Healing is the most wonderful means with which to worship God, because nothing else proves God’s presence and love in quite the same way. Healing through Christian Science provides concrete evidence of the truth of what this Science teaches us about God and our relationship to Him.

Mary Baker Eddy, through her writings, based on the Bible, has given us thorough and clear instructions on how to go about healing spiritually—through utilizing the laws of God. These instructions are available to all, to study and to put them into practice daily so that we might find healing for ourselves and others.

Each of us has an infinite, ever-available supply of love.

As I’ve looked back over years of healings—both of my own, and of those in my public practice of Christian Science—I’m aware that one key ingredient in this healing work is something that can’t be easily measured or defined humanly: It’s love. And this love has always been so much more than human affection and kindness—it has come from and expressed the Love that is God. When healing has happened, it’s been because I have made room in my heart for the healing touch of God’s presence and power, the Christ; I’ve yielded to God, Love—acknowledged Love, felt its tenderness and strength, and expressed more of it myself. 

Many people embrace the idea of God as bestowing love on mankind and creation, but the Bible makes clear that God is Love itself—pure, holy, and precious. And Christian Science brings to humanity the full measure of the understanding of God as Love, awakening us to this Love as the universal Principle that governs, includes, and benefits all.

This so beautifully helps us see that we don’t have to get love or manufacture it ourselves. It is fundamental to our very being as the sons and daughters of God. Each of us has an infinite, ever-available supply of love, because we have a natural relationship to divine Love. We can never be severed from this Love or kept from feeling its presence and care for us. And as we realize that this is a divine law, we see that it is a provable force in our lives. We realize that we can become increasingly aware of the influence of divine Love in every aspect of our experience.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy writes, “He that touches the hem of Christ’s robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing,—in a sweet and certain sense that God is Love” (p. 569). If “the proof of healing” is “a sweet and certain sense that God is Love,” then naturally, as we feel the Love that is God, the healing of whatever may have felt challenging to us will be the inevitable result.

Mrs. Eddy explains that to feel this profound Love, we must touch Christ’s robe and master our mortal beliefs. This requires meekness, receptivity, willingness, and obedience. In our recognition of the Christ, Truth, and our acceptance of its divine influence in human thought, we acknowledge what God has already done for man in perfect order and harmony. We see that the only power that truly governs our lives is that of our good and loving God, and we yield to His omnipotence. This is what allows us to master all the mortal beliefs that would claim to hide Love from us in our daily lives.

Sometimes people will say that they don’t feel God’s love, and they wonder how they can connect with the divine. But the fact is, Love is always present, and we are never separated from Love. This means divine Love is available to every individual, and Love’s presence is felt as we live in accord with Love’s laws as found in the Bible’s teachings and in the writings of Mrs. Eddy. 

It is pretty difficult to feel divine Love if we aren’t practicing its precepts. Spiritual healing requires the sincere work of subjugating human will, bringing our thought into conformity with Christ, and forgoing what isn’t honest, pure, righteous, and intelligent. It means striving to emulate the example of the master Christian, Christ Jesus, in all that we think, say, and do, proving our love for God and our fellow man.

If this sounds like work, it is, but it is the most satisfying and rewarding work imaginable. And it changes lives in ways we could never have dreamed possible. As we do this essential work, we begin to notice God in our lives in ways that are wonderfully enriching, rewarding, and inspiring. We feel alive with love!

I remember one time when I’d become more serious in my practice of Christian Science and I saw these truths so clearly. I was busy with a number of important activities, when I became quite ill. This illness was keeping me from my work, and I became increasingly frustrated. I called a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me, and I expected a quick healing.  

The problem was, all I wanted was a quick fix to get on with my life. I wasn’t considering what actually brings about a healing in Christian Science. While it is important to find relief from illness or other difficulties, and Christian Science is exceptionally good at this, I was forgetting to bring my humility and receptivity to God, and to make room in my heart for the Christ. 

I was trying to turn a bad material situation into a good one, instead of seeing the spiritual nature of my being and the fact that I am governed by God and am blessed by Him with health, harmony, joy, freedom, and goodness. I had forgotten all about love—my love for God, my love of those with whom I was interacting, my love of Christian Science, and my love of practicing Christian Science with my whole heart. I was also forgetting how much God loves each one of us, including me—no one is ever left out; we’re all included.

I talked to the practitioner several times that day, reporting that I was no better, but worse. She was gracious and patient with me and shared some beautiful spiritual truths, but I was too busy feeling sorry for myself to really implement them as I should have.

The next morning, when I called the same practitioner to say that I was again worse and was feeling even more frustrated about all the things I needed to do, her loving and divinely inspired response startled me. She told me that I needed to wake up and begin to acknowledge all the good in my life. She then proceeded to encourage me to sing hymns all day. That was particularly surprising to me, because the major part of my difficulty was a very painful throat condition, which was keeping me from speaking. Singing seemed out of the question! 

I was convinced of my healing because I felt God’s love.

I got off the phone feeling even more sorry for myself. But then the Christ broke through; in a flash of humble realization, I could see that this loving and caring practitioner was attempting to awaken me to what she knew was true about me as God’s daughter. With tears of repentance, I realized that if she loved me enough to be so honest with me about what was needed for healing, then she was doing so for a good reason. I suddenly saw her words as deeply caring and morally courageous. She was attempting to rouse me from thinking only about self to a larger and dearer thought of God and His love for me and all.

I got out my Christian Science Hymnal, opened to the first hymn, and began to sing. The singing sounded pretty horrible, but I didn’t stop. I sang every hymn in the Hymnal that day, humbly and sincerely. I felt the power of God through singing those hymns—I felt God’s love. By evening I was totally convinced that God loved me, and I felt that love resting on all creation. Nothing had changed physically, but I was convinced of my healing because I felt God’s love.

I went to bed that night feeling very much aware of the divine embrace and care. I slept peacefully, and the next morning I awakened completely healed and refreshed. I could now go about my business, but I couldn’t just go on with my life—it had changed. I no longer saw the physical healing, as important as it was, as anything more than the added thing. The salient point of the healing for me was the deep and profound discovery, more clearly realized than before, that God is Love. I have never forgotten the power of that experience.  

If we’re needing to see a healing in our lives, perhaps it’s time to step back and see if there is a need to honestly assess our approach to our prayers. Do we need to commit to loving God more, to expressing His love in our daily lives, and to seeing the universal and inclusive nature of divine Love’s embrace of creation? We can’t claim this loving embrace for ourselves without claiming it for all. It is then that we can expect to find our own proof of healing in a “sweet and certain sense that God is Love.”