, in the big things and in the small? Instead of feeling weighed down by discomfort, I felt encouraged by these inspiring ideas.

Then a compelling thought came to me in the form of a command: Dig your ditches. In the Bible story, the people had to dig ditches to make room for the provision that was to come—the water they so needed. This showed their expectation of God's great goodness. Without that expectation, they wouldn't have prepared ditches. And if they hadn't begun digging, how would they have received the blessing? Now I needed to dig ditches in order to engage in my own expectation of God's goodness by making room to receive the blessings He's always pouring forth.

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