Testimony of Healing June 21, 2010 Issue

PRAYER QUICKLY HEALS ILLNESS AND NAUSEA

PEGGY FORSTER

In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy describes Jesus' clear vision in these words: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick" (pp. 476-477). I've found the instruction implied in this statement invaluable, both in my relations with others, as well as in praying for myself.

One morning when it was time for me to dress and get ready to go to work, I found I couldn't move. I felt ill and nauseated. As I addressed the situation prayerfully, I thought of this powerful admonition Mrs. Eddy gives in Science and Health: "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously" (p. 392). And in the next paragraph, "Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man" (p. 393).

Immediately I recognized this ill feeling as nothing but an attempt to rob me of my dominion, my God-given ability and power. A hymn I love describes dominion as "the gift of God" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 382), and I'd learned from earlier healings that I didn't have to buy it, earn it, or even ask for it. What I had to do was accept it—so accept it I did! I affirmed my authority to face down whatever would try to make me believe in a power outside the Divine. I knew I wasn't dealing with a case of the body gone bad, but rather with a "porter gone to sleep," allowing this robber—the thought that I was ill—to enter and pose as my thought. Whatever would disturb, alarm, disable, or discourage could only be an illusion, a lie, about the uninvadable harmony of my spiritual identity—my true substance as the reflection of Spirit.

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