Guest Editorial October 13, 2014 Issue

The worship that brings healing

Sue A. Spotts

A testifier at our branch Church of Christ, Scientist’s, Wednesday evening meeting spoke of having been healed of flu symptoms after a day devoted to magnifying God. A recent college graduate, she said she was deeply grateful for the many evidences of God’s goodness over the previous four years, and had decided to stay home on New Year’s Day (declining invitations from friends to celebrate) and devote the entire day to worshiping God and giving Him thanks. Although she didn’t pray specifically about the physical difficulty with which she had awakened that morning, by the end of the day, she was completely free of the oppressive symptoms.

This young woman’s testimony struck a chord with many of us present that evening. It was a poignant reminder that glorifying God is central to Christianly scientific prayer, and that healing proceeds from the Christly impulsion to magnify and worship the one God.

Glorifying God overarches every Christian Science treatment (another term for specific, divinely inspired prayer), which partakes of the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer. That prayer begins simply, reverently: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9) and ends in similar fashion, fixing our adoration squarely on Him. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, giving her sense of the spiritual meaning of the Master’s prayer, interprets those first two, laudatory lines as “Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious …. Adorable One” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 16).