Stubborn physical problems often come from stubborn wills. Certainly it is not the will of God, who is infinite Mind, Love, for people either to be sick or willful. So if an illness does not yield to prayer over a period of time, perhaps the sufferer needs to correct self-will to gain his freedom.

Healing self-will behind an unhealed situation involves several steps. The first and most important one is to recognize willfulness as the cause of the unyielding problem. Unless one faces up to an error, it is left free to flourish in his thought like weeds in an untended garden.

Self-will often goes under the disguise of preconceived notions, habits, family traits, arbitrary decisions, or even under the deep disguise of righteous indignation or a display of what we sometimes like to call "standing for Principle." It needs to be unmasked and seen for what it really is—a flagrant imposition of mortal mind, the false belief in matter and evil, robbing mankind of its freedom.

This leads to the second important point in healing this error: detach it from oneself and one's fellowman. What is self-willed is mortal mind. If one seems to exhibit a great deal of this obnoxious trait, how important for him to see that it is not part of his true, spiritual selfhood in God's likeness! He is always the perfect expression of Spirit, divine Love, and neither the false will nor the illness is really part of him.

Having recognized his problem as deeply-imbedded willfulness, and having seen through the lie that would attach it to himself as a personal evil, he then needs to take a third important step to replace self-will with the only true sense of will there is—God's will.

To put down stubbornness is essential to individual growth and freedom, regardless of how difficult the task may seem. And even when one is alertly praying daily for the Father's will to be done, the subtle nature of belief in mortal selfhood will hoodwink him into self-willed actions under the guise of good. It takes deep humility and constant alertness to keep this evil out of one's experience.

Disease can often be the outward manifestation of self-will running riot, refusing to yield to a lawful and orderly unfoldment of life. Because all disease is mental, as Christian Science teaches, one who would heal by spiritual means alone knows that his job is to bridle through divine Mind the stubborn, runaway will of mortal mind.

In addition to insistence on having one's own way in his business or personal life, some of the most prevalent mental states to be found at the root of many patients' physical problems are grief, hate, resentment, fear, and guilt. It is not hard to see how representative of stubborn will these states of thought can become. Christian Science heals these false mental states in order to heal the illness.

Deep grief often represents refusal to yield to the comforting Christ, the spirit of Truth and Love. Christian Science is the Comforter promised by Jesus, and it can heal the most intense grief with the true facts of man's eternally perfect relationship to God. When one accepts the fact, brought out by Jesus, that life is eternal, he then can awake to the realization that the loved one he mourns is just as much at one with, and under the care of, God, Life, today as he was when visible to the human senses. What produces a state of unwillingness to be healed of grief is insistent yearning to be always with our loved ones.

Insecurity is often a part of grief. One needs to find his security in his unity with God. At some point along the way everyone must trust God to supply him with companionship—or to bring out his true completeness, even when visible companionship is lacking. And he needs to work out his own salvation, as the Bible teaches. To delay the task of putting down grief is a subtle form of unyielding will.

Hate and resentment represent destructive states of thought adamantly asserting, "I will not love" or "I will not forgive." How can Love's healing presence be felt in the consciousness of any individual who bars the door with hate? Only Love is capable of dissolving resentment. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death." ^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 242;}

No person wishing to be healed of acute or chronic disease can afford to cling to such undisciplined thinking as hatred or resentment. Love establishes the most disciplined state of thought there is. It expresses the one, perfect divine Mind, and does not allow for reaction to the pressures and strains of the multiminded mortal scene—nor does it produce the undisciplined state of body represented by disorderly function or growth.

Love is also the answer to the fear running rampant in human thought when it is confronted with the world belief in incurable diseases. One might ask if fear can really be self-willed. Indeed it can be, if one is aware of the power of confidence in God, for it is essentially saying, "I will not trust." Faith in God's good will for man masters fear.

Christian Science denies the frightening theological belief that God punishes man by willing sickness, pain, lack, or death for him. God, Spirit, is good. Therefore only good can emanate from such a creator. Evil in any form is the will of the powerless so-called mortal mind; persistently knowing this truth banishes fear. Yielding to the will of God is total surrender to the certain unfolding of good in one's life—good based on spiritual growth, obliterating the belief in a destructive force opposing man.

Guilt, another destructive state of thought, really is saying, "I will not let myself off the hook." Though repentance is needed in wiping out past mistakes, those who refuse to forgive themselves are truly entering a willful state of self-condemnation that blocks healing.

To condemn tends to make a situation look incurable. No one who would heal himself or others can afford to indulge in any condemnation of himself or his fellowman. God's will is for all to be saved from every form of error, and the Christ, the spirit of Truth and Love, is the way to salvation. Willingness to give up feeling guilty and to move ahead in better thinking and acting today is a step forward in healing all stubborn problems.

In working out the severest problem of his career—the crucifixion—Jesus proved the importance of getting human will out of the way. He was under a malicious attack of evil. The self-will of mortal mind had influenced many deluded persons to perform for it its malicious purpose. Had the Master responded willfully in kind to the hatred of others, it is doubtful he could have resurrected himself from the grave. But his ability to yield totally to the will of God silenced forever the claim of evil's will to threaten his life.

When his disciples asked him to teach them to pray, Christ Jesus gave them the Lord's Prayer, including this line: "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." ^{Luke 11:2;} In the Garden of Gethsemane, when a desire for the human way was still struggling to be heard, he resorted to the essence of this powerful line that silences human will and helps bring out God's plan and purpose for man. He asked: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." ^{Matt. 26:39;}

Truly yielding to the Father's will is one of the vital elements in Christian Science healing. Yet at times we may struggle long before consenting to give up stubborn ways of thought blocking our health and happiness. Mrs. Eddy comments: "The nature of the individual, more stubborn than the circumstance, will always be found arguing for itself,—its habits, tastes, and indulgences. This material nature strives to tip the beam against the spiritual nature; for the flesh strives against Spirit,—against whatever or whoever opposes evil,—and weighs mightily in the scale against man's high destiny." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 119.}

As human yearning gives way to God's plan, an individual is more ready to behold higher paths to walk in. It is never God's will for man to be sick, to sin, to lack, or to die. The Father's plan for His child includes all good. It includes a spiritual sense of creation, not a materialistic view of life. It includes endless opportunities for purity and unselfed love, not selfish indulgences and material acquisition. It includes expressing the glory of God, not the seeking of glorification by others.

Though at first the way may seem hard, the effort spent in truly doing God's will never disappoints one, never leads to unhappiness or despair. Most important, the individual who earnestly strives to have no other way than God's can rest assured his path will continually point in the upward way to Truth and Life.