Freedom is within reach

Ever feel trapped? As if there were no way out of a problem, a character flaw, or an illness? From a material perspective, our situation may appear gloomy indeed. But as Christ Jesus came to show us, no circumstance is beyond help and hope.

Freedom is within reach right now by gaining a spiritual sense of life as the unfoldment of God’s laws. We do this by learning and putting into practice the truths of Christian Science, which are based on the teachings of Jesus. 

Because Jesus was convinced of the supremacy of God, Spirit, over matter, he never accepted that anyone could be beyond the healing and saving power of divine Spirit. He understood that God, infinite good, made all, so all of God’s creation must be good eternally. 

From the virgin birth to Jesus’ resurrection, the so-called laws of matter that seem to govern existence were successfully challenged and overcome. Jesus recognized one power only—God, the divine Mind—and he provided overwhelming evidence that because this Mind is always present and contains no element of evil, evil has no real place or power. Jesus perceived that everyone’s true being is entirely spiritual, and his healing works demonstrated the perfection and completeness of each one as a child of God. 

More and more, humanity is admitting that what we think determines our experience, including with our bodies. This may be considered “mind over matter” by some, but the Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, explains it this way in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed mind produces all the organism and action of the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels, and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in Mind-science.”

She continues: “Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen to be supported by sensible evidence, until its divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen, no other conclusion can be reached” (pp. 108–109). 

Truth empowers us to turn from a false, material world view of discord to the divine view of heaven, harmony, already present.

The biography Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, Amplified Edition, by Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck, contains more than three hundred verified accounts of healing by Mrs. Eddy spanning several decades—proving that spiritual healing isn’t just an occasional miracle but a consistent, scientific demonstration of the power of divine Truth and Love over sickness, sin, and death. This Christ-healing, practiced by the Master centuries ago and by students of Christian Science for the past one hundred fifty years, gives evidence of a divine remedy for every ill.

Whether we are new to Christian Science or are longtime students, we too can find release from problems of every sort. How? Through spiritualization of thought, word, and deed—by mentally replacing the discouraging evidence of the physical senses with an understanding of the spiritual reality of God’s harmony, peace, righteousness, and purity.

Jesus repeatedly told his followers, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Repent in this context, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, means to think differently, to reconsider. Instead of being wholly absorbed by a material sense of existence, we are urged by Jesus to see it as an error of belief and, through our innate spiritual sense, to realize the presence of heavenly harmony right where we are. 

Truth empowers us to turn from a false, material world view of discord to the divine view of heaven, harmony, already present. It inspires us to reject symptoms of disease, deny the belief that disease has a course to run, and affirm the reality of health. Denying the very existence of evil, including disease, robs it of an audience. And when our thinking shifts from being obsessed by material things and circumstances to glorifying and praising God, our experience changes accordingly. Sometimes healing and relief come quickly; other times, as Jesus pointed out, spiritual “prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21) may be needed.

Last winter I had a sore throat that made swallowing difficult and painful. I work from home and need to stay focused, but the discomfort was continually grabbing my attention. The symptoms started on a Thursday, and by Friday midmorning I felt trapped and exasperated. Then the key to my release dawned on me: Stop making a reality of the condition by reacting to it and feeling irritated. 

Instead, I paused for a moment to rejoice in God’s presence and power and in my ability to reflect Him in perfect health right now. This passage from Science and Health came to me: “When the body is supposed to say, ‘I am sick,’ never plead guilty. Since matter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind which speaks; therefore meet the intimation with a protest. If you say, ‘I am sick,’ you plead guilty” (p. 391).

I declared aloud, “I’m not guilty, and I’m not sick.” This affirmed my spiritual understanding that this was not a physical condition but a “mortal mind” temptation to believe in a power opposed to God that could make me think I was sick. I affirmed that my one and only identity is spiritual and always perfectly healthy, abiding in heavenly harmony.

The pain lessened considerably right away. I was able to focus on my work, and at lunchtime I found I could swallow normally. By Saturday morning I was completely free of the symptoms. On Monday morning I held an hour-long Zoom presentation for over a dozen colleagues without any problems with my voice.

Healing in Christian Science is a joy. We learn more with each opportunity for spiritual growth. We can think differently, stop being fooled by discord, and bear witness to the presence, power, and goodness of God.